I admit, the NU ladder hasn't been seeing much activity in my area for whatever reason, so I don't necessarily have the most accurate feel on what is or isn't broken. Still, here are my general thoughts based on what experience I have had and what I've seen in my calcs and theorymon-ing. This is just my opinion on things.
Probably Ban
My opinion on
Drampa hasn't really changed at all. While plenty of mons can revenge kill it (although only Fighting types can really guarantee the OHKO), few can really afford to safely switch in, especially with Specs. This is largely because Drampa's spectacular movepool, packing dangerous options like Fire Blast, Energy Ball, Thunderbolt, Hydro Pump, Focus Blast- you need to be very careful with predictions, or else you sack a mon. That's not even touching on its abilities, allowing it to either increase its already great SpA without set up or blanking Grass types. Sure, in a higher level game Drampa will usually only take one mon out, but that's all it really needs to do. Plus, you could also be facing bulky CM or just generally bulky- you can never be sure with this guy.
Gallade is a pretty self-explanatory mon: with SD or Scarf this thing just cleans house like nobody's business. Sure, it doesn't have the best speed tier anymore, but it's still sufficient for getting the jump on quite a few NU staples. Between its STAB combo and Knock Off, it basically hits everything relevant super hard, meaning Choiced sets have a good amount of options for that last slot. Need priority? Just slap on Shadow Sneak. Need to bypass stall mons? Trick has got you covered. Physical sweepers giving you trouble? Will-o-wisp to cripple or Destiny Bond once Gallade's done all you need it to. Plus you got good coverage like Triple Axel, Stone Edge or Thunder Punch. This gent is probably the most broken thing on this slate.
Kingler is just generally a bit restrictive on the team builder. If you want to counter Double Dance, you basically need Poliwrath, and he can't really do that much in return without boost thanks to Kingler's naturally good Defense stat. Of course, you could always drop Agility for, say, Superpower, seeing as at +2 that move is guaranteed to 2HKO even the most physically bulky Wrath. Either way, Kingler just smacks the tier way too hard.
While the other mons in this section are mostly here for their sheer power,
Ribombee becomes broken in my eyes due to its speed and its great amount of versatility. Specs seem to be the most dominant right now, as outside of Scarf only Ninjask outspeeds (and Ninjask is not known for having an easy time coming in). It does also possess Quiver Dance to get a sweep going or great utility in Sticky Web, U-turn and occasionally Stun Spore to help give its teammates that same breezy feeling it experiences. This thing honestly just does too much and at a pace must mons can't keep up with.
Could Go Either Way
Duraludon packs a slightly lower Special attack than Drampa or the recently banned A. Exeggutor, but makes up for it with somewhat decent speed tier. It's movepool is shallow but manageable, with Steel STAB for those fairies, Thunderbolt for bulky waters, Dark Pulse for the abundant ghost types or Body Press if you need hit Steels; you also get utility in Rocks and TWave. So why am I not as hard on Dur as I am on Drampa? First off, its obvious Achilles heel of abysmal special bulk allowing even neutral special hits to 2HKO with little difficulty. Second, while its Speed tier is an improvement over Dramps, it's still not overwhelming, having to Speed tie with a lot of dangerous threats and failing to outspeed Silvally, which is not a good place to be for something so specially frail. Also, its reliance on Choice items makes it a bit prediction reliant, and since it lacks the movepool necessary to still be unpredictable that Drampa has, I feel that the banhammer isn't necessarily a done deal for this guy.
Admittedly, my reluctance to outright say
Sneasel has to go may just be because I always factor "Can it come in?" into my analysis when it comes to these things; it's hard to argue that Sneasel can come into any non-Psychic attack, especially since it can't effectively run Boots to cover its Rocks weakness. There are other factors, sure, namely that revenge killing it isn't that hard between priority and Scarf, its best STAB has less than stellar accuracy (I'm the kind of guy who gets screwed over by RNG a lot, so I definitely have a bias here) and how it has two perfect counters in Poliwrath and A. Persian; Wrath just blows this thing back while Persian cripples it with Parting Shot. That said, Banded or SD Sneasel is still nothing to be taken lightly- unless you can burn it, its STABs heavily threaten most of the tier, while Low Kick provides coverage against those pesky Steels. Also, those two mons I listed are the only things that can safely eat a hit, and even A. Persian doesn't really want to take 3-hit Axel. I'm a bit more reluctant to ban it than most, but this thing is easily the most suspect thing in my "maybe" section.
Toxicroak has been a dominant force in NU for months on end, between a great STAB combo, great movepool, and the ability to go either physical or special. Nothing about it necessarily screams overwhelming to me, and whichever set you go for will have consistent counters, such as how it needs Earthquake to take on Garbodor, but that may just be because I haven't actually encountered Croak that much. I decided not to pass judgement on this thing because I simply can't tell this one on calcs alone and I don't feel I have the experience to make a call one way or another.
But wait, you say. What exactly makes
Vikavolt less problematic than Drampa? Well, a few things: while some have brought up the terror of Specs Volt, I find that set isn't too good since Volt, unlike Drampa, needs to content with a Rocks weakness, especially with its propensity to click Volt Switch, meaning it simply needs Boots more and so ends up not hitting as hard as Specs Drampa does. Plus, it again does not have the ability to just slot in anything on Specs, bringing back the issue of predictability for a hypothetical Specs set. That's not to say its weak, though: its STABs are pretty good and Energy Ball hits the Ground types that are its biggest hinderance, plus it gets Webs, Roost for longevity or Agility to set up. This is where its other problems become apparent to me, though. As a Web setter, it can struggle a bit since its low Speed leaves it vulnerable to Taunt, which also prevents that sweep from starting or hinders its ability to heal itself. This speed also means that it can be revenge killed without too much issue, unable to get itself out quickly like fellow Web setters Bee or Galvantula can even when Webs are up. Finally, it usually forgoes Tbolt for the weaker Volt Switch, so it again may find itself surprisingly lacking in power. Volt is easy to play around, but you do still need to more careful around it than with other mons.
It's (probably) Fine
Frosmoth, from what I have seen, tends to be a fairly hit or miss mon. Sure, Quiver Dance is terrifying, but even at +1 speed there are still quite a few mons that can outspeed (especially with a bevy of good Scarfers), and +1 Hurricane
fails to OHKO Froslass, never mind Jellicent and SteelVally, who both easily blank it. Unboosted, Frosmoth is a sitting duck against the onslaught of strong physical attackers and cannot switch into anything that carries Knock Off, since without Boots it just dies to Rocks. Frosmoth basically needs to get +2 to actually be consistently threatening, and even then we do have a few solid priority users that can revenge kill it after whatever damage it takes while it sets up (no good player is just going to let it get to +2). Therefore, I don't find the moth too overwhelming.
Honestly, discussing
Vanilluxe is just a discussion about Hail. Vanilluxe itself is not that threatening against common Ice resists, especially struggling against Steels like SteelVally, A. Slash and Gunfisk; heck, it doesn't even 2HKO
offensive Togedemaru. The only reason to ban Vanilluxe would be if you just can't stand Aurora Veil, but it is possible to play around Veil and it's not like Defog and Taunt aren't viable in this tier. Even if we lost Luxe, Abomasnow is more than happy to pick up the slack on the Hail teams Vanilluxe currently manages, especially with how potentially lethal A. Slash can be under Hail even without Veil. So, while I know this opinion may be controversial, I don't feel Vanilluxe is broken in NU anymore, although it is still pretty damn good.
But wasn't Veil the deciding factor in the case of UU A. Ninetales, you may ask? Well, I was in support of keeping Alolatales banned, but I feel there were some key differences in that scenario.
- Alolatales also has the Fairy type, meaning that it could actually take some attacks without Veil thanks to actually having resistances.
- Alolatales has additional utility outside of just Veil, namely Encore and Hypnosis to create even more switch in opportunities for its teammates.
- Alolatales had a naturally great speed tier in UU, increasing its reliability in setting Veil; that is not true of NU Vanilluxe. This difference means that many mons in NU can simply take the cone out or Taunt it before it gets a chance to set Veil.
- UU just generally had a lot more speedy set up sweepers who abused Veil. Most of the sweepers in NU right now are on the slower side (most of the faster set-up sweepers are also on this slate), so it isn't as much of a burden to deal with them.
Again, I acknowledge I'm not the most accurate voice when it comes to NU, but this is my approximate ranking. Feel free to disagree if you want.
Broken
- Gallade
- Kingler
- Drampa
- Ribombee
- Sneasel
- Duraludon
- Toxicroak
- Vikavolt
- Vanilluxe
- Frosmoth
Not Broken
super good speed in conjunction with an amazing attack stat and great coverage makes this mon hard to switch into. i think this mon is still too strong for the nu-tier as it hits everything like a truck and its resists are usually weak to its coverage options in throat chop (ghosts), close combat / earthquake (steels), furthermore it isn't easy to manage to break a potential substitute. ya no pls BAN.
same stuff like tauros, but in a different way; usually steel-types wall the grass-dragon combination but with flamethrower it can break past through these steel-type-pokémon. it can have plenty of sets, which you all have to scout for first. it can run specs, mixed, even more defensive-ish ones with leech seed to blow holes in a slower way. i just think this is too much for nu thus i'm leaning towards BAN.
oh boy least with the many ghosts it has some stab-hyper voice checks but it can just predict and dish out a draco meteor instead and choice specs isn't the only set which it can run to break holes easily. its special attack is absolutely no joke and i feel like the few switchins are getting blown away with coverage like flamethrower (steelvally as example) i would lean towards BAN.
ABSTAIN for now, i would like to see how it fits in the nu-tier first in my opinion at least, to see if it is really too much for this tier. it's spdef sucks and with so many ground-types dropping like gastrodon it should be managable. I think we can always suspect it later, if we figure out it's potentially too much.
its held back by its trash speed and physical hits as well as mons like ninetales, rapidash, silvally-steel and silvally-fire will hold it back. it has to setup a quiver dance first before it can break and without 1 boost it is way too slow as the nu-tier has a lot of faster pkmn and scarfers. the typing itself isn't a blessing either, thus i would say let it stay.
let's not talk about this broken tiny bumbelbee, that mon has insane speed, a great typing, furthermore utility in stun spore and a solid spatt, furthermore sticky webs is dumb as hell, cause this mon always gets them up and with the affromentioned stun spore it can help its teammates even further. u-turn gives the partners of ribombee momentum. bumbelbee too good, i would say BAN.
ABSTAIN
we all know what it does, specs, scarf, life orb, has good speed and great dual-stab + coverage in thunderbolt, dazzling gleam, energy ball. it can do what it needs to do for the team. furthermore its spatt is really pressuring to most mons, i'm leaning towards BAN.
ABSTAIN aswell.
. However, I could see arguments to keep it in the tier such as the lack of direct recovery like roost, which would’ve definitely put it over the edge otherwise, and a somewhat mediocre move pool.
(steel) 
Toxicroak, 
Vanilluxe, 
my personal big concern is this thing. steelvally and poliwrath are the only real defensive switchins which we have right now. but with access to knock of it can punish those switchins, least poliwrath and maybe other calibers like gurdurr and scarf togedemaru and then it opens up a lot for itself and its teammates. i just feel the defensive counterplay to sneasel is way too limited currently and all its sets are viable options and its a mon i do not see many drawbacks in using it with a superb speed-tier as well. ban
- I feel like people has forgotten that this is the one and only real check to sneasel, wrath has an amazing role compression being a water inmunity a sneasel check and counter and also a very good pokemon if you want to use some offensive sets. It can easily break throught all the possible counters it has with the converqge it has. Ofc it's not broken but it can be quite a threat.
- I still remember how ninjask got called bad before summer lol. And a couple months later here we are having king ninjask dominating the tier and being pretty much everywhere, this pokemon has no competition at all and will keep to be a top tier pokemon it just adds so many good things to teams.
