Other Subtle but important nerfs

Status
Not open for further replies.

Manaphy

Throughout heaven and earth, I alone am family guy
is a Tiering Contributoris a Top Contributor
The same can be said for any Pokemon that isn't available yet. It makes more sense to assume that it will stay the same than to bar all discussion in case it's different.
Yes, it can, and considering most Pokemon are in XY anyway it's being presumptuous to assume that no other Pokemon could possibly change.
 

Shroomisaur

Smogon's fantastical fun-guy.
^ Just briefly in reference to the above; While Breloom does get buffed Rock Tomb and Fury Cutter (very niche), it also wants to run Mach Punch, Bullet Seed (manadatory), Spore and Swords Dance. I'm just pointing out that, no matter what way you slice it, Breloom is going to end up being hard-walled by something depending on what move it's not running - because of Spore and the unpredictability of Sleep, this wasn't strictly the case in gen 5. Oh, and another thing - Forretress gets Overcoat. Would this be better than Sturdy now? It would allow Forry to act as a pretty damn good check to Breloom with Gyro Ball and Spore Immunity.
Yes, that's why I call Fury Cutter a "novelty", it certainly doesn't deserve a moveslot but it's still a new option and I think most people didn't even notice it. Breloom's always been a Pokemon that just can't cover all of its potential counters, and that's not going to change. My main point was simply that despite the Spore nerf, Breloom is still going to be a key player.

I agree that the new Overcoat definitely warrants a slash for Forry. Sturdy is still nice to take a rogue HP Fire, but immunity to Spore / Sleep Powder is a big bonus too. I'd probably stick with Sturdy unless your team really has no other Grass-type or sleep absorber.

Honestly, speaking of Forry, I wonder where he'll wind up this gen? With Defog around, Spike stacking is going to be much less valuable, and Rapid Spin will be less necessary as well... this spells big trouble for Forretress.
 
Yeah, defog really shakes things up a bit. The only thing with Defog though is that it removes hazards on both sides of the field (I believe that's right?) So while you can keep Stealth Rock/ Spikes off your side of the field, you're also sacrificing getting any hazards on your opponents' side of the field. I think it'll definitely be worth it for teams that have SR weak pokes (and thus need it gone), but if you don't... hm. It's a tough decision. A lot of teams will really despise not being able to have SR on the opponents' side of the field, so Rapid Spinners in general definitely still have their place. Maybe just not as high as they were this gen.
 

PK Gaming

Persona 5
is a Site Content Manager Alumnusis a Forum Moderator Alumnusis a Community Contributor Alumnusis a Smogon Discord Contributor Alumnusis a Tiering Contributor Alumnusis a Top Contributor Alumnusis a Past SPL Champion
Salamence itself actually doesn't really have a problem taking out Fairy-types, for example no Fairy has a Defense above 95, bar Carbink. It's Choice Scarf-niche definitely takes a hit because Outrage is much harder to spam, and DD sets don't appreciate Charizard X existing.

We shouldn't be talking about Jirachi really, we have no way to know if it had a type change or movepool changes.
Actually, i'd say it does.

Physical Mence has its main STAB and coverage moves resisted completely by Azumarill. Even +1 Earthquake barely manages to deal 55% (w/o Life Orb) to it. It needs Stone Edge to even put a dent in Togekiss, and healthy Fairy-types will always be able to check it.

I don't think it's going to be shitty or anything, but it definitely got some notable nerfs.
 
Most Garchomp get loled at by Togekiss now. Neither Earthquake or Outrage hit Togekiss and Fire blast does not do much to it, while using Stone Edge makes Ferrothorn and Fortress laugh at you and its bad accuracy can allow it to miss Togekiss and then get blasted by a fairy move.
 
I think we should also mention the ghost type change. I could be wrong but if I'm not mistaken ghosts are no longer affected by "trapping" abilities. So stuff like arena trap and magnet pull (aegislash) won't work on them. I'm not sure if this works with moves as well (mean look, block, etc).
Ghost-type Pokemon aren't affected by Shadow Tag only; Magnet Pull will still keep Aegislash from switching. Not that Magnezone will ever want to switch into Aegislash with it possessing Sacred Sword.
 

Manaphy

Throughout heaven and earth, I alone am family guy
is a Tiering Contributoris a Top Contributor
Actually, i'd say it does.

Physical Mence has its main STAB and coverage moves resisted completely by Azumarill. Even +1 Earthquake barely manages to deal 55% (w/o Life Orb) to it. It needs Stone Edge to even put a dent in Togekiss, and healthy Fairy-types will always be able to check it.

I don't think it's going to be shitty or anything, but it definitely got some notable nerfs.
Didn't really have Azumarill in mind but I agree with you.
 
Most Garchomp get loled at by Togekiss now. Neither Earthquake or Outrage hit Togekiss and Fire blast does not do much to it, while using Stone Edge makes Ferrothorn and Fortress laugh at you and its bad accuracy can allow it to miss Togekiss and then get blasted by a fairy move.
That is why I believe that an all out attacking set of EQ, outrage, Fire Blast, and Iron Head would be Garchomp's most effective set this gen. With Iron Head, Garchomp has the ability to 2HKO Togekiss (and Most other Fairies) after SR and Fire Blast still has the utility of OHKOing Ferrothorn and Skarmory. Life Orb EQ also 2HKOes max HP Azumarill, which is pretty neat.

I don't think Chomp really got worse; it just needs to adapt to the new OU enviorment.
 

ariariadne

formerly Reinfleche
Nope, pretty sure they are unaffected by switch blocking completely.
Ghosts can also dodge Arena Trap now, which may or may not be relevant depending on how used Dugtrio is. I was confused how I was running from Dugtrios in-game with a Honedge.

I think there is even a hex maniac NPC who mentions this in game at the town with the fairy gym. EDIT: Okay maybe not there?
 
Last edited:
I see. Thank you. But even so...

252+ Atk Life Orb (Aegislash) Sacred Sword vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Magnezone: 255-302 (90.74 - 107.47%) -- 81.25% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock

252 SpA Magnezone Thunderbolt vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD (Aegislash): 109-130 (33.64 - 40.12%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Stealth Rock

Even if Magnezone were able trap Aegislash, it wouldn't survive if he Stance Dances properly.
 
Mamoswine can no longer learn Superpower at the move tutors, i'm currently leveling him to see if he gets anything past scarey face.
 
back to the changes affecting dragons, they can still hit fairies with physical attacks. that's been mentioned already. but the one dragon to really take a hit...hydreigon. its stab and fighting coverage (focus blast or superpower) are resisted by fairies and these fairies have naturally high SpD. i guess this dragon could run flash cannon..
 
From all the dragons i think Dragonite it's going to suffer the most, since it's the slower and because of that he can maybe miss some 2HKO on annoying fairies like Togekiss, Gardevoir and Mr Mime, something that Mence and Chomp can achieve with some coverage moves. Another interesting changes are the updated stats on some pokémon... That little bonus on Raichu Speed, Scolipede Attack and Roserade Defense (Just to mention some), can really make a difference in the long term... Also, Adamant Slaking Scratch isn't able to OHKO Pikachu xDDDDDD
 
Dugtrio is going to dive head-first (body-first? does it even have anything other than a head?) between the trapping nerf and weather nerf, even if it doesn't take advantage of weather itself. Dugtrio's only function in OU was to trap ground-weak Pokemon, particularly on Sun teams. For anything else, Dugtrio is terrible. Like, really, really terrible. Not being able to trap Aegislash, one of the new premier Steel-types, is a huge blow to Dugtrio, and its niche in Sun teams of trapping Heatran and T-tar is basically gone.
 
Disregarding the special attacks nerf, the existance of Azumarill will single-handedly force the Lati twins to run BoltBeam over Dragon Pulse+HP Fire or Dragon Pulse+Surf, especially on CM sets.
This means they're going to have a much harder time against Mamoswine, Ferrothorn, Tyranitar and pretty much anything that can take a +1 non-STAB Thunderbolt/Ice and KO back.
And Mega-Mawile, which outright walls any set (even LO-Latios, with help of some SDef EVs) that doesn't carry HP Fire...
 
Skarm doesn't resist ghost or dark moves now.

252 Atk Adamant CB Tyranitar Crunch vs 252 HP, 252 Def Impish Skarmory: 37.72 - 44.31%. 55.98 - 66.46% at -1 Def. Note that many Skarms don't actually maximize Def. Skarm can't really Roost stall this and whirlwind would drop him down to 20% HP

LO Gengar does along the lines of 30.56 - 36.26% to max SpD heatran with shadow ball, then finish it with a 60.62 - 72.02% focus blast. Such a heatran has no Speed EVs~.

That same shadow ball also does 59.01 - 69.47% to 252 HP, 252 Atk Scizor. It's 31.1 - 36.91% coming from Sash Alakazam. These are all decent chunks that become more and more important later in the game when everything has been chipped at already, and nullifies certain switch ins.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Users Who Are Viewing This Thread (Users: 1, Guests: 0)

Top