There are a couple problems with the Switch that I think will be long-term prohibitive to getting Pokemon Stars, or Ultra SuMo, or any other mainline game.
One, as previously stated, the Switch, while portable, is not nearly as convenient as the DS. It also does not have a protected screen.
The single-screen itself is also a big problem. D/P, B/W, B2/W2, XY, ORAS, and SuMo are all deeply rooted in the dual screen setup. Deeply rooted. They would need to completely re-write many of the core game functions for a single screen interface.
Heck, even the Wii U was a better candidate for a mainline Pokemon game, because the Wii U gamepad+TV basically creates a giant dual screen.
Having a mainline Pokemon on the Switch would be awesome for the extra processing power and capabilities of that screen, but it would also require a very significant engine and interface rewrite due to the single-screen nature.
Pokemon benefits a lot from the two screen set-up but it would play just fine on a single screen. In fact, many of the games people love best did exactly that.
Unless Nintendo has a specific handheld console successor up their sleeves, I think a main Pokemon on the switch is all but certain. I will bemoan the easy portability (I sometimes take my 3DS to the gym with me to catch legendaries between sets, and no way am I doing that with my Switch, etc.), and perhaps some of the fun features the second screen had (goodbye Pokemon Amie/Refresh), but it'll still be Pokemon.
I think the point Lucascraft was making wasn't that we couldn't go back to single screen pokemon games, but that it wouldn't be trivial to port sun and moon to a single screen since dual screens were integral to the game's design.
I was responding more to the "any mainline game", as well as Konphujun's understandable wish for Pokemon to be portable and not "portable". Sorry if I seemed snooty.
I didn't think that you came off as snooty. I just thought there might have been some confusion.
I agree with your assessment that ultimately a main game will be in the works for the switch, but I think we'll be waiting awhile for it. How critically the second screen was integrated into the past few generations means that they aren't in the best of positions to try and port over and re-use some of their stuff from the previous games, and if they're starting from scratch then they might as well take the time to really upgrade all of the models and game assets to fully take advantage of the Switch's muscle.
They could push a game for the Switch out faster by trimming things down to just the combat section, so I think that the Switch provides the best opportunity that we've had in years to create a Pokemon Stadium style battle-centric game. They could fill it full of all the variant battle modes that have been lacking from the last few generations of post-game content and embellish it with the new graphical flair from the Switch. They could just straight up name it "Pokemon: Battle Tower" for the Nintendo Switch.
Also, a Pokemon Stadium style game where you and your friends sit down and share the Joy-cons to have a pokemon battle or play mini-games seems more in line with the style of "portability" that the switch is better designed for. That is to say, "easy to transport to a friend's place for party game night" portability and not "fits in your pocket" portability.
General_Armchair on
3DS Friend Code:
Armchair: 4098-3704-2012
0
Options
The Escape Goatincorrigible ruminantthey/themRegistered Userregular
It's a little weird to hear that the newer games are "deeply rooted" in the dual screen setup. The Amie-style petting games are fun, but still feel more like "hey look touch screen!!!" things than anything else. And the rest is pretty much just menu navigation, yah? Admittedly it does make navigating menus a good bit more convenient, but you (or at least I) don't spend that much time in the menus to begin with. Just have a favorites bag slot to put our potions and preferred balls in and 90% of the problem (navigating menus mid-combat for those items) is more or less solved.
Maybe it's just not a big deal for me because I played Emerald and Leafgreen approximately a million times, so even in the non-HGSS games I'd usually use the buttons rather than the touch screen to navigate the menu (HGSS was the exception because the HGSS menu was goddamn fantastic), and it'd be harder for younger Pokemon fans to adjust. Iunno.
For me it's a combination of all of the simple things that the touchscreen gives me that I will really miss if they have to move to a traditional pause-menu based system for the Switch.
My number 1 touchscreen feature: Being able to click and drag a Pokemon to swap it's position in my party. It's simple and elegant. Yes, the same thing can be accomplished with buttons, but man it's slow after becoming used to doing it with a quick swipe.
I got my Destiny Knot by forming a crack team of item sniffing Lilipups with the Pick Up ability and just getting into a bunch of level 1 battles by Mom's House until they found one.
From what I was able to find during my research when working on that, the Lilipups need to be level 25 or higher to find the Destiny Knot and a lot of the other higher tier items.
Edit: My team was Decidueye in the lead position for quick wins in battle, and 5 Lilipups with the Pickup Ability. You could just as easily do all 6 of your Pokemon as Lilipups to add another chance at finding items. Each battle, the Pickup ability has a 10% chance of finding an item. And after your Lilipups are 25+ they will start finding higher grade loot, including Everstones, Destiny Knots, and Sun/Moon stones and also high-value vendor items.
I wouldn't wish the Pickup grind on anyone. I'll give you a Destiny Knot if you like.
I was dumping a bunch of breedjects into Wonder Trade a couple hours ago and got a 6 IV ghastly holding a Destiny Knot. Lucky day for me! Now if I could just get this Honedge ball rolling we'd be in business. Only cracked about 30 eggs so far tho, so pretty great, all in all.
i have such a hard time getting into my pokemon games lately. like i always get the idea that ill do some competitive battling, breed up some stuff, ev train a few things, then realize that over half the metagame are legendaries and i cant be bothered to soft reset or anything. Even just seeing some articles about tournaments is frustrating because theyre always like "dude used ultra beast 1 and ultra beast 2 with a tapu x and tapu y and a gyranine for support with their garchomp. like ok ill just learn to play chess if we're just going to use the same pieces anyway. I kind of wish there was a game with a more interactive persistent world instead of just playing through the story and then there only being the battle noun or online battles against hacked pokemon for endgame.
i have such a hard time getting into my pokemon games lately. like i always get the idea that ill do some competitive battling, breed up some stuff, ev train a few things, then realize that over half the metagame are legendaries and i cant be bothered to soft reset or anything. Even just seeing some articles about tournaments is frustrating because theyre always like "dude used ultra beast 1 and ultra beast 2 with a tapu x and tapu y and a gyranine for support with their garchomp. like ok ill just learn to play chess if we're just going to use the same pieces anyway. I kind of wish there was a game with a more interactive persistent world instead of just playing through the story and then there only being the battle noun or online battles against hacked pokemon for endgame.
I've ranted about how the "standard" comp pokemon metagame should just ban all Pokemon with base stats >550 before. They're just so far above the power curve, generally in having both powerful offense, acceptable defense, and most importantly high speed, that you can't hope to keep up with anything but similarly overwhelmingly powerful 'mons. When you drop down the stat totals you can work with you actually have to make, you know, tradeoffs. Bah.
It's just really annoying that of the 800+ pokemon like 775 of them are completely useless for anything but facerolling through the story. Then there are things like mega stones and z moves that push the outliers ever further from the competition because only the favorites get mega forms or unique z moves. It just seems weird to me that nintendo even supports competitive battling in pokemon when it is so clearly marketed to kids who just want to go nuts with dragons and stuff instead of being balanced in any way, and then they dont support something like smash brothers when the fighting game community has been around forever.
It's just really annoying that of the 800+ pokemon like 775 of them are completely useless for anything but facerolling through the story. Then there are things like mega stones and z moves that push the outliers ever further from the competition because only the favorites get mega forms or unique z moves. It just seems weird to me that nintendo even supports competitive battling in pokemon when it is so clearly marketed to kids who just want to go nuts with dragons and stuff instead of being balanced in any way, and then they dont support something like smash brothers when the fighting game community has been around forever.
Well, they didn't go out of their way for either. But eventually the communities formed and made the competitive scene happen anyway, so then Nintendo was like "well why leave this tournament money on the table?" Plus with Smash 4 they are trying to support it, I think it was their meddling that got Smash 4 in to the final day of EVO in what was traditionally Melee's spot.
Also fwiw the official format being doubles makes things a lot different, you can do some funky-ass strats in doubles using otherwise mediocre Pokemon to great effect. I'm just not really a doubles player, so the cesspit that is Singles OU drives me crazy.
The meta would be a lot more varied if it wasnt for Tapus. They lockout so much. There is still some room though... I mean a Guzlord made top 8 in the last US regional and all
i have such a hard time getting into my pokemon games lately. like i always get the idea that ill do some competitive battling, breed up some stuff, ev train a few things, then realize that over half the metagame are legendaries and i cant be bothered to soft reset or anything. Even just seeing some articles about tournaments is frustrating because theyre always like "dude used ultra beast 1 and ultra beast 2 with a tapu x and tapu y and a gyranine for support with their garchomp. like ok ill just learn to play chess if we're just going to use the same pieces anyway. I kind of wish there was a game with a more interactive persistent world instead of just playing through the story and then there only being the battle noun or online battles against hacked pokemon for endgame.
I use the official Serebii discord when looking for battles. They use the Smogon tiers so I often just play OU which bans out most of the legendary nonsense completely.
Everything: Konphujun(#1458)
0
Options
The Escape Goatincorrigible ruminantthey/themRegistered Userregular
i have such a hard time getting into my pokemon games lately. like i always get the idea that ill do some competitive battling, breed up some stuff, ev train a few things, then realize that over half the metagame are legendaries and i cant be bothered to soft reset or anything. Even just seeing some articles about tournaments is frustrating because theyre always like "dude used ultra beast 1 and ultra beast 2 with a tapu x and tapu y and a gyranine for support with their garchomp. like ok ill just learn to play chess if we're just going to use the same pieces anyway. I kind of wish there was a game with a more interactive persistent world instead of just playing through the story and then there only being the battle noun or online battles against hacked pokemon for endgame.
I use the official Serebii discord when looking for battles. They use the Smogon tiers so I often just play OU which bans out most of the legendary nonsense completely.
Well yeah, except when I was playing OU and it was dominated by Genesect and Heatran and Landorus and Thunderus and also while not dominant the pure flying Genie and Jirachi were all legal and annoying as hell to play against and and and...
Plus the current OU is dominated by the Tapus, isn't it? I'd be shocked if they were already pushed to Ubers.
i have such a hard time getting into my pokemon games lately. like i always get the idea that ill do some competitive battling, breed up some stuff, ev train a few things, then realize that over half the metagame are legendaries and i cant be bothered to soft reset or anything. Even just seeing some articles about tournaments is frustrating because theyre always like "dude used ultra beast 1 and ultra beast 2 with a tapu x and tapu y and a gyranine for support with their garchomp. like ok ill just learn to play chess if we're just going to use the same pieces anyway. I kind of wish there was a game with a more interactive persistent world instead of just playing through the story and then there only being the battle noun or online battles against hacked pokemon for endgame.
I've ranted about how the "standard" comp pokemon metagame should just ban all Pokemon with base stats >550 before. They're just so far above the power curve, generally in having both powerful offense, acceptable defense, and most importantly high speed, that you can't hope to keep up with anything but similarly overwhelmingly powerful 'mons. When you drop down the stat totals you can work with you actually have to make, you know, tradeoffs. Bah.
i have such a hard time getting into my pokemon games lately. like i always get the idea that ill do some competitive battling, breed up some stuff, ev train a few things, then realize that over half the metagame are legendaries and i cant be bothered to soft reset or anything. Even just seeing some articles about tournaments is frustrating because theyre always like "dude used ultra beast 1 and ultra beast 2 with a tapu x and tapu y and a gyranine for support with their garchomp. like ok ill just learn to play chess if we're just going to use the same pieces anyway. I kind of wish there was a game with a more interactive persistent world instead of just playing through the story and then there only being the battle noun or online battles against hacked pokemon for endgame.
I've ranted about how the "standard" comp pokemon metagame should just ban all Pokemon with base stats >550 before. They're just so far above the power curve, generally in having both powerful offense, acceptable defense, and most importantly high speed, that you can't hope to keep up with anything but similarly overwhelmingly powerful 'mons. When you drop down the stat totals you can work with you actually have to make, you know, tradeoffs. Bah.
Also fuck stealth rock.
Stealth rock was a mistake.
Stealth Rock's perfectly fine in the metas it's designed for. Smogon was a mistake.
It shouldn't do super effective damage. The risk /reward ratio of it is more skewed than anything else.
A lot of pokemon are chunked into the garbage tier because they lose basically all of their HP if rocks are up and rocks are ALWAYS up.
Also far more too many pokemon have access to it. That one move is more oppressive than any of the legendaries.
General_Armchair on
3DS Friend Code:
Armchair: 4098-3704-2012
+4
Options
The Escape Goatincorrigible ruminantthey/themRegistered Userregular
It's dumb that the only way I could feasibly use Volcarona was as a specs lead that just took down everything it could in one go because it only gets one switch back in ever. And it's so much easier to punish someone for spinning than for setting up rocks, because you know every time you have a taunter they have a super speedy rocks setter and when you don't have a taunter they have a bulky af one who just takes the hit while putting them up and keeps on truckin'. Meanwhile the only spinners who can actually take a hit are Forretress and Dhelmise, both of which fall over to a fire move. And don't even mention Defog considering the type that uses it is weak to stealth rock.
i have such a hard time getting into my pokemon games lately. like i always get the idea that ill do some competitive battling, breed up some stuff, ev train a few things, then realize that over half the metagame are legendaries and i cant be bothered to soft reset or anything. Even just seeing some articles about tournaments is frustrating because theyre always like "dude used ultra beast 1 and ultra beast 2 with a tapu x and tapu y and a gyranine for support with their garchomp. like ok ill just learn to play chess if we're just going to use the same pieces anyway. I kind of wish there was a game with a more interactive persistent world instead of just playing through the story and then there only being the battle noun or online battles against hacked pokemon for endgame.
I use the official Serebii discord when looking for battles. They use the Smogon tiers so I often just play OU which bans out most of the legendary nonsense completely.
Well yeah, except when I was playing OU and it was dominated by Genesect and Heatran and Landorus and Thunderus and also while not dominant the pure flying Genie and Jirachi were all legal and annoying as hell to play against and and and...
Plus the current OU is dominated by the Tapus, isn't it? I'd be shocked if they were already pushed to Ubers.
The tapus are still OU, but you're generally only running one on a team for the terrain effect more than anything. I've yet to face anyone in OU that ran more than one.
I actually think that the Tapu metagame is interesting and actually have pretty decent variation (Murkrow and Persian are viable, for crying out loud, and the top Pokemon isn't any of the Tapus but rather Arcanine), but it would have been nice to save them + UBs for next year as an "expanded" metagame, as they definitely do centralize the game.
A secondary counterpoint: catching Tapus and UBs isn't as bad as I expected it to be! I've finally started in earnest this past week and there isn't too much resetting so long as you use a Synchronizer and are prepared to use some bottlecaps- get the nature you want and go! It only gets tricky if you really want an HP Fire Tapu Lele (which is a super niche pick that isn't relevant to this metagame regardless). The Tapus are a pain to capture, but every single UB has gone into the Beast Ball with just one throw.
The VGC Metagame is far from perfect but it isn't as bad as people make it out to be. This year is actually probably one of the most varied we have had in a while.
As always, if people are hoping to get into VGC, I have all of the breedable top 30 mons available. I don't even want anything in return other than a "thank you" and for you to pay it forward if you happen to get into the game.
I actually think that the Tapu metagame is interesting and actually have pretty decent variation (Murkrow and Persian are viable, for crying out loud, and the top Pokemon isn't any of the Tapus but rather Arcanine), but it would have been nice to save them + UBs for next year as an "expanded" metagame, as they definitely do centralize the game.
A secondary counterpoint: catching Tapus and UBs isn't as bad as I expected it to be! I've finally started in earnest this past week and there isn't too much resetting so long as you use a Synchronizer and are prepared to use some bottlecaps- get the nature you want and go! It only gets tricky if you really want an HP Fire Tapu Lele (which is a super niche pick that isn't relevant to this metagame regardless). The Tapus are a pain to capture, but every single UB has gone into the Beast Ball with just one throw.
The VGC Metagame is far from perfect but it isn't as bad as people make it out to be. This year is actually probably one of the most varied we have had in a while.
As always, if people are hoping to get into VGC, I have all of the breedable top 30 mons available. I don't even want anything in return other than a "thank you" and for you to pay it forward if you happen to get into the game.
I wouldn't mind getting a Charmander, Squirtle, Vulpix-A and Growlithe if you have any available at the moment!
I actually think that the Tapu metagame is interesting and actually have pretty decent variation (Murkrow and Persian are viable, for crying out loud, and the top Pokemon isn't any of the Tapus but rather Arcanine), but it would have been nice to save them + UBs for next year as an "expanded" metagame, as they definitely do centralize the game.
A secondary counterpoint: catching Tapus and UBs isn't as bad as I expected it to be! I've finally started in earnest this past week and there isn't too much resetting so long as you use a Synchronizer and are prepared to use some bottlecaps- get the nature you want and go! It only gets tricky if you really want an HP Fire Tapu Lele (which is a super niche pick that isn't relevant to this metagame regardless). The Tapus are a pain to capture, but every single UB has gone into the Beast Ball with just one throw.
The VGC Metagame is far from perfect but it isn't as bad as people make it out to be. This year is actually probably one of the most varied we have had in a while.
As always, if people are hoping to get into VGC, I have all of the breedable top 30 mons available. I don't even want anything in return other than a "thank you" and for you to pay it forward if you happen to get into the game.
I wouldn't mind getting a Charmander, Squirtle, Vulpix-A and Growlithe if you have any available at the moment!
You know what I think would legitimately help the meta game?
Game Freak needs to create their own weight-class classifications. Not based on actual weight, mind you. But like, on Smogon they use OU, UU, RU, and so forth. They need to put that into the actual video games, and then they need to completely rebalance the Pokemon around that classification system.
Like, for people who want to use Legendary Pokemon and normal 'Mons that are so uber that they might as well be legendary, they should create a "Heavyweight Division." (Again, not based on actual weight.) And then they should come up with what I would call a "Standard Weight" or "Standard Tier" or something. And realistically, since there are like 900 Pokemon in the game now if you count Alola forms as unique entries, they should aim for a competitive list of seriously like 200 Pokemon that fall within the "Standard Tier" that are competitively viable. Maybe even 300. Rebalance some stats. Fix move pools. And give us a Standard format that people can battle in.
Then of course they could do other fun things too, like a Baby Tier, and a Mid Tier and so forth. Give people options.
And on the Battle interface screen, they need to allow people to pick the Weight Class tier they want to participate in. Let me go into Legendary Class if I want to and put my level 100 Darkrai against someone's level 100 Mewtwo. Or whatever. And more importantly than that, let me enter the Standard Class and know that at least some of my favorites are competitively viable.
+3
Options
The Escape Goatincorrigible ruminantthey/themRegistered Userregular
While I'd certainly like that, that's an incredibly monumental amount of work. They'd probably have to straight up delay development on a new game for a couple of months at least to do that right, possibly even more.
The cool thing about Pokemon is that there are so many crazy tools to work with that it is nigh impossible to guess what is going to catch on. After generations of languishing behind the scenes, who would have predicted that Arcanine would be the top Pokemon in VGC17? I don't think it matters how much testing GameFreak does while developing the game- players are going to figure out which Pokemon "work" and which Pokemon "don't", regardless of what fences are built around them.
Games like Overwatch benefit from a playerbase that revolves around connecting online and downloading specific balance patches, but Pokemon's primarily kid market doesn't have that benefit. It's certainly getting better, and I think in 9/10 situations you'd be fine making balance patches / different tiers of play, but GameFreak is operating with an "all or nothing" mentality when it comes to tweaking Pokemon- every generation we get new egg moves and some Pokemon even get stat tweaks, but it comes with a clear and distinct assurance of cross-compatibility. I think changes like this will come in time, as they should for the good of the game, but it is going to be slower, because Pokemon is Pokemon.
