Just a note on ability limits: As the process is currently set up, a maximum of two competitive abilities are considered during the CAP Process. The third ability is a flavor ability that ideally has little or no competitive relevance. This became policy after a rather infamous CAP process that exposed a legendary bug in our system.
Whoops forgot about that. Since we are limited to 2 competitive abilities that kind of changes my ideas on quantity vs quality of ability.
We should focus on making sure CAP27 has Abilities that fit the concept as well as giving it enough options so it isn't static and stale to play. Fun is the other goal of the Create-A-Pokemon and stifling options can be anti-fun imo.
Thank you for your reply Karoshi. I def agree with this. CAPs in general should be focused on fun and not be static. Its just been a bit hard for me to balance fun with competitive balance. In general, I like it when CAPs are very versatile and can fulfil a concept in multiple ways. Especially in 27's case because team support comes in many different ways.
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Heads up, reason this is 2 separate posts is because the things im addressing in each post are very different.
ModEdit: Merging them anyway, provided a break line instead.
Edit: Totally forgot about break lines existing. That works to.
On that note, Im going weigh in and give some thoughts on some abilities people have been posting and pitch another ability that hasn't been discussed here yet.
Drought: Setting up Weather is a form of team support that provides offensive benefits and utility which to me feels very pro-concept. IT enhances offensive pressure and defensive utility while supporting teammates with weather. Offensively, a free boost to Fire STAB's, no charge solar beam, and free dmg on
are great. On the side of defensive utility, a temporary resistance to water moves, increased recovery from moves like Moonlight. On top of that, Sun support for its teammates is very good. My issue with this ability is that we already have 2 Sun setting CAPs in
and
. To be fair, Mala is ass but still another sun setter seems a bit clogging. There is also risk that the extra firepower might make 27 to overbearing causing it to become primarily a wallbreaker (which is against concept. Personally fine with 27 having the option of running a wall breaker set but when it becomes the most viable set, then it becomes off concept). While weather setting is not explicitly stated as a form utility, I disagree. Setting weather is a form of team support that has utility.
Grassy Terrain: First off, if Grassy Surge has been removed from the game (no pokemon currently has the ability except Rilla line but that's unreleased) can it be chosen as an ability? If we ignore that, then this ability is like Drought in that it supports teammates while enhancing offensive pressure (potentially) and defensive utility. Offensively, free STAB on grass moves is nice. Some of 27's checks like Terrak, Hippo, or T Tar are now wary of switching in on 27 which is a potential concern. Grassy Terrain also improves defensive utility by giving it a temporary resistance against EQ and recovery for both 27 and its teammates. It also supports teammates by setting up a terrain which is basically non-existent in CAP right now. The small thing I have is that the terrain opponents hp which takes away some offensive pressure from 27.
Terrain setting is not explicitly stated as a form utility, but I disagree. Team support comes in many forms, setting terrain is one of them.
Compound Eyes: Prefer this ability over No Guard because it means opponents moves still have a chance of miss and Compound Eyes provides a similar functionality. Making powerful moves more consistent. This ability does not inherently provide defensive utility, but its offensive presence is really high. Perfect accurate Meteor and Fire Blast, 97.5 accurate Dragon Rush and Sleep Powder, etc. means 27 can abuse high power STAB moves but minimize the risk of missing or getting rid of a chance to miss at all. Having more accurate moves makes certain moves more viable but my main issue with picking this ability is that its almost purely offensive.
No Guard does offer 100% accurate Inferno. That alone is awfully tempting.
Technician: Another ability that at first glance, increases offensive pressure and that's it, but it does a little bit more than that. Like Compound Eyes, it makes moves thought to be unviable a lot better. Like making
and
priority hit harder or scaring opponents with a potential STAB 5 hit Bullet Seed. But instead of making high power moves consistent, it makes low power moves hit harder. For Dragon-types, Dragon Breath is 90BP with a 30% chance of Para, Dragon Tail still phazes but does a chunk more dmg, and Breaking Swipe is 90 BP with a 100% chance of -1 atk. To bad it does not offer much for Fire Type moves. For an example of this, look at Smok. Its not bad, but I think an ability that shores up defensive utility and increases offensive pressure gives the best of both worlds for 27 and Tech doesn't have enough defensive utility.
As for another ability I want to bring up, consider Neutralizing Gas. As a SSBB player, Akir/Parasect's neutralizing spores is an amazing ability. So many SSBB pokemon rely on their ability so Para disabling them is awesome. While custom abilities are banned, Neutralizing Gas is the exact same thing only its the signature ability of a classy gentlemen Sir Bong (aka :Weezing-Galar).
Like Trace, its quite matchup dependent and doesn't really support our teammates, but its a great utility ability that can make 27's job of pressuring and supporting teammates a lot better. Here are some examples against some S-B+ viability ranked Pokemon.
, disabling magic guard means it takes entry hazard dmg if it comes in on 27 and takes residual dmg from Toxic of Burns which really helps in the Clef matchup.
/
/Levitators: They take spikes dmg and need to respect ground moves (assuming CAP 27 learns any ground moves).
takes SR dmg if it comes in on 27.
loses atk boost from Guts and cant rebound moves.
needs to respect water moves (assuming CAP 27 has any water moves).
now risks missing attacks.
cant get a free boost from something like Defog or Fire Lash.
That being said, I don't know if this ability is the best answer to the questions GMars laid out. Nor am I to confident about this ability being a great primary. Just wanted to give some food for thought. I will likely bring this ability up again during discussion of secondary ability because this ability seems better in that role. Huge thanks to anyone who actually reads this long ass post.