Power Creep

[Figure]

So I haven't really been very into competitive this generation but I played a lot of Gen 7 OU and UU and even more of Gen 6 OU and UU so I have been doing it for quite a while as my first competitive experience was the end of Gen 5. I still check in on the tiers a lot even though, right now, I mostly just breed and shiny hunt.

Looking at Gen 8 UU blew my mind though as it is basically just Gen 6 OU and Gen 6 OU BL. I never would have thought Aegislash, Amoongus and both of the best Rotom types would be UU as they had been OU staples for so long! I know even my boy Blaziken was UU for a bit. Seeing stuff like this makes me annoyed about small changes such as Galewings nerf. You have an awesomely designed Pokemon and you take away the one thing that makes it viable???

Anyway, how do you guys feel about the power creep, do you think they should make more of an effort to raise the stats of older Pokemon to keep, make them more viable? I understand from a marketing perspective that you would want the new flashy Pokemon to be the most popular but some Pokemon never really had time to shine so I think GF should do better at making older Pokemon more viable.

For instance, I always thought Arbok should be Dark/Poison with better stats because the poor snake has been irrelevant for 25 years! Are there any Pokemon you would like to see buffed/nerfed to make competitive more exciting?

 

[Pokedream.su]

The answer to power creep is more defensive Pokemon, however, Gamefreak is very unlikely to add more defensive Pokemon and such, as the last time they did it, they turned the game into a stall fest. The Gen 2 metagame has games whose average length nears 100 turns.

 

[gimmepie]

The answer to power creep is more defensive Pokemon, however, Gamefreak is very unlikely to add more defensive Pokemon and such, as the last time they did it, they turned the game into a stall fest. The Gen 2 metagame has games whose average length nears 100 turns.

There are loads of defensive Pokemon. Gen 7 gave us arguably the best wall in the game with Toxapex. Gen 8 gave us Corviknight and a legendary based entirely around upping its Def stat. Every gen introduces at least a couple of potent walls.

Honestly, I think an effort has been being made to stall power creep somewhat. It's true we still get some really powerful stuff, but the actual jumps from 6-7 and 7-8 felt much smaller than 5-6 and especially 4-5. It's important to remember that matchups also have a lot to do with tiering. So while power creep definitely has a continuing impact, Aegislash being UU isn't necessarily because it's suddenly comparatively weak but because it has unfortunate matchups against a lot of the current OU mon.

In the specific case of Gale Wings, Gale Wings was busted before the nerf.

 

[PokemonPotatoHero]

So I haven't really been very into competitive this generation but I played a lot of Gen 7 OU and UU and even more of Gen 6 OU and UU so I have been doing it for quite a while as my first competitive experience was the end of Gen 5. I still check in on the tiers a lot even though, right now, I mostly just breed and shiny hunt.

Looking at Gen 8 UU blew my mind though as it is basically just Gen 6 OU and Gen 6 OU BL. I never would have thought Aegislash, Amoongus and both of the best Rotom types would be UU as they had been OU staples for so long! I know even my boy Blaziken was UU for a bit. Seeing stuff like this makes me annoyed about small changes such as Galewings nerf. You have an awesomely designed Pokemon and you take away the one thing that makes it viable???

Anyway, how do you guys feel about the power creep, do you think they should make more of an effort to raise the stats of older Pokemon to keep, make them more viable? I understand from a marketing perspective that you would want the new flashy Pokemon to be the most popular but some Pokemon never really had time to shine so I think GF should do better at making older Pokemon more viable.

For instance, I always thought Arbok should be Dark/Poison with better stats because the poor snake has been irrelevant for 25 years! Are there any Pokemon you would like to see buffed/nerfed to make competitive more exciting?

Love to see a crazy version of blissey, maybe with mega evolution and max up both its sp.def and def.

 

[castlemurphy]

I think that's why the BDSP meta will be so refreshing!
(Although clef is gonna be broken again)