Hey, quit heal stalling why don't you?!

[Pendraflare]

In-game, some people think it's cheap to heal stall in battle. By that I mean they don't like when others spam healing items such as Potions and Full Heals several times throughout a battle. What's your take on this matter?

On a scale of 1 to 10, how much are you against using healing items in-game?

If not very, how guilty are you of this?

If you are (against it), do you have qualms with using healing moves like Recover and Roost?

For me, 5. I can understand why some people think healing items are cheap, but there are some times where I won't be against it, particularly if i'm way low leveled or such. In Nuzlockes and Wedlockes, sometimes i'll heal as much as I need to (in the first of each that I completed, there were battles I heal stalled like crazy), others i'll impose item restrictions and just ban them altogether. But in most other challenges like Monotypes or Mono-Colors, I try to avoid using them as much as possible, EXCEPT in Heart Gold and Soul Silver where you have extremely tough fights (especially for low levels) like Whitney, Clair, Blue and Red. And in normal plays, if i'm trying to get through the game as quickly as possible, i'll do whatever I want. But I am NOT at all against healing moves, because they take up a moveslot that you could be using on something like an attacking move or stat booster.

What's your take on this matter? Discuss.

 

[Rosehip]

I honestly don't really care due to my Pokemon usually OHKOing the AI's Pokemon, and I barely use healing items on my Pokemon unless I'm battling the Champion or something. I consider my dislike for it, a scale of 3 out of ten would work well. I just don't bother having to heal myself with items, though I keep some in the rare case that I do need them. It's usually because my Pokemon are overlevelled as hell and make work of opponents before I can even say "potion", but eh.

I don't find them cheap at all, seeing as if it's an item put into the game, you're meant to use it.

 

[bobandbill]

I don't find them cheap at all, seeing as if it's an item put into the game, you're meant to use it.

Pretty much this! And they take away the ability for you to do it in certain parts, such as the Battle Tower or what-have-you, as well as online battles, so I think it's perfectly fine. Let's not forget some of those upstanding NPCs - Gym Leaders and even E4 members, and even the Champion - won't hesitate to use a healing item themselves! What's good for them is good for me, I reckon.

I guess I can see the merit in not using them for challenges, but that just means you need to go and grind more, which... undoes the challenge anyway, imo.

 

[Blake Belladonna]

For reasons Nonon mentioned, I'm indifferent to this 'issue' as well. I mean you can't really fault someone for using something that's like right before them, truth be told. I guess that puts me at 1 to 0 on the scale lol.

 

[Hiatus]

Things like this never get used in anime, but game world definitely different, and personally, I really don't mind it. If we didn't have access to such items, it would've been a lot more difficult to get past some trainers, such as Gym Leaders and Elite Four. Some of us do take time to train our Pokémon top-notch, but there are others who don't, and for them, it would be sort of a challenge. It's frustrating when opponents use them, but I still accept it; we're allowed to utilize these stuff, so why can't they? Some Pokémon could indeed learn recovery moves, but not all, and for them, healing items are kinda needed.

 

[Jolteon Dan]

Who wants to have a Wonder Launcher battle with me?

...I guess there's a reason they didn't bring that back in Gen 6. In-game I try to avoid healing items if I can, even though it's annoying when the opposing gym leaders clearly do not do the same. Healing moves, on the other hand, are fair game by me; they're fair game in multiplayer battles as well and they're part of the pokemon's intrinsic moveset.

 

[Megan]

Since AI trainers only have a set amount of potions, it's not too bad. Protect spamming wild Pokemon is another story. Why not use Protect? Why not use it a second time? Heck, while we're at it, why not use it a third time? Darn you Pelipper!

 

[Legobricks]

1. Cheap?.. No. Healing items are mostly a convenience to save running back to the Pokemon Centre every five minutes. A friend told me they don't have to buy items but I suspect they do this instead. Heal stalling is just an an aggrivating waste of time. If all you're doing is taking your turn to restore the same HP the enemy is taking away with each of their turns (often the case in my experience), you'll be getting nothing done until they land a critical hit, which is very likely to happen before they run out of PP.

 

[LyokoGirl5000]

I like to save all my healing items for the Elite Four. I usually only use Revives and Full Restores in battle. Outside of battle, anything goes. I will admit that in my first battle against Steven, I used Revive after Revive to keep my Kyogre in battle and wear down his Metagross until it used Struggle and knocked itself out with recoil. Cheap? Yes. Worth it? Definitely.

 

[Altairis]

I heal stall a lot in game, haha. But I don't think it's cheap at all! It doesn't guarantee my win every time or anything. And the important opponents don't hesitate to use a healing item, so neither will I. :) Although I obviously have more access to strategy with my freedom of when I choose to use the items, but whatever.

Wow, imagine if important trainers could use Revives though. Think that would change much?

 

[Pepperton]

Sometimes, it's necessary. I know I've heal stalled several times, haha. I can be very picky when it comes to catching Pokemon, and one time, I had only a Grovyle when fighting Wattson, and it was virtually impossible to defeat him without heal stalling his Magneton out. I think I would crash and burn in a challenge that involved banning of healing items, to be honest, far too reliant on them. If they allowed usage of potions in online battles, this would be a completely different story.