Recently, I've been seeing a lot of questions in game asking what the best nature is on a pokemon. The problem with this is that this is all dependent on what you want that
pokemon to do. So not every pokemon can just get a straight answer, thus why no one bothers to respond. So I decided to make a quick little guide to show people a ROUGH
way of how I narrow down the choices of natures for pokemon.
1. Picking the Pokemon you want to train.
Starmie
I'm using Starmie for this guide because it's pretty easy to determine which nature and EVs you should train for it.
2. What's the best nature?
The first thing you want to look at when determining the best nature is what Starmie's best and worst base stats are. Usually, you want to take advantage of their best stats,
don't try and make up for what they lack, it's not worth it.
You see that Starmie's best stats are Sp. Attack[100] and Speed[115]. So that means you'll want to take advantage of either it's high speed or high Sp. Attack. I would use either a Timid[+Speed -Attack] or Modest[+Sp. Attack -Attack].
Why?
Starmie's Moves List
With that high Sp. Attack, you'll want to use mostly if not all special moves. So having a nature that is -Attack doesn't do harm at all. Plus, using physical attacks with Starmie is pointless because a base 75 attack is bad. Also, you shouldn't sacrifice Defense or Sp Defense if you don't have to. So that eliminates Mild[+Sp Attack - Defense] Rash[+Sp Attack - Sp Defense] Hasty[+Speed - Defense] and Naive[+Speed - Sp. Defense].
That leaves Timid, Modest, Jolly[+Speed -Sp. Attack] and Quiet[+Sp. Attack -Speed]. The problem with Jolly and Quiet is, they both are minus in Starmie's important stats. You never want to have a Nature that hinders their greatest stats. So the optimal natures are Timid and Modest.
So which one?!?!!!111
That depends on the person and how much time they are willing spend trying to find the perfect Starmie. Personally I think the ideal Starmie is Timid, simply because speed is it's highest base stat. Some will catch Starmies until they find a Timid one. The problem though, is the troll IVs.
You can catch a Timid Starmie, which is great, but then you Check its IVs,and it can have very low speed IVs. On the other hand, you can find a Modest Starmie, check it's IVs, and it can have very high, if not perfect speed IVs. It all just depends on how much time you're willing to spend finding that perfect pokemon. If I spend 5 hours searching for a Timid Starmie with good IVs, and at the end of the 5th hour the best I got was a Modest with great IVs and a bunch of Timids with low IVs, I would train the Modest, because it takes advantage of a high stat, and can still be viable because of the high IVs.
3. Go EV Train
Now that you have the pokemon you want, go EV train it. As, for what EVs to train, I usually just max it's 2 best stats. So 252 in Speed & 252 in Sp Attack. But that's always up for debate.
TL;DR
1) Pick you Pokemon
2) Look at it's base stats
3) Pick a nature that takes advantage of said stats
4) \( ▀ ͜͞ʖ▀)/
5)