When I first played generation 3 and 4 games I was shocked about the introduction of pokemon powers/ablilities. This new addition really annoyed me because some of my previous tactics were rendered completely useless. I want to know if anyone else has had problems with these...At least I won't feel like a loser.

I think you're talking about abilities. You may want to change the title so this doesn't get confused with the pokémon move threads.

I got really mad about levitate. I don't make much use of it, and they make so many pokemon susceptible to ground type attacks able to levitate. I want to kill the stupid Haunter with earthquake, why does the game have something against me doing that? And why does every bronzor/bronzong I've encountered except one have it? I thought they were dual-ability pokemon... And then there's the stupid starter abilities. I mean seriously, why does every grass starter have to have overgrow, every fire starter blaze or whatever it was called, and every water starter torrent? Swift Swim would be a good ability for empoleon, guts for blaziken, chlorophyll for meganium... The starters really need better abilities.

The starter abilities make the starters stand out. And Charizard and Empoleon in particular love them so much competitively.

And if you aren't battling wild Bronzors/zongs, they all have Levitate. The game chooses 1 ability for dual ability pokemon to use (Voltorb gets Soundproof instead of Static for instance). I like levitate though, it makes sense on a lot of pokemon (And I've seen theories as to why the Magnemite/ton/zone line don't get it, mainly because EQ and such disbalance magnetic waves pushing it into the ground)

I know it makes them stand out, but they could at least give them Good ones. I mean seriously, more often then not moves of my starter's type don't get used when they're about to faint. Especially because if the opponent is the right type to get my starter's health that low, I won't be using moves of my starter's type. And about picking one ability for wild pokemon to have (most of the time, I don't believe it's always, otherwise what's the point of making them dual-ability? You can only get one!), that's just dumb, they need more variety. And I'm not saying levitate doesn't make sense, I'm just saying it gets annoying!

I said TRAINER pokemon pick one ability, not wild ones!

And as I said, Empoleon and Charizard would be useless competitively without those abilities. Granted, Charizard is just about useless anyway... and Infernape is frail enough that it can be at a low health often.

Originally posted by Mattman324

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I said TRAINER pokemon pick one ability, not wild ones!

And as I said, Empoleon and Charizard would be useless competitively without those abilities. Granted, Charizard is just about useless anyway... and Infernape is frail enough that it can be at a low health often.

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I don't agree with the Charizard statement, but you're right about the Infernape one. I also hate Shedninja's.

No charizard besides Belly Drum should be used competitively, because Moltres outdoes special ones, and plenty of other pokemon outdo other Physical ones. And since belly drum lowers HP by half... it gets you close to Blaze activation.

Of course, your still slow, and the only remidy is a Salac Berry, but for that to activate, you need to get well into Blaze range. So it is useless without Blaze.

Actually, no. The bronzong I fought with heatproof was a trainer one. So either way, you're wrong. Oh, well, who cares?

Getting back to the subject though, I have to say that the majority of moves are pretty neutral, if you know what I mean. Howewer, I always found that Leech seed is a useless (Not useless, but not the best) move, what does it do anyway?

Uhh, firstly, this is about abilities, not moves. Secondly, leech seed is actually a useful move. At the end of every turn, your pokemon steals HP from your opponent's, while you continue to use other attacks. What's so bad about that?

I like the Guts ability. Teach the normal type move Facade to a normal type pokémon with the Guts ability(i.e. Ursaring, Swellow) & the damage is great when they have a status problem since Facade's damage is also affected by status problems.

Some Pokemon Abilities are useful like levitate and some aren't like the starter Pokemon since my starters never get to use their abilities.

Exactly. Levitate is useful (albeit annoying sometimes), and the starter abilities are pointless. The starters are unique enough that they should have abilities that fit them. Empoleon and Feraligatr could have swift swim, Feraligatr especially because its pokedex entries state that it is faster in water than on land. Hello, that's what Swift Swim means! And Meganium should have chlorophyll, with the fact that it is a flower after all, and a solarbeam/sunny day combo is one of the best movesets you can have it use. But the Guts ability is pretty cool, and I greatly enjoy having pokemon with inner focus or own tempo, or even Keen Eye on my team. One ability that I think isn't very helpful, though, is Speed Boost. More often than not, the Pokemon with the ability Speed Boost is the faster pokemon anyways, so unless it is traced by Ralts/Kirlia/Gardevoir or Porygon/2/Z, it usually doesn't help much.

Levitate has not helped me against ground types. If i want to fight a ground-type pokemon, I switch to a flying type. The flying type can learn fly most of the time, so I get an HM. And if i use a flying move, I get stab. Levitate does not give a flying attack stab.

Trace is a nice ability if you're lucky, but is uncreative on Nintendo's part. Or is the result of laziness.

"Um... What ability to give this one?"
"Maybe if it gets to 1/3 health, it gets a def and special def boost!"
"That'd take too long, to copy torrent and replace 'increase water power' with 'increase def and s-def'. I'll just make the ability copy whatever the foe's ability is."

Without Wonder Guard, Shedinja would be completely useless. I like Groudon/Kyogre abilities but the legendaries have the almost completely useless pressure ability. I also agree that the starters should have cooler abilities. I hardly ever use an ability to my advantage unless it's automatic like Intimidate or Speed Boost.

Honestly the abilities threw me for a loop the first time i played 3rd Gen. But now i am so used to it that i create amazing teams that work off one another

Shedinja's wonder guard really threw off my tactics since I didn't have any moves to hit it with.

catfight09 : Really? No Flamethrower or anything? Almost every team should have that attack somewhere.

I was training a staryu