Brand New PvP Announcements – A Complete Meta Shakeup?

Gday PoGO lovers! At the Pokemon GO World Championships last weekend, some huge news was dropped about changes to PvP for the upcoming season! Not only did it catch many of us by surprise, but it represents one of the biggest changes to PvP in the past few years! You can find a complete summary of the changes in our recent post here.

Niantic has been hinting and teasing for some time about major changes to the game. There have been more concrete hints about the Galar region being released finally, including the newly teased addition of new Dynamax / Gigantamax mechanics to the game. Far less anticipated were the changes announced for the next PvP season, which on the surface appear to be aimed at completely upending the current PvP meta as we know it today.

We need to take the time to let the gravity of these changes play out in the coming season. In the meantime, I will explore some of the initial reactions and potential repercussions of this decision – the good, the bad and the Purugly. This discussion will focus primarily on the Great League, the most accessible meta for players.

What’s Changed? General icon

G47IX has created a handy infographic for the upcoming changes:

Pokémon GO Next Season PvP Changes
Pokémon GO Next Season PvP Changes

A few themes emerge from the above. Firstly, all the moves that were ‘nerfed’ appear to be aimed directly at the most commonly used mons in the meta. I’ve included a snapshot of just some of the impacts below, and it’s very clear that this shakeup was designed to hit as many of the common meta as possible:

  • Rock Slide: Vigoroth, Carbink
  • Body Slam: Vigoroth, Lickitung, Dragonair
  • Wing Attack: Gligar, Charizard, Mantine
  • Counter: Poliwrath, Annihilape, Deoxys, Machamp, Medicham
  • Dig: Gligar
  • Future Sight: Cresselia
  • Surf: Lanturn, Jellicent
  • Razor Leaf: Victreebel
  • Smack Down: Bastiodon
  • Zap Cannon: Registeel
  • Steel Wing: Skarmory, Empoleon
  • Sky Attack: Skarmory, Altaria
  • Mud Shot: Whiscash, Quagsire, Swampert, Clodsire

We can see now while they waited until after the World Championships to make this announcement, as it would have completely warped that tournament’s outcomes.

On a side note, I feel bad for poor Sky Attack. It’s been through highs and lows over the seasons, and now lands as a very expensive charged move for most of the mons that used to want to use it.

The Good – A More Even Playing Field? General icon

Let’s start with the positives to come out of this announcement, of which there are many!

Nerfing Overpowered Moves

The game has always featured certain moves that are disappointing, and some that are overpowered. This change appears to be an attempt to rectify this in a very broad way. For example:

  • Body Slam – reducing the power from 60 to 50 directly targets some of the spammiest and overpowered mons in the game. Vigoroth, Lickitung, Dragonair, (and previously  Snorlax), are all very oppressive mons through either their strong damage output, or serious bulk and decent energy gains to reach Body Slam (in Lick).
  • Counter – always considered to be the best fast move in the game. I have previously been OK with this being a little OP due to the fact that most of the mons that use it are relatively fragile. Previously, most Fighting types needed to be a little bit overpowered because they fell to a stiff breeze (think Machamp, Primeape, Sirfetch’d). However, power creep has taken over in the form of 2 oppressive fighters – Poliwrath and Annihilape. These 2 mons dominate the Great and Ultra League metas, and this is a direct address to that issue. It is tough for some of the others, though this has been in part addressed through the improvements to Karate Chop, which many fighters also have access to.
  • Mud Shot – one of the most common moves for Ground types, it is perhaps the sole reason for the success of mudboys in the current meta. It charges moves so quickly, and nerfing the energy gains will directly impact some of the most common mudboy meta picks in Swampert, Quagsire and Whiscash. This change will make these guys (all of whom can be shadow) slightly less oppressive, without killing them off altogether.
  • Razor Leaf – the grasshole strategy becomes less oppressive now as a result of the damage nerf from 12 to 11 damage. I don’t think this will kill off Grass types, but it will make Victreebel slightly less viable than before.
  • Wing Attack – although I appreciate the improved energy gains which were provided to Wing Attack in recent seasons, it has definitely made certain Flying mons very challenging to face, and they are around a lot due to the prevalence of Poli and Annihilape. Gligar, Mantine and Charizard in particularly were huge beneficiaries of the increased energy gains, but this is set to change.

Making some OP moves less OP is undeniably good for evening the playing field. But it’s not just about the moves…

Nerfing Overpowered Types – Water and Steel

The prevalence of Water and Steel types in the meta has remained relatively unchecked for a long time, for a few reasons:

  • Most of the meta pokémon sporting these types are quite bulky. When thinking of Azumarill, Whiscash, Lanturn, Skarmory, Registeel… what they all have in common is more than decent bulk. 
  • These bulky mons are assisted even further by their typing resisting the majority of other elements. Water only takes super effective damage from Grass and Electric, while Steel takes super effective from Fighting, Fire and Ground types… with Water dealing super effective into 2 of those types. We are starting to paint a picture that Water and Steel are an incredibly effective typing combination. 
  • Other types have been tinkered with over the past few seasons to try and combat this, with different degrees of effectiveness. Flying moves in particular have had their stats adjusted, most notably the buff to Wing Attack‘s energy gains and Aerial Ace‘s energy requirements, which saw the likes of Gligar and Mantine rise to prominence through their rapid access to their charged moves. However, this has not dramatically reshaped the actual mons in use in the meta as substantially as this season’s changes threaten to do.

When you look at the current Great League meta, 8 of the top 30 are Steel types, and 12 of the top 30 are Water types! There is some overlap of types (think Empoleon) but the point remains these types dominate the current meta. The meta shakeup directly addresses this by nerfing moves for mons with those types, particularly Surf, Steel Wing, and Mud Shot (for the mud boys). Which all means…

The Time Has Come for a New Meta

Many competitive PvP players have been campaigning for a fundamental change to the meta for some time, particularly in the Great League. This change does exactly that. With such a wholesale suite of changes which impact the majority of the top meta, this represents the opportunity for new (and maybe some old) Pokémon to step up to the plate! Taking a look at the anticipated changes to the meta, the top meta is almost unrecognisable from previous seasons! Some of this is subject to change, as the energy impacts are estimated at this point. However, with buffs to moves such as Karate Chop, Rollout, Swift and Mud Slap, we are faced with a completely different set of meta threats to contend with! Some of the most notable changes for me are:

  • Kanto Marowak – now improved with the buff to both Mud Slap and Bone Club. Marowak has basically never been sighted in the open meta before due to its sub par energy generation and access to its charged moves.
  • Pangoro – receiving the newly buffed move Karate Chop, Pangoro will be able to reach its charged moves as fast as Gallade does with its access to Psycho Cut – which is rapid! Its typing and bulk leaves it super vulnerable to Fairy types, but it stands to make waves at this point.
  • Machamp – always scary as a shadow but rarely seen in recent seasons due to the rise of (previously) better fighters in Poliwrath and Annihilape. With the nerf to Counter, they have dropped down the rankings due to their now slow pacing to their charged moves. Machamp stands to fill this void with its rapid pacing with Karate Chop. It’s a legacy move, but likely worth the Elite TM now.
  • Golurk – with the buff to Mud Slap AND Shadow Punch and the nerf to Water types, Golurk has snuck up quite high in the Great League meta rankings!
  • Clefable – the buff to Swift and Fairy Wind is very positive news for Clefable. It’s always been a sneaky fave of mine, but the nerf to Steel types could be a boon to one of the only OG fairies not called Wigglytuff (which has fallen down in the rankings quite some way, which will have many people rejoicing!).

Another thing worth noting is that the number of Pokémon needing XL candy in the main Great League meta has reduced with the new changes. Mons like Lickitung, Medicham and Bastiodon all need XL candy to be at their best, however these have all been nerfed, and the newer players won’t need the same XL investment to be usable (although XL Carbink is still going to be around). So for newer players, they will be less likely to feel disappointed about not having the XL candy to build a ‘must have’ pick. This change represents a chance to focus on some newer and cheaper meta picks with your resources.

New Meta Cores

If you think about the changes, the most commonly seen cores in the Great League meta have been nerfed, all at the same time! Common pairings such as Swampert /Whiscash / Quagsire & Skarmory, Lanturn & Whiscash, Bastiodon & Victreebel … all and sundry have been deliberately nerfed in what can only be seen as an attempt to completely disrupt the current meta and the most common meta cores.

For example, one of the most commonly run lines has been a combination of Wigglytuff, Bastiodon and Victreebel. Nerfing Smack Down and Razor Leaf will mean that this oppressive fast move strategy will be far less effective due to the reduced damage output from Basti and Vic. With Swift getting an buff to its energy cost, I think Wiggly will still be around, but it’s less likely to be accompanied by the dancing venus fly trap.

This gives the game the opportunity to find new methods of developing strong and balanced team compositions. Those previous common core strategies may still be around, but they are less likely to be as oppressive as in the past. This is also enabled by another impactful change to time…

Switching up the Clock!

In my view, the change to the Switch timer change is fantastic. Reducing from 60 seconds to 50 seconds, the game will be more dynamic and challenging to master certain matchups. There is also some evidence from pvpoke that has identified the majority of KOs occur at 61 seconds! If you think about the number of times you’re locked into a matchup which represents a tight loss for you that you can’t quite escape from, you will now be able to exit these matchups and potentially swing battles back in your favour. I’m personally glad they didn’t go as far as they did in the previous Tricky Event in 2021, where the timer changed all the way down to 30 seconds – that felt like chaos. But overall, a change to one of the core game mechanics is the kind of change that people have been crying out for.

The Baddy Bad General icon

As with any positive changes, there will be the counterargument to discuss. Let’s take a look at some of the downsides to the changes.

A Broader Meta, or Just a New Meta?

The reality of Pokémon go is that there will always be some kind of a meta. The base stats of pokémon, their moveset, the structure of the PvP side of the game, the strengths and weaknesses of each typing, the stats of all PvP moves, the moves made available to pokémon – each of these factors contribute to developing a core group of pokemon that are more prevalent in the meta through their ability to positively influence the outcomes of battles reliably.

What is clear about this update is that Niantic is doing their best to address the concerns with almost the entire existing meta as it stands today. We are now likely to see a new set of fighters rise to fill the void left by Poliwrath and Annihilape, but with a slight quirk with Karate Chop. We are likely to see a number of new Ghost and Ground types emerge through the buffs to their moves. And we are now likely to see a number of newer players enter the field to handle these new threats.

What is unclear is whether we are going to see a new meta centred around the seriously powerful Feraligatr and the even further buffed Clodsire and Wigglytuff. I am optimistic that the opportunities emerging for lesser lights to shine is definitely a positive, but time will tell whether there are enough checks in place to deal with some of these powerful mons that remained untouched reliably. 

Feraligatr Raid Boss

Fixing One Problem to Create Another

Rebalancing moves is in no way a new activity. Niantic has been making tweaks to movesets since GBL began back in Season 1. Typically, this will feature a couple of attack changes designed to directly impact a handful of the meta that appear to be overpowered at the time. However, the issue with continually buffing and nerfing moves to influence the outcomes of 1-2 pokémon is that it tends to create more consequences than it resolves. I like to think of this as the Steelix / Haxorus Dilemma.

Let me explain. Haxorus gained access to a decent, but not OP move in Breaking Swipe as a community day move. Breaking Swipe had a 100% chance of debuffing the opponents attack, allowing Haxorus to stay in battle for slightly longer, addressing its extreme frailty. It was an excellent cday move and a nice way to give Haxorus some niche play in PvP.

In subsequent seasons, Breaking Swipe was handed out to a number of other pokémon, including Rayquaza, and most notably – Steelix. Steelix was immediately everywhere in the Great League and Ultra League, frustrating opponents with its bulk and continual debuffs from both Breaking Swipe and Psychic Fangs. It was absolutely a mistake to give Steelix access to Breaking Swipe, and Niantic later nerfed Breaking Swipe to only a 50% chance of getting an attack drop.

The result? Both Haxorus and Rayquaza – 2 super flimsy Dragon mons, both competely disappeared from the meta through their lack of viability in PvP. All the investments people had made into what was originally a unique (and much loved) dragon are now almost for nought.

Let’s take a look at a few similar examples of what will be some likely outcomes from the latest changes.

Sky Attack

In the Great League, Flying types such as Altaria and Noctowl were historically viewed as OP, both featuring Sky Attack as their cheapest charged moves. As a result, Sky Attack has been rebalanced (nerfed) not once, not twice, but three times!!! Sky Attack will now cost 55 energy for 85 power, up from 50 energy for 75 power.

