Pokemon Gen 6, X & Y announced; worldwide release in October

[Ultima Shadow]

Apparently, Thunderbolt also got nerfed from 95 to 90. I will assume the same goes for all the other 100-95 moves like Ice Beam and Flamethrower.

While it's not a lot, it's still enough to make difference and I actually kinda like this change. The slight nerf of the 95 and 120 moves make them a bit more balanced compared to the other alternatives, meaning a possibility to see more varied fire/ice/thunder moves in competitive pokemon matches.



Also, regarding the smogon tiers: even outside of pokemon showdown, they are good to use as a base when building a team. Even if you can't get the stats as high, the smogon tiers help you figure out what stats to aim for to accomplish certain things. I've actually always prefered to come up with my own builds rather than trying to make smogon copies, but knowing how much HP/Sp Def to give *insert pokemon* in order for it to survive a Draco Meteor from a max Sp Attack *insert pokemon* and stuff like that is always helpful.

And the tier system itself will probably not get screwed over completely either, since even if perfect IV's can't be achieved, the base stats and the most effective roles of pokemons won't actually change. Even if your Gengar has an average IV of 17, it will still be better as a special sweeper than 28 IV Mismagius.



Edit: you can apparently only mega evolve once in a battle. So no mega-only teams. That's good. It does, however, appear like they can transform immediately on the first turn. So Mega Gengar will still be crazy OP. Unless he gets some really solid counters.

Edit 2: Actually... Aegislash with Shadow Sneak might fit that role now that I think about it. It's neutral to Thunderbolt and Shadowball and immune to Focus Blast, could probably survive a hit with its 150 Sp Def AND can probably OHKO with Shadow Sneak.