This guide is here to show you how to improve on the ladder, from beginner level gradually to reach top 1 and even the "Ladder Lord" Level.
This thread will be divided into 3 major parts:
1)The numerous advantages of laddering(divided according to your level).
2)The Mental Specifications and the general behavior you need to have or have already in order to improve on the ladder.
3)The Steps(divided according to you level) you need to follow.
1)The numerous advantages of laddering(All Tiers):
For Tournament players:
Level 1(Elo 1000-1500):
You are still relatively new to the tier. You are not in a position to make a team that will help you move forward. In fact, If you make a team at this level, It will be weak and sub optimal, while you don't have enough knowledge to fix it, you will waste a lot of time without improving and might even give up.
I advice you to choose a sample team from the Sample team mega thread and use it until you reach 1500. First of all, the teams in this thread are relatively solid and can reach 1500 easily, so you don't have to worry about fixing your own team and thus can focus entirely on improving you battling skills and discovering the metagame.
Level 2(Elo 1500-1700):
After reaching the 1500 benchmark, you can consider yourself as a player who knows the basics of the ubers tier, can analyse decently during a game and can make usually decent plays. This is when It's time to make your own team. It's very important to use ONLY pokemons that are of Ubers standards. This has been the main problem of players on the ladder from a decade and the main reason why most of them never improved. Use only pokemons classified in the Oras Ubers Viability thread to make your team. Don't hesitate to ask more experienced players about good Pokemon cores to build around. Your team will never be perfect the first time you build it. You have to use it numerous times and change in it, according to what you play against, and mainly, what you lose to, in order to make it as good as possible. This process takes time so patience and perseverance is all you need. Keep something in mind, even if you drop and lose tons of points consider this as a challenge for you to move forward, in other words you are going forward by losing points and going backwards, as strange as it might sound. You will only learn from setbacks and never from winning.
Level 3(Elo 1700-Top 1):
After reaching the 1700 benchmark, you certainly know what you're doing and went threw the hard times before. Now you can move towards top 1 consistently. However more responsibilities arise. If you want to reach top 1, you have to make a team that counters what other players use. From now on, your team shouldn't only be solid but it should also be good against others' teams. In other words you have to use your brain cells and pull out a core that does well against everybody else. This is the only way to reach the top(and mainly stay around it) and being able to discover that core is only possible after practicing and visualizing carefully other players teams.
Note that this core's efficiency might change after metagame shifts and metagame development. Then you have to discover another core that works better in the new conditions and so on.
I will give you now a brief example from my own experience about this:
In January 2015, When the ORAS metagame was in it's early stages. The classic Hyper Offense team was very popular on the ladder(Deo-S,Mega Mence,Ekiller,Xerneas,Primal Don,Darkrai).vTo counter it and reach top 1, I made a team around Magic Bounce Mega Sableye to stop Deo-S from throwing hazards on the field, knowing that this classic team is way less efficient without rocks on the other side.
This is a very basic example just for you to actually assimilate easier what i was saying.
Level 4(top 1):
Don't forget to RMT your team once you reach top 1. The fame you will acquire from your RMT will be your ultimate reward.
So good luck to everybody who wants to ladder(RECOMMENDED TO EVERYBODY). Make sure you read everything and hope It helps you !
Thanks for reading.
My Credentials: Top 1 of the Oras Ubers ladder for 3 months straight(January-March). A record 94.1 GXE in Oras and a record 1870 ELO in Oras.
This thread will be divided into 3 major parts:
1)The numerous advantages of laddering(divided according to your level).
2)The Mental Specifications and the general behavior you need to have or have already in order to improve on the ladder.
3)The Steps(divided according to you level) you need to follow.
1)The numerous advantages of laddering(All Tiers):
For Tournament players:
- Laddering helps Make you sharper. In other words, after practicing on the ladder, you can be sure you will not misplay or "choke" in an official tournament game later. In fact, Many recognized and good ubers players have been misplaying in official tournaments and regretting, after they lose, decisions they made during their game. Practicing on the ladder with your team makes you familiarize with it which will greatly reduce the misplaying factor when you have to use this team in an official battle.
- Ladder tends to be full of all kind of hyper offensive teams, bulky offensive teams and sample teams with all kind of offensive threats and hazard setters paired together. Those teams may not be optimal and the players who use them may not be even close to your level, but by playing against them, first of all, you can figure out weaknesses to certain threats or cores you didn't notice while building, and also you will see how well your team does vs offense which is the most popular Archetype in ORAS and mainly on the ladder.
- Ladder is all you need. It will be your best teacher and your road to the top. Feel free to ask, any player who won official tournaments and have good records in spl, olt, ost, where did he start. He will tell you I started on the ladder and reached top 1 many times. It's the first place you have to conquer in order to move forward quickly.
- If you are still new to the tier or an average player at it, you will learn something new from every battle you play, from every opponent you play against, and from every battle you win and specially the ones you lose which might oblige you to tune your team again or build a new one. This is exactly when you learn very quickly, so make sure you always give ladder the time it deserves to teach you the tier.
- It also helps to Improve your team building skills. In fact, when you lose a lot and drop(sometimes called being "on tilt"), you will notice that there is something wrong with your team. Now you have to fix it, change pokemons and change sets, doing this will help you move forward. This process can improve your team building skills quite substantially and in the long run will develop something I call the "ability to spot metagames trends". It's when a player can pull out a team that can match up well vs most of the cores or teams other players use at various points in the meta game(will discuss that more in part 3).
- Patience. By far the most important thing you need. Ladder is not an easy place like people claim. There is too much variety and the teams and cores players use might change in a very small period of time(metagame shifts caused by bans,RMTs,etc...). So a team that used to work well, might be totally unviable after a metagame shift and will cause a couple of losses that will drop you down. This is where you need patience, you don't need it when you win, you need it when you lose, when you have to practice and build even more in order to regain what you lost and move forward afterwards.
- Perseverance. When you ladder sometimes you might get instant success with a team and start climbing quickly. Then something happens and you drop down also even quicker. This is where you have to work even more while keeping in mind that you are on the right tracks. When you drop, consider this as a challenge for your own good, to push you to work harder to regain the place you lost and move forward afterwards. This process is where you learn the most so never give up here.
- Ask for help when you need it. You are learning. Many people are open to your questions including myself, and sometimes you need to ask more experienced players about your builds or problems you are facing. They will normally be able to help you improve, you will learn from them, and move forward even quicker. Asking experienced players for help isn't something to be worried about doing, the majority of us are friendly individuals who will help out other users when we can, because we have been in the same position. A word of warning though, if you don't listen to us, don't expect us to continue being helpful.
- Refer to useful forum links. Pokemon analyses where you can find optimal sets to use on your pokemons which usually makes your team better.The RMT section where you can find and take ideas from what other users of various levels built already.
Level 1(Elo 1000-1500):
You are still relatively new to the tier. You are not in a position to make a team that will help you move forward. In fact, If you make a team at this level, It will be weak and sub optimal, while you don't have enough knowledge to fix it, you will waste a lot of time without improving and might even give up.
I advice you to choose a sample team from the Sample team mega thread and use it until you reach 1500. First of all, the teams in this thread are relatively solid and can reach 1500 easily, so you don't have to worry about fixing your own team and thus can focus entirely on improving you battling skills and discovering the metagame.
Level 2(Elo 1500-1700):
After reaching the 1500 benchmark, you can consider yourself as a player who knows the basics of the ubers tier, can analyse decently during a game and can make usually decent plays. This is when It's time to make your own team. It's very important to use ONLY pokemons that are of Ubers standards. This has been the main problem of players on the ladder from a decade and the main reason why most of them never improved. Use only pokemons classified in the Oras Ubers Viability thread to make your team. Don't hesitate to ask more experienced players about good Pokemon cores to build around. Your team will never be perfect the first time you build it. You have to use it numerous times and change in it, according to what you play against, and mainly, what you lose to, in order to make it as good as possible. This process takes time so patience and perseverance is all you need. Keep something in mind, even if you drop and lose tons of points consider this as a challenge for you to move forward, in other words you are going forward by losing points and going backwards, as strange as it might sound. You will only learn from setbacks and never from winning.
Level 3(Elo 1700-Top 1):
After reaching the 1700 benchmark, you certainly know what you're doing and went threw the hard times before. Now you can move towards top 1 consistently. However more responsibilities arise. If you want to reach top 1, you have to make a team that counters what other players use. From now on, your team shouldn't only be solid but it should also be good against others' teams. In other words you have to use your brain cells and pull out a core that does well against everybody else. This is the only way to reach the top(and mainly stay around it) and being able to discover that core is only possible after practicing and visualizing carefully other players teams.
Note that this core's efficiency might change after metagame shifts and metagame development. Then you have to discover another core that works better in the new conditions and so on.
I will give you now a brief example from my own experience about this:
In January 2015, When the ORAS metagame was in it's early stages. The classic Hyper Offense team was very popular on the ladder(Deo-S,Mega Mence,Ekiller,Xerneas,Primal Don,Darkrai).vTo counter it and reach top 1, I made a team around Magic Bounce Mega Sableye to stop Deo-S from throwing hazards on the field, knowing that this classic team is way less efficient without rocks on the other side.
This is a very basic example just for you to actually assimilate easier what i was saying.
Level 4(top 1):
Don't forget to RMT your team once you reach top 1. The fame you will acquire from your RMT will be your ultimate reward.
So good luck to everybody who wants to ladder(RECOMMENDED TO EVERYBODY). Make sure you read everything and hope It helps you !
Thanks for reading.
My Credentials: Top 1 of the Oras Ubers ladder for 3 months straight(January-March). A record 94.1 GXE in Oras and a record 1870 ELO in Oras.
Last edited:
