Wednesday, October 9, 2013

Day 9: We're heading for Kalos, and still we stand tall

We start this new day off with typing shenanigans! Mega Gyarados is weak to Grass, which means its second type is no longer Flying... BUT that also means it's not Dragon, either. Also, Snubbull and Granbull are both confirmed to be mono-Fairy, losing their Normal type, unlike the Jigglypuff line. It's quite possible something similar happens to Clefable and Blissey. But yeah, Fairy Granbull is good, considering how the comparisons game with Ursaring was. Both are among the most similar Pokémon in the entire game, and there's not a damn thing Granbull did better.

Also, we have Mega Lucario's stats: 70 HP, 150 Atk, 70 Def, 140 SA, 70 SD, 120 Spd. This means no defensive boosts whatsoever, but a pretty large boost to both attack stats. Not sure this'll suddenly make special Lucario more viable, since regular Lucario's attack was LOWER than its special attack. The physical attack boost corresponds to more or less a 25% damage increase, which comes VERY close to the Life Orb it loves oh so much... and not only won't it have to deal with recoil, BUT it also gains Adaptability, and more importantly... LOOK AT THAT SPEED. I think it's safe to say Lucario is clearly one of these Pokémon you won't ever see not megavolved ever again.

Speaking of mega evolutions, there's an interesting pattern that's emerging: it seems like they always increase the Pokémon's BST by 100. From 680 to 780 with Mewtwo, from 525 to 625 with Lucario, and from 518 to 618 with Gardevoir. Something to keep in mind as we keep looking at these mega evolutions.

Edit: Mega Gyarados is weak to Fairy, so it's confirmed to be Water/Dark. Well, it's not Dragon (that's two missed opportunities with a single typing, the other being Goodra)... but... wait... as of gen 5 it doesn't get Crunch. So unless they gave it that this time around, its best Dark move... is BITE. Well, at least it gets SOMETHING... regular Gyarados doesn't even get Aerial Ace, so it has to make due with Bounce. And no quadruple weakness anymore is always welcome.

In other "what were they thinking?" news, Geomancy's effect was revealed to be a charge-up move that, instead of doing damage, acts as a double Quiver Dance. It sounds better in theory than the likes of Solarbeam, Sky Attack and such, but it still seems terribly underwhelming. This also means that neither Xerneas nor Yveltal get enhancements to their signature moves through abilities. They also appear to have very similar, if not identical, stat spreads. If so, it sounds an awful lot like I'll be getting Y.

In addition, Aurorus is reported to know Thunderbolt. Yes, a Rock/Ice Pokémon that knows Thunderbolt. Parabolic Charge is said to only have 50 power... very disappointing, more on that as it comes. Maybe it's one of these 100% recovery moves, and Draining Kiss was nerfed late in development to match it? I'll be blunt: at 20 PP, I doubt it. Even Mega Drain has less than that. Meanwhile, Nuzzle is basically a Thunder Wave that deals very slight damage (20 power, woohoo!)

Finally, Mega Mewtwo X stat spread, and as suspected it's very physical-heavy, which means go with Y all the way because Psystrike has that covered anyway:

106 HP, 190 Atk, 100 Def, 154 SA, 100 SD, 130 Spd

Edit 2: You know how Gamefreak was so scared of giving Chandelure Shadow Tag? I'm going to go with it not being because of them being scared, I'm putting it down to a coincidence. Why? Because THIS. Sure, losing Levitate is still a problem, but if there's an ability that can make up for it, it's gotta be Shadow Tag. It's incredibly fortunate that it doesn't know Calm Mind or Nasty Plot or whatever, otherwise this would've been the end of choiced Normal and Fighting moves.

Edit 3: Oh my god. OH MY GOD. The rumors were true! Back to NU with Politoed and Ninetales and friends! Also, Mega Gengar stats just because:

60 HP, 65 Atk, 80 Def, 170 SA, 95 SD, 130 Spd

Yeah, that's just about perfect distribution of those 100 points.

Edit 4: Okay, the floodgates are opening. I guess more people got their copies early. I might have a hard time keeping up, so bear with me.

Venusaur gets a new physical Grass move called Petal Blizzard. 90 power, 100 accuracy. Outdoes Seed Bomb, and it's a good idea since it seems Mega Venusaur gets boosted attack, but not special attack (making both about even). Greninja learns a new move called Mat Block through the move relearner, and it's basically a Protect that only works on attacking moves. There's gotta be a catch since it's outright worse than the universal move, keep your eyes open for more. Aurorus learns Freeze Dry through the move relearner, and it has only 70 power. Well, Ice Beam it is! Mawile gets Play Rough, a 90-power physical Fairy move. So between this physically and Moonblast specially, I'd say Fairy's off to a great start move-wise... depending on the distribution. Finally, Talonflame gets both Flare Blitz and Brave Bird through the move relearner. Too bad its stats, aside from speed, are absolute shit.

But perhaps the highlight of the show is that MALAMAR GETS SUPERPOWER. That explains the bad stats... Why, oh why didn't Serperior get it in its hour of need? Oh well, at least Malamar isn't condemned to the same degree of mediocrity, and that's a good thing.

Finally, it seems sleep reverted to its gen 4 mechanics, where the turn counter isn't reset when you switch out. Can't complain. Between the weather nerf and this, Gamefreak did their homework!

Speaking of the weather nerf, I wonder just how bad weather abilities will get. I'm under the impression that rain might remain viable, between all the abusers we know now and all that were previously banned and will obviously no longer be so, including Swift Swim. But the others? As we clearly saw this gen, the effects of rain far overpower those of the other weathers, so while Tyranitar might still be around on its own merits, it's going to be much harder to abuse the sand it brings, even if your name is Excadrill. That 88 speed suddenly looks pretty dang unspectacular... Speaking of which, I wonder if Smogon will get a clue and unban Sand Veil and Snow Cloak? They better...

Edit 5: Remember the gen 1 days and their 90% accurate Blizzard? Well, it's baaaaaack... almost. Frost Breath was buffed to 60 power, which means it's basically exactly that, but with the inability to crit, if you want to look at it that way. Of course, it also ignores special attack drops on your side and special defense buffs on the opponent's side, which is a plus. The big problem, however... well, look at the learnbase. Hardly spectacular. Not a single OU or uber in there, aside from Cloyster who's exclusively physical anyway these days. Also, keep in mind Storm Throw is a Frost Breath clone exclusive to Pinsir and Throh that might get the same treatment.

Also, Hurricane was downgraded to 110 power. Overkill much? You just ruined rain, problem solved, no need for any more nerfs.

Edit 6: Blizzard and Fire Blast are also down to 110 power. Expect Hydro Pump and Thunder to get the same treatment. Seriously, why these nerfs? They're not needed!

Also, Vivilion is another one of those Pokémon with many unique appearances, but there's a catch... its colors depend on where the player's from! Pretty cool, even though Vivilion itself is fundamentally useless.

Edit 7: Here's the catch about Parabolic Charge: it hits everything within range in doubles and triples, including partners. That's why the weak 50 power and 50% draining effect. Thunder confirmed to be at 110 power, still waiting for confirmation on Hydro Pump (though it NOT being nerfed would be a huge surprise). Hidden Power's type still varies, but its power is now fixed... at 60. Well, so much for it being usable competitively. Also, Phantom Force is NOT a Dig clone: it has 90 power and breaks through Protect. Unless Dig and Dive follow suit, of course. Finally, Oblivion Wing's draining is confirmed to be 75%.

Edit 8: Mega Gyarados has Mold Breaker. Huge step down from Intimidate and Moxie, however you can use Intimidate the first time you send it in, THEN megavolve for the higher stats, and who knows, Mold Breaker might come in handy every once in a while. In addition, Klefki has Prankster, as well as Spikes. Foul Play is also a nice bonus since its stats are so terrible. We're going to have to see what kind of non-offensive moves it gets, because, well, we saw what happened with Sableye, and with Klefki's superior stats across the board (based on estimates, but still), we could get something interesting if Gamefreak play their cards right.

Edit 9: Mega Absol stats! 65 HP, 150 Atk, 60 Def, 115 SA, 60 SD, 115 Spd. Of course I'm not going to complain about more attack and a LOT more speed, but my instant reaction when seeing this was, why 40 extra points to special attack? Why not put it in defenses instead? But, as it just so happens, Absol's special movepool is absolutely ridiculous. Think of a type, Absol has a special move for it. So it could potentially make for a nasty mixed sweeper, on top of the pure evil Magic Bounce + strongest priority move in the game combination. If this summary from Mattman over at the TSG forums doesn't whet your appetite, I don't know what will.

If I BP an Agility onto Absol, and then I Mega Evolve it, you're butt is DEAD. You can't Roar (Magic Bounce), you can't status (Magic Bounce), every priority user that doesn't use Extremespeed is going to hate Sucker Punch, and even the ones that do aren't going to like getting potentially mauled by an attack from 150/105 (AKA enough to deal major damage to you) that can hit EVERY TYPE super effectively. Pretty much the only thing I see winning is Mega Lucario, and even then they have to use Extremespeed to have a shot, meaning if it doesn't kill, Flamethrower/Brick Break ends it. Even worse. Gorebyss BP chain onto an Absol, Absol Mega Evolves.

And with that ends another day. I expect the news to come in faster and faster, but unfortunately I have to work tomorrow, so I won't have much time for this until I get home. So if you could please refrain from flooding my inbox, that'd be fantastic. Thank you for your patience!

29 comments:

  1. Lucario needed the buff, I'd say. I haven't been up to date with competitive play in the 5th generation, but I used one in-game and it was very underwhelming. That base 90 speed is disappointingly low, even for in-game purposes, and its steel typing ends up being more of a detriment in Unova, where every damn thing has a ground, fire or fighting move.

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  2. Better brace yourself for the latest batch of "HOENN CONFIRMED" idiots looking at a screenshot I saw.

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    1. We are already getting the "Hoenn Confirmed" or "We want Hoenn!!1!" idiots on the boards. They are like cockroaches: hides in the shadows, comes out every so often to annoy, and never fucking go away.

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    2. There is a line of dialogue in the game that's giving then EVEN MORE FUEL though...

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  3. I have seen base stats for aegislash and I am disappointed if these are accurate:
    Blade Form- 60 Hp/ 150 Atk/ 60 Def/ 150 SA/ 60 SD/ 60 Spd
    Shield Form- 60 Hp/ 60 Atk/ 150 Def/ 60 SA/ 150 SD/ 60 Spd
    The blade form is too slow and can't take a hit. The low Hp makes the shield form less effective as it could be ( 20 less hp than registeel, same defences).

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    1. Use its new protect move every other turn and it pretty much constantly keeps those defenses. Plus leftovers....the thing is fine really. Tricky to use, but a good mon on paper when you think about it.

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    2. Hmmm, is it more effective than just using King's Shield, then Autotomize, then going buck wild? Using King's Shield too much would give the opponent many opportunities for a free switch...

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    3. Well I suppose the idea would be to not do it every TWO moves. I was just saying, alternating would do the trick. Up to you to decide how often is ideal. The point is, strategies exist for being able to alternate between forms to take advantage of the ability.

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  4. So it seems that with Gyarados being weak to grass and fairy can give the idea of it being Water/Dark...Which give it a weakness to Bug,Fighting,and Fairy as well.
    Add them up to Grass and Electric and suddenly MegaGyarados doesn't seem to be worth it.On the other hand, It can take on Ghost,Psychic for sure and the Steel/Psychic Pokemons now so It depends on what suit your taste.

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  5. Mega Gengar, Poison/Ghost, gets Shadow Tag.
    http://i.imgur.com/pk8sgNo.jpg

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  6. My legitimate reaction to seeing what Mega Genar's ability is...

    "HOLY S**T

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  7. Hang on... are Mega Gengar's base stats accurate? Gengar only has base 60 HP and that shouldn't change with a new form, should it?

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  8. If Weather is getting nerfed...what of Stealth Rock? Oh, the cries will be most delicious if they did not nerf Stealth Rock too...

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    1. No they won't! They'll be my cries, too!

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    2. I was not talking about your cries. I was talking about THEIRS. Yours would bring up the moral dilemma of consuming their suffering...

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  9. I'm pretty curious as to if Yveltal & Xerneas get a new signature move at level 100.
    Not sure what they'd get (probably a dark type move for Yveltal (hopefully), but Xerneas can already make do with Moonblast at least) but could be interesting if they follow Reshiram & Zekrom's footsteps

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    1. How much you want to bet their catch rate will be 60?...

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  10. Good on you for the competitive changes, Game Freak! Before, you had my boundless respect. Now you have...my boundless respect. Still. So um...yeah.

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  11. I think they nerfed all these 120BP moves because they thought the metagame was too offense oriented and wanted to nerf things a tad. Maybe? At least that is the reasoning I think they are going with. Wasn't expecting it and not sure if it was required. That said, I usually stuck with 95BP/100A moves anyway so it doesn't affect me much at all.

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    1. Yeah, but with weather gone it's really not necessary. As far as I know the 95-power moves didn't get touched, heck, they even added Moonblast to the lot.

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    2. Well we don't know that only moves affected by weather are on the gallows. For all we know other power moves were nerfed as well. Still gotta wait. Besides, who said GF would only take one of two viable options to screw something over (for better or worse alike)?

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  12. Good thing that Malamar gets Superpower+Contrary,Now if it can only get reliable STAB on the physical side...

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    1. ...um... Psycho Cut has a high crit rate? Yeah, I got nothing. Foul Play goes against the point of pumping up your attack. It's probably condemned to the lower tiers, but in-game this is a guy I'd like to use.

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    2. Yeah, It's pretty great in terms of in-game considering how broken Contrary is in-game. But as far as competitive battle goes, I can only see it in NU and RU with an occasional spot in UU.

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  13. I haven't been paying much attention recently because of Kingdom Hearts 1.5...

    But where are these new base stats coming from? I thought 3DS ROMs were encrypted (and therefore nobody's able to get the data) ???

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    1. For mega evolutions, it's easy to do because you can just calculate the IVs and EVs put together from the base form, then substract them from the mega evolved form. As for the new Pokémon... it's approximations based on screenshots.

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  14. Expect the new news to come in especially fast tomorrow. Day before launch and all...

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  15. woo woo mention!

    Absol doesn't get Dragon and, as of now, Fairy, and I'm unsure of some of the special moves... but unless you're Kingdra or Palkia, he CAN hit you SE, and that's good enough in my book.

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