|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
Ice
Ice moves are one of the strongest, generally considered to be the second strongest type of attack after Psychic. In addition, their side-effect, Freeze, is the second best status change in the game (first, of course, being "faint"). If you freeze the opposing Pokémon, it cannot do any attacks, and will remain frozen solid until it faints or gets hit by a Fire attack. It's gotten to the point where the best people use a lot more Ice moves on their Water-types than Water moves, despite the lack of STAB! Damage from Ice moves depends on the Special scores of the attacking and defending Pokémon. Let's look at them:
Blizzard and Ice Beam can be taught through TMs. Ice attacks do double damage to Grass, Flying, and Ground, and Dragon (watch out, Dragonite!), but only half damage to Water and other Ice types.
Blizzard Blizzard is the strongest Ice attack, and with its 90% accuracy is the most accurate of all 120-power attacks (unless you count Solar Beam, which has 99.6% accuracy, but is a two-turn attack). Even better, Ice Beam has a 9.8% of freezing (not the 33% some places report). The only real problem is that Blizzard has only 5 PP. Blizzard can be taught to many Pokémon with TM 14.
Ice Beam Ice Beam is the second strongest Ice attack, and is actually a better idea on a Pokémon with Recover (like Mewtwo) because it has twice Blizzard's PP. Again, it has a 9.8% chance of Freezing. In general, Blizzard is usually better, but both are good, solid attacks on any Pokémon with decent Special. Ice Beam can be taught to many Pokémon with TM 13.
Ice Punch Like the other elemental punches, Ice Punch is inferior to Ice Beam. It is only learned by Jynx, who doesn't need the extra PP, and Hitmonchan, who has a horrid 168 Special. Jynx should use Blizzard, and Hitmonchan won't be doing any significant damage even to a Pokémon weak to Ice. Even Dragonite, with his *4 weakness to ice, takes under 200 damage from Hitmonchan's Ice Punch!
Aurora Beam Again, Aurora Beam is inferior to Ice Beam and Blizzard. All the Pokémon who learn Aurora Beam can also use the TMs for Ice Beam and Blizzard, both of which do significantly more damage. And Aurora Beam's 9.8% chance of reducing Attack does not compare to Ice Beam and Blizzard's 9.8% chance of Freeze.
Haze Haze removes all stat modifications (Screech, Amnesia, etc.) making it the ultimate counter for many strategies. It also removes status changes (Freeze, Poison, etc.) from your opponent, so be careful. Unfortunately, the only Pokémon which learn Haze in RBY are Vaporeon, Koffing/Weezing, and Zubat/Golbat.
Mist Mist prevents the user from being affected by stat-reducing moves, like Growl and the Special reducing side affect of Psychic. However, this is nowhere near as good as Haze. Although stat-boosting moves are common, almost no one uses any stat-reducing moves, aside from the occasional Screeching Electrode. This does not protect against status ailments (like sleep), nor does it prevent damage.
Ahh yes, Lapras, one of my favorite Pokémon and the strongest of the Ice-types. Although she's slow, her whopping 463 HP means that she can tank with the best of 'em. 288 Special means that she'll do a nice amount of damage, especially considering that she has one of the best moveset selections in the game. Ice beam, Blizzard, Surf, and even Hydro Pump take advantage of her high Special and STAB, while Thunderbolt smashes other Water-types. Double-Edge lets her absorb recoil with the fourth-highest HP of all Pokémon, and Body Slam can make up for her 218 Speed with a lucky paralyze. For defense, Rest backed up by either Confuse Ray or Double Team make the most out of her godlike HP. You can even try using her as an OHKO platform with Body Slam (to paralyze) and Horn Drill. Here are several good movesets for her:
Ice
Beam/Thunderbolