AOTW: Static/Poison Point/Effect Spore/Flame Body (again)

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Trainers! Breeders! Assembled nerdom! Lend me your screens! Gather ‘round that we might discuss the most noble of Pokémon battling facets, the mighty Ability! Move in close, but don’t touch- that’s how terrible things happen. At least that’s the way it works with this week’s four—yes, FOUR—selections! This is Ability of the Week: Static, Poison Point, Effect Spore, AND Flame Body (again)!!

First of all, yeah, I’ve gone and done it again. Last week I mentioned that Battle Armor ought to have been covered in the same article as Shell Armor, but I wasn’t gonna beat a dead horse, having already covered it in a previous Rapid-Fire article. Well, get the cricket bats ready. That horse will not even be recognizable after two rounds of this. I already talked about Flame Body in a Rapid-Fire article back in June last year, but seeing how we’re covering contact-induced status effect Abilities today, I’m talking about it again.

So, these four Abilities share one common trait: when a pokémon possessing one of these Abilities is hit by a move that makes contact, there’s a 30% chance that the attacking pokémon will contract the status ailment associated with the specific Ability. So, which status effects are we talking about, you may be asking? You silly newbie. Here’s the breakdown:

  • Static – Paralyzed
  • Poison Point – Poisoned
  • Flame Body – Burned
  • Effect Spore – Sleep, Paralyzed, or Poison

And as a quick point of clarification on Effect Spore, that’s a 30% chance of the Ability activating, and then once it’s activated, each ailment has a 33.3% chance of being passed onto the attacking pokémon. It’s also worth mentioning that Static and Flame Body both have out-of-battle effects. It’s well-known that having a Flame Body-user in your party will cause pokémon eggs to hatch in half the time, but did you know that having a monster with Static at the head of your party will increase the odds of finding wild Electric-type pokémon in the field?

From where I’m standing, the fact that the Abilities are activated by making contact with the user via an attack, that means that you want a reasonably bulky monster that can soak up some hits to be the status afflicter. This is a lot of Abilities to talk about, so let’s narrow it down to the best candidate from each Ability’s pool of users. Representing Static, we have Stunfisk. Poison Point’s best beneficiary is probably Nidoqueen. Flame Body is a tough call, but I’ll give the nod to Magcargo. Finally, from the Effect Spore camp (and again, a tough call), a Dream World Vileplume.

Stunfisk
Electric-type pokémon tend to share one specific Unfortunately, Stunfisk doesn't look this adorable when taking advantage of Static.Achilles’ heel: Low HP and defense. Such is the case with nearly all the Static-users (and yes, every Static-user is an Electric-type), to the point that you could just consider Static a handy perk on your Pikachu rather than the lynchpin of its entire strategy. But, that’s not the case with Stunfisk. The mud-dwelling electric fish packs the best combination of HP (109) and Defense (84) stats of all the Static-using monsters. Inversely, he’s a Special Attacker, so moves like Muddy Water, Earth Power, and Thunderbolt should be in your offensive repertoire. Potential moves to compliment the Ability include Substitute (assuming I’m not mistaken about passing on an ailment when behind a Sub), Double Team or Attract (for after the paralysis has been inflicted).

Nidoqueen
The Drill Pokémon has reasonably beefy stats, more defensive than her male equivalent, and allows her to take a beating. Torment or Taunt can force your opponent to continue pummeling the ol’ girl, thus increasing the odds of passively poisoning the opponent.

Magcargo
A 4x weakness to Water and Ground might not be the best outlook for a Fire-type pokémon, but the base 120 in Defense makes Magcargo one of our best options for Flame Body. The low HP stat means Leftovers or Recover might be in order, but he can also play a big defensive game purely in the interest of maximizing the opportunities of passing on a burn (at least from my perspective, Abiliteers). The snail has access to moves like Light Screen, Amnesia, Curse, Smokescreen, and Stockpile.

Vileplume
Finally, we end on Dream World Vileplume sporting Effect Spore. Try outfitting the Flower Pokémon with moves like Teeter Dance, as confusion, like infatuation, will stack on top of Poison and Paralysis. Vileplume also has access to HP recovery attacks like Mega Drain or Ingrain, which increases its staying power.

Well folks, I think that’s quite enough out of me for this week! I’ll just pack my long-winded butt up and I’ll be back next Friday. Same bat-time, same bat-channel. Adios, pokénerds!

-Wil
www.wheretheresawil.com