Another ability with a pretty big drawback is solar power. It boosts special attack in the sun but then takes 1/8 of the Pokémon’s health every turn the ability is active.
The 50% boost in Special Attack though is nasty. A boost equivalent to Choice Specs while still being able to choose moves freely, on TOP of being able to hold an item can make quite the usable niche. Solar Power sets are rare for their inconsistency, and aren’t seen on the analysis’ often, but when they work, they can sweep unprepared teams. Leftovers allows for more turns of destruction, while there are certain berries in Gen 7 that can heal you for up to half your health. I personally don’t consider Solar Power to be that detrimental of an ability. It’s really just the fact that most of the Pokemon that get it aren’t really built for using it. The only Pokemon I can see actually making Solar Power work is Heliolisk, who still is much better off with a Life Orb or Choice Specs set.
@@oatmeal0 Technically it is a drawback ability though. Prankster is also a very powerful ability that made the list because it *technically* does have a drawback so I think Solar Power probably counts too
@@nekoloons4844 In terms of it being a drawback then yes you’re absolutely right. 1/8th of your health being taken away is awful. I just wished to highlight how I personally feel that the positives of the ability outweigh the negatives.
Klawf not having shell smash was the biggest cuckering of all time, they did him so dirty. Also I wouldn't count the weakness to priority moves really, since all shell smashers/weak armor users are weak to them.
That +3 attack off the bat would be so fun, alas, gamefreak doesn't like fun And while yes, most shell smash/weak armor users are weak to priority to an extent, Klawf is particularly bad. Ceruledge for example, gets Shadow Sneak, and is also immune to mach punch. Most of them are weak, Klawf is just extra weak.
@@blip_exists Thing with those priority moves is that even if it is true that Klawf is double weak to them, right now the meta is infested with extreme speed dragonite and sucker punch gambit (last one pretty much destroying any of the variants of shell smash), so it doesn't really matter which type of priority is, at this point there is no difference between being hit with a super effective priority move or a priority move since you are going to die either way since you have no defense, it's just that klawf has a bootleg shell smash and doesn't even synergizes well with psyquic terrain teams, unlike polteageist, the best shell smasher to date (besides NAT dex mega blastoise).
Basically status moves get their priority boosted by 1 however the dark types are not affected by the status moves of the prankster pokemon, they aren't immune to priority as a grimmsnarl can still sucker punch a dark type
The Pokemon devs are very aware of how overpowered a fast Spore can be. They intentionally made it so that Brute Bonnet can't get a Speed increase from Protosynthesis even if you put its Attack as low as it can go because the most you can get it down to is an Attack stat a few points higher than speed. It was likely originally going to have base 120 or base 125 Attack, either of which would allow it to get a Proto Speed.
This is funny as the butterfly vividlion has over 100 base speed, compound eyes, sleep powder and quiver dance. Compound eyes + sleep powder is 97% acc and over 100% with wide lens on
@@bigtoblerone8446 Yeah, and its actually really good. Vivilion is usable in most tiers without a sleep clause (even ubers!), due to this (as well as Quiver Dance). In doubles, it has a lack of bulk preventing it from sporing more than once or twice, as opposed to other spore users like Brute Bonnet or Amoongus.
This is also potentially why Breloom can't relearn Spore after forgetting it, it's only learned by Shroomish at Level 40 (iirc) meaning you must purposefully not evolve it till the move is obtained then cannot forget it under any circumstances or it's lost forever. (Tera Breloom are the exception as they generally come with it already learned however it still can be lost if forgotten) This "issue" was actually fixed in Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl from what I hear, but then for Scarlet/Violet they purposefully put it back to being permanently forgettable meaning they 100% are aware just how potent Speedy Spore is.
Hustle in gen 8 was actually a really good ability as dynamax prevented you missing whilst simultaneously keeping the 1.5x attack bonus. I remember Dracozolt being pretty prevalent
Emergency Exit is such an interesting ability. I really like it with Life Orb and full priority Golisopod. Being able to manually trigger your Emergency Exit allows golisopod to have a lot more pivoting option for it's partner (kind of a jank 1 time priority switch move). Though, I think it's missing something. It should have another affect when the pokemon comes in at half hp. Combine Emergency Exit and Anger Shell for the perfect high risk ability.
While I agree that golisopod could have been better and that araquanid is virtually superior, I just keep finding my self drawn in by Golisopod’s aesthetic, I mean don’t get me wrong I love them both but Golisopod has that cool samurai isopod aesthetic that I can’t help but admit I love just that tiny smidge more
Golisopod is 10/10 design. It looks so unique, but at the same time does feel like a pokemon, with a great blend of simplicity and complexity. While I'm more of an Araquanid fan, Golispod is soooo cool. Though I'm biased towards Araquanid as a mono bug player.
@@VCV95 Araquanid can hit as hard, but only with water type moves, cause Water Bubble is a broken ability. Of course, first impression is such a great move, definitely helps out Golisopod. Golisopod also gets good utility moves, and even swords dance, though it can't use it super well because of emergency exit.
@@blip_exists I play with one using aqua jet, throat chop, close combat, and first impression. Aqua jet lets you sneak in that extra screw you before they exit.
I think one ability you forgot to mention but is only applicable to doubles are the Ruin abilities. Each come with their own stat drops but the main ones are Tablets, and Sword of Ruin. These ability drop the attack and defense stat respectively and this right here is the biggest issue in doubles. Some of the best moves in the game are physical, so actively hurting the damage output and also increasing the damage output to your teammates is really detrimental cause while Chi-Yu can survive a Tera Fairy Moonblast from a Flutter Mane, it’s own Flutter Mane can’t expect to live on reliably well. In singles these abilities aren’t as bad cause the only one being affected is the opponent not you, but in doubles it’s a trade off of wanting more bulk or wanting the juicy Ice/Dark coverage at the cost of your teammates bulk being slashed by 25%
I really just wish emergency exit activated at the end of the turn if the user hasnt attacked yet rather than immediately sfter dropping to 50. My boy golisopod was done dirty
@@blip_exists I'm pretty certain this is exactly what they did in Pokémon Radical Red (if you don't know this fan hack rom, I really recommend it) but I have been thinking of this since I found this giant isopod and how lame its ability was
Stall could be interesting on a decently bulky Pokémon with a pivoting move like volt switch or u turn. I mean that is sorta just teleport with extra steps, but still
Adding onto your ides, a slow bulky mon with high attack could be quite interesting, as it could land powerful pivot moves, and then be a sorta teleport. Would make stall a usable enough ability.
@@smarkwick7814 While that would be balanced, it would lose part of what makes those two interesting? For Slaking it could work, I hate truant, but Slow Start is an almost well designed ability, so Eh. It could definitely do the job of making those two usable though!
Another ability that should be here is simple. It simply doubles any stat change the Pokémon gets. So that intimidate drops you down two stages… however your swords dance is a +4
Anger shell requires you to lose half your health in order to activate. Weak armor just needs you to be hit with a physical move. The same priority that'll wreck the crab would frankly just work in armarouge's favor since it resists both fighting and steel. Ghosts can also come in on a u-turn to gain a speed boost for only a dink of damage.
Yah, looking back, I was wrong when I said weak armor is outclassed by anger shell, they both do very different things, and have very different advantages and drawbacks (I think I said that? IDK)
Red card Golisopod is fantastic. Because of how the item interacts with Golisopods ability, it forces the opponent to switch randomly, than you get a switch after, which means you can pick the mon that best counters what just came in, enabling a huge tempo change. It only really works in shorter formats though since its 1 time use.
Speaking of Weak Armor, a drawback of it is that it activates EVERY time you're hit by a physical move. Meaning that if someone decides to use a multi hit move on you, well...
Klawf is also weak to Aqua Jet and Jet Punch. It's also weak to most draining moves given priority by triage. It's also weak to Vacuum Wave, Grassy Glide, and Water Shuriken.
He's literally weak to every priority move barring Quick Attack, Feint, Extremespeed, Sucker Punch, Accelerock, Shadow Sneak and Ice Shard, and he only resists the first 3 of the 7 i mentioned
While its defiantly a drawback, but I didn't do Comatose for the video because other things give it the drawback, not so much the ability, if that makes sense?
Fluffy is kind of a perplexing ability for me. I dont really see why it exists when we got Fur Coat a generation before. Not only does Fur Coat not have a downside, but it just doubles your defense, meaning non-contact physical moves also do less damage. Plus it's so similar to Fluffy conceptually that I could see pretty much all of the Pokémon that get Fluffy just getting Fur Coat instead.
Simply put, halving damage is different from doubling defense and contact moves are different from physical moves. The buff given by fluffy is actually better than fur coat in the applicable situations for it. The real problem is that the drawback is pretty unnecessary as the more niche nature of the ability already balances it out and the difference between it and fur coat isn’t too big like you said. Ig you could argue it’s there to balance out Bewear vs the Alola dex though as the ability prevents it from completely wrecking the mons you face during the game. Wouldn’t be surprised if that was the reason considering how in-game content focused Alola is.
@@hephsforge9236 I figure that putting Stuffel and Bewear at a later obtainable point makes more sense than creating an objectively worse ability that is incredibly similar to a current one in both effect and theme though. If that's really what they were worried about anyway. Either that or make Fluffy like a prototype Fur Coat that's only learned by Stuffel and other unevolved Pokémon. Similar to how Wimpod and Golisopod have Wimp Out and Emergency Exit, two abilities that literally do the same thing.
@@Sleeper800 Does it? I mean, assuming the encounters are already balanced to consider keeping a proper mix of new and old pokemon, there definitely would need to be a replacement for it. What late game mon are you switching just so you can give it Fur Coat? That being said, I was referring to them giving it the downside it has, not making it function the way it does compared to fur coat. The downside seems kinda just thrown on and “hey this mon kinda goes wild on everything else” would be a believable reason to just tack on a negative effect and call it a day rather than rebalancing the encounters all together. I wouldn’t call it without the added fire weakness a worse ability. Stronger buff and functionally different in ways that can actually matter.
@@hephsforge9236 Doubling your defense is virtually the same as taking half damage. Especially when there are many physical moves that DONT make contact, such as Rock Slide, Stone Edge, Earthquake, Icicle Crash, Etc. There is no situation where Fluffy is better than Fur Coat.
@@kitsuaria To respond to the absolute provided at the end of your comment since everything said before just builds to it: every single non-physical contact move is the most simple case. To be more complex, a fluffy-effected move takes enough less that you can save 8 EVs on defense and take the same damage as if it had fur coat. Meaning you can better optimize EV spreads with Fluffy. So yes, there are situations where fluffy, assuming no random fire weakness like I said, would be better.
The ability Stall is like the abilities Huge Power and Pure Power. Those abilities basically are "You don't get an ability, but you indirectly get a good attack stat." Stall is basically "you don't get an ability, your speed stat just drops to base 1 speed, so you always go last." These abilities only REALLY exist for the purpose of switching onto a teammate in doubles (for Huge Power) or onto an opponent (for Stall). Azumarill doesn't need a base 50 attack and Huge Power. It could get a base 150 attack, which does the same thing, and get a real ability. A good pokemon to use Stall would rather have some other defensive ability and "effectively" have Stall by just being slow as hell. Hatterene has great stats to synergize with Stall. It's bulky, got some utility moves, and it's got recovery with Draining Kiss. How do I know Hatterene does well with Stall? Because it has a base 28 speed. It's always going last ANYWAY and it doesn't even have the ability. Why would I want an ability that makes me always go last instead of having Magic Bounce and just being slow? There's no reason. Stall even has an AWFUL relationship with Trick Room, because it prevents you from going first EVER, whereas just being slow is actually a good thing in Trick Room.
Little known fact: If you swap Huge Power onto another Pokémon (Skill Swap, Entrainment, Roleplay, or Trace) it actually only boosts the recipient's Attack by 1.5× If you swap Pure Power onto another Pokémon, it still boosts the recipient's Attack by 2×
@@nerddwarfhats not true, both abilities works the same, the claims that exist a difference are over 10 years dated forums posts that never ever proved that claims. Even in bulbapedia huge power page discussion, you can see they tested it and proved this claim to be false
The only real thing that Stall could be used for is making sure that Metal Burst doesn't whiff, 'cause Metal Burst doesn't have negative priority for some reason so it whiffs if the user is faster than the target.
Great video! I love the effort you put into this! Learnt a lot from this that I did not know before, and I love the use of the robot character! Subscribed :)
You could also file fluffy under abilities that are completely outclassed by others though, because as good as it is, fur coat does the same thing without the fire weakness. But also it’s exclusive to one Pokémon afaik, that being furfrou, so it doesn’t get much use
Pranksters entire reason for having that drawback was thundurus going absolutely buck wild in vgc lmao. Also you said anger point over anger shell like seventeen times, but good vid regardless
As a veteran to Nuzlockes, I can say that Hustle is one of the most frustrating abilities to have on your pokemon. Literally every calculation you could make in that battle normally would have to be changed completely because your pokemon now has a theoretical focus blast for every move
I've made a lot of theoretical buffs to a couple mons here in a hypothetical game. Prankster's downside is reworked by instead having Dark types always out-prioritize moves that target them with increased priority. This made Sucker Punch kinda the champion move of the Dark type. Emergency Exit was changed to be Guardian, seeing as Golisopod would serve as the protector and peacekeeper of a bug type colony made up of Wimpods, Shelmets, Karrablasts, and Dwebbles. Instead of having Golisopod leave the field at low Health, Golisopod would enter the field in place of an ally when they fell below half Health. This fits well with Bug type's use of switching (U-turn, First Impression, and Swarm's rework to instead boost damage of the next Pokémon to enter the field after it). Also Shell Smash was reworked to reduce the user's Health by 33% instead of lowering Defense. Weak Armor was changed to essentially be half a Shell Smash (-1 Defenses, +1 Attacks, +1 Speed), and Anger Shell became the defensive version of my also reworked Anger Point (When hit by a Critical hit, the damage is negated and Attack is raised by 6 stages).
Yeah, for this video I was mainly considering abilities that have direct drawbacks, as in only what the pokemon has can interact with it. However, yes most abilities have downsides, and it could probably be argued that all abilities have downsides.
Hey Sableye also got Metal burst at some point which didnt lower priority so Stall has 2 incredibly Mediocre uses. If it would give the moves like a 50% Power boost it might actually be interesting
Yah, Sabeleye also gets payback, though the issue is that Sabeleye is very frail, and relies on prankster a lot. That is unless it mega evolves, in which case it no longer even has stall. While not the same, Analyitic gives a 30% boost if the user moves last, which is somewhat similar.
I'd recommend checking some of last years world championship games to see how absurd golisopod really is. It had a better showing than araqanid could dream of and shows how good emergency is
Yeah, dissing Golisopod was a mistake, I play mainly singles (and mono bug at that) so I view Araquanid as much better than Golisopod, even though thats not necessarily the truth
I wouldn't say that dry skin is strictly worse than water absorb, the dry skin Pokemon are just more suited for being used in the rain. heliolisk has access to both thunder and surf, and really appreciate being able to passively recover off hazard damage from all the pivoting it does. And Toxicroak was a great setup sweeper in gen 5 that could use life orb without worrying about the residual damage.
Mycelium Might is likely the only Ability Toedscruel gets because of how fast it is in combination with Spore. Amoongus is balanced because its Spores are slow enough and Breloom is hurt a lot by its less-than-optimal Speed and typing. But we dont have a fast or Prankster Spore user (unless Smeargle is around, which its insanely broken anyway) because putting opponents to sleep with a very good Speed tier is just plain broken. Now you may be thinking "Scream Tail has Sing!" or "Butterfree has Quiver Dance AND Sleep Powder!" Those moves have massive drawbacks, being their horrible accuracy; Butterfree just bypasses it because of Compound Eyes being absolutely terrifying against a sleeper and a setup sweeper. Toedscruel would be too overpowered if it had super fast Spore, so they gave it a fairly decent Ability to prevent it and let it deal with Gholdengo a bit better
Oh yeah, Mycelium might is definetly there to balance Toedscruel. And Buterfree and Vivilion can both be used in Ubers and AG, because of how powerful those three moves are together. Toedcruel has actual stats, so it would be a menace in VGC, where there is no sleep clause. And from what I remember, Toedscruel doesn't really deal well with Gholdengo, sporing Gholdhengo is just a niche strategy, but IDK.
Wow it was really refreshing to hear someone say to dislike the video and say what you didn’t like! Openly accept criticism is so rare these days for kudos for that!
Funny thing is that golisopod despite having a worse ability than araquanid, has been historically been more viable than araquanid, sitting in A in the sm and swsh ru viability ranking while araquanid was B+ in sm ru and sitting at a B- in swsh nu and not being ranked at all in swsh ru.
Huh interesting, I guess me saying all the good stuff about Araquanid was my bias as a monotype player. Interesting to see how closely they where ranked as well!
@enderdestroyer 5109 My guess would be powerful Liquidations, and access to both Lunge and Skitter Smack Lunge is an 80 BP, physical Bug-type attack, with 100% Accuracy, 24 PP, and a 100% chance to lower the Target's Attack by 1 stage Skitter Smack is a 70 BP, physical Bug-type attack, with 90% Accuracy, 16 PP, and a 100% chance to lower the Target's Sp.Atk by 1 stage (Why is Skitter Smack so much worse?? One lowers Atk, the other; Lowers Sp.Atk, has 8 less PP, 10% less Accuracy, and 10 less BP)
Minior is a Pokémon with a similar idea to weak armor/anger shell, and is one of the ones that actually gets shell smash to pair with it. A shame it has a really bad attacking moveset…
Hustle was very good in gen 8 with dynamax since d-max moves would always hit ignoring accuracy drop while still getting that attack boost which is even better since choice item boosts were ignored during dynamax. Durant completely dominated early swsh meta game until g-max charizard came out
Eh , dry skin is not an " awful " ability imo , trading a weakness for an outright IMMUNITY is almost always worth it , thats not even talking about the 1/8th recovery each turn on rain teams ( thats double the amount leftovers heals btw ) while STILL having an item slot , and for pokemon like Parasect , dude youre 4× weak to fire its not as if you you actually had a chance to survive a fire attack in the first place
Yeah, I have since reconsidered my opinion, that instead of water absorb being better that dry skin, both have different metagames and pokemon in which they will be better.
Moody raises a stat by TWO, and only lowers a stat by ONE, so it is overall mathematically more beneficial than not, as with enough time you get to full +6 on everything (well, +5 on one stat)
@@blip_exists oh yeah, it has a clear and strong drawback, but I wouldn't say the drawback makes it not worth using on the mons that can get it. Not every time, at least!
@@blip_exists Bibarel has Simple (which technically has a downside btw :P ) which an "unironic" set might run, but really it's only Scovillain who _doesn't_ run Moody, since it has Chlorophyll A fire type with Chlorophyll isn't gonna be without Sun on any team Glalie has Ice Body, but if you're gonna use GLALIE, you're probably gonna run Moody even in Hail
I still think Slaking should have gotten Stall as a hidden ability. -Also I didn't hear you mention Dry Skin's other drawback: You take damage every turn in sun.- Edit: He did mentionit at 5:40. Don't know how I missed that.
@@nerddwarf How the hell did I miss that?! I was wondering why the other drawback wasn't mentioned. Anyway, thanks for pointing it out. You too @nerddwarf4434.
Heliolisk is a good girl, I love how I can give her an Air Balloon resulting in three immunities, my best answer to Water type raids when I played Shield.
This is a bit of a niche strategy, but insomnia prevents sleep entirely meaning the user can't use rest. Early bird allows for quicker than usual rests. So it's not 100% inferior.
Insomnia itself has a minor drawback in that the Pokemon using it cannot use Rest, whereas a Pokemon with Early Bird can still use Rest. This leads to a seldom used strategy where a Pokemon uses Early Bird to make the sleep induced by Rest only take 1 turn instead of 2.
Thing with Early Bird is that bad Pokémon get it. If we had a bulky Pokémon that can make use of 1 turn Rests then it’d actually be really good but not a single Pokémon we currently have that gets it can afford 1 turn rests unless your LC Girafarig
You forgot one of the biggest drawback abilities ever: Defeatist (Halves Attack and Special Attack once a pokemon goes below 50% HP) Straight up ruins Archeops...
I mean, I already made a video on it, and this video was more about abilities that either 1. Also had benefits, or 2. Weren't the only ability of that pokemon.
I hate the Mummy ability. It has the advantage of taking away other abilities, but it prevents you from using any physical moves if you want to keep your abilities
The drawback from prankster was most evident to me when I did a mono dark run of radical red when the glue to my team was prankster sableye…ran into a lot of issues against dd mega ttars and other set up dark types haha
golisopod's ability makes it a really fun pivot that can also spam priority moves / set spikes. I loved using its natural bulk with emergency escape and eject button to get my sweepers in safely in gen 7 and 8. shame they removed it in gen 9 :(
Great video! Just one recommendation, please leave the ability descriptions for a few more seconds, so we can read them. They disappear really quick, and sometimes I have to go back in order to pause and read them.
Yeah, this is something I'm trying to figure out a solution to? I haven't found a great way to make it flow with the rest of the video, though its something I'm definitely searching for a solution for.
I've played VBA games where your Pokémon are allowed up to three abilities and that got me thinking isn't Anger Shell, Speed Boost and Queenly Majesty a broken trio? You can't get hit by priority, you outspeed and get free buffs.
So, both Quick Claw and Mycelium Might cause the holder to move first and last in their priority bracket respectively, so I have no idea how it would work, I'll try to test it out sometime, but I did some basic research and couldn't find anything.
Gorilla tactics is broken. Think of it as a free choice band. Therefore, throw a choice band on a gorilla tactics and you get doubled attack (before bulk up) with choice band and gorilla tactics.
More than doubled Attack 1.5×1.5 = 2.25 Choice Band + Gorilla Tactics = 2.25× Attack When you go +2 with Swords Dance (or Bulk Up twice), the game does NOT give you +50% twice. It gives you +100%, because you're not at +1 twice, you are at +2.
Sheer Force also lets the Life Orb add 30% power for free as long as the move is boosted by Sheer Force. So for 60% extra power you give up the move effects. That is far to good.
I'm just remembering the one time my buddy went into a tournament at our card shop where someone was holding a doubles tournament and his heliolisk in the semi-finals couldn't decide what it's health was at ( every turn sunny day or rain dance it was crazy)
Somewhat interesting to note that in Gens 5 + 6, Weak Armor only boosted speed up by 1. Personally I think adding an additional stage was a much needed buff lol.
I just wanted to make the comparison between fluffy and fur coat, since fur coat is almost the non drawback version of fluffy. The difference is mostly in the wording, as far as i know, since doubling the defense is basically the same as being doubly resistant to physical attacks.
Here’s some power-at-a-price abilities I’ve come up with: -Weightlifter: When holding an heavy item, like an Iron Ball or Lagging Tail, Attack and Defense are increased by 50% each. -Tunnel Vision: Spread moves only damage 1 target, but their power is increased by 20%. -Vengeful Spirit: If KO’d before making a move, takes the opponent down with them. Think Destiny Bond being used upon switch-in. -Fair Fight: No active Pokémon can use items.
7:35 having moves based on luck IS a good thing though… you don’t want something like focus blast hitting every turn, it should be a statistically analytical risk. Weigh the opportunities, that’s the entire game.
I wonder if the reason that all transfer Pokémon from the 3DS virtual console games have hidden abilities is to prevent No Guard Fissure Machamp from existing
There are currently no pokemon with Contrary and Draco meteor, which is a shame. Every contrary mon (besides Shuckle) has access to either Leaf Storm (+2 spatk) or Superpower (+1 atk, +1 def), which is unfortunate. Id love to see a contrary mon with Close Combat or Draco Meteor someday.
Contray Close Combat sounds like the most trolly strategy ever. Though Draco Meteor and Overheat Contrary would be cool and decently balanced on the right 'mon
Emergency Exit actually has a really interesting function that allows it to counter pivoting moves like uturn. It acts like eject button, where getting forced out by a uturn setting you below 50% health, they dont get to switch, while you do. This means you can get a switch advantage.
For real though, I love fan games where the opposite way works. Slow Start Slaking is a terrifying threat, since it has reliable recovery in Slack Off on top of great stats to be able to get through the first five turn and start wreaking havoc.
@@RealCryptoTest I believe Radical Red changed Truant to allow Slaking to still use non-attacking moves on the "loafing around" turn Slow Start should last 1 or 2 turns, OR should allow for switching and be 2-4 turns (I'd like 2 or 3)
I'd note that Dry skin is still good because pokemon that get it *dont have water absorb*, And a water immunity (and hp recovery from switching into them) is still usefull
3 abilities I can think off the top of my head are guts, toxic boost, and flame boost. Technically they don't have a drawback but to activate the ability you have to voluntarily weaken your own pokemon.
@@owenblount7334 People used to attempt to run Guts as status absorbers Choice Band Heracross ran Guts and tried to switch in on Will-o-wisps and toxics Inconsistent
What is the drawback really?it makes it so you get rewarded for absorbing statuses,it's not like it forces the mons with those abilities to run the items that activate them lmao,it has literally 0 drawbacks
@heatran No, their argument is exactly that It's unreliable and inconsistent unless you give up your item to guarantee the status However, imagine an ability that ignored the Choice lock from Choice Band and lowered the Pokémon's HP by 1/16 every turn. That's basically Guts with the Flame Orb
Probably not an immediate thing that would come to mind but Lightning Rod technically has a downside taking away your ability to use electric type moves as well as your opponents. If you're running Lightning Rod though you're unlikely to be running an electric move this does lead to a very funny situation in Single player Battle Towers in Pokemon Platinum specifically where one of Riley's Pokemon he can bring if you choose him as a partner is a Lightning Rod Rhydon, an exceptionally rare situation but a situation that can theoretically screw you over
I have an idea to turn Defeatist from a plain negative ability to an ability with a drawback: It gets the same multiplier to its attacking stats but positively if the Pokémon is at full HP and the normal reduction at below half. (kinda like Multiscale but for the offensive stats) Archeops suddenly becomes an absolutely horrifying sweeper that you need to bring either priority or a faster ‘mon in order to manage it
That's too big of a shift, especially considering that Archeops has stab on 2 of the best offensive types in the game (Rock and Fighting) and has various high power coverage moves in both Physical and Special sides of the spectrum. It would become a very unpredictable threat that can just run choice specs when people are expecting physical sets and just nuke shit like it's no big deal. There's a reason why defeatist is that weak.
Gorilla Tactics: *locks Darmanitan into one move*
The Choice item equiped: This changes nothing.
Yah, the fact that using a choice item comes with no additional drawback prolly doesn't help balance Gorilla Tactics much
it was the new sheer force life orb
@@fulltimeslackerii8229 but on steroids
Should of been rillaboom's signature ability considering he is actually a gorilla while darm is a yeti and it already has zen mode
@@fulltimeslackerii8229*shudders* 😵💫
Another ability with a pretty big drawback is solar power. It boosts special attack in the sun but then takes 1/8 of the Pokémon’s health every turn the ability is active.
The 50% boost in Special Attack though is nasty. A boost equivalent to Choice Specs while still being able to choose moves freely, on TOP of being able to hold an item can make quite the usable niche. Solar Power sets are rare for their inconsistency, and aren’t seen on the analysis’ often, but when they work, they can sweep unprepared teams. Leftovers allows for more turns of destruction, while there are certain berries in Gen 7 that can heal you for up to half your health. I personally don’t consider Solar Power to be that detrimental of an ability. It’s really just the fact that most of the Pokemon that get it aren’t really built for using it. The only Pokemon I can see actually making Solar Power work is Heliolisk, who still is much better off with a Life Orb or Choice Specs set.
@@oatmeal0 Technically it is a drawback ability though.
Prankster is also a very powerful ability that made the list because it *technically* does have a drawback so I think Solar Power probably counts too
@@nekoloons4844 In terms of it being a drawback then yes you’re absolutely right. 1/8th of your health being taken away is awful. I just wished to highlight how I personally feel that the positives of the ability outweigh the negatives.
@@oatmeal0 Oh yeah, absolutely! Solar power is a great ability, I'm lowkey happy it isn't more common because it is genuinely very powerful
Oh yeah, I forgot about solar power. Dang, I even used heliolisk in the video, who has that ability, ooof.
Klawf not having shell smash was the biggest cuckering of all time, they did him so dirty.
Also I wouldn't count the weakness to priority moves really, since all shell smashers/weak armor users are weak to them.
That +3 attack off the bat would be so fun, alas, gamefreak doesn't like fun
And while yes, most shell smash/weak armor users are weak to priority to an extent, Klawf is particularly bad. Ceruledge for example, gets Shadow Sneak, and is also immune to mach punch. Most of them are weak, Klawf is just extra weak.
@@blip_exists you also forgot Aqua Jet and Palafin's Jet Punch, which both Klawf and Ceruledge are weak to...
@@blip_exists Thing with those priority moves is that even if it is true that Klawf is double weak to them, right now the meta is infested with extreme speed dragonite and sucker punch gambit (last one pretty much destroying any of the variants of shell smash), so it doesn't really matter which type of priority is, at this point there is no difference between being hit with a super effective priority move or a priority move since you are going to die either way since you have no defense, it's just that klawf has a bootleg shell smash and doesn't even synergizes well with psyquic terrain teams, unlike polteageist, the best shell smasher to date (besides NAT dex mega blastoise).
Prankster makes Dark Types IMMUNE to the statuses!? I thought they were just immune to the priority.
Basically status moves get their priority boosted by 1 however the dark types are not affected by the status moves of the prankster pokemon, they aren't immune to priority as a grimmsnarl can still sucker punch a dark type
@@amvjin6760 but prankster nature power wouldn't affect a dark type
@@phillipanselmo8540 that's because it's a status move first
Tl;dr if a move is affected by prankster, any dark type is immune to all effects of said move
@@becausesakamoto5938 thank you.
The Pokemon devs are very aware of how overpowered a fast Spore can be. They intentionally made it so that Brute Bonnet can't get a Speed increase from Protosynthesis even if you put its Attack as low as it can go because the most you can get it down to is an Attack stat a few points higher than speed. It was likely originally going to have base 120 or base 125 Attack, either of which would allow it to get a Proto Speed.
Spore is one of the best moves in the game, so I'm glad the devs keep that in mind!
If I remember correctly, it is actually 1 point away
This is funny as the butterfly vividlion has over 100 base speed, compound eyes, sleep powder and quiver dance.
Compound eyes + sleep powder is 97% acc and over 100% with wide lens on
@@bigtoblerone8446 Yeah, and its actually really good. Vivilion is usable in most tiers without a sleep clause (even ubers!), due to this (as well as Quiver Dance). In doubles, it has a lack of bulk preventing it from sporing more than once or twice, as opposed to other spore users like Brute Bonnet or Amoongus.
This is also potentially why Breloom can't relearn Spore after forgetting it, it's only learned by Shroomish at Level 40 (iirc) meaning you must purposefully not evolve it till the move is obtained then cannot forget it under any circumstances or it's lost forever. (Tera Breloom are the exception as they generally come with it already learned however it still can be lost if forgotten)
This "issue" was actually fixed in Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl from what I hear, but then for Scarlet/Violet they purposefully put it back to being permanently forgettable meaning they 100% are aware just how potent Speedy Spore is.
Hustle in gen 8 was actually a really good ability as dynamax prevented you missing whilst simultaneously keeping the 1.5x attack bonus. I remember Dracozolt being pretty prevalent
In vgc it also made Durant a menace
@@gjmguy7994Durant is always a menace tho
Emergency Exit is such an interesting ability. I really like it with Life Orb and full priority Golisopod. Being able to manually trigger your Emergency Exit allows golisopod to have a lot more pivoting option for it's partner (kind of a jank 1 time priority switch move). Though, I think it's missing something. It should have another affect when the pokemon comes in at half hp. Combine Emergency Exit and Anger Shell for the perfect high risk ability.
That’s fucking terrifying, I love it
This is how I use mine with swords dance CC in the back for ferrothorn or steel bird switch ins, and wish support to do it all over again
While I agree that golisopod could have been better and that araquanid is virtually superior, I just keep finding my self drawn in by Golisopod’s aesthetic, I mean don’t get me wrong I love them both but Golisopod has that cool samurai isopod aesthetic that I can’t help but admit I love just that tiny smidge more
Golisopod also hits like a truck. Araquanid doesn't hit nearly as hard, but has a better general spread and a better usage for utility.
Golisopod is 10/10 design. It looks so unique, but at the same time does feel like a pokemon, with a great blend of simplicity and complexity. While I'm more of an Araquanid fan, Golispod is soooo cool. Though I'm biased towards Araquanid as a mono bug player.
@@VCV95 Araquanid can hit as hard, but only with water type moves, cause Water Bubble is a broken ability. Of course, first impression is such a great move, definitely helps out Golisopod. Golisopod also gets good utility moves, and even swords dance, though it can't use it super well because of emergency exit.
@@blip_exists I play with one using aqua jet, throat chop, close combat, and first impression. Aqua jet lets you sneak in that extra screw you before they exit.
That and first impression is +2 priority but now we have lokix with tinted lens
I think one ability you forgot to mention but is only applicable to doubles are the Ruin abilities. Each come with their own stat drops but the main ones are Tablets, and Sword of Ruin.
These ability drop the attack and defense stat respectively and this right here is the biggest issue in doubles. Some of the best moves in the game are physical, so actively hurting the damage output and also increasing the damage output to your teammates is really detrimental cause while Chi-Yu can survive a Tera Fairy Moonblast from a Flutter Mane, it’s own Flutter Mane can’t expect to live on reliably well. In singles these abilities aren’t as bad cause the only one being affected is the opponent not you, but in doubles it’s a trade off of wanting more bulk or wanting the juicy Ice/Dark coverage at the cost of your teammates bulk being slashed by 25%
Yep, for sure! I considered talking about them, but the video was long enough as is, and these abilities are so distinct from the other abilities.
I really just wish emergency exit activated at the end of the turn if the user hasnt attacked yet rather than immediately sfter dropping to 50. My boy golisopod was done dirty
That would make it so much better, and let it do more than just first impression. Great Idea!
@@blip_exists I'm pretty certain this is exactly what they did in Pokémon Radical Red (if you don't know this fan hack rom, I really recommend it) but I have been thinking of this since I found this giant isopod and how lame its ability was
Stall could be interesting on a decently bulky Pokémon with a pivoting move like volt switch or u turn. I mean that is sorta just teleport with extra steps, but still
Adding onto your ides, a slow bulky mon with high attack could be quite interesting, as it could land powerful pivot moves, and then be a sorta teleport. Would make stall a usable enough ability.
I've seen it as an alternative for slaking and regiggas before as a balanced alternative
@@smarkwick7814 While that would be balanced, it would lose part of what makes those two interesting? For Slaking it could work, I hate truant, but Slow Start is an almost well designed ability, so Eh. It could definitely do the job of making those two usable though!
@@blip_existsthere’s been enough power creep they should give Regigigas analytic
*What Spidops could have been.*
Another ability that should be here is simple. It simply doubles any stat change the Pokémon gets. So that intimidate drops you down two stages… however your swords dance is a +4
Yep! Another one I forgor, oops.
@@blip_exists part 2?
@@Cookie_Magika I guess I will do that lol
@@blip_exists do you have enough abilities for another?
@@Cookie_Magika Yah probably. It might be shorter, but I think there's at least 4 missed.
Anger shell requires you to lose half your health in order to activate.
Weak armor just needs you to be hit with a physical move.
The same priority that'll wreck the crab would frankly just work in armarouge's favor since it resists both fighting and steel.
Ghosts can also come in on a u-turn to gain a speed boost for only a dink of damage.
Yah, looking back, I was wrong when I said weak armor is outclassed by anger shell, they both do very different things, and have very different advantages and drawbacks (I think I said that? IDK)
Red card Golisopod is fantastic. Because of how the item interacts with Golisopods ability, it forces the opponent to switch randomly, than you get a switch after, which means you can pick the mon that best counters what just came in, enabling a huge tempo change. It only really works in shorter formats though since its 1 time use.
I think the funniest thing is prankster against a disguised zoroark, easily confuses people
The way he pronounced golisopod caused me physical pain
Speaking of Weak Armor, a drawback of it is that it activates EVERY time you're hit by a physical move. Meaning that if someone decides to use a multi hit move on you, well...
Oooh, thats a drawback I didn't consider, that could melt through any pokemon with weak armor.
Klawf is also weak to Aqua Jet and Jet Punch. It's also weak to most draining moves given priority by triage. It's also weak to Vacuum Wave, Grassy Glide, and Water Shuriken.
Poor Klawf
He's literally weak to every priority move barring Quick Attack, Feint, Extremespeed, Sucker Punch, Accelerock, Shadow Sneak and Ice Shard, and he only resists the first 3 of the 7 i mentioned
I have never heard Ceruledge be pronounced "Cell-rodge"
If only the mycelium might pokemon got parting shot. It would be an OP teleport
Comatose leaves you open to sleep effect moves like dream eater and Nightmare
While its defiantly a drawback, but I didn't do Comatose for the video because other things give it the drawback, not so much the ability, if that makes sense?
Thanks to you, I just learned that Sheer Force mons do not take damage from Life Orb, and now I can't sleep soundly at night anymore
Very good video. It becomes challenging to get visuals for video essays and I think you did well.
fairy aura and dark aura also have the drawback that the opponents moves gets the boost too.
Glad the algorithm connected us. Don’t stop you’ll be a 10k in no time
Stall should've been a reverse Analytic; when the user moves last, the user receives half damage to attacks.
Fluffy is kind of a perplexing ability for me. I dont really see why it exists when we got Fur Coat a generation before. Not only does Fur Coat not have a downside, but it just doubles your defense, meaning non-contact physical moves also do less damage.
Plus it's so similar to Fluffy conceptually that I could see pretty much all of the Pokémon that get Fluffy just getting Fur Coat instead.
Simply put, halving damage is different from doubling defense and contact moves are different from physical moves. The buff given by fluffy is actually better than fur coat in the applicable situations for it. The real problem is that the drawback is pretty unnecessary as the more niche nature of the ability already balances it out and the difference between it and fur coat isn’t too big like you said. Ig you could argue it’s there to balance out Bewear vs the Alola dex though as the ability prevents it from completely wrecking the mons you face during the game. Wouldn’t be surprised if that was the reason considering how in-game content focused Alola is.
@@hephsforge9236 I figure that putting Stuffel and Bewear at a later obtainable point makes more sense than creating an objectively worse ability that is incredibly similar to a current one in both effect and theme though. If that's really what they were worried about anyway. Either that or make Fluffy like a prototype Fur Coat that's only learned by Stuffel and other unevolved Pokémon. Similar to how Wimpod and Golisopod have Wimp Out and Emergency Exit, two abilities that literally do the same thing.
@@Sleeper800 Does it? I mean, assuming the encounters are already balanced to consider keeping a proper mix of new and old pokemon, there definitely would need to be a replacement for it. What late game mon are you switching just so you can give it Fur Coat? That being said, I was referring to them giving it the downside it has, not making it function the way it does compared to fur coat. The downside seems kinda just thrown on and “hey this mon kinda goes wild on everything else” would be a believable reason to just tack on a negative effect and call it a day rather than rebalancing the encounters all together. I wouldn’t call it without the added fire weakness a worse ability. Stronger buff and functionally different in ways that can actually matter.
@@hephsforge9236 Doubling your defense is virtually the same as taking half damage. Especially when there are many physical moves that DONT make contact, such as Rock Slide, Stone Edge, Earthquake, Icicle Crash, Etc. There is no situation where Fluffy is better than Fur Coat.
@@kitsuaria To respond to the absolute provided at the end of your comment since everything said before just builds to it: every single non-physical contact move is the most simple case. To be more complex, a fluffy-effected move takes enough less that you can save 8 EVs on defense and take the same damage as if it had fur coat. Meaning you can better optimize EV spreads with Fluffy. So yes, there are situations where fluffy, assuming no random fire weakness like I said, would be better.
Congrats on this big video for you
I know it has more problems than benefits, but I really like emergency exit.
It’s so fun to use and feels great when it works
It's definitely a fun ability, and its also fortunate that Golisopod was designed around it with first impression.
The ability Stall is like the abilities Huge Power and Pure Power. Those abilities basically are "You don't get an ability, but you indirectly get a good attack stat." Stall is basically "you don't get an ability, your speed stat just drops to base 1 speed, so you always go last." These abilities only REALLY exist for the purpose of switching onto a teammate in doubles (for Huge Power) or onto an opponent (for Stall). Azumarill doesn't need a base 50 attack and Huge Power. It could get a base 150 attack, which does the same thing, and get a real ability.
A good pokemon to use Stall would rather have some other defensive ability and "effectively" have Stall by just being slow as hell. Hatterene has great stats to synergize with Stall. It's bulky, got some utility moves, and it's got recovery with Draining Kiss. How do I know Hatterene does well with Stall? Because it has a base 28 speed. It's always going last ANYWAY and it doesn't even have the ability. Why would I want an ability that makes me always go last instead of having Magic Bounce and just being slow? There's no reason. Stall even has an AWFUL relationship with Trick Room, because it prevents you from going first EVER, whereas just being slow is actually a good thing in Trick Room.
Little known fact:
If you swap Huge Power onto another Pokémon (Skill Swap, Entrainment, Roleplay, or Trace) it actually only boosts the recipient's Attack by 1.5×
If you swap Pure Power onto another Pokémon, it still boosts the recipient's Attack by 2×
@@nerddwarfhats not true, both abilities works the same, the claims that exist a difference are over 10 years dated forums posts that never ever proved that claims. Even in bulbapedia huge power page discussion, you can see they tested it and proved this claim to be false
Can I just say that despite being very simple, I absolutely love your avatar you use in the video
Now hear me out; Emergency Exit is funny if you give Golisopod a Red Card.
"I'm outta here, and so are you!"
you can sleep grass pokemon
just cant use powder moves on them
oh oops. I always forget hypnosis, due to my overwhelming hate of spore
The only real thing that Stall could be used for is making sure that Metal Burst doesn't whiff, 'cause Metal Burst doesn't have negative priority for some reason so it whiffs if the user is faster than the target.
Stall can also be used with payback, alas, neither of these are good on sableye.
@@blip_exists Oh, certainly.
Great video! I love the effort you put into this! Learnt a lot from this that I did not know before, and I love the use of the robot character! Subscribed :)
You could also file fluffy under abilities that are completely outclassed by others though, because as good as it is, fur coat does the same thing without the fire weakness. But also it’s exclusive to one Pokémon afaik, that being furfrou, so it doesn’t get much use
Alolan Persian also gets it but that's not really a big step up
3:42 Breloom!
Breloom Indeed!
Pranksters entire reason for having that drawback was thundurus going absolutely buck wild in vgc lmao. Also you said anger point over anger shell like seventeen times, but good vid regardless
If I'm not mistaken, thats also why Thunder Wave was nerfed, and para as a whole. And yep....That was quite the oops.
5:06 I think you mean anger shells, not anger-point. anglepoint maxes out the attack if crit
Oops, yep, I did mean anger shell, I constantly get those two mixed up.
As a veteran to Nuzlockes, I can say that Hustle is one of the most frustrating abilities to have on your pokemon. Literally every calculation you could make in that battle normally would have to be changed completely because your pokemon now has a theoretical focus blast for every move
I've made a lot of theoretical buffs to a couple mons here in a hypothetical game.
Prankster's downside is reworked by instead having Dark types always out-prioritize moves that target them with increased priority. This made Sucker Punch kinda the champion move of the Dark type.
Emergency Exit was changed to be Guardian, seeing as Golisopod would serve as the protector and peacekeeper of a bug type colony made up of Wimpods, Shelmets, Karrablasts, and Dwebbles. Instead of having Golisopod leave the field at low Health, Golisopod would enter the field in place of an ally when they fell below half Health. This fits well with Bug type's use of switching (U-turn, First Impression, and Swarm's rework to instead boost damage of the next Pokémon to enter the field after it).
Also Shell Smash was reworked to reduce the user's Health by 33% instead of lowering Defense. Weak Armor was changed to essentially be half a Shell Smash (-1 Defenses, +1 Attacks, +1 Speed), and Anger Shell became the defensive version of my also reworked Anger Point (When hit by a Critical hit, the damage is negated and Attack is raised by 6 stages).
Dry skin is basically water absorb and rain dish, but with the negative effects of fluffy and solar power
I do think it causes you to take less damage than fluffy? And Fluffy and Solar Power come with HUGE benefits, which is a definite oof for dry skin.
Love to watch a channel grow, here's to the next 500 subs!
Ay thanks!
Levitate makes it so you don't heal from grassy terrain. Most things have downsides.
Yeah, for this video I was mainly considering abilities that have direct drawbacks, as in only what the pokemon has can interact with it. However, yes most abilities have downsides, and it could probably be argued that all abilities have downsides.
I’m pretty sure Durant only has truant as a pun. It sounds like the level of trolling TPC would do
Some have also said that its because some ants within an ant nest are inactive and act as a reserve, it could be based on that.
Giving Emergency Exit to a Bug type is just cruel.
Hey Sableye also got Metal burst at some point which didnt lower priority so Stall has 2 incredibly Mediocre uses. If it would give the moves like a 50% Power boost it might actually be interesting
Yah, Sabeleye also gets payback, though the issue is that Sabeleye is very frail, and relies on prankster a lot. That is unless it mega evolves, in which case it no longer even has stall. While not the same, Analyitic gives a 30% boost if the user moves last, which is somewhat similar.
I'd recommend checking some of last years world championship games to see how absurd golisopod really is. It had a better showing than araqanid could dream of and shows how good emergency is
Yeah, dissing Golisopod was a mistake, I play mainly singles (and mono bug at that) so I view Araquanid as much better than Golisopod, even though thats not necessarily the truth
i love no guard machamp with stone edge and dynamic punch
I wouldn't say that dry skin is strictly worse than water absorb, the dry skin Pokemon are just more suited for being used in the rain. heliolisk has access to both thunder and surf, and really appreciate being able to passively recover off hazard damage from all the pivoting it does. And Toxicroak was a great setup sweeper in gen 5 that could use life orb without worrying about the residual damage.
Yah, in retrospect, dry skin isn't strictly worse.
