vikingboybilly

Do we need another low level grass type attack when we’ve had absorb, vine whip, and razor leaf since gen 1? Has GameFreak decided that Rowlett is incapable of any of those moves (I honestly see razor leaf as a fitting move), or did they just want a non-physical vine whip?

Well, clearly they want a starting move for Rowlet, something it can have at level 5 (just like all the starters had in generation VI), and just as clearly Razor Leaf is too strong for that. It could easily learn Razor Leaf later on. Is Vine Whip appropriate for Rowlet? Eh. Doesn’t strike me as a great match. We’ve never had a bird-like Grass-type before, so new moves that go along with that strike me as nothing more than we should expect.

Anonymous asks:

What exactly is “special defense”?

I don’t think it’s necessarily anything, really. I don’t think any of the stats are anything. Think about speed, for instance. Rapidash has a base speed of 105, and that’s clearly because she runs really fast, but then, Kadabra also has a base speed of 105 and it’s equally clear that this does not mean Kadabra can run as fast as Rapidash. In Kadabra’s case it represents something more like reaction time. So really speed is “anything that enables a Pokémon to gain a tactical advantage which can be represented by moving first.”

Continue reading →

Anonymous asks:

What do you think of the theory that the Rowlet line will be grass/steel, the Litten line fire/poison, and the Popplio line water/fairy, to tie into potential themes of knife-thrower, fire-breather, and clown/entertainer-seal?

Pretty much the same thing as I think of most of these predictions that people like to make in the run-up to a new generation: “It could be right; it’s probably wrong; there’s too little evidence to make a good assessment; I don’t really care.”

batabid asks:

What’s your explanation for how the move Trick-or-Treat works?

Hmm. Well, when you go Trick-or-Treat-ing, you “become” a ghost, or monster, or whatever, for a little while. You take a little journey into the spirit world, and gain new perspectives on the natural and the supernatural. Pumpkaboo is a Jack-o’-lantern, a light that guides souls through the spirit world, so it makes sense it would be able to get other Pokémon to follow it on that sort of escapade. Once you go along with that, you have some of the properties of a spirit yourself, including immunities and vulnerabilities.

vikingboybilly asks:

Timburr should learn wood hammer.

Should he, though? By the time Timburr reaches a level where a move as powerful as Wood Hammer becomes remotely reasonable, he’s not Timburr anymore. It makes sense for Timburr, sure, but in practice what we’re actually saying is “let’s give Conkeldurr Wood Hammer,” and… I don’t think there’s any good reason for that?

EDIT: Pansexualkiba adds: There are some Pokemon who have access to moves in their base form that their evolutions can’t get, though! Like, for example, Riolu and Force Palm or Nidorina and Poison Fang.
To which I would answer: absolutely true, but so what? Those are moves that still make perfect sense for Lucario and Nidoqueen.
Conkeldurr getting Wood Hammer would hardly be the stupidest thing we’ve ever seen in terms of move compatibility, but I think that not giving it to him is perfectly understandable.

Anonymous asks:

Obviously, any regular reader knows that you’re a champion of the Grass type. One thing that occurred to me recently – any thoughts on why is there only a single Grass/Ground type? Wouldn’t that seem an obvious combination to be exploited? Roots would presumably feature heavily. It seems that flavour wise, at least, this one would seem natural.

I think maybe the fact that it seems so natural is actually part of the reason. Ground is, let’s face it, a poorly thought out mess of a type. Pokémon can be assigned to the Ground type because they have powers related to earth and soil, or because they happen to live on the ground, or sometimes, it seems, just because they’re generally tough and resilient. It’s a really vague set of traits, most of which also apply to pure Grass-types. If most of the things that define Ground are also essentially inherent to Grass anyway, there’s never any need to add Ground to a Grass Pokémon, unless you come up against something like Torterra who’s associated with the earth in a much more elemental sense than most Ground Pokémon.

Anonymous asks:

Hi dear pokemaniacal, what do you think about a new “Cosmic” type added to the game? A type that would´t bother much the current metagame, given to very little pokemon in form of Megas to don´t mess too with the current types (like Solrock/Lunatone, Clefable, Sigilyph, Deoxis and the likes or few forgotten ones as Xatu) or just only to the new legendaries to add more mysticism and exclusivity to them. Anyway, what pokemon would you give this type? Match-ups? Would this type have right to exist?

I pretty much have to refer you to this recent question and answer, which is kinda my default reply to anything involving adding more types. I just don’t think it adds anything worthwhile at this point – is the fact that we don’t have a whole type dedicated to Pokémon associated with celestial phenomena really a significant limitation on design? If we want something we can give to legendary Pokémon to make them more powerful, well, sure – we’ve pretty much thrown game balance out the window with them long ago anyway, and there are good aesthetic reasons for wanting them to stand head-and-shoulders above other Pokémon. But personally I’d rather overhaul the way we interact with legendary Pokémon in the games completely.

Anonymous asks:

I realize now that my previous question may have been misleading. When I said “weird” I wasn’t referring to the grass/fighting type combination itself, as that’s been done several times, but to the idea of a mysterious owl suddenly evolving into an aggressive grass/fighting bird.
Imagine, though. Rowlet turns into a badass fighting or dragon type, litten into a large, chubby, lovable cat, and popplio into a grotesque mammoth/walrus-like thing. Nobody will be satisfied.

The previous question alluded to here: “Watch rowlet lose its flying type upon evolving and become a grass/fighting type or something even weirder. That would certainly be interesting”

See, I don’t think that sort of thing is likely, purely because the starters are the one place where, more than any other (except maybe the mascot legendaries), they want mass appeal, and while that doesn’t exactly rule out weird and quirky designs for the evolved forms, I believe it makes Game Freak more likely to incline towards safe choices. Looking back at past starters… they really just don’t tend to “do” major reversals in aesthetics and design as they evolve. I suspect there’s kind of an expectation that, when you choose your starter, you should pretty much know what you’re getting. It’s supposed to be your partner, so if it evolves into something radically different and you don’t like it anymore, the design has kinda failed, in that particular respect.

Anonymous asks:

Suppose clear body, white smoke and flower veil also protected from self-inflicted stat loss. Thus, torkoal and heatmor would suck a bit less thanks to lack of overheat recoil, florges would be useful in doubles, and regirock migbt get some use out of superpower. My main worry is metagross, who’s already a solid pokemon and loves using hammer arm. Would that be too broken?

You know, I think we’re probably fine there? Like, if there is any doubt about Metagross, then just apply the change only to White Smoke. I don’t care if they have Overheat without recoil; Heatmor and Torkoal are still not going to dominate anything any time soon. And even Metagross… well, Hammer Arm isn’t really its primary attack, and it also has the options of Bullet Punch and Agility anyway. Like, it’s a buff to a Pokémon who probably doesn’t need it, but I honestly don’t think it’s a huge one? Sure as hell pales in comparison to giving Metagross a Mega Evolution, and we were apparently fine with that.