Well, Gengar did lose Levitate, so I guess you can :POh...lol, this cannot end well!!!
Is discussing Gengar here too far? I know it's not BST, but it is related.
Pros: Toxic Spikes absorber, some late-game damage, good spd and sp. atkOk, Gengar lost a useful immunity to Ground and to Spikes, but:
(1) Gengar is still a good attacking Ghost/Poison type with good Spe + SpA. Now it can absorb Toxic Spikes;
(2) Gengar is not meant to switch directly into a move. You use Gengar because is a glass cannon, so you don't expect to use it to tank something.
===> Gengar is still OU worthy. Don't cry because the nerf isn't so harsh because with that bulk doesn't really matter if you are weak to Ground/Earthquake/Earth Power.
No, Earthquake is always a OHKO now. Gengar had problems to tank even burned physical attacker because it is a glass cannon, not a tank. Plus, Mold Breaker Earthquake users already OHKO Gengar.Pros: Toxic Spikes absorber, some late-game damage, good spd and sp. atk
Cons: Loses levitate, gains ground-type weakness, Earthquake is prob. an ohko now
No, you're absolutely right, but it still doesn't need to take non-MB earthquakes too! That's pretty painful.No, Earthquake is always a OHKO now. Gengar had problems to tank even burned physical attacker because it is a glass cannon, not a tank. Plus, Mold Breaker Earthquake users already OHKO Gengar.
The problem of being affected by Spikes is that you have more limited uses of Life Orb than you had before. Stop. Gengar doesn't and didn't tank hits before.
Forget Ice Beam. Masquerain gets Hydro Pump. With a Life Orb, it has an 87.5% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rocks. Oh, and Hidden Power Fire is guaranteed to OHKO after Stealth Rocks.The Masquerain buff is pretty odd. Not that it's bad, but it received the highest stat boost out of anyone (unless you count Farfetch'd / Swellow +25 boost in one stat).
Neutral Masquerain, after a Quiver Dance, gets to at least outspeed Dugtrio. That's not "wonderful" by any means, but at least gives it a Speed edge. The offensive boost is appreciated though. For example, after a Quiver Dance and with a Modest nature with no hold item Masquerain can 2HKO Skarmory a bit more reliably now with Ice Beam (and to be fair on this calculation - not every Skarmory runs Brave Bird and many have opted for Iron Head). It's certainly not amazing by any means, but it might drag it out of the depths of PU into NU. It really needs Tinted Lens for fucks sake, though. At least Intimidate gives it a little more breathing room to set up a Quiver Dance? ?_?
Outside of that, some small changes are definitely appreciated such as more weather abilities on Pokemon (Pelipper is basically on Cloud 9 right now). The Electrode one is hilarious - guess we need to at least Speed tie M-Aero?
I actually think people are severely overestimating the impact of losing Levitate. Of course, losing an immunity is a pretty big deal, especially to a type that is normally a weakness, but does that really undermine Gengar's role? It cannot switch into Ground-type attacks anymore, and it might gain a few checks and/or counters, but its stats and movepool still allow it to fulfill pretty much the same role that it always, which is being a strong special attacker and/or destiny bonder. Of course, the effect to which it can perform this role is diminished, and the extent to which it is diminished may affect how far down in usage it drops.
EDIT: Just remembered Destiny Bond has been nerfed, which also limits the latter role's effectiveness.
It can now fail if used repeatedly, similar to Protect.I must have missed something. Can anyone elaborate on the nerf to Destiny Bond, please?
So much complaining about Gengar not Levitating. SO. MUCH.
But Smogon is a competitive site, so let's not pretend it's anything less than a disaster for Gengar competitively.
Except it is less than a disaster. For something like Gengar, losing an immunity is not that significant as it was already getting KOed by practically everything, and it still wouldn't have dared to switch in on Pokemon that use Earthquake, unless Choice-locked...
Offensive teams = a Choice locked mon somewhere. I can't remember the last time i saw an offensive team without a Scarfer at leastOr it was faster, and you predicted the opponent, and dared...
Besides, who uses Choice items anyway? Can't remember the last time I saw one of THOSE.
With all the new Fairy monsters running around I am very certain that Dugtrio's buff is gonna really help it out. We will see where certain mons land but monsters like Tapu Koko (stupid autocorrect) can't be pursuited, plus Steels are gonna be at a premium in trying to handle mons like Magearna. Could see more Magnezone too for removing the Steel type checks to these Fairies and that's even better for Dugtrio.
At least we have one original forme that isn't outclassed by the Alolan forme. :)Yeah, I have a feeling things like Heatran are going to be more common than ever, and Dugtrio just loves that. It's a shame A-Dugtrio loses Arena Trap to be honest, cause it would perfectly counter Chansey in that case, as Chansey couldn't even win with Toxic.