Item Balancing and Design

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JJayyFeather

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Discussion So Far
Stat Changes
Ability and Item Tenets Discussion

Item Balancing and Design

Okay, let's get straight to it here.

At time of posting, there are no changes confirmed for items yet. But that's what we're here to change. This thread serves as a thread for the community to propose and discuss nerfs and buffs that they feel are worth making with regards to items. As with everything else currently, the changes will still be finalized by the moderation team.

Approved Changes
Currently none
 

JJayyFeather

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Starting Questions
Q1: What do you propose we do about Expert Belt?

As stated earlier, anyone is allowed to ask new questions or propose changes to items. For this first part of the discussion, I want to stick to only the items that already exist. And then we'll discuss new item ideas afterwards. Feel free to answer existing questions or propose your own changes to currently unaddressed items.
 
A1: I am truly fine with destroying this item, make it +2 final damage on non-STAB moves. Even at that point I can see it being used still. Expert Belt needs to be made more situational and less powerful because we need more item diversity in this game. If we don't make a nerf to both its situational usage and its damage output I can see it still just being the most useful item and I am personally not a fan it has held the spotlight more than it needs to.

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Now I have a proposal/question to some items that I would say are quite underpowered but have potential!

Q2: What buff can be given to Wise Glasses, Muscle Band and Wide Lens?

A2: Currently these items all give a boost to flat accuracy, to all moves in the case of Wide Lens and to Special and Physical moves respectively for Wise Glasses and Muscle Band. The latter also give a +1BAP boost to either Special or Physical moves. At the moment Wise Glasses and Muscle Band are almost directly inferior to any other option. The 10% accuracy is not worth the massive decrease in BAP/Final damage from other defensive items.

I propose that wise glasses and muscle band move to +2 BAP or a more significant accuracy boost (20%?) as for Wide Lens I am a bit more lost, I don't know how you make it usable without directly overlapping with something else like the Muscle Band/Wise Classes or a Lagging Tail even so yeah.
 

nightblitz42

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Q1: Do we really need to nerf both its damage output and its power? I think leaving it at +4 dmg but making it only boost non-STAB moves is still a big deal. For most Pokemon, that'll automatically lock the item out of boosting their most-damaging moves.

Q2: I really like the idea of a 20% acc boost on Wise Glasses and Muscle Band. Only applying to offensive moves retains its niche, and I think 20% is much more significant than 10% on account of boosting Fire Blast past 100% acc and taking Thunder and Blizzard to 90% each. I think accuracy boosting is less useful for Physical moves though tbh.

I still think Wise Glasses and Muscle Band probably won't see much competitive use. Accuracy boosts for damaging moves are difficult to justify over just taking a bigger damage-boosting item and using more accurate moves, especially since I'm guessing our upper limit for relatively reliable damage boosts is still probably gonna be around the +4 dmg range.
 

JJayyFeather

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A1: Agreeing with NB here. We don't need to completely kneecap the item, just give it a more defined niche.

A2: Forwarding some thinking from Discord to here, This is just pretty writing of what NB said up above. -

Proposed Buffs
Muscle Band: Increases the Attack Rank of the holder by one (1). Increases accuracy of the user's physical moves by twenty (20).
Wise Glasses: Increases the Special Attack Rank of the holder by one (1). Increases accuracy of the user's special moves by twenty (20).

As odd as a buff as this might seem, this is actually substantial. A quick /nms on Pokemon Showdown has this buff boosting 11 more special moves and 25 more physical moves to 100% accuracy. Add another 5 physical and 6 special moves if you factor in moves that reach 100% accuracy after a +Speed nature. Paired with the slight bump in stat ranks, this might give these two items a very safe home in general use items through enabling more low accuracy coverage/STAB options.

