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SwSh Dynamax: Thoughts, Feelings, or Concerns

so let me get this straight, all status moves become max guard, which is just a renamed protect? That's even more stupid when you consider that protect is like the last move a dynamaxed pokemon would want to be using. "Oh, I'm only giant for a short amount of time, let me just hide behind this barrier and have me a sip of tea."
 
so let me get this straight, all status moves become max guard, which is just a renamed protect? That's even more stupid when you consider that protect is like the last move a dynamaxed pokemon would want to be using. "Oh, I'm only giant for a short amount of time, let me just hide behind this barrier and have me a sip of tea."
Hey, hey never underestimate the might of an AT Field. 'Sides, grasping at straws given GF creatively bankrupt methods these days but if they decide to give Max Guard is it? additional effects like splash reflecting attacks (ala Bide or Counter/Miror Coat) back at us ontop of shielding ailments and damage your looking at one hell of a fight and forcing players to strategize esp if said monster actually uses the move every few turns.

Hell, they can even bank on that so-called expressiveness during Dynamax battles by having the titan make a certain gesture the turn before so you KNOW he's about to do something nasty. But given the stream that may not be the case.
 
I'm sure once the games come out someone will devise a strategic moveset for a Dynamaxed Pokemon that otherwise on its own is common and weak.

But yeah on the surface level, it's not great.
 
I refuse to dynamax my pokemon even a single time.

...unless the game forces me to. In which case, I'll shut off the game and never play it again said forced instances will be the only time I ever dynamax anyfin ever.
Judging by how they treated Mega Evolution and Z-moves, at most you'll have to do it only once. Specially considering how you were never forced to use the previous mechanics.
 
If we would get moves and abilities to manipulate time, amount of passing turns.
Could You imagine two situations? That Dynamac could end after 1 turn? or a other that it would last 5 turns? Imagine a pokemon that would have move that would cause that the effects of moves , mechanics and abilities to happen in one turn like 3 would already past. Or a move that revokes time and adds You two turns additionaly(removes stats changes and entry hazardz by the way). Celebii, Dialkia and other pokemon with time motive, ghost, psychic, fairies, dark types could learn those. Maybe a stsying or walking clock pokemon with a ability to be immune to turn changes and moves that work multiple turns - Timeguard?
 
It seems like Max Moves share another thing in common with Z-moves: the base power varies depending on the move used. At least according to Serebii.

Also, in regards to the "only increasing the HP stat" issue, I like @Knightwolf09's idea about the Dynamax level acting like skill points in other RPGs. However, with the offensive part seemingly being almost the sole focus of Max Moves, I can picture the Dynamax level focusing mostly on the defensive side of things withe the occasional boost in offense once reaching a certain Dynamax level. Here's what I'm imagining:

Like specified by Knightwolf09, each area of focus can be boosted to a maximum amount and you can only have one boost per Dynamax level. However, due to the defensive attributes in question, the maximum number of boosts allowed shall be reduced to three:
  • Negative status effect resistance: gives 5% per boost (maximum of 15%)
  • Ability activation rate: gives 5% per boost (only works for abilities that have a random chance of activating)
  • Critical hit resistance (ordered by number of boosts)
    1. Enemy's critical hit reduced to 1¼ times damage
    2. Enemy's critical hit reduced to 1⅛ times damage
    3. Enemy's critical hit reduced to 1¹⁄₁₆ times damage
  • Super-effective hit reduction (ordered by number of boosts)
    1. Reduced by ⅛
    2. Reduced by ¼
    3. Reduced by ½
  • KO endurance; increases by 10% per boost (maximum of 30%)
  • Chance to nullify stat reduction modifiers (ordered by number of boosts)
    1. 10% chance
    2. 15% chance
    3. 30% chance
  • Evasion boost; increased by 5% per boost (maximum of 15%)
In addition, all Pokémon at Dynamax levels 5 and 10 will automatically get a +5 boost on the base power of their Max Moves, meaning Pokémon at Dynamax level 10 gain an automatic +10 base power boost in addition to other factors.

So, what do you guys think?
 
I mean, it's certainly a lot better than just a HP boost. But somehow I don't think GF would go as far as to include critical boosts, type effectiveness nulls, etc.

And it's still personally hard for me to feel excited about this feature when I know it's just going to dropped by the next generation anyway. It's like why bother.
 
It's like why bother.

i mean, why partake of anything that's only available for a limited time?

