Sticky Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire

Status
Not open for further replies.
So FRLG and HGSS came with the releases of updated Sugimori artwork for their respective generations of Pokemon. I wasn't so certain this would happen for ORAS, since Gen III artwork isn't that noticeably lower in quality when compared to recent work (unlike Gens I and II, which were very noticeably different). But if you look in the CoroCoro scans in the bottom left corner, you will see the three starters with different artwork from the rest of the scan; this likely means that there is new Sugimori art for Gen III Pokemon too, no?
 

AwesomeFennekin

Banned deucer.
I found something interesting.
Diancie got a Mega Evolution, and not only is it NOT hoenn, but also its Kalos. So I was thinking maybe a couple other Kalos mons as well as other region mons could get a mega. Hell, if DIANCIE can get a Mega, why not ZYGARDE?
 

Codraroll

Cod Mod
is a Forum Moderatoris a Community Contributoris a Top Smogon Media Contributor
Moderator
I found something interesting.
Diancie got a Mega Evolution, and not only is it NOT hoenn, but also its Kalos. So I was thinking maybe a couple other Kalos mons as well as other region mons could get a mega. Hell, if DIANCIE can get a Mega, why not ZYGARDE?
Well, I guess an argument against Zygarde could be summed up with one single letter: Z.

With the discovery of the Thousand Arrow/Thousand Waves moves, as well as the fact that all generations have let us explore the region in two sets of games, it's likely that Zygarde won't be getting a Mega, but rather one or two new formes a la Kyurem, when it features as the mascot for the Gen. VI "Kalos Revisit" games.

I guess there will be more Megas than those we see here. Metagross/Salamence are extremely likely candidates, both being pseudo-legendary, post-game only and extremely popular with the fans. I'm willing to wager that their Mega Stones will be version exclusive, given to the player by Steven after the Elite Four. Others have brought up Shiftry and Ludicolo too, but I think we should be careful with labelling every "paired" Pokémon as candidates. That being said, I think it's likely that Sableye will follow in the footsteps of Mawile and have his own Mega.

And, of course, there will probably be oddballs too. Pokémon from other generations, totally out-of-the-blue 'mons getting the rather exclusive treatment. Diancie was a good example, the thing isn't even officially out yet, but it still got a Mega Evolution as the first and so far only Kalos 'mon. I think we'll be surprised again.
 
So FRLG and HGSS came with the releases of updated Sugimori artwork for their respective generations of Pokemon. I wasn't so certain this would happen for ORAS, since Gen III artwork isn't that noticeably lower in quality when compared to recent work (unlike Gens I and II, which were very noticeably different). But if you look in the CoroCoro scans in the bottom left corner, you will see the three starters with different artwork from the rest of the scan; this likely means that there is new Sugimori art for Gen III Pokemon too, no?
I was actually of the opposite opinion. I was convinced the art would be updated because the 3rd gen artwork looks old and faded compared to the more vibrant styles of later gens. Sadly, though, the diagrams in the CoroCoro leaks pointing from the original Pokemon to the Mega/Primal forms still use the old artwork poses (starters as well as primal Kyogre/Groudon).

On another note, I don't see where people got the idea that Steven would have a Charizard X. The caption pointing to the picture of Charizard X just says "He's also pursuing the mystery of the Mega force" or something roughly translated from Google. I took this to be as just an example of "hey, mega force and mega evolution here in Charizard X, remember? Steven's also on it because rockman".
 
Oh great, more glorified form changes.

Correct me if I am mistaken, but weren't most of the mega evolutions from XY either overpowered or pointless?

Lots of things got them that didn't need them, and it seems like most of the fanbase gobbled them up because they looked cool, and paid no attention to how they would affect what's important, like the actual game. I remember saying just this in the XY speculation thread(s), and people told me to shut up. And look, a bunch of megas are banned, because gamefreak didn't do a good job incorporating the concept into the gameplay outside of the "herp-derp mash A button" story mode.

And then most of the things that received the mega evolutions didn't need them, at all, and some of the things that needed a boost to become more relevant needed a regular evolution; mega-evolutions aren't even evolutions in the context of the game, because they are only temporary. Mawile, Medicham, and Banette really needed a regular evolution so that they could permanently become stronger and more relevant in the metagame instead of fossilizing under the ever-deepening strata of new pokemon releases.

I know that mega evolutions are going to be around permanently now, and they're a good idea to freshen things up on paper, but GF needs to do a better job of integrating them into the game to retain balance and make sure that older pokemon get what they actually need in order to regain relevance.

I was very happy when they announced that the remakes for these games were coming. I had a copy of Emerald that I never bothered playing through, and I've been running through it when I have time; the Pokemon introduced in generation 3 still have my favorite designs out of the whole series, because they are creative and inspired, and many of them draw from some of the coolest animals on the planet (Treecko is a Uroplatus sp. gecko, Mudkip is a mudskipper, there's killer crawdads and big smiley catfish, a tortoise that doubles as a furnace, etc. etc.). Unfortunately, many of them have low stats and stagnant movepools compared to today's metagame, and I was hoping that this game would do something to give these guys a major boost.

But mega evolutions are not the way to do it. It's just a temporary change, and it has drawbacks. Torkoal, Camerupt, Sabeleye, Lunatone, Solrock and all the rest of the left-behind generation III pokemon don't need a temporary boost with drawbacks, they need a new, permanent evolutionary stage to really bring them back into the spotlight. If they have to spam out mega evolutions for everything, I at least want them to also give permanent evolutions to the pokemon who need them the most. They did the same thing in generation IV and it totally revitalized many pokemon who would otherwise just be forgotten (Dusknoir, Weavile, Froslass, and Electivire are all major and permanent improvements on their older forms).

And, while I'm making angry requests, I might as well add that the naming conventions for the mega stones is horribly stupid and a missed opportunity. For those who do not know, the suffix -ite when referring to a type of stone means that it is a naturally-occurring combination of metallic compounds with a specific set of characteristics. Instead of making up terrible names like Blazikenite they could have just made the player track down actual minerals that exist on Earth that could be applied to the pokemon universe as having a special reaction with certain pokemon. There probably are not (or soon there will not be) enough actual types of minerals to cover each individual pokemon if all of them get mega evolutions, but they could easily make one type of mineral cover a specific set of pokemon. Just like how pokemon belong to specific egg groups, they could belong to specific stone groups, and so a mineral like azurite could work for some of the water types and a mineral like pyrite could work for a certain set of fire types. Very rare or valuable minerals could be for legendary pokemon, or they could even be creative and make up a realistic-sounding mineral type for each legendary ("moon opalite" > mega evolution for Cresselia).

I think it would be much better and more intriguing than what we have now, because players would actually need to work to discover which stones result in reactions with which pokemon, and it would respect the intelligence of the players a bit more (and don't tell me that little kids wouldn't be interested just because they change the name of the stones, that's garbage).
 
Oh great, more glorified form changes.

Correct me if I am mistaken, but weren't most of the mega evolutions from XY either overpowered or pointless?

Lots of things got them that didn't need them, and it seems like most of the fanbase gobbled them up because they looked cool, and paid no attention to how they would affect what's important, like the actual game. I remember saying just this in the XY speculation thread(s), and people told me to shut up. And look, a bunch of megas are banned, because gamefreak didn't do a good job incorporating the concept into the gameplay outside of the "herp-derp mash A button" story mode.

And then most of the things that received the mega evolutions didn't need them, at all, and some of the things that needed a boost to become more relevant needed a regular evolution; mega-evolutions aren't even evolutions in the context of the game, because they are only temporary. Mawile, Medicham, and Banette really needed a regular evolution so that they could permanently become stronger and more relevant in the metagame instead of fossilizing under the ever-deepening strata of new pokemon releases.

I know that mega evolutions are going to be around permanently now, and they're a good idea to freshen things up on paper, but GF needs to do a better job of integrating them into the game to retain balance and make sure that older pokemon get what they actually need in order to regain relevance.

I was very happy when they announced that the remakes for these games were coming. I had a copy of Emerald that I never bothered playing through, and I've been running through it when I have time; the Pokemon introduced in generation 3 still have my favorite designs out of the whole series, because they are creative and inspired, and many of them draw from some of the coolest animals on the planet (Treecko is a Uroplatus sp. gecko, Mudkip is a mudskipper, there's killer crawdads and big smiley catfish, a tortoise that doubles as a furnace, etc. etc.). Unfortunately, many of them have low stats and stagnant movepools compared to today's metagame, and I was hoping that this game would do something to give these guys a major boost.

But mega evolutions are not the way to do it. It's just a temporary change, and it has drawbacks. Torkoal, Camerupt, Sabeleye, Lunatone, Solrock and all the rest of the left-behind generation III pokemon don't need a temporary boost with drawbacks, they need a new, permanent evolutionary stage to really bring them back into the spotlight. If they have to spam out mega evolutions for everything, I at least want them to also give permanent evolutions to the pokemon who need them the most. They did the same thing in generation IV and it totally revitalized many pokemon who would otherwise just be forgotten (Dusknoir, Weavile, Froslass, and Electivire are all major and permanent improvements on their older forms).

And, while I'm making angry requests, I might as well add that the naming conventions for the mega stones is horribly stupid and a missed opportunity. For those who do not know, the suffix -ite when referring to a type of stone means that it is a naturally-occurring combination of metallic compounds with a specific set of characteristics. Instead of making up terrible names like Blazikenite they could have just made the player track down actual minerals that exist on Earth that could be applied to the pokemon universe as having a special reaction with certain pokemon. There probably are not (or soon there will not be) enough actual types of minerals to cover each individual pokemon if all of them get mega evolutions, but they could easily make one type of mineral cover a specific set of pokemon. Just like how pokemon belong to specific egg groups, they could belong to specific stone groups, and so a mineral like azurite could work for some of the water types and a mineral like pyrite could work for a certain set of fire types. Very rare or valuable minerals could be for legendary pokemon, or they could even be creative and make up a realistic-sounding mineral type for each legendary ("moon opalite" > mega evolution for Cresselia).

I think it would be much better and more intriguing than what we have now, because players would actually need to work to discover which stones result in reactions with which pokemon, and it would respect the intelligence of the players a bit more (and don't tell me that little kids wouldn't be interested just because they change the name of the stones, that's garbage).
If you played xy you would know that most megas aren't "overpowered and pointless" besides like mega kangaskhan and lucario who were wayyyy overpowered. I feel mega evolution helped make the metagame much more diverse and interesting, allowing many Pokemon to have new uses and to actually be ou Pokemon when they sucked previously.
 
If you played xy you would know that most megas aren't "overpowered and pointless" besides like mega kangaskhan and lucario who were wayyyy overpowered. I feel mega evolution helped make the metagame much more diverse and interesting, allowing many Pokemon to have new uses and to actually be ou Pokemon when they sucked previously.
You forgot Gengar.

To be honest, Mega Evolutions are all balanced outside of Kangaskhan, who somewhat over-centralized the VGC metagame. Don't forget that the official play style acknowledged for VGC is doubles with item, species, Soul Dew, and some banned legendaries. Smogon competitive standards aren't remotely similar to official ones, so we have to ban things like Gengarite when Shadow Tag affects singles a lot differently than doubles.
 
Oh great, more glorified form changes.

Correct me if I am mistaken, but weren't most of the mega evolutions from XY either overpowered or pointless?

Lots of things got them that didn't need them, and it seems like most of the fanbase gobbled them up because they looked cool, and paid no attention to how they would affect what's important, like the actual game. I remember saying just this in the XY speculation thread(s), and people told me to shut up. And look, a bunch of megas are banned, because gamefreak didn't do a good job incorporating the concept into the gameplay outside of the "herp-derp mash A button" story mode.

And then most of the things that received the mega evolutions didn't need them, at all, and some of the things that needed a boost to become more relevant needed a regular evolution; mega-evolutions aren't even evolutions in the context of the game, because they are only temporary. Mawile, Medicham, and Banette really needed a regular evolution so that they could permanently become stronger and more relevant in the metagame instead of fossilizing under the ever-deepening strata of new pokemon releases.

I know that mega evolutions are going to be around permanently now, and they're a good idea to freshen things up on paper, but GF needs to do a better job of integrating them into the game to retain balance and make sure that older pokemon get what they actually need in order to regain relevance.

I was very happy when they announced that the remakes for these games were coming. I had a copy of Emerald that I never bothered playing through, and I've been running through it when I have time; the Pokemon introduced in generation 3 still have my favorite designs out of the whole series, because they are creative and inspired, and many of them draw from some of the coolest animals on the planet (Treecko is a Uroplatus sp. gecko, Mudkip is a mudskipper, there's killer crawdads and big smiley catfish, a tortoise that doubles as a furnace, etc. etc.). Unfortunately, many of them have low stats and stagnant movepools compared to today's metagame, and I was hoping that this game would do something to give these guys a major boost.

But mega evolutions are not the way to do it. It's just a temporary change, and it has drawbacks. Torkoal, Camerupt, Sabeleye, Lunatone, Solrock and all the rest of the left-behind generation III pokemon don't need a temporary boost with drawbacks, they need a new, permanent evolutionary stage to really bring them back into the spotlight. If they have to spam out mega evolutions for everything, I at least want them to also give permanent evolutions to the pokemon who need them the most. They did the same thing in generation IV and it totally revitalized many pokemon who would otherwise just be forgotten (Dusknoir, Weavile, Froslass, and Electivire are all major and permanent improvements on their older forms).

And, while I'm making angry requests, I might as well add that the naming conventions for the mega stones is horribly stupid and a missed opportunity. For those who do not know, the suffix -ite when referring to a type of stone means that it is a naturally-occurring combination of metallic compounds with a specific set of characteristics. Instead of making up terrible names like Blazikenite they could have just made the player track down actual minerals that exist on Earth that could be applied to the pokemon universe as having a special reaction with certain pokemon. There probably are not (or soon there will not be) enough actual types of minerals to cover each individual pokemon if all of them get mega evolutions, but they could easily make one type of mineral cover a specific set of pokemon. Just like how pokemon belong to specific egg groups, they could belong to specific stone groups, and so a mineral like azurite could work for some of the water types and a mineral like pyrite could work for a certain set of fire types. Very rare or valuable minerals could be for legendary pokemon, or they could even be creative and make up a realistic-sounding mineral type for each legendary ("moon opalite" > mega evolution for Cresselia).

I think it would be much better and more intriguing than what we have now, because players would actually need to work to discover which stones result in reactions with which pokemon, and it would respect the intelligence of the players a bit more (and don't tell me that little kids wouldn't be interested just because they change the name of the stones, that's garbage).
Someone doesn't understand that would be too complicated for small children(and therefore unfun for the target audience). Also Sableye is borked as fuck. And another thing, if there is anyone worse than feminazis it's people who call Crawfish Crayfish/Crawdads/Craydads/Crawdaddies/Craydaddies.
 
You forgot Gengar.

To be honest, Mega Evolutions are all balanced outside of Kangaskhan, who somewhat over-centralized the VGC metagame. Don't forget that the official play style acknowledged for VGC is doubles with item, species, Soul Dew, and some banned legendaries. Smogon competitive standards aren't remotely similar to official ones, so we have to ban things like Gengarite when Shadow Tag affects singles a lot differently than doubles.
I just never really had a problem with mega gengar, but yeah, a lot of things are less broken in doubles than singles
 
Oh great, more glorified form changes.

Correct me if I am mistaken, but weren't most of the mega evolutions from XY either overpowered or pointless?

Lots of things got them that didn't need them, and it seems like most of the fanbase gobbled them up because they looked cool, and paid no attention to how they would affect what's important, like the actual game. I remember saying just this in the XY speculation thread(s), and people told me to shut up. And look, a bunch of megas are banned, because gamefreak didn't do a good job incorporating the concept into the gameplay outside of the "herp-derp mash A button" story mode.

And then most of the things that received the mega evolutions didn't need them, at all, and some of the things that needed a boost to become more relevant needed a regular evolution; mega-evolutions aren't even evolutions in the context of the game, because they are only temporary. Mawile, Medicham, and Banette really needed a regular evolution so that they could permanently become stronger and more relevant in the metagame instead of fossilizing under the ever-deepening strata of new pokemon releases.

I know that mega evolutions are going to be around permanently now, and they're a good idea to freshen things up on paper, but GF needs to do a better job of integrating them into the game to retain balance and make sure that older pokemon get what they actually need in order to regain relevance.

I was very happy when they announced that the remakes for these games were coming. I had a copy of Emerald that I never bothered playing through, and I've been running through it when I have time; the Pokemon introduced in generation 3 still have my favorite designs out of the whole series, because they are creative and inspired, and many of them draw from some of the coolest animals on the planet (Treecko is a Uroplatus sp. gecko, Mudkip is a mudskipper, there's killer crawdads and big smiley catfish, a tortoise that doubles as a furnace, etc. etc.). Unfortunately, many of them have low stats and stagnant movepools compared to today's metagame, and I was hoping that this game would do something to give these guys a major boost.

