Along with the obvious changes, like dynamic battles and other tweaks, Pokémon Legends Arceus has tweaked a lot of details about how certain Pokémon mechanics work. Some attacks have seen their power reduced, or their effects completely modified. These changes are partly explained to avoid unbalancing the game too much with certain abilities deemed too powerful for the way the fights take place, or on the contrary to allow the reintegration of certain effects, whose signature attacks have not been implemented. One of the most popular changes is to the freeze mechanic, and part of the strategy community hopes to see it reused in future titles.
A hated status
This is not the first modification of suffers the frozen state in Pokémon. In the first generations, this state was permanent and the pokemon had no chance to act for the whole fight. One of the most effective strategies in the first generation was to spam Blizzards, hoping to freeze the opponent. At the time, this attack had a 30% chance to freeze the target, which was nerfed in later titles. Today in classic games, freezing still exists but can be countered. Like sleep, it only has a limited duration, and sooner or later your companion will thaw out on its own. It is even possible to unfreeze instantly if the frozen pokemon knows a fire-type attack, or a specific ability to remove this state (like the boil attack, very popular among aquatic pokemon).
Freezing has always been a thorn in Nintendo’s side. It is the only status that does not have a specific attack allowing it to be inflicted systematically. Sleep, Confuse, Poison, Burn, and Paralysis can all be applied via a precise attack (madness wave, spore, wisp, lightning cage, toxic etc…), but freeze still has a random proc , a bonus available only on a few specific hits. This can be understood to avoid generating frustration among the players, because nothing is more annoying than having to watch your pokemon being knocked out without being able to do anything. Moreover, the competitive community has always tried to counter this, for example the Smogon site very quickly introduced the Sleep clause (since 2010). This clause says that it is forbidden to put more than one enemy pokemon to sleep thanks to an ability launched in a non-mandatory way by your pokemon. The exceptions to this rule only concern the case where your pokemon is trapped on the ground (via a talent or an attack) and forced to reuse its sleep attack (thanks to the Encore ability for example). Of course, this clause does not apply either if it is your opponent who puts his own pokemon to sleep with an attack like Rest. This goes to show that players want to reduce that feeling of checkmate when a pokemon finds itself unable to act due to a status.
Changes to Arceus Legends
The frozen state has undergone a very big change on Arceus, now resembling a lot more burning than sleeping. As a reminder, the burn is a status that inflicts “fixed” damage (in percentage of HP, not in absolute value, unlike an attack like Draco-Rage which will always inflict 40 HP of damage, regardless of the level of the opponents), while reducing the burnt pokemon’s attack stat by 50%. This means that this pokemon deals much less damage with its physical hits, making burn one of the three most popular statuses along with paralysis and poison. In Arceus Legends, frost does the same thing but with the special attack stat rather than the attack one.
This change was much appreciated by the strategic community, delighted to finally have an effective status on special attacks. Indeed, the latter were not affected by specific statuses, and there is also no talent to lower it automatically, like Intimidation which works for the Attack stat. This new gel therefore brought new options, while removing a frustrating mechanic, which seems rather beneficial for the strategic side of the game. Additionally, it could allow frost to finally receive its dedicated attacks, offering new answers for strategists. For the moment it is impossible to know whether or not this novelty will be kept, even if it seems quite popular with players.
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