What Pokemon would you like to see get buffed?

[J. D. Guy]

I think it's more that in Generation I, most of the Ice-types were also Water-types. I think the intent was to have Water-types able to fight Grass-type Pokémon. They'd still take super-effective damage from Grass attacks, but they could fight back with powerful Ice Beams and Blizzards augmented by STAB. Note that the Ice-type's weaknesses of Fire and Rock were covered by the Water-type, leaving Fighting as the only type Ice is weak to they'd be at a disadvantage against.

In other words, the Ice-type wasn't really meant to stand on its own as a type, but paired up with the Water-type. Then you got Jynx at a time when the Psychic-type was grossly overpowered, and you got Articuno at a time when there were no strong Rock-type moves.

A lot of the type matchups and their viability makes sense if you consider Pokémon, back in Generation I, not as a game focused on multiplayer battling the way it is now, but as single-player RPGs that happen to have a head-to-head battling aspect. The Poison-type has a lot of resistances and only one super-effective type because their role is as Team Rocket Grunts' Pokémon--they're supposed to be a test of how well you can exploit the type matchup chart without straining you too much. In turn, Grass has a lot of weaknesses because it's frequently paired up with the Poison-type, which negates its weaknesses to Poison and Bug (and Ground with the other way around). The Rock-type has resistances to Normal and Flying but a lot of other weaknesses because Brock is meant to be a stopping point for players who won't take advantage of weaknesses and resistances--it's a weak type on purpose because Brock is the first major boss and should thus be easy to overcome once you understand what to do. The Dragon-type gets a lot of resistances and was overpowered until the Fairy-type showed up because it's a type used by endgame characters--they should be overpowered because the hardest characters to beat use them.

Thank you for this post! I find it very insightful, as I never really thought about the Type chart in this way. It having potentially been made the way it originally was via predication of in-game RPG progression kind of makes sense, doesn't it? After all, it wasn't known that Pokemon was going to be world-wide franchise material back then, just a couple of fun if humble Monster Battle Role-Playing Video Games that had the option of trading and battling with friends you had that had the same games.

Brock being a "Wake-Up-Call Boss" and an "Early-Bird Boss", which in turn dictated why his Rock-type was designed the way it was, is an especially interesting idea.

And going from this, it would explain why some of the Type aspects feel outdated to certain degrees. It would also correlate with them having made the Fairy-type to balance the otherwise purposefully and intentionally overpowered Dragon-type (and also why there were so few Dragons initially, why they were so powerful, and why they were awkward to obtain and utilize by the players themselves).

 

[anjunajake]

I agree, great post, thank you! Definitively does put things into perspective a bit more.

I think they've done a good job at slowly tweaking and adjusting things with the type chart over time. IMO, it could still use some work in certain areas. I do stand by ice needing some sort of small adjustment for balance purposes, but it's nice to have some insight as to why it is the way it is. The competitive aspect of Pokemon we have no couldn't have been predicted 20+ years ago!

 

[Ophie]

Bear in mind that, when Pokémon was new, the most popular turn-based multiplayer game was likely that 7-Up arcade game, which is essentially a simplified version of Othello. There was nothing anywhere close to the level of complexity of even Pokémon Generation I, and it'd make sense if Game Freak's team used what they knew about existing RPGs.

(I'd like to add that the lack of powerful Bug-type moves is likely because that type is associated with the early game, when all of your moves would be low in power, and they probably felt Scyther and Pinsir were fine on their own.)

I do agree that the Ice-type needs to have some kind of buff though, because Pokémon is clearly not like that anymore. All of the types are now available combined with types they were never meant to combine with when they were created, as well as stand alone. For the record, the idea I always had was a single change, which is immunity to Water. After all, ice is simply crystallized water, and an immunity to Water allows you to use moves like Surf in double battles without worry, as well as switch in when you expect an opponent to use a Water-type move. Doing so would allow Frost Rotom to be on par with the other appliance Rotoms, as well as greatly improve Abomasnow, Aurorus, Mamoswine (potential problem there--Mamoswine might become too powerful), Alolan Sandslash, Glalie, Vanilluxe, and Avalugg. It would also give Swift Swim Beartic a lot less to worry about in the rain.

For that matter, they've repeatedly attempted to make the Rock-type stronger, but their success is only fleeting. I'd like to see them either remove a weakness or add a crucial resistance--or do both and turn a weakness into a resistance. Not sure what though. (I remember when Sun and Moon was new, almost every Rock-type introduced in Generation VII were used a lot, but most of them dropped off eventually, including Nihilego.)

 

[Lion Demon]

Replace Piplup's and Litleo's hidden abilities from Moxie to Competitive.

 

[Trainer Yusuf]

Piplup's HA is actually Defiant though.

 

[Lion Demon]

Piplup's HA is actually Defiant though.

Sorry, I meant to say Defiant for Piplup. Competitive just makes more sense because of Empoleon's stat distribution.

 

[aa_623]

I do agree that the Ice-type needs to have some kind of buff though, because Pokémon is clearly not like that anymore. All of the types are now available combined with types they were never meant to combine with when they were created, as well as stand alone. For the record, the idea I always had was a single change, which is immunity to Water. After all, ice is simply crystallized water, and an immunity to Water allows you to use moves like Surf in double battles without worry, as well as switch in when you expect an opponent to use a Water-type move. Doing so would allow Frost Rotom to be on par with the other appliance Rotoms, as well as greatly improve Abomasnow, Aurorus, Mamoswine (potential problem there--Mamoswine might become too powerful), Alolan Sandslash, Glalie, Vanilluxe, and Avalugg. It would also give Swift Swim Beartic a lot less to worry about in the rain.

I agree. An immunity to Water Types would significantly help the Ice Type. Maybe to balance, Scald could become super effective against Ice Types similar to how Freeze-Dry is super effective against Water Types. Scald is sometimes used in favor of Surf competitively with its chance to burn. No Ice Types can learn Scald (not even Lapras), and only Ice Types can learn Freeze-Dry. Maybe give more Ice Types access to Freeze-Dry along with a Water immunity. Or if we're still worried about an Ice Type like Mamoswine being too powerful, at least just have Ice resist Water. Water already resists Ice, so maybe take away the resistance? Wouldn't Water becoming more immobile from getting colder hinder it and not have them resist it? Regardless, Ice needs something more in terms of type relationships. Water, Grass, or Flying resistances would help, though I feel Grass needs some love as well. I definitely can settle for Ice to just have resistance or immunity to Water.

When Fairy was introduced, I was hoping that Bug and Grass would get resistance to it. However, Fairy resists Bug -_- maybe that could change. If Fairy is weak to Poison because it's toxic to the environment and fairies want to protect nature, I feel it should be resisted by the 2 types heavily associated with the environment, like Bug and Grass.

 

[Ning]

They had a chance to buff ice defensives in Gen VI and I don’t get why they didn’t. They changed a lot of other weaknesses and resistances around for Fairy balance, but I don’t get why they couldn’t have done something with Frost.

 

[aa_623]

^Yeah, I didn't understand them not buffing Ice more in Gen VI. It was the perfect time to do so. Maybe it was just an oversight? Idk

 

[Mr.Munchlax]

Now that I know it’s coming back, I’m hoping they boost Unfezant by raising its attack or speed and giving a few more stronger moves. I really want to try it out this time and so far the best move it seems to have is its egg move Hypnosis, though maybe the reason why it doesn’t have that many strong moves is because they don’t want it to be broken with its Super Luck ability

 

[Creyk]

They had a chance to buff ice defensives in Gen VI and I don’t get why they didn’t. They changed a lot of other weaknesses and resistances around for Fairy balance, but I don’t get why they couldn’t have done something with Frost.

The same reason why Audino got a mega evolution when no other gen 5 pokemon did. Someone at headquarters likes it! While it is likely that no one up there has particularly strong feelings about the ice type, that is why they are left in the dust with horrible prospects, but also we get very very few of them.

