Pokémon!

[Salanewt]

What he said (^).

And as for Wonder Guard, it is a cool ability. However, it would be better if Shedinja could have a little bit more than 1 HP, since this means that a level 1 Pokemon can easily kill it in one hit. For example, Charmander with Flamethrower tm. Perhaps a range of 20-30 HP would have been nice, no higher than 40 HP. Still easy to kill in one or two hits, yet it will not die from the weather.

In my opinion, the worst ability is Slow Start, followed by the one that Slakoth and Slaking have. Pressure stinks as well, since I can normally kill my opponent (or die) before they run out of their 20-30 PP. On top of that, very few Pokemon have movesets where each move has 5 PP or less. There is almost always an ability with 10-20 PP, and quite often one with 25-30.

Personally, I like Water Absorb (with a large fraction of Pokemon being water type, and another large fraction of the moves are water based). I could have a Vaporeon and a Lapras use Surf constantly, and I keep healing as I do damage. Volt Absorb and Flash Fire are nice as well, since one heals with electricity and the other powers up with fire.

Have a nice day.

[leaf]

It's fine that a low level poke can kill sheddy in one hit. And the problem with giving it an actual HP growth (instead of using an override to set it to 1 HP) is that even if you made its base HP 0, it would still have a minimum of 110 HP at lv100, and 11 HP at lv1. If IVs and EVs had an effect on this as well, the maximum possible HP at lv100 would be 204. This is simply due to the way the formulas in the game work. I mean, they could have made a whole new growth formula just for shedinja, but I think it's more interesting this way, anyway.

Slow start is indeed the worst ability in the game, and truant is pretty bad, but at least it doesn't make slaking unplayable. Slaking is still really good for hit and run with a choice band.

Pressure isn't bad. It isn't great, but its draining effect can definitely be felt if you're playing against a good defensive pokemon. Moves with only 5 (8) PP get drained fast, and you can easily run out. Sure, the pokemon has other moves, but having all of your main offense drained hurts. A machamp using cross chop or a heatran using fire blast will not be happy running into pressure pokemon multiple times. It greatly reduces their threat to you, and it is indeed a legit strategy to PP stall someone.

Any ability that negates the damage from a certain type of attack is great. Levitate doesn't grant any extra bonuses, but it allows you to avoid EQ, one of the most common attacks in the game, which makes it amazing. Intimidate is probably one of the best abilities in the game, as well, softening physical blows on the switch in.

[Salanewt]

Levitate is wonderful too. I also don't mind Breloom's possible ability, although I forget what it is right now. It can heal from Poison in battle (but still takes damage out of battle). Intimidate is nice, although I personally prefer Synchronize (another reason why I kept my Espeon, which has much better Speed than everyone else on my team to add on to that).

For Shedinja, that is true.

Pressure... That is also true, but I can think of several other abilities that I could use. I mean, why hav Pressure when I could have Mold Breaker (another easy way to kill Shedinja, although there are even better abilities than this).

Have a nice day.

[Rolina]

Yeah, wonder guard would be great if it didn't suck.  Your opponent would be exploiting weaknesses anyways, having 3-4 types of attacks (only one or two being STAB, the rest for versatility and counters) - wonder guard just really wouldn't do you much good, since it's REALLY easy in pokemon to have most of, if not all of, your bases covered.  ESPECIALLY since TMs are no longer single-use only in Black and White.

I love some of the absorb abilities.  To absorb 'elemental' forces would be a great idea, such as water, electric, fire, and possibly even ice.  Even better, though, is the 'empowered' versions of them, where you don't absorb it, you get boosted by it.  Imagine, in the 3x3 battles in the next game, a team of three either water absorbing or water empowering mons.  Spam Surf for great justice.  Of course, in metagame you'd need a different tactic, something more complex.

[leaf]

Wonder guard on anything except shedinja would be downright broken, though. Neutral attacks get used so much.

Levitate is wonderful too. I also don't mind Breloom's possible ability, although I forget what it is right now. It can heal from Poison in battle (but still takes damage out of battle).

It's called... poison heal. >_>

And you say you don't mind it? Seriously? That's all you can say about it?

Breloom@toxic orb
trait: poison heal
- substitute
- leech seed
- focus punch
- spore

This pokemon is a pain to deal with. Heals 12.5% of its HP every turn thanks to poison heal (twice that of leftovers), while seed makes up for most of the rest of the lost HP from making subs. Gets to sleep something for free, giving it even more freedom with setting up, and can dish out huge amounts of damage with focus punch every turn from behind a substitute.

