Reworked Natures

[ty_taurus]

I wan't to talk a little about the natures system. Right now, natures work by giving one stat a 10% increase while another gets a 10% decrease. The problem is that there are really only a couple useful natures for each individual Pokemon, and with a grand total of 25 natures, most wild Pokemon don't like the natures they are found with. There's also a big gap between with natures are useful at all, and which are completely useless no matter what Pokemon we're talking about. Let's break it down:

Useful Natures - These are used on almost every Pokemon, but each Pokemon having a preference for only a few.

Adamant / Jolly / Impish / Careful or / Modest / Timid / Bold / Calm

- These natures have a penalty of either Attack or Special Attack. Realistically, Pokemon are only ever needing either four or five of their six stat: HP - Defense - Sp Defense - Speed and sometimes Attack OR Special Attack (never both). This is because one: with only four moves per Pokemon, there just isn't enough room for adequate Physical and Special coverage, and so the weaker of the two is usually ignored. And two: even if you could have enough room for a Physical and Special coverage set on a single Pokemon, you can only boost two stats all the way through EVs. You're better off boosting Speed for faster damage, or a defensive stat for more survivability.

Situational Natures - These are useless to most Pokemon, however, there are a select few that can actually benefit from these.

Brave / Quiet / Relaxed / Sassy

The only Pokemon that want these kinds of natures are few and far between. They rely on strategies that benefit from being slower, such as using Trick Room.

Useless Natures - These should never be used on any Pokemon ever

Bashful / Docile / Hardy / Quirky / Serious

But especially never these...

Gentle / Hasty / Lax / Lonely / Mild / Naive / Naughty / Rash

Here's the thing, I mentioned before how you only ever have four or five stats that are used in battle. Because there's always one completely unnecessary stat, there's no reason to take a neutral nature, because you're missing out on a major opportunity to boost one of your more useful stats.

As for the 'especially never' aspect, these natures reduce either Defense or Sp Defense. You should never want to make yourself take even more damage when you could just penalize an unused Attack or Sp Attack stat.

All that having been said, let's think of a solution. The idea is to create a set of natures that aren't so clearly unbalanced, and that multiple natures can be considered viable on any given Pokemon. A part of this also comes from restricting natures based on the Pokemon so that they are complimented by any nature they could possibly have. Here are several examples that I've come up with:

(All of these apply per turn. Rash, for example, only kicks in if they have been attacked that turn.)

Aggressive - Boosts Damage Dealt by 10% against slower Pokemon.

Bold - Boosts Defense by 20% before this Pokemon has acted.

Brave - Critical Hit Damage increases by 50%.

Calm - Boosts Special Defense by 20% before this Pokemon has acted.

Careful - Boosts Evasiveness by 20% when targeted by Status moves.

Hasty - Boosts Speed by 15% when in critical health.

Impish - Boosts Speed by 15% when using Status moves.

Mild - Boosts Defense and Special Defense by 10% when using Status moves.

Rash - Boosts Attack and Special Attack by 20% if this Pokemon took damage.

There would have to be many more. Remember that Pokemon wouldn't have access to all natures. Shuckle, for example, couldn't be found with Hasty or Impish natures. Please share your thoughts. If you don't like this idea, please share your thoughts on what could be done to balance natures properly.

[NickCrash]

Perhaps in a different game, those natures would be quite balanced. In pokemon however, some of those points are based on arbitrary hypotheses that do not necessarily apply to a competitive environment. While in the very first stages of the game with limited mechanics (Gen2) natures had a significant impact on the game and inevitably some were ostracised due to their impractical... nature (kek). However, with the introduction of abilities, held items, weather, and later the special/physical split, more became viable. In some cases, natures dubbed as impractical or "should never be used" became optimal for certain pokemon, or certain sets (thanks to the ability to customize your pet-battler). Let me elaborate on my thoughts here.

Prologue and General Analysis

Let's start with the common natures everybody uses: Adamant, Jolly, Modest, Timid

Those, as ty_taurus already explained, are no-brainer natures that usually don't hinder the pokemon in any regard, as they reduce either SpA (first two) or Atk (latter two). So if you are running a dedicated physical or special attacker, most of the time you are good to go. Perhaps strap on a Life Orb or Choice item (of your choice), even Lefties, and you're set. So usually when running a 252/4/252 set that's what you go for.