In conjuction with a buff like this, Wide Lens would likely need to be repurposed as an item, or at least buffed. Because 20% accuracy, even when it is applied to every move in a Pokemon's movepool, is not enough to constitute an entire item slot. So if you have ideas as for how to make this not absolutely miserable (can't be damage though), send them through. My initial thought with Wide Lens is to send it to the rework workshop while we adjust other items, and redesign it from the ground up.

==================

In addition to the above, I have a new proposed buff - this one goes out to RageCandyBar.

RageCandyBar (OLD): This may be activated at the very begining of any action by the player without using the action. When activated, this item is consumed and the Pokemon gains a one (1) rank bonus to Attack and Special Attack, plus a 25% (x1.25) bonus to Speed, rounded up, for six (6) actions or until switched out. If the action is pushed back, so is the activation of this item, unless otherwise specified.

RageCandyBar (NEW): This may be activated at the very beginning of any action by the player without using the action. When activated, this item is consumed and the Pokemon doubles its Attack and Special Attack Ranks for this action. If the action is pushed back, so is the activation of this item, unless otherwise specified.

A proper unga consumable would be hilarious to see, and I feel like RageCandyBar is the right item for it. And with the new system we are adding in place with increased rank magnitude, an item like this finally has a place in our design space. My original thought process was triples, but then I was reminded that Deoxys-A would rain down a R42 SpA Psycho Boost, and while that would make my Deoxys-A very happy, I'd imagine people would prefer that not to be the case. But, at doubles, its a massive burst of sudden damage, without being potentially overwhelming.

Q3: What are your thoughts on the proposed buff above?
 

nightblitz42

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For Wide Lens, I would look at maybe giving some kind of bonus to non-damaging moves, since Wise Glasses and Muscle Band give accuracy boosts to damaging moves. It's harder to buff non-damaging moves though, frankly. They don't have as many numbers tied to them that can be tweaked compared to damaging moves.

Does new RageCandyBar cover any new item space that Z-Crystals don't already? Depending on the mon, this seems almost stronger than a Z-Crystal, since it can give a big one-time offense boost without locking the user into a particular type of attack. I think I want more restrictions on an effect that powerful. This might sound strange coming from me in particular, but to me it seems like the kind of effect that would really suit an HP threshold berry: Great burst impact, one-time-use, and beneficial in almost any matchup.
 
Q1: What do you propose we do about Expert Belt?

For now making it affect only non-STAB moves seems like a good call. If it's still ubiquitous after said nerf we can start looking at nerfing the damage numbers but for now this seems fine.

Q2: What buff can be given to Wise Glasses, Muscle Band and Wide Lens?

Agree with the currently proposed buffs to Muscle Band and Wise Glasses. Part of me wants to suggest making the damage buff +2 to the Rank, since I still feel like these just end up outclassed by the type items and Expert Belt. Not 100% sure on that though. As for Wide Lens...

Q3: What are your thoughts on the proposed buff above?

Seems fine. Rage Candy Bar is in a weird space where it's status as the sole user-friendly consumable item really gives it the niche not of damage buffing but of allowing Thief and company to be usable without sacrificing initial momentum.

Q4: What items can we get rid of?

I'd like to propose the following items be removed from the game, since they serve no purpose in our current meta:

Wide Lens: With the Wise Glasses and Muscle Band duo around, the only use for Wide Lens would be to buff status moves, but it just does not do enough to justify it's existence.
Cleanse Tag: I don't think I've seen anyone use this item, ever. Just a waste of space
Blunder Policy: This is a neat item in game, but here it just loses you so much momentum that it's nowhere near worth it.
Arceus Plates: Just use the type items. Theoretically they could be used on Arceus proper, but nobody's ever going to have an Arceus, so that's a moot point.
Sticky Barb: This one serves a purpose...I just don't think it's a purpose we want to be promoting. Basically this is just an item slot to give a free knock off effect to the user.
Safety Goggles: Came up on Discord, but Powder moves see very little play here in the first place. No need for this.

I'd like to propose we consolidate the following items, since they all do the same thing, but with very minor differences, making the RC needed to get all of them annoying and pointless:
Rotom Applicances (5 items) -> Rotom Catalog
Pikachu Costumes (5 items) -> Costume Closet
Silvally Memories (18 items) -> Disk Drive
Genesect Drives (4 items) -> Genesect Cassette
Type Gems (18 items) -> Gem Collection
Natural Gift Berries (11 items) -> Natural Gifts (expand to all 18 types)
Type Resist Berries (18 items) -> Resist Berries
Power Items (5 items, Power Anklet) -> Power Items (not so sure about this one)


With these changes we can remove a bunch of items nobody cares about and make it easier for players to have access to the entire item library.
 

JJayyFeather

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I'd like to propose we consolidate the following items, since they all do the same thing, but with very minor differences, making the RC needed to get all of them annoying and pointless:
Rotom Applicances (5 items) -> Rotom Catalog
Pikachu Costumes (5 items) -> Costume Closet
Silvally Memories (18 items) -> Disk Drive
Genesect Drives (4 items) -> Genesect Cassette
Type Gems (18 items) -> Gem Collection
Natural Gift Berries (11 items) -> Natural Gifts (expand to all 18 types)
Type Resist Berries (18 items) -> Resist Berries
Power Items (5 items, Power Anklet) -> Power Items (not so sure about this one)
This is something to the effect of what we'll be doing in Stage 3. But it won't be to trim the data, merely to minimize the maximum investment cost.

I'd like to propose the following items be removed from the game, since they serve no purpose in our current meta:

Wide Lens: With the Wise Glasses and Muscle Band duo around, the only use for Wide Lens would be to buff status moves, but it just does not do enough to justify it's existence.
Cleanse Tag: I don't think I've seen anyone use this item, ever. Just a waste of space
Blunder Policy: This is a neat item in game, but here it just loses you so much momentum that it's nowhere near worth it.
Arceus Plates: Just use the type items. Theoretically they could be used on Arceus proper, but nobody's ever going to have an Arceus, so that's a moot point.
Sticky Barb: This one serves a purpose...I just don't think it's a purpose we want to be promoting. Basically this is just an item slot to give a free knock off effect to the user.
Arceus still exists in RPs, so that can't go just yet. Wide Lens is basically pointless, I have no gripe here. Cleanse Tag is a weird one because the function is valuable but just not valuable enough, I'd want to see discussion around maybe making the item better. Blunder Policy seems like an item that should be reworked to have its trigger and effect align better with each other here, as opposed to in-game.

======

Approving the proposed buffs to Wise Glasses and Muscle Band and the proposed nerf to Expert Belt.

As a heads up, approved changes are subject to change as new points are brought up, however these I'd prefer to be stable just as a result of them being the "bar" that we are balancing around.

Muscle Band: Increases the Attack Rank of the holder by one (1). Increases accuracy of the user's physical moves by twenty (20).
Wise Glasses: Increases the Special Attack Rank of the holder by one (1). Increases accuracy of the user's special moves by twenty (20).
Expert Belt: Increases the damage dealt by all non-STAB attacks that strike super effectively by four (4).

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RageCandyBar stuff:

Following from some conversation on Discord, I've got some follow-up thoughts on it (from me and others):
- x2 might be too volatile, x1.5 seems more appropriate.
- Potentially snubs the toes of Z-Moves, although I would argue that the Z-Crystals are moreso used because they are safer and immutable versions of Type Boosters that also have the option of a huge burst move or a strong utility move.
- If we commit to option like this, it would be highly beneficial to create an item to maintain the speed control part of RageCandyBar.

======

Forwarding a rework concept from LouisCyphre here - Choice Items (inspiration)

Choice Band: Increases the Attack rank of the holder by 50%, rounded up (e.g. 9*1.5 = 13.5 -> 14). The holder has its substitution limit reduced by 50%, rounded down (e.g. 3/2 = 1.5 -> 1).
Choice Specs: Increases the Special Attack rank of the holder by 50%, rounded up (e.g. 9*1.5 = 13.5 -> 14). The holder has its substitution limit reduced by 50%, rounded down (e.g. 3/2 = 1.5 -> 1).
Choice Scarf: Increases the Speed stat of the holder by 50%, rounded up (e.g. 91*1.5 = 136.5 -> 137). The holder has its substitution limit reduced by 50%, rounded up (e.g. 3/2 = 1.5 -> 2).

Incorporating the idea of making BBP-specific alterations to items, Choice Items are the perfect place for it. Removing options from the holder in a way that is much more in-tune with how BBP is played. Also, you probably saw that I gave Scarf rounded up instead of down, and that's because I feel like Scarf's best use case here is for trickery, because it's harder to win a damage race without an item here than in-game.
 
I think that I agree with everything so far except for the choice item changes.

I think the increase to a 50% bonus to all of the items makes perfect sense and seems to be the power level that choice items should hold, they should be very very strong. The issue I have is the halving of substitutions. In many situations, you can make a set of orders that needs only 1 sub realistically. Subbing for P/E moves isn't an issue because you're forcing the opponent to use 15 energy to stop your neutral attacks (exaggeration probably I haven't done that exact math). This is especially considering that you're no longer locked into a single attack for the entire round. That coupled with the fact that ordering second the majority of the time you don't even use subs means the drawback of choice items is far too little imo.

I propose that that Choice Items give the user no substitutions. With them sitting as proposed I don't see the drawback as nearly enough to justify the massive power boost and no substitutions rather than one feels like you are truly locked into your orders. Rather than getting a massive bonus as a reward for not making a P/E sub.
 

JJayyFeather

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More Discord -> Forum things

After lots of discussion, I'm moving the Choice Item rework suggestion to the following:

Choice Band: Increases the Attack rank of the holder by 33%, rounded up (e.g. 9*1.33 = 11.97 -> 12). The holder has its substitution limit reduced by 50%, rounded down (e.g. 3/2 = 1.5 -> 1).
Choice Specs: Increases the Special Attack rank of the holder by 33%, rounded up (e.g. 9*1.33 = 11.97 -> 12). The holder has its substitution limit reduced by 50%, rounded down (e.g. 3/2 = 1.5 -> 1).
Choice Scarf: Increases the Speed stat of the holder by 50%, rounded up (e.g. 91*1.5 = 136.5 -> 137). The holder has its substitution limit reduced by 50%, rounded up (e.g. 3/2 = 1.5 -> 2).

Reducing the rank increase on Band and Specs creates a more manageable power threshold (+4 at Rank 12 instead of +6).
 

JJayyFeather

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Double posting because of separate thoughts.

After thinking and talking, one of the things that we found was that there's an lack of higher power defensive options. Here are some proposals to try to address this:

Focus Sash (Rework): On initial equip, incoming attacks have their BAP reduced by five (5) for one (1) round.
Focus Band (Rework): Type: Consumable | Trigger: An Attack's Direct Damage would reduce you to 0 HP | Uses: Once | The holder survives the triggering attack at 1 HP. If the triggering attack was a Multi-Hit Attack, this effect is ignored.

Leftovers (Buff): The holder heals for three (3) HP at the end of each action.
Black Sludge (Buff): If the holder is a Poison-type Pokemon or a Pokemon with Poison Heal, Poison Point, Liquid Ooze, Toxic Boost or Poison Touch, it heals three (3) HP at the end of each action. Otherwise, it loses two (2) HP at the end of each action.

Unnamed Item A: On sendout, increase the holder's Defense and Special Defense by one (1) stage, adjusting the natural stages. Critical Hits against this Pokemon ignore half the Defense and Special Defense stage boosts, rounded up, instead of all of them.

Focus Sash is getting moved away from a generic overall defensive item in favor of making it a potent option for harsh burst reduction, but only from full HP. A potential balance concern I do see with this rework is the abuse case of this effect on Pokemon with very reliable sustain options, but there's likely a way to balance around this (or we can just let nature take its course as item manipulation is still popular and important).

Focus Band's rework is mostly just about removing some of the complexity to the item, while letting it achieve a very specific purpose: extending your life span by 1 more action.

The Leftovers and Black Sludge are not defensive options, but they are recovery tools used in a defensive Pokemon's toolkit, and we feel it would be beneficial for those Pokemon to get better benefit from these items. Especially with how fast fights can end.

Unnamed Item A (someone will name this eventually) is a suggestion for the new generic damage reduction item, that also has uses beyond that for Pokemon who want to take advantage of defense boosting. This bonus might be a lot, but i don't think it calls for immediate caution.

The goal in the above is to give the reactive player more options to deal with their matchups than just trying to out-damage everything. It might just be more beneficial to play defensively and extend the matchups to your liking. Provoked through the fact that the average lifespan of a Pokemon is roughly 4 actions, both currently and after the stat changes, and that we're looking at improving offensive options, it's important to make sure that defensive options keep up with the times in a very relevant way.

EDIT: Changed Focus Sash to only be during the round of the initial sendout (when the item is equipped).

======

In addition to defensive/recovery options, some counter item options also could use a touch up. Suggestions:

Utility Umbrella and Safety Goggles get merged into one item, and altered in wording to more sufficiently cover every base. This, ultimately just puts Cloud Nine's effect into an item, but without a command to clear weather. I will likely work on a better way to codify positive vs negative effects to shorten these descriptions.
Utility Umbrella (Rework): This Pokemon will not suffer any negative effects of weather, but will benefit from all positive effects. Sunny Day and Rain Dance do not increase the damage of attacks against them, or decrease the damage of their attacks. They suffer no damage in Hail and Sandstorm. Their Solar Beam will not lose BAP in non-Sunny weather. Incoming Solar Beams will always charge against them. Blizzard, Thunder, and Hurricane will not have their accuracy increased or changed to perfect against them, and will not be reduced when used by them. Weather-based evasion abilities (e.g. Sand Veil) will not lower the accuracy of this Pokemon's attacks.

As a result, Safety Goggles could be retooled into another type of counter item - a Shield Dust clone. Effectively gives us an option if a player wants nothing besides a way to protect themselves against incredibly unfortunate RNG.
Safety Goggles (Rework): This Pokemon reduces the secondary effect chance of all incoming attacks to 0%
 
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(Long post; My lack of available time prevented me from finishing this before the first thread closed, so the detailed version will go here)

Buff Flame Orb/Toxic Orb. For Pokemon with status-triggered abilities, these items are largely inferior to their alternatives. In the case of Guts/Flare Boost users, the orbs are unable to compete with Life Orb; all three items provide the same boost, but Life Orb holds the notable advantage of not harming its wielder during blocked or non-damaging actions. As a result, the orbs can easily push an opponent's effective DPA past the next relevant XHKO threshold, a risk that is completely unjustified by the status orbs' output. Although the relative permanence of the activated status buff is appealing, the Orbs' delay period is hardly compatible with a faster metagame, especially given their extreme susceptibility to both item and ability removal. Finally, Flame/Toxic Orb effectively bar a Pokemon from using moves such as Endure, forcing players to sacrifice key interactions of late-stage matchups, yet they altogether fail at balancing this drawback.

Furthermore, the combination of Toxic Orb + Poison Heal is outclassed by healing items for many of the same reasons. Despite the fact that its source effect is twice that of Leftovers, Poison Heal users struggle to justify a Toxic Orb because of its disproportional opportunity cost and insufficient recovery. Additionally, neither Pokemon is bulky enough to reap the rewards of prolonged healing. Further hindrances come from the current metagame; given that defensive items are intrinsically less useful in BBP, this strategy is quite frequently overshadowed by picking a simple damage-boosting item, and will depreciate following the impending offensive buffs.

