>>44783384It wasn't the item; it was Smogon's ruleset not having item clause. Every held item in the campaign is held back by having one or two copies of it in a legitimate run. In the post-game, there is no real story to overcome anymore, and you have to earn multiple copies of items in battle facilities. In battle facilities and official competitions, you can only use 1 item per battle. And even then, you can only use 3 vs 3 singles, or 4 vs 4 doubles.
Smogon is using 6 vs 6 singles where switching is the main aspect of the game. Moves, abilities, and items that either benefit from switching, or are activated upon switching, are heavily encouraged. Smogon chose an arbitrary ruleset where switching was the main focus and item clause wasn't there. HEAVY Duty Boots is practically giving your Pokemon footwear that lets them go onto the battlefield and let them be immune to every hazard. In Japanese, they are the Thick-Soled Boots, implying that these boots have such prominent soles that they protect the Pokemon's feet from any hazard and let the Pokemon maneuver on the battlefield. (Even certain Pokemon that don't have feet can use them if they maneuver their bodies into the boots). The point is, these boots protect an ongoing Pokemon trying to enter a battlefield from the traps lurking underneath. Pokemon battles are literal battles between Pokemon armies commanded by a general, the trainer. In Smogon, both generals use a single combatant and switch them out frequently while giving most of them the Thick-Soled Boots that protect them from hazards. Good job. Smogon made these items broken because of their ruleset. Game Freak created these items solely for a single Pokemon in VGC to be immune to hazards, which are not as common but certain Max/G-Max Moves can trigger hazards, so they would be somewhat more prominent in this generation's meta. In Singles, there are increasingly more hazard moves, but there are 3 Pokemon so fewer hazard setters and removers.
