What exactly is the purpose of "Abilities" like Truant, Slow Start, Klutz & Defeatist?

Actually the question should be why are Truant, Slow Start, Klutz & Defeatist called Abilities in the first place, because they are actually a hinderance rather than being an asset.

Why do you think they were added as "Abilities" in the first place?

Pika Pika :chu:

Sort of a way to balance out the Pokemon that have them. Slaking and Regigigas would be really powerful if they had a normal ability. Truant also kinda fits in with Slaking being a lazy motherfucker.

Though sometimes I think devs just like to troll a bit.

Nah said:

Though sometimes I think devs just like to troll a bit.

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Such as Regigigas, like you mentioned. It could be good but it's actually unusable because of Slow Start.

You can take those off using Skill Swap in Double and Triple Battles though, at which point may god have mercy on your opponent.

Nah said:

Sort of a way to balance out the Pokemon that have them. Slaking and Regigigas would be really powerful if they had a normal ability. Truant also kinda fits in with Slaking being a lazy motherpsyducker.

Though sometimes I think devs just like to troll a bit.

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They sure do. Why else would Durant have Truant for a hidden ability and Delibird have Vital Spirit and Insomnia?

Anyway I believe these exist to fit the Pokemon they're assigned to. Slakoth and Slaking are lazy bums, so why would they attack every turn? Regigigas has less justification for it, seeing as how it's a legendary and all but it DID tow continents around on ropes (allegedly) so that may justify it being slow for 5 turns. Klutz and Defeatist though I don't quite understand. I can see Buneary and Lopunny having Klutz because they have no fingers or thumbs to speak of so it would be hard to grasp onto objects... Problem is a lot of other Pokemon have a similar problem so they shouldn't be able to use items either. How's Zubat or Ekans supposed to hold onto items and use them? Maybe they're just too ditzy to use the item... except stuff like Lucky Eggs still work. WHY?!

At least Defeatist makes a little sense considering the only Pokemon that have it are fragile rocky birds. I'm assuming they do less damage to the opponent because they're damaged and risk seriously injuring themselves if they continue to go all out. They are fragile rocky birds after all.

lol I forgot that Durant has Truant and Delibird has both Insomnia and Vital Spirit

so much for balance then

Nah said:

Sort of a way to balance out the Pokemon that have them. Slaking and Regigigas would be really powerful if they had a normal ability. Truant also kinda fits in with Slaking being a lazy motherpsyducker.
Though sometimes I think devs just like to troll a bit.

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Laguna said:

Such as Regigigas, like you mentioned. It could be good but it's actually unusable because of Slow Start.

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mew_nani said:

They sure do. Why else would Durant have Truant for a hidden ability and Delibird have Vital Spirit and Insomnia?
Anyway I believe these exist to fit the Pokemon they're assigned to. Slakoth and Slaking are lazy bums, so why would they attack every turn? Regigigas has less justification for it, seeing as how it's a legendary and all but it DID tow continents around on ropes (allegedly) so that may justify it being slow for 5 turns. Klutz and Defeatist though I don't quite understand. I can see Buneary and Lopunny having Klutz because they have no fingers or thumbs to speak of so it would be hard to grasp onto objects... Problem is a lot of other Pokemon have a similar problem so they shouldn't be able to use items either. How's Zubat or Ekans supposed to hold onto items and use them? Maybe they're just too ditzy to use the item... except stuff like Lucky Eggs still work. WHY?!
At least Defeatist makes a little sense considering the only Pokemon that have it are fragile rocky birds. I'm assuming they do less damage to the opponent because they're damaged and risk seriously injuring themselves if they continue to go all out. They are fragile rocky birds after all.

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Hey guys I get all that, but my question is, when you say "Ability", shouldn't it be something that's an advantage, rather that a disadvantage?

Buneary & Lopunny have other abilities, so thats okay I guess (still can't justify Klutz), but the others, namely Slakoth, Slaking, Archen, Archeops & Regigigas, only have a single, hindering ability.

Couldn't they be given some other ability. For e.g., you can give Slakoth & Slaking something like say, Oblivious or Own Tempo. I think it would suit their personalities, won't give them any distinct advantage over their foes & won't be a hindrance either.

Pika Pika :chu:

LegendChu said:

Hey guys I get all that, but my question is, when you say "Ability", shouldn't it be something that's an advantage, rather that a disadvantage?

Buneary & Lopunny have other abilities, so thats okay I guess (still can't justify Klutz), but the others, namely Slakoth, Slaking, Archen, Archeops & Regigigas, only have a single, hindering ability.

Couldn't they be given some other ability. For e.g., you can give Slakoth & Slaking something like say, Oblivious or Own Tempo. I think it would suit their personalities, won't give them any distinct advantage over their foes & won't be a hindrance either.

Pika Pika :chu:

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Well actually Klutz in particular CAN be advantageous. Items that woul[S-HIGHLIGHT][/S-HIGHLIGHT]d normally harm the Pokemon holding it like Sticky Barb and Flame Orb have no effect on a Pokemon with Klutz, so if you have Trickeroo or a similar move you can screw your opponent over.

But as for the other abilities... I dunno. Regigigas to me is one of the biggest offenders for dumb nonsensical abilities. I can see Slaking being too gosh dang lazy to move, and I can kinda see Archeops being incredibly fragile to the point its attack stats take a nosedive if it's below 50% health. But I can't see Regigigas being so slow moving that it's attack and speed is halved for 5 turns. There's just no logical reason for it. There's 3 other legendary Pokemon like it that aren't affected by such an ability, and there's several Pokemon of similar size and weight that have no momentum issues at all.

But eh... It's not like all abilities out there are good ones. Some Pokemon are just blessed with horrible "abilities" that harm them more than they help them, and in this day and age where Mega Evolution has taken imbalances to new heights there's just not a lot of reasons for it anymore.

Nah said:

lol I forgot that Durant has Truant and Delibird has both Insomnia and Vital Spirit

so much for balance then

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Yes. I want to fire the employees at Game Freak who came up with that shit idea.

As for Klutz, it's not as useless as you think. It ignores the effects of a lot of harmful items like Sticky Barb and Toxic/Flame Orb which makes Switcheroo sets on Lopunny able to really use it effectively by potentially crippling the opponent. Plus, the ability ignores Lucky Eggs so you'll still get the EXP boost from them.

Defeatist is there to likely keep Archen and Archeops from being overpowered, especially with their high Speed and strong attacking moves and offensive stats.

I recall viewing another forum that discussed about using HA Durant. It's apparently very effective in restricting the AI battlers in Battle maison since you could pass the truant ability via Entrainment.

Laguna said:

Such as Regigigas, like you mentioned. It could be good but it's actually unusable because of Slow Start.

You can take those off using Skill Swap in Double and Triple Battles though, at which point may god have mercy on your opponent.

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I thought removing Slow Start with Skill Swap would just leave Regigigas stuck in a permanent halved attack and speed state.

Actually, I just looked and that was only in the Japanese versions of D/P... hmm...

Ammako said:

I thought removing Slow Start with Skill Swap would just leave Regigigas stuck in a permanent halved attack and speed state.

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I've never actually used Regigigas so I wouldn't know about it.

I dunno, maybe they wanted to cripple these overpowered Pokemon. Maybe slow start makes Regigigas easier to lower his HP ASAP so you can catch him easier?

magicalgirlj said:

I dunno, maybe they wanted to cripple these overpowered Pokemon. Maybe slow start makes Regigigas easier to lower his HP ASAP so you can catch him easier?

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I'm not sure about Slow Start making it "easier" to weaken Regigigas to catch but it does have impressive stats so it needs some handicap which this ability does, but at the same time it makes people not want to use it because it cannot stall out with Protect, making it one of the few Pokemon who can't use Protect via TM.

In fairness, Klutz can sometimes be useful for when you want to use Switcheroo to give an opponent a Flame Orb or a Toxic Orb, but other than that one obtuse example, yea, they're all pretty bad abilities :c Like others have already said, balance has a lot to do with Slaking and Regigigas getting Truant and Slow Start, respectively. The rest are just gimmicks :P

Slow Start on Regigigas is just stupid, I mean it cannot attack for 5 turns, which gives you enough time to knock it out.
Also, if you send in a good Fighting Type, you can take it down in a couple of turns (of course depending on levels).

Pika Pika :chu:

Like it's been mentioned already, abilities can sometimes be a hindrance for the sake of making a Pokémon less OP (Slaking), but it can also be an interesting strategy to use Skill Swap with.

At the chance of sounding repetitive, detrimental Abilities are meant to be that, "detrimental," so as to hinder the stronger Pokemon so none of them can have too much power, especially when playing online; they're still Abilities because they're meant to give the Pokemon something extra, albeit quid pro quo.

LegendChu said:

Hey guys I get all that, but my question is, when you say "Ability", shouldn't it be something that's an advantage, rather that a disadvantage?

Buneary & Lopunny have other abilities, so thats okay I guess (still can't justify Klutz), but the others, namely Slakoth, Slaking, Archen, Archeops & Regigigas, only have a single, hindering ability.

Couldn't they be given some other ability. For e.g., you can give Slakoth & Slaking something like say, Oblivious or Own Tempo. I think it would suit their personalities, won't give them any distinct advantage over their foes & won't be a hindrance either.

Pika Pika :chu:

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I completely understand where you're coming from because the word ability means "possession of the means or skill to do something" or "talent, skill, or proficiency in a particular area." The opposite of 'ability' would be weakness, which is precisely what slow start and truant are. They're weaknesses, not skills.

The problem here is that there's really no other way to assign Pokemon with these unique drawbacks because ability slots are basically just passive effect slots and abilities are a very specific game mechanic. I hope I'm explaining this correctly :)

To echo what Crystal Berry said, I don't think the word "Ability" is meant to be taken literally. It essentially boils down to a unique trait that has in-battle effects.

I think that, gimmicky though they may be, hindering abilities make the game a bit more interesting. Regigigas is really fun to use in NU, for example, and it'd probably be Ubers if it weren't for Slow Start. And whenever I have a Slaking on my competitive team, I use a trick where I pass Mummy from Cohagrigus to Slaking, which is tricky, but satisfying as heck when you actually manage to do it ^_^

Defeatist though...I still haven't found any positive silver lining in that one -_-

Nah said:

lol I forgot that Durant has Truant and Delibird has both Insomnia and Vital Spirit

so much for balance then

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Probably because Durant is a true ant. Im sorry.

Delibird can't sleep! He has to give out those presents!

Its probably just a balancing factor tbh, or part of the lore in a sense with Slaking being lazy and stuff.