Thursday, October 24, 2013

Few TMs in, even less TMs out

One minor thing I was looking forward to this generation was the potential removal of useless TMs to make room for more useful moves, old or new, to give to Pokémon that might need them. But in the end, we didn't get a whole lot in that department. Quick recap:

Lost TMs: Telekinesis, Ally Switch, Work Up
New TMs: Infestation, Nature Power, Power-Up Punch, Dazzling Gleam, Confide
Returning TMs: Roost, Steel Wing, Dark Pulse

Yeesh. Aside from Dazzling Gleam, which is the obvious coverage move for most non-Fairies (and whatever Fairies end up not getting Moonblast, I guess), the only draws are TMs that should've remained so through gen 5. And Power-Up Punch for Mega Kangaskhan. That is IT.

Heck, looking at the list of new moves, there aren't many that sound really interesting. The big non-offensive one is, of course, Sticky Web, which the only confirmed users of are Ariados, Shuckle, Masquerain and Galvantula (Pokémon Bank pending, of course). Not a riveting lineup, though given how good the move sounds it might end up being the cause of massive tiering shifts for these guys. Not complaining if nothing better than Galvantula gets it, to be honest.

As for Spiky Shield and King's Shield... well, they sound interesting enough, except for the fact that they only protect from offensive moves, which is a big problem, as usually Protect is used to scout when you have no clue what's coming. Including status moves and such. Not sure why they thought making Spiky Shield work like Protect against these would break Chesnaught, but that's a shame. As for King's Shield... well, its added effect has the potential to be much more devastating, because an attack drop usually means you're forced to switch. That and Aegislash has the potential to be one of the best new Pokémon from the start. Still, King's Shield's protection not being absolute (not that Protect is anymore, with sound moves bypassing it) may be an issue. And Protect doesn't change Aegislash into defense mode either, that's purely a King's Shield thing.

On the offensive side, the only moves with learnbases that aren't horrendously limited are the Fairy trio of Moonblast, Dazzling Gleam and Play Rough. And they're only interesting because they're of a brand new type (though Moonblast is still an amazing move based on its own merits). Other than that? Boomburst for Exploud and Noivern, Geomancy for Xerneas, Oblivion Wing for Yveltal... yeah. Why, oh why did they have to go and nerf Draining Kiss? And the least said about Land's Wrath the better.

To be fair, the main reason why the new move lineup is as unappealing as it is is because of the enormous focus on doubles and triples, in an attempt to get more people to play them, I guess. Seriously, look at all these moves and tell me their purpose is for anything else than doubles and triples. Heck, even the aforementioned Land's Wrath may be just that.

To end this rant off, a little comeback on what I said yesterday about there being too many mechanics interacting with each other: we've known about the critical nerf and the Storm Throw/Frost Breath power increase for a while, and still I only realized today that the former was the reason for the latter. So nobody gets gen 1 Blizzard, unfortunately... I only say that last word because of these moves' bleh distribution.

8 comments:

  1. WAIT, there was a roost tm in the game? So I bred a roost Sigilyph, and I JUST find this out. Oh well

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  2. I'm SO glad Roost and Dark Pulse are TMs again! Getting those moves onto pokemon in gen V was way too much of a hassle. I also like that sound-based moves, as well as pokemon with Infiltrator, can bypass subs, since everything and its mother was running substitute in the gen V metagame.

    As for the new moves, I'm actually kind of surprised that only 48 new moves were added. Gen V had I think around 93. Then again, gen VI only added about half as many new pokemon as gen V did as well, so it kind of fits the ratio. But even then, very few of the new moves this generation are actually useful, and most of the ones that are are fairy-type anyway. Gamefreak have shown that they're listening to what the fans want, so why they STILL haven't added better physical electric/ice moves is beyond me. Instead we just get an inferior Earthquake clone.

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    1. They could distribute Volt Tackle to more than just the Raichu line and Smeargle. They could also make Icicle Crash more wide-spread. Oh, AND BLACK KYUREM WOULD LIKE ITS ICE PUNCH, PLEASE!...

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  3. You're wrong about something. Spiky Shield DOES protect against non-damaging moves. It's only King's Shield that doesn't.

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    1. Then someone better tell Serebii.

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    2. Serebii is having problems with the AttackDex, it seems. Last time I checked, the elemental fangs, Iron Head, Crunch and Fly were counted as non-contact moves by Serebii (I was checking for an in-game Aerodactyl), when they're obviously not.

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    3. It's not just the AttackDex though, he also said it on his page about protection moves.

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  4. Well, Infestation is turning heads, it's reasonably good, so THAT'S something.

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