 

[Sicksadpanda]

Not exactly a pokemon buff, but I'd like to see poison types get a buff or a new useful move. Most poison types still struggle to beat fairy types sometimes.

 

[shoz999]

Not exactly a pokemon buff, but I'd like to see poison types get a buff or a new useful move. Most poison types still struggle to beat fairy types sometimes.

I'd say poison types got a pretty substantial buff through newer Pokemon by Gen 7, especially Toxapex. That Pokemon is just a monster on the field.

 

[DMB1985]

Not exactly a pokemon buff, but I'd like to see poison types get a buff or a new useful move. Most poison types still struggle to beat fairy types sometimes.

As a type Poison works fine now but it definitely does need some new moves although the same can be said for several different types. Game Freak seem to be great at creating Fire, Water, Grass, Normal, Electric, physical Ground and special Psychic moves but not a lot else. The Fairy movepool is particularly awful.

 

[PokeMon2.0]

I’d like to see a few new Flying type moves. Especially physical ones. And Physical fairy moves and special Rock moves.

 

[Sceptile Leaf Blade]

I don't really see what kinds of moves poison would need. It has status moves like Toxic, Poison Gas, and Venom Drench. Offensive moves in Gunk Shot, Poison Jab, Poison Fang, Venoshock, Sludge Bomb, and Sludge Wave, which are fairly widespread among poison types, Sludge Wave a bit less so than Sludge Bomb, and it also has Acid Spray which is a bit in-between a status move and a damaging move. Poison Gas, Venom Drench, and Sludge Wave are also all spread moves. While a typing like steel or fighting has no spread moves at all.

 

[AgentKallus]

Most of us can agree that ice type needs a buff, yeah?

Well I had a cool idea, now I'm sure one of the more competitive players might notice some flaw or whatever with this idea but as far as I can tell it's not all that overpowered.

Now the idea was to make ice types immune to priority moves, regardless of their ability. This would buff ice types without messing with the type chart and also makes some sense as motion generates heat and so cooling a motion would slow it down, and the idea is that ice types slow down priority moves enough to be able to avoid being hit by them. It wouldn't make ice the new best type or anything (unless there's some exploit I haven't considered) but it would help the ice type be slightly less pathetic.

 

[Ning]

I’d like to see crabominable get buffed. It’s so cool but so fragile and slow. Slow helps in trick room but it still really needs better defensives. Raising the base defense and special defense to ~100 and up to ~110 would help. Certainly wouldn’t be OP with that typing it has.

 

[Kingudora]

I’d like to see crabominable get buffed. It’s so cool but so fragile and slow. Slow helps in trick room but it still really needs better defensives. Raising the base defense and special defense to ~100 and up to ~110 would help. Certainly wouldn’t be OP with that typing it has.

Crabonimable has a surprisingly low BST for a pokémon that would evolve so late in the SMUSUM games. I think a 30-50 increase to its BST would be fair, focusing on increasing its defenses.

 

[DMB1985]

I don't really see what kinds of moves poison would need. It has status moves like Toxic, Poison Gas, and Venom Drench. Offensive moves in Gunk Shot, Poison Jab, Poison Fang, Venoshock, Sludge Bomb, and Sludge Wave, which are fairly widespread among poison types, Sludge Wave a bit less so than Sludge Bomb, and it also has Acid Spray which is a bit in-between a status move and a damaging move. Poison Gas, Venom Drench, and Sludge Wave are also all spread moves. While a typing like steel or fighting has no spread moves at all.

There's still plenty that could be done with poison moves. For one thing I think there's a need for a physical move with power between 95-100 so that there are more options between an unreliable heavy hitter or an above average move, especially as Gunk Shot isn't available to quite a lot of poison types. And on top of that there could be a selection of moves that induce different status conditions beyond just poisoning the enemy. It might not be in as dire need for some new moves as other types but there is still plenty that could be done to give the movepool a bit more variety.