Moves that don't do any physical damage

[Myume]

I am one of those who always went for the warrior in RPG games and never the magicians.. so when I went on Pokemon I kind of continued in the same way I always had. Meaning that by my own default my team pokemons had all physical moves and all the leer, taunt etc.. were quickly replaced by the moves that actually inflicts damage on the foes.

But now being a complete Pokemon nerd with no turning back, I read and hear that a lot of people include these attack up, defense up, defense down, speed down etc attacks in their ultimate movesets. Using one of these attacks lets your foe attack first and in game it feels like winning is all about the order the attacks come in. You attack first = bigger chance of winning.

But if I have a Pokemon that I spent a lot of time breeding, with nice IV stats making up for what it usually lacks by nature (like defense for example) does it really need to have a move that boosts defense anyway? Or if the speed is really high IV wise.. same there do I need to boost it more really?

Obviously I have never battled against real people since I'm still too scared, hah, and that's probably why I don't really get it.

Sorry for my long rant post.. I just really want to hear what you guys have to say about it?

[Greencat]

It depends on the Pokémon, role, and EV placement. Some Pokémon have such high Defense, they don't need more (Forretress, Skarmory, etc.). It just depends.

[Myume]

I did some youtube research, watched battles between humans etc.. and I got a better picture of it now, people seem to also waste rounds on switching Pokemon a lot. So as I suspected it is a whole different fighting style compared to in game or battling your neighbor.

[Greencat]

Humans? I call those things people. :B

Yeah. Pretty much. And they aren't wasting turns switching. It helps give them block/counter/absorb hits from the opponent.

[Lucario]

Excuse me for butting in, but i see that you are annoyed by those people who switch out their pokemon and wastes a lot of time choosing which of there pokemon counters yours. I have some experiences with that and even though it's just a wireless battle it's still annoying. But when that happens you just have to utilize moves that will inflict damage while they switch.

Stealth rock is one and can be used by naturally useful pokemon such as tyranitar and swampert or an uber if you prefer. Or you can make them sleep and do some damage to them like when i use darkrai w/ dark void, pursuit, dream eater and dark pulse. Because most of the time people(humans) will likely switch out a sleep, paralyzed, frozen pokemon etc. out of battle. Unless they have the berry that will counter the effects. Though my ubers are just for fun and total annihilation battles(hey that's not very nice) but mainly for fun. So if you don't like the ubers it's just fine.

-stealth rock is nice-

Aside from inflicting damage to them. Amnesia is one that is used to boost sp def. or iron defense for def. Though i myself don't do it much as i prefer to kill instantly.

Coz' for me- "best defense=speedy killing strategy". But sometimes it's bad to be offensive all the time as there are moves like mirror coat, counter and me first.

And again about the switching out thing. I just thought of it. U-turn move that can be used by scizor and others. Well it's if you want to hit and run.

[Myume]

Haha of course peoplpe, I odn't know why I chose the word human. I think it's been too much video games and too little reality lately.

I am not annoyed or anything by the switching.. just a little surprised that I try my hardest to make sure the pokemon I start battle with is strong enough for the whole battle instead of having to switch out. It's interesting.