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Tuesday 8 February 2011

An in-depth look: Stealth Rock


So what is Stealth Rock or SR for short? Well you may have heard the name somewhere before but let me explain what this move does exactly and why it's so important in the Pokemon metagame.

Let's start by the description of SR in the actual game.

" The user lays a trap of levitating stones around the foe. The trap hurts foes that switch into battle."

Why is that important you might ask...

Stealth Rock is unique among the Spiking moves because the amount of damage inflicted upon switching in is affected by type effectiveness.

0.25× effective = 3.125%
0.5× effective = 6.25%
1.0× effective = 12.5%
2.0× effective = 25%
4.0× effective = 50%

So lets say I want to switch in my Moltres (Fire/Flying) and Stealth Rock is set-up, I'd lose HALF OF MY HP (as both Fire and Flying are weak to rock) just by switching in...

Now you can see why this move centralises the metagame and is an extremely important asset of any team. Not to mention the move is a TM and a large number of Pokemon can learn it so it'd be rare to come across a team that doesnt use this move.

13 comments:

  1. :O! i never used it, i didnt think it would make a lot of damage!

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  2. Oh wow, that is useful. Reading things like this makes me feel like a noob (ok, I AM a noob, just don't tell anyone hehe)

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  3. Never knew how this worked.. Think I'm gona teach this to one of my pokemons.

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  4. I think it should be banned. Anyone can learn it and it basically makes anything 4x weak to rock useless.

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  5. Just another overpowered move...

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  6. Its and extremly over powered move but it can be dealt with by Claydol,Donphan,sandslash or hitmontop using rapid spin, all of these have a resistance to rock and rapid spin clears the field for your other pokemon. Claydol is the best though it give you the best type coverage against SR users and is immune to Earthquake alwway a nice bonus.

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  7. it's overused. I'm not requesting a bit, but making a formal request that people use it less. It's becoming boring and predictable.

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  8. interesting i never knew that

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  9. Pokemon games have always lacked balance. Being a fighting gamer, balance is very important to me, too.

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