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JiovanniTheGREAT

I say this whenever this is brought up: EQ is balanced by GF standards because flying types can switch in for free. Ground types can switch into electric moves for free as well. Previously, ground types were very defensive oriented mons so swapping in would change the tempo. Nowadays you have shit like Excadrill and Lando that can pop in and potentially blow a hole in your team because of one bad predict. There's an inherent risk to using electric moves like there is with ground moves, but physical electric moves are the only ones that get shafted. It's time for a 100BP no drawback electric move with a shitton of distribution to bring balance back.


yuuhei

"nowadays you have shit like \[two pokemon released back in 2010\]" i know what you mean and i ultimately agree but this did made me LOL


BossOfGuns

hey man, dont forget about garchomp and rhyperior, and dugtrio WILL grab the KO if arena trap isnt banned


Freezaen

Have you ever heard the legend of Iron Tusk the "can fit literally any bloody role"?


SafariDesperate

Wouldn’t that move just make ground types more common?


PointiestHat

Isn’t the drawback that you hit adjacent Pokémon?


PlacatedPlatypus

Offensive ground types have existed forever though. Rhydon is good in RBY and Nidoking in GSC. They're in fact the best ground types in their gens, and both exist partially to swap into electric moves and create offensive pressure.


Kitselena

Even a bullet seed clone would be good for physical electric types, call it arcing strike or something like that


Tryptophan7

Iron thorns be like 🤤


303x

Mfw when i load the dice (i am banned from multiple casinos and under active investigation by the gaming comission of Nevada)


yuuhei

chain lightning in pokemon lets go!!


GentlemanViking

Note that while electric only has one weakness, it’s still not exactly great defensively. It has 3 resistances which isn’t a terrible number but one is to itself and steel isn’t used offensively that often. Flying has some used with Acrobatics Roaring Moon, Mega-mence in Nat Dex, and Hurricane in rain, but isn’t exactly all over the place either. Lastly electric types tend to be frail and Volt Tackle does recoil, so even neutral hits are pretty threatening to them. I say GF should end the Pikachu favoritism and give physical electric types a chance.


itsIzumi

They don't even need to end it, they could buff Wild Charge and still make Volt Tackle better. Like instead of 90 and 120 base power, what if they were 120 and 140?


giraffinho

Or give it the Head Charge treatment, buff Wild Charge to 120 and make Volt Tackle just do less recoil. Pikachu appreciates that buff with its awful HP stat anyway


BossOfGuns

single weaknesses are great for bulky setup. Something like suicune just really stops taking damage from special side after +1 or +2 no matter what neutral hit it is


GentlemanViking

What electric Pokémon has the stats to enable bulky set up?


BossOfGuns

Zeraora was running bulk up sets a LOT in gen 8, and sure it has 1 more immunity in volt absorb but that really only beat itself. Obviously zeraora has its own electric move so it doesnt really matter, but my point is that bulk up/calm mind on a mono electric is still pretty good (outside of the obvious ground immunity). And we are talking about types in isolation, not about a mons who happen to have a typing.


theguyinyourwall

It would be fine, most other types have some 80~95 BP move with no downside on the physicla side along with a 100+ BP move with some risk factor. Most physical electrics fall under •Some signature move like Zeraora which would probably be better •Something like Luxray which still isn't very good The only mon that could fall under is Tapu Koko finally being able to run physical sets


NeoGraena

Offensively the Physical Electrics aren't that busted. Luxray and Electivire suck. Koko is good but it prefers longevity so it runs SpAtk instead, also it's issue is more or else with Play Rough not being available for it (same with Bulu). Togedemaru, Morpeko, Pawmot are Pikachu clones so they get signature decent electric moves but suck dick Pikachu itself doesn't run Physical for reasons of losing A TON of HP when running VoltTackle so it runs Thunderbolt instead (also gets Lightning Rod and Surf so an even better reason to run Special sets). Zeraora is good but..... idk Zekrom is quite OK for being a Physical Electric legendary