The Switch has peer-to-peer game updates available at a system level. That's a model Game Freak could have used in the 3DS version, if they'd wanted to both patch the game and cater to an mostly-offline mostly-youngling audience.
I'm working on getting my team together for the Tiny Tourney, and I'm looking for suggestions for the best ghost-busting Pokemon for my team. As a couple people indicated in this thread, and also from what I've seen on Reddit and Gamefaqs, Mimikyu is gonna be very popular in this tournament. I have 1 slot left and I want that spot to be a ghost-buster.
I've looked at Umbreon, Honchkrow, Skuntank, and Mightyena.
I'm still so new to this competitive battling thing that in terms of stats and movepools I'm not really sure who the best is.
Bonus info: I'm going for an Evoboost team and I've already got two Modest Eevees available, so Umbreon would be an easy option because I've already done the breeding, but I don't know if it's the best choice. My other Modest Eevee is going to become a Sylveon.
Lucascraft on
0
Options
The Escape Goatincorrigible ruminantthey/themRegistered Userregular
Umbreon is technically usable, but it's pretty much just a toxic stall tank. It's an extremely hard to break tank, but not having access to Night Shade means it basically has no offensive output. I don't even think it gets Foul Play.
Honchkrow has seen OU play before, though. It's an extremely good Sucker Punch user, so if you're looking to ghostbust that's a good option. Might be weaker with the crit changes, though, I don't recall if the competitive Honchkrows used Super Luck or Moxie cheese.
Honchkrow is probably a good option- hits hard and has access to some interesting tech options like Tailwind, Quash, Swagger, Nasty Plot, STAB Snarl, Psych Up (for your Eevoboost), Taunt, Toxic, etc.
You could run Sableye as a STAB Knock Off + other tech option. It doesn't hit hard but can tear holes in unprepared teams.
Sneasel, although not the offensive powerhouse that Weavile is, still is fast and strong. Dark + Ice STAB is nothing to laugh at.
Without Foul Play, Umbreon is pretty depressing. Not as many tech options as you'd like. It does get STAB Snarl + Dark Pulse but...those stats...even with Super Effective hits, it won't be hitting hard. Toxic / Moonlight / Snarl / Protect could be a thing? It gets Helping Hand? You could try Psych Up / Moonlight / Dark Pulse / Psychic? Won't be hitting hard, but will be hard to take down.
Posts
One, as previously stated, the Switch, while portable, is not nearly as convenient as the DS. It also does not have a protected screen.
The single-screen itself is also a big problem. D/P, B/W, B2/W2, XY, ORAS, and SuMo are all deeply rooted in the dual screen setup. Deeply rooted. They would need to completely re-write many of the core game functions for a single screen interface.
Heck, even the Wii U was a better candidate for a mainline Pokemon game, because the Wii U gamepad+TV basically creates a giant dual screen.
Having a mainline Pokemon on the Switch would be awesome for the extra processing power and capabilities of that screen, but it would also require a very significant engine and interface rewrite due to the single-screen nature.
Unless Nintendo has a specific handheld console successor up their sleeves, I think a main Pokemon on the switch is all but certain. I will bemoan the easy portability (I sometimes take my 3DS to the gym with me to catch legendaries between sets, and no way am I doing that with my Switch, etc.), and perhaps some of the fun features the second screen had (goodbye Pokemon Amie/Refresh), but it'll still be Pokemon.
Let's Plays of Japanese Games
Armchair: 4098-3704-2012
Let's Plays of Japanese Games
I agree with your assessment that ultimately a main game will be in the works for the switch, but I think we'll be waiting awhile for it. How critically the second screen was integrated into the past few generations means that they aren't in the best of positions to try and port over and re-use some of their stuff from the previous games, and if they're starting from scratch then they might as well take the time to really upgrade all of the models and game assets to fully take advantage of the Switch's muscle.
They could push a game for the Switch out faster by trimming things down to just the combat section, so I think that the Switch provides the best opportunity that we've had in years to create a Pokemon Stadium style battle-centric game. They could fill it full of all the variant battle modes that have been lacking from the last few generations of post-game content and embellish it with the new graphical flair from the Switch. They could just straight up name it "Pokemon: Battle Tower" for the Nintendo Switch.
Also, a Pokemon Stadium style game where you and your friends sit down and share the Joy-cons to have a pokemon battle or play mini-games seems more in line with the style of "portability" that the switch is better designed for. That is to say, "easy to transport to a friend's place for party game night" portability and not "fits in your pocket" portability.
Armchair: 4098-3704-2012
Maybe it's just not a big deal for me because I played Emerald and Leafgreen approximately a million times, so even in the non-HGSS games I'd usually use the buttons rather than the touch screen to navigate the menu (HGSS was the exception because the HGSS menu was goddamn fantastic), and it'd be harder for younger Pokemon fans to adjust. Iunno.
My number 1 touchscreen feature: Being able to click and drag a Pokemon to swap it's position in my party. It's simple and elegant. Yes, the same thing can be accomplished with buttons, but man it's slow after becoming used to doing it with a quick swipe.
From what I was able to find during my research when working on that, the Lilipups need to be level 25 or higher to find the Destiny Knot and a lot of the other higher tier items.
Edit: My team was Decidueye in the lead position for quick wins in battle, and 5 Lilipups with the Pickup Ability. You could just as easily do all 6 of your Pokemon as Lilipups to add another chance at finding items. Each battle, the Pickup ability has a 10% chance of finding an item. And after your Lilipups are 25+ they will start finding higher grade loot, including Everstones, Destiny Knots, and Sun/Moon stones and also high-value vendor items.
I was dumping a bunch of breedjects into Wonder Trade a couple hours ago and got a 6 IV ghastly holding a Destiny Knot. Lucky day for me! Now if I could just get this Honedge ball rolling we'd be in business. Only cracked about 30 eggs so far tho, so pretty great, all in all.
Let's Plays of Japanese Games
Steam: https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198004484595
I've ranted about how the "standard" comp pokemon metagame should just ban all Pokemon with base stats >550 before. They're just so far above the power curve, generally in having both powerful offense, acceptable defense, and most importantly high speed, that you can't hope to keep up with anything but similarly overwhelmingly powerful 'mons. When you drop down the stat totals you can work with you actually have to make, you know, tradeoffs. Bah.
Also fuck stealth rock.
Steam: https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198004484595
Well, they didn't go out of their way for either. But eventually the communities formed and made the competitive scene happen anyway, so then Nintendo was like "well why leave this tournament money on the table?" Plus with Smash 4 they are trying to support it, I think it was their meddling that got Smash 4 in to the final day of EVO in what was traditionally Melee's spot.
Also fwiw the official format being doubles makes things a lot different, you can do some funky-ass strats in doubles using otherwise mediocre Pokemon to great effect. I'm just not really a doubles player, so the cesspit that is Singles OU drives me crazy.
I use the official Serebii discord when looking for battles. They use the Smogon tiers so I often just play OU which bans out most of the legendary nonsense completely.
Well yeah, except when I was playing OU and it was dominated by Genesect and Heatran and Landorus and Thunderus and also while not dominant the pure flying Genie and Jirachi were all legal and annoying as hell to play against and and and...
Plus the current OU is dominated by the Tapus, isn't it? I'd be shocked if they were already pushed to Ubers.
Stealth rock was a mistake.
Armchair: 4098-3704-2012
Stealth Rock's perfectly fine in the metas it's designed for. Smogon was a mistake.
A lot of pokemon are chunked into the garbage tier because they lose basically all of their HP if rocks are up and rocks are ALWAYS up.
Also far more too many pokemon have access to it. That one move is more oppressive than any of the legendaries.
Armchair: 4098-3704-2012
The tapus are still OU, but you're generally only running one on a team for the terrain effect more than anything. I've yet to face anyone in OU that ran more than one.
A secondary counterpoint: catching Tapus and UBs isn't as bad as I expected it to be! I've finally started in earnest this past week and there isn't too much resetting so long as you use a Synchronizer and are prepared to use some bottlecaps- get the nature you want and go! It only gets tricky if you really want an HP Fire Tapu Lele (which is a super niche pick that isn't relevant to this metagame regardless). The Tapus are a pain to capture, but every single UB has gone into the Beast Ball with just one throw.
The VGC Metagame is far from perfect but it isn't as bad as people make it out to be. This year is actually probably one of the most varied we have had in a while.
As always, if people are hoping to get into VGC, I have all of the breedable top 30 mons available. I don't even want anything in return other than a "thank you" and for you to pay it forward if you happen to get into the game.
Let's Plays of Japanese Games
I wouldn't mind getting a Charmander, Squirtle, Vulpix-A and Growlithe if you have any available at the moment!
I'm gonna PM you, let's do it.
Let's Plays of Japanese Games
Game Freak needs to create their own weight-class classifications. Not based on actual weight, mind you. But like, on Smogon they use OU, UU, RU, and so forth. They need to put that into the actual video games, and then they need to completely rebalance the Pokemon around that classification system.
Like, for people who want to use Legendary Pokemon and normal 'Mons that are so uber that they might as well be legendary, they should create a "Heavyweight Division." (Again, not based on actual weight.) And then they should come up with what I would call a "Standard Weight" or "Standard Tier" or something. And realistically, since there are like 900 Pokemon in the game now if you count Alola forms as unique entries, they should aim for a competitive list of seriously like 200 Pokemon that fall within the "Standard Tier" that are competitively viable. Maybe even 300. Rebalance some stats. Fix move pools. And give us a Standard format that people can battle in.
Then of course they could do other fun things too, like a Baby Tier, and a Mid Tier and so forth. Give people options.
And on the Battle interface screen, they need to allow people to pick the Weight Class tier they want to participate in. Let me go into Legendary Class if I want to and put my level 100 Darkrai against someone's level 100 Mewtwo. Or whatever. And more importantly than that, let me enter the Standard Class and know that at least some of my favorites are competitively viable.
Games like Overwatch benefit from a playerbase that revolves around connecting online and downloading specific balance patches, but Pokemon's primarily kid market doesn't have that benefit. It's certainly getting better, and I think in 9/10 situations you'd be fine making balance patches / different tiers of play, but GameFreak is operating with an "all or nothing" mentality when it comes to tweaking Pokemon- every generation we get new egg moves and some Pokemon even get stat tweaks, but it comes with a clear and distinct assurance of cross-compatibility. I think changes like this will come in time, as they should for the good of the game, but it is going to be slower, because Pokemon is Pokemon.
Let's Plays of Japanese Games
I've looked at Umbreon, Honchkrow, Skuntank, and Mightyena.
I'm still so new to this competitive battling thing that in terms of stats and movepools I'm not really sure who the best is.
Bonus info: I'm going for an Evoboost team and I've already got two Modest Eevees available, so Umbreon would be an easy option because I've already done the breeding, but I don't know if it's the best choice. My other Modest Eevee is going to become a Sylveon.
Honchkrow has seen OU play before, though. It's an extremely good Sucker Punch user, so if you're looking to ghostbust that's a good option. Might be weaker with the crit changes, though, I don't recall if the competitive Honchkrows used Super Luck or Moxie cheese.
You could run Sableye as a STAB Knock Off + other tech option. It doesn't hit hard but can tear holes in unprepared teams.
Sneasel, although not the offensive powerhouse that Weavile is, still is fast and strong. Dark + Ice STAB is nothing to laugh at.
Without Foul Play, Umbreon is pretty depressing. Not as many tech options as you'd like. It does get STAB Snarl + Dark Pulse but...those stats...even with Super Effective hits, it won't be hitting hard. Toxic / Moonlight / Snarl / Protect could be a thing? It gets Helping Hand? You could try Psych Up / Moonlight / Dark Pulse / Psychic? Won't be hitting hard, but will be hard to take down.
Let's Plays of Japanese Games