@ Shurtugal: Looking at this rate, I would agree with your Choice Scarf Jirachi suggestion. Even though the team is built specifically with Ditto in mind, I'd argue Ditto is incredibly situational and is not something that you can always rely on, especially when performing a role as crucial as a scarfer on such an offensive team. It provides him with a switch for Lati@s, while like you said, providing him with important momentum via U-Turn, which works great when paired with such a potent sweeper as Lucario as it can often bait switches and give the OP free setup opportunities.
Your other suggestion was dropping Hidden Power [Fire] for Surf, just to have a chance to speed tie with opposing Lati@s. I'm not entirely sure that's a reliable way to deal with the Lati@s, and seems more of a last ditch effort and kind of a waste really, especially given the team's weakness to Swords Dance Scizor and Hidden Power [Fire] still offers him better overall coverage. Your final change was the EV spread change on Thundurus-T, which while it might serve a better purpose over his current Thundurus-T spread, you have failed to explain what the EV spread does. If you're going to suggest such an intricate EV spread that has special investment to kill / live / outspeed something, then you definitely should try to include that in your rate, otherwise it just looks like you've entered random investment that has no meaning.
@ MCBarrett: Considering that you've just recently started rating, these rates are pretty good. In a lot of your rates, you're making solid and justified changes that do improve the team. I don't really have anything to say for the majority of your rates, but in some rates you don't really seem to be patching up the problems that you have identified. For example, in this rate you suggest a Rotom-W over Jellicent for Mamoswine, and then you go on to say...
Your rates are pretty good, but just be sure to backup your claims with damage calculations if you're not sure. Also if you want a quick fix to a problem, don't always try to change a team member in the progress. There may be other alternatives to changing a team member, that won't interrupt the function of the team. Rotom-W also opens up many more exploitable weaknesses that Jellicent covers, so think about what you're going to change before you suggest it. Don't be discouraged though, if you are new to rating you'll definitely improve in time -- it's how I started rating. Consider my advice when rating and you might find it a little easier, good luck rating!
@ Governess: I only briefly looked over your first 4 or so rates you linked, and I'm not going to comment on those. Users posting teams such as these using stuff like Focus Sash Landorus and Hyper Beam Espeon are much better off being directed to Battling 101 for teambuilding help. It might sound rude but teams using these kind of sets aren't really worth your team, as everyone can point out that Hyper Beam is a bad move and suggest a change -- it doesn't show that you're a good team rater.
As for the teams that weren't completely terrible [here and here], I think you should consider changing the way you're rating a team. From these rates, it seems like you're just looking for small nitpicks such as changing one move on a team and calling it a rate. I'd recommend trying to rate a team by identifying the threats to a team, and then trying to improve the team by eliminating those threats. If you're only changing an item or a single move on a Pokemon, your rate isn't actually going to improve the team a whole lot, which is more important considering you're rating teams that need a lot of help.
But yeah, when you're rating you should be thinking "what actually gives this team trouble?", and "how can I remove those threats?". If you're new to rating then my best suggestion would be to look at a type synergy chart for reference to see what types in particular cause a team some problems, or even something more basic such as looking at a threat list and listing what is problematic for the team. It might be a little boring, but in time you'll definitely get better at rating, to the point when you won't need to use these for reference. Good luck rating!
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I'm pretty sure I missed some people out, so I'll try to get round to you guys at some point if no other TRs do.
Your other suggestion was dropping Hidden Power [Fire] for Surf, just to have a chance to speed tie with opposing Lati@s. I'm not entirely sure that's a reliable way to deal with the Lati@s, and seems more of a last ditch effort and kind of a waste really, especially given the team's weakness to Swords Dance Scizor and Hidden Power [Fire] still offers him better overall coverage. Your final change was the EV spread change on Thundurus-T, which while it might serve a better purpose over his current Thundurus-T spread, you have failed to explain what the EV spread does. If you're going to suggest such an intricate EV spread that has special investment to kill / live / outspeed something, then you definitely should try to include that in your rate, otherwise it just looks like you've entered random investment that has no meaning.
@ MCBarrett: Considering that you've just recently started rating, these rates are pretty good. In a lot of your rates, you're making solid and justified changes that do improve the team. I don't really have anything to say for the majority of your rates, but in some rates you don't really seem to be patching up the problems that you have identified. For example, in this rate you suggest a Rotom-W over Jellicent for Mamoswine, and then you go on to say...
Rotom-W is not an answer for Mamoswine, especially not with the set you've listed. The standard Specially Defensive Rotom-W is 2HKO'd by Adamant Mamoswine, while Jolly sets put Rotom-W very low, to the point where you're not switching in again after Stealth Rock. Honestly, if you wanted a little more insurance for Mamoswine, then just make Jellicent physically defensive. It does a better job of beating Mamoswine than Rotom-W will ever do, while also helping him out greatly against Scizor and Terrakion aswell. Between Physically Defensive Jellicent, Scizor and Starmie, he shouldn't have any troubles with Mamoswine.MCBarrett said:
Your rates are pretty good, but just be sure to backup your claims with damage calculations if you're not sure. Also if you want a quick fix to a problem, don't always try to change a team member in the progress. There may be other alternatives to changing a team member, that won't interrupt the function of the team. Rotom-W also opens up many more exploitable weaknesses that Jellicent covers, so think about what you're going to change before you suggest it. Don't be discouraged though, if you are new to rating you'll definitely improve in time -- it's how I started rating. Consider my advice when rating and you might find it a little easier, good luck rating!
@ Governess: I only briefly looked over your first 4 or so rates you linked, and I'm not going to comment on those. Users posting teams such as these using stuff like Focus Sash Landorus and Hyper Beam Espeon are much better off being directed to Battling 101 for teambuilding help. It might sound rude but teams using these kind of sets aren't really worth your team, as everyone can point out that Hyper Beam is a bad move and suggest a change -- it doesn't show that you're a good team rater.
As for the teams that weren't completely terrible [here and here], I think you should consider changing the way you're rating a team. From these rates, it seems like you're just looking for small nitpicks such as changing one move on a team and calling it a rate. I'd recommend trying to rate a team by identifying the threats to a team, and then trying to improve the team by eliminating those threats. If you're only changing an item or a single move on a Pokemon, your rate isn't actually going to improve the team a whole lot, which is more important considering you're rating teams that need a lot of help.
But yeah, when you're rating you should be thinking "what actually gives this team trouble?", and "how can I remove those threats?". If you're new to rating then my best suggestion would be to look at a type synergy chart for reference to see what types in particular cause a team some problems, or even something more basic such as looking at a threat list and listing what is problematic for the team. It might be a little boring, but in time you'll definitely get better at rating, to the point when you won't need to use these for reference. Good luck rating!
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I'm pretty sure I missed some people out, so I'll try to get round to you guys at some point if no other TRs do.
