On the Placement of Certain Pokemon

There has been consideration last night about the placement of pokemon and their rankings. I'd figure to go ahead and make a thread for people to consider.

Some pokemon that I think would benefit from revision:
1) Absol (Demanding->Complex)
2) Mimikyu (Complex->Demanding)
3) Machop line (Machamp-> Complex, Machoke->Hard or Medium)
4) Sneasel line (Sneasel->Hard Weavile->Demanding)

1) Absol is currently Demanding which is a bit strange considering how notably trash of a pokemon it is. And I'm not just saying that due my distaste of Dark types, but because the only good thing working for it is its ability, which is Super Luck, and really the only move in its movepool that it can get STAB for it is Night Slash. Its speed and defenses, and HP are trash as well. That being said Absol can hold its position in battle fairly well, and with its 359 attack stat, it can punish pokemon. It is definitely greater than Hard rank, but I'd say it no better than the other pokemon in the Complex Rank. Despite receiving a mega evolution because Mega Absol carries over its atrocious defenses which makes it only useful for late game cleaning. Magic bounce is a great ability, but Mega Absol has little use for it, since it will probably get OHKO'd before it has a chance to make use of it. Xatu is a much better user of Magic Bounce despite being an entire rank early. If we cite the encounter rates in the game as the reason for it being Demanding, well in RSE it was found in the wild through normal means, as well as in SM and USUM.

2) Mimikyu is a top-tier threat. It placed in Complex upon release due to everyone thinking that its okay stats were going to hold it back, but instead became meta-defining on smogon. Mimikyu hasn't quite caught on in URPG, but that broken ability, coupled with access to tons of useful status moves made Mimikyu a tier 1 pokemon in the Budget Tourney.

3) If anything the machop line was spaced so that each of its evolutions increase by two story ranks each time, with Machamp being Demanding. That is literally the only reason how I can justify machamp on its own to be Demanding rank. It gets No Guard Fissure cheese, but otherwise is a rather average fighting type that is slightly bulky.

4) For a URPG-meta defining pokemon I was surprised to see that Sneasel and Weavile were so low. I get that their crippling x4 fighting weakness holds it back, but its decent movepool would make it, at least in my opinion one rank higher. Sneasel, I think is appropriately placed at hard, but I think Weavile could be demanding.

Those are some thoughts! Feel free to comment. Did I forget a pokemon? Please share your list!

 

I'd like to shy away from re-ranking Pokemon outside of new generations being released. The only reason the restructure we did most recently was mid-generation was because it was long overdue. I just dont want the conversation of "where should this Pokemon go" be a perpetual thing that gets brought up all the time. Kind of like Gym Wild Cards. People are just going to keep saying "but what about this?? and what about that??" and then argue for a while.

If there were any serious reason to change a Pokemon's rank mid-gen it would be considered but these four don't really have a strong case to be moved either way.

 

Agree with swift. If there's a time for discussing re-Rankings, its when a new generation is released. Otherwise we open ourselves to endless debating because I can guarantee that not everyone will be satisfied with Rankings one way or another.

Anyway, my response to the OP:

It seems that the major factor you're considering here is battle viability, and while that is a consideration for Rank determination, it isn't the only one. I'm seeing a lot of "Pokemon X is trash [in battle], it should be lowered" (or the converse "Y is good and should be higher") but that won't be the sole focus for every Pokémon's Ranking.

We strive for Rank balance in URPG, and while some may argue it isn't perfect, I think it's in a good place as it stands.

In addition to viability in battle, lore, in-game commonality, and the possibility of being good creative targets also go into the determination of Ranks, and that's just to name a few. Not all of these factors apply every single time as well. Additionally some Pokémon are placed lower so as to provide 'gems' so to speak for beginners. Likewise, some Pokémon may be placed higher to serve as capture goals for more experienced members.

And that's just the tip of the Bergmite. I'm sure there's more considerations than the above that go into determining a Pokémon's Rank.

@juliorain;

 

What's the reason why Feebas and Magikarp aren't the same Rank when they are basically similar?

 

Stats-wise they are similar, same with their evolutions, but there are other factors at play, including rarity in-game, which is the large distinguishing factor for those. Every body of water with an old rod versus 4 tiles out of 500 kind of difference!