Attacks and Abilities Guide

Under Magic Coat's description, one of the listed moves it deflects is 'magical eye', which I'm pretty sure should be 'miracle eye'.

Question: when embargo makes an item "nullified," does that mean you can't take the item away using thief, trick, and covet or whatever?

Kratos Aurion said:

Is it possible to have a ghost phase before a battle starts? More generally, is that the same sort of thing as asking a consensually flying/hovering pokémon to start a battle already in the air, or similar?

And I know you answered my earlier asked-elsewhere question about taunt stopping phasing (should the taunt actually go first), but you haven't answered the sleep powder question, so... would phasing stop sleep powder? I actually would think it would since it's not an energy-based attack, but...?

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Yes, a ghost can start a battle phased. Same sort of thing as with flying/hovering.

Taunt stops phasing. Full phasing would probably stop sleep powder, as it would just "go right through." It's more the case of partial phasing, where the ghost has physical bits that would still get coated with the sleep powder, that is at issue. I would probably have the sleep powder still work, since it would stick to whatever bits were still corporeal and affect the parts of the ghost still connected to them, but it would be fine to have it take no effect.

Windswept Questant said:

Under Magic Coat's description, one of the listed moves it deflects is 'magical eye', which I'm pretty sure should be 'miracle eye'.

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Haha, probably.

Mai said:

Question: when embargo makes an item "nullified," does that mean you can't take the item away using thief, trick, and covet or whatever?

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No, just that the item no longer has an effect for the embargoed pokémon. It can still be stolen, and it will still have all its normal effects for the pokémon that does the stealing.

If the user is phased while making a substitute, what happens to the substitute? Could it remain intangible (or mostly intangible) as well, and only protect the maker from special/status attacks?

The substitute behaves as a normal substitute in all ways. It will be corporeal.

Is it at all possible to wait out a pokémon with stall? Would negative speed modifiers affecting the non-stall pokémon help in any way?

EDIT: Also, since mean look "stops the opponent from going intangible", does that mean it affects phasing in any way (prevents phasing, makes phased pokémon corporeal again, etc.)?

DAMN IT KRATOS I thought I had more time until you came online... In other words hi how's it going :D?

I'm pretty sure using mean look would only want to make a pokemon that's already intangible want to go even more intangible out of fear. Although maybe the "it's so scary I can't look away" might make it work. I don't know.

Kratos Aurion said:

Is it at all possible to wait out a pokémon with stall? Would negative speed modifiers affecting the non-stall pokémon help in any way?

EDIT: Also, since mean look "stops the opponent from going intangible", does that mean it affects phasing in any way (prevents phasing, makes phased pokémon corporeal again, etc.)?

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It is not possible to wait out a pokémon with stall. Negative speed modifiers would not help.

Mean look can stop a pokémon from phasing, but not force a phased pokémon to rematerialize.

Still on the matter of phasing, is it possible for Thunder Wave or Toxic to hit a phaser?

Yes.

Isn't venom corporeal, though?

Oh, whoops, I only saw thunder wave. Thunder wave yes, toxic no.

Is there a reason Heal Bell apparently doesn't clear confusion?

The A&A Guide says it clears all major status afflictions, which I took to mean confusion-inclusive. It also says it cures all who hear it, which insinuates the opponent as well, another difference from the game.

Please tell me I didn't interpret this wrong?

Confusion is a minor status affliction, so Heal Bell doesn't cure it, according to the game's mechanics. And yeah, in the game it doesn't cure opponents. I think it's just faulty description; ASB tries to stick to game mechanics as closely as possible.

I thought ASB stuck to logic as much as possible? Logically anything that could hear the bell, including opponents in a close range, would be cured. Also as far as status afflictions go confusion seems to be a pretty major one, since the fact that it stacks no longer makes it unique in ASB.

blazheirio889 said:

Confusion is a minor status affliction, so Heal Bell doesn't cure it, according to the game's mechanics.

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Heal bell cures major things plus confusion in-game.

Yes, but if it's a clearly defined move and it's altered in a game-changing way, then that's a no-no. For example, Bug Buzz is still single-target, as is Echoed Voice, Metal Sound, etc. ASB sticks to game mechanics and applies logic where possible. So you can't say, for example, that ice should be super effective against water because ice freezes water - the game's type chart says it's not so.

What defines a "major" status condition is one that is displayed next to a Pokemon's name in the games: burn, sleep, poison, paralysis, freeze (I think that's it). All others are minor afflictions. That's just how they are classified; whether they stack or not is irrelevant.

Edit: @Zhorken: Most sites I go to (Bubapedia, Veekun, Psypoke) say that it cures only major status afflictions, though Smogon says it also cures confusion, so I'm not really sure anymore.

Hm. veekun says it does in the long effect, and I trusted Smogon, but I just tested and it doesn't in White. Never mind then.

I kind of want to make heal bell/aromatherapy global effects (working for both teams), but since it really makes no more sense that pokémon inside their pokéballs can smell and benefit from the aromatherapy than that pokémon standing right across the field can't, it is considered that they're magical effects calibrated so that only friendly pokémon can benefit from them (thus, the chime is only audible to friendly pokémon).

Anyway, a few days ago Zhorken asked about status conditions. I've updated the first post to be a little more specific about how they work, but it sounded like he wanted something a little more in-depth and technical, so:

Your primary concern seems to be the duration of fading status effects, such as sleep, paralysis, etc. In general, it looks as though Kratos tends to start out with these having a lower chance of proccing whatever their additional effect would be (hurting oneself, being fully paralyzed, etc.) but having them fade more slowly than I do.

Paralysis is the only fading status condition that I ref as being unaffected by damage. It starts at 25% chance of failure (severe) and reduces by 1% per action that the afflicted pokémon is *not* fully paralyzed.

Sleep, confusion, and attraction fade faster if the user is subject to damage (in the case of attraction, specifically damage from the object of its affection). Both confusion and attraction start at 50% chance of failure, with the chance of failure falling off by 5% per action that failure does not occur. They fade faster if the pokémon takes damage: an attack that deals 1-5% damage to the afflicted pokémon reduces the failure chance by 5%; 6-10% damage, 10%; >10%, 15%. It is therefore possible for attraction or confusion to go from severe (50%) to moderate (25%-35%) after a single action, if the afflicted gets blasted by a powerful attack right after getting confused. Ideally, these effects will last ~3-5 actions, with one or two failures occurring during that time, although there is the possibility that they will last a fair amount longer if the opponent plays conservatively.

Sleep should ideally last around three-five actions depending on the battle conditions as well. It works similarly to attraction and confusion; the rules for fading are identical. However, there are some caveats: sleep starts at 95% chance of sleeping for another action, it always fades by at least 5% per action, and it is guaranteed to last for at least one action. The check for sleep is rolled immediately before a pokémon's action in a round, so any damage it took earlier in the round is accounted for (this is true for any of the other fading status conditions as well; the check is rolled immediately before the action would take place, not at the beginning of the round or at the end (in anticipation of the next round). Also, even though a pokémon is guaranteed to sleep through one action, the sleep check is still made for that action (95% chance of staying asleep, usually). The check is rolled again for the next action (at worst a 90% chance of staying asleep), meaning that in the worst-case scenario there is a 15% chance that the pokémon will wake up after a single action.