More defensive pokemon usually require more attention, but let's assume you are building a dedicated wall of either physical or special orientation. You might want to give a 252 or 248 to your HP and the rest dropped on your prefered stat. This resembles the 252/4/252 motif seen above, so similarly you'd want abilities that reduce your less used offensive stat. So you go for: Bold, Impish, Calm, Careful

If you are fat and ugly or slow that you don't really care about speed or might use it to your advantage, either with Gyro Ballz or Trick Room, you might believe an these are also good natures to have: Relaxed, Sassy, Brave, Quiet

The first two are for more defensive pokemon, and the last for the more offensive pokemon already slow enough that might get a bonus from it.

So I believe we've covered 12 (or about half) of the natures that are most commonly used. Now onto the more exciting stuff.

Then we have the 5 natures I have never used on any of my pokemon and really haven't found a reason yet. These are the ones that decrease the same stat they increase: Bashful, Docile, Quirky, Serious, Hardy

Since using a pokemon in a team means it would have to serve a specific role, you have no use of natures that do not give you any benefit. You'll either miss critical KOs, not survive certain hits, perhaps not have adequate speed to meet your quota. It is as clear as it gets.

And of course, worse than those are the 'pointless' natures: Gentle, Lax

Those increase one defensive stat while increasing another. These are pointless not because they wouldn't serve their purpose in a dedicated physical or special wall, but because usually there are much better options to choose from, as such pokemon usually either don't need one of their offensive stats, or even if they do use it, it's more often than not a utility option so they decrease it either way. That, or they just decide to reduce speed because it makes more sense. Anyhow, increasing Def/SpD to decrease SpD/Def does not serve any purpose.

With 6 Natures to go, we enter the real debate

Those are:

• Hasty (+Spe,-Def)
• Lonely (+Atk, -Def)
• Mild (+SpA, -Def)
• Naive (+Spe, -SpD)
• Naughty (+Atk, -SpD)
• Rash (+SpA, -SpD)

Which are ones I personally think have their uses, especially for mixed attackers. To whom it may concern, those creatures use both their Atk and SpA stats efficiently in battle, and are commonly found in HO teams (Hyper Offensive). These pokemon, or rather sets for certain pokemon, are a double-edged knife and it's apparent why. They decide to sacrifice a little bit of defense for extra killing potential, and believe me when I say that with proper EV spreads, these pokemon do their job extremely well. Especially Scarfers can be proven deadly with such a Nature.

Notable examples are: EQ Latios, Fire Blast Tauros, Infernape, Greninja, Salamence, Tornadus-Therian, Landorus-Therian, Garchomp, M-Sceptile, Xerneas, Azelf, M-Diancie and Zoroark

You might notice that most are frail pokemon blessed with good offensive stats in both sides, that usually function as either sweepers or wallbreakers. Since their Speed might be crucial for their efficiency, they decide to decrease a certain defensive stat. Especially things like Tornadus-T which have Regenerator, don't really care about small amounts of damage increasing if it's just a bit (since they do not invest in Def/SpD so the difference is minimal) if they can do their job properly or even exploit the element of surprize in dealing with opposing threats. After all, the game involves a lot of luck and prediction strategies so factors like a special nuke out of nowhere or a random Knock Off may even net you the game. That's even more obvious when your movepool does not allow specialization, such as M-Diancie which is forced to run Atk for Diamond Storm, or some Garchomp sets for the occasional Fire Blast, in order not to be completely walled by Ferrothorn and Skarmory. Admittedly those pokemon do not need their Def or SpD stat that much or are expected to be hit more on the other spectrum, so they are still safe.

At the end of the day, only the natures that block their own benefits may as well go extinct. Even so, if someone presents me in the future with a relatively fast mixed attacker that can excel in either Def or SpD, and has a good ability to compliment that trait, like Regenerator or Thick Fat, I might even use Lax or Gentle as its abilities. As for the 'neutral' ones, no. They can go burn in poke-hell.