"oh a solar eclipse? sounds neat but why would i bother watching it if it's not going to make the sky all cool and dark permanently?"

obviously a thing is not going to appeal to everyone, but not every game idea has to be made in anticipation of how it will affect the Gen XV games in 2040. experimenting with new things just because they go well with the other elements of a specific game is not a bad rationale. personally, i would argue that the priority should be to make Sword & shield a good game on their own merits first; worry about what mechanics should persevere into Pokémon Fortissimo & pokémon pianissimo later

like, UBs almost certainly won't be a thing in SwoShi but that doesn't mean there's no point to them. they made sense for the setting and story of the Alola games, but not necessarily the Galar ones. but is that not fine? like, i love them regardless
 
All I want is some innovative change, not gimmicks intended to make a quick buck. That's all.
 
All I want is some innovative change, not gimmicks intended to make a quick buck. That's all.

such as?

see, now i'm confused. these are on one hand supposedly "gimmicks" that are taking the place of some "innovative" change that completely redefines everything and lasts for gens to come. and yet even though what's really happened is that they developed an idea in 2013 and are continuing to refine it 6 years later, that's not "innovative" or lasting enough and they should just move on to something else? again, obviously, opinions, but i do see this opinion often enough to wonder about it in the general case.

i think the constant pigeonholing of these kinds of features as one-off "gimmicks" (seemingly just because they're new, have visual flare, and don't persist in the exact same form from game to game) is kind of reductive. mega evolution added a whole new dimension to the battling scene when it was implemented, and it's not like they just threw it in alongside everything else thinking "oh yeah, kids will think this is cool." obviously marketing appeal is going to be a factor with a product like pokémon games, but they certainly would have done lots of conceptualization and testing and balancing to put the idea into the game. it was an attempt at innovating and reinventing the battling system. nothing like it had really been done in the core games before (form changes sort of, but the only ones that actually occurred during a battle - those of castform, cherrim, darmanitan, and meloetta - weren't very remarkable; the others were all just essentially introducing a new pokemon that looked very similar to an existing one. i guess Giratina was functionally the closest since it required a held item and gave it better offensive stats than its altered forme).

while it is technically true that megas were "abandoned" after ORAS (though revived in LGPE because again, they suited the needs of that game) and z-moves are being "abandoned" now, what has actually happened is more nuanced. because obviously z-moves were an attempt to correct the limited distribution and centralization issues that were kind of inherent to mega evolution (not that SM didn't end up centralizing things in other ways, but i wouldn't say that was primarily z-moves' fault). and now we have dynamax which carries over the logic of z-moves along with some core elements of mega evolution, and then applies some other tweaks to experiment with (no held items, but a three-turn duration). two generations later we're still working with these concepts (also, the max moves can cause terrain changes, so that's building on yet another new battling factor that originated in gen 6). so yeah dynamax will probably be gone next gen, but they'll almost certainly take some lessons from it when applying it to the next incarnation, should one exist. this process has been a snake shedding its skin, not them simply buying a new snake once they got bored of the old one.
 
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such as?

see, now i'm confused. these are on one hand supposedly "gimmicks" that are taking the place of some "innovative" change that completely redefines everything and lasts for gens to come. and yet even though what's really happened is that they developed an idea in 2013 and are continuing to refine it 6 years later, that's not "innovative" or lasting enough and they should just move on to something else? again, obviously, opinions, but i do see this opinion often enough to wonder about it in the general case.

i think the constant pigeonholing of these kinds of features as one-off "gimmicks" (seemingly just because they're new, have visual flare, and don't persist in the exact same form from game to game) is kind of reductive. mega evolution added a whole new dimension to the battling scene when it was implemented, and it's not like they just threw it in alongside everything else thinking "oh yeah, kids will think this is cool." obviously marketing appeal is going to be a factor with a product like pokémon games, but they certainly would have done lots of conceptualization and testing and balancing to put the idea into the game. it was an attempt at innovating and reinventing the battling system. nothing like it had really been done in the core games before (form changes sort of, but the only ones that actually occurred during a battle - those of castform, cherrim, darmanitan, and meloetta - weren't very remarkable; the others were all just essentially introducing a new pokemon that looked very similar to an existing one. i guess Giratina was functionally the closest since it required a held item and gave it better offensive stats than its altered forme).

while it is technically true that megas were "abandoned" after ORAS (though revived in LGPE because again, they suited the needs of that game) and z-moves are being "abandoned" now, what has actually happened is more nuanced. because obviously z-moves were an attempt to correct the limited distribution and centralization issues that were kind of inherent to mega evolution (not that SM didn't end up centralizing things in other ways, but i wouldn't say that was primarily z-moves' fault). and now we have dynamax which carries over the logic of z-moves along with some core elements of mega evolution, and then applies some other tweaks to experiment with (no held items, but a three-turn duration. two generations later we're still refining these concepts (also, the max moves can cause terrain changes, so that's building on yet another new battling factor that originated in gen 6). so yeah dynamax will probably be gone next gen, but they'll almost certainly take some lessons from it when applying it to the next incarnation, should one exist. this process has been a snake shedding its skin, not them simply buying a new snake once they got bored of the old one.
Most unique perspective ive seen. Interesting.
 
My more fleshed out opinion:

My favorite part of Dynamaxing is how it fits in with the anime lore. There are many cases in the anime where Pokemon somehow turn supersized - Even in the original series, where there was a supersized Alakazam, Gengar, and Jigglypuff in one episode. Its a great opportunity to expand upon this canon already in place, and have fun making funny situtions out of it.

The thing I don't care so much about is the overly reused battle mechanics behind it. It just doesn't feel 'new' enough, and doesn't look like it revolutionizes battling much at all. I think it is because Megas and Z-Moves came before it, which taint my view of it: If Dynamaxing was made before those mechanics, I would see it as less gimmicky and effortless than now, because it wouldn't look like a hybrid of the two, and the flashy designing the two gimmicks wouldn't get in the way of my critique of big pokemon.

In other words: Dynamaxing feels like it should have been introduced 2 generations ago to actually feel more fresh to fans. Megas and Z-Moves just outdo it in terms of animations and designs, as all this seems like is 'oversized' pokemon in battle. I hope more information helps freshen this impression somehow.
 
My thoughts on Dynamaxing:

I'm genuinely disappointed. Instead of focusing on enhancing other power-ups like Mega Evolutions or Z-Moves we get another gimmick. Its a stale marketing technique that is only successful because of the Pokemon's brand name. As for balancing success that it could potentially bring, that Megas and Z-Moves failed to do, it doesn't because it points back to one big glaring fault: A power boost everyone can use, but the best Pokemon can do it better. Hydro Vortex Dewgong can leave a dent, but Hydro Vortex Primarina will leave a crater. At least with Megas they could make weak Pokemon stronger without the strong Pokemon becoming stronger, but then they gave Megas to Salamence and Gengar, then everyone forgot Altaria and Banette.


Based on the confirmed info of Dynamax ( Once per battle and the only stats increased are HP, everything else is the same. ) its still going to ensure that a stronger Pokemon can use the boosts to greater effect. Why use Dynamaxed Houndoom for A Dark Type move when Dynamaxed Hydreigon will do the job better? And the worst part is that when Gen 9 comes around, GF will create a new gimmick and disband Dynamax.

The only thing I'm interested is in how Max Flare and similar moves impacts the viabillity of Weather teams in VGC.
 
Dynamaxed Ditto and Zoroark. Interesting how double battles will be Dynamaxed?
I dont think any mechanic will be disband. Think that they will use it at some point all together. I think they should now in gen 9 focus on what they have already. New megas maybe and something competitive to them. We still dont know nothing about how ability and stats change with level. We know nothing really about Dynamax only what they let us saw. Gigantamax and many other things they hide clearly this gen. Like they have more in store.
 
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There's a theory that the firing of the Ultimate Weapon from Kalos also triggered Dynamaxing, now, of course, this is only a theory and nothing else. But it does explain why there are rumors regarding some Pokemon getting kaiju-like Gigantamax forms. However, we will have to see if Gigantamaxing even exists for this theory to get even one tiny grain of credibility.
 
Dynamaxed Shedinja?
The most dangerous Dynamax pokemon?

If Dynamax gives hp, maybe alterates other stats it needs downsides like rising weight or reducing speed.
 
Shedinja would still be just as weak as usual to Flying, Rock, Ghost, Dark, and Fire. Even if it did get an HP boost, players will likely have access to at least one of those moves. There's also moves like Endeavor, Gastro Acid, or Perish Song that could get around that-and that's assuming that it even makes it into the dex.
 
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