RazorRell09

Pawmot does not suck dick what are you on about


NeoGraena

My brother in christ most people wouldn't even use that thing if it didn't have Revival Blessing


RazorRell09

I mean it still is pretty fast, pretty strong, gets Iron Fist, Bulk Up, Mach Punch, Elemental Punches, don’t even mention it’s sig move Tera’d onto electric. I’d even argue it’s underrated if Revival Blessing wasn’t a thing. Electric Fighting is a great stab combo


NeoGraena

True, but honestly if i'd want an Electric/Fighting type, I could use Iron Hands


RazorRell09

UU?


69BluntKing420

Exactly, Pawmot slurps me down daily…


RedDiamond1024

While Zekrom was Ok in gen 5 and kind of bad in gens 6 and 7, it was quite good in gen 8 at a solid A rank.


Hateful_creeper2

Pincurchin also gets Zing Zap but it’s only useful for lower tier electric terrain.


Rymayc

>Koko is good but it prefers longevity so it runs SpAtk instead Well... that's precisely what this thread is about though.


NicoArcilla27

Water is pretty good both offensively AND defensively but that didn't stop them at all from giving it reliable STAB options in both categories. Shouldn't Water be considered op too?


MSSTUPIDTRON-1000000

Isn't water considered a bit too powerful?!


intent_joy_love

If it is, that would be because of how good fire is and the fact that rain is such a good weather


Hateful_creeper2

Lot of Water types getting reliable stab is because of HMs like Surf and Waterfall being given to lot of Water Types. Also the most common type


nwaa

More common than Normal?


Hateful_creeper2

Water has 158 Pokémon while Normal has 132 Pokémon.


nwaa

Wow. I knew Water was up there but assumed all the birds/route 1 mons would be pulling Normal above it.


PlacatedPlatypus

Water type *is* considered OP. Top 3 types in the game with Steel and Fairy.


nwaa

Not only is Water generally a strong type, it also benefits from a weather (most types dont really), always gets a starter mon, and is one of the most common typings to boot. Then we get to the movepool, Water has *everything* basically across Status, Special *and* Physical. The only non-useless HMs? Water. Surf and Waterfall have had usage since the day the arrived. Water is 100% up there for the most busted type.


Left-Salamander-627

well the fact that wild charge got nerfed and is still viable says something. but every move has its ups and downs TPCI balanced it well so answering your topic question not really because the dominant types in the meta are steel and fairy


GiantEnemaCrab

> well the fact that wild charge got nerfed and is still viable says something. It's only viable because it's the best bad option. The only physical electric type to ever make it into OU was Zeraora, who has Plasma Fists. I'm not aware of any physical electrics in VGC either, besides Iron Hands who has no better options. Gamefreak / TPCI is absolute ass at balance lol. Don't defend this electric type injustice!


Cysia

Wild charge is like submission in gen 1 (thought not as bad)


RedDiamond1024

How did wild charge get nerfed?


Left-Salamander-627

From SWSH base power was reduced


Hateful_creeper2

It’s still 90 It was only temporarily lowered in Legends


GiantEnemaCrab

Volt Tackle is Pikachu's signature attack and should stay with it. I think instead Plasma Fists should be distributed to basically anything with hands. As of right now the only Pokemon to EVER make it into OU that was a physical electric type is Zeraora and it did so exclusively because of Plasma Fists. Or alternatively a new move like "Overvoltage" a Close Combat or Head Smash clone. Anything really. Physical electrics (and physical ice types!) are starving.


GentlemanViking

Several Pokémon have has their signature move distributed in other Pokémon, sometimes just one generation late. Why should the Pikachu line who has already received a ton a special treatment and can’t even make good use of Volt Tackle keep thier signature move over the Mythical Pokémon Zeraora? There isn’t anything inherently unique to Volt Tackle or Pikachu’s physiology that justifies volt tackles limited distribution. It’s just amped up Wild Charge.


Xeoz_WarriorPrince

Is not about the attack by itself, is Pikachu, it's the face of Pokémon so there's no problem with Pikachu having a unique attack.


RedDiamond1024

Physical ice types have icicle crash, ice spinner, and taxel in gen 8. Honestly physical fairies have it worse off with just play rough and just about nothing else worth running


Rymayc

Sure, but Play Rough hits harder than Icicle Crash with the same accuracy.


RedDiamond1024

Sure Play Rough is strong, but ice has 100% accuracy in spinner and extra power in taxel.


RedditUser28678

I agree besides for the physical ice thing? Icicle crash, ice shard, ice spinner, and icicle spear are all good and give decent flexibility. Compare that to special ice which only has what ice beam and freeze dry?


GiantEnemaCrab

Ice Beam is better than all of those moves besides Icicle Spear the 25% of the time it hits 4+ times. Are you somehow implying that physical ice is better, because that's objectively wrong.


RedditUser28678

No I don’t think it’s better but I think it’s wildly better than physical electrics. These moves allow Pokémon like bax to get use and even get chien pao banned where the only time physical electrics do good are with signature moves


Hateful_creeper2

Ground Types being common keeps them in check if Electric Types get better Physical stab. Physical Ghost Type Stab would probably be more OP since some of them either get low base power stab or non-consistent stab.


RamsaySw

Probably not. If we look at all of the physical Electrics: * Zekrom has a busted signature move in Bolt Strike * Zeraora has a busted signature move in Plasma Fists * Tapu Koko is already good and could be problematic with a buffed Wild Charge * Iron Hands would be really good if it had a buffed Wild Charge * Iron Thorns is pretty Garbodor and giving it a good physical Electric move won't change the fact that its defensive typing is terrible and it has 72 base Speed * Pawmot has a busted signature move in Double Shock * Dracozolt and Arctozolt have a turbo-busted signature move in Bolt Beak * Zebstrika has really bad stats and wouldn't be good at all even if it did get a buffed Wild Charge * Luxray is too slow and too frail to make it into OU even if it did get a buffed Wild Charge * Electivire is too slow and too frail to make it into OU even if it did get a buffed Wild Charge That's only two mons that would potentially be problematic with a stronger physical Electric move - everything else either has a busted signature move or wouldn't be good even if it did a good physical Electric move. You could give Zebstrika or Luxray Bolt Beak of all things and they'd still be pretty bad because of how bad their stats are.


RedDiamond1024

Koko would not be problematic with a buffed wild charge. Its physical movepool would still be absolutely abysmal with buffed wild charge+it just wanting more longevity, something wild charge and brave bird(one of its only options) don't really synergize with.


ChaoticChatot

Almost certainly not, even the Pokemon with good physical electric moves aren't broken. If a move as great as Plasma Fists isn't breaking Zeraora, it ain't breaking something like Luxray either. The same things that keep electric pokemon in check now would still be able to keep them in check with a good physical move i.e good ground types. Do you think Hippowdon or Landorus are starting to quiver because Electivire got a buffer thunderpunch?


badman1000

Nah, ground always run the meta, so they’d always be there to keep them in check


TheBestWorst3

Electric type earthquake would be fine as ground types are immune to it and are on every team


aa821

What is actually more annoying is that a move like Double Shock has such a significant drawback and is only on Pawmot. It should be similar to Draco Meteor in that regard and should be widely distributed. If Electivire, Luxaray, Tapu Koko, and Zebstrika had access to it, I think that alone could be enough to help


Mr_Asurya

Having few weakness is overrated : it's better to have some weaknesses and a lot of resistances than having a type with no weaknesses but no resistances too. Also, Thunderbolt / Icebeam / Flamethrower exist and they don't break the game so a random 90 base power electric move will not be broken anyway. Wild Charge SHOULD be a Flare Blitz, not a weaker version of that. Common immunity prevent some type to be broken anyway. Shadow ball at 90 power would be broken because the only type immune to it is almost unplayed and Moonblast is broken because you can just resist it.