The most annoying status conndition in the Pokemon series is confusion to me because when I get confused most of the time I get hurt on that turn which is SO INFURIATING!

For me its a tie between a poison/confusion combo or a paralyzed/confusion combo.with the poison/confusion if your unlucky you could easily KO your own Pokémon and for me it seems whenever I'm paralyzed and confused I would either be unable to move or I would hit myself, it would drive insane every time it had happened to me, now my favorite thing to do in any first Gen hack I play is a toxic/leach seed combo because of the games mechanics they will combine and the damage dealt your Pokémon will actually heal so it is a incredibly easy way to heal your Pokémon in the first Gen against good opponents,

I can cope with poisoning, confusion, sleeping, and even paralysis because I normally keep heals, awakenings, antidotes, etc for all of them. But the one status condition I find the most annoying is being frozen. Although its probably the rarest of all the status conditions, I cannot stand it when someone uses one ice beam or blizzard and in one hit, it freezes my Pokemon. In the generation 2 games, my Pokemon usually stayed frozen throughout the whole battle until I used an ice heal on it or a burnt berry or something. If an opponent got one of my Pokemon frozen, it practically killed it because I could literally do NOTHING about it. > 

Sleep. I have horrible RNG luck with that so waking up is hard and with the moves the work with sleep usually tend to get me.

Gonna have to go with confusion, I don't know how many times where I'm trying to catch a legnedary or rare pokemon and they knock themselves out with a confusion.  Everything else may be irritating but not as irritating as confusion.

Paralysis is my most hated status condition. It always skips my turn(s) when I need it most, and it lasts even after battle, unlike confusion. I've also had my share of moments where the loss of speed pretty much made me lose.

Also the Static ability. It always seems to work against me 100% of the time

For me, it's gotta be sleep. It just makes me rage on the inside whenever someone puts my Pokemon to sleep, because you basically can't do anything unless you have Sleep Talk or Snore. And I barely use any of those moves, so it's difficult for me.

   Okay. First off, I am not going to vote. I cannot pick just one. Instead, I will describe each status condition in detail, list the reasons I do or do not like using it and the reasons I do not like or mind being on the receiving end either. So yeah. I am just going to say my piece and leave it alone.

First, the often forgotten newest conditional status abnormality is attraction. It may only occur between opposing Pokémon of opposite gender. The move Attract induces it against a Pokémon that is not currently infatuated. Cute Charm ability may activate attraction if an opposing Pokémon initiates contact with the ability holder through an attack. Once infatuated, the Pokémon that is attracted has a 50% chance of making a move for every turn the Pokémon it fell head over heels for remains in battle. This makes it more permanent than confusion but just as easily broken up (not by soaker hose) by switching or playing the Red Flute. It doesn't carry the same damage consequence of confusion when in effect, so it is not quite as dangerous. Genderless Pokémon cannot be infatuated by any Pokémon.

I don't like using Attract because the 50/50 chance of gender difference makes the move useless a lot of the time. Cute Charm ability is useful for attracting because you don't have a move that is dead weight against half your opponents and it is automatic - not requiring you to do anything more than take a hit and stay in the battle.

Being under attraction is not so bad for a Pokémon. It may still attack and finish off an opponent which is why I do not particularly find it to be a reliable status advantage. It can increase your odds of winning when used to effect but I would not count on it 100% of the time. I usually leave my infatuated Pokémon in for a couple more turns to see what happens. The odds of being immobilized remain the same no matter what turn it is but if my special friend from the Poke Ball is getting hammered for love, I tend to lean towards mercy and let another friend finish the battle and avoid the heartbreak.

Alphabetically, burn comes second.

When a Pokémon is burned, its attack lowers 1 level for the duration of the condition and its HP lowers a bit every turn it is left in battle before being cured. This condition does not interfere with the ability to attack; it merely affects the power of "attack" moves. It is perhaps less irksome than the rest because it does not stop an attack from progressing when it is your turn.

Note: If the affected Pokémon has Guts ability, its attack will actually go up one level (as with any of the three fully permanent conditions) so instead of the burn limiting attack power, it could increase it.

Burns can be cured instantly with Burn Heal, Ice/ Rawst Berry, Full Heal, Lava Cookie and Miracle/ Lum Berry plus the Ice/ Rawst Berry or Miracle/ Lum Berry can heal burns automatically if the affected Pokémon are holding those berries. The move Refresh cures this condition when the burned Pokémon uses it. The moves Heal Bell and Aromatherapy will also heal the burned condition when the Pokémon or an ally uses one of them.

There are fire attacks which have a chance to burn a target Pokémon and a move called Will-o-wisp which burns every time it hits a Pokémon that is not already burned. Fire Pokémon and Pokémon with Water Veil ability cannot be burned. The contact ability Flame Body may burn any Pokémon that can be burned which initiates contact with the ability holder.

Actually, I love using burns against tough opponents and mediocre opponents alike. For the reasons listed above, it gives a significant advantage most of the time. The most significant of those reasons being its permanency and its consistent effect.

It is a sour occasion when a Pokémon of yours is burned. Luckily, it is pretty easy to cure if you feel like using up a turn for it in battle. If not (like if you think it will likely just happen again), you either switch or put up with losing a bit of Hit Points every time you do something and also not striking the opponents with quite so much power as before the burn occurred.

Next up is confusion. Confusion is most reliably caused by the moves Confuse Ray, Swagger, Flatter and Teeter Dance. It can also be self-induced by attacks like Thrash and Petal Dance. The confusion status is easily solved by switching your Pokémon or playing the Yellow Flute on it or using a Full Heal, Bitter/ Persim Berry, Miracle/ Lum Berry or a Lava Cookie on the affected Pokémon. Making a Pokémon hold a Bitter/ Persim Berry or Miracle/ Lum Berry will cancel out one count of confusion before it has any effect even if your Pokémon is the slower one.

The effect of confusion is a 50% chance during your Pokémon's turn to attack that it will not attack the opponent but strike itself instead. The damage that occurs when your Pokémon hurts itself in confusion is dependent on the current ratios between the Pokémon's attack and defense stats. If the attack stat has been heightened, if the defense stat has been lowered or both, the victim will do more damage to itself. That is why Swagger can be so devastating but it also gives the afflicted Pokémon the chance to fight back more powerfully. (double edged sword) This principle also applies if the afflicted Pokémon naturally has higher attack and/or lower defense. The Pokémon Shuckle is an example of where confusion would not have a very high potential damage consequence because it has a very high defense compared to its attack power. A smart player weighs the potential risk of losing a lot of Hit Points by checking or estimating their Pokémon's defense and attack stats before deciding to leave the confused Pokémon in battle uncured of confusion for a potential turn advantage.

The hurting oneself as a result of confusion does not count as using a move and therefore does not use a Power Point of the intended move in that turn. Confusion does not always last until the affected Pokémon faints. Often, it will snap out of confusion after a few turns with the condition. Not permanent. Pokémon with Own Tempo ability cannot be confused.

When my Pokémon gets confused, I am dismayed. Then I table the potential damage to be received if the worst happens against the other chance of my attack working and the opponent fainting in the next hit. It is an even 50/50 split in theory so the reward must outweigh the risk. Other factors that I put in there is how tough the opponent is to beat, will beating the opposition single-handed likely change the result to an instant level gain by not dividing the experience points, the speed of my confusion inducing opponent (how fast can they do it again) and whether the emotional reward of beating the opponent single-handed while confused makes a difference to me at that time. It can be troubling when it does not work out quite as well as one hopes but on the other side of the coin there was a chance of being so lucky to have everything work out fine in spite of an obstacle. That is a reward unto itself. Fighting through confusion can be disappointing, irksome and also joyously elating.

Freezing is next. While freezing occurs less often than sleep, the effect is quite similar but at the same time tends to play out a little differently in the game. The frozen Pokémon cannot make a move while frozen. A Pokémon with Magma Armor cannot be frozen and nor can ice type Pokémon. With any other non-permanent condition, the afflicted must keep the condition for at least one turn before shaking it off. Not so with freezing. A frozen Pokémon may defrost the immediate turn after receiving the condition or it may take several turns. To take the guess work out of the defrost process you can instantly use Ice Heal, Burnt/ Aspear Berry, Miracle/ Lum Berry, Full Heal, or Lava Cookie plus equipping your Pokémon with a Burnt/ Aspear Berry or Miracle/ Lum Berry to hold will defrost them automatically when a freezing occurs against them in a battle they take part in. The moves Heal Bell and Aromatherapy will also heal the condition when ally Pokémon use them.

I do not prefer to use this one. It does not occur very often even when I use the right moves. When it does occur, it can end before it even has an effect on the opponent. Calling it unreliable would be stating its virtues too generously.

 As for being frozen, it is not always so bad. If I know I am facing an ice type opponent, I may prepare by making a few party members hold an appropriate curing berry and being stocked with a few instant recovery items. It is not the worst thing that can happen because it is often over before you know it.

Paralysis is quite maddening but it can be tolerated. Moves like Thunder Wave, Stun Spore and Zap Cannon (when it hits) cause paralysis most reliably. When a Pokémon becomes paralyzed, its speed immediately drops to a quarter of what it ought to be after stat changes and remains that way until the Pokémon is cured. The afflicted Pokémon may or may not attack on any subsequent turn when paralysis is in effect. The condition may be cured by a Parlyz Heal, Full Heal, Przcureberry/ Cheri Berry, Miracle/ Lum Berry or Lava Cookie and giving a Przcureberry/ Cheri Berry or Miracle/ Lum Berry to a Pokémon to hold will cure the condition in battle without the trainer having to do a thing. The move Refresh cures this condition when the paralyzed Pokémon uses it. The moves Heal Bell and Aromatherapy will also heal the paralysis condition when the Pokémon or an ally uses one of them. Paralysis may be caused by the contact abilities Static and Effect Spore when the opponent initiates contact with the ability holder. Limber ability prevents the Pokémon with the ability from ever having it.

A paralyzed Pokémon has a decreased likelihood of attacking and unlike attraction it is a permanent ability whose effects can only be shed by curing it with an item or move or the ability Shed Skin taking effect. I use this condition against opponents quite a lot. It is readily available in the abilities and early moves of Pokémon caught early in games. I like the automatic speed advantage when you aren't vastly outclassed in that stat category and the opponent's often decreased ability to fight back. When my Pokémon is afflicted by paralysis, I like that the paralysis is not always fully effective and of the three permanent status conditions in battle it is the one that does not decrease Hit Points. Often, I'll leave a Pokémon paralyzed to fight off weak poisoners in the grass and avoid being poisoned altogether.
 
Poisoning sounds so insidious but it does not really kill anything. Antidotes are the cheapest so it is not so expensive to keep a Pokémon from ever fainting from it. Poison Point and Effect Spore abilities may induce poisoning when an opposing Pokémon initiates contact with the ability holder. The move Toxic badly poisons a target when it strikes and the attack Poison Fang may do that as well as damage. Bad poisoning starts with a low percentage of Hit Points taken away in the first turn but doubles the running amount in all subsequent turns. To revert a Toxic poisoning to a normal poisoning, simply switch the Pokémon out. Curing the poison also works. Antidotes, Psncureberry/ Pecha Berry, Full Heal, Lava Cookie and Miracle/ Lum Berry all cure poison. Psncureberries/ Pecha Berries and Miracle/ Lum Berries can also stop the poisoning before you lose even one Hit Point from it if your Pokémon holds one of them. The move Refresh cures poison instantly when the afflicted Pokémon uses it. The moves Heal Bell and Aromatherapy will also cure poison when used by the afflicted Pokémon or an ally Pokémon. Immunity ability or being poison or steel type prevents a Pokémon from ever being poisoned.

Poison is a condition that you definitely have to watch out for and be prepared for. I do not particularly like being poisoned which is why I am always prepared for it when I can be. I love to use poison against an opponent. I use Poison Sting pretty often in the early going of a game and it works if you stick to it. It is like burning an opponent but without the decreased attack advantage. Toxic poisoning would be the ultimate because opponents don't usually try to cure it or switch out right away. It is so fun and quick to badly poison an opponent and watch him go down suffering.

Finally, sleep. Originally Spore was the only move that reliably put anything to sleep and only Paras and his evolved form Parasect could use it. Sleep Powder did okay most of the time. I am ticked sometimes about how short a time it lasts when I am counting on it to last longer. Granted, the ability to wake up and attack on the same turn did shorten many a repetitive battle and had the effect of quelling the pain in my head in a situation when sleep would have lengthened such a battle.

Sleep can last many turns and you can either choose to wait for the condition to end or do what I do. Wake it up! Awakening, Poke/ Blue Flute, Mint/ Chesto Berry, Miracle/ Lum Berry, Full Heal and Lava Cookie all work great. Blue Flute can be used on a Pokémon at any time (even not in battle) and Mint/ Chesto Berry and Miracle/ Lum Berry work automatically when you let a Pokémon hold them. The ability Early Bird aids a Pokémon in waking up quicker and the abilities Insomnia and Vital Spirit stop a Pokémon from ever falling asleep at the wheel. The contact ability Effect Spore may activate and put contact initiators to sleep. The moves Heal Bell and Aromatherapy will wake up ally Pokémon when they are used. The moves Sleep Talk and Snore may be used while the user snoozes. The move Rest inflicts sleep on the user and heals other conditions and all the Hit Points while scheduling it to awaken two turns later. The moves Nightmare and Dream Eater only work while the target Pokémon is asleep so be aware that they can happen if you don't wake up your Pokémon right away.

I prefer to use sleep moves on opponents and have it work effectively. It is so annoying when they keep waking up. As for my own team falling asleep, I just have to be prepared like with poisoning. When I am not prepared, battles can be long and vexing.

That is my say on the matter. I guess when it comes down to pure volume of agony, it can be a four way tie between the most common sleep, paralysis, confusion and attraction because there is always the chance that you can or may not attack on that next turn or an afflicted opponent can or may not do the same. Then you are left with the realization (if by chance you chose wrongly) that you made a terrible error by leaving it to chance. These four conditions ramp up the torment the most for sure.


P3

Disclaimer: This post does not attempt to make light of the experiences of people who have been paralyzed, poisoned, burned, cryogenically frozen, confused, infatuated, heart-broken or suffer from insomnia, have nightmares, snore, sleep talk or have hurt themselves or been stung by an insect or snake or arachnid. Furthermore, the use of the words "dead weight" does not refer to your dead relatives or your competence at your long term job. I ask only that my readers do not intentionally look for things to be offended about.


Thank you.

I think that the most annoying status condition is poison. This is because after you get out of battle, its effects still linger until you heal your Pokémon. On top of that, your game will keep pixelating until the Pokémon is either fainted or healed.