And to be fair it being useless against Ghost is no different any other immunity.
I doesn't seem fair to judge the typing combo because it's an added Normal type, it's still the most neutral type in the game and is resisted by few (Three types, one being immune which it is also immune towards. A trade off, if you ask me. Just use grass moves), so all one has to worry about is the ghost stuff and the added fighting type weakness. It fits Grookey as sound moves are mostly normal type too.
I can't see Grookey being useful against the likes of the Litwick and Ghastly lines anyways, unless they learn some rock move for the former or something. And even then, that's not a problem. So what right? Unless you're literally wanting to keep that thing in when those are out (Which would be stupid to anyways, people even in competitive (I hate using competitive arguments SM but that seems to be the main argument here when people complain about typings as if casual play where one usually doesn't give a damn doesn't matter/exist so I have no choice) switch out if they feel they're gonna get wrecked.), it's not even a problem to begin with.
That's what I was thinking too. Unless that's you have no other Pokémon left or you've been prevented from switching, I don't see why you wouldn't switch. Even the AI will occasionally switch Pokémon.
I mean, there are lots of Pokémon out there, even the common competitive ones, that have a bad matchup against guys like Scizor or Mimikyu. But that's okay because there are some other Pokémon that have a good matchup against them. That's the idea behind building a team, after all.
I mean, it IS possible there will be a Battle Frontier thing in the postgame with a counterpart to the Battle Hall in which you can only bring in one Pokémon. Even then, though, most Pokémon wouldn't be able to survive in such a facility for very long because most Pokémon aren't equipped to deal with everything.
For that, I'd be asking for better AI as opposed to easier.. IVs, EVs, actual sets on the Pokemon, team synergy and using Dynamax.
The battle facilities have to resort to cheating because the pre-programmed teams have hardly any thought or reason to them, so of course they're not going to be able to compete against an actual player without cheating. Just need a bit more effort put into the feature.
In the video the change stated in the rumour was that it would simply take less wins to reach the boss stage, I believe, which doesn't fix anything for those wanting to go for streaks.
I've been feeling it...I have been playing Battle Agency in
Ultra Moon as a way to keep myself sharp, and I'd see stuff like Rock Slide, Thunder Wave, and Swagger prevent my Pokémon from making any moves.
That being said, I don't think it's so much that the pre-programmed teams are bad as much as the AI itself is not that great. To play well in Pokémon battling, you have to think multiple steps ahead, switch when needed, and think with all of your Pokémon available to you at the time. The AI doesn't do any of this, at least not in any competent capacity. It knows what Pokémon you have, can calculate which move would be the best one to use, and basic setup like stat buffs or Trick Room, but aside from that, it plays via sheer trial and error. The AI will keep track of when it achieves success, and it will try to determine what gave it that success to repeat it in the future. For instance, if a Pokémon you open with gets knocked out by a Grass-type, you can expect to see more Grass-types in the next several battles, even if it doesn't make sense (such as if your Fire Pokémon has been severely worn down and a Grass Pokémon happens to be the one that finishes it off).
For an example of the AI being lackluster, there was that Battle Subway mode in which you could play against teams submitted by other people. One time, the game happened to pick my own team as I was using it, making it a mirror match. I knocked out all three of the AI's Pokémon while it only knocked out one of mine. This is not one of those momentum-based teams either. I just outplayed it at every turn, since I knew what moves my Pokémon had.
While those games had some AI cheating too, the ones made by Genius Sonority have a lot less of it, and instead they have Pokémon with a lot better stats, moves, and abilities. That's something I'd like to see more of in the future. Not sure if they can bring in Genius Sonority though, since they haven't made a traditional Pokémon battling game since
Pokémon Battle Revolution.