6th Gen Critical is not very critical

[Hiatus]

I'm all right with it; I don't mind. Critical hits are meant to be powerful, but not that powerful. They're supposed to cause major damage to the opponent, and not have them knocked out with a single blow. So, yeah. (: If this change had taken place back at generation four or something, then it would've been a lot better. In the competitive scene, people take critical hits very seriously. Every one of them counts. Even when you're winning a match, if the opponent manages to land one critical attack on you, then the table could turned around instantly; you might lose the match instead. Thanks to this change, though, we probably won't have to worry about them as much as we currently do.

 

[Mithel_Celestia]

I honestly think it should be removed completely. They weakened it which is alright, but critical hits change battles for the worse most of the time.

Honestly, that would break competitive play as opponents who rely on set-ups and high defense will never be brought down. Also critical hits really brings into the game the element of "believing" your Pokemon, even when their in a pinch as crits would really be a game changer.

I think its good that criticals got powered down, but one thing i did noticed and id like confirmation, postive or negative, about this is whenever i land a critical hit on a pokemon who has used def/sp def increasing moves the extra def/sp def is over looked and the damage becomes exponential.

As the term "Critical" hit suggests, the blow is done on the part of the pokemon most vulnerable so it bypasses any defensive boosts. That is often why defense-oriented Pokemon teams have to take into account the chance of crits taking effect, especially the heightened-crit moves, Slash, Shadow Claw, etc.

 

[Deivii]

In my opinion, it brings a lot of balance. Those random critical strikes, even when you're strong against that spec, it used to one shot. Now it gives you a standing chance to actually still fight back. Sorry for my analogy, but I see it like this; In Halo (Nerfed Critical Damage), just spray and praying hoping to kill someone isn't going to pay off, you need skill to actually head shot and the person with the most skill, is obviously going to win. In Call of Duty (Pre-Nerf Critical Damage, you can just spray and come out on top without showing any real skill.

Sorry if that's confusing, I don't really know how to word it xD!

 

[Marionz]

i think its a good move by GF... bring balance to meta a little :)

 

[KillerTyphlosion]

I think its good that criticals got powered down, but one thing i did noticed and id like confirmation, postive or negative, about this is whenever i land a critical hit on a pokemon who has used def/sp def increasing moves the extra def/sp def is over looked and the damage becomes exponential.

Critical Hits bypass defence/ special defence boost, including reflect/light screen. It also bypass your nerfed attack stats if it gets lowered, but it does add up if you increased your attack stats. For example if a pokemon has 200 atk and uses sword dance and its attacks becomes 400, then when you do a critical your attack power will be 400. But lets say that your opponent lowered your attack from 200 to 100, when you do a crit the attack power of your pokemon will be 200 again(only for that crit). It's the same for your opponent. If lets say a pokemon increased its defense from 200 to 400. And when a pokemon crits on it it will bypass that defence boost and it will use the 200 defence for calculating damage. But if your pokemon's defense has been lowered to 100, then the crit will do extra damage. Basacilly A crit works benificial for the one that gets a crit and the one who takes the crit will always be screwed.

 

[acatfrommars]

I'm glad for the nerf. I noticed this a little in competitive battling, but this confirmed my suspicions. I absolutely hate critical hits when battling, and I think that they are overall unfair. I'm glad for this. Just like tripping in SSBB, I believe that crits take away from the competitiveness of Pokemon battling.

 

[Caiustheblack]

I think they didnt dare to nerf Stone Edge itself, so they did this to all the critical mechanism... (X-Scissor and Leaf blade were decent back in the old days, now competitively they are crap, because of their typing).
My question is why not nerfing single moves instead of the whole category?