Are Steel Types the New Psychic Types?

[Ghetsis-Dennis]

The series is familiar with dominant types. Back in Gen 1, Psychic types were a force to be reckon with due to a small number of Bug type moves, lack of diversity in Ghost types, no resistances, and bad bug glitches. Game Freak introduced Steel and Dark types in Gen 2 to fix this problem, but what they haven't realized is that they may have replaced a once dominant type with another type to present day. Steel types is considered to be one of the most dominant types in the series because it resists almost every existing type (the maximum number of resistances for a type was 4), to the point that it's become a must for every Pokemon that isn't Rock or Ice to have as a secondary type to survive followed by bulk (though this doesn't come into play until Stealth Rock was introduced), and it made Fighting and Ground types more common than they should be. Since Joshawott mentioned that GF pays attention to tournaments to find out which Pokemon is too broken, they'll need to find a way to nerf Steel types like they did with the Psychic types in Gen 1. Currently I only have one solution to fix Steel types, which is moving its resistance to Psychic types to the Bug types, but I'm sure some of you have better ideas judging by your posts in those "Ways to fix *insert type here*" threads.

 

[Proxima Centauri B]

In my opinion Steel types just have a lot of defensive power but its not like they have no weekness. They're weak to Fire and Ground types, even though they resist a lot. Im not sure Steel type was introduced to Nerf Psychic types, maybe the Dark type was since they completely resist though, not Psychic types have the threat of Bug, Ghost and Dark type. In game it dosent matter a whole lot, you just pick a fire type or ground type to beat Steel types. Competitively its a whole different story.

 

[Pidgeot]

Yes, they are. Back in Gen I, the Psychics were absolutely broken (made worse by the fact that their only weakness was Bug, one of the worst types along with Poison), but nowadays, Steels are, mainly due to the fact they have 12 resistances and an immunity, meaning that only moves of four different types have any hope of doing good against them. Plus, in the OU tier, 9 of the 50 Pokemon are Steel types - Ferrothorn, Forretress, Heatran, Jirachi, Lucario, Magnezone, Metagross, Scizor, and Skarmory, but there are also 9 Psychic types, though 2 of those are part Psychic, so techinically there are only 7 Psychic types in the OU tier (There's also 7 Dragon Pokemon in the OU tier, but I digress).

 

[Ghetsis-Dennis]

Yes, they are. Back in Gen I, the Psychics were absolutely broken (made worse by the fact that their only weakness was Bug, one of the worst types along with Poison), but nowadays, Steels are, mainly due to the fact they have 12 resistances and an immunity, meaning that only moves of four different types have any hope of doing good against them. Plus, in the OU tier, 9 of the 50 Pokemon are Steel types - Ferrothorn, Forretress, Heatran, Jirachi, Lucario, Magnezone, Metagross, Scizor, and Skarmory, but there are also 9 Psychic types, though 2 of those are part Psychic, so techinically there are only 7 Psychic types in the OU tier (There's also 7 Dragon Pokemon in the OU tier, but I digress).

Actually, there's only 4 Dragon Pokemon in OU. They just couldn't fit Flygon and Kingdra due to a number limit going on for each tier.

 

[Robo-Floatzel]

In Gen 1, Psychic types were not just overpowered, they pretty much had NO WEAKNESS, with only three ghost types (the Gastly line), and not that many bug type moves, they were basically like fighting a boss battle, and glitches only made them worse (the Gen 1 games were rushed to completion, hence all the glitches such as Missingno and stuff). Dark types added a counter to Psychic types after their introduction in Gen 2, but Steel types tend to have high defenses, fortunatly, there are three types that can do the job: Fire, Fighting, and Ground, all three with can take down Steel types easily.

 

[Ranger Jack Walker]

Not at all. In Gen I, Psychics were broken. You could not win if your opponent had a psychic type and you didn't since only a Psychic type could defeat another. This is not the case with Steels. They are really good but nowhere near broken.

 

[Articwolf10]

Steel is hardly Broken... it is by far the worst offensive type (at least Poison as well... Poison) plus it is weak to 3 of the most common offensive types (Fire, Ground, Fighting)

 

[Ghetsis-Dennis]

In Gen 1, Psychic types were not just overpowered, they pretty much had NO WEAKNESS, with only three ghost types (the Gastly line), and not that many bug type moves, they were basically like fighting a boss battle, and glitches only made them worse (the Gen 1 games were rushed to completion, hence all the glitches such as Missingno and stuff). Dark types added a counter to Psychic types after their introduction in Gen 2, but Steel types tend to have high defenses, fortunatly, there are three types that can do the job: Fire, Fighting, and Ground, all three with can take down Steel types easily.

But since the introduction of Stealth Rock, only Fighting and Ground would do the job thus leaving Scizor run amuck in OU w/ STAB Technician Bullet Punch. And now that Air Balloon is introduced, Fighting types are becoming close to the same ranks as Steel types and R/B/Y Psychic types.

Steel is hardly Broken... it is by far the worst offensive type (at least Poison as well... Poison) plus it is weak to 3 of the most common offensive types (Fire, Ground, Fighting)

Their access to the famous EdgeQuake combo followed by decent attack stats is what makes up for Steel's poor STAB offensive typing.

 

[Articwolf10]

In Gen 1, Psychic types were not just overpowered, they pretty much had NO WEAKNESS, with only three ghost types (the Gastly line), and not that many bug type moves, they were basically like fighting a boss battle, and glitches only made them worse (the Gen 1 games were rushed to completion, hence all the glitches such as Missingno and stuff). Dark types added a counter to Psychic types after their introduction in Gen 2, but Steel types tend to have high defenses, fortunatly, there are three types that can do the job: Fire, Fighting, and Ground, all three with can take down Steel types easily.

But since the introduction of Stealth Rock, only Fighting and Ground would do the job thus leaving Scizor run amuck in OU w/ STAB Technician Bullet Punch. And now that Air Balloon is introduced, Fighting types are becoming close to the same ranks as Steel types and R/B/Y Psychic types.

Steel is hardly Broken... it is by far the worst offensive type (at least Poison as well... Poison) plus it is weak to 3 of the most common offensive types (Fire, Ground, Fighting)

Their access to the famous EdgeQuake combo followed by decent attack stats is what makes up for Steel's poor STAB offensive typing.

Actually evn with SR Fire Types can stilll and will OHKO a Steel type since I'm pretty sure on average Fire Types are always faster so they'll strike first. Plus you have non-fire type Pokemon who can use Fire moves. and Fighting is still balanced out because of Psychic who resist and are SE against them and Ghost who are immune. Powerful yes but they have definite counters

as for the EdgeQuake they have to rely on other STAB instead of their own so yeah Steel steel is still horrible offensively

 

[Synthesis]

People don't realise how broken Psychic types were in the first Gen. They were immune to Ghost type attacks back then, not weak to Dark and then all the Bug types were awful. I'm pretty sure Twineedle was the strongest move Super Effective to Psychic, which says a lot. This made Mew and Mewtwo broken and Alakazam was bordering it. Pokemon like Mr. Mime, Slowbro and Exeggutor were fierce competition too. Not to mention back then Special was only one stat so just about all Psychic types had amazing durability against Special Attacks.

Steel types are far from broken though. In Gen II/III/IV, they were more dominating in the metagame. So much so that Magnezone became a must for teams in the latter. Now, sure they're quite tough, but nowhere near as tough as Psychic were, or as they used to be, even with the addition of Ferrothorn.

It would be nice for a change if Steel was weak to Poison instead of being immune to it, or even weak to Bug.

 

[Pidgeot]

Yes, they are. Back in Gen I, the Psychics were absolutely broken (made worse by the fact that their only weakness was Bug, one of the worst types along with Poison), but nowadays, Steels are, mainly due to the fact they have 12 resistances and an immunity, meaning that only moves of four different types have any hope of doing good against them. Plus, in the OU tier, 9 of the 50 Pokemon are Steel types - Ferrothorn, Forretress, Heatran, Jirachi, Lucario, Magnezone, Metagross, Scizor, and Skarmory, but there are also 9 Psychic types, though 2 of those are part Psychic, so techinically there are only 7 Psychic types in the OU tier (There's also 7 Dragon Pokemon in the OU tier, but I digress).

Actually, there's only 4 Dragon Pokemon in OU. They just couldn't fit Flygon and Kingdra due to a number limit going on for each tier.

Actually, there's 6 Dragons in the OU tier (I'm even correcting myself, as I said 7 originally) - Dragonite, Haxorus, Hydreigon, Latias, Latios, and Salamence.

It would be nice for a change if Steel was weak to Poison instead of being immune to it, or even weak to Bug.

But even now, in Gen V, Bug still isn't that great - Scizor and Forretress may both be great Pokemon, but its not their Bug type that makes them good (ironically, they're also part Steel), so Steel being weak to Bug as well wouldn't make much of a difference. Plus, giving Steel one more weakness wouldn't exactly help things, as Steelix have 12 resistances but no immunity, or Steelix having just 11 resistances but still an immunity wouldn't change much.

Personally, I think the only way to fix Steel would be either to take a lot of their resistances away (even taking three or four would make a difference), or to add a new type to balance things out again (though it couldn't be too overpowered in itself, as it would happen all over again).

 

[Midorikawa]

In gen I there were only four different non-glitch pure psychic types. The abra line and drowzee line were the only two catchable in the wild early in the game, as mr. mime had to be traded for, and mewtwo couldn't be caught until after all eight gyms were defeated. All others were easily beatable using fire and/or electric type moves. I play a gen I game all the time, and find them not to be that difficult to handle when I battle them. Steels types are usually only tough when you don't have a pokemon with an advantage over them, except for the beldum and bronzong lines because they are part psychic and have good resistance to psychic's weaknesses. Overall neither has truly been overpowered, like every type they have a few pokemon that are stronger via resistance than most. Steel definitely isn't the new psychic type since neither have really changed since introduction.

 

[Pidgeot]

In gen I there were only four different non-glitch pure psychic types. The abra line and drowzee line were the only two catchable in the wild early in the game, as mr. mime had to be traded for, and mewtwo couldn't be caught until after all eight gyms were defeated. All others were easily beatable using fire and/or electric type moves. I play a gen I game all the time, and find them not to be that difficult to handle when I battle them.

But that's not the point. The reason why Psychics were so damn strong in Gen I was because their only weakness was Bug, and seeing as there weren't any good Bug type Pokemon or moves in Gen I, they didn't really have a weakness to target (However, there was one relatively good Bug type move back then, which was Twineedle, but even that did very little damage, and the only Pokemon that learnt it was Beedrill, a terrible Pokemon).

And I fail to see how Fire and Electric type moves would be good on Psychics back then. Exeggutor maybe, but Psychics usually have very high Sp. Defense, and back then, Fire and Electric moves were always special, so it wouldn't go very well. If anything, a strong Normal type move would be the best thing to take Psychics down.

 

[Synthesis]

But even now, in Gen V, Bug still isn't that great - Scizor and Forretress may both be great Pokemon, but its not their Bug type that makes them good (ironically, they're also part Steel), so Steel being weak to Bug as well wouldn't make much of a difference. Plus, giving Steel one more weakness wouldn't exactly help things, as Steelix have 12 resistances but no immunity, or Steelix having just 11 resistances but still an immunity wouldn't change much.

While it wouldn't have a huge influence on the OU tier, that doesn't mean it won't affect other tiers, not to mention the Bug moves don't have to be STAB exactly. Although, there wouldn't be much of a difference to the metagame as a whole since Bug and Steel Pokemon are very much split into the lower and the higher respectively, but the division wouldn't be as large definitely. Besides, there can be a huge difference between ressistance and immunity for the frailer Pokemon like Lucario or Durant

Personally, I think the only way to fix Steel would be either to take a lot of their resistances away (even taking three or four would make a difference), or to add a new type to balance things out again (though it couldn't be too overpowered in itself, as it would happen all over again).

I doubt GF would make a new type, but they have been unpredictable lately, so who knows?

 

[Midorikawa]

In gen I there were only four different non-glitch pure psychic types. The abra line and drowzee line were the only two catchable in the wild early in the game, as mr. mime had to be traded for, and mewtwo couldn't be caught until after all eight gyms were defeated. All others were easily beatable using fire and/or electric type moves. I play a gen I game all the time, and find them not to be that difficult to handle when I battle them.

But that's not the point. The reason why Psychics were so damn strong in Gen I was because their only weakness was Bug, and seeing as there weren't any good Bug type Pokemon or moves in Gen I, they didn't really have a weakness to target (However, there was one relatively good Bug type move back then, which was Twineedle, but even that did very little damage, and the only Pokemon that learnt it was Beedrill, a terrible Pokemon).

And I fail to see how Fire and Electric type moves would be good on Psychics back then. Exeggutor maybe, but Psychics usually have very high Sp. Defense, and back then, Fire and Electric moves were always special, so it wouldn't go very well. If anything, a strong Normal type move would be the best thing to take Psychics down.

I have blue version, and I don't have much problems taking down my opponents pokemon at all. If anything psychic type is tough to me it's the abra line, but that's not used a lot by other trainers. Jynx is an ice type, and therefore weak to fire, and is rarely seen. I usually take down exeggutor with my flying types. Finally slowpoke and slowbro are part water and are defeated by electric type moves relatively easy.

 

[Ghetsis-Dennis]

Actually evn with SR Fire Types can stilll and will OHKO a Steel type since I'm pretty sure on average Fire Types are always faster so they'll strike first. Plus you have non-fire type Pokemon who can use Fire moves. and Fighting is still balanced out because of Psychic who resist and are SE against them and Ghost who are immune. Powerful yes but they have definite counters

Ferrothorn would like a word with you. Plus the fact that non-fire type Pokemon, mostly Dragon, can learn Fire moves, followed by taking neutral damage to SR, is the reason why there's very few Fire types in the OU tier.

as for the EdgeQuake they have to rely on other STAB instead of their own so yeah Steel steel is still horrible offensively

Though to be fair, Steel Wing helps benefit Flying types to cover 2/3 of their weaknesses and Flash Cannon prove a bit of use for Vanilluxe and Crygonal until a Freeze equivalent of Scald is created next gen.

 

[Faye Scarlet]

I wouldn't exactly say broken... Only Dialga, Steel-Arceus, and Excadrill are in the Uber tier IIRC. A bit on the tough side doesn't equal broken. :< Focus Blast is everywhere, as my own Dialga will attest.

 

[Funktastic~!]

I'll definitely say that Psychic types and Steel types aren't too comparable. Psychic types were good because they basically had no weaknesses besides Bug, which was terrible, and the other weakness they were supposed to have only had users that were also weak to Psychic. Steel is a very good defensive type, but most of the good offensive steel types also have a secondary typing. Not very similar in my opinion.

 

[Shiny Absol]

In my opinion Steel types just have a lot of defensive power but its not like they have no weekness. They're weak to Fire and Ground types, even though they resist a lot. Im not sure Steel type was introduced to Nerf Psychic types, maybe the Dark type was since they completely resist though, not Psychic types have the threat of Bug, Ghost and Dark type. In game it dosent matter a whole lot, you just pick a fire type or ground type to beat Steel types. Competitively its a whole different story.

I agree with you completely psychic pokemon were tough because they had barely any weakness's steel pokemon have fire,ground and fighting moves that destroy them and usually water moves can hurt them because the steel types are usually mixed with rock or ground.

 

[Zexy]

I think that steel DESPERATELY needs more weaknesses, Probably only the addition of new types can fix it, but i have another solution:

1)give it a water type weakness. can make sense since water already resists steel , but that means that those Rock/Steel types will get 3 huge weaknesses

2)give it a bug weakness. doesnt make sense, but boosts bug while simultaneously nerfing steel , perfect balance