My proposed solution is to codify orbs to amplify status-based abilities. While wielding an orb and suffering from its status, a Pokemon should ideally receive an additional 1-2 BAP increase from Guts/Flare Boost and/or recover 1-2 more HPPA from Poison Heal. This compensates for the items' lack of immediate use and the degenerate strategies required to maintain their benefits in common matchups, and gives players a better incentive to select these niche items. Given the linear game plan of status abusers and the plentiful counter play to their abilities, I believe that such a buff to the Orbs is completely justified, and doing so will positively impact the metagame by improving the viability of several unappealing Pokemon.
 

JJayyFeather

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My proposed solution is to codify orbs to amplify status-based abilities. While wielding an orb and suffering from its status, a Pokemon should ideally receive an additional 1-2 BAP increase from Guts/Flare Boost and/or recover 1-2 more HPPA from Poison Heal. This compensates for the items' lack of immediate use and the degenerate strategies required to maintain their benefits in common matchups, and gives players a better incentive to select these niche items. Given the linear game plan of status abusers and the plentiful counter play to their abilities, I believe that such a buff to the Orbs is completely justified, and doing so will positively impact the metagame by improving the viability of several unappealing Pokemon.
Completely agreed.

Flame Orb: At the end of each action, the holder is burned. If the holder is currently burned due to this item's effect, it cannot receive any other major status effect. The holder gains two (2) additional BAP on attacks that are affected by Guts or Flare Boost.
Toxic Orb: At the end of each action, the holder is badly poisoned. If the holder is currently badly poisoned due to this item's effect, it cannot receive any other major status effect. The holder gains two (2) additional BAP on attacks that are affected by Toxic Boost. The holder heals one (1) additional HP from Poison Heal at the end of each action.

Here's some full writeups of those proposed buffs. I'm being a little cautious on Poison Heal for two reasons: there was discussion in Discord of potentially buffing Poison Heal to be 3hp/a naturally, and passive recovery in this form could be really strong just in how difficult it is to remove. If we do decide to keep Poison Heal as is at 2hp/a, I'd be very open to extending Toxic Orb's buff to +2hp/a, maintaining the same total as now. I'm not sure if anything deserves to have 5hp/a as passive healing quite yet.

======

Rework? proposal... I think. Not sure if this is directly a nerf or a buff, but I know it changes the purpose/role of the item.

[Type] Gem: Type: Consumable | Trigger: Command - Syntax (Attack [GEM]) | Uses: Two | When using a [Type]-type Attack, this may be activated. When activated, increases the BAP of the attack by five (5).

Currently, Type Gems are 3 BAP per activation with 5 activations. This, while numerically sound, is basically close to a direct overlap with the type-boosting items
Charcoal: +4 / +8 / +12 / +16 / +20
Fire Gem (N): +3 / +6 / +9 / +12 / +15
Fire Gem (SE): +4.5 / +9 / 13.5 / +18 / +22.5

A Gem currently only has benefits over a type item currently if you can hold an SE matchup the whole time, and the benefit is very marginal. Now, here's numbers with the proposed rework
Charcoal: +4 / +8 / +12 / +16 / +20
Fire Gem (N): +5 / +10 / +10 / +10 / +10
Fire Gem (SE): +7.5 / +15 / +15 / +15 / +15

The difference here is quite clear. Charcoal performs better over the long term, outpacing SE usage of the gem after 4 actions, but the Type Gem is significantly more powerful in the short term. This gives Type Gems a reason to actual exist as items beyond "well I need to enable Acrobatics/Unburden and I really want a Type Booster." If you don't think a favorable matchup will last long, or you just need that bonus pressure, or maybe you're just worried about Knock Off and co. completely stifling your potential item value, the Type Gem provides a strong burst of value.
 

JJayyFeather

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Wrapping this thread up.

