In PMD, wands are a powerful consumable item that are central ever since their addition. This game needs more consumables to give poke more value than it has now.
The necessary implementation for wands already exists in the game. They can be treated as throwable items. The spritework for the wand can be used for the item itself, while the sprite for it being thrown can be replaced with a simple white orb. This would allow them to act exactly the same as they do in mainline games. Another throwing item, the love potion, demonstrates that the capability of having a throwing item cause only status effects already exists in the code. Some wands may end up questionable in their implementation, but basic types, Slumber Wands, Confuse Wands, and Petrify Wands could be implemented with ease.
This is a great idea. Consumable items are currently highly underused (they need a buff, but I digress), and if wands were implemented, it’d give us more choices for how to use our held item slots.
I’m just genuinely having trouble thinking of efficient use-cases for them as they’re all mostly single-target In the games. If they pierced here, that would be help, but still at that point I think that using a move would be better. For example I can Imagine a scenario where the player Is fighting with a close-ranged Pokemon, and using say, a Slumber Wand before engaging an enemy. But It could miss and It doesn’t stop aoes from being dominant since In higher-level dungeons there’s way more Pokemon spawns. I can obviously see how some Wands would be useful for bosses
Yes, It’s up to staff whether or not they’ll all mostly hit In a line In front of you. But It’s exactly that; Wands being viable Is up to that sole thing. What Is a fact Is needing more consumables, I’m just not sure If the existence of Wands would solve that! Orbs work because by default a lot of them are meant to be used when there’s a lot of enemies. And yes the range of some Orbs have been changed from their vanilla range: Blowback LoS → Spray, Evasion Self → You and nearby allies. Invisify only affecting yourself and not everyone In an aoe would also solve the problems we had with people using It In Stadium and town, Instead of just banning Orbs In the overworld altogether, but anyway…
https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Wand The Wands I could see being used the most are probably Guiding, which would actually be great for speed-running If we can please nerf wall-walking, and possibly Surround as a budget Beat Up, but It’s reliant on having an enemy by the stairs
Part of why consumables have so low value Is because some dungeons just spit them out. MJ Is well known for being packed with supplies to where you don’t even have to bring any, and while some seasonal shops or events contain better versions of consumables like Dark Liquid and Strawberry Sundaes, they’re limited time. Big Frozen Apples are reasonable to buy but everyone wall-walks or uses a Tight Belt ( which Is at least actually rare ( albeit In the most run dungeon :BUP: ) )
tl;dr Not against Wands being In PMU but I’m asking how you’d plan to use Wands If they were Implemented to back up the value point
This game is entirely about AOE’s and dealing with a bulk amount of mons with the least effort or danger possible, but as you mentioned, they can be used as simple replacements for moves for mons that don’t have them. Dream Eater would become viable. Short range mons would have a new assist in closing distance, and depending on how the Wands range is decided, they can provide damage and speed to those who lack it. The only consumable in widespread use besides foods and ethers are two or three orbs at best. Even if Noivern doesn’t find them useful, there are others who will.
Even beyond those wands above, PMU has added unique items to itself before, and can do it again to make wands do possibly more interesting things. The potential would have to be discovered by watching how players experiment and seeing how it play out.
Honey. The only reason people don’t buy It as much Is 1. lack of players Itself but also 2. some people just train a honey gatherer themselves, especially ever since Ribombee came about
Reviver Seeds since players sell them cheaper than NPC shops. Doom Seeds too, though I find Exp Alling everything and never actually using the Pokemon Itself very pointless
Summon Traps are also cool but they were removed from Gabeedle’s shop for no reason
Even regarding what you said, the most viable wand other than the two I mentioned might just be Slumber. If you want to use Smelling Salts there’s the Petrify Wand. Not knowing what might be done to ranges Is one of the only off-putting things. That and how beyond some, wands are mostly useless, even In the real games. There really ought to exist a range type that lets you have more than 1 line In front of you. At the least, wands having buffed range will never obsolete Orbs. A Slumber Orb will always be better for a monster house than a Slumber Wand
This Is true yeah. It’s just that either way I feel like people won’t use those moves regardless.
That’s the thing though. The people we’d want better value of Poke to affect will continue using the most efficient method to do things either way. The Guiding Wand would be the only thing that helps with these people. Because most things you want are In dungeons, and nearly all dungeons can be run with this one Pokemon, well… yeah. People just shiny hunt and even If they train something It’s not going to be better than other things for getting what they want fastest. So If Noivern doesn’t find them useful then we have to nerf Noivern—specifically how It’s used
I don’t care If they’re In the game or not. If they are then neat. If I have a reason to I will use them. It’s just that whether or not they get their range buffed their existence won’t take money out of the people they need to In most cases, so I still can’t seem to justify Poke value. I don’t see what other wand effects In particular could exist that would prove useful either, since It doesn’t even necessarily have to be a wand, just consumable
In PMD some Pokemon are just op, and It didn’t matter because It’s a single player game. In an MMO where economy, players and balance must thrive, It becomes a very apparent problem Indeed
technically trap scarp do also get used. but then frozen apple wouldn’t matter then as grimy trap won’t be activated anymore.
Also, from what I see, wands are very similar to most throwing items. Rather than implementing wands, I feel like throwing items in later dungeon like rare fossils (TC exclusive) or cacnea spikes (DS exclusive) could be made rarer and much stronger.
Imo, rather than investing in throwing item, as most people wouldn’t like to occupy a held item slot just to use zxcv to throw, and since PMU isn’t turn based like PMD, throwable item are kinda never going to be very meta. As for the consumable argument, I feel like something like a temporary ability orb would work better like temporary frisk or damp or etc (like the weather orb).
Imo, the best way to this to make hunger damage gradually increase (5 then 10 then 15 after a while etc) rather than always being 5.
True, but even then you still use apples at all vs only needing to rely on ethers. I mentioned It cause most people should know training at Its finest Is using a held Item that Increases your damage, especially on weaker Pokemon. Saves you the Inconvenience of using Recycle and bag slots for Recycle Orbs
Increasing hunger damage over time would nerf wall-walking, but also harms people who actually play the game normally. While recent HCs tend to be more generous with supplies that would also be horrible there too and TC
I would just like to note that not everything has to be viable or one up a different thing,
giving the player more options to make fun builds like, has mentioned a way to realibly sleep a target so you can dream eater them, should still be highly considered even if they are inefficient! different ways to play and have fun are always nice, if they arent too game breaking ofcorse.