Like most abilities, you need to think about how good it is on the pokemon it comes with. If this ability was given to a glass cannon instead, it wouldn't be anywhere near as useful.

Intimidate is nice, although I personally prefer Synchronize (another reason why I kept my Espeon, which has much better Speed than everyone else on my team to add on to that).

They aren't comparable. At all. Intimidate softens the blow from physical attacks when you switch in, making it easier to deal with physical threats (and cutting out a third of your opponent's Atk every time you switch in is no joke, even if they can get rid of the stat drop by switching).

Meanwhile, synchronize retaliates against status. But for something that retaliates against status, when compared to guts, synchronize is pretty pathetic. Sure, it gives the team something that can take status, hurting your opponent for it, but in the end you still have a status'd pokemon and all you've managed to do is hit one of your opponent's pokemon for that same status... except sleep and freeze, which don't even work with synchronize. Add on the fact that the pokemon that get it generally don't want to be status'd (espeon hates being para'd, and umbreon can't afford to take any of the statuses), and you have yourself a pretty subpar ability. Then, take guts. It boosts your attack by 1.5x when you get hit by status, which means you'll be dishing out a huge amount of damage before the status really catches up to you. It ignores the attack drop from burns, meaning that unlike most physical pokes, a burn is a guts poke's best friend.

Pressure... That is also true, but I can think of several other abilities that I could use. I mean, why hav Pressure when I could have Mold Breaker (another easy way to kill Shedinja, although there are even better abilities than this).

Why have pressure? Oh... I dunno... game balance? It being the only available ability for the pokemon that get it? The pokemon that get it generally having other things that make them very good regardless? It's only really abusable by a few pokemon (suicune, spiritomb, zapdos and a couple others are about it in OU). For the others, it's a nice little bonus for them, without being blatantly overpowered.

Or maybe gamefreak just didn't feel like being creative with the older legendaries and gave them all a generic semi-useful ability. Yeah. I think I'm gonna go with that one.

But really, you would have pressure instead of mold breaker because you can't have mold breaker, or any other ability, for that matter. Go use a rampardos if you want mold breaker.

[Salanewt]

Actually, I was planning on buying the Toxic Orb, and raising a Breloom. The only problem is that the Breloom that I kidnapped from Maylene does not have Poison Heal.

They aren't comparable. At all. Intimidate softens the blow from physical attacks when you switch in, making it easier to deal with physical threats (and cutting out a third of your opponent's Atk every time you switch in is no joke, even if they can get rid of the stat drop by switching).

I know. I am just saying that I switched out my Staraptor for my Espeon. Besides, my Espeon can actually handle Paralyze quite well. I brought it over from Gale of Darkness, so its stats are pretty good compared to most of my other Espeons (I don't know why, but it probably had something to do with never leaving it in the PC, unlike what I almost always end up doing with the handheld systems because I only feel like raising a new Pokemon at the last second).

And for Mold Breaker, I know that. I am just saying that I would rather have several other abilities than Pressure (although Pressure would be nice when fighting actual people, but I have probably done that in a very tiny fraction of my game-playing career, like 0.1%).

Have a nice day.

[Charon]

I've had a WHOLE TEAM OF SHEDINJA.

WONDER GUARD FTW!!!!

Nero sent out Shedinja!
Leaf sent out Tyranitar!
A sandstorm started brewing!
A sandstorm is brewing!
Nero's Shedinja is buffeted by the sandstorm!
Nero's Shedinja took 1 damage!
Nero's Shedinja fainted!

This. Thank you so much for saying this for me, Leafy :3

They aren't comparable. At all. Intimidate softens the blow from physical attacks when you switch in, making it easier to deal with physical threats (and cutting out a third of your opponent's Atk every time you switch in is no joke, even if they can get rid of the stat drop by switching).

I know. I am just saying that I switched out my Staraptor for my Espeon. Besides, my Espeon can actually handle Paralyze quite well. I brought it over from Gale of Darkness, so its stats are pretty good compared to most of my other Espeons (I don't know why, but it probably had something to do with never leaving it in the PC, unlike what I almost always end up doing with the handheld systems because I only feel like raising a new Pokemon at the last second).

