Please Assist - How do I rate my starter pokemon?

>>29869579
It doesn't matter senpai. IVs and nature's are only important in competitive play.

>>29869691
This. Although, with litten3 being a physical attacker, adamant or jolly would be optimal natures. Adamant being what I would try for raising attack stat by 10%, Jolly probably being the most useful in-game, raising speed 10%. Both would lower sp.att by 10%. Also, IVs are utterly irrelevant when playing in game so don't worry about those.

>>29869691
>>29869759

Alright, cool. I wanted to try and play battles after the main game against some of my coworkers and I wanted to make sure that my starter is decent.

Is one way to judge whether I have decent IVs is by watching my stat growth? Like if I notice that my attack and defense are increasing faster than the rest of the stats, does that imply that I have better IVs?

>>29869907
Not exactly. Base stats are the main things that determine how the pokemon will grow, and that is intrinsic to the pokemon itself.

Also there's apparently an unskippable 5 minute cutscene before choosing your starter, so you might want to just cut your losses naturewise. It really doesn't matter in a non-competetive format.

>>29869579
Whether or not a pokemon is good or not usually depends on the role you want it to do in a team. Regarding Incineroar, He's not fast, but he is tough and bulky, so you could go for a slower tank which I would recommend impish or careful natures for but he does have flame charge to bost his speed, so you COULD try a faster movest with Jolly and flame charge and a life orb (Or maybe a choice scarf but that locks you into one move per switch in so no Flame charge.) It's up to you. There is an I.V. checker in the game for I.V.s but with bottlecaps it's not that big of deal. Nature is most important and also E.V. (Which if you did not know are basically stat points earned by beating certain pokemon) Hope this helps mate.

>>29869907
Not usually, because base stats will affect stat growth more than IVs. If you google "IV calculator", you can find perfect resources for figuring out IVs. You can't get accurate results until later levels, though

>>29869959
>>29869968

So what i want to look for in my starter are its initial stats, as that will determine their intrinsic strengths and shortcomings?

>>29870426
A pokemon's base stats, movepool and ablities help determine what it is best suited for. The current meta-game also helps because it often points out a different pokemon that does certai roles better. (Why use Blissey when Eviolite Chansey is better) Depending on what role you want is what you plan your pokemon's nature, E.V.s and moveset around. In regards to Incineroar, it has Really good attack, decent defenses and health, okay special attack, and low speed (But so does all of the new pokemon). It only has blaze (which boosts fire attacks if it gets below 1/3 health), because it is your starter, and it has a decent moveset that could let it run a bunch of stuff. It's up to you, really. There is no perfect way to set up a pokemon honestly. Uh, let me know if you need me to explain anything I just said since you have not played in a while.

>>29870650

Thanks for the help. I found a datamined list of litten's abilities.

So based on what you said, as Incineroar is more biased towards physical attack and low speed ... to beef up his defense so he can take a hit and then focus on returning solid physical attacks that get buffed by matching to his element (Bite, Fire Punch, etc...)?

>>29870650
>>29871176

My god I didn't look over what I typed and I came off sounding like a retard in that post. Let me try again.

Basically, would a reasonable plan with litten be to try and get a good attack stat with decent defenses, and focus on taking a hit due to it's slow speed, and returning a strong physical attack that matches it's elements (Fire/Dark)?

Also please correct me if I'm wrong but, would I want to avoid special attacks like flamethrower because their damage is calculated off the special attack stat instead?

In general is this the more or less correct method to building a reasonable pokemon? You look at their stats (and natures), and assign a moveset to them which capitalizes on their best stats?

>>29871285
Pretty much.
Since he is a bulky pokemon, potentially invest in the Leech Life TM for him. It's much more powerful now then it was before.

>>29871322

Wait ... what? I don't understand why you would use leech life. It's a bug move, which doesn't give you max damage for this pokemon.

Does the utility of a self-heal make up for this drawback?

And I also vaguely remember it being a kind of bad move back in gen 1, but maybe that was just me being bad at pokemon.

>>29871385
It may not be the same type as the pokemon, but plenty of pokemon use moves not of their type, either for utility or coverage. Leech Life has a good 80 power in these games now, and combined with Incineroar's attack, it can do some good damage and heal for a bit.
It was terrible in older games, but now in Sun and Moon it has good power.

>>29871436

Alright thanks for the help. I think I have a better understanding on how to build pokemon now. Thanks!

>>29871285
you hit the nail on the head OP