But mega evolutions are not the way to do it. It's just a temporary change, and it has drawbacks. Torkoal, Camerupt, Sabeleye, Lunatone, Solrock and all the rest of the left-behind generation III pokemon don't need a temporary boost with drawbacks, they need a new, permanent evolutionary stage to really bring them back into the spotlight. If they have to spam out mega evolutions for everything, I at least want them to also give permanent evolutions to the pokemon who need them the most. They did the same thing in generation IV and it totally revitalized many pokemon who would otherwise just be forgotten (Dusknoir, Weavile, Froslass, and Electivire are all major and permanent improvements on their older forms).

And, while I'm making angry requests, I might as well add that the naming conventions for the mega stones is horribly stupid and a missed opportunity. For those who do not know, the suffix -ite when referring to a type of stone means that it is a naturally-occurring combination of metallic compounds with a specific set of characteristics. Instead of making up terrible names like Blazikenite they could have just made the player track down actual minerals that exist on Earth that could be applied to the pokemon universe as having a special reaction with certain pokemon. There probably are not (or soon there will not be) enough actual types of minerals to cover each individual pokemon if all of them get mega evolutions, but they could easily make one type of mineral cover a specific set of pokemon. Just like how pokemon belong to specific egg groups, they could belong to specific stone groups, and so a mineral like azurite could work for some of the water types and a mineral like pyrite could work for a certain set of fire types. Very rare or valuable minerals could be for legendary pokemon, or they could even be creative and make up a realistic-sounding mineral type for each legendary ("moon opalite" > mega evolution for Cresselia).

I think it would be much better and more intriguing than what we have now, because players would actually need to work to discover which stones result in reactions with which pokemon, and it would respect the intelligence of the players a bit more (and don't tell me that little kids wouldn't be interested just because they change the name of the stones, that's garbage).
I'm on the "mega evolutions made certain Pokemon relevant" front, but I'll focus more on your -ite vs science complaint: it's a game designed for kids. Young kids - kids who often don't have any geology knowledge beyond a rock polisher. Your alternative is definitely a cool idea, but I just can't imagine being angered by them in the first place. This is the same universe where you have "water stone" and even "SHINY stone" which seem about as dumb to me.
 
Oh great, more glorified form changes.

Correct me if I am mistaken, but weren't most of the mega evolutions from XY either overpowered or pointless?

Lots of things got them that didn't need them, and it seems like most of the fanbase gobbled them up because they looked cool, and paid no attention to how they would affect what's important, like the actual game. I remember saying just this in the XY speculation thread(s), and people told me to shut up. And look, a bunch of megas are banned, because gamefreak didn't do a good job incorporating the concept into the gameplay outside of the "herp-derp mash A button" story mode.

And then most of the things that received the mega evolutions didn't need them, at all, and some of the things that needed a boost to become more relevant needed a regular evolution; mega-evolutions aren't even evolutions in the context of the game, because they are only temporary. Mawile, Medicham, and Banette really needed a regular evolution so that they could permanently become stronger and more relevant in the metagame instead of fossilizing under the ever-deepening strata of new pokemon releases.

I know that mega evolutions are going to be around permanently now, and they're a good idea to freshen things up on paper, but GF needs to do a better job of integrating them into the game to retain balance and make sure that older pokemon get what they actually need in order to regain relevance.

I was very happy when they announced that the remakes for these games were coming. I had a copy of Emerald that I never bothered playing through, and I've been running through it when I have time; the Pokemon introduced in generation 3 still have my favorite designs out of the whole series, because they are creative and inspired, and many of them draw from some of the coolest animals on the planet (Treecko is a Uroplatus sp. gecko, Mudkip is a mudskipper, there's killer crawdads and big smiley catfish, a tortoise that doubles as a furnace, etc. etc.). Unfortunately, many of them have low stats and stagnant movepools compared to today's metagame, and I was hoping that this game would do something to give these guys a major boost.

But mega evolutions are not the way to do it. It's just a temporary change, and it has drawbacks. Torkoal, Camerupt, Sabeleye, Lunatone, Solrock and all the rest of the left-behind generation III pokemon don't need a temporary boost with drawbacks, they need a new, permanent evolutionary stage to really bring them back into the spotlight. If they have to spam out mega evolutions for everything, I at least want them to also give permanent evolutions to the pokemon who need them the most. They did the same thing in generation IV and it totally revitalized many pokemon who would otherwise just be forgotten (Dusknoir, Weavile, Froslass, and Electivire are all major and permanent improvements on their older forms).

And, while I'm making angry requests, I might as well add that the naming conventions for the mega stones is horribly stupid and a missed opportunity. For those who do not know, the suffix -ite when referring to a type of stone means that it is a naturally-occurring combination of metallic compounds with a specific set of characteristics. Instead of making up terrible names like Blazikenite they could have just made the player track down actual minerals that exist on Earth that could be applied to the pokemon universe as having a special reaction with certain pokemon. There probably are not (or soon there will not be) enough actual types of minerals to cover each individual pokemon if all of them get mega evolutions, but they could easily make one type of mineral cover a specific set of pokemon. Just like how pokemon belong to specific egg groups, they could belong to specific stone groups, and so a mineral like azurite could work for some of the water types and a mineral like pyrite could work for a certain set of fire types. Very rare or valuable minerals could be for legendary pokemon, or they could even be creative and make up a realistic-sounding mineral type for each legendary ("moon opalite" > mega evolution for Cresselia).

I think it would be much better and more intriguing than what we have now, because players would actually need to work to discover which stones result in reactions with which pokemon, and it would respect the intelligence of the players a bit more (and don't tell me that little kids wouldn't be interested just because they change the name of the stones, that's garbage).
Because Electivire, Magmortar, and Dusknoir were vast improvements. Who needs Megas when you have permanent evos, amirite?
 
I think everyone is really understating how useful an immunity to Thunder Wave is, not necessarily just because Mega Sceptile can switch into Thundurus / Klefki's attempts to paralyze a sweeper, but moreso because Sceptile's own sweeping attempts can't be halted by Thundurus / Klefki which would otherwise be a sort of "failsafe". I think it's safe to assume Sceptile will be obtaining some sort of Speed boost in the same vein as already fast Pokemon such as Aerodactyl or Manectric. It is also likely for both of its offensive stats to increase somewhat, seeing as there isn't a particular offensive stat bias (while it may seem specially inclined, Sceptile's movepool far favours the physical spectrum). Anyway, Mega Sceptile should be able to set up on a few things like Choice-locked Keldeo for example, and then sweep a team with high Speed and its boosted Attack from Swords Dance. Unfortunately, as much as its ability would love it to to set up on Thundurus, it can't take Hidden Power Ice's any better than Gliscor can. On the other hand, similarly to Greninja, Sceptile should force many switches against Pokemon such as Rotom-W and Keldeo, where it has the opportunity to set up a Substitute. Substitute sets are hard counters to Rotom-W, and with Giga Drain and Focus Blast, this thing could have some serious potential in OU.
 
Someone doesn't understand that would be too complicated for small children(and therefore unfun for the target audience). Also Sableye is borked as fuck. And another thing, if there is anyone worse than feminazis it's people who call Crawfish Crayfish/Crawdads/Craydads/Crawdaddies/Craydaddies.
I was actually calling it that to avoid confusion. They're just lobsters that adapted to fresh water.

I am an ecology major who also has a few dozen terrariums and aquariums with residents from tarantulas to fish, snakes, centipedes, and geckos. I love lobsters and it so happens that the freshwater species are the easiest to care for, and come in an interesting array of shapes and colors. For a while I had one that I rescued from a pet store (accidental hitch hiker with a shipment of fish) that I named Zoidberg.

As for the topic at hand, I disagree that simply changing the names of the stones would be too much for children to handle. Pyrite, Azurite, Opalite, and Agate are not difficult words to pronounce, and many specimens of those minerals are very visually appealing. Also, since kids these days can just hop on google and ask it to show them almost anything, they won't be confused about what those stones are for long.

It is true that I have not played XY (school has priority; I want to work as a conservation ecologist to help protect threatened species), but one of the last things I remember hearing after XY came out was that mega evolutions were sort of a flop because they seemed to be unnecessary or broken. That may have changed some, but they still aren't really evolutions, and the pokemon that need a boost would arguably benefit more from something permanent, which would give their lower forms access to eviolite (which incidentally is an example of a better name for a fictional mineral) by default.
 
I definitely like the idea of mega sceptile being grass/dragon and having lightning rod as an ability. I see good things about the mega evolution, and bad things.
Pros:
  • grass/dragon is a decent offensive typing
  • lightning rod as an ability will help prevent paralysis, so sceptile can sweep without worrying about speed as much.
  • dragon neutralizes weakness to fire
Cons:
  • glaring weakness to ice moves, ice shard is a problem
  • dragon typing adds a weakness to fairy and dragon moves.
Mega swampert's ability swift swim, I'm predicting, won't see much use due to the weather nerf. Judging by its appearance, I'm guessing that its attack stat will be heavily increased.
 
I do wonder how GF decides which pokemon get megas vs. which pokemon get new evolutions, and whether the introduction of Mega Evolution means fewer pokemon getting actual evolutions in later generations. Gen VI didn't introduce any evolutions of past gen pokemon, although it also didn't introduce that many new pokemon so mehhh.

Ah well. Poor Banette and Jynx :P

Glad M-Sceptile and M-Swampert will be around to balance out some of that Torchic love. I don't think anyone would've guessed their abilities beforehand but that kind of keeps things interesting. Maybe Diancie will play a considerable role in ORAS because it's somehow connected to mega stones.

I'm still crossing my fingers and hoping that M-Lati@s will be different from the models found by hackers. Someone on this thread theorized that their current mega sprites might be leftovers or placeholders from game design. Being completely biased towards the Lati twins I hope so. Would be great for them to get >110 base speed now that every gen has been becoming faster.
 
For anyone thinking lightning rod mega sceptile is bad, it isnt, at all. It now counters rotom w, and it cant be paralyzed by thunder wave, plus now it has a way of raising its sp attack. That thing is going to be a monster.It just doesn't really make sense flavor wise.
You're right and that means HP Ice might become more common on Rotom-W. Not only it hits mega sceptile hard on the switch, but it's also useful against Garchomp and flying dragons, so I think it'll be a viable option. Hopefully Mega Sceptile will have the bulk to survive HP Ice from a defensive Rotom, or it won't be able to switch in without worrying. Being a fast sweeper, almost impossible to paralyse und with access to Giga Drain for constantly healing sure makes Mega Sceptile scary in theory, but I can see prority will be its doom: especially coming from Talonflame and Mega Pinsir, which also don't mind tanking a grass move on the switch. Quadruple weakness to ice shard sucks too...

I also think Mega Lati@s will never be released. I mean, it makes now more sense than ever. All Mega look pretty different from each other and from one another. Even mega evolutions from the same pokémon have pretty distinct looks. Mega Lati@s are almost clones from each other. Apart from the similarity, there's also something amiss in their design. In addition to that, they were encrypted into XY's data but weren't obtainable. Now, other mega evolutions that weren't inside XY are being revealed even before those which supposedly are part of the game since XY. Wouldn't it make more sense for them to be among the first ones to be unveiled? Especially considering they tie in perfectly with the remakes. Instead, mega DIANCE gets revealed. In my opinion mega Lati@s won't be a thing. They're probably just an unfinished project left behind in the game data. It's not really the fact they weren't revealed today that matters the most to me. It's how awkward they are in comparison to the other mega evolutions. Their not getting revelead today just supports my thesis. And that's fine by me. Just give us Soul Dew back and let's have Mega Lati@s as a pair of weird pokémon you can get by hacking the game. This would be better to Lati@s' viability in ubers as well.
 
I think everyone is really understating how useful an immunity to Thunder Wave is, not necessarily just because Mega Sceptile can switch into Thundurus / Klefki's attempts to paralyze a sweeper, but moreso because Sceptile's own sweeping attempts can't be halted by Thundurus / Klefki which would otherwise be a sort of "failsafe". I think it's safe to assume Sceptile will be obtaining some sort of Speed boost in the same vein as already fast Pokemon such as Aerodactyl or Manectric. It is also likely for both of its offensive stats to increase somewhat, seeing as there isn't a particular offensive stat bias (while it may seem specially inclined, Sceptile's movepool far favours the physical spectrum). Anyway, Mega Sceptile should be able to set up on a few things like Choice-locked Keldeo for example, and then sweep a team with high Speed and its boosted Attack from Swords Dance. Unfortunately, as much as its ability would love it to to set up on Thundurus, it can't take Hidden Power Ice's any better than Gliscor can.
It has a rather mediocre match up with Thundurus no matter what. Even with a hypothetical +40 to Special Attack, it can't even KO Thundurus with Dragon Pulse after Stealth Rock while it would take a ridiculous amount of Special Defense boosting and/or EV investment for Sceptile to survive a Hidden Power Ice. And even then, Focus Blast still hurts an incredible amount, and nobody likes to lose their mega to a predicted switch. It needs to switch in on Thunder Wave to KO it. I think Sceptile is going to function as a very, very effective cleaner with a presumably offensive distribution of the +100 stats, but I highly doubt it will receive the Attack or Special Attack boosts it needs to OHKO a ton of relevant threats with coverage or neutral attacks.

I was actually calling it that to avoid confusion. They're just lobsters that adapted to fresh water.
I am an ecology major who also has a few dozen terrariums and aquariums with residents from tarantulas to fish, snakes, centipedes, and geckos. I love lobsters and it so happens that the freshwater species are the easiest to care for, and come in an interesting array of shapes and colors. For a while I had one that I rescued from a pet store (accidental hitch hiker with a shipment of fish) that I named Zoidberg
ok.

It is true that I have not played XY (school has priority; I want to work as a conservation ecologist to help protect threatened species), but one of the last things I remember hearing after XY came out was that mega evolutions were sort of a flop because they seemed to be unnecessary or broken. That may have changed some, but they still aren't really evolutions, and the pokemon that need a boost would arguably benefit more from something permanent, which would give their lower forms access to eviolite (which incidentally is an example of a better name for a fictional mineral) by default.
They wanted to add a new, interesting mechanic involving items and form(e?) changing. So they did. Yes, regular evolutions could have possibly helped the Megas a lot more, but I HIGHLY doubt any of these Mega evolutions would have been remotely similar to the way they are now. Choice Band Mega Mawile? Choice Scarf Mega Medicham? Thanks, but I'll pass and I highly doubt GameFreak is that dumb. They did this because it's a new feature and a draws attention from their target market while keeping the VGC metagame rather balanced (again, besides Mega Kangaskhan). Standard evolution is not anything new or exciting anymore.

This is incredibly off topic and should probably stop.

You're right and that means HP Ice might become more common on Rotom-W. Not only it hits mega sceptile hard on the switch, but it's also useful against Garchomp and flying dragons, so I think it'll be a viable option. Hopefully Mega Sceptile will have the bulk to survive HP Ice from a defensive Rotom, or it won't be able to switch in without worrying.
4 SpA Rotom-W Hidden Power Ice vs. 4 HP / 0- SpD Sceptile: 232-276 (82.2 - 97.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO (retyped to Grass/Dragon)

It already does, even with a Naive nature (obviously without any Special Defense change and without Stealth Rock in play, and it can recover a crap ton of that damage back with STAB Giga Drain).

And if you really need to, just delay the evolution in fear of Choice Scarf or Specially Defensive Rotom-W with Hidden Power Ice.

252 SpA Sceptile Giga Drain vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Rotom-W: 200-236 (65.7 - 77.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

Hidden Power Ice from a 4 SpA Rotom-W can't even 2HKO normal Sceptile. 252 SpA Rotom-W can 2HKO it, though, but I rarely ever see those around.

252 SpA Sceptile Giga Drain vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Rotom-W: 146-174 (48 - 57.2%) -- 34% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

Presuming Mega Sceptile gets even +30 to its Special Attack, it can hit Rotom as its base form the first time and then proceed to safely 2HKO it if it evolves for the second Giga Drain, if I'm doing the math correctly.

No stats were changed for these calculations (unless it was by accident, lol). The first calculation was the only one with any change to Sceptile.
 
Last edited:
I'm unfortunately starting to see Mega Sceptile as little more than mediocre. Everyone's starting to see the benefits of Thunder Wave immunity and being a massive Rotom-W cockblock, but... what else is there?
It's a badly mediocre offensive typing, unless it SOMEHOW gets Outrage/Draco Meteor it has no good Dragon STAB, it has no reliable way to boost it's special attack which theoretically would be a maximum of base 155, it's special movepool is lacking...
Swampert getting Swift Swim I don't really care about because imo it only really needs stat boosts. Ability doesn't matter that much; it'll still be good. Sceptile needed a hell of a lot more than a stat boost, and Lightningrod is just not going to help it at all. Dragon is far more of a detriment to it than a boon.
 
Last edited:
Status
Not open for further replies.

Users Who Are Viewing This Thread (Users: 1, Guests: 0)

Top