Idkup

Kyurem is overcentralizing. Kyurem is a 6-0 machine against unprepared teams. Kyurem alone renders queueing up Mega Swampert Rain tantamount to wintrading. Kyurem makes constructing traditional balance teams an absolute nightmare. I don't think Kyurem is broken. It is not the only reason balance feels impossible to play, and as a unit that relies on its uninvested natural bulk to function, it itself suffers from many of the same issues that plague balance as a whole. Offense has been king in PRO for quite some time now, and I think there is a different discussion that is worth having about the metagame at large. It is functionally impossible to reliably remove Stealth Rock, unless you know your opponent's sets either because you've played them before, your guild has, or your friends have. Let's take a look at the state of our hazard removal. The only viable Rapid Spin user is Excadrill. Defensive Excadrill sets have been pushed to the wayside by offensive powercreep since about 2016, and offensive ones may remove Stealth Rock once or twice, but that's far from its main role and it is far from good at it - Excadrill certainly does not scare out Garchomp or Landorus-T. Tornadus-T is weak to Stealth Rock, and currently generally runs offensive EVs to make its Supersonic Skystrike hit harder. It's one of our better options, but is liable to being worn down over time (by definition, removing Stealth Rock with Tornadus-T means it is at 75%), and is not living Stone Edges or Z-nukes from any of our offensive hazard setters. Utility Serperior works in a pinch, but has no recovery bar the unreliable Synthesis, which it can never fit on a set. Zapdos is weak to Stealth Rock itself and is generally tasked with checking Mega Lopunny - something it cannot do reliably if it enters the field at 75% HP. It too is liable to getting nuked by offensive Z-SR sets. Landorus-T has longevity issues, as it is frequently used as a blanket check, and more importantly usually belongs on the sort of team that would rather trade Stealth Rock with its opponent than remove them from both sides. Gliscor is quite good at removing Stealth Rock - however, Defog Gliscor sets often do little else besides removing items or checking Heatran. Rotom-Wash is a traditional balance staple - but also a loss condition in the face of Substitute Kyurem. Its bulk also does not hold up nearly as well in a world with Z-moves, but also no Toxapex to take advantage of to pivot freely. Instead, Slowking takes pitiful damage from uninvested Volt Switch and seizes momentum itself with its slower Chilly Reception. Defog Skarmory is a niche option which deals with many of the physical Stealth Rock setters well, but virtually commits you to playing Stall. Furthermore, all Defoggers must deal with the specter of Defiant Eviolite Bisharp and to a lesser extent Annihilape, which makes the choice to remove Stealth Rock often a trade of a long-term annoyance for an immediate short-term crisis. In contrast, we have a wide array of Pokemon that are very good at keeping Stealth Rock up against virtually anything - Z or Taunt Landorus-T, Z or bulky Garchomp, MG Clefable, Mega Diancie, Mold Breaker Excadrill, Offensive Tyranitar, Z Heatran, Z Kommo-o... Why is this relevant? Both Substitute and Specs Kyurem are Pokemon that thrive off coming in on the double switch or a safe pivot move from a teammate, such as Mega Scizor's U-Turn, Slowbro's Teleport, or Rotom-Wash's Volt Switch. These repeated free switches with very limited safe answers and the risk of Freeze from primary STAB are the heart of Kyurem's oppressive gameplay cycle. However, there are no free switches when Stealth Rock is on the field. Losing a quarter of its HP renders Kyurem in KO range of many strong and fast attackers and greatly limits the amount of times it can afford to fish for freeze. It also limits the amount of PP Substitute Kyurem can remove from an erstwhile check before being forced into uncomfortable mindgames. When Kyurem is allowed to play its game unmolested, it is absolutely worthy of a ban - however, I would argue that no competent player should be allowing this to happen on anything resembling a consistent basis. Another aspect I think is sometimes underappreciated about Kyurem's presence in PRO is that Kyurem-Black's legality actually makes regular Kyurem significantly easier to play against. Z- and boosting item sets tend to be the sole provenance of Kyurem-Black, making it relatively easy to assume that the unfused Kyurem you are facing in team preview is in fact SubRoost or Choiced. Finally, the archetypes that Kyurem destroys were not very good to begin with. With or without Kyurem, Rain has a disaster matchup against Chilly Reception Slowking, Aurora Veil, and many variants of offense. With or without Kyurem, Balance is not going to recover unless a litany of other gigantic offensive threats are removed and hazard removal achieves some sort of relative parity with hazard setting (or a certain item is released). As for Stall, well, it deals with SubRoost Kyurem surprisingly well. Calm CM Unaware Clefable was already forced for reliable counterplay to threats like Z-Bug Volcarona, Manaphy, and LO MG Clefable. With Wish and Heal Bell support, it has no problem sitting in front of standard SubRoost Kyurem forever - even when it gets frozen. Aurora Veil, on paper, is simply favored - Ninetales-Alola is one of Kyurem's better checks, and Kyurem should never really be able to come in more than once or twice. Other offensive teams are similar in this regard. I am not going to lose any sleep over Kyurem potentially getting banned. However, from my perspective, it warrants tiering action about as much as Volcarona - that is to say, perhaps in theory, but not at all in practice.

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A tale of Gyarados and a bunch of rats that don't care about exp, basically Time to clear (Kanto): approx 7 hours Time to clear (Johto): approx 5 hours + half an hour farming money in Kanto to prepare Time to clear (Hoenn): approx 8 hours Kanto: Final team: Pewter: Cerulean: Vermillion: Celadon: Fuchsia: Saffron: Cinnabar: Viridian: Indigo1: Johto: Violet: Azalea: Goldenrod: Ecruteak: Cianwood: Olivine: Mahogany: Blackthorn: Indigo2: Hoenn: Rustboro: Dewford: Mauville: Lavaridge: Petalburg: Fortree: Mossdeep: Sootopolis: Ever Grande: Bugs: There is a bug where switching after a KO sometimes sends in a Pokemon that has previously fainted rather than the correct Pokemon. There was one instance where levelling up in a trainer battle did not yield an evolution prompt after the battle. Multiple movement tiles now calculate at the same time and result in the player moving diagonally; the vectors seem to be summed. Overall Thoughts: There is nowhere near enough EXP to not play like a total rat, but Pokemon is an easy game where you can abuse a number of multipliers and interesting game mechanics to win for free. Early to mid game felt fine, but lategame EXP is about a fifth of what it should be and became very noticeable after Saffron. The traditional grinding spot in Victory Road yields approximately 1000-2000 EXP per battle, which is frankly a joke. This level of difficulty is fun for me because it allows me to justify abusing the AI with Sturdy + Rocks + Thunder Wave + Flash + Intimidate + Eerie Impulse into +6 into win, but is not realistic for casual play whatsoever. People cannot be expected to relog four times against Giovanni's Mewtwo for a full paralysis turn to Curse with a level 20 Gastly and trivialize the fight. The EXP share is great QOL and let me level Electrode from approximately 20 to the 40-45 I needed while clearing Victory Road without extra pain. The EXP bar also seems to be a little quicker, which is nice. I do appreciate the ability to evolve in general as looking forward to these power-spikes is part of the charm of the genre. Overall, just fix mid-late game EXP and it would be a lot better. Some routes in Johto have level 15 wild spawns and level 40+ trainers, further exacerbating the situation and effectively creating a limited EXP pool in the region. The clear would not have been possible (without a painful grind) without bringing the single copy of the Swords Dance TM available in Kanto and picking Totodile to abuse Surf + Ice Beam + Dig earlygame and Swords Dance + Agility + Ice Fang + Earthquake lategame to bypass the deficiency in raw stats and levels. Also, Feraligatr sucks in comparison to Gyarados, and switching out and setting up approximately four times for a Smokescreen miss from a certain Skuntank was not very fun. There is significantly more EXP available in Hoenn, though it is not enough, and does not redeem the region in any way whatsoever. I was evidently happy to consign the memories of the atrocious Jackson-Magma-Aqua storyline to an abyss where I'd never have to contemplate it again, but... the entire region's story should be looked at for a rework. The sheer amount of backtracking and unnecessarily repetitive combat against grunts that pose no real threat while simultaneously draining resources (on this rework, you are perennially underlevelled if you care about your sanity) is an unreasonable chore. Mt. Pyre in particular no longer fits with the apparent design philosophy of the current team - after all, the trainers there can still be skipped using the relog exploit, indicating they weren't touched in recent reworks - as a device where previous Scripters evidently hoped to bore players to uninstall. Similarly, the monotony of the three raids on the Weather Institute, Magma Hideout, Aqua Hideout, and Seafloor Cavern fulfill no real gameplay purpose, and many areas simply have too many trainers for no reason. The difficulty curve in general is also completely out of sorts - Deoxys is capable of wiping a team; Brawly, Wattson, Norman, and Winona are significantly threatening... while the final two gyms fall over to a Masquerain 20 levels behind curve and the Elite Four is an utter joke. Regarding the subject at hand, it's likely possible to raise 3 Pokemon with all the trainer battles available in the region, but it would be quite a painful experience. The EXP Share was sufficient for keeping Electrode and Masquerain serving their respective purposes to allow for Quiver Dance + Baton Pass to make up for Swampert's lack of raw stats.

I think it would be for the best if the use of event forms was dialed back. In recent years, events have come with well over a dozen new forms of varying quality - some amazing, and some that leave the player befuddled as to how they were approved - a certain grinch-bear comes to mind. At the same time, it has become evident that the amount of aesthetic resources allocated to supporting new maps and stories has dwindled. For example, Alto Mare reuses tiles meant for the Airship from the Legendary Bird questline, while the levers and steam clouds in the Christmas dungeon look ever-so-slightly out of place. No doubt this lack of flexibility frustrates those working on maps, and by extension, those looking for new ideas to script and implement into the game. I understand that this may be difficult with available resources or even downright impossible. However, if it is an option, I would certainly like to see an area with a new palette over yet more forms. I apologize if this post is off-topic.

And yet just one year before that it would have seemed perfectly natural. This place is weird.

you forget there are people on both sides of the screen. the people complaining about prehax have said much worse to others. i get you want to stick it to "the man" but that doesn't exist in this situation. staff have zero incentive or requirement to hold themselves to a higher standard when speaking casually. people simultaneously treat staff with ridiculous deference while complaining about staff egos they inflate themselves. id say that players should treat staff like other players but frankly a not insignificant amount of this community treats other people terribly, so i guess ill just say that everyone should be respectful but not deferential to each other, regardless of whether or not that person is staff. would go a long way towards bridging that gap.

flaming people isn't a healthy way to vent go outside :]

thats fine but my point is this thread has gone off the rails disproportionately targeting q8 when theres real problems that affect players a lot more than prehax being mean

if these are true you guys should really take issue with the staff issuing those bans because i think we all agree they're ridiculous and indefensible, no?

good luck getting someone banned because they called you stupid

just rename this topic to prehax hate thread already y'all ask for more communication from staff, he communicates his opinions and doesn't veil them behind diplomatic language - is this not the transparency people ask for? his dismissiveness of opinions he doesnt agree with is the primary issue between staff and players? please. not everyone is good at putting on a fake smile and lying to your face that they'll "think about it." makes perfect sense why others avoid interacting with this community like the plague. good riddance.

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Clefable according to this thread: