[LEAK - No spoilers or new Pokémon] Changes to Ice Type

[Enzap]

As I stated in a different thread approximately 3,000 years ago, the Ice type has been extremely mishandled since the original games. This mainly stems from how awful it is defensively, being weak to extremely common moves such as Close Combat and Stealth Rock, and having no resistances outside of Ice type moves. Ice-type Pokémon also received no built-in buffs from its associated weather condition, Hail, while Sandstorm increases the Special Defense of Rock moves and Sunny Day and Rain Dance increase the power of Fire and Water moves respectively.

Fortunately, Game Freak seems to finally picked up on the problem and has reworked a key aspect of the Ice type that addresses all of these problems! I'm super excited about this, and I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Changes Made

• Hail has been removed from the game as a move and a weather condition
• Snowstorm has been added as a weather condition, which can be set up by the Snow Warning ability or the new move Snowscape
• Snowstorm does not deal damage like Hail did, but it increases the Defense of Ice-type Pokémon by 50%
• All moves and abilities that interacted with Hail now trigger off of Snowstorm

Note that I have been trying my best to avoid spoilers so it's possible there are other changes that have been leaked that I haven't seen. If you know of any other mechanical changes, feel free to share in this thread, but please avoid sharing spoilers on new Pokémon, characters, or story.

My information came from this video

 

[Bolt Strike]

Eh, feels like a marginal upgrade, you lose the benefit of dealing damage to non-Ice types from Hail in exchange for a Defense buff. It feels like Ice needs both and a type chart change. Probably not going to be enough.

 

[Norzan]

Yeah, ice types need a buff in their resistances and not a measly 50% defense on a move that lasts five turns.

 

[Enzap]

Eh, feels like a marginal upgrade, you lose the benefit of dealing damage to non-Ice types from Hail in exchange for a Defense buff. It feels like Ice needs both and a type chart change. Probably not going to be enough.

I would argue dealing no damage is better. This way you can use non-Ice Pokémon on a snowstorm team without worrying about them getting chipped away at. And if your Ice type is able to survive long enough to get off an extra hit now, that completely offsets the damage you would have dealt to the opponent with Hail. Plus if Frostbite is back (I don't know if it is or not, if somebody knows please share), then you'll have another built in way of dealing chip damage to enemies.

I definitely think a change to the type matchups would also be helpful, but I like this change a lot and I'm glad they're doing something to address the problems.

 

[CynthiaLover]

It's a nice buff to the Ice type, that's for sure. A few good steps in the right direction. But it's not enough to fully patch up the problems my beloved Ice type needs fixing. A type chart overhaul, or at least a few alterations, would be more ideal. Like, say, make Ice resistant to Fairy and Water, for starters. And GF needs to steer away from the literal mighty glacier archetype and work more on Ice Mons that are glass cannons (or at least decently fast) such as Weavile, Froslass, and Mamoswine. The type is better geared toward the glass cannon field over the mighty glacier. That would be a sizable improvement over the slow, bulky Mons that they've been focusing on for the past few gens. But I won't deny that I'll pretty much accept any buff to Ice I can get, so while I wish there are more improvements (maybe there are and we just don't know it yet, hopefully) I'll still accept these long-overdue buffs to Ice. It's still doesn't address all the problems but it is a good two or three steps in the right direction. About time, GF!!!

 

[Articfoxgamez]

I really want to know why gamefreak are insistent on trying to make ice types bulky when their type sucks as a defensive typing.

 

[Norzan]

I really want to know why gamefreak are insistent on trying to make ice types bulky when their type sucks as a defensive typing.

I love that they made Hisuian Avalugg and made it legit worse than regular Avalugg. Regular Avalugg is already pretty bad defensively because of its ice typing but then GF had the bright idea of adding Rock to its Hisuian form.

 

[RK9]

I love that they made Hisuian Avalugg and made it legit worse than regular Avalugg. Regular Avalugg is already pretty bad defensively because of its ice typing but then GF had the bright idea of adding Rock to its Hisuian form.

GameFreak: "Sometimes my genius is... frightening."

 

[Enzap]

I really want to know why gamefreak are insistent on trying to make ice types bulky when their type sucks as a defensive typing.

If they're adamant about not changing type matchups I can appreciate them making bulky sets a bit more viable with this change. As the video I linked pointed out, this helps Ninetales get off Aurora Veil more easily, and then all of your Pokémon have an even higher defense stat with both of those up. A Pokémon like Cloyster can basically get free Shell Smashes off against physical attackers at that point.