CAP 36 - Part 4 - Ability Discussion

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Don't have much to add to what people have already said, so will keep this short.

In terms of us needing to toe the line to achieve the concept and not end up with a mon that drops CAP Song/is generically good, this is my order (from least complicated to most):

Lightning Rod/Purifying Salt <= No Guard (with low enough offense on base) < Regenerator (without recovery moves) <= Magic Bounce

I feel like each of these abilities lends towards very different defensive benefits, some of which can be achieved through other means as well:

Lightning Rod/Purifying Salt/Magic Bounce -> help against status, no easy way to get past this except with a suboptimal item (berry), early tera or very, very cautious play

Regenerator/Magic Bounce -> help with switch ins, only other way to get this is with team support/slow pivots

No Guard -> helps with compression with Inferno, Sacred Fire is an alternative but its 50% chance necessitates more opportunities to click it (like Pecharunt)

There has been a bit of discussion about what item we'd like to run depending on the ability. Air Balloon is definitely up there for all abilities as it provides all the benefits of Levitate and gives opportunities for early game utility/defensive function/switch in opportunity. Assault Vest has seen usage on Regenerator (Glowking, Alomomola, Tornadus) and Magic Bounce (Hatterene). Boots I think is better over Leftovers as we probably can't stay in for extended periods, but both are obviously good.
 
Going to echo everyone else in saying that Magic Bounce should be slated. It just provides insane utility for both forms all around. It's grown on me HEAVILY over the past couple of days, and it's easy to see why. However, I don't think it should replace Purifying Salt. They both have their own distinct merits as anti-status Abilities and should both be slated. I do get the argument that the Ghost resistance provided by Purifying Salt is a tad bit overkill since we already have really good matchups into the tier's Ghost types, but I personally see the Ghost resistance as a little added bonus to the main draw of the Ability - the paralysis immunity for both forms and the poison immunity for our cleaner form. If Magic Bounce has to replace an Ability on the slate, it should be Regenerator, as others have already said, but I wouldn't be opposed to this being a six-option slate.

I also want to take the opportunity to push for keeping Storm Drain on the slate. Of course there is some strong bias here on my end since I was the one who first suggested it, but I just... don't understand the arguments against it. The argument that Storm Drain CAP36 would compete for a slot with Mollux is particularly baffling to me. The main draw of Storm Drain is the combination of offensive and defensive utility it provides - obviously the Water immunity is huge for the defensive form, but the other main draw is the Special Attack boost we get from drawing in Water type moves to make it easier for the cleaner form to sweep. The typings of both our cleaner form and our defensive form also allow it to carve out a separate niche from Mollux by handling certain matchups better. The big one here is Chuggalong - specially defensive Mollux doesn't really take a +1 Clanging Scales from Chuggalong very well, and trying to pop a cheeky Tera Fairy on it is still a huge risk since Mollux gets absolutely destroyed by Sludge Bomb after Tera... not to mention that none of this even matters if the Chuggalong pulls a fast one on you and reveals that it's actually the Tera Psychic Stored Power set. A Storm Drain CAP36, on the other hand, would not only resist or be immune to all of Chuggalong's most common attacks in its defensive form, it would also be able to actively threaten Chuggalong with a +1 potentially STAB SE Ice move if you play your cards right. CAP36's defensive form is also able to naturally handle matchups against mons like Dragapult and Glowking that Mollux is Tera reliant for. So while a Storm Drain CAP36 and Mollux do seem quite similar at first glance, I believe the differences in key matchups between the two, plus the offensive benefits provided by Storm Drain, would allow CAP36 to differentiate itself from the lamp snail while still being viable itself.

As for the other Abilities that have been proposed as additions to the slate, I'm not a fan of any of them. Berserk feels incredibly volatile and unpredictable, Natural Cure/Shed Skin feel very underpowered (and also the status prevention Abilities are just outright better for this CAP IMO), and I made my distaste for Levitate clear in my first post. I think the only change to the slate should be the addition of Magic Bounce, either as a replacement for Regenerator or as a sixth option. All of the other Abilities on the slate have seen extensive discussion and would be solid choices!

TLDR: big yes for Magic Bounce, yeses for Purifying Salt and Storm Drain, would be totally fine if Regenerator was taken off of the slate but also wouldn't really complain if it stayed, no to Berserk and Natural Cure/Shed Skin, big no to Levitate
 
My pick would be Storm Drain. Storm drain provides utility in both formes, as both are normally weak to water. Additionally, it would provide a stat boost for cleaning up. Flash Fire would also be a good pick in my opinion for similar reasons. No Guard , Magic Bounce, and Levitate also could be interesting. Regenerator should be done away with, I feel it would make it a bit to easy to set up the mon. I think that this mon should be more strategic, and also that regenerator could result in the sole use of the defensive forme.
 
Alright folks, the time has come for final slate. Thank you all so much for a polite and productive discussion. Without further ado, here are our potential Abilities for CAP36:

No Guard
This Ability has seen a level of support that I've never observed before this early into a process, and it is obvious why many contributors think so highly of it. No Guard is a foolproof way to ease the movepool issue that CAP36 is bound to face; with moves such as Inferno now open for practical, consistent use, No Guard allows CAP36 to deal damage and provide other utility at the same time. A 100% accurate Blizzard and accuracy boosts to several other inaccurate moves showcases the second positive aspect of No Guard, namely its potential for more flexibility in the Stats stage; moves with a higher BP could potentially allow iterations with lower offenses to shine.

Lightning Rod
Broadly speaking, the Abilities that have been discussed in this stage have fallen into two loose groups: "overall good abilities" and "matchup enablers". While Lightning Rod falls into the latter camp, its practicality should not be ignored. Lightning Rod provides both an immunity and a deterrent to Electric-type moves. Any would-be Thunder Wave and Volt Switch users, in particular, must click with caution, because a savvy switch-in could lead to a massive shift in momentum as well as a Special Attack boost for CAP36 that could be very tricky to deal with.

Regenerator
Many would call Regenerator boring and many would call it uncreative. For the second straight time as Ability Leader, I concur with those statements while simultaneously placing Regenerator on the slate, purely because of what no one will ever dispute: it's just a really, really good Ability. While it doesn't provide a great deal of focus, it enables various moves and stat spreads that enable different (but still concept-pursuant) gameplans. I disagree with the idea that this Ability will completely disincentivize changing forms/carrying CAP Song, but I do understand the concerns; in my eyes, though, that is a risk that is more than manageable.

Purifying Salt
On top of a status immunity, Purifying Salt helps to improve CAP36's (admittedly already good) matchups into Ghost types. On the former trait, and in comparison with Lightning Rod, I would call this Ability a catch-all: On top of an immunity to Thunder Wave, Purifying Salt also provides immunity to (rare) Glare and Stun Spore use, and also covers fringe cases such as getting Poisoned while transformed. The in-game upside that Lightning Rod derives from Paralysis attempts is obviously not present with Purifying Salt, but it does provide interesting alternative traits that can be harnessed well in future stages.

Storm Drain
As similar as this Ability seems to Lightning Rod, the way it would play on CAP36 is (obviously) drastically different. A Water immunity would change many of CAP36's more vulnerable matchups, including versus strong attackers such as Primarina and Walking Wake, while also shutting down pivoting nonsense from the likes of Alomomola. While this Ability does not solidify a role, it flips many matchups that can improve CAP36's upside across the board.

Levitate did not see a ton of popular support and, frankly, seemed both too powerful and too uncreative. Berserk pigeonholes us down certain routes while not providing the level of upside required for this level of constraint.

The elephant in the room: I excluded Magic Bounce for several reasons. On a general level, I believe that Magic Bounce, even among the Soft-banned Abilities, is one of the most powerful Abilities in the game and so by default the necessity of its inclusion needs to be readily clear and very compelling. In my opinion, if we want to see this Ability have a fair shot in CAP, we would need to make it a focal point as early as Concept Submissions so it does not skew our power budget and guarantee significant metagame shakeups in the middle of a process.

I did not find the arguments for Magic Bounce compelling enough to include it on this slate. I'll echo Spoo's post heavily here in saying that the risk/reward of this Ability is heavily skewed in many key matchups, and frankly the dynamic that Magic Bounce prompts when it is on a team is very rarely healthy. Lastly, I find the likelihood that a Magic Bounce CAP36 will forego CAP Song and transformation altogether to be not-insignificant, even if we do everything right in the coming stages. Overall, while I understand the popular support for the Ability, I am not comfortable with including Magic Guard on this slate. I understand this comes as a disappointment to many people, and I apologize for that.

Tagging SHSP to verbally assault me. Thank you all so much for having me as your Ability Leader; I don't know when next time will be, but I'll see you then. Peace!
 
This slate was definitely hard to put together, and I'm very happy with what Earthflax finalized. We've ended up with a really interesting suite of abilities to decide between, and I think we're very much on the right track moving forward. Full approval from my end, and I'm quite intrigued to see how the poll turns out!
 
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