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Ability Speculation/Wishlist Thread

Illuminate obviously needs a buff. How about it automatically makes all opponent’s attacks redirect to the Pokémon with the Illuminate ability in double /multi battles, as if the Pokémon had used Follow Me?

Would be great in VGC
That would be low-key broken since that pokemon could then just spam protect and the opponent could do nothing against it, other than using attacks that target both opponents.
 
The biggest issue with Illuminate at the moment is that there are some Pokémon that are much better than others with it. Something that could make Lanturn on par with other common competitive Pokémon would almost certainly drive Starmie over the edge into brokenness, for instance.
 
I’d rather see Illuminate work like Flash and drop evasiveness when the user is hit by any Physical contact move. Accuracy is incredibly hard to increase and restore in battle and Illuminate could become a game changer.
If anything, it should just raise the users accuracy. Starmie would love it with Hydro Pump, Thunder, and Blizzard.
 
I'd probably also upgrade honey gather to have an in battle effect. It made sense when it was introduced but considering honey is now less useful considering you can't use it on trees for anything exclusive and most of the those with ability can know sweet scent. It could still collect honey post battle but I think an in-battle wouldn't hurt.
 
I'd probably also upgrade honey gather to have an in battle effect. It made sense when it was introduced but considering honey is now less useful considering you can't use it on trees for anything exclusive and most of the those with ability can know sweet scent. It could still collect honey post battle but I think an in-battle wouldn't hurt.
Sweet Scent doesn't work outside battles any more though. Just like Dig also lost its out of battle effect.
 
Sweet Scent doesn't work outside battles any more though. Just like Dig also lost its out of battle effect.

Ok didn't notice that you are correct on sweet scent. Even then though I think giving an in battle to honey gather would be a good idea. Perhaps one that enables a small amount of health recovery.
 
Sweet Scent doesn't work outside battles any more though. Just like Dig also lost its out of battle effect.

Just wondering in a general sense, did they ever announce these changes? Either officially or via an NPC?
Cos I had no idea Sweet Scent and Dig lost their overworld effects, nor did I know that Ghost-types have guaranteed escape from battles.
 
Just wondering in a general sense, did they ever announce these changes? Either officially or via an NPC?
Cos I had no idea Sweet Scent and Dig lost their overworld effects, nor did I know that Ghost-types have guaranteed escape from battles.
All moves with overworld effects lost them during Gen VII except for Chatter which was lost during Gen VI. Ghosts having guaranteed escape makes sense since they are ghosts and could easily escape by becoming intangible.
 
Ok didn't notice that you are correct on sweet scent. Even then though I think giving an in battle to honey gather would be a good idea. Perhaps one that enables a small amount of health recovery.

I can definitely see something like that. Honey, as an item, has lost its purpose in the Pokémon games. Perhaps it can be retooled into a recovery item that Pokémon with Honey Gather can spontaneously acquire, like with Pickup. As it's a natural item, like berries and herbs, Pokémon would be able to use it on their own too.
 
Intimidate copy but lowers the opponent's Sp. Atk. I imagine it would go to a lot of Dark and Psychic Pokemon.
Please no. Even with the ditching of Battle Royals Intimidate is still incredibly broken, it shouldn't be even more widespread than it already is. If there's Intimidate on both physical and special sides it would essentially kill any kind of offensive setup combination for doubles on anything that isn't Contrary / Clear body, Intimidate already does that for most physically attacking combos. I ran Swagger Regigigas next to Simple Beam Xatu, it can get rid of Slow Start and go to +4 attack in one turn by rebounding a Swagger on Xatu's Magic Bounce (and having Regigigas hold a Persim Berry), and it still wasn't that good because repeated Intimidate users coming in with U-Turn tanks the attack stat to the ground.
 
Intimidate and U-Turn? Isn't that a strategy specific to Incineroar?
Incineroar is arguably the best at it because it also has Fake Out which benefits from repeatedly coming back in, but Landorus does it a lot too (it's why it's so popular in doubles along with Rock Slide and a good attack stat), and Mega Manectric can do it too with Volt Switch. Manectric has the advantage that in a bad type match-up it can actually mega evolve and switch out in the same turn, which other pokémon can't do, and Intimidate being on the mega allows the user to pick the timing of Intimidate going off.
 
Interesting. Does that mean physical attackers are rare in competitive double battling? When I'd play double battles online, I don't run into very many of these. Incineroar I can expect to see happen, I never encountered Mega Manectric once, and while I did find a lot of Landorus, as to be expected, almost all of them chose to just use regular attacks rather than switch-out moves, or they just switched out the normal way. That being said, my preferred way to open a double battle is with one physical attacker and one special attacker, so perhaps seeing the special attacker there makes them think twice.

In any case, I have been hoping to eventually see Intimidate nerfed such that it only affects the Pokémon directly opposite from it rather than both of them. Won't be happening this generation though, as the video shown during the World Championships shows Intimidate in action.
 
I'll be legit sad if Impidimp doesn't have Prankster. At least as a Hidden Ability if nothing else. I'm torn between whether I want to use that or Alcremie
 
There's really not many fully evolved Pokemon with Run Away, and I don't really know whether they all can learn the moves, but an interesting additional in-battle effect for the ability.. since it's useless in trainer and competitive battling.. would be to give priority to moves such as U-Turn and Volt Switch, going forward.
 
I'll be legit sad if Impidimp doesn't have Prankster. At least as a Hidden Ability if nothing else. I'm torn between whether I want to use that or Alcremie

Problem is that Impidimp looks pretty similar to Sableye, and one of Sableye's distinguishing traits is its use of Prankster. I'd rather Impidimp, and whatever it evolves into, have something more its own thing when battling with it.

There's really not many fully evolved Pokemon with Run Away, and I don't really know whether they all can learn the moves, but an interesting additional in-battle effect for the ability.. since it's useless in trainer and competitive battling.. would be to give priority to moves such as U-Turn and Volt Switch, going forward.

Though that would have its own uses, and I'd like to see something like that, oftentimes, I actually use moves like U-Turn and Volt Switch on slower Pokémon to intentionally switch while going last so that the Pokémon that takes its place can enter battle safely. But yeah, I wouldn't pass up a chance to give priority to stronger attacking moves roo.
 
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