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(Little) Things that annoy you in Pokémon
- Thread starter BriarRose
- Start date
My joke about boosting Raitora's BST in the prototype thread reminded me about how they only did the Aegislash nerf this gen and didn't fix the---
Look, there's been 55 pokemon (56 counting Mega Alakazam, put a pin this) that had their stats buffed (nerfed in Aegislash's case). Of those, two were unevolved. One was Pikachu in gen 6 (+10 to both defenses). I think that's not too weird, it is the mascot and they probably wanted to buff its survivability just a little bit. And incidentally, Raichu also got a boost to its speed.
The other was Woobat. Once again, not Swoobat, Woobat. +10 HP 55 -> 65, so now when it evolves it gains +2 base HP. Swoobat gained no changes. It makes no sense to buff Woobat when they otherwise dont touch pre-evolutions and the HP is so close as to be meaningless. Especially when Swoobat was, let's face it, pretty bad as-is.
I am 100% convinced this was an error. Their japanese names are Koromori (コロモリ ) and Kokoromori (ココロモリ ) and I think what happened is someone wasn't paying close attention to the stat tables they were assigned to.
Now let's unpin Mega Alakazam. Every single mega in gen 6, including primals, gives +100 BST. Mega Alakazam only gave 90; that same generation did buff Alakazam +10 Special Defense. Seems to me Mega Alakazam always gave a +10 SpD boost as part of its distribution, but at some point they went back to give Alakazam that bonus and forgot to adjust the Mega (where as they remembered with Ampharos). But! In gen 7 they decided to correct this. It was the only Mega Evolution to get extra stats and it was +10 to special defense.
but here we are in gen 8, with Swoobat in the galar dex, and they didn't change anything other than nerfing Aegislash.
As a fan of Swoobat, I'm very bummed. Even if +10 HP is not what I would necessarily give the line. It's also a general bummer that they didn't keep altering some statlines, it was interesting to see who would get the buff and what they would get. Gen 7 in particular was actually very generous, many Pokemon would get +20 to a stat or even up to 30 across several stats. Some stats were kind of worthless to buff, but on the whole it was nice to know they were slowly improving some pokemon who needed it, if only a little.
Look, there's been 55 pokemon (56 counting Mega Alakazam, put a pin this) that had their stats buffed (nerfed in Aegislash's case). Of those, two were unevolved. One was Pikachu in gen 6 (+10 to both defenses). I think that's not too weird, it is the mascot and they probably wanted to buff its survivability just a little bit. And incidentally, Raichu also got a boost to its speed.
The other was Woobat. Once again, not Swoobat, Woobat. +10 HP 55 -> 65, so now when it evolves it gains +2 base HP. Swoobat gained no changes. It makes no sense to buff Woobat when they otherwise dont touch pre-evolutions and the HP is so close as to be meaningless. Especially when Swoobat was, let's face it, pretty bad as-is.
I am 100% convinced this was an error. Their japanese names are Koromori (コロモリ ) and Kokoromori (ココロモリ ) and I think what happened is someone wasn't paying close attention to the stat tables they were assigned to.
Now let's unpin Mega Alakazam. Every single mega in gen 6, including primals, gives +100 BST. Mega Alakazam only gave 90; that same generation did buff Alakazam +10 Special Defense. Seems to me Mega Alakazam always gave a +10 SpD boost as part of its distribution, but at some point they went back to give Alakazam that bonus and forgot to adjust the Mega (where as they remembered with Ampharos). But! In gen 7 they decided to correct this. It was the only Mega Evolution to get extra stats and it was +10 to special defense.
but here we are in gen 8, with Swoobat in the galar dex, and they didn't change anything other than nerfing Aegislash.
As a fan of Swoobat, I'm very bummed. Even if +10 HP is not what I would necessarily give the line. It's also a general bummer that they didn't keep altering some statlines, it was interesting to see who would get the buff and what they would get. Gen 7 in particular was actually very generous, many Pokemon would get +20 to a stat or even up to 30 across several stats. Some stats were kind of worthless to buff, but on the whole it was nice to know they were slowly improving some pokemon who needed it, if only a little.
In my experience, not really?
smaller mammals I think of as pretty commonly mastered by fey (I recall that the Welsh fey had corgis as their designated mount,
Or maybe I'm too used to D&D where the insect-using elf tribes live in caves and are bigger fans of the supernatural than the natural.
I kind of see the relation between fairies and insectoids as mirroring the relationship of humans and larger animals. A select few bugs like butterflies are chill by default, others (mostly beetles) can be domesticated but are still dangerous if wild or mistreated (or if ridden into battle by an enemy fairy group), and the rest are about as terrifying as you would expect for a giant insect.
It is common to decipt fairies with bug-like features too for example in Pan's labyrnth, the fake photos which duped Arthur Conan Doyle and even in Pokémon with Valerie, the fairy badges and Opal's symbol which would go with fairy taming bug theme, but they shouldn't make bug tie with grass as the most resisted type even if it made sense.
To me that says more that Bug/Fairy could be a lot more common than it is, rather than any indication of the matchup between them.
I had pretty bad joycon drift when they released, so I found myself greatly missing this too.
Gonna stop you right there because Fire actually has more resistances than any type bar Steel (this was true before and after Gen 6). It resists Fire, Grass, Ice, Bug, and Steel, even if you take away the Fairy resist. Poison also got a Fairy resist added on but it only had 4 resistances before (Grass, Poison, Fighting, Bug). Fire is actually a rather strong type defensively; its merit has always just been hindered by having Pokémon that generally aren't built to be defensive, its weaknesses being common offensive types, and of course Stealth Rock from Gen 4 on.
That said, the defensive utility of bulkier Fire types, especially if they have recovery, has definitely been shown in recent generations. Heatran, Moltres, Ho-oh, Heat Rotom. Mega Zard X, Centiscorch--heck, I've even seen Camerupt used for its resistances. Granted, all of these have a type or ability that mitigates one of Fire's weaknesses (not a coincidence), but there's considerable merit to Fire as a defensive type.
And just like that, you raised a pretty big problem.
The Fire-type weaknesses are very bad. It's hard to consider it a truly good defensive type.
You have a point about the defensive merit, Arcanine has been used like that for years. But I dunno, it takes some careful thinking to use Fire-types as defensive mons. It's not a horrible idea like say, Ice mons, but it's not that good either.
It's good in certain situations and they DO blanket check a lot of Pokémon who lack the coverage to hit them super effectively.
It's mostly Rock and Ground, tbh, since Water isn't seen much outside of STAB (it happens, just not a lot), and most Rock and Ground moves are physical (especially Rock). And it just so happens the status ailment associated with Fire cuts the Attack stat in half.
Obviously there are problems with using Fire Pokémon in defensive roles, but it's not for a lack of resistances.
Maybe GF got their fill of touchscreen interaction and wanted to go back to simple button prompts? Though odd they wouldn't at least let you tap the move you wanted to use and the curry mixing mini-game does feel like they may have been thinking of making it like the Poffin making mini-game.
Might've been weird to add that so late on? I feel like resistances being changed appears less, like...jarring, somehow.
Personally, I'm happy to have the Fairy type. Would be nice if they weren't quite so broken, though. I think that removing the resistance to Bug would legitimately help with Pokémon like Hetterene being prominent in the meta. Also changes the Grimmsnarl match-up. Togekiss would no longer 4x resist, but not sure how relevant that is. Guess I can't really think of any other potentially relevant interactions that'd bring, but I'd appreciate the impact of even those two things by themselves, tbh. (Oh, being able to hit Clefairy for neutral with First Impression could potentially be really nice!)
I don't hate the Fairy-type, but I'd have buffed the Ice-type rather than have introduced Fairy. Make it resist Dragon, and perhaps Water as well. And give Hail an extra effect akin to Sandstorm. Something like: all non-Ice Pokemon have their speed lowered by 50%, in Hail (or if that's too overpowered, maybe a Defence boost for all Ice-types).
Bit late on the discussion about Normal-types, but something someone said about it having a niche in early gens as the jack-of-all-trades type struck a chord. I was rewatching Red's fight with Giovanni in Pokemon Origins the other week and there's a bit when Red sends out his Snorlax and Giovanni remarks "oh, a Normal-type? That's quite an interesting choice." I was like "...is it, though?" and then got to thinking: yeah, actually it is. Snorlax (and most Normal-types) are incredibly versatile, which in Gen 1 was practically overpowered. Most Fire-types could only use Fire and Normal moves; most Grass-types only got Grass, Normal, and Poison moves; most Bugs didn't even learn Bug-moves at all. Only Psychic Pokemon had such comparably wide movepools. But that's kind of been lost now that the majority of Pokemon have so many different options.
I'm not convinced that the type itself needs a buff, but seeing more powerful Normal-types would definitely be appreciated. Silvally is the only one I can think of in recent gens that's half-decent, with emphasis on the "half".
Bit late on the discussion about Normal-types, but something someone said about it having a niche in early gens as the jack-of-all-trades type struck a chord. I was rewatching Red's fight with Giovanni in Pokemon Origins the other week and there's a bit when Red sends out his Snorlax and Giovanni remarks "oh, a Normal-type? That's quite an interesting choice." I was like "...is it, though?" and then got to thinking: yeah, actually it is. Snorlax (and most Normal-types) are incredibly versatile, which in Gen 1 was practically overpowered. Most Fire-types could only use Fire and Normal moves; most Grass-types only got Grass, Normal, and Poison moves; most Bugs didn't even learn Bug-moves at all. Only Psychic Pokemon had such comparably wide movepools. But that's kind of been lost now that the majority of Pokemon have so many different options.
I'm not convinced that the type itself needs a buff, but seeing more powerful Normal-types would definitely be appreciated. Silvally is the only one I can think of in recent gens that's half-decent, with emphasis on the "half".
While EV-Training my new Conkeldurr by beating up on Chewtle on Route 2, I just accidentally ran across the Choice Band conveniently placed on the route. 6 months later. 
(I also went back on Serebii to see what else I may have missed and discovered that there was a Life Orb in the Slumbering Weald that I totally by-passed.)
On another note, the name "Blastoise". It's definitely cool-sounding, and I get that it comes from "tortoise", but it definitely isn't pronounced like "tortoise". The way it's pronounced, it sounds like it comes from "turquoise", but a lot of us grew up pronouncing "Blastoise" the way it is and so I feel like we're just ok with the name because that's how it was introduced to us. I dunno, I just realized it kinda bothers me a little that I never questioned it before. I feel like if Blastoise was introduced today, it'd be called "Tortank" or something (which is actually its French name, as I just found out).
(I also went back on Serebii to see what else I may have missed and discovered that there was a Life Orb in the Slumbering Weald that I totally by-passed.)On another note, the name "Blastoise". It's definitely cool-sounding, and I get that it comes from "tortoise", but it definitely isn't pronounced like "tortoise". The way it's pronounced, it sounds like it comes from "turquoise", but a lot of us grew up pronouncing "Blastoise" the way it is and so I feel like we're just ok with the name because that's how it was introduced to us. I dunno, I just realized it kinda bothers me a little that I never questioned it before. I feel like if Blastoise was introduced today, it'd be called "Tortank" or something (which is actually its French name, as I just found out).
After reading this I got curious and decided to check how the TM/TR distribution for recent pure Normal-types have been, to see if they're still this. The results were disappointing. Looks like GF forgot this little trait about Normal-types. While many can learn a few decent amount of Types it's not like the Normal-types we remember who got essentially every TM under the sun. I'll go each generation using the TMs/TRs/Tutors available to the Pokemon at that time:
Dubwool:
Notable Typed TMs/TRs Learned: Thunder Wave, Bounce, Payback, Zen Headbutt; Electro Ball, Wild Charge, Body Press
Typed TMs/TRs Could Have Learned: Rock Slide, Beat Up, Brick Break, Psycho Cut, Bulldoze, Smart Strike, Stomping Tantrum; Low Kick, Earthquake, Outrage, Megahorn, Superpower, Flare Blitz, Poison Jab, Iron Head, Stone Edge, Wild Charge, Play Rough, High Horsepower, Iron Defense
Greedent:
Notable Typed TMs/TRs Learned: Dig, Thief, Bullet Seed, Mud Shot, Payback, Assurance, Fling, Thunder/Ice/Fire Fang, Brutal Swing, Stomping Tantrum, Earthquake, Iron Tail, Crunch, Superpower, Gyro Ball, Seed Bomb, Wild Charge, Psychic Fangs, Body Press
Typed TMs/TRs Could Have Learned: Fire/Ice/Thunder Punch, Rock Slide, Beat Up, Revenge, Brick Break, Rock Tomb, Sand Tomb, Rock Blast, U-turn, Drain Punch, Acrobatics, Breaking Swipe, Flare Blitz, Zen Headbutt, Gunk Shot, Iron Head, Stone Edge, Play Rough
Notable Typed TMs/TRs Learned: Thunder Wave, Bounce, Payback, Zen Headbutt; Electro Ball, Wild Charge, Body Press
Typed TMs/TRs Could Have Learned: Rock Slide, Beat Up, Brick Break, Psycho Cut, Bulldoze, Smart Strike, Stomping Tantrum; Low Kick, Earthquake, Outrage, Megahorn, Superpower, Flare Blitz, Poison Jab, Iron Head, Stone Edge, Wild Charge, Play Rough, High Horsepower, Iron Defense
Greedent:
Notable Typed TMs/TRs Learned: Dig, Thief, Bullet Seed, Mud Shot, Payback, Assurance, Fling, Thunder/Ice/Fire Fang, Brutal Swing, Stomping Tantrum, Earthquake, Iron Tail, Crunch, Superpower, Gyro Ball, Seed Bomb, Wild Charge, Psychic Fangs, Body Press
Typed TMs/TRs Could Have Learned: Fire/Ice/Thunder Punch, Rock Slide, Beat Up, Revenge, Brick Break, Rock Tomb, Sand Tomb, Rock Blast, U-turn, Drain Punch, Acrobatics, Breaking Swipe, Flare Blitz, Zen Headbutt, Gunk Shot, Iron Head, Stone Edge, Play Rough
Komala:
Notable Typed TMs/Tutored Learned: Sunny Day, Earthquake, Brick Break, Low Sweep, Acrobatics, Shadow Claw, Payback, Bulldoze, Rock Slide, U-turn, Iron Head, Knock Off, Stomping Tantrum, Superpower, Zen Headbutt
Typed TMs/Tutored Could Have Learned: Smack Down, Flame Charge, Thief, Brutal Swing, Stone Edge, Wild Charge, Fire/Thunder/Ice Punch, Seed Bomb, Outrage, Throat Chop, Drain Punch
Silvally I'm going to skip as it does learn a wide variety of Typed moves, as it (doubly) should.
Gumshoos:
Notable Typed TMs/Tutored Learned: Earthquake, Rock Tomb, Thief, Fling, Payback, Bulldoze, U-turn, Dual Chop, Fire/Ice/Thunder Fang, Iron Head, Iron Tail, Shock Wave, Stomping Tantrum, Zen Headbutt
Typed TMs/Tutored Could Have Learned: Smack Down, Leech Life, Brick Break, Aerial Ace, Flame Charge, Low Sweep, Brutal Swing, Acrobatics, Shadow Claw, Stone Edge, Rock Slide, Wild Charge, Low Kick, Fire/Thunder/Ice Punch, Aqua Tail, Focus Punch, Super Fang, Outrage, Throat Chop, Drain Punch, Superpower, Knock Off
Notable Typed TMs/Tutored Learned: Sunny Day, Earthquake, Brick Break, Low Sweep, Acrobatics, Shadow Claw, Payback, Bulldoze, Rock Slide, U-turn, Iron Head, Knock Off, Stomping Tantrum, Superpower, Zen Headbutt
Typed TMs/Tutored Could Have Learned: Smack Down, Flame Charge, Thief, Brutal Swing, Stone Edge, Wild Charge, Fire/Thunder/Ice Punch, Seed Bomb, Outrage, Throat Chop, Drain Punch
Silvally I'm going to skip as it does learn a wide variety of Typed moves, as it (doubly) should.
Gumshoos:
Notable Typed TMs/Tutored Learned: Earthquake, Rock Tomb, Thief, Fling, Payback, Bulldoze, U-turn, Dual Chop, Fire/Ice/Thunder Fang, Iron Head, Iron Tail, Shock Wave, Stomping Tantrum, Zen Headbutt
Typed TMs/Tutored Could Have Learned: Smack Down, Leech Life, Brick Break, Aerial Ace, Flame Charge, Low Sweep, Brutal Swing, Acrobatics, Shadow Claw, Stone Edge, Rock Slide, Wild Charge, Low Kick, Fire/Thunder/Ice Punch, Aqua Tail, Focus Punch, Super Fang, Outrage, Throat Chop, Drain Punch, Superpower, Knock Off
Furfrou:
Notable Typed TMs/Tutored Learned: Charge Beam, Thunder Wave, Grass Knot, U-turn, Wild Charge, Surf, Snarl, Dark Pulse, Iron Tail, Zen Headbutt
Typed TMs/Tutored Could Have Learned: Thunderbolt, Thunder, Shadow Ball, Flame Charge, Thief, Acrobatics, Shadow Claw, Payback, Volt Switch, Dazzling Gleam, Iron Tail, Bounce, Iron Tail, Aqua Tail, Foul Play
Notable Typed TMs/Tutored Learned: Charge Beam, Thunder Wave, Grass Knot, U-turn, Wild Charge, Surf, Snarl, Dark Pulse, Iron Tail, Zen Headbutt
Typed TMs/Tutored Could Have Learned: Thunderbolt, Thunder, Shadow Ball, Flame Charge, Thief, Acrobatics, Shadow Claw, Payback, Volt Switch, Dazzling Gleam, Iron Tail, Bounce, Iron Tail, Aqua Tail, Foul Play
The Gen V and below Pokemon look to be alright with their wide reaching TMs/Tutored Moves, so it seems to be when they jumped 3D they started easing back on Normal-types getting such wide coverage.
Wouldn't it be Turtank? "Blastle" honestly doesn't sound too bad and actually keeps in theme with its lower evolutions.
That should've happened a long time ago, but in terms of actual balance, a type that is both immune to Dragon and not weak to Fire was needed.
Source: Tried giving Steel an immunity to Dragon (which had the current 120BP Outrage) and made Ice resist Dragon when I was hacking Stadium 2.
Boy, did I get torched by Fire Blast with the quickness. lmao
Then I stopped to think and said, "Damn, GF actually had the right idea with the Patch-type."
There should be some changes to the type-effectiveness chart, some types are really bad when you think about it. Bug, Grass and Normal could use some work on the offensive end, Ghost really needs more stuff to stand out more from Dark, Steel needs to hit Dragons for SE damage, Fairy needs a bit of toning down, Ice needs anything defensively...
It's tricky, but it should be done.
Also, this is more of an unpopular opinion, but since GF is willing to not only buff older mons' base stats, but also nerf some as it happened with Aegislash, I think the power creep in terms of base stats are starting to take its toll too much.
Yes, I'm advocating for some nerfs.
I totally agree with you that Steel could have been Super effective against Dragon, but that makes Steel too much good ? I feel bad for Dragons offensively ! Sure, they're monsters, but because of the stats / row power, they're almost never Very Effective :(
This is why I said that it's a tricky balance.
Dragon ain't really that good offensively when you think about it, but the fact that you only have to deal with like, 1 resist and 1 immunity, and most Dragons are powerful makes "Just click Outrage" look good, especially in the older gens.
On the other hand, it's actually a pretty good defensive type and well, it has a ton of strong mons.
One wrong tweak and you got a cooler Normal-type.
I’d probably add another resistance to Ghost. Currently, Dark is the only type that resists it and can offensively threaten it back.
I... completely forgot about that tbh.
Maybe that's why it has such terrible moves?
I wouldn’t call them terrible per se, it’s just that the Shadow Claw/Ball have relatively low base powers of 70 and 80. Moves that are higher in base power, like Phantom Force and Moongeist Beam are either two turn or are signature moves, though the latter has use in Dynamax formats for stalling out Dynamax turns.
On a similar note, I’m actually surprised that they nerfed Aegislash, and Aegislash only.It was not very popular in 18 thanks to Incineroar, and fizzled out due to the power Creep from GS cup formats, let alone banned in 17.
And that's... kinda terrible tbh.
If Phantom Force was a single-turn move and Shadow Ball had 90BP, I wouldn't be saying that, but I'd still raise an eyebrow at the lack of a common 110BP/85% Acc. move.