Hey guys.
mil suggested that I make a post like his above, as another way to give perspective on some things that might be helpful to newer raters.
I'll be referencing
this rate which I did a few days ago.
I guess the first thing I wanted to say before getting into talking about the actual rate is that each person is going to have nuances to their own rating style. Understanding that is important to improving. Personally, I much prefer to rate teams that utilize a concept or core that I like, because it's more interesting to me and I often find myself more satisfied with the end result of the rate. Of course, there are times when pushing yourself to rate team concepts you don't vibe with as much can improve your outlook on teambuilding, but it is certainly more difficult. Anyway, I chose the team in the above rate because I thought his team structure looked pretty cool. Ash Greninja / Heatran / Venusaur / Tapu Koko is a pretty legitimate start to a bulky offense build and I was pretty sure I could give some solid advice as how to patch up some weaknesses.
Now, I knew in this rate I was gonna be suggesting a lot of set changes, because I felt like his sets could be improved. This can be one of the easiest ways to improve a team, since I didn't think that in this scenario, the non-standard sets he was using were key to surprising and defeating opponents. The main thing I was focused on was team composition though, because I noticed a few glaring weaknesses to rather large threats, such as Mega Metagross and Garchomp, which are both extremely common and powerful.
As I mentioned before, I think Ash Greninja / Heatran / Venusaur / Tapu Koko was the base I wanted to work with. There are some pretty strong synergies at work here, ranging from VenuTran to VoltTurn and also the "lure" (this is basically standard) of Grassium Z Heatran removing threats for Ash Greninja. So this meant I wanted to swap out his Tyranitar and Shuckle, which I felt were not very beneficial to the team in terms of either support or offensive pressure. The first move was to provide a ground immunity, to help against common Ground-type breakers/sweepers like Landorus-T and Garchomp. I felt like Skarmory fit the bill, because even though the advent of Z moves leaves it more vulnerable to these mons, it's still one of the best checks to them. It also has strong synergy with Mega Venusaur to form a bit of a defensive backbone, solidly checks non Thunder Punch Mega Metagross, and provides him a hazard removal option. For the last member, a Ground type is usually imperative to run with Skarmory to prevent Volt Switch spam. Choice Scarf Garchomp I felt was best, as it is an emergency check for threatening setup sweepers like Mega Charizard X and Volcarona. It also alleviates the Mega Metagross weakness a bit more, because at this point, half of the team outspeeds and threatens it. Overall I felt making his team a bit faster gave it the ability to apply more pressure, while Skarmory is a more solid defensive backbone 'mon than either Shuckle or Tyranitar
The last thing I did was offer some alternative options to my primary suggestions, because I think rates are never an exact science, and providing other options for someone to try out is usually a good idea. Having more ideas of things to try out is imperative to team building - you can rate a team on paper over and over again, but ultimately the final nuances of changing a good team to an even better team comes down to play testing and to fully understand the team functionality.
I'm of course open to some constructive criticism as well, since I thought this sounded like a cool exercise and am happy to share some of my thoughts how I went about a rate.
e: this came out longer than expected o.o