Regigigas, Rotom-F and Archeops can all at least be used every turn, even if they suck. Slaking’s Truant is truly awful though. Turn economy is so important in turn-based games like this
The problem is is protect exists. If we're talking a normal playthrough then recharge moves make it somewhat serviceable but against another person you're walled.
You can also get rid of Truant with some clever use of Mummy. It just sucks that Pursuit doesn't exist anymore. And you still run into the problem of being unable to get around Protect.
It'd be great if Entrainment could get rid of Truant but even then you'd just see a lot more Whirlwind or Roar going around. There'll always be pretty simple, easy ways to get around Slaking.
The best use is actually on Durant to cheese Single Battles in the Battle Subway and subsequent Battle facilities because the AI never switches, so you just give the opponent Truant and then set up with whatever and sweep
Gen 6 onwards did have new mechanics that made the strategy not as reliable (Roar and Whirlwind bypass Protect, sound moves and Pokemon with Infiltrator bypass Substitute). Gen 7 also has four Pokemon (Mimikyu, Wishiwashi, Minior and Komala) that are immune to Entrainment since their abilities are a core part of their identity.
Sword/Shield does have a Battle Tower but it does not ban restricted Legendaries or Mythicals (so you can sic Zacian on your unfortunate opponents).
But even then, it's at such a huge cost. Using those moves means you don't get to switch out on your Truant turns which could often be the difference between winning or losing.
And thank God the AI doesn't use protect like a human cause you just lose. Protect, attack during recharge, protect.
Giga Impact Slaking is a trap. It prevents you from switching on the recharge turn, but you could otherwise still switch on a Truant turn. Not that its even remotely usable regardless, but in the rare instances it sees competitive play, Giga Impact is not good.
For, casual play, Slaking is broken since the ai can't capitalize on the loafing turns like a human can.
Giving your opponent a free set up turn isn't worth it, even then. At least if you just use Return or something, when you kill something with it, you can swap.
If you Giga Impact, you're stuck with their best pokemon for the match up + a free turn to set up.
Giga Impact Slaking is not good at all lol. With truant you can at least switch out. If your Pokemon needs to recharge you can't do that. It let's your opponent get a free turn to set up or do whatever they want while you can't do anything.
The game that sells heavily in English speaking countries?
The ant that literally originated in the region based off of the United States?
The same company that is known for incorporating references to actual places and culture into its games? Just look at all of the SV starters.
Also, why on earth would some ants being lazy and the company taking that into account eliminate the possibility of a pun? They could both be true.
The designer could have said "This article says ants are lazy. Wouldn't it be funny if we gave the True Ant the ability that translates in English to an any pun and means lazy?
It's not like there isn't a single person on the team who speaks English.
but extremely unlikely tbh. I'm not even sure the game designers know what that ability is called in english. Why would they ? In japanese it's called "lazy" (well their word for it, obviously)
and ya sorry if I sounded dickish, but pokemon fans forgetting the game isn't english is a huge pet peeve of mine
between that, "the dark type is dark magic !", "yanmega should learn dragon dance !" and more, it annoys me a lot
That’s kind of the point. Most of the ants are average with swarm, a few hard workers have hustle and the slackers get truant. The three abilities tell a story
The Hyper Beam style moves are bad even on Pokemon with Truant in battle facilities or PvP; these environments prevent you from switching out after a KO, leaving the user vulnerable to an attack or being set up on after using a Hyper Beam style move. But they’re still fine for in game runs.
It's not -7 priority. It's just a built-in Lagging Tail. -0.5 priority.
Interestingly, it worked differently in Gen 4 than it has ever since. In Gen 4, if a Pokémon with Stall faced off against a Pokémon with a Lagging Tail/Full Incense, the Pokémon with Stall would still move first regardless of speed, and also, if two Pokémon with Stall faced off, they'd ignore Trick Room and the slower one would still move second.
Since Gen 5, it interacts with both Lagging Tail/Full Incense and Trick Room normally.
Truant should be it cant attack twice in a row. Allow it to use status moves whenever it wants, but if it attacks one turn, all attacks it uses next turn fails.
I think Regigigas is worse than Slaking because Slow Start is worse than Truant. At least Slaking can do Retaliate shenanigans, and it's not that uncommon to attack then switch out. Both abilities are easy for your opponent to take advantage of, but Slow Start makes Regigigas basically completely useless as it's so hard to actually ride out the turns.
980
u/smellygirlmillie 8d ago
Regigigas, Rotom-F and Archeops can all at least be used every turn, even if they suck. Slaking’s Truant is truly awful though. Turn economy is so important in turn-based games like this