And as a consequence? Pour one out for poor old Lugia. Lugia now has to throw at least 7 Dragon Tails to get to its cheapest charged move. I think it’s highly unlikely we’ll be seeing Lugia anywhere in the Master League moving forward, unless it is given access to Fly or Surf, or another cheaper charged move. Moltres too, which now can barely function in PvP as a Flying type! Sure, the move will now hit harder, but it will take an eternity to get there.

Surf

Nerfing Surf makes Lanturn and Jellicent a lot less potent going forward. Lanturn will now need to throw 7 Sparks (or… lots of Water Guns) to get to its cheapest charge move (up from 6). Jellicent can still reach Surf in 4 Hexes, but it leaves with less residual energy for later. So, job done, right?

This energy change now makes a swathe of others much much worse overall. Kyogre and Tapu Fini are two of the more commonly seen mons impacted by this. More fringe picks that need Surf to have any play include Carracosta, Slowbro (of which Surf was a featured community day move, although it now gets the newly buffed Brutal Swing) Lapras, Milotic, Bibarel, and Wailord (alright, that is super fringe!) – just to name a few. These Water mons are now left dead in the water, all to nerf a mon that Niantic spent season after season buffing to relevance. Yes, Surf is more powerful, dealing 10 more damage, but speed means a lot in PvP and this update will be very impactful.

Dig & Wing Attack

Which Pokémon learns both of these moves? Gligar. Nerfing Dig and Wing Attack is gutting for Gligar, who now appears set to be a one-season wonder. Gligar will now be slower and less potent than before, which I’m sure will be music to many ears. However, in the process:

  • The nerf to Dig impacts a number of spice and limited meta picks, such as Linoone, Nidorina and Nidorino, Oinkalogne, and Little Cup pick Eevee. Although they were fringe at best in the open meta, a lot of investment has gone into these mons for some players. 
  • The nerf to Wing Attack is more broadly impactful. Archen & Archeops, Bombirdier, Charizard, Ducklett, Gliscor, Golbat, Pidgeot, Moltres, Noctowl, Pelipper, Quaquaval and Staraptor – all of these have been hit by the direct address to one move update, but only some of these birds will have alternative options to handle the changes.

It’s Just Overkill

Could some of the move updates have been too great in terms of the extent of the nerf?

  • Sky Attack was already a bad move, and is now virtually unusable for the mons that need it (see above).
  • Rock Slide was a decently good move before at 1.66 damage per energy (DPE). It will now deal 10 less damage than before for the same energy, and is now an objectively poor DPE move. Did this really need such a huge nerf when Vig was already nerfed by the Counter and Body Slam changes?
  • Future Sight was probably OP before as a 1.84 DPE move, but it requires 65 energy to reach – not exactly cheap! Cresselia is the direct loser in this outcome, but was the nerf really necessary? Some may argue Cress’s bulk makes it so OP that having the extra power taken away addresses some of the power creep, but I personally am not sure it was necessary.
  • Dig was just plain bad before. Now it is pretty bad again. A 5 damage reduction would have made this move a 1.5 DPE move, which in my view would have been a better rebalance than a 10 damage reduction.
  • Steel Wing, in my view, was excellently balanced from last seasons changes. But in the need to kill off Skarmory, it’s now back to a perfectly average move.
  • Body Spam (Slam) has been the bane of many due to its spammyness and strength. Could a 5 damage reduction been a better balance? Body Slam is now a Dragon Claw equivalent – decent, but worse DPE than other 35 energy moves such as Aqua Tail and Breaking Swipe. Normal doesn’t hit anything for super effective damage, so I feel that keeping Body Slam on par with some other decent but not OP moves would have been fairer.

The Purugly General icon

It would be remiss of me to not focus on some of the broader impacts of these changes, which will hit pretty much every player.

Wasted Resources

The last season really felt like Niantic was doing its best to level the playing field in terms of the availability of the core meta for players. With numerous events featuring PvP spawns such as Carbink, Gligar and Lickitung, plus season-long spawns of mons like Mankey and Marill, this has allowed even newer players to the game to accrue the mons needed to compete in the PvP scene. 