The problem with that though is some Pokemon could just transfer a status effect to you, then ricochet it back on themselves, so they can get the bonus. And leaving it in your PC made Espeon better just because, you know, GoD SUCKED for EV training (while in the handheld games it's much easier to control what Pokemon you're going to face)

And for Mold Breaker, I know that. I am just saying that I would rather have several other abilities than Pressure (although Pressure would be nice when fighting actual people, but I have probably done that in a very tiny fraction of my game-playing career, like 0.1%).

Yeah, but Pressure is such a meh ability. It's just annoying when catching the damn thing but in battle it's practically useless just because the opponent probably won't suffer enough from the PP drainage.

[leaf]

Besides, my Espeon can actually handle Paralyze quite well.

Paralysis quarters speed.

[Salanewt]

Oh yeah... I still have 277 Speed though, so I have approximately 69-70 Speed with Paralyze, which makes me faster than most other Pokemon up to level 30-40. Not so good when fighting stronger enemies, but it has nice stats compared to several of my past Pokemon, and only one physical attack. Besides, if my Espeon is paralyzed, its Synchronize will paralyze the enemy as well. This is only useful for the Pokemon that actually affects Espeon, but I can slow it down as well (and with my Speed, I am likely to be faster than it). Alternatively, I could use an item.

[spoiler=Espeon]
HP: 274
Attack: 180
Defence: 173
Sp. Attack: 268
Sp. Defence: 224
Speed: 277

Bite: 25 PP
Shadow Ball: 15 PP
Psybeam: 20 PP
Psychic: 16 PP[/spoiler]

It could have better stats I suppose, but this works quite well for me. Best Speed on my current team, and my Vaporeon has the best HP (at 373, but only 138 Speed, which is my worst Speed).

The problem with that though is some Pokemon could just transfer a status effect to you, then ricochet it back on themselves, so they can get the bonus. And leaving it in your PC made Espeon better just because, you know, GoD SUCKED for EV training (while in the handheld games it's much easier to control what Pokemon you're going to face)

Oh yeah, I never thought about any of that. I normally avoid worrying about EV training though. My Espeon also normally kills the opponent before they feel any benefits, if they do. However, I can see some Pokemon gaining benefits (like Breloom).

Have a nice day.

[Charon]

Oh yeah... I still have 277 Speed though, so I have approximately 69-70 Speed with Paralyze, which makes me faster than most other Pokemon up to level 30-40.

...which is useless in competitive play. Which is how 99% of people play Pokemon lol.

Not so good when fighting stronger enemies, but it has nice stats compared to several of my past Pokemon, and only one physical attack. Besides, if my Espeon is paralyzed, its Synchronize will paralyze the enemy as well. This is only useful for the Pokemon that actually affects Espeon, but I can slow it down as well (and with my Speed, I am likely to be faster than it). Alternatively, I could use an item.

Oh my god Espeon SUCKS with crap speed. Its defenses are relatively crappy (especially normal defense) and it relies on that base 110 speed to really be useful.

[spoiler=Espeon]
HP: 274
Attack: 180
Defence: 173
Sp. Attack: 268
Sp. Defence: 224
Speed: 277

Bite: 25 PP
Shadow Ball: 15 PP
Psybeam: 20 PP
Psychic: 16 PP[/spoiler]

Bite? Psybeam?! Wat

It could have better stats I suppose, but this works quite well for me. Best Speed on my current team, and my Vaporeon has the best HP (at 373, but only 138 Speed, which is my worst Speed).

Yeah, a lot better. You should really give EV training a go. Really allows you to customize your poke's as well as make them kick general @#$.

The problem with that though is some Pokemon could just transfer a status effect to you, then ricochet it back on themselves, so they can get the bonus. And leaving it in your PC made Espeon better just because, you know, GoD SUCKED for EV training (while in the handheld games it's much easier to control what Pokemon you're going to face)

Oh yeah, I never thought about any of that. I normally avoid worrying about EV training though. My Espeon also normally kills the opponent before they feel any benefits, if they do. However, I can see some Pokemon gaining benefits (like Breloom).
Have a nice day.

Yeah, Synchronize is totally meh in my opinion. My favourite abilities are those like Poison Heal, or those that can help you avoid status effects (especially insomnia - my Honchkrow is one of the few counter-strategies to the Breloom previously mentioned)

I don't have my DS on me right now so I can't report its stats, but it's current moveset is:
Sucker Punch
Superpower
Drill Peck
Night Slash

Night Slash is kinda filler tbh but oh well :/

But I mean, hey, play the way you want. I'm a competitive player, you're casual. Whatever floats your boat.

[Salanewt]

For your last statement... True enough. However, I think I should say who I wanted in my team at one point.

Breloom (Poison Heal)
Togekiss
Noctowl (can learn Confusion, which helps against Fighting types)
Arcanine (which I have)
Lapras (or a Vaporeon with better Speed, so I can have Water Absorb)
Ampharos

Also, what is wrong with my Espeon's moves? I am still planning on replacing Psybeam, but...

Have a nice day.

[Aile~♥]

Lucario moveset I want:
Aura Sphere
Copycat
Psychic
Flash Cannon

My current Lucario:
Aura Sphere
Copycat
Psychic
Dark Pulse

Yeah, Copycat is just there for fun/variety. It'd work well on Dragon types (the ones that actually have dragon type moves), or in double battles where my second Pokemon is faster than Lucario, but that's about it.

Basically, the idea is: two STAB moves, one move just for returning whatever I take (because it's FUN), and one to take care of his weakness.

@Sala: What's wrong is that Bite is epic fail, and you should give Espeon Dark Pulse instead. Also, what's wrong is that you should give Espeon something better than Psybeam because it fails.

Also, Lapras seems to have better HP than Vaporeon. Though, its ability is kinda fail. (It just makes it so the enemy cannot crit, although that is pretty good for the non-competitive stuff, since it takes a lot of the luck aspect out of battles.)

[Salanewt]

@Sala: What's wrong is that Bite is epic fail, and you should give Espeon Dark Pulse instead. Also, what's wrong is that you should give Espeon something better than Psybeam because it fails.

Great, thanks! How can I teach my Espeon Dark Pulse again? I just got rid of Psybeam for Morning Sun, so I should be good to go for him now.

Lapras, that is true. Water Absorb is bad? I would go for a Lapras with Water Absorb.

Have a nice day.

[Aile~♥]

I didn't say that Water Absorb is bad, I said that Lapras' ability (Battle Armour or Battle Shell or something like that) is bad.

And, on second thought, I'm not even sure Espeon CAN learn Dark Pulse, so maybe Bite is the next best thing. The main problem with Bite is that Espeon is a special attacker, and Bite is a physical attack.

[Salanewt]

Yeah, I know. The only reason why I have Bite is to help when fighting Dark or other Psychic type Pokemon (as that previously meant that half of my attacks would not hit, and Ghost is not very effective against Dark). I did replace Psybeam with Morning Sun though, so I have a healing ability now.

Have a nice day.

[leaf]

Confusion is a horrible move and vaporeon naturally has low speed.

Espeon has trash physical attack, making bite very bad on it (and it wasn't even that good in gen 3 to begin with simply due to the move's low base power). Psybeam is fine for ingame purposes, I guess. Shadow ball was kind of a waste of a TM, when other pokemon could've used it much better. Really, the only move you have there that a competitive espeon would also carry is psychic. In general, for playing against the computer, it doesn't matter if you have horrible movesets, since you can still usually win, but if you're playing against humans, it requires a whole other level of thought and consideration as to what you're doing.

...I'd have gotten rid of bite for morning sun, tbh. There's nothing you'd want to use bite on when you have shadow ball, and psybeam gives lots of extra PP for blasting ingame pokes. You wouldn't use either in competitive matches, though.

[Salanewt]

True enough, but Noctowl is Normal + Flying... Oh yeah, Confusion is needless for Fighting types.

I probably should replace Bite with something else, like Future Sight.

Have a nice day.

Oh yeah, I wanted Blissey instead of Ampharos. I forget why I said Ampharos now.

[leaf]

Future sight is pretty bad, too.

[Salanewt]

And then I have Last Resort, Psych Up, or Power Swap. Otherwise, I have to find a Move Tutor that teaches moves not learned by leveling up. Otherwise, I just replace Bite with Psybeam (Heart Scales are much easier to come by thanks to the Underground).

Have a nice day.

[Aile~♥]

Noctowl is awesome. I mean, it learns Air Slash AND Sky Attack, both of which are some pretty nice attack moves.

Also, most of the move tutors teach suckish moves. Those that aren't suckish can only be used by a very small number of Pokemon. (coughcoughHEATWAVEcoughcough)