Mycelium Might is likely the only Ability Toedscruel gets because of how fast it is in combination with Spore. Amoongus is balanced because its Spores are slow enough and Breloom is hurt a lot by its less-than-optimal Speed and typing. But we dont have a fast or Prankster Spore user (unless Smeargle is around, which its insanely broken anyway) because putting opponents to sleep with a very good Speed tier is just plain broken. Now you may be thinking "Scream Tail has Sing!" or "Butterfree has Quiver Dance AND Sleep Powder!" Those moves have massive drawbacks, being their horrible accuracy; Butterfree just bypasses it because of Compound Eyes being absolutely terrifying against a sleeper and a setup sweeper. Toedscruel would be too overpowered if it had super fast Spore, so they gave it a fairly decent Ability to prevent it and let it deal with Gholdengo a bit better
Oh yeah, Mycelium might is definetly there to balance Toedscruel. And Buterfree and Vivilion can both be used in Ubers and AG, because of how powerful those three moves are together. Toedcruel has actual stats, so it would be a menace in VGC, where there is no sleep clause. And from what I remember, Toedscruel doesn't really deal well with Gholdengo, sporing Gholdhengo is just a niche strategy, but IDK.
@@blip_exists it would hard counter it if make it rain wasn’t steel type better draco meteor
@@blip_exists ubers has sleep clause,they're only really usable in metas without sleep clause
Wow it was really refreshing to hear someone say to dislike the video and say what you didn’t like! Openly accept criticism is so rare these days for kudos for that!
Superpower Malamar contrary was such a real one for my Pokémon ultra sun team
Funny thing is that golisopod despite having a worse ability than araquanid, has been historically been more viable than araquanid, sitting in A in the sm and swsh ru viability ranking while araquanid was B+ in sm ru and sitting at a B- in swsh nu and not being ranked at all in swsh ru.
In VGC araq is wayyy better
Huh interesting, I guess me saying all the good stuff about Araquanid was my bias as a monotype player. Interesting to see how closely they where ranked as well!
@@GravityIsFalling I am not really into vgc, so can you explain to me what makes araquanid better in vgc? Thanks
@enderdestroyer 5109
My guess would be powerful Liquidations, and access to both Lunge and Skitter Smack
Lunge is an 80 BP, physical Bug-type attack, with 100% Accuracy, 24 PP, and a 100% chance to lower the Target's Attack by 1 stage
Skitter Smack is a 70 BP, physical Bug-type attack, with 90% Accuracy, 16 PP, and a 100% chance to lower the Target's Sp.Atk by 1 stage
(Why is Skitter Smack so much worse??
One lowers Atk, the other; Lowers Sp.Atk, has 8 less PP, 10% less Accuracy, and 10 less BP)
@@enderdestroyer-mr7nh
It’s really just how much better water bubble is. It’s huge power, thermal exchange, and fire resistance in one
Minior is a Pokémon with a similar idea to weak armor/anger shell, and is one of the ones that actually gets shell smash to pair with it. A shame it has a really bad attacking moveset…
Hustle was very good in gen 8 with dynamax since d-max moves would always hit ignoring accuracy drop while still getting that attack boost which is even better since choice item boosts were ignored during dynamax.
Durant completely dominated early swsh meta game until g-max charizard came out
That's really interesting! Love to see the lil ant get some play!
@@blip_exists it did, you can watch it dominate early vgc tournaments. I think livestreams are available on official pokemons channel
@@blip_exists Also in SIngles where Dynamax is illegal, Durant still managed to get banned from RU every generation since XY. Funni metal ant ftw :)
@@TheShrike9 I'll go take a look!
Mold Breaker actually allows you to buff another pokemon with contrary or trigger their weakness policy.
Interesting! I wouldn't exactly consider that a big enough drawback for the video, but it is definitely a unique interaction!
@Blip_Exists It's not really a drawback, but rather a neat interaction.
Eh , dry skin is not an " awful " ability imo , trading a weakness for an outright IMMUNITY is almost always worth it , thats not even talking about the 1/8th recovery each turn on rain teams ( thats double the amount leftovers heals btw ) while STILL having an item slot , and for pokemon like Parasect , dude youre 4× weak to fire its not as if you you actually had a chance to survive a fire attack in the first place
Yeah, I have since reconsidered my opinion, that instead of water absorb being better that dry skin, both have different metagames and pokemon in which they will be better.
Moody raises a stat by TWO, and only lowers a stat by ONE, so it is overall mathematically more beneficial than not, as with enough time you get to full +6 on everything (well, +5 on one stat)
yeah, its definitely better on average, but it still has a drawback so I felt like including it.
@@blip_exists oh yeah, it has a clear and strong drawback, but I wouldn't say the drawback makes it not worth using on the mons that can get it. Not every time, at least!
@@Poison_Paradise Oh yeah for sure, most of the abilities I talked about are really good. Are there any mons with moody that don't tend to run it?
@@blip_exists Bibarel has Simple (which technically has a downside btw :P ) which an "unironic" set might run, but really it's only Scovillain who _doesn't_ run Moody, since it has Chlorophyll
A fire type with Chlorophyll isn't gonna be without Sun on any team
Glalie has Ice Body, but if you're gonna use GLALIE, you're probably gonna run Moody even in Hail
Just a correction, Mycelium Might explicitly says that it allows you to put Pokémon with Insomnia to sleep.
Huh, I did not know about that, Thanks for informing me!
I still think Slaking should have gotten Stall as a hidden ability.
-Also I didn't hear you mention Dry Skin's other drawback: You take damage every turn in sun.-
Edit: He did mentionit at 5:40. Don't know how I missed that.
Ummm... but he did mention that drawback
5:40
"Even more damage from Fire-type moves. 1.25× to be exact, and lose 1/8 of your total maximum HP every turn in the sun"
@@nerddwarf How the hell did I miss that?! I was wondering why the other drawback wasn't mentioned.
Anyway, thanks for pointing it out. You too @nerddwarf4434.
5:24 ok I can overlook mispronouncing Pokémon names but how the heck did you butcher “similarly to” as Cen-nara-lay toe!?
My skills are beyond my own understanding lol
5:07 love how anger shell became anger point for the rest of the vid LOOOL
I want to talk to the person at gamefreak who gives all the abilities the same names lol
Heliolisk is a good girl, I love how I can give her an Air Balloon resulting in three immunities, my best answer to Water type raids when I played Shield.
Wow, 3 immunities
That is the same as Hisuian-Zoroark...
@@nerddwarf I recently got wonder traded a Hisuian Zorua and I trained him up, so much fun to use. I love you Marc.
I know It doesn't have a drawback but I really hate the ability Early Bird, like, every pokémon that gets it should just have Insomnia instead lol
Oh yeah for sure. Insomnia already kinda feels like a mid ability, and Early Bird is just that but worse.
This is a bit of a niche strategy, but insomnia prevents sleep entirely meaning the user can't use rest. Early bird allows for quicker than usual rests. So it's not 100% inferior.
Insomnia itself has a minor drawback in that the Pokemon using it cannot use Rest, whereas a Pokemon with Early Bird can still use Rest. This leads to a seldom used strategy where a Pokemon uses Early Bird to make the sleep induced by Rest only take 1 turn instead of 2.
Early Bird was part of the dominating Girafarig set in Little Cup before its very fast ban. 1 turn rest + enormous 410 BST with eviolite
Thing with Early Bird is that bad Pokémon get it. If we had a bulky Pokémon that can make use of 1 turn Rests then it’d actually be really good but not a single Pokémon we currently have that gets it can afford 1 turn rests unless your LC Girafarig
0:04
The regielekis activate my happy neurons.
Golisspod💀💀
An audio tip: increasing the bgm sound a little would help mask little mouth noises and backround that you couldn't filter
Huh thats interesting, I'll have to try it out!
Im your 1000 subscriber
Moody glalie with leftovers subsitute, protect, freeze dry, earthquake used to come up in randoms in showdown. It was so fun
You forgot one of the biggest drawback abilities ever: Defeatist (Halves Attack and Special Attack once a pokemon goes below 50% HP)
Straight up ruins Archeops...
I mean, I already made a video on it, and this video was more about abilities that either 1. Also had benefits, or 2. Weren't the only ability of that pokemon.
@@blip_exists oh
I hate the Mummy ability. It has the advantage of taking away other abilities, but it prevents you from using any physical moves if you want to keep your abilities
Literally the ability you need to makevslaking a monster in doubles.
The drawback from prankster was most evident to me when I did a mono dark run of radical red when the glue to my team was prankster sableye…ran into a lot of issues against dd mega ttars and other set up dark types haha
golisopod's ability makes it a really fun pivot that can also spam priority moves / set spikes. I loved using its natural bulk with emergency escape and eject button to get my sweepers in safely in gen 7 and 8. shame they removed it in gen 9 :(
Great video! Just one recommendation, please leave the ability descriptions for a few more seconds, so we can read them. They disappear really quick, and sometimes I have to go back in order to pause and read them.
Yeah, this is something I'm trying to figure out a solution to? I haven't found a great way to make it flow with the rest of the video, though its something I'm definitely searching for a solution for.
I've played VBA games where your Pokémon are allowed up to three abilities and that got me thinking isn't Anger Shell, Speed Boost and Queenly Majesty a broken trio?
You can't get hit by priority, you outspeed and get free buffs.
Sounds like a pretty cool combo!
magic bounce•-• bounces back moves like memento
Could you give a Toadscruel a Quick Claw, or does its ability ignore priority altering items.
So, both Quick Claw and Mycelium Might cause the holder to move first and last in their priority bracket respectively, so I have no idea how it would work, I'll try to test it out sometime, but I did some basic research and couldn't find anything.
Gorilla tactics is broken. Think of it as a free choice band. Therefore, throw a choice band on a gorilla tactics and you get doubled attack (before bulk up) with choice band and gorilla tactics.
You do realize you can't use bulk up, right?
Its in part because Gorilla tactics is broken, but also because items with the same effect exist, so there is no drawbacks to using those items.
@@blip_exists Yeah. If G-Darmanitan wants to spend any time in OU, Gorilla Tactics would have to negate the effects of Choice Items.
More than doubled Attack
1.5×1.5 = 2.25
Choice Band + Gorilla Tactics = 2.25× Attack
When you go +2 with Swords Dance (or Bulk Up twice), the game does NOT give you +50% twice. It gives you +100%, because you're not at +1 twice, you are at +2.
@@nousername191
Galarian-Darmanitan was banned to Ubers in Sw&Sh
klawf not getting shell smash but polteageist getting it will never make sense
teapots can crack but crabs usually dont smash their shell
Sheer Force also lets the Life Orb add 30% power for free as long as the move is boosted by Sheer Force. So for 60% extra power you give up the move effects. That is far to good.
Nidoking was a threat for this reasoning
@@hydreigonchungus It can solo a good few things because of this. You get good coverage.
I'm just remembering the one time my buddy went into a tournament at our card shop where someone was holding a doubles tournament and his heliolisk in the semi-finals couldn't decide what it's health was at ( every turn sunny day or rain dance it was crazy)
Somewhat interesting to note that in Gens 5 + 6, Weak Armor only boosted speed up by 1. Personally I think adding an additional stage was a much needed buff lol.
I just wanted to make the comparison between fluffy and fur coat, since fur coat is almost the non drawback version of fluffy. The difference is mostly in the wording, as far as i know, since doubling the defense is basically the same as being doubly resistant to physical attacks.
Here’s some power-at-a-price abilities I’ve come up with:
-Weightlifter: When holding an heavy item, like an Iron Ball or Lagging Tail, Attack and Defense are increased by 50% each.
-Tunnel Vision: Spread moves only damage 1 target, but their power is increased by 20%.
-Vengeful Spirit: If KO’d before making a move, takes the opponent down with them. Think Destiny Bond being used upon switch-in.
-Fair Fight: No active Pokémon can use items.
3:42 ayo?
man, I remember running Hone Claws + Hustle Durant. It's so fun. and fast.
7:35 having moves based on luck IS a good thing though… you don’t want something like focus blast hitting every turn, it should be a statistically analytical risk. Weigh the opportunities, that’s the entire game.
channel underrated AF, I hope you can make more videos and gain more suscribers ;))
emergency exit is awesome if you strategize around it
Its pretty neat, and first impression was likely designed around it, though it always sucks to lose a turn because your opponent got you below 50%.
I wonder if the reason that all transfer Pokémon from the 3DS virtual console games have hidden abilities is to prevent No Guard Fissure Machamp from existing
I don't want to watch the vid again but did he forgot to add rivalry in there?
yep....
@@blip_exists thx
There are currently no pokemon with Contrary and Draco meteor, which is a shame. Every contrary mon (besides Shuckle) has access to either Leaf Storm (+2 spatk) or Superpower (+1 atk, +1 def), which is unfortunate. Id love to see a contrary mon with Close Combat or Draco Meteor someday.
Contray Close Combat sounds like the most trolly strategy ever.
Though Draco Meteor and Overheat Contrary would be cool and decently balanced on the right 'mon
Hustle Durant had its niche in gen 6 competitive iirc. Largely because it has Hone Claws to fix its accuracy drops
Emergency Exit actually has a really interesting function that allows it to counter pivoting moves like uturn. It acts like eject button, where getting forced out by a uturn setting you below 50% health, they dont get to switch, while you do. This means you can get a switch advantage.
Huh, thats really interesting, I didn't know it stopped the pivot moves from working, thats pretty cool!
@@blip_exists
Well, the pivot move has to drop Golisopod below 50%, THEN the opponent won't get to pivot
I'm still mad about slow start, and will be until it is buffed significantly. or Perhaps regigigas could get a separate hidden ability.
Truant!
For real though, I love fan games where the opposite way works. Slow Start Slaking is a terrifying threat, since it has reliable recovery in Slack Off on top of great stats to be able to get through the first five turn and start wreaking havoc.
Neutralizing gas
@@RealCryptoTest
I believe Radical Red changed Truant to allow Slaking to still use non-attacking moves on the "loafing around" turn
Slow Start should last 1 or 2 turns, OR should allow for switching and be 2-4 turns (I'd like 2 or 3)
I'd note that Dry skin is still good because pokemon that get it *dont have water absorb*, And a water immunity (and hp recovery from switching into them) is still usefull
3 abilities I can think off the top of my head are guts, toxic boost, and flame boost. Technically they don't have a drawback but to activate the ability you have to voluntarily weaken your own pokemon.
And sacrifice your item slot
@@owenblount7334
People used to attempt to run Guts as status absorbers
Choice Band Heracross ran Guts and tried to switch in on Will-o-wisps and toxics
Inconsistent
What is the drawback really?it makes it so you get rewarded for absorbing statuses,it's not like it forces the mons with those abilities to run the items that activate them lmao,it has literally 0 drawbacks
@heatran
No, their argument is exactly that
It's unreliable and inconsistent unless you give up your item to guarantee the status
However, imagine an ability that ignored the Choice lock from Choice Band and lowered the Pokémon's HP by 1/16 every turn.
That's basically Guts with the Flame Orb
@@nerddwarfTechnically Guts is still better because you are now immune to sleep and paralysis
Probably not an immediate thing that would come to mind but Lightning Rod technically has a downside taking away your ability to use electric type moves as well as your opponents. If you're running Lightning Rod though you're unlikely to be running an electric move this does lead to a very funny situation in Single player Battle Towers in Pokemon Platinum specifically where one of Riley's Pokemon he can bring if you choose him as a partner is a Lightning Rod Rhydon, an exceptionally rare situation but a situation that can theoretically screw you over
This was mentioned in the sequel video
I have an idea to turn Defeatist from a plain negative ability to an ability with a drawback: It gets the same multiplier to its attacking stats but positively if the Pokémon is at full HP and the normal reduction at below half. (kinda like Multiscale but for the offensive stats)
Archeops suddenly becomes an absolutely horrifying sweeper that you need to bring either priority or a faster ‘mon in order to manage it
That's too big of a shift, especially considering that Archeops has stab on 2 of the best offensive types in the game (Rock and Fighting) and has various high power coverage moves in both Physical and Special sides of the spectrum. It would become a very unpredictable threat that can just run choice specs when people are expecting physical sets and just nuke shit like it's no big deal. There's a reason why defeatist is that weak.