Prankster Will-O-Wisp and T-Wave. Everything must be priority!
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Other I've Got the Priority!
- Thread starter Chou Toshio
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I think most people are playing Aegislash wrong. For example: Aegislash 2HKOs Gliscor with Life Orb Shadow Ball / Shadow Sneak. That is _plenty_ of enough power for me. KOing many `mon on the switchin with twin 150 Attack stats makes it one of THE best wallbreakers in the game. I agree however, that Shadow Sneak is mostly an afterthought on Aegislash. Its useful for revenge killing (as usual), but it fails to reliably OHKO Mega Gengar (among other threats).
I've said it before and I'll say it again: playing "prediction games" with King's Shield is an unreliable strategy. I bet that proper usage of Aegislash is going to evolve towards the Pivot usage. King's Shield relies on the opponent to make mistakes with contact moves repeatedly. In contrast, Pivot Mix-Aegislash maximizes the amount of punishment against a perfect player.
Aegislash does NOT want to spam Shadow Sneak. Its more of a utility move for him... 99% of the time, Aegislash wants to be spamming Shadow Ball. (the 1% is when the opponent has Khangaskhan, TTar, or Hydregion. At which point, Sacred Sword tends to be the best move. It still does decent damage, but threatens to OHKO Aegislash checks on the switchin)
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Back to Priority though... outside of Talonflame, I am getting a very "That's not Scizor" feel from the priority users. Suckerpunch is unreliable, and everyone else (even megas) don't seem to hit as hard as a good ol' technician + STAB + CB bulletpunch. Granted, Mega Mawile and Mega Absol have more powerful Sucker Punches than Technician Bullet Punch... but that goes back to the "unreliable" factor.
It depends. In regular OU, they're banned. In Pokebank OU, they're legal, and if people are playing that metagame, they should be using what's available.
Just for fun I recently made a team that had nothing but 6 prioroty users on pokebank OU, and I had a supprizing amount of success with it. Azu and Mega Kanga can break through walls easily if they get a chance to set up, Guts Conk can absorb the burns that ruin the rest of the team, and Sash lead Mamoswine can set up rocks, and posibly pick off the apponents lead with Endevor + Ice Shard. I've been working on the last two slots, currently testing Zygrade over Dragonite and Aegislash over Talonflame, because I can't effectivly keep rocks off the field.
A prioroty heavy metagame favors BO over HO, and I think that the bulky nature of this team reflects that.
A prioroty heavy metagame favors BO over HO, and I think that the bulky nature of this team reflects that.
Much of the reason, why priority is so popular, is because of extremely dangerous threats like Blaziken and M-Gengar and to a lesser extent sweepers like Excadrill and Garchomp. Blaziken's constantly rising speed and its ability to pass its boosts, and Gengar's fast unmatchable speed combined with its horribly broken ability, means that strong priority is simply the most feasible way to handle them.
I actually think, that priority is in fact a seed of the new bulky offence. First of all, many of the most popular priority users (Aegislash, Azumarill, Mawile, Dragonite and so on) are themselves what you would traditionally call bulky and slow; they make up for their low speed with their powerful priority to overcome fast, frail threats. Above all, their bulk is needed to withstand powerful hits from Blaziken, Gengar, Excadrill and so on. On the other hand, the need to check dangerous priority users like Lucario, Talonflame and Azumarill themselves means that more people are turning to bulky tanks (many without priority) like Rotom-W and Gliscor to in turn withstand those priority attacks.
If anything, traditional Hyper-Offence is that, what is hurt by bulky priority users. They can no longer rely on their natural speed alone, and it's rare that something can sweep only with priority (as they usually have low base power and coverage to be desired). The new game-changing Sticky Web is also to be considered, as it hurts many hyper-offence sweepers, while bulky priority users can get around this issue.
I actually think, that priority is in fact a seed of the new bulky offence. First of all, many of the most popular priority users (Aegislash, Azumarill, Mawile, Dragonite and so on) are themselves what you would traditionally call bulky and slow; they make up for their low speed with their powerful priority to overcome fast, frail threats. Above all, their bulk is needed to withstand powerful hits from Blaziken, Gengar, Excadrill and so on. On the other hand, the need to check dangerous priority users like Lucario, Talonflame and Azumarill themselves means that more people are turning to bulky tanks (many without priority) like Rotom-W and Gliscor to in turn withstand those priority attacks.
If anything, traditional Hyper-Offence is that, what is hurt by bulky priority users. They can no longer rely on their natural speed alone, and it's rare that something can sweep only with priority (as they usually have low base power and coverage to be desired). The new game-changing Sticky Web is also to be considered, as it hurts many hyper-offence sweepers, while bulky priority users can get around this issue.
I dunno, I think this is an exaggeration by the OP.
I agree that priority moves have become MUCH more prevalent, but they definitely aren't meta game defining, not by a long shot. Packing priority, or a mon that can deal with priority is becoming more common, but again, it's not the go to option.
Also, the most deadly priority users are seen coming from a mile away and aren't impossible to deal with.
If I see a scizor on any team, I automatically assume it has Bullet Punch. Same goes for the respective priority move associated with such mons like breloom, azumarill, and bisharp, among many.
tl;dr While I agree priority is fast gaining relevance and attention from the metagame, it is far from the deadly threat that will loom over the upcoming meta that OP makes it out to be.
I agree that priority moves have become MUCH more prevalent, but they definitely aren't meta game defining, not by a long shot. Packing priority, or a mon that can deal with priority is becoming more common, but again, it's not the go to option.
Also, the most deadly priority users are seen coming from a mile away and aren't impossible to deal with.
If I see a scizor on any team, I automatically assume it has Bullet Punch. Same goes for the respective priority move associated with such mons like breloom, azumarill, and bisharp, among many.
tl;dr While I agree priority is fast gaining relevance and attention from the metagame, it is far from the deadly threat that will loom over the upcoming meta that OP makes it out to be.
Meh, almost all priority is based on physical moves, and its not hard to fit some +def +hp pokemon on your team to deal with this as long as you have a dependable recovery option and don't provide them an opportunity to set up beyond a single dance. If anything I'm finding it harder to reliably predict movesets of and deal with hit and run special attackers or something like a nasty plot MLucario. Like, I can reliably shut down an aegislash with a slightly faster (wait maybe slower, shield form is stoop) bulky earthquake user. Its not until I realise I'm facing those batshit insane flash cannon/shadowball/whatever/kingsshield variants that I'm at a loss.
Chou Toshio, vs how bulky of a Pokemon are those calcs?
As for priority in this gen, i am loving it! Talonflame, Azumarill, and Aegislash are great Pokemon and will continue to be. Yeah the hype raises their usage to ridiculous levels but even without it they are still some of the best offensive Pokemon we will have in 6th gen OU, if the PokeBank metagame is going to have any resemblance to the pre-PokeBank one.
And of 'course the fact that priority is everywhere helps bulky offense. Less focus goes in Speed and more in power and bulk, it's a simple concept. Basically, it helps any team-type other than Heavy/Hyper Offense, which will need to start adapting and use either more bulky sweepers that can be outsped without Scarfers, or support such as Dual Screens or Sticky Web, so that their bulky sweepers can't be outsped or can take a hit even from faster Pokemon. The good thing with the popularity of priority is that most really powerful Pokemon usually lack good bulk, making them extremely prone to getting revenge killed by priority. Even Pokemon that used to terrorize BW OU, such as Rock Polish Genesect, Skymin, Choice Scarf Keldeo, Excadrill, and more, that had both incredible power and Speed, are way more manageable now without the need to limit yourself to Choice Scarf Pokemon and offensive Pokemon that don't give free switch-ins (aka offensive teams). With so many viable priority users, every team has so much more options to deal with offensive threats and can better focus on defensive synergy and other things (hazards, Rapid Spin, Defog, weather, pivots, clerics, wish passers), which creates so much more options on teambuilding. Between Scizor, Azumarill, Talonflame, Aegislash, Mega Kangaskhan, Mega Absol, Breloom, Mega Pinsir, (Mega)Lucario, Mamowsine, Weavile, and Dragonite there is almost no offensive threat that can't be covered, and those that can't be covered usually can be outsped without the need to use a Choice Scarf Pokemon. Even stall has a lot of options to choose from now, with great Pokemon such as Choice Band Azumarill and 3 attacks + King's Shield Aegislash, which provide both great pivots / checks to popular offensive threats (aka defensive backbone) and strong priority.
Furthermore, the most important thing about the new priority users is that the majority of them (except from Mega Lucario and maybe a couple more) are absolutely manageable. Talonflame, Aegislash, and Azumarill all have a great deal of checks and a few solid counters. With the PokeBank Pokemon taken into account, Talonflame is checked/walled by Tyranitar, Heatran, Rotom-W, Mandibuzz, Slowbro, Hippowdon, Landorus-T, Gyarados, Mega Aerodactyl, Mega Ampharos, and Zygarde. Aegislash is checked/walled by Mandibuzz, Hippowdon, Rotom-W, Excadrill, Garchomp, Zygarde, Landorus-T, Heatran and a couple more that are checks only to certain sets (Skarmory and Gliscor to purely physical sets for example). Finally, Azumarill is checked/countered by Tentacruel, Mega Venusaur, Mega Scizor (max HP / max Def+ sets avoid the 2HKO from Waterfall), Gourgeist, Celebi, Gyarados, Rotom-W, Slowbro, Aegislash, Tangrowth, Amoonguss, and Ferrothorn.
So i think it's true, priority is the new metagame (ok a bit exaggerated but still), or rather, something that will be in almost every team from now on.
As for priority in this gen, i am loving it! Talonflame, Azumarill, and Aegislash are great Pokemon and will continue to be. Yeah the hype raises their usage to ridiculous levels but even without it they are still some of the best offensive Pokemon we will have in 6th gen OU, if the PokeBank metagame is going to have any resemblance to the pre-PokeBank one.
And of 'course the fact that priority is everywhere helps bulky offense. Less focus goes in Speed and more in power and bulk, it's a simple concept. Basically, it helps any team-type other than Heavy/Hyper Offense, which will need to start adapting and use either more bulky sweepers that can be outsped without Scarfers, or support such as Dual Screens or Sticky Web, so that their bulky sweepers can't be outsped or can take a hit even from faster Pokemon. The good thing with the popularity of priority is that most really powerful Pokemon usually lack good bulk, making them extremely prone to getting revenge killed by priority. Even Pokemon that used to terrorize BW OU, such as Rock Polish Genesect, Skymin, Choice Scarf Keldeo, Excadrill, and more, that had both incredible power and Speed, are way more manageable now without the need to limit yourself to Choice Scarf Pokemon and offensive Pokemon that don't give free switch-ins (aka offensive teams). With so many viable priority users, every team has so much more options to deal with offensive threats and can better focus on defensive synergy and other things (hazards, Rapid Spin, Defog, weather, pivots, clerics, wish passers), which creates so much more options on teambuilding. Between Scizor, Azumarill, Talonflame, Aegislash, Mega Kangaskhan, Mega Absol, Breloom, Mega Pinsir, (Mega)Lucario, Mamowsine, Weavile, and Dragonite there is almost no offensive threat that can't be covered, and those that can't be covered usually can be outsped without the need to use a Choice Scarf Pokemon. Even stall has a lot of options to choose from now, with great Pokemon such as Choice Band Azumarill and 3 attacks + King's Shield Aegislash, which provide both great pivots / checks to popular offensive threats (aka defensive backbone) and strong priority.
Furthermore, the most important thing about the new priority users is that the majority of them (except from Mega Lucario and maybe a couple more) are absolutely manageable. Talonflame, Aegislash, and Azumarill all have a great deal of checks and a few solid counters. With the PokeBank Pokemon taken into account, Talonflame is checked/walled by Tyranitar, Heatran, Rotom-W, Mandibuzz, Slowbro, Hippowdon, Landorus-T, Gyarados, Mega Aerodactyl, Mega Ampharos, and Zygarde. Aegislash is checked/walled by Mandibuzz, Hippowdon, Rotom-W, Excadrill, Garchomp, Zygarde, Landorus-T, Heatran and a couple more that are checks only to certain sets (Skarmory and Gliscor to purely physical sets for example). Finally, Azumarill is checked/countered by Tentacruel, Mega Venusaur, Mega Scizor (max HP / max Def+ sets avoid the 2HKO from Waterfall), Gourgeist, Celebi, Gyarados, Rotom-W, Slowbro, Aegislash, Tangrowth, Amoonguss, and Ferrothorn.
So i think it's true, priority is the new metagame (ok a bit exaggerated but still), or rather, something that will be in almost every team from now on.
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And this is why Rotom-W is the best Pokemon ever.
We need an ability that neutralizes all attacks into the same priority bracket.
And then never give that thing high speed and a phazing move.
And then never give that thing high speed and a phazing move.
And people get to put more useful Defoggers into the matches as well. Do want my Empoleon up and at em.
And then it gets matched up with just what it likes in doubles and voila, instant banstick.
You know what does bad things to a lot of priority? Most of it's contact moves. Plowing into Rocky Helmets tends to hurt, especially the LO-equipped types. Let that Talonflame Brave Bird swap straight into your Iron Barbs/Rough Skin + Helmet Pokemon and SPLAT (better, a lot of those are bulky enough to absorb a few hits along those lines while passive damage wrecks the one doing it.) you've got yourself one less problem.
Not if opponents catch wise and bring folks that outspeed the phazer.
Talonflame doesn't die to a round of Iron Barbs+Rocky Helmet, and Ferro doesn't enjoy the followup Flare Blitz either.
Then, yeah, Talon's taken some hefty passive damage, including recoil. But it's still alive, and still fast, and still has priority flying. It dies to basically one hit anyway, taking some passive damage isn't gonna matter too much.
And if you're into survival, oh no, priority Roost!
Of course, with Absol being the "king of priority power" last gen, one wonders whether Mega Absol will become relevant in this debate at all. Of particular note is the fact that Magic Bounce reflects status moves while Sucker Punch punishes damaging ones, meaning an opponent whose status moves are all of the offensive variety (WoW, Thuderwave, whatever) is equally screwed. Although I'll admit Substitute is a serious issue.
I don't think Rough Skin Druddigon has the same problem, though. He has the bulk and typing to shrug off most of Talonflame's hubris and then destroy it with rock slide, and can also dragon tail it away to phase any potential boosts.
My current best team runs a practically hyper offense with 4 of the mons holding priority. It saves your ass time, and time, and time again. PRiority is a massive part of the metagame. I'm not saying speed boosting speeders like dragon dancers, and speed boosters are dead but, I think youre goingto have a lot better luck with flat attack boosts and your own priority or, defense and offense buffs at once.
priority offense is a fun playstyle.
http://pokemonshowdown.com/replay/pokebankoubeta-61243761
one thing hte OP omits is the fact that Deo-N is one of the best E-speed users, and it will be legal in OU come pokebank. Oh, and im trying to bring back banded genesect (not too much luck), because with a download boost it has the strongest priority move with no set up, bar none.
An aisde, manaphy is a stall breaking monster, definitely crap against faster teams, but slower teams struggle with that power.
priority offense is a fun playstyle.
http://pokemonshowdown.com/replay/pokebankoubeta-61243761
one thing hte OP omits is the fact that Deo-N is one of the best E-speed users, and it will be legal in OU come pokebank. Oh, and im trying to bring back banded genesect (not too much luck), because with a download boost it has the strongest priority move with no set up, bar none.
An aisde, manaphy is a stall breaking monster, definitely crap against faster teams, but slower teams struggle with that power.
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So, what would you guys consider a good team structure in this metagame? I tend to go towards balanced teams and at the moment I only have one pokemon with a priority that I am considering putting in my team (Scizor, unless you count Greninja). How many people with priority should I have? How many tanks? How many sweepers? Wallbreakers? etc.
Don't forget on top of all the hard priority attacks, there's some really good pranksters out there too adding priority status as well.
My first impressions? I'm running Adamant and Modest and even Lonley/Naughty/Brave or Mild/Rash/Quiet quite a lot now. I'm not wasting my stats on +16/+20 EV speed creeping, and I'm not wasting my nature on Timid or Jolly or Naive or Hasty because I know my Garchomp or Terrakion is just gonna be priority'd by so many things. And what's the crucial speed tier anyway? Imo right now the only thing you need to outspeed is Rotom-W, and base 100s can do that by one point with Adamant or Modest. This is where I always start with my team actually, something with decent lead potential that outspeeds and seriously wounds rotom-w lol. You also might want to be outspeeding expertbelt/choiceband genesect, which jolly/timid base 100s do.
I think it's great that the deoxys forms are fair game now. Priority keeps them in check, they are only 600bst pokemon and the ability isn't very good, espeed+psychoboost+superpower is tanked by aegislash and checked by many other things. They are not very threatening as leads anymore because "guaranteed hazards" just isn't a threat... I'm happy they're in the game.
At times I definitely also wish there would just be a huge push into ubers getting rid of talonflame, azumarril, deoxys, aegislash, khangaskan, mawile, and lucario. The first argument being you can never safely switch anything in. The thing is, all of them are checking eachother. Also, all of them are checking things that would otherwise run rampant like blaziken and thundurus and genesect and megagenger and alakazam. If you ban talonflame then blaziken and genesect just got a little more ridiculous. If you ban aegislash then megagengar and sash alakazam come back strong. Ban megalucario, now talonflame can sweep easier because that's one less espeed.
I think there are definitely worthy complaints to make, because of centralizasion. I can't think of a reason to not run Talonflame, period. Talonflame should always be the first pokemon on my team, even a stall team (roost talonflame!), because the list of things it checks, revenges, or counters is just ridiculously long. If I have talonflame I don't need to worry about blaziken, gengar, pinsir, heracross, deoxys, aegislash, ferrothorn, scizor, keldeo, weavile, azelf, espeon, dugtrio and at low% genesect, lucario, khangaskan, azumarril, landorus, landorus-t, thundurus, thundurus-t, garchomp, starmie, maybe dragonite, maybe mamoswine, maybe whimsicott, maybe terakion, maybe charizard.
I singled out Talonflame because he's the popular one. He's necessary though! Can't ban him because without him, every single threat in the paragraph above could become the centralizer. Talonflame in OU means blaziken and megalucario and megagengar can be OU too. It might seem unfair that he checks so many things, but that's ok. I think you're team can afford to have 0 or 1 or 2 "talonflame weak" pokemon, and then you just have to build around them with heatran, tyranitar, gyarados, landorus-t, hippowdon, slowbro, unaware users, rock/water types, and your own extremespeed or -faster- priority users (scarf or DD aquajet feraligatr?)
Priority is definitely the name of the game now, pushing stat spreads away from speed investment and into offenses or bulk. It reminds me a lot of the transformation Yu-Gi-Oh underwent after multiple special summon chains were introduced at large (many people think of yu-gi-oh as the card game where you have to sacrifice 1 or 2 of your monsters on the field to summon a more powerful monster. Well now, you can summon weak monsters or play magic cards that immediately discard themselves but through a long chain they actually get your strongest monster out on turn 1 or turn 2)
I think what many people want to play, but can't quite express, is playing pokemon with Gen VI mechanics (sleep, weaker special attacks, grass type buffs, short weather) but only with Gen V pokemon (retroactive faeries like clefable and whimsicott, but no megas, and steel still does resist ghost and dark)
But that's not reality. Priority offense is the main playstyle by far, and you can join in with your own priority offense, you can try to work around it and make some sacs to set up your bulky offense, or you can go defensive and try to stall out your threats.
My first impressions? I'm running Adamant and Modest and even Lonley/Naughty/Brave or Mild/Rash/Quiet quite a lot now. I'm not wasting my stats on +16/+20 EV speed creeping, and I'm not wasting my nature on Timid or Jolly or Naive or Hasty because I know my Garchomp or Terrakion is just gonna be priority'd by so many things. And what's the crucial speed tier anyway? Imo right now the only thing you need to outspeed is Rotom-W, and base 100s can do that by one point with Adamant or Modest. This is where I always start with my team actually, something with decent lead potential that outspeeds and seriously wounds rotom-w lol. You also might want to be outspeeding expertbelt/choiceband genesect, which jolly/timid base 100s do.
I think it's great that the deoxys forms are fair game now. Priority keeps them in check, they are only 600bst pokemon and the ability isn't very good, espeed+psychoboost+superpower is tanked by aegislash and checked by many other things. They are not very threatening as leads anymore because "guaranteed hazards" just isn't a threat... I'm happy they're in the game.
At times I definitely also wish there would just be a huge push into ubers getting rid of talonflame, azumarril, deoxys, aegislash, khangaskan, mawile, and lucario. The first argument being you can never safely switch anything in. The thing is, all of them are checking eachother. Also, all of them are checking things that would otherwise run rampant like blaziken and thundurus and genesect and megagenger and alakazam. If you ban talonflame then blaziken and genesect just got a little more ridiculous. If you ban aegislash then megagengar and sash alakazam come back strong. Ban megalucario, now talonflame can sweep easier because that's one less espeed.
I think there are definitely worthy complaints to make, because of centralizasion. I can't think of a reason to not run Talonflame, period. Talonflame should always be the first pokemon on my team, even a stall team (roost talonflame!), because the list of things it checks, revenges, or counters is just ridiculously long. If I have talonflame I don't need to worry about blaziken, gengar, pinsir, heracross, deoxys, aegislash, ferrothorn, scizor, keldeo, weavile, azelf, espeon, dugtrio and at low% genesect, lucario, khangaskan, azumarril, landorus, landorus-t, thundurus, thundurus-t, garchomp, starmie, maybe dragonite, maybe mamoswine, maybe whimsicott, maybe terakion, maybe charizard.
I singled out Talonflame because he's the popular one. He's necessary though! Can't ban him because without him, every single threat in the paragraph above could become the centralizer. Talonflame in OU means blaziken and megalucario and megagengar can be OU too. It might seem unfair that he checks so many things, but that's ok. I think you're team can afford to have 0 or 1 or 2 "talonflame weak" pokemon, and then you just have to build around them with heatran, tyranitar, gyarados, landorus-t, hippowdon, slowbro, unaware users, rock/water types, and your own extremespeed or -faster- priority users (scarf or DD aquajet feraligatr?)
Priority is definitely the name of the game now, pushing stat spreads away from speed investment and into offenses or bulk. It reminds me a lot of the transformation Yu-Gi-Oh underwent after multiple special summon chains were introduced at large (many people think of yu-gi-oh as the card game where you have to sacrifice 1 or 2 of your monsters on the field to summon a more powerful monster. Well now, you can summon weak monsters or play magic cards that immediately discard themselves but through a long chain they actually get your strongest monster out on turn 1 or turn 2)
I think what many people want to play, but can't quite express, is playing pokemon with Gen VI mechanics (sleep, weaker special attacks, grass type buffs, short weather) but only with Gen V pokemon (retroactive faeries like clefable and whimsicott, but no megas, and steel still does resist ghost and dark)
But that's not reality. Priority offense is the main playstyle by far, and you can join in with your own priority offense, you can try to work around it and make some sacs to set up your bulky offense, or you can go defensive and try to stall out your threats.
Until SnatchAbsol comes out. Substitute is pretty easy to predict. Gliscor/Skarmory/etc. will still be a huge problem, but lots of fast substitute users will be screwed. And Absol's got more attacks than just Sucker Punch, and it's fast. Not a lot of stuff outruns it. The main thing holding Absol back is it's inability to take a hit AT ALL, so even a single misprediction is deadly. (Whereas Mawile can get away with a misprediction) And while it's fast, there's a lot of stuff that outruns it, and it's mach-punch weak.
I feel like it's worth mentioning that sticky web also had a pretty large impact on speed vs. priority and their interaction. Having priority handles the reliance on a rapid spinner in order to prevent a sweep, many of which are too frail (outside of Forretress) to handle a strong hit to the gut before spinning.
As much as I hate to say it, I'm afraid that priority is inherently unbalanced. It makes a point of sacrifice power for speed in many of the earlier games, but as new abilities, moves, and pokemon were added to the game, it became clear that this would not stay true. ExtremeSpeed was introduced. Technician brought Scizor to the top end of OU for around 2 generations. Prankster was introduced in gen 5 as one of the best, power-altering abilities in the game. (Utility is power! Think about how much damage entry hazards can rack up or how paralysis can cripple a pokemon for the rest of the game. It's terrifying.)
And the worst part about it is that as the power creep of priority increases, less bulky pokemon can take the blows and do what they're supposed to: pivot. So we find ourselves in a situation. Do we want to sacrifice our "bulky" pivot in order to handle a threat that may end up killing our team if I'm critically hit during the switch? Or do I want to just kill it with my own, faster priority, which is reliable, useful in a variety of situations, and may end up leading to a sweep of my own if I play it right?
That is to say, offense is inherently more reliable in this game. Action forces your opponent to react to you, where as bulky offense forces you to react to your opponent. It doesn't work as well. It's not as reliable. When it comes down to it, offense will always be stronger then defense for just this reason.
So I personally don't see priority going away anytime soon. It's too brokenly strong. It's too reliable. A couple of bulky pokemon won't change this, even if they have their uses. They'll still be used, but pokemon like Rotom-W, Heatran, and Celebii will be the exception, not the rule.
Priority ain't going no where.
As much as I hate to say it, I'm afraid that priority is inherently unbalanced. It makes a point of sacrifice power for speed in many of the earlier games, but as new abilities, moves, and pokemon were added to the game, it became clear that this would not stay true. ExtremeSpeed was introduced. Technician brought Scizor to the top end of OU for around 2 generations. Prankster was introduced in gen 5 as one of the best, power-altering abilities in the game. (Utility is power! Think about how much damage entry hazards can rack up or how paralysis can cripple a pokemon for the rest of the game. It's terrifying.)
And the worst part about it is that as the power creep of priority increases, less bulky pokemon can take the blows and do what they're supposed to: pivot. So we find ourselves in a situation. Do we want to sacrifice our "bulky" pivot in order to handle a threat that may end up killing our team if I'm critically hit during the switch? Or do I want to just kill it with my own, faster priority, which is reliable, useful in a variety of situations, and may end up leading to a sweep of my own if I play it right?
That is to say, offense is inherently more reliable in this game. Action forces your opponent to react to you, where as bulky offense forces you to react to your opponent. It doesn't work as well. It's not as reliable. When it comes down to it, offense will always be stronger then defense for just this reason.
So I personally don't see priority going away anytime soon. It's too brokenly strong. It's too reliable. A couple of bulky pokemon won't change this, even if they have their uses. They'll still be used, but pokemon like Rotom-W, Heatran, and Celebii will be the exception, not the rule.
Priority ain't going no where.
I feel priority has been overdone this gen. Chances are, every team will have a priority user, and all the major OU threats have it. They didn't add super powerful pokemon this gen, but they contributed to the power creep in another fashion. Priority is no longer a weak move meant to KO a near KOed pokemon, but now has a chance to be a major blow from full to zero. I have both one shotted pokemon with priority, and have seen the same happen to me.
I hope this will not be common in later gens.
I hope this will not be common in later gens.
One other interesting impact of all the priority: Choice Scarfs aren't as prominent as a way of outspeeding things. After all, you can go first without them. But it means they're much less expected, as well, so in a no-priority matchup, a Scarf can have a lot more surprise value and get a key kill.
aegislash takes like 40% from life orb psycho boost and 60-70 from shadow ball. Shadow ball also beats cresselia, metagross, jirachi, latios, latias, mew, celebi, and deo-D on switch ins, so it's a pretty good move to carry. Im pretty happy with aegislash being able to switch into deo-N just once if that's the best check.
Aren't we forgetting one of the more prominent priority users of gen 5? Whimsicott guys. Even though this guy hasn't been released yet I can still see good things coming especially with its new fairy typing. Klefki may outclass whimsicott with its typing but Whimsicott still accesses a handful of more useful moves. This thing isn't the greatest but Whimsicott might offer some new things once it gets released. Too bad we can't say much since he isn't available.
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