Trace or Synchronyze?

[Metallixs Girl]

Which is better for Ralts to have? I know what both do. My Ralts has Trace, and I was wondering how long she keeps her traced abilities. For example, when she traces Zigzagoon's Pickup, will she keep that and pick up items until she traces something else?

Oh yes, on a side note, where are all the stones in Sapphire? Will Pickup ever find any stones?

[andyizcool]

Trace is mostly better because it works out great except against a Slaking because they have the Truant Trait. You find Coloured Shards in the sea or off some Pokemon rarely, that you can trade with a guy in a House near Mossdeep City. The Pick Up Ability will never find any Elemental Stones or Coloured Shards. So you'll just have to find all the ones underwater or start stealing a lot of certain Pokemon.

[phaedrus]

synchronize because i don't like copying truant or other abilities that hurt your ability to use gardevoir to the max.

a neat synchronize trick having lumberry attached. when you get hit with status, your synchronize will take effect, and shoot it back at the oppenent. then, the lum will take effect. so basically they hurt themselves. only works once though =|

[Number1ChanseyFan]

Which is better for Ralts to have? I know what both do. My Ralts has Trace, and I was wondering how long she keeps her traced abilities. For example, when she traces Zigzagoon's Pickup, will she keep that and pick up items until she traces something else?

Oh yes, on a side note, where are all the stones in Sapphire? Will Pickup ever find any stones?

For Gardevoir, either Trace or Synchronize can work well. However, with Trace, there is a chance that you will trace something that you don't want. Synchronize is a little safer in that respect. However, Trace can copy some nice things too, it is just a little more of a "wild card" then Synchronize.

You can find a Fire Stone in the Fiery Path, (you will need a Pokémon with Strength to get to it.) a Water Stone in the Abandoned Ship, (You will need Pokémon with Surf and Dive to get to it.) a Leaf Stone at the southern end of the river on Route 119, (requires Surf to get to) and a ThunderStone in New Mauville. (requires Surf to get to.)

You can get the colored shards which can be traded for evolution stones by diving in the water on Routes 124, 125, 126. Some shards will be found in PokéBalls that will be laying on the ground when you resurface, and others will be found while you are underwater. Look for differently colored places while you are underwater, you can find shards, heart scales, and other goodies, when you find one of those diffently colored places, just go up next to it, and press the A button, just like you were picking any other item.

Like it was already mentioned, there is a treasure hunter that lives in a house on an island just west of Mossdeep City. If you give him a shard, he will give you a stone.

Red Shard=Fire Stone
Blue Shard=Water Stone
Green Shard=Leaf Stone
Yellow Shard=ThunderStone

You can also steal some shards from wild Pokémon. Once in awhile, certain Pokémon will have a shard attached to them.

Corsola-Red Shard
Clamperl-Blue Shard
Chinchou-Yellow Shard
Relicanth-Green Shard

Also, you can get a Sun Stone from a guy in the Mossdeep Space Center, and a Moon Stone in Meteor Falls.

You can also steal Sun Stones from wild Solrock, and Moon Stones from wild Lunatone.

[rinku]

No best choice, but if you are taking her as a lead pokémon go with Synchronize to avoid unpleasant surprises. If she starts in reserve, Trace becomes more powerful since you (generally) have control over what
she traces.

[Metallixs Girl]

Thanks, that really helps a lot. :) But I still don't know how long each ability is kept, only in battle, or until the next trace?

[Kari and Mewtwo]

Trace is permanent. Trace's copy effect only lasts as long as that poke is out in battle. So if you switch it, and then switch it back in, it has Trace again, and will trace whichever ability the opponent's poke has.

Also an interesting point brought up by DRWS in a separate topic: In 2vs2 battles, Trace copies the ability of the poke directly across from the Tracer. In layman's terms:

<Ludicolo> <Suicune>


<Magikarp> <Gardevoir>

Gardevoir will copy Suicune's trait.

[MaxPegasus42]

I happen to like Trace Better on Gardevoir then Synchronize... I have had many battles where I have won because Gardevoir traced Water Abosrb, Volt Absorb, and some of the even better Traits, including... Gasp... Wonder Guard... It can really help you out in battles... you are concerned about tracing truant... well I wouldnt want Gardevoir in vs Slaking anyway... but... when you switch out as KKM pointed out, you get trace back... so once gardevoir comes back in it can trace something else... I am still working on a way to somehow use Trace + Skill Swap against the opponent effectively, but it could work...

For Example, you Put out Gardevoir against a dying Lanturn... and you get volt absorb via trace... then say they put in Flygon, you can skill swap that and now Flygon can be hit with Ground moves (because levetate is gone) It now has a useless ability for it (Volt Absorb) and you can switch gardy out for something else with a ground move that can hit Flygon and have trace back on Gardy...

That wasnt the best example, but i think you get the idea...

[Sir Chris]

Well, both are very respectable.

I say it depends on your team

If your team is weak to status effects then the lumberry/synch combo mentioned is great for you. However there are certain abiliities that are quite nice, suc as Shedinja's wondeer guard or gengar's levitate.

I'd go with Synchronize overall, but I am a crazy man like that, so tread lightly.

[rinku]

Skill Swap works best with Kecleon OMHO. I've had several battle tower battles saved by its ability to transfer Color Change onto something with a really tough type (i.e. Registeel) and then have it or a team-mate use a self-supereffective (Ghost, Dragon, etc) move to take it down quickly. Even the ability to make a target a type your moves are normally effective against, who no longer gets STAB on its own attacks is worth it. Works particularly well on types that are tougher because of a special ability.

Skill swapping Trace won't do much on the first one you face, as you would be swapping same for same. I'd think there were better moves for a Tracer.

[CooltrainerNick]

Personally, I like Trace, but that's my opinion. It's saved me a few times. But synchronize is fine for those who like it and are happy with it.