But now? Those investments are now a lot less valuable – arguably redundant. Serious players invest significant time and energy grinding for optimal IV’s, the XL candy, and the stardust to power up meta picks – over 500k stardust and 296XL candy for some builds! Extending to the Master League, powering XL legendaries up to Level 50 is a serious time and financial investment, and nerfing previous meta picks into obscurity will leave a sour taste in the mouths of many. It will be interesting to see whether any future seasons address this. Of course, we can’t expect everything we invest in to last forever, but the short lived nature of some pokémon is tough to swallow.

Hoarding Syndrome

Players now feel as though they need to hold onto multiple builds of every single pokémon in the hopes that one day they’ll become meta. The constant buffs and nerfs and moveset rebalances encourages resource holding, and at its worst, reinforces the haves v have nots situation which forces many people out of the game. The feeling as though you can’t compete because you didn’t keep the previously useless shadow Gligar or Feraligatr – it is real! Not knowing what is going to be decent in 12-24 months from now encourages hoarding behaviour, supported by endless storage upgrades to accomodate all of these potential must haves.

The number of legacy moves that have been part of the new ‘required’ moveset for mons is increasing over time as well. Think Wing Attack Charizard and Pidgeot (RIP to those Elite TMs). Ice Shard Lapras.  Karate Chop Machamp and Primeape both require an Elite Fast TM for their access to those moves for the next season changes. Is it a surprise to see Elite TM boxes for sale in the store alongside the announcement of the changes? It is definitely still possible to be free-to-play in Pokémon Go, but it is getting more challenging to be free-to-play and compete in the PvP scene.

Missingno Opportunities

So we have a move rebalance and a switch timer change. But do these changes go far enough?

  • The Charged TM system is still broken (and encourages the resource hoarding mentioned above). Regular TMs could be adjusted to allow players to choose all non-legacy moves, with an Elite TM required for legacy moves. This would free up TMs for rocket events and actually getting the move you want, without going through the charged TM roulette.
  • Bug fixes and frame drops are still endless and a huge turn off for many players, to the point of no longer playing at all. Perhaps this is no longer possible with how long we have been persisting through these issues, but it should be part of the basic requirements that the game operates consistently as intended, and there are no clear signs of this improving.
  • Other additions such as new in game mechanics or 3 charged moves could completely revamp the game in a way which brings a fresh challenge to PvP.
  • Returning to the point of a broader meta – truly levelling the playing field would actually require a drastic revisitation of viability across the board, which looks like it may never happen. There are many mons that are dead on arrival due to a combination of terrible PvP stats and movesets, which as a result never see the light of day. I would love to see mons such as Kanto Raticate, Kanto Persian, Vileplume and Gumshoos be given overpowered movesets to give them some viability and help increase the actual breadth of the meta.
  • For some time, there has been a disappointing trend of releasing new pokémon with absolutely trash movesets, and buffing them at some point down the line. And the same goes for many new moves – think Psywave, Metal Sound, Boomburst – they’ve all been released as new moves, with zero viability. Why not actually release these as decent moves that improve the viability of those lucky enough to receive them now, rather than at some undetermined point in the future? Why not give players a worthwhile reason to go out and gather new released such as Drampa, Komala, Tandemaus and Houndstone? (And while we’re at it, why not release legendaries with their signature moves more frequently?) It all points cynically towards a game which is becoming increasingly pay-to-play, and hold onto everything so that one day you just might use it!

Elite Fast TM and Charged TM in Pokémon GO

What Next? General icon

On the whole, I think the new changes address many of the issues that have concerned players about the PvP scene and will definitely result in changes to the meta! It will be important to let the dust settle and see just how seismic (toss) the changes end up being, which of the old meta stays and who rises to the be the cream of the crop. I anticipate this season will be very different in the competitive scene, which is on balance, a good thing.  However, it can’t be denied that there is huge fallout from these changes, and some missed opportunities that should be addressed in the future – if nothing else, fixing the endless bugs!

I hope you’ve enjoyed this slightly different analysis and a few easter eggs! As always, all the best with your PvP grinding and shiny hunting! Other writers on the GoHub team will be doing a deep dive into the meta changes, so keep your eyes peeled for those. 

See ya later,

JT

Author & tags

JTizzle
JTizzle
The one enlisted to explain games to new starters. Great League and Ultra League PvP specialist, and a dabbler in PvE.

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