Team Rating Guidlines (How to Rate a Team)

Don't say "x/10" or "good". Tell the poster what's wrong, how to fix it, and why they should fix it.

Resources
Bits and pieces that are good to have on hand when rating.

I know I'm a visual learner and find it difficult to rate teams that are text only, but I think I'm safe in saying that everyone finds it quite a bit easier to overview the team when they are lined up as sprites. I find that Marriland's Team Builder is a great tool for doing just this. You can quickly enter the six Pokemon's names and it brings them up as icons at the lower part of the screen, while in the top section it shows the cumulative resistances and weaknesses of the team. Doing this takes literally 10 seconds, and you can now spot obvious weaknesses if you hadn't seen them in the rmt already. For example, if you see that the team has no resistance to Rock, variants of Tyranitar will almost always give it hell. Likewise, seeing no Electric resistance or immunities in a team will most likely mean it will have trouble taking Rotom down, or be at danger from being swept by Specs Jolteon, etc. This is a quick and easy to use tool but is almost always worth bringing up in a tab and entering the team.

Once you've been rating for a while you don't need to refer to them nearly as much, but when starting off or when you're struggling to spot potential weaknesses, it can be a good idea to take a glance at the Offensive and Defensive Threat Lists (courtesy of polelover44). You should post the threats list somewhere in your RMT and state how you would handle those threats.


Guidelines
Will keep you straight.

Rating can be made formulaic once you've had practice. Teams can be widely different, but rating them can be done step by step.

1) Identify the threat
The first step to take when trying to fix a team is identifying what is wrong with it, i.e. what it is threatened by and how these threats can be reduced. A team's biggest threat might not necessarily be a single Pokemon -- in fact, most well built teams will never be too vulnerable to a single foe. Teams can be weak to residual damage, when there are too many SR weaks or too many grounded Pokemon that give the likes of Skarmory and Forretress free switchins; they can be weak to defensive combinations and have a hard time breaking them (SkarmBliss and CeleTran may be simple, but they are used because they work, and teams are often quite weak to them without realizing it. This is where the defensive threat list comes in handy); and more defensively inclined teams may be vulnerable to common offensive strategies such as Magnezone + Dragon, or Pursuit-bait + SD Lucario, etc. Identifying what a team is weak to is the first step in helping it patch up the weakness. Experience in the current metagame is paramount when trying to help a team, and as raters you have to make sure you know what is common and what is effective. Being comfortable and confident in your own Pokelogic goes a great way in improving your ability to help others.

2) Explain how it is a threat
It's not enough to just say "Gyarados can 6-0 your team". You have to back that statement up and explain briefly how it can do this. With the case of the Gyarados example, you would highlight opportunities it would get to DD up, e.g. on Choice locked Bullet Punches or Fighting attacks, and just point out how the team's 6 Water-weaknesses or whatever mean they can't stand up to its Waterfalls. This should be done very briefly. Providing damage calculations can be helpful for more obscure or extremely potent threats, but they are not necessary. However, you should always try to give an explanation, however brief, of why the threat is one in relation to the way the team works.

3) Provide a solution
Pointing out a problem is not enough - as raters you are expected to fix it as well as best you can. Letting the new player know that he is weak to Gyarados is great, but now all he is going to do is slap an Electivire on the team and call it a day, wholly believing that this Electric type has him secured against the threat. Providing a solution is another point at which the range of your competitive experience is important - you can't really recommend something unless you've seen it used successfully or done so yourself. Therefore I can't highlight enough how important it is to play the game regularly and try out a variety of styles and Pokemon, thus best preparing you to help others make the right choices.

The solutions you recommend needn't be new Pokemon. Indeed, it is often best to try and deviate as little as possible from the original team as possible. Remember, you're here to rate the team, not rebuild it. Don't destroy a team's central strategy in order to fix a simple Heatran weakness - instead, cater your fix around the team's strategy. Quoting stathakis, "good rates are ones that help people beat threats without compromising the team's purpose; even better rates are ones that improve the execution of the team's purpose without compromising its ability to deal with threats". If the team is desperately in need of having 3 or more of its Pokemon replaced, then it's hardly worth rating and should be closed under rule 15, with its poster being directed to Battling 101. Changing an EV spread or tweaking a moveset are the best changes if they would help the team. However, some teams really just need some Pokemon replacing, and so don't be afraid to do this if you know it will help the team more than the Pokemon whose place it is taking. Also, when recommending sets, try to do it in a neat, concise way. Taking up 7 lines just to write out a set just stretches out your post unnecessarily and can make it annoying to read. I like to use the following format when recommending Pokemon:

Pokémon @ Item
Trait: A Trait
EVs: EV Spread
A Nature (+???, -???)
- Move 1
- Move 2
- Move 3
- Move 4

You don't have to do it like this, but try to keep your recommendations as concise as possible. It makes your post a lot easier to read for one .

4) Explain how the solution helps
Again, rather basic, but you should take care not to miss doing this out. Even if it's a very basic "Celebi resists Waterfall and can paralyze Gyarados before outstalling it with Grass Knot and Recover", try and always note how the fix you recommended will help with the problem. If you've recommended the right solution, this shouldn't be hard to do at all, since you'll have had reasons for choosing the Pokemon in the first place. Getting these down in your post will help the person whose team you are rating see your (hopefully) correct reasoning and realize that the fix is helpful. At the end of the day, by rating a team you are just trying to help the guy out, and so backing up your points to convince him that your solutions are good will make him a lot more likely to pay heed to your advice. It can be annoying when people just ignore what you are trying to advise them with, but most of the time it is because you didn't explain why your help is helpful well enough. Either that or they are just obstinate and are losing out anyway.

Uh...

http://www.smogon.com/forums/showthread.php?t=59702

I don't think we should be stealing another site's content.

Also:

PL44 wrote:Taking up 7 lines just to write out a set just stretches out your post unnecessarily and can make it annoying to read. I like to use the following format when recommending Pokemon:

Pokémon @ Item
Trait: A Trait
EVs: EV Spread
A Nature (+???, -???)
- Move 1
- Move 2
- Move 3
- Move 4

7 lines stretches out posts, but eight lines doesn't?

My Gyarados uses a Life Orb, because Life Orbs give 10% recoil but they also give massive attacking power. His ability is Intimidate and that lowers Attack of opponents. His EV Spread is 252 Atk/252 Speed/4 HP because that is how you get good speed and attacking power. His nature is Jolly to raise his speed up. His first move is Waterfall, because that is a STAB attack. His 2nd move is Dragon Dance because that boosts his speed and attack. His 3rd move is Stone Edge, so he can beat flyers and other Gyaradoses, his 4th move is EQ so he can beat Electric types.

Gyarados@Life Orb
Intimidate
252 Atk/252 Speed/4 HP
Jolly
~Waterfall
~Dragon Dance
~Stone Edge
~Earthquake
7 lines of inefficiency stretches out a post
8 lines of efficiency does not.

I'm sure stealing the content of another site without permission looks horrible.

And so does the fact that you misspelled the title.