I'm of the opinion that Ferrothorn is broken, and I'm bold enough to make the nomination, even if no-one else nominates Ferrothorn.
I'm of of the opinion that it is unhealthy for the metagame to be forced to stick Fighting/Fire attacks on every other member of your team, because otherwise Ferrothorn will wall you all day and night.
Raikaria, you are perfectly entitled to your opinion.
But you don't have to use 3/4 Fire or Fighting users to avoid getting walled. For example, Tornadus 2HKOes with Hurricane. For example, it doesn't handle STAB Earthquakes very well, especially given that the 3 most common EQ users can SD on it.
Ferrothorn gets worn down, and Leech Seed is good, but just not consistent enough to be considered reliable, if you ask me. Strong, neutral hits will take their toll on Ferrothorn, and it's not obscenely hard to 2HKO the landmine.
Bsides, even things which run Fire or Fighting moves would probably commonly run them anyway. Obviously things with STAB, but there are others as well. For instance, Fire Punch on DDNite. I bet Fire Punch would be used even without Ferrothorn around, simply because of the awesome coverage it provides in tandem with Dragon STAB. Same for Fire Blast on Mence.
Raikaria said:
Then there's Ferrothorn's offensive prowess [Decent Attack a Base 120 STAB and another one which is Base 120 against a good amount of the metagame], and the rediculous ease with which it can set up hazards.
I'm allowed to nominate something I feel is broken, and, to be honest, Ferrothorn is probobly seen as 'Very Good' or 'Excellent' in most people's eyes.
I just see it as 'Too Good'.
Ferrothorn's offensive prowess isn't that great, really. If it uses Gyro Ball, then pretty much anything slow can set up on it (Reuniclus, Rotom-W, Conkeldurr, etc). Not only that, but Gyro Ball has low PP. But if it uses Power Whip, then it has imperfect accuracy, it still has low PP, and it has lower power against faster threats.
Both STABs are needed in order to not get set up on by a group of things. But by running both moves, you must give up Spikes (which means no hazards) or Thunder Wave (which means no status) or Leech Seed (which means no recovery at all) or Protect (which means you're much less effective at stalling).
Ferrothorn suffers from terrible 4 MoveSlot Syndrome, and it just can't do it all.
I see the landmine as being very good or excellent, but I disagree about it being too good, as I've said before.
Raikaria said:
Oh, and Nasty Plot Celebi? I've not even seen one of those, and Virizion isn't exactly the world's most common pokemon either. Whimsicott loses horribly to Gyro Ball too, in fact, that's the case for most OU grass-types. Except Ferrothorn itself and Virizion.
Celebi has more than 3% usage, and Virizion has more than 4%. And Ferrothorn can't do jack to either of them. Whimsicott is always, always running Max Hp/Max Def and a Bold/Impish nature, meaning that Ferrothorn's uninvested Gyro Ball won't be too much of a bother for it.
Most OU Grass-types do not lose to Ferrothorn. Other examples include Venusaur, who will KO you with a sun-boosted HP Fire. In fact, just about any Chlorophyll Pokemon can do that (the only Chlorophyll exception is Sawsbuck, who will Jump Kick you for the kill). Or Breloom, who can Spore you; or it can just set up a Sub and Focus Punch you to death. Really, Ferrothorn loses to pretty much every Grass type in OU, and most of the UU ones as well.
But regardless of which examples I used, Grass types deprive Ferrothorn of its only recovery, and the damage accumulates on it very quickly after that.
And the fact that you haven't seen many of them is in fact a testament to Ferrothorn's un-brokenness. If it was truly broken, a lot more people would run those Grass types in order to beat Ferrothorn more easily. But they don't need to, because they have other ways of dealing with Ferrothorn.
Does anyone else agree with releasing manaphy if drizzle ends up banned?
Yes!
Hello Manaphy, I just hit you with a strong attack.Go ahead, heal off the damage. OH, wait...
Hello Manaphy, I just Toxic'ed you. Go ahead, shrug off the status. OH, wait...
And Manaphy could fix that problem by running Rain Dance and/or Rest. But then it loses out horribly on coverage, and gets walled by a
lot more shit.
I honestly don't think Manaphy would be anywhere close to over-powered in a Drizzle-less metagame.