Approved Changes
Muscle Band: Increases the Attack Rank of the holder by one (1). Increases accuracy of the user's physical moves by twenty (20).
Wise Glasses: Increases the Special Attack Rank of the holder by one (1). Increases accuracy of the user's special moves by twenty (20).
Expert Belt: Increases the damage dealt by all non-STAB attacks that strike super effectively by four (4).
Life Orb: Increases the Base Attack Power of all attacks by three (3), but deals three (3) damage to the Pokemon for each attack it makes that hits successfully. If the holder either has the Magic Guard ability, or has the Sheer Force ability toggled on (and is using a Sheer Force-boosted attack), then they will take no recoil damage. The recoil is only one (1) damage if the attack is a single-hit move with four (4) Base Attack Power after ability adjustments. Attacks that hit multiple Pokemon only inflict recoil once.

Choice Band: Increases the Attack rank of the holder by 33%, rounded up (e.g. 9 * 1.33 = 11.97 -> 12). The holder has its substitution limit reduced by two (2). The holder cannot give this item to any other Pokemon (This effect is not ignored by Klutz).
Choice Specs: Increases the Special Attack rank of the holder by 33%, rounded up (e.g. 9 * 1.33 = 11.97 -> 12). The holder has its substitution limit reduced by two (2). The holder cannot give this item to any other Pokemon (This effect is not ignored by Klutz).
Choice Scarf: Increases the Speed stat of the holder by 50%, rounded up (e.g. 91 * 1.5 = 136.5 -> 137). The holder has its substitution limit reduced by one (1). The holder cannot give this item to any other Pokemon (This effect is not ignored by Klutz).

[Type] Gem: Type: Consumable | Trigger: Command - Syntax (Attack [GEM]) | Uses: Two | When using a [Type]-type Attack, this may be activated. When activated, increases the BAP of the attack by five (5).

Flame Orb: At the end of each action, the holder is burned. If the holder is currently burned due to this item's effect, it cannot receive any other major status effect. The holder gains two (2) additional BAP on attacks that are affected by Guts or Flare Boost.
Toxic Orb: At the end of each action, the holder is badly poisoned. If the holder is currently badly poisoned due to this item's effect, it cannot receive any other major status effect. The holder gains two (2) additional BAP on attacks that are affected by Toxic Boost. The holder heals one (1) additional HP from Poison Heal at the end of each action.

Utility Umbrella: This Pokemon is unaffected by all effects of weathers. When attacking or being attacked, nullify the effects of weather on moves and abilities.
Safety Goggles: This Pokemon reduces the secondary effect chance of all incoming attacks to 0%.

Focus Sash: Incoming attacks have their BAP reduced by five (5), but the holder's own attacks have their BAP reduced by three (3). At the end of the Round, destroy this item. This item cannot be Recycled.
Focus Band: Type: Consumable | Trigger: An Attack's Direct Damage would reduce you to 0 HP | Uses: Once | The holder survives the triggering attack at 1 HP. If the triggering attack was a Multi-Hit Attack, this effect is ignored.

Enigma Stone (NEW!): On sendout, increase the holder's Defense and Special Defense by one (1) stage, adjusting the natural stages. Critical Hits against this Pokemon ignore half the Defense and Special Defense stage boosts, rounded up, instead of all of them.

Throat Spray will have its uses increased to three, from one.
=====
Quick rundown of some stuff that wasn't discussed here, but rather privately when NB and I made our decision:
- Leftovers and Black Sludge's buff are tabled simply because they become too close the power of offensive items but for doing nothing specific.
- Utility Umbrella is changed partially for description maintenance and partially because the old description used a poorly defined set of qualifiers in positive/negative.
- Focus Sash got rewritten and slightly rebalanced, to better highlight that we don't want this item to be all about winning the early damage race, but rather to provide an option that makes setting up at the start less punishing.
- Life Orb's nerf is simply because its always been a slightly lesser Expert Belt, especially with the massive nerf to Endure at the top of Gen 8. This nerf allows it to still provide a strong neutral unconditional option, but at a higher cost.
 
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