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backlinkc48-blog · 4 years ago

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How many work hours in a year

How to Sort Out How Many Hours You Work in a Year

Figuring out your work hours in a year is important for various reasons, including figuring out your time-based compensation on the off chance that you get a salary. The calculation is relatively basic when the same number of hours are worked each week, although you may want to take vacation days and holidays into account. In the event that the quantity of hours you work is distinctive consistently, at that point a running log may be the best way to know without a doubt how many hours you work in a yea

Calculating Full-Time Hours

An all day work week is assumed to be 40 hours of the week. For all day workers, you can rapidly calculate the quantity of hours worked in a month by multiplying 40 hours times a month. The outcome is 160 hours out of every month.

Since there are a year in a year, we can increase multiple times 12 for an aftereffect of 1,920 hours out of every year. However, this calculation isn't totally accurate because each month doesn't include exactly a month. A more accurate figure can be calculated by multiplying 40 hours out of each week times 52 weeks in a year, for a more accurate aftereffect of 2,080 hours out of every year.

The U.S. Federal Government utilizes 2,087 as the average number of hours of all day work every year. This number takes into account the fact that the quantity of workdays in a year fluctuates because of leap year, with certain years having 365 days and some having 366. Spending legislation enacted in 1982 mandates that the quantity of workdays every year over a 28-year time frame be utilized to concoct the average number of work hours out of each year. This is how the number 2,087 was determined.

Adding Extra time and Subtracting Downtime

In the event that you want to know the exact number of hours you worked in a given year, you ought to subtract for vacation time, wiped out leave and different days spent away from work. For salaried representatives, these days are generally paid, so you may want to simply tally them along with different days worked. In the event that these days are unpaid, they can be subtracted from total work hours by deducting eight hours for each vacation and day off. For example, in the event that you were away from work for 10 days of vacation, subtract multiple times 8, or 80, hours from your annual total.

You ought to also add in extra time hours that surpass your usually planned work hours. This may be because your workload is seasonal, with certain seasons requiring extra hours. So in the event that you work 10 extra hours out of each week for about a month, you would add multiple times 4, or 40, extra hours to your annual total.

How to Calculate Annual Salary Using an Outlay Contract Rate

On the off chance that you are a contract worker receiving a routine set of expenses salary, you are paid a particular amount of cash for each day that you work. There are times that you may need or want to know your annual salary, and this can introduce a challenge because you may not know how many days you are actually going to work in a year. Calculating a yearly salary from a routine set of expenses page requires a little guesswork and some basic math.

Step 1

Increase the quantity of days you work every week by 52. For example, on the off chance that you work 5 days seven days, at that point 5 X 52 = 260.

Step 2

Subtract the quantity of days' vacation every year you are qualified for or hope to take from the amount you calculated in Sync 1. For example, in the event that you anticipate taking 10 days off, at that point 260 - 10 = 250.

Step 3

Subtract the quantity of holidays you are qualified for or hope to take from the amount you calculated in Sync 2. For example, in the event that you realize you won't be working for Memorial Day, the Fourth of July, Labor Day, Thanksgiving and Christmas Day, at that point 250 - 5 = 245.

Step 4

Increase the number you calculated in Sync 3 by your routine set of expenses wage. For example, on the off chance that you earn $70 every day, at that point 245 * $70 = $17,150.

How many billable hours are there in a year?

Specifically as the quantity of billable work hours in a year is central to the agency human asset approach to expenses it has been revealed that many agency staff are working strangely extended periods of extra time, typically without pay, and on several occasions has been implicated in the death of agency representatives. This is regularly viewed as a cultural issue, yet in fact as you will read beneath, this behavior also rewards the agency financially.

One of the criteria in developing an asset based retainer model is the quantity of hours one individual could be reasonably expected to charge in a year. This turns into their 100% billable time level or one FTE (Full time equivalent).

Take a year = 52 weeks.

In Australia a month of that year are for annual leave (so no billing there)

fourteen days a year, or all the more absolutely ten working days, for debilitated leave (heaven restrict)

Seven days of public holidays (go on tally them up, in many states there is somewhat more than five)

Unexpectedly we are down to 45 weeks of work a year.

In an average week how a significant part of the time is it reasonable to charge? 30 hours? 40 hours? 50 hours? 60 hours?

Recollect this isn't how much time the individual is at work, it is how much season of that work time would they be able to be beneficially and actively on your business. That is removing all the internal non billable meetings, latrine breaks, general non-business conversation, internal administration (like timesheets) and so forth, how much genuinely billable, gainful time is left.

Well at 36 hours and forty minutes this equates to 1650 hours a year. Which is reasonably all around accepted. A few people utilize 1600.

The least we have seen is 1,200 a year and the most noteworthy is 2,080 a year.

To make this considerably easier we have created a calculator for calculating how many work hours in a year:

In any case, for what reason is this important?

There are two important reasons why billable hours should be calculated and managed successfully.

The first is to guarantee that the advertiser is getting what they pay for in their agency retainer.

In the event that the agency is using 1600 hours and the finish of year audit says the individual did 1870 hours or 13% over the FTE does this mean 1.13 FTE ought to be charged? No, it just means that the individual involved didn't take their annual leave or wiped out leave and continued working at the same billable rate 51 weeks of the year.

Or on the other hand is the retainer is based on a gathering Account Chief at 100% or 1650 hours a year and they 3060 hours a year does this mean that you need almost two Gathering Account Chiefs on your business? No, almost certainly, rather than keeping a real timesheet they recorded 12 hours a day, five days seven days for 51 weeks. Yet, the work was done and the GAD didn't get paid additional time, so it cost the agency no more. Additionally, the issue in this case was not resourcing, it was poor timesheet measure.

By understanding how FTEs are based on billable hours you can start to perceive how to interpret the agencies' timesheet and asset utilization reports.

The second is to guarantee that the agency is providing the degree of resourcing required. In 2017 this report showed that agencies were regularly overworking their staff, particularly in Asia. The phenomenal unpaid extra time hours worked by some agency staff individuals lead to the death of a couple and medical affliction for many.

The fact is that the agency charge model actually rewarded the agency for having their assets work these ludicrous hours of unpaid additional time, which the agency at that point charged to the advertiser customer.

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adamatomic · 7 years ago

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Notes on Freelancing

So a question I get a lot and something that we’ve done lightning talks on in the past is “how do you do work-for-hire?”, especially in the game industry. I am not an expert in this field in any way, but contract work has been a cornerstone of our game studio for ten years, and there are a few principles or rules or guidelines or whatever that we developed that have helped us work with clients in a way that mostly helped us grow instead of holding us back. Maybe these things will be helpful for other people also.

This is by no means an exhaustive list and some of these things are going to be more principles or philosophies than like practical burn-down lists.

Also, I’d strongly suggest checking out blogs like Muddy Colors or google searching visual arts communities and blogs for other freelancing advice. Illustrators frequently have a tremendous amount of experience with this stuff and their advice and ideas often sync up with my experience on the more tech side of things.

Say Yes

This is something that I’ve noticed more when trying to hire people more than when I was seeking out work, but non-white-males tend, in the generalized case, to emphasize reasons to not apply for gigs. What we’ve seen a lot is “oh I would have applied for this but I don’t know how to do this one small part.” Say yes - if you have 50% of the skills for a gig, get up in there! Be honest about your experience and your desire to learn new things. Crappy clients might balk at this, but we’re about to talk about them anyways.

Say No

It’s important to develop what we used to call “weasel radar”. During your first few contract gigs, which will likely be a mixed bag in terms of collaborators and output, take as many mental notes as you can about warning signs for the ones that didn’t pan out, and promising signs for the ones that did pan out. I will expand on this in a minute, but the hardest part of contracting isn’t getting paid, it’s finding people that will let you do good work. And getting to do good work is the thing that will save you in the long run, mentally and financially.

Schedule Slack

When you first start freelancing, you probably won’t have any work. That’s fine - you can put extra time into finding new jobs and making self-guided material for your portfolio. But as you start to get busy, you might find yourself telling a client “yup, I can definitely do 40 hours a week on this project for the next 8 weeks,” since you don’t have anything scheduled. This is a thing I did a lot. This caused me two huge problems: I didn’t have enough time left over to chase down my next gig, and I didn’t have enough time left over to slot in last-minute emergency gigs (which often would pay better because of the short timelines). As my schedule ramped up over the years, I took pains to only take long term schedules at 20 hours a week, so I had time to job-hunt and help out with panic gigs in the meantime.

Err On The Side of Busy

Depending on where you are in your career, this may mean less or more, but I often felt most comfortable when our schedule was pretty full after all, especially when the clients were good. Our work was satisfying, our portfolio was growing, and our bills were getting paid. It can be a fine line. Scheduling slack often really meant leaving room for ourselves to keep the work steady and to keep the quality high and to be able to help people with emergency jobs, rather than simply working less hours. I am not going to go out on a limb here and say that freelancing 50 hours a week was healthier than freelancing 30 hours a week, but in controlled bursts or to accommodate certain projects, I think some of those sacrifices paid off a lot in terms of generating a better website and portfolio (and paying off the occasional tax bill).

Get Paid

Be picky about contracts, be honest about your rates, be sensitive to the status and needs of your clients, and be an absolutely relentless a-hole about invoicing. Your clients wouldn’t be hiring you if they didn’t value your output, so you should value it too. Not all clients are the same though - a small studio working a passion project might not be able to pay the 5x/10x multiplier of a coastal advertising agency.

Not All Pay Is Money

I hesitate to even say this in this particular way, especially in an environment where scammers and fraudsters looking for free work in exchange for “exposure” are literally everywhere, but in my experience there have been times and projects where substandard rates were acceptable and even advantageous in the big picture. Maybe it meant working on something you truly loved, and it was just good for your heart to do that. Maybe it meant getting to collaborate with someone who has a bad budget on this project, but usually has good budgets, and is just an amazing person period. Relationships, if they’re not everything, are pretty dang close to everything. The occasional tactical sacrifice on the financial front can pay off in the long run if you’re careful.

Repeat Gigs

In my pre-Canabalt days, most of my work came from doing a good job for good clients, and getting rehired for their next project, or having them tell friends that I was reliable and good enough. This was my bread-and-butter for years. No big scores, just steady work that built up my portfolio and was satisfying to do.

Beef That Folio

This was probably the most important single rule or guideline that we developed over our decade of contract work. The principle is this: every good gig that you get to do, every nice piece that you add to your portfolio, has the potential to generate several more gigs over the following years. Because of this, the option to do good work for someone, the ability to build something that you can show off and be proud of, has exponentially more value than something that won’t generate more work but pay well in the short term. Filling your schedule and selecting your gigs will probably need to be a mix of these things, especially at first, and especially with underdeveloped “weasel radar,” but each time you are able to concretely improve your portfolio, you are increasing your chances of cooler future work with better clients. Each good gig you get now might be 3 or 5 or 10 good gigs down the line. Weight these opportunities appropriately; this is the single most important thing you can do as a long term freelancer, in my opinion.

The Long Term

God this stuff can take a long time. I did contract work for 18 months on the side before I quit my day job. My wife Bekah kept her full-time, health-care-providing position for a further 30 months while I built up my portfolio and rolodex. It would be very fair to say that it took me somewhere between three and four years to level up enough and meet enough people to be able to do this sustainably. There are folks who can and have done it faster, but especially if you are fresh out of school and trying to work in a competitive field like video games, where you’re often up against people with more experience than you, and more connections than you, you have to be patient and put in the time.

Adjacent Industries

A very, very small fraction of my contract work over the last decade was done in what you might call the mainstream game industry. My biggest, most reliable clients were usually in marketing and advertising. I did some neat work in education and scientific research spaces. I did some good collabs with independent studios. We did a very brief stint doing previz for EA. Video games are a multidisciplinary medium and that usually means that there are other industries that value your output as much or more than the big game studios, and the work is so similar and so satisfying that you might not mind.

That’s everything that I can think of for now, hope that helps <3

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dailytechnologynews · 6 years ago

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Nvidia vs. AMD GPUs when used with an Adaptive-Sync display, how they compare | Part 1 of 2

Disclaimer 1

This article is highly speculative in nature. Please do not waste your money on a purchase based on this information. You can wait another week or so :)

Disclaimer 2

I'd advise that you skip to the summary near the bottom if you want the simplest comparison without the technical details. Then come back and read the rest if you're interested.

Intro

Right now there's a dearth of confirmed information and an over-abundance of misinformation circulating about how G-Sync compatibility will work. The goal of this series of posts is to set the record straight. Part 1 will delve into HOW things work. Part 2 will feature the results of hands on testing. Testing will be conducted beginning the 15th, with most of it likely over MLK weekend. Depending on the results, I may either do a Part 2 only, with aggregate results from multiple monitors, or multiple parts if I'm getting interesting results from each monitor that warrants a more detailed post.

VESA DisplayPort Adaptive-Sync, the underlying protocol

The Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA) certifies many standards relevant to consumer displays. One of these standards is the DisplayPort Adaptive-Sync open standard. It's an open standard in that anyone is allowed to support it. It is not, however, open-sourced as some believe.

The DP Adaptive-Sync standard is an evolution of the embedded Displayport (eDP) standard used in laptops. eDP was originally made to allow for laptops to run at a lower refresh rate during static images and lower powered states as a means to extend battery life. It wasn't long before companies like Nvidia and AMD saw the potential gaming use cases for this technology.

G-Sync (module-based) vs. Freesync

Nvidia's G-Sync uses an end-to-end proprietary solution. You're required to use an Nvidia G-Sync certified GPU (most of the GeForce 600 series and onward) with a G-Sync monitor that contains a G-Sync module. We all bash Nvidia for the cost that this adds and the vendor lock-in, but there is a consumer-friendly reason behind it as well. Every G-Sync monitor gives a similar experience, subject to maximum refresh rate limitations.

Freesync, on the other hand, is a proprietary implementation of the open DisplayPort Adaptive-Sync standard. It is not open source (except for partial elements as required for Linux use), and it is not technically an open standard as it is controlled by one company that requires a certification process. However, AMD does run it in a very open way so it's not unheard of for someone to confuse it with an open standard.

Despite their differences in implementation, their goal is the same - deliver an experience that ends the stuttering/tearing associated with traditional v-sync settings. And both do it in an admirable way. G-Sync offers a more consistent, high quality experience at a higher price, while Freesync offers a wider range of experiences at a wider range of prices. It's almost like iPhone vs. Android.

G-Sync "Compatibility"

G-Sync Compatibility is a new certification from Nvidia that doesn't rely on the traditional G-Sync module. Instead, it runs on top of the same open standard that Freesync uses. This means that virtually any "Freeync" display will work with Nvidia's GPUs after the driver that gets released on January 15th, even those that are not certified by Nvidia!

Yar, matey! Thar be exceptions ahead!

Of course G-Sync via drivers won't work on every GPU nor on every Freesync display. First, even though the 600 series and up supports traditional module-based G-Sync, only the 1000 series and up will support G-Sync over Adaptive-Sync protocols as of the January 15th driver update. Nvidia has not commented about extending this support to older GPUs via future driver updates, or even if that would be possible.

Second, DisplayPort Adaptive-Sync is only officially supported via DisplayPort 1.2a and higher. HDMI VRR (Variable Refresh Rate) will be incorporated into HDMI 2.1 and up. There is no official VRR support for HDMI 2.0b and older. Due to this, AMD "hacked" the DisplayPort standard into HDMI so that it could be used with Freesync. There has been no indication yet from Nvidia that they currently do or plan to eventually support AMD's HDMI-based implementation. As such, any Freesync monitors and TVs that lack DisplayPort will not function as we'd want with Nvidia's GPUs.

Any monitor manufacturer is free to implement DisplayPort Adaptive Sync. If they so choose, they can submit their monitors to AMD and Nvidia for certification. Passing a certification means a guaranteed minimum in terms of features and performance, but it doesn't specify a maximum. You can have a basic Freesync monitor that performs better than a G-Sync Compatibility certified monitor, for example, but this will be the exception and not the norm.

Certification Differences - Refresh Rate

First we'll look at refresh rate ratio. This is the ratio of maximum to minimum, IE, a 50-100hz range would be 2:1, whereas a 40-240hz range would be a 6:1 ratio. A G-Sync module forces a 30hz minimum, or 2.5:1 ratio, whichever yields the greater ratio (so, 24-60hz, or 30-max). G-Sync Compatibility specifies a 2.4:1 or better ratio for certification. Freesync requires a 2:1 ratio or better. Standard Freesync does not specify a ratio.

If you had a 144hz display, here's what the ranges would be, at minimum, to achieve certification:

Standard Range Module-based (G-Sync and G-Sync Ultimate) 30-144hz G-Sync Compatibility 60-144hz Freesync 2 72-144hz Freesync Any

And why is that range so important? Having a 2:1 ratio or better allows for something called frame multiplying, or LFC (low-frame rate compensation) as AMD calls it. For example, if you had a 60hz monitor with a 40-60hz range, once you dip below 40hz your adaptive-sync is disabled. But with a 30-60hz range, 29fps would run at 58hz, ensuring a full 1-60fps range.

However, if it's exactly 2:1, the monitor can have issues if you straddle the line, causing flickering, blanking, stuttering, tearing, etc. As a result, a higher ratio is preferred. In this case, Nvidia is more strict in certification.

There's also the issues of monitors with two or more Freesync ranges. They typically come in basic and extended ranges. One example I've personally used was the Samsung C34F791. It's advertised as having a 48-100hz range with LFC. In actuality, it's an 80-100hz range with no LFC by default. When you push this to extended, you get the 48-100hz advertised range. However, this is technically overclocking the scaler. If every model could support this with no issues, we wouldn't have two ranges. The extended range would be the only range. This particular model has excessive flickering issues (though you could get lucky). Samsung and LG, especially, are well known for using cheaper scalers and dual ranges. Samsung and LG also have zero certified monitors in the G-Sync Compatible list. Hopefully this new certification drives them to use better scalers going forward.

Certification Differences - Adaptive-Sync Toggles

The next issue is an instant deal-breaker for G-Sync Compatibility certification. And this one is going to seem odd to anyone who has only used one brand's implementation over the other. For current G-Sync displays, G-Sync is on by default in your Nvidia driver and there's no toggle to enable/disable G-Sync in the monitor's OSD. Nvidia requires that monitors behave the same way with an Nvidia GPU in order to pass their certification.

On most Freesync monitors, you first need to enable the Adaptive-Sync or Freesync setting in the monitor's OSD. This option may be greyed out if an adaptive-sync compatible GPU is not present. When you enable it, you then need to enable Freesync in the AMD driver (and you will need to enable G-Sync in the January 15th Nvidia driver).

Certification Differences - Overdrive

That Freesync toggle brings with it another issue, and this is where critical thinking comes into play. If there was no downside to enabling the feature, why wouldn't it just be on by default? That's because when you enable the feature, other features in the OSD turn off or lock you out. Sometimes it's the color settings, but it's almost universally the overdrive setting.

You see, overdrive is a serious issue for adaptive-sync displays. Many people think that they need a "1ms" monitor, but this isn't how they work. Looking at IPS for example, a 5.5ms response time would be perfectly fine for 144hz, and a 9ms response time would be solid for 60hz. But flip them? A 5.5ms response time at 60hz on an IPS display would lead to gross overshoot/inverse ghosting, or dark smearing. A 9ms response time at 144hz would lead to constantly visible ghosting. This is why monitors have different algorithms for overdrive at each preset refresh rate.

All G-Sync module-based displays have a feature called variable/adaptive overdrive. This means that the algorithms change on the fly to ensure a balanced approach between ghosting and overshoot regardless of the currently displayed refresh rate/frame rate. Freesync? To date only one monitor supports this feature, the Nixeus EDG 27.

And monitor manufacturers know that this is an issue. Early monitors either disabled overdrive entirely or locked to a low setting when Freesync was enabled in the OSD. Asus with their MG279Q tried an interesting approach that got blasted (and is basically a meme today). They set the range at 35-90hz on their 144hz monitor. The idea was to have the overdrive algorithm tuned for around 60hz. If you left the range and capped at 144fps, you'd get the 144hz algo. If you were within range, you'd get the 60hz algo, so ghosting/overshoot wouldn't be too bad.

This means that getting past Nvidia's overdrive certification isn't easy. Of the 12 certified monitors today, 10 use TN panels. There's 1 each of IPS and VA. Bottom line is that manufacturers are going to have to start supporting variable overdrive if they want G-Sync Compatibility certification for their high-refresh IPS or VA gaming displays. Thankfully, Nvidia is pseudo-shaming them here: https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/products/g-sync-monitors/specs/

Certification Differences - HDR

There's two certification standards for PC HDR. First is HDR10, which is the overall HDR standard embraced by the PC on all fronts. The second is the VESA DisplayHDR standard, which outlines the specs of the monitor within the broader HDR10 spec.

G-Sync Ultimate requires DisplayHDR1000, which means 1,000 nits peak brightness, full array local dimming (FALD), and other niceties. Freeysnc 2 requires either proper HDR10 certification of any kind, or DisplayHDR400 certification, which is the minimum DisplayHDR certification within the HDR10 spec. Contrary to common misinformation, this is not "fake HDR" any more than the GT 1030 is a fake GPU. It's just the bear minimum. Just like the GT 1030 is better than an Intel iGPU, DisplayHDR400 is better than SDR...barely. Freesync 2 also requires that HDR-capable displays use AMD's low-latency implementation of HDR.

G-Sync (gen 1 module) does not support HDR. G-Sync Compatibility does not require it for certification, but it can work with it. Basic Freesync has no HDR certification.

Summary or "What do I need to know without all the technical mumbo-jumbo!?"

G-Sync Compatibility is just Freesync in a green color. Think of Freesync, Freesync 2, and G-Sync Compatibility as three different certification levels for the open DisplayPort Adaptive-Sync standard. Think of them as Gold, Silver, and Bronze. Your AMD or Nvidia GPU will work with any of them equally well. Want the best performance at a lower price than a traditional G-Sync module-based display? Get something on the G-Sync Compatibility list. Want something close to that in quality, but with certified HDR support? Get a Freesync 2 display. Want a form of adaptive-sync on the cheap? Go with basic Freesync. It will work, but no promises beyond that.

Something on the G-Sync Compatibility list isn't going to work better on an Nvidia GPU than an AMD GPU. And something on the Freesync 2 certification list isn't going to work better on an AMD GPU than an Nvidia GPU.

Upcoming Testing

As with the initial disclaimer, there's a lot of speculation in here based on what I think I know of how the DisplayPort Adaptive-Sync standard works. That means that I could be wrong, so I'm putting my money where my mouth is. I'll begin testing once the driver drops. I have two monitors headed to me now (one loaned from a manufacturer, and one purchased out of my own funds), with hopefully more on the way. I will be comparing these monitors with a GTX 1060 6GB and a Radeon RX 580 8GB. I'll specifically looking at the following areas, and look to see if the monitors behave differently with one GPU or the other:

How do the GPUs behave when within the adaptive-sync range?

How do the GPUs behave when below the adaptive-sync range (LFC engaged)?

How do the GPUs behave when paired with a subpar scaler that is overclocked?

Do Nvidia GPUs have any issues (quality, latency, etc.) with HDR enabled on a Freesync 2 display?

Would a Nixeus EDG 27 (best current Freesync implementation) work as intended with an Nvidia GPU as well?

Current 60hz monitors with a 75hz Freesync mode tend to frame-skip when OC'd to 75hz on Nvidia GPUs - will the new driver fix this?

Hands on testing will be wrapped up over my extended weekend (January 19-21) with Part 2 to follow shortly after that.

How can you help?

I only have two monitors on the way right now, and I'm loathe to spend more money. I just bought a GPU and a monitor specifically for this testing. One manufacturer has been kind enough to send me a sample for this testing after I reached out to them. I'll credit them in the final testing for sure.

But two monitors isn't enough. I'm looking to get my hands on a Freesync 2 display, and a display with a subpar scaler (displays that come with 2 Freesync ranges). Ideally, I'd get both in one (like many Samsung and LG displays).

So, if you live in the Seattle-Tacoma area, and would like to contribute, please post in the comments what you have to offer and we'll work something out. Please do not PM me without first posting, as this weeds out users banned form the sub. Additionally, any assistance provided and any terms (IE, if money changes hands) should be transparent. PMs will only be used for private info (address, contact info, etc.).

#hardware #Computer #Technology #Tech #News

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junker-town · 6 years ago

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James Harden’s impossible box scores, explained

How can someone go 1-17 from three-point range and still put up more points than shots? This is how.

Last Sunday, James Harden had one of the strangest box scores in memory. The details that jump off the page (and ended up in chyrons and app alerts): the reigning MVP scored 36 points on 32 field goal attempts while going 1-17 on three-pointers.

The 36 points on 32 shots is good. Typically, you want your scorers to have more points than shots. That indicates better than one point per shot, or the equivalent of shooting 50 percent of the floor. Sort of. We’ll get to why that’s misleading in a minute.

The 1-17 from three line is an abomination. Before Sunday’s game, no NBA player had ever taken 15 or more three-pointers and made just zero or one. Due to injuries, the Rockets don’t have many offensive options other than Harden shooting. Harden is very in sync with the Moreyball standard that threes and free throws are the best shots. So he kept driving (we’ll get to that) and taking threes. The threes kept missing.

So how does a guy who shoots 1-17 on three-pointers end up with what looks like an efficient box score? It’s the free throws. Harden went 15-16 from the line.

Here’s the thing that makes that whole “36 points on 32 shots” efficient-looking line misleading. The free throws are factored into the 36 points (rightfully so). The free throws are not factored into the 32 shots (wrongly so).

Free throws aren’t free. Other than and-1s and technicals, free throws actually do use up possessions just like field goal attempts. But due to ease of quick assessment or whatever, they are rarely counted in surface-level “36 points on 32 shots” type analysis.

Yes, Harden scored 36 points with 32 field goal attempts, but those 16 free throws also used possessions.

How many? Unfortunately, the box score won’t tell us. (This is an improvement the otherwise highly advanced modern NBA.com boxscores could add.) We can estimate that the number of shooting possessions from free throws is roughly half since there are two free throws per normal trip, but this neglects and-1s, three-pointer fouls, and free throws. Metric-minded analysts use a 0.44 multiplier as an estimate (this is the figure cooked into True Shooting percentage), but that’s not very elegant in shorthand: no one wants to say that Harden scored 36 points on an estimated 39.04 shooting possessions.

A quick perusal of the play-by-play for Sunday’s game shows that Harden’s 16 free throws came on just six shooting possessions (three three-pointer fouls, three standard two-shot fouls, and one and-1 that doesn’t count as a shooting possession itself because the field goal attempt is already counted). Sixteen free throws in six shooting possessions is pretty wild itself: it completely subverts the standard 0.44 multiplier. (That means that True Shooting percentage might actually underrate Harden’s scoring efficiency, but that’s another spelunking for another day).

Those six scoring possessions that ended with free throws can then be added to the 32 field goal attempts for our total number of shooting possessions used by Harden to get those 36 points: 38.

So Harden scored 36 points in 38 shooting possessions. That doesn’t seem so efficient after all, but it’s more accurate and reflective of Harden’s total scoring efficiency against the Magic than the 36 on 32 line.

Now we just need to find an elegant way to incorporate the points created by Harden’s 12 assists with just four turnovers into that quick-reference line ...

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teritcrawfordca · 7 years ago

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How to Run a Successful Business in 2018

If you’re a fan of #SmallBizChat, now in it’s 9th year, you know that every Wednesday from 8-9 pm ET, on Twitter we invite authors and small business experts on to discuss the unique challenges and opportunities that small business owners face. As this is National Small Business Week, so we decided to switch things up. According to the SBA, more than half of Americans own or work for a small business. In addition, two out of every three new jobs in the United States are created by entrepreneurs yearly. This is our week to shine. Last night, I hosted #Smallbizchat LIVE on my SmallBizLady Facebook page and featured three great guests Dawn Brolin, CPA, Alfred Edmond Jr, Editor at Large of Black Enterprise and Garrett White, of Wake-up Warrior. They talked about everything from taxes and building a sustainable business, to reinventing yourself and your business. Below are a few highlights.

Dawn Brolin is a Certified Public Accountant, Certified Fraud Examiner, and CEO of Powerful Accounting, LLC. Powerful Accounting is a nationally recognized accounting, tax, forensic and fraud, IRS and State Agency audit professionals as well as a QuickBooks consulting firm. Her firm can provide IRS Representation and Bankruptcy Accounting. Dawn helps us understand the Trump Tax Bill, so that we’ll be prepared for next year’s taxes.

SmallBizLady: Can you tell us about your background and your business Powerful Accounting?

Dawn Brolin: Powerful Accounting handles IRS & State Agency audit and inquiries, small business accounting and technology recommendations, tax return preparation, and outsourced CFO services. Our team is friendly, kind, and truly enjoys working with our clients, especially the ones who want to grow their business! I am a Certified Public Accountant and a Certified Fraud Examiner.

SmallBizLady: What about the really bad stuff in Trump Tax bill?

Dawn Brolin: I don’t necessarily think that the items listed below are BAD stuff with regards to small business owners but rather I feel that many will misinterpret the changes based on a common dialogue rather than a deep dive into the requirements, limitations, calculations, entity structures, etc. This is a pretty heavy change. I don’t want the small business community to jump up and down too quickly.

The Excess Business Loss Limitations for Individuals– This change requires that business losses at the individual level are not allowed for the taxable year. Those losses must be carried forward and treated as part of the taxpayer’s NOL (Net Operating Loss Carryforward). This means if you have been enjoying, reducing your income from other sources due to the loss in the business (Schedule C, Partnership K-1s, and S-Corporation K-1s included) you won’t be able to take advantage of that rule for tax years after 2017 and before 2026.

Repeal of Miscellaneous Itemized Deductions – If you are a small business and have SMART employees, you may be approached by them to reimburse for travel, meals, uniforms, tools, etc. if they learn about this repeal. The miscellaneous itemized deductions are part of the Schedule A – Itemized Deductions form and have been subject to a 2% threshold. Your sales people who drive thousands of miles, the repair guy who buys his own tools and many others may want the small business owners to implement an accountable plan.

20% Deduction for proprietors, partners, s-corporation shareholders, and trusts/estates with respect to certain qualified income – With the change in the C-Corporation tax rate from 35% to a flat 21%, it might sound like everything is getting better, but the deduction is limited to the lessor of: 20% of qualified business income OR 50% of the total W-2 wages paid by the business. However, the 50% of the total W-2 wages (which in some cases would be lower than the total taxable income of the business owner) would not apply if the business owner had taxable income less than $315,000 if MFJ and $157,500 if single). A simple math example the business owner and her husband made less than $315,000 combined, they would receive a deduction of $35,000 rather than the $25,000 (50% of the W-2). Having employees, reasonable compensation considerations, % of ownership, etc. are some of the other factors involved in this deduction. Note: This does NOT reduce the self-employment income for self-employment tax purposes. This is a standard deduction, not an adjustment of the taxpayers Adjusted Gross Income.

SmallBizLady: Tracking time is a major issue for business owners with billing and employees, how do you suggest people handle it?

Dawn Brolin: I frequently tell our small business clients that time IS money, so what the heck are you doing with it? Most say “I know how much I work, 24/7”. Okay that’s not true. I know that this is a major issue specifically if you have employees. We use and promote TSheets by Intuit. TSheets provides me with minute by minute reporting on my team member’s work, I can see who and what they are working on from my phone. I have the ability to invoice clients in clicks of a button because TSheets syncs with QuickBooks. I can tell you that the loss of money through payroll is one of the deadly business sins.

Simply stated, time tracking is only one small piece of the loss of money for a small business owner. Not tracking your financials on a real time basis is simply negligence. If you decide to be in business, then BE in business. You own the company and the buck stops with you. Get yourself a solid team of experts to help guide you, Listen to them, they likely know more than you. They should be in a position that you one day want to be in. If you don’t want to own the responsibility, then get a job because being in business is not for the weak.

Alfred Edmond, Jr. is SVP/Editor-at-large of BLACK ENTERPRISE. He is a content leader, brand representative and expert resource for all media platforms under the BLACK ENTERPRISE brand, including the magazine, television shows, web site, social media and live networking events. He also hosts Money Matters, a syndicated radio feature of American Urban Radio Networks.

SmallBizLady: How important is it to invest in professional development as a business owner?

Alfred A. Edmond Jr.: It is critically important to invest in professional development as a business owner. In fact, I would go as far as to say that if you are not absolutely committed to continuing education and professional development, you shouldn’t be a business owner. It’s important to understand that entrepreneurship is a distinct and separate discipline, one that a business owner must be committed to learning and mastering in addition to their professional craft or area of industry expertise. That’s why I so strongly recommend classes, whether online webinars or traditional workshops and courses, that teach different aspects of running a business, from finances to marketing to management. It’s also why I so strongly recommend books like Become Your Own Boss in 12 Months (still the best small business start-up book I’ve ever read), as well as your new book, Fix Your Business.

Second, change is happening at an escalating rate. You always only a few steps ahead of obsolescence; the only way to stay ahead and on trend is to never stop learning and growing as a business owner.

SmallBizLady: Cash is still king, and it’s still tough for even established businesses to find capital, what’s is your thoughts about alternative lenders like Kickstarter, Ondeck, Kabbage, and the least utilized resource out here CDFI’s Etc.?

Alfred A. Edmond Jr.: Yes, cash is still king. And I believe that what I call the democratization of capital access, such as crowdfunding and other alternative lending sources, are a great thing, especially for start-up entrepreneurs and small business owners who may not have the capacity or collateral to pursue the traditional funding sources. That said, the source of the capital will never be more important than why the business owner needs it. Remember, nobody—no matter how wealthy the person or institution—has money just laying around doing nothing. All money is being used for something, whether delivering returns via another investment vehicle, sitting in the bank as a form of security or being set aside for retirement. The question you must answer is how is your business going to multiply the money?

If you are constantly having cash flow issues, the answer for most businesses is not to find more capital. It’s to understand why the business is eating more money than it is producing and fixing it. Otherwise, the venture is just not investable.

SmallBizLady: How important is mentorship to a business owner? How should a new business owner find a mentor?

Alfred A. Edmond Jr. Mentorship is absolutely important to a business owner. You save a tremendous amount of time and energy—which adds up to money—when you can draw on the experience and expertise of others, whether in your business or a related discipline or industry.

Here’s the thing, though: You don’t find and choose your mentors; they actually find and choose you. However, they can’t do that if you spend all of your time locked behind the computer screen in your office or the doors of your business. You have to get out, be visible and engage with those people. That’s how healthy, mutually beneficial mentoring relationships—really all good relationships—are created.

As a business owner, you should make time to attend at least one national or regional event for business owners every six months—of course, I strongly recommend you join Black Enterprise at its annual Entrepreneurs Summit, which will be held June 6-9 in Charlotte, N.C., this year. (http://www.blackenterprise.com/entrepreneurssummit/)

In addition, you should attend at least one local networking event relevant to your business every month, as well as be an active member of Facebook and LinkedIn groups that can help you engage with people with information, resources and connections that can help you grow your business. Mentors are not looking for people to rescue. If you want to attract mentors, you need to back up that desire with demonstrated, consistent, diligent, results-producing performance. Mentors like to have impressive protégés!

Garrett J. White, is the founder of Wake Up Warrior, CEO of DKW Styling, Author of BE THE MAN & WARRIOR BOOK as well as host of the TOP Rated Pod Casts Warrior Wealth, Warrior On Fire and Date Your Wife. He works with thousands of men, encouraging them to tell the truth and transform from broke to rich, unfaithful in marriage to faithful, depressed & suicidal to living with a purpose and playing it safe & good to going all in and living great.

SmallBizLady: You have a very diverse background can you tell the audience how you became the Garrett White we see today?

Garrett White I have my own story of divorce, an estranged son, infidelity and losing every penny of my multi-million dollar empire before rebuilding myself, my marriage and starting the Wake Up Warrior Movement, which is helping thousands of men to tell the truth and transform from broke to rich to living with a purpose and playing it safe & good to going all in and living great.

SmallBizLady: You and I have something in common my first business and marriage crashed around the same time. How did you manage it?

Garrett White: I told the truth. I stopped screwing around and got after it. Marriages fail, businesses collapse and people play small because we lie about: what we truly want; who we are; what we’re truly capable of, how we truly feel, where we want to go and what we’re really afraid of. These lies lead to addiction, sedation, destruction and mediocrity. Face it. We all lie. That little voice that said, “Not me.” Yes, you. Most of us started telling lies and burying the truth as boys [and girls] just to avoid being judged and to please parents, teachers, church, friends and coaches. These lies have you feeling alone in your pain. Small business owners and entrepreneurs are at the most risk of sedation, suppression and feeling alone. When you dig deep for courage to tell the truth and stop hiding lies, the path to success in health, wealth and love unlocks. Telling the truth: that’s the key.”

SmallBizLady: What were your biggest takeaways from losing everything?

Garrett White: I learned in many ways, small business owners and entrepreneurs are at the most risk of sedation, suppression and feeling alone. Here’s why. As an entrepreneur you experience pressure and expectations coming from multiple angles. Whether it’s at home or in your business – you’re supposed to be “the man” who has all the answers. You’re supposed to have your act together and in total control. There’s no room for your emotions and feelings of doubt, fear, anger, excitement, uncertainty and frustration … especially as an entrepreneur. So you put a mask on and sedate, suppress and act like you got it all figured out to please everyone else’s expectations of you. Entrepreneurs also have the added element of “acceptable sedation” playing against them. But under the lie of “just trying to provide a good life for my family” is the fact you’re just avoiding the feeling of disconnection at home. You’re avoiding dealing with the crap in your marriage, your health and your kids.

Which only drives us deeper into our pit of isolation and sedation.

There Is a man (or woman) inside you right now who is 10x the producer you are.

He’s a better father.

He’s a better husband.

He’s a better businessman.

He has better sex.

He’s a better athlete and in better shape.

That person is already inside of you. He just needs to be ACTIVATED. (That’s where my work now comes in.)

If you found this interview helpful, join us on Wednesdays 8-9 pm ET; follow @SmallBizChat on Twitter.

Here’s how to participate in #SmallBizChat: http://bit.ly/1hZeIlz

The post How to Run a Successful Business in 2018 appeared first on Succeed As Your Own Boss.

from Teri Crawford Business Tips https://succeedasyourownboss.com/how-to-run-a-successful-business-in-2018/

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bluesmusician-blog · 7 years ago

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Make More Money with Music

I'm sick of seeing my most loved groups separate since they can't make sense of how to profit with their music. It makes me extremely upset each time an inconceivably skilled performer stops music since they can't make sense of how to bring home the bacon with it. Music is not something we do. It is our identity.

Yes, I'm an expert performer, yet I've now turned into an expert spreader-of-everything-I-knower since I don't have confidence in rivalry among artists. In case you're dedicated, enthusiastic, driven and sufficiently capable you will have the capacity to support a sound, long haul profession — in the event that you have the learning and the comprehension of how it functions.

The #1 reason performers quit music and groups separate is on the grounds that they can't make sense of how to profit to maintain their profession.

Here are thoughts to develop your music salary this year:

1. Take Venmo

This is something that is super new and is truly on top of things now. You might not have known about Venmo yet, but rather you will. It is a verb in LA now "Venmo me." Basically, Venmo is the most straightforward approach to pay somebody. It's as simple as sending a content. Considerably less demanding than PayPal. So significantly less demanding that PayPal saw this and purchased Venmo. At this moment, download the application on the off chance that you don't have it so you comprehend what it is and how to utilize it.

Make your username to be @mybandname and report from the phase that you acknowledge tips as Venmo. What's more, you can even offer Merch with Venmo. There are 0 exchange charges (as long as the client is paying by means of their Venmo adjust, financial balance, platinum card, or prepaid card). Give me a chance to rehash. Zero exchange expenses. Though any charge card swiper takes around 3% + like 30 pennies an exchange (as does PayPal), Venmo takes nothing. How would they profit? Not certain yet. In any case, once more, PayPal claims them.

Put a tip jostle at your Merch table with a major sign, "On the off chance that you loved the show, demonstrate to us how much! Money (bolt) or Venmo: @mybandname" You can even have a projector in front of an audience and have like an ongoing closeout with Venmo tips for a screen print or a backstage hang or a date with the drummer. Whatever. There are unlimited potential outcomes. In any case, consider how you can use Venmo to profit at the show.

2. Twofold Your Live Income With…

Try not to skirt this. I purposefully did not title #2 as "Up your merch amusement" despite the fact that that is the thing that this is BECAUSE you're most likely so finished hearing how essential merch is that you would simply skip directly past it. Hear me out. At the point when on visit, merch is your #1 salary generator. On the off chance that you do it right. Specialists worry over certifications and entryway parts while absolutely disregarding the capability of merch.

The merch stock and purpose of offer following stage, AtVenu has computed that for scenes 500-1,000 limit, the normal dollar per head (DPH) is $3.65. That implies, on the off chance that you have 100 individuals at your show, you should make AT LEAST $365 on merch. On the off chance that you don't, you are falling beneath normal.

Groups disclose to me constantly "Yet our fans don't purchase merch!" Bull! On the off chance that you offer it right they will purchase. On the off chance that you toss a couple of CDs in the back of a dull setting with no light, no show, no dealer, OF COURSE you will offer nothing. Need to expand your merch deals? Ensure you have a BIG, BRIGHT, appealing showcase with lights. Ensure it looks super star.

Ensure you have somebody offering your merch from when the entryways open to when they close. As a rule people will leave your show early in light of the fact that they have work the following morning, yet need to purchase something. In the event that there is nobody remaining by the merch table right then and there they will take off. They won't get a modest bunch of stuff, keep running up to the stage holding their charge card and request that you stop the show and swipe their card.

Appears to be ludicrous, isn't that so? All things considered, what are you expecting not having a merchant back there consistently? Clearly you should assume acknowledgment. A Square or PayPal swiper is absolutely free. Get it. Take cards. Who conveys money any longer? I beyond any doubt don't. Yes, take Venmo. Make merch your fans need to purchase – not what you think you should make. In the event that your gathering of people is 50+ Vinyl is a misuse of cash. They ain't getting it. In the event that your group is 18-35 year olds, Vinyl might be the approach – millennials LOVE vinyl. Declare that you have merch from the stage. Put your merch show in a conspicuous place in the scene – best is close to the entryway. Get imaginative in your merch offerings. Do it right. Also, you will twofold your live show pay. Ensured.

3. Live Stream

Clare Means multiplied her live pay by Periscoping her exhibitions. Brent Morgan, in 2016, was making over $10,000 a month live gushing acoustic exhibitions from his room on YouNow. Live spilling is a thing. Furthermore, if this is something that moves you, investigate it.

4. Sync Licensing

Numerous totally free performers are making six figures a year getting tunes set on TV shows, ads and movies – without a mark or administrator. It's conceivable to do. In any case, there is an approach and you need to know precisely HOW to pitch authorizing organizations, promotion offices, music bosses and film makers and precisely WHICH of your melodies to pitch. Most circumstances tunes that work for TV shows don't work for plugs.

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crystalelemental · 1 year ago

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Unit Teambuilding - Nemona

Okay, now that we’re through the Kalos stuff, we can talk about the end of Galar with Victo-that is Nemona. We’re doing Paldea? Already?!

General Overview I’ll be honest, one of my big predictions for anniversary was Paldea Friend Group. Nemona, Arven, and Penny have ridiculous popularity, that felt like a slam dunk for triple Master Fair. But I guess that speculation is dead and gone, and instead, Nemona is here, now, as a PokeFair. With Pawmot. Who is...Electric type. *sigh* Was kinda hoping for Fighting. And this means the protagonists might be anniversary Master Fairs with Miraidon and Koraidon. Can’t imaging using Nemona to draw in new players for anniversary and then doing nothing with Paldea, and it’d be weird for just Arven and Penny to be Master Fair but not Nemona. I don’t want protagonist Master Fairs. These protags are lame. Can we get Geeta? I know she’s unpopular but pleeeeease?

Pawmot is a new sync type called Sprint. The focus is that, upon sync, they receive -3 cooldown. Otherwise, they act like Techs, having an innate sync multiplier with 200-240 BP. I did a whole thing about what I think makes a good Sprint pair, but the short is any Tech pair with enough power behind sync that the extra 50% is overkill. You only need so much damage to net a KO, anything beyond that is excess. So that’s the goal Nemona is aiming for.

Functionally, Nemona is a fast-paced damage dealer aiming to clear before second sync if possible. Her main draw is her Buddy move, which acts as a second sync. 100-120BP, but doubles in power with an Inertia-like boost, same as her actual sync. When she uses her real sync, she recovers 1MP of this move. Three high-power bursts aims to finish CS in a rapid-fire exchange of blows. And Nemona hits like a freight train. Her Buddy move is double the power of SS Hau, at current estimate. Her Sync hits about as hard as his too. Nemona is out to kill.

To facilitate this, EX Speed is an immediate +6 speed in one action, and Honing Hit passive grants +2 Atk/+1 crit per action. Trainer move grants a ton of effects, including +2 Atk, Endurance, Gradual Healing, Damage Guard, and most critically, -2 sync cooldown. With Soften Up as a natural passive to ensure sync crit, Nemona is generally fast-acting and assured. But this is where the problems start popping up.

Nemona fast ramps with Head Start and her trainer move. This is great! Unfortunately, Honing Hit doesn’t keep up. Her Buddy move’s refresh after her first sync also creates problems, because you have to use it before her sync, or your MP doesn’t refresh. Even without fast-ramping, Honing Hit won’t keep up with the Buddy move being fired turn 3. And if you’re acting in a capacity where her attacks don’t KO? She falls back on Thunderpunch. Nemona falters really badly when her triple nuke fails to finish the job, which is going to make High Score a painful experience for her.

In my personal estimation, Nemona should be used for ramping. -2 cooldown with any other -1 source, even if it’s Head Start lucky skill, permits an EX Support taking first sync. Nemona can just wait for the second to be hers and fast-ramp that way, it often won’t matter, and the doubled power makes her nukes that much more threatening. Buddy move one side, nuke center, buddy move the other. If you’re not done, you at least fast-ramped to another sync on center. But Nemona is very, very much about optimizing those bursts. Any failed KO means she falls back on poor DPS, and if that happens...well, hope you gridded Staggering!

Despite these limitations though, I think Nemona has promise. Sprint Sync is being generally disparaged as “nerfed Tech,” but the applications have merit. Nemona can act quickly to finish a job by getting to the next sync early. It’s a balance, trading the overpowered Tech sync that overkills anything it touches, for something more...well, technical. We don’t know how well it will run, but personally? I’m interested in the trade. I think it might be to her benefit.

EX and Move Level? Nemona can be conceptualized in two ways. One is the obvious damage dealer, where her three bursts are the most significant aspect of her kit. In this case, 20/20 is highly encouraged to net those KOs. But EX is not. Most modes? That fast-ramp doesn’t matter so much. Her Buddy move recharging will finish the job. EX is only necessary in really long modes like High Score, and maybe Gauntlet depending on how hard she can hit. It’ll matter for solos, but I hate doing those. Move level should be 3/5 though. Without the Haymaker sync, you’re missing a burst. However, Nemona can also just be support. Fast-ramp is a valuable trait on its own, and she can do that at 1/5 no EX just by slapping Head Start on her. But having little else to do is a bit sad to me, so if you want, 3/5 is when she can contribute with Thunderpunch getting full paralysis, and Staggering 3 for a 40% flinch rate.

Team 1: Nemona, Sonia, Volkner Let’s start with some general pool. Sonia’s buffing profile complements Honing Hit, such that turn 2, Nemona can throw out a full-power Buddy move just fine. Volkner can supply Electric Terrain, and some flinch to further stall out while Nemona is fast-ramping later in the match. Unrelated, but it feels like it’s been ages since I mentioned Volkner.

It’s worth noting, there are two ways to go with this. One is Nemona beatdown, where she takes first sync for a rapid clear. The second depends on how gutsy you feel regarding Volkner’s flinch rate. Because you can, with a stagger turn 1, get the EX support sync after the foe’s second action. If you stagger the second action too, you’re in a hilarious position for the rest of the fight. See, Nemona can fast-ramp by using TM first turn. 5 cooldown turn 1, ending in Volkner’s flinch, into Sonia and Nemona’s second actions for 7. By the end of the next round of actions, again ending in Volkner’s flinch, you have EX support queued up, and can obliterate side for a denial. Keep that pressure up, and Nemona can sync, fast-ramp if needed, but gets her Buddy move back for the finisher.

Team 2: Nemona, Falkner, SS Hau This team composition is similar to the second method described above, but toward a specific goal. SS Hau’s Electric Terrain and extension is great, but even with extend 5, it’s not long enough to manage with his buddy move. You want things to move faster than that. Enter this comp. Falkner provides two things: a good flinch rate on the initial swing, and precise buffing. By staggering first turn ending on Falkner, Nemona is able to use trainer move on herself for +4 atk, then EX Speed. This caps attack, and gets +2 crit. In the same time, Hau can use his Buddy Move twice. In the last move before sync, Nemona throws out her Buddy move after Falkner’s Dire Hit All, and nukes something. Now her sync is ready. Fire with that, to get -3. NOW we can deploy Fairy Zone, use Hau’s trainer move, and regardless of quad queue, you’re guaranteed to save a full turn toward second sync. This dramatically hastened pace could keep Electric Terrain up through Hau’s sync, which can reset the terrain as well.

Team 3: Nemona, BP Clemont, N In more generalist terms, Sprint syncs are designed to facilitate faster access to a second sync that aims to clear the board. In this situation, we turn to N, whose sync nuke is a quick blast to all opponents. N is chosen because he’s also fairly easy to set up, and complements Nemona with strong DPS. Gauge may be a problem, it’s hard to tell with one pair at +6 and the others at +0. Anyway, because speed isn’t needed for the whole team, I went BP Clemont for Screech and theme skills.

Team 4: Nemona, Ash, SST Red Ugh, alright, fine, I’ll talk about it. Reddit, being a fucking cesspoll, has been very critical of Nemona’s kit overall, and weirdly critical of Nemona as a character, which I feel like is a stance you’ll only get there. But one thing that seems to come up repeatedly as a teambuilding solution is adding Nemona to Dual Rat. Which I think is like adding a feature where you add exploding bullets to your gun. Ash and SST Red independently should have no trouble with stages, but sure, let’s pretend this will ever be necessary. Nemona is the best partner. Ash has so many effects that prevent damage from killing him, and Nemona adds another two stacks with her trainer move. Ash is literally unkillable. The goal is to hold that until after first sync, then use Nemona’s sync, then her Trainer Move, then SST Red’s Max Move. -3 for sync, -2 for trainer move, -3 for Max Move, you are now at another sync, which can go to Ash who will explode whatever is left. It’s the most absurd and unnecessary level of overkill, it doesn’t account for Ash’s Buddy move being used at all, and frankly I think you could probably finish the entire stage before Ash’s sync anyway. I feel like this isn’t even optimal use of the team, there are likely faster ways to handle it. But sure, let’s all claim the main draw of Nemona is that she’s “finally the buff to Dual Rat,” like that’s ever a thing a human being needed.

Final Thoughts Nemona’s really interesting. I think the damage calcs are what sell it. Having a Buddy Move burst that hits about as hard as SC Emmet’s sync is...impressive. I think her kit is fascinating, and I’m kind of excited about the Sprint angle. Fast-ramping has been the dominant meta skill for a while, and I think they take to the playstyle well enough. I will confess that Nemona has some awkward failures in her kit. Honing Hit’s poor pacing being chief among them. But I also think Nemona excels at quite a bit that’s worth considering. If you’re going to break your stash for anything this month, I’d personally say Nemona has the best mileage. But I also say that knowing next month is High Score with Electric types. Outside of that, if you have Dual Rat, and aren’t in the position of having missed Master Rank on Water but feel like you could really do it on Electric if you had another good option, Nemona is good but not a requirement. She’s the annual pre-anniversary fast-ramping bait. First it was Lear, then SS May, now Nemona. There is always ramping bait.

#unit teambuilding #nemona

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crystalelemental · 2 years ago

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Unit Teambuilding - Roark

Common Grid War Act 15 is underway, and this is the last full act, unless they bring back Jesse and James. Which...we'll see. I do feel kinda bad, though. I'm still under the belief that MU Torchic likely won't even get a grid, which means if those two don't come back, the literal only common left without a grid is Lorelei. And man, I like Lorelei, I feel like she's fairly underappreciated despite being Kantonian. But, we get what we get. And what we get right now is Roark, one of the longest anticipated grids out there. Head Smash memes have been a joke since forever, but now the joke finally comes to an end as we see if Roark gets to be good. Survey says!

General Overview It's good! It's...actually kinda really good. Huh. Guess Rock-types can be good, if you just avoid giving them Rock Tomb.

Let's start with the big question: No, I don't think Head Smash is saved. Standfast 7 + 5 is what Darach has, and full disclosure, he cannot spam it without dying. His DPS results in too much recoil to make it work. I'd argue that even with another Standfast 3 stack, it won't really save Roark from a similar fate. But. If you can believe it. Roark's...better off about it. Hit and Heal on trainer move means gradual healing, which is percentage-based on your HP. Roark has over 1000 HP at 5*. That's a great amount of passive healing. Add in First Aid 4, and frankly Roark is doing some pretty respectable numbers, with a lot of recovery to fall back on. The tragedy of this build is really that he can't also afford the accuracy tiles in addition to the healing, and is effectively guaranteed to need full offensive support. Which includes accuracy. Aaron is back on the menu, boys!

But hey, you know, a 3-bar spam on a guy with sub-300 speed? That's a lot to ask. And Aaron can't carry that particular weight. So that's pretty limiting. Kinda rough, huh?

Except he doesn't need it. Even without Head Smash, Roark is probably the best F2P Rock-type, because he is not burdened by Original Sin. No Rock Tomb, remember? He got Haymaker. He got Haymaker and Double Down 5. This dude has an attack stat on par with Kahili, and an extra 50% multiplier on sync above what she has. Roark is a legitimate sync nuke, the kind that makes you wish he had EX to just delete stages. And if you ignore Head Smash in favor of getting to sync? Well great news, Trainer Move Follow-Through means guaranteed crit, easing his support demands. Now you just need the attack. Roark actually eatin gourmet.

Team 1: Roark, Aaron, Masked Royal I'd consider this a fairly optimal Head Smash team. Aaron provides not just the Attack/Crit bonuses, but at 3/5 has Precision Pals to give Roark the much-needed accuracy for Head Smash. Masked Royal then provides speed for the team to facilitate gauges, and can debuff defense of foes. There's very little this team should need.

Team 2: Roark, Hilbert, SS Diantha I am willing to make the estimated bet that this team could clear a CS stage with the -2 sync cooldown parameter. SS Diantha's more than capable of blasting center apart with sync nuke, and if she can't, Roark's got the Head Smash under Zone. A 3/5 Diantha is going to wildly outperform him, but I imagine a 1/5 still works well thanks to Roark's high DPS. You just want to make sure he doesn't die.

Team 3: Roark, Halloween Caitlin, Kukui Remember Follow-Through? Remember what happens when you need attack but not crit? That’s right, it’s H!Caitlin stonks! And guess what! Even more optimal, because her trainer move buffs accuracy! She’s practically ideal for the sync nuke build, even offering speed and accuracy for Head Smash. Kukui can spam Leer for defense drops, and can flinch foes with Accelerock. Kukui also gets those Rock-type theme skills going.

Team 4: Roark, Shauna, Acerola I'd be willing to bet good money this team could work as anti-Moltres. Shauna can provide Roark with the needed offensive potential, Acerola provides Sandstorm for the weather and flinch rate to keep the bird from acting. The critical component of this is that Roark needs to avoid Head Smash. Too much passive damage going on. But his sync nuke, being fantastic damage, should be able to handle it.

Final Thoughts I'm pretty happy with this. Sinnoh remains winning. There are still some issues, but by and large, I like it a hell of a lot better than SS Brock and Grant, who exist mostly as flinch bots. Roark feels like he's actually trying to hurt something. And I'd be willing to bet he'd succeed.

#unit teambuilding #roark #common grid war

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crystalelemental · 2 years ago

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PokeFair Select Scout (3.5 Anniversary)

Free ticket for a PokeFair, woo! I feel kinda bad though, because like...not all of these options have an expansion and that's throwing me. Anyway, six champions are up for grabs, and you may be wondering which one to pull for with your free selection. I love that it's free.

CYNTHIA I'm starting with Cynthia because if you've been around a bit, you may have heard things about her recent grid expansions. They are, in fact, for real. But I want to clear this up quickly. The expansions are good, but Cynthia lives and dies by the level of investment granted. At 1/5, Cynthia is an astonishingly weak sync pair, having virtually nothing in her favor. Self-setup is difficult, she's wildly reliant on Ingo, has one of the weakest sync nukes in the game without her multipliers, and has pretty poor DPS that is split in CS due to the AoE effect. All of this is an atrocity. If you're pulling Cynthia here for 1/5, it should be with the understanding that you are going to candy, or are desperately waiting for a focus like Lodge to feature her.

That said, if you're thinking of pulling her for upgrades, 2/5 and 4/5 aren't entirely worth it, but 3/5 and 5/5 absolutely are. Cynthia's 2/5 grid offers 50% multipliers, with move damage being on-type only, and her sync nuke relying on Sandstorm like most of her kit. She does get Surging Sand 2, but it's pretty meh. 3/5 is when she gets Haymaker for the full sync nuke performance that put her on the map, as well as Fierce Entry 1, which can help cap her attack independently. 4/5 gives Dust Kicker, which is helpful for her DPS builds by ensuring Sandstorm after each sync, but it won't last through her next sync, so she's still reliant on another weather setter. She also gets Crit Strike 9 on Slash, which...check the numbers. It's actually really strong. But it's 5/5 where her grid is complete, and she acquires Sand Alert 5, which doubles the length of Sandstorm. The 5/5 kit gives Cynthia complete self-sufficiency for Sandstorm and buffing in one grid, losing almost nothing in the exchange. But, this is also a 5/5 investment. If you're willing to pair her with Ingo, or with Bertha/H!Caitlin, then 3/5 is a perfectly fine solution as well. Her full sync investment is present, and can actually be stronger than her 5/5 if you take the sync damage nodes. But anything below 3/5 is fairly hard to justify, because she's going to be wildly outclassed.

STEVEN I cannot BELIEVE this man doesn't have a grid expansion yet. It's ridiculous. Without it, Steven is very hard to justify picking up, especially with Gloria about to pop off in two days. Her expansion is nothing short of ridiculous when it comes to damage numbers. Steven, comparatively, lacks for sync and move damage. This in spite of having Haymaker at 1/5. His main utility, then, is Aggravation on his 3/5 grid. Which...man, plenty of things have flinch rate. That's hardly worth it. The sad news is, I can't sincerely recommend Steven right now. Yes, his expansion will happen, probably sooner than we think, but without knowing what it does, it's hard to say where the boundaries lie. The only situation in which I think it's worth it to take him is when you're 2/5 and aiming for 3/5. You get Aggravation, and are set up for at least one of his expansions.

LANCE On Masters Day this month, Lance will receive his grid expansions. Both of them. At the same time. And they're really good! He gets a nice multiplier for sync and DPS, and finally gets excellent setup tools for self-buffing. But. This is only at 5/5. His 3/5 grid can help with crit rate, and gives the multipliers, but the whole physical sync/special DPS thing makes Lance fairly hard to shop for. 5/5 is fairly necessary just to manage his needs effectively. Worse, Lance did not get Pinpoint Entry 1 on his grid, and Hyper Beam is 90 accuracy. The only solutions are a 10 energy tile to make it 100 accuracy, or bringing accuracy buffing support, which is really rare and hard to justify.

Lance's expansion is good, don't get me wrong. But it's also got some limitations that make me hesitant. I cannot recommend him at anything less than 3/5. Hyper Beam isn't bad damage there, but his inability to buff anything makes him so wildly support reliant as to be borderline unusable offensively. He exists for Potion support until 3/5, when he can at least handle the crit rate. But much like Cynthia, he's a "Better the higher he goes" unit, and if you're just looking to get that first copy of something, probably best to look elsewhere.

ALDER Alder is similar to Lance, in that his primary thing is Hyper Beam DPS. But Alder is better than Lance, because his sync is special, and his self-setup is immaculate. Alder can function at 1/5. Hyper Beam is that strong, and his setup is natural to his kit. In fact, Alder's weird in that 3/5 doesn't always help, because multipliers are based on the foe's special attack behind lowered, and that's really hard to accomplish. He can kinda do it himself, but there's nothing in his kit that seriously helps that debuff process via attacking. I would say Alder's big moments to shine are 1/5, and 4/5. 2/5 adds almost nothing to his kit, and 3/5 has difficult multipliers to utilize without very specific team support that often can't be slotted in. 4/5 is when he gets Dismay and Furious Brain, which sets up his old multiplier well, and gives another free 30% move damage, making his Hyper Beam incredibly strong. While 5/5 offers Impervious to offset the sharp defense drop of his trainer move, this is only situationally useful, and can be hard to acquire around other desired tools.

The main reason not to take Alder is competition. SC Emmet and SS Hilbert are just better. In like. Every way. SC Emmet's Megahorn is ridiculously strong, and his sync is far stronger than Alder's with less hassle. Hilbert not only has better DPS and sync by default, but nice team support in Metal Sound, and the coveted Rebuff effect. Alder is fairly hard to justify compared to these two.

DIANTHA Diantha is, primarily, a DPS machine that relies on being able to mega evolve. The problem with Diantha is that, unlike Alder there, Moonblast being 4-bar doesn't measure up to Hyper Beam's damage. Her saving grace is the +50% move damage on mega evolution, which requires first sync. Diantha's sync is also...there's been better. Even at 3/5, her multiplier is the same as Alder's, reliant on the awkward special attack debuffing. Diantha's grid expansions are...useful, but they're also limited to self-sufficiency rather than power. 4/5 grid has most of the utility tools in Satisfied Snicker and Recharging Strike, turning Dazzling Gleam into a perfect debuffing/gauge control move in CS. 5/5 mostly just adds Propulsion on Trainer Move to fast-ramp to her DPS.

I'd say each step for Diantha has some utility, with even 2/5 getting her Speedy Entry for better gauge control. But Diantha's also never reaching any kind of crescendo like Cynthia did, where her power just explodes. She remains solid and gets a little more self-sufficient, but her major issues remain. In single-target matches, Recharging Strike is limited. Moonblast's DPS is reliant on her taking first sync, removing a lot of potential partners as options. Her gauge control is still fairly poor even with the Speedy Entry thing. And her ability to self-buff is massively limited, taking considerable time and being largely relying on allies. Diantha just retains some concerns that don't get entirely alleviated. I'd say she's good because Fairy-type, being one of the best sources of DPS in the type. But also if you have NY!Lisia she might legitimately be better.

CHAMPION IRIS Champion Iris is a long-standing favorite of mine. The obvious goal is 3/5, where the full sync nuke arrives. At present, there is no 5/5 grid. The question then is, if you're not getting 3/5, is there a reason to get Iris?

Kinda sorta. Her debuffing kit has aged a bit, but chip damage with -2 in a chosen offensive stat is not a bad effect. Adding in Piercing Gaze to ensure she never misses her attacks is also a delight. At 1/5, she fulfills the role of a debuffer for partners really well. Alder and Diantha up there needed special attack debuffing, and Iris is a perfect partner to accomplish that. Perfect accuracy with debuffs also makes her a premiere Latias counter for Gauntlet purposes.

But Iris also faces a ton of issues. Her self-setup is remarkably poor, mirroring Leon's pathetic performance. Her flinch rate doesn't get Aggravation, which is brutal for utility sets. Like Diantha, her gauge control is really bad once the acceleration effect from trainer move wears off. Iris requires a lot of support to accomplish her goals, and at lower move levels, is pretty much just utility. Decent utility, but not overwhelming utility. I still think she's worth it, but you know. Limitations.

Final Thoughts If you're looking to pick up a new tool at 1/5, I'd say Iris has the most utility, while Diantha or Alder are the best for offense. Bug and Fairy damage is fairly rare, and if you didn't pick up one of the other premium options, they're respectable damage dealers when their weaknesses are accounted for. Otherwise, Iris' debuffs are very reliable and efficient for specific multipliers.

If you're looking to upgrade, pretty much everyone is useless at 2/5. The only things truly worth noting are Diantha's Speedy Entry for gauge control, and Lance gets Double Potion MPR.

At 3/5, everyone's major kits open up. Iris becomes a fantastic sync nuke for Gauntlet, but is otherwise in an over-saturated type and takes too long to set up for it without Ghetsis support in CS. Diantha and Alder get their sync nukes, but it's really difficult to set up well, and relies on specific team support to accomplish. Steven gets Aggravation and Aggravation only. Lance and Cynthia get their much-needed multipliers, but retain some difficulty with self-setup. At this point, it's really a matter of what type of damage you most need covered. More than likely, Fairy, Bug, or Ground are what's missing, so Diantha, Alder, and Cynthia are best picks for this, as Dragon and Steel are types covered by F2P tools like Solgaleo and Cyrus/Zinniquaza.

Of the grid expansions, Diantha and Alder are justifiable for 4/5. Diantha gets her debuff and gauge control, while Alder gets an entry debuff and another multiplier on his DPS. These are great tools if you want to power up a favorite, but 3/5 can suffice in most situations. Cynthia and Lance are not worth 4/5, but are worth 5/5. The upgrade they get to self-sufficiency is tremendous, and opens a lot of team composition options for them. Oddly, Diantha and Alder really do not benefit from 5/5 due to energy constraints.

#Pokemon masters #select scout breakdown

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crystalelemental · 2 years ago

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Unit Teambuilding - Halloween Iris

Well, I may have lost on who got Gourgeist, but this was a pleasant and unexpected surprise. And it breaks the theme! Prior, we only ever got Ghost and Dark types, but they're willing to give us spooky Pokemon in other types too! Shame their best pick wasn't even the most messed up Ultra Beast, but I'll take it.

General Overview Iris and Naganadel is such a bizarre combo. I lament the loss of Anabel/Naganadel as a Poison Zone setter for Looker, and worry that Nihilego won't be a Zone setter either, but this legitimately isn't bad. I like Iris a lot, I love the Ultra Beasts, we desperately needed help on Poison, and this is a fun and fairly creative pick. At least to me, it is.

I want to kick this off starting a bit negative. Specifically, Iris’ special attack stat is low, and her support is minimal beyond Poison Zone. Acid On a Roll 9 is a guaranteed special defense drop on AoE, which is nice, but it’s effectively all she can do for a partner. Which I find a bit disheartening? I like when the Zone setters offer a bit more. It’s also worth noting that On a Roll 9 is specific to her 3/5 grid, meaning without max investment, she doesn’t even have team support. She is purely there for the zone. Oh sure, she has a 30% chance for a regular Poison, but SS Leaf has a 50% chance for Toxic, and gets Sundering 9, and is two years older, so this is not great. Even Ingo, who I think is largely considered the worst support Zone setter, has guaranteed Defense Crush 9 and Trap in his base kit. Comparatively, Iris is downright bad at support, and should be considered the least effective Zone setter because of it.

Thankfully, Iris is not here to support. She is here to kill.

Hyper Beam is tremendous damage, even if it is incredibly boring. Her sync also isn’t anything to scoff at. Uninvested 1/5 Iris with Zone up hits for over 8k on Hyper Beam, per damage calculator. Considering other Poison types are hitting around 3k prior, now around 5k with Zone? This is a staggering improvement. The fact that Iris can debuff special defense should also be seen more as an appeal to her own damage than to support. The only support Iris should be offering is Zone, with the intent to dual strike. Because frankly, at 3/5, yes she unlocks debuffs, but for her own multipliers. There’s no sense running Iris solely for the sake of supporting someone else.

As such, this is the most skippable Zone unit. If you’re hurting for Poison damage, go for her, she is the best in class. If you’re not hurting for Poison, Iris is a nice little embellishment, but is otherwise so bad at support that she’s the easiest skip of the month. Take that how you will.

Move Level/EX Required? Iris is oddly quite serviceable 1/5. The access to Zone really amplifies her damage, and Hyper Beam is already nuts without investment. 3/5 also, oddly, doesn’t offer as much as you may want. The multiplier is shaky at best, and -1 special defense debuff per hit of a move she doesn’t want for DPS builds is not essential. Iris at 1/5 is completely fine, but may really want another Poison-type ally to keep pressure up. That said, I do find Iris one of the better candidates for EX, or at least 20/20. High move damage/low base stats units are helped tremendously by 20/20 stats, while Tech nukes really benefit from having their EX to ensure denials in CS, and clean phase skip KOs on Gauntlet.

I’m also going to make a quick note. Due to Iris being raw power, there’s little reason to go against Crit Strike 2 as a lucky skill. But if you do get her 1/5, and you’re looking at dual strike comps? Mind Games or Defense Crush is a serviceable choice, to give her some measure of team support.

Team 1: H!Iris, Plumeria, NY!Lillie/SS Kris Iris does make a solid partner to Plumeria, if you've invested in her. Acid's debuffing helps keep Plumeria's damage high, all Plumeria needs is support. This is where decisions come in. SC Jasmine or similar can supply the needed offensive buffs for the team, but note that Plumeria needs speed as well as the offensive stats. As a result, you can get away with more of a focus on a support that just buffs crit rate, because Plumeria is certainly using her own trainer move to buff offenses. The exception is a high enough SS Kris, to pack Team Swift Reaction for all of Plumeria's needs.

Team 2: H!Iris, Bede/Lucian, BP Janine BP Janine once again stays winning, with the combination of Team Sharp Entry and her slight topping off of special attack, with added speed and evasion buffs. Iris loves all of that. All she needs from there is support for special defense debuffs to shift into pure damage. Bede and Lucian are the obvious picks, depending on the need to debuff attack or special attack in response to the stage you're on. But in general, Lucian is better. The added speed buffs on a Hyper Beam unit? Divine.

Team 3: H!Iris, Looker/SS Giovanni, BP Janine If you really want, this is another option to support the offensive picks. In the case of Looker, BP Janine remains optimal, but the goal now is that Iris wants Defense Crush to support him better. The ideal is that a CS stage weak to Poison is getting exploded. Does it work? No idea. But it's probably the best we're getting. Alternatively, SS Giovanni is a pick, but still likes the presence of Janine and her speed boosting for gauge control. But man, this isn’t a great idea. Looker and Giovanni take a lot of gauge for guys who waren’t that fast, and Iris exists to deal damage.

Team 4: H!Iris, Koga, BP Janine Oddly enough, perhaps one of the best Gauntlet-related teams for her is completely F2P. Janine gives the last point of crit that Iris needs, as well as the top off on special attack. The whole team gets speed bonuses for gauge control. Koga can use Venoshock to debuff special defense guaranteed every use, setting up Iris' needed multipliers. All of them have a chance to poison. What this accomplishes is freeing up Iris to spam Hyper Beam, and maximizing the DPS of Koga and Janine via Venoshock.

Final Thoughts As stated, Iris is about offense, and nothing else. Support is a myth. She exists to dish out damage, and nothing else. Unless you want a better poison damage dealer, you’re pretty safe to not pull here. Like...it’s kinda stunning how bad this year’s Halloween alts are? Iris is nice for Poison damage, but if you have SS Giovanni this is nothing new, and being a Zone setter who offers exactly nothing to a team is pretty bad. Sorry to dunk on the kid, but maybe this wasn’t a great trade, and she should’ve taken the Fused Kyurem Master Fair like the other regional champions. But that wouldn’t involve an Ultra Beast and cute costume, so I’ll take the trade.

#pokemon masters #halloween iris #unit teambuilding

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crystalelemental · 2 years ago

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Unit “Teambuilding” - Norman

But Christ, if you thought Glacia was bad, wait until you hear about this guy.

General Overview I am not going to mince words. Unless Cheren's grid goes even worse than Glacia, Norman is my uncontested worst unit in the entire game now. He is actually that bad.

Imagine your entire life has been a meme. You're a striker who not only didn't get multipliers for damage, but is also a Normal type who can't hit opponent weaknesses, who is somehow further limited by the fact your main damage move, Double Edge, kills you instantly. It's hard to imagine anything worse off than that. Even Roark, who has the same instant death problem, can be memetically charged up to one-shot an opponent if so desired because Rock-type means you have advantage sometimes. But not Norman. Norman just gets to be sad, waiting for his grid, and watching the newer recoil characters get better and better values, until modern free BP units get a full Standfast 9. The anticipation is killing you as you wait for the reduction of recoil that is your due. And when it arrives, what did they give you? Standfast 5, and Standfast 3.

Let's do some quick math. Double Edge deals 25% of damage to you as recoil. Standfast 5 cuts that by 50%, then Standfast 3 cuts that remainder by 30%. Effectively, the total is 65% reduction in recoil. This means you take 8.75% recoil from your attacks. Much improved, right? Okay. Norman has around 700HP. If Norman deals 8k in one move, he killed himself instantly. For context, if he deals 4k, he is half dead in that one move. 4k is not a high benchmark. Dealing 4k is like maybe half of the sides on a good day. It's certainly not breaking records. He does it twice, and he's dead, with no other damage applied.

Norman was trained wrong as a joke. His own Standfast tiles are bait tiles for inexperienced players who didn't know how to calculate the math. Norman's damage comes from sync, which is Valerie-tier bad, with only a 50% multiplier for having paralysis on a foe. Which is something he sets up really well, thanks to Hostile Environment 2, for a 90% chance on Body Slam. That's something! Consistent paralysis and a multiplier! He could deal numbers with sync nuke!

You know. If it weren't for Whitney. Norman's sync, provided foe is paralyzed, hits for 8547. That's with three nodes and the Hostile Environment 2. Whitney's sync nuke, with full Inertia, hits 15,330. Without Inertia, just with the flinch that she can now set up, it's 11,497. With both, it's 19,162. In fact, with only +2 speed, from one use of X Speed, Whitney hits 10,183. She outdamages him the instant she gets one (1) X Speed use in.

Maybe one day, Norman will get an EX, and be able to hit that sweet, sweet AoE damage in CS that could do something better than Whitney. But until such time, Norman has exactly one job. He paralyzes. That is all he is here for. He is equivalent to an Eggmon. Hell, at least the eggmon gets speed boosts or Gradual Healing or something, and is exempt from harsh criticism for not having a grid at all.

I...cannot do this. Look, I'm sorry, I won't. Admittedly, I don't always love doing these things for characters I'm not excited about, and having looked this over? There is nothing for him here. He's a paralysis bot for Gauntlet, nothing more. If you expect him to contribute literally anything else, don't. And I can't with that. What am I supposed to teambuild exactly? Like oh yeah, "I think he'd do really great with like...SS Morty and Hilda against Cobalion, because he can keep paralyzing it." Yeah, he can, but so can Tech Electabuzz. "You can use him with an Electric-type that can't paralyze reliably, like Elesa, against Tornadus!" Yeah you can, but again, so could like...Erika. Who's actually more reliable because Piercing Gaze means Stun Spore never misses, while he's technically still under 100% success, to say nothing of Erika's debuff to special defense and huge MGR potential.

To level with you...sure. You can probably win a match with him. I will undoubtedly try just to see if it's possible. Sonia, Hop, Hilbert; the usual suspects for buffing, and Classic Elesa for paralysis with debuffs, since he will definitely need both. There you go. There's your attempt at offense. And when that turns out to still be a challenge because they only gave him a 50% bonus to sync and removed his chance at DPS, you'll understand why I'm so thoroughly at a loss.

#pokemon masters #norman #unit teambuilding

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crystalelemental · 3 years ago

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Unit Viability Speculation - Bertha

Oh my god they did it! It’s actually the Sinnoh E4! Oh man, I’m losing my shit, this is perfect. There’s like nothing my wife will be super excited about and I get one of my top two most wanted additions! And she got Hippowdon, which is perfect! Oh, I’m so happy, this is just so-

WHY DO YOU HAVE STEALTH ROCK?!

I can’t believe they tainted her with Original Sin like this. Ugh. Great, well, Stealth Rock is officially in the game, folks. At least it’s not the same disaster as competitive singles.

Let’s start by tempering expectations: Bertha is in the general pool. Meaning she cannot be allowed to be better than SS Giovanni or Cynthia, and must naturally be weak. So her move damage sucks. She’s here to deal damage via sync and basically nothing else.

Sand Tomb is a neat choice, though. I always like trap effects, I actually approve of that kind of damage. Stealth Rock sets Rock Damage Field on the foe’s side, which deals Rock-type damage whenever they act. This is interesting, but mostly I’m curious about the damage calculation. If this is flat damage like Sandstorm, but modified for super-effective damage, that’s really good for Gauntlet. If it’s like SS Cyrus’ passive, where it is somewhat based on your offensive stat, that’s less good, but would mean she has two types she’s strong against. She does set Sandstorm, which was pretty much required. Trainer move buffs both defenses and crit +1, with both defenses +1 again in Sandstorm. The cool thing is, that +1 crit is all allies. Which is absolute gigantic for support, bravo Bertha.

She sets Sandstorm on entry, so pretty free setup, and this passive is both setting Sandstorm and preventing damage during, so very nice. Sync multiplier is in Sandstorm too, so that’s great. Sand Slinger is really interesting, lowering the target’s attack by 1 when an attack move is successful in Sandstorm. Pokey Trap 5 means she’s now on par with Wallace for passive trap damage.

MPR2 on Sandstorm, sadness. MPR on Stealth Rock, which must mean it runs out after a bit, we’ll see how short lived it is. Sand Tomb can double up on the attack debuff. She can give herself Gradual Healing on trainer move. Endurance is great. Soothing Sand, Sands of Time, Shifting Sand are standard, but Sand Castle 2 is a nice 20% reduction to damage taken in Sandstorm, which is unreal for a Tech unit. She’s really going for that bulk. What’s even more fucking insane is Team Sharp Entry. While it won’t cap her defenses, she can forego MPR risks on trainer move and guarantee the team’s crit is capped. Actual hero. And Gritty Guardian 4 means she can cap her own defenses, at least. Her own sync multipliers are 90% for sand, 50% for trap. Both pretty free.

Listen, anyone who knows what I’m about knows what’s coming: I love her. This is some really solid stuff. She stacks passive damage like crazy, which is valuable in any fight that isn’t Cresselia because random Ground-type immunity. Not to mention, another counter to Moltres’ shit. She’s a Ground-type sync pair in the general pool, who has a reasonably powerful Tech sync nuke. She can cap the team’s crit reliably. She has great bulk potential with her trainer move, the attack debuff, and gradual healing. And of course, the big thing to me: Sandstorm Stall is on the menu. I talked about this ages ago, where I wondered if there would be a way to incorporate the passive damage of Sandstorm or Hail into a Stall team to wear down opponents. And at the time, the answer was no. But Bertha’s going for it. Fantastic trap damage on par with Wallace, who until now was the best at it, alongside passive Sandstorm damage, and Stealth Rock, and attack debuffs. She’s amazing. I love her.

#pokemon masters #bertha #unit viability speculation

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crystalelemental · 2 years ago

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Unit Viability Speculation - Summer N

Alright, first up on the datamine is Summer N, and I gotta say, thank god they went with a cool festival theme over the swimsuits.

Last month, which is technically this month, we got SS Ethan and SS Lyra, two units who pack the coveted Trap effect to bypass Cresselia’s setup phase, and make alternatives to teambuilding. Then we got Bede, whose debuffs seem tailor made to stop Cresselia’s special-side buffs, even if he can’t handle the evasion. Summer N is another in this ever-growing line. It’s been pretty clear they’re on an Anti-Cresselia system right now, which is funny because it’s not even in the Gauntlet.

Summer N comes with Zoroark, and is a Dark Striker. Fuck you, everyone on Reddit who insisted he’d be Tech, I finally get my due. Night Daze has a 40% chance to lower accuracy, and he got Snarl, which does also get Satisfied Snarl 4 for a 50/50 to drop special attack again. Nothing great, but also not too bad. The real benefit is Supereffective Up Next on entry with easy three-turn setup, and another on sync. As a Dark type that is also special, this makes him incredibly effective against Cresselia in particular. I do feel his passives are somewhat wasted on this one skill, but such is life.

Devastation is his sync multiplier, so hope you got Bede to help set that one up. Furious Brain is a nice move multiplier, easily set up. Obscuring Power 3 and Obscuring Sync 5 are neat, focusing on accuracy debuffs building power as well. Though admittedly, these are going to be really inconsistent. Night Daze is only a -1, and with one On a Roll, you can get to like 64% per hit, but it’s slow going and there really aren’t many choices to help debuff accuracy.

As far as partners go, because his setup is three turns of flawless perfection, he doesn’t need anyone specific for buffs. With a four-gauge move, he likely wants speed, and hysterically, Halloween Caitlin isn’t the worst pick. The slight accuracy and +2 speed off her trainer move is ideal, while she also buffs both defenses. Alternatively, anyone with just...reasonable bulk. I’d also point out the joy of NY!Lillie. N lowering accuracy while she boosts evasion is admittedly just really funny to me, especially since both of them have Queue Cutter. I’d also point out Darkrai. Darkrai’s Power Play needs a good debuff ally, and N’s not a terrible pick. There’s definitely better, but they have great combined speed, and Darkrai can keep up pressure with Sleep, and set up Zone. One thing I will note: while Bede is great for the debuffs, generally speaking, the Zone effect is stronger. I tried the same kind of thing with Karen, and her damage was just outright better with Cyrus than Bede. So keep that in mind. For Gauntlet, he’ll be a pretty interesting pick. Supereffective Up Next is a massive double edged sword. Against Cresselia, he’ll do great, so long as he can hit. But against everything else, he’s got strong base damage and the ability to lower accuracy, which is likely what you need to lean in to if he’s going to win. He won’t be that good against Regirock, and likely can’t debuff enough to handle Latias either, at least not alone. But provided you check the gimmick boxes, I think he’ll do okay against the rest.

On the whole, I like him. Anyone with SS Cyrus already has the better unit, but he’s a very strong pick, and has great anti-Cresselia properties. Not that we need that, apparently. They really are scared...

#pokemon masters #unit viability speculation #summer n

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