First is Shield Dust. Screw Natural Cure. Why take random status when you can just be immune to it? Shame its poorly distributed. Next is Guts. As opposed to Shield Dust, let them status you, and laugh as your trap card activates and you crush them with rage. Third, Serene Grace. Turns haxes into likely outcomes, and can completely screw with conventional counters. Honorable mentions to Intimidate, Shed Skin (Rest Dratini/Dragonair is so obnoxious in CC), Sand Veil, and Trace.
Color Change by Kecleon. Sounds like the name of a mascara/make-up lol. When used in the right situation, you can turn a 1HKO/2HKO into a pretty lengthy battle, not to mention he has a pretty good moveset
Scald already has a built in serene grace with a multiplier of x9001, face it. BEST ABILITY IS DRY SKIN :3
I really enjoy using baton pass teams so i love Mr. Mime's Soundproof. Magic Bounce is needful as well, but Soundproof effects are lesser known... it's very funny to see an opponent getting disappointed after using Bug Buzz on Mime!
... Hustle. Man, that ability is amazing. Giving you an effective 1.5 boost without a cost (accuracy etc) is amazing. Pair it up with Hone Claws, and it really is worth it
Wonder Guard, lol at using Shedinja in Ubers, Kyogre sweeping? 1hp pokemon FTW!!! Although I also love Moxie too, fuck Dragonite, I <3 Salamence.
Natural Cure Always useful. Never useless but never overpowered in any given matchup. It is at the power and usefulness level that an ability should be.
I MORE LIKE MOODY!. So badass ability.. but it got banned since we (j99ubers & me) using it in uber until 1500's and then PO Banned it.. it increase and decreases stats +2/-2 per turn
FINALLY!!!! SOMEONE WHICH HAS A DECENT AMOUNT OF WISDOM!!! Put a Wonder Guard on a Spiritomb now. Now give the spiritomb rest. Yes. Stronger than the god of pokemon(Arceus).
Trace and Rain Dish :3 Tracing Intimidate, Flash Fire, etc is too good. Regaining 1/16 of your hp each turn? Yes, please.
My favourite is Illusion. Illusion is just such a unique ability and it can stuff up a whole game, just by making the opponent waste a turn or two for you to set-up and therefore sweep. Love the troll factor, too. :D Zoroark derives its awesomeness from this ability. Honorable mentions include Speed Boost, Magic Bounce, Multiscale and Regenerator, which all have their perks for walls, sweepers and whatever. Honestly though, the usefulness of an ability depends on the Pokemon that has it, so yeah, I don't believe that there is an ability that is truly the "best".
Spoiler I did say that my favorite Ability was Huge Power on the first page of this thread, but I have changed my mind since then. Right now, my favorite Ability is Turboblaze, as I find it incredibly awesome how Reshiram can rip straight through the likes of Lugia's Multiscale, Heatran's Flash Fire and Forretress and Skarmory's Sturdy Abilities with its devastating Blue Flare attack. Actually, to provide more detail about what I just mentioned, Reshiram is actually my second favorite Pokémon ever, as well as my overall favorite legendary Pokémon, for a myriad of reasons including its awesome type combination, its extremely cool signature Blue Flare attack, its usefulness in battle as well as its beautiful appearance, as I have always liked holy and angelic-looking beings, and the fact that it is a dragon makes it even cooler in my opinion. However, another reason why I like this Pokémon so much is because I simply find something extremely badass and awe-inspiring about the way in which its offensive power seems to give the illusion of ignoring or "transcending" the very rules, laws and game mechanics that govern Pokémon battles, and its Turboblaze Ability is one of the three factors contributing to Reshiram evoking this trope in my opinion. I will explain these factors below in order to clarify what I am talking about when I say that the Vast White Pokémon appears to ignore or transcend the rules that define the mechanics of Pokémon: 1. The first of these factors, as I just mentioned, is Reshiram's Turboblaze Ability, which allows its attacks to pretty much give a big middle finger to all defensive Abilities that Pokémon possess, most notably Multiscale, Flash Fire, Sturdy, Heatproof and Thick Fat, which makes it seem as if Reshiram does not need to follow some of the rules of the game that many other Pokémon have no choice but to follow. I understand that Zekrom as well as all Pokémon that possess the Mold Breaker Ability can also do the exact same thing, but it is because neither Zekrom nor any Pokémon with access to Mold Breaker exhibit the next two traits which I am about to describe, which is exactly why I believe no other Pokémon is quite as badass as Reshiram when it comes to evoking the very characteristic that I am describing. 2. The second of these factors lies in Reshiram's type combination, Dragon/Fire, which when combined with its aforementioned Turboblaze Ability, gives it an absolutely unresisted pair of Same Type Attack Bonus moves. And with what I just mentioned combined with Reshiram's extremely limited movepool, whose viable attacks almost consist of only Dragon and Fire-type moves, makes it seem to me as if the Vast White Pokémon is conveying the following message: "With my two strongest attacks, Blue Flare and Draco Meteor, the offensive power that I possess is absolute. I can learn almost no viable attacks that are not of the Dragon or Fire type, since I have no need for such moves. This is because it does not matter what type or type combination any Pokémon that stands before me may possess, as before my two extremely powerful Same Type Attack Bonus moves, everything is equal before me. If my Blue Flare attack cannot hit my foe for at least neutral damage, then my Draco Meteor will. And if my Draco Meteor cannot hit my foe for at least neutral damage, my Blue Flare will. Trivial things such as the type matchup chart and the concept of carrying coverage moves are nothing that I need to concern myself with. Regardless of type combination or Ability, there is absolutely nothing any Pokémon in existence can do to escape both of my Same Type Attack Bonus moves." 3. The third of these factors lies in the absolutely devastating power of Reshiram's Sun-boosted Blue Flare attack, which is so immensely strong that that it sometimes appears as if the Vast White Pokémon is completely above the very concept of type advantages and disadvantages! This is evoked in the fact that not only do every bulky Water-type Pokémon in existence (including Kyogre, if the Sun is somehow shining intensely in its presence!) get taken out in two hits by it, but there are also many Pokémon resistant to Fire-type moves that get taken out in a single hit by this attack! Blaziken and Chandelure are the two most notable examples as they are among the commonly-used Pokémon in the Übers tier, but actually my Reshiram has also taken out other, less common Pokémon that resist Fire-type moves in one hit with Blue Flare, including Infernape, Archeops and Haxorus. When juxtaposed with the way many Pokémon in the OU tier or lower run coverage moves such as Thunderbolt, Thunder Punch, Thunder Fang and Hidden Power [Grass] just to barely manage to take out bulky Water-type Pokémon such as Vaporeon, Suicune and Jellicent in three, or sometimes even four super effective hits, the fact that Reshiram can easily incinerate Pokémon in one or two not very effective hits makes it appear as if its Blue Flare in the Sun defies the very type matchup chart of Pokémon itself!! And while this was already evoked in the aforementioned point about the near-unresisted Same Type Attack Bonus coverage that the Vast White Pokémon possesses, the sheer power of Reshiram's Sun-boosted Blue Flare actually takes this to an entirely different level, as under intense sunlight, it very often appears as if the fiery dragon does not even need to care enough to choose between Blue Flare and Draco Meteor according to its target's type, as in the Sun it can just fire its Blue Flare indiscriminately and incinerate Grass, Normal, and Water-type Pokémon alike, as if such Pokémon's types do not even exist at all! Of course, several other Pokémon, such as Charizard with its Solar Power and Sun-boosted Fire Blast, Victini with its Sun-boosted V-create as well as Kyogre with its rain-boosted Water Spout can evoke something similar to this point, but not only do none of such Pokémon exhibit factors #1 and #2 that contribute to Reshiram's ability to seemingly cheat in the game of Pokémon, but such Pokémon's absurdly powerful weather-enhanced attacks can actually be completely stopped by some things (Pokémon with the Flash Fire Ability in the case of Charizard and Victini, and Pokémon with the Dry Skin, Storm Drain and Water Absorb Abilities in Kyogre's case), unlike Reshiram's Blue Flare. Due to the three points I have explained above, Reshiram to me comes off as a Pokémon that utterly oozes the very notion of "absolutely stubborn unstoppability" itself, as its Ability, type combination, extremely high 150 base Special Attack stat and absurdly powerful signature move in the Sun makes it appear as if it is spitting in the face of every other Pokémon's efforts to defend against its attacks, whose power and nature seem to defy and pierce logic and common sense itself, as it seems to simply completely disregard its target's type and Ability (two extremely fundamental aspects of the mechanics governing the very game of Pokémon itself) in its efforts to destroy them. And meanwhile, the fact that it relies almost purely on its unresisted Same Type Attack Bonus moves to destroy its opponents, makes it seem like a stubborn Pokémon that only sticks to using the very attacks it is best at, yet at the same time it is so incredibly badass that it has no no need whatsoever to rely on utilizing any form of cunning or strategy in battle, as it just powers its way through everything using sheer and almost indiscriminate brute force. The Vast White Pokémon to me therefore appears as an absolute monster from which there is absolutely nowhere to hide, and the very idea of "defending" against its unbelievably brutal, yet simple assaults that transcend all laws and everything is a completely meaningless and futile effort. I am, for some reasons, extremely inspired and drawn towards fictional characters that seemingly ignore logic, common sense, and the rules of their own universe, as well as exhibit traits similar to what I just described. To convey a better understanding of what I am talking about, one may consider the character Kenpachi Zaraki from the Animé/manga series Bleach, my second favorite character from that series, and a large part of why I like that character so much is extremely similar to the reason why I like Reshiram which I just explained above. Kenpachi (who also notably has no special powers whatsoever, and relies purely on his sword skills and overwhelming spirit energy, unlike many other characters in Bleach who have access to all sorts of different powers and abilities, and I believe a parallel can even be drawn between this and Reshiram's association with brute force, shown by its lack of reliance on coverage moves as well as its tendency to use Blue Flare even against Pokémon that resist this attack) lost to the main character, Ichigo Kurosaki early on in the series, only to return later to fight evenly with, and ultimately defeat Nnoitra Gilga, a character established to be a rank in strength above Grimmjow Jaegerjaquez, a character who Ichigo was only barely able to defeat after receiving no less than two major power-ups (one of which supposedly increasing Ichigo's power level by five to ten folds) ever since defeating Kenpachi (this particular inconsistency was somewhat explained much later on in the series, but still...). Then, despite experiencing an extremely difficult battle in which he nearly died against Nnoitra, Kenpachi later fought Yammy Llargo, a character established to be five ranks in strength above Nnoitra, and seemed to completely dominate him almost effortlessly judging from the part of the fight that was shown on-panel and on-screen (he later emerged victorious from that fight while being barely even injured, much in contrast with his battle against Nnoitra, although in the off-panel and off-screen part of his fight against Yammy he was also teaming up with another character). Also, in a filler episode in the Animé, Kenpachi was shown to effortlessly deflect the Senbonzakura Kageyoshi petals, an attack of Byakuya Kuchiki, with his spirit energy alone, a feat that even Ichigo failed to manage in his battle against Byakuya, despite having achieved a power-up that increased his power level by five to ten folds since his battle with Kenpachi. This all goes to show that in a series where the characters fall into well and strictly-defined power levels, Kenpachi seemingly completely ignores power levels, enabling him to manage absurd and entirely random feats that completely defy all forms of logic and sense defined by the series's universe itself. But it is this very chaotic and insane relationship between characters like Kenpachi and Reshiram and the universe in which they reside which I find to be incredibly appealing and awe-inspiring. And while Reshiram does not outright ignore the rules of its own universe (since its power to ignore other Pokémon's defensive Abilities can still be logically explained, as it ultimately owes itself to the Vast White Pokémon's Turboblaze Ability after all, and despite its Sun-boosted Blue Flare's ability to take down Pokémon regardless of their resistance to Fire-type moves, that attack's power still follows the formula of the game's damage calculation), it still seems to cast a very powerful illusion of doing such. And since Turboblaze plays an extremely crucial role in allowing Reshiram to embody the very trope that I have explained, it is therefore my most favorite Ability so far in the Pokémon series.
Wow, you sure explained your point very thoroughly. o: Lol, like 8 paragraphs. Anyway, I think my new favorite ability is Harvest. Even without sun, I find that I regain my berry back pretty much all the time and Rest Eggy is so much fun.
wow, what a long essay right there... my favorite ability is, probably, Technician, because it's devastating :D (all my Wifi OU teams have Scizor, while DW OU teams have Breloom) otherwise, Moxie and Sand Stream are amazing abilities as well
Spoiler tl;dr, why would you post something that long in a silly thread like this??? Anyway the best ability is Regenerator, specially in the lower tiers.
My favorite Pokemon Ability is Unburden; if a Pokemon gets Fake Out + Unburden, and they also have a respectable Attack/Special Attack stat (as well as Speed), you can invest all of that Pokemon's EVs into its offensive stats, and still outspeed any Pokemon holding a Choice Scarf that your opponent might use. Unburden would be activated by using a Normal Gem to boost the power of Fake Out.
Really glad you have covered each aspect and shared out all the factors.. Really very very impressive post and thanks for sharing it out..
Reckless is just really good in my opinion, you just destroy everything with Hi Jump Kick or Brave Bird. Usually when you slap a choice band on a Reckless mon you can basically 2HKO the entire tier.
My fav ability is definitely Regenerator. Switching in and out is so important in competitive pokemon and that ability actively rewards doing so. Any ability that largely helps defensive Pokemon will generally be liked by me. The more the better, cos power creep has gone too far even in a gen where they nerfed a lot of stuff.
Moxie. Its fun to use it on scarfers. I've also always liked Shed Skin too. Doesn't always work when you need it too but its funny to see your opponent waste a turn trying to status you. Intimidate and Solid Rock are cool too EDIT: The homie Ultimate Champion wrote a novel didn't he? Damn
Moxie is my favourite ability as well, especially on Honchkrow. Once you nab a kill and get to +1 you can have a really fun time sweeping.
>New Member >Messages: 1 lol, dat seems legit... Lance btw, my favorite ability is Trace, copy the opponent ability is just amazing, potentially u can get every ability in the game. Regain health again Volt absorb Thundurus-T, outspeed Excadrill on sandstorm, gain Protean or Adaptability, the possibilities are endless.
I love the ability Regenerator because it just amazes me on how the roles of the pokemon tie in with Regenerator to make it such a big threat! Like Slowbro for example, without Regenerator Slowbro would just only be useful for Bpassing and Crocune would still be running the streets destroying everything in it's path!
Multiscale is probably my favorite I use Lugia in Ubers a lot, and it just toxic stalls all non steel types
Magic Guard. On bulkier Pokémon like Reuniclus it renders stall teams irrelevant, while offensive Pokémon can use it to give themselves a Life Orb with no recoil.
Regenerator for sure. Healing 1/3 of your max hp when swithing out is just too powerful, especially if you have more than one Pokemon on your team with it.
For my money, Solar Power is da best cuz Sunflora is my main man Shield Dust or Fur Coat for overall goodness tho.. Skill Link or No Guard are fun ones too