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Let's face it: Generation 6 has brought a whole lot to the table for Competitive Battling. I want to make a thread to highlight these points and discuss what is good and bad about the changes brought forth.

To start off, here are three of my favorite things:

Critical Hits
As well all know in Gen 2-5 Critical hits went through defensive boosts and did an additional 100% damage.

Not anymore. They still go through defensive boosts, but instead do only additional 33% damage. This is big. The haxx factor is now very limited. Games will no longer (perhaps a little optimistic) be won through a lucky critical hit! Defensive teams are more viable than ever! Also, the stages of boosting chance to crit are drastically modified as seen here.

Drizzle/Sand Stream/Drought only last 5 turns.

This is huge. The entire playstyle of last gen was centralized on Weather teams. Most times you were at a disadvantage by not using a weather team. Especially Rain. It's the easiest support, and it supports in SO many ways. BP of Water moves, Thunder/Hurricane spammers, Fire weaknesses were half as bad. The list goes on.

The Type Match-Ups are re-balanced.

Steel was OP when it came to resistances. Fighting/Dragon were pretty brutal offensively. Not anymore! Fairy slams Fighting/Dragon while resisting Fighting and Immune to the latter. Fire earned itself a new resistance as well. Fairy's weaknesses are Poison/Steel which definitely needed the boost.

Steel lost 2 resistances in Ghost and Dark. Dark pretty much traded that for the weakness to Fairy types (as well as "Not very effective"). Arguably not worth it but still re-balancing. Ghost... Ghost now only has 1 resistance and 1 immunity. (Only Super Effective against Psychic/Ghost though anyway). This encourages more Normal and Dark types.

Recap: Steel, Dragon, and Fighting are all still good enough to thrive. Poison, Ghost, Dark, and Normal are all more viable. Now if only Grass and Bug got a buff... (Grass immune to all Powder moves is something?)

Knock Off, an often under-rated move in Gen 4 & 5, now has 65 BP (97 when slapping an item). So you get the ever-useful utility whilst maintaining offensive pressure from a respectable amount of power.

I must admit, Defog is the biggest new tool for my Mono-Flying team that I'll be competing with for a Gym Leader spot. Talonflame is definitely second in my book. I'll have plenty of options to choose from by the time the tournament comes around, as Flying always does~

I can't lose, I've already dressed up my avatar as a sky pirate! I'ma beat you like our last match-up. The one where your Skarmory outsped my Zapdos. xD

On a more serious note, I'd welcome the competition. There would be nothing sweeter than earning my gym spot whilst shorting you on yours. wink

It's hardly a nerf. You trade 2 resistances for 1 resistance and something you can hit Super Effectively. Counting Offense and Defense it's 2 for 2, or as they say "Plus 0".

10 resistances, 1 immunity, 3 weaknesses.
Hits 3 Super Effectively, resisted by 4 types counting itself.

Steel IS the best type. Every team wants to have at least 1 Steel type, 2 if you can fit them. Weaknesses to Fire, Fighting, and Ground, all common attacking types, however, all 3 of these types are very easy to defend against. Flying resists Fighting and is Immune to Ground, Fire is resisted by Water which isn't weak to Ground or Fighting either.

Bronzong/Heatran/Empoleon/Skarmory/Ferrothorn/Forrestress are all seasoned defensive Pokemon.

Then you have offensive powerhouses like Metagross, Mega Mawile, Scizor, Lucario, Excadrill (Not Ubers thanks weather nerf), Aegislash, and the ever-useful Jirachi.

All of those Pokemon are OU (Except Bronzong and Empoleon). Icing on the cake is SR resist.




And before anyone points it out, yes Flying has plenty of OU Pokes too. Probably second after Steel. But we suffer SR weakness and there is another thing I'm not going to tell you, because it would give you too much of an advantage.

I commend you for using Steel because you like it instead of using it because it's the best. I use Flying for the same reason, even if's one of the more difficult types to master.


@Other types
People say Ghost is OP now. But it only hits Psychic/Ghost Super Effectively, immune to Normal, and can't hit Dark well. Defensively it has 2 immunities, 1 resistance, and 2 weaknesses. Pretty even if you ask me. If you have too many Ghost weaknesses just run a Dark or Normal Pokemon.

Dark got nerfed anyway. It can hit Steel neutrally but can't hit Fairies well and gained a weakness defensively to Fairies.

Fighting/Dragon got nerfed by definition.

Poison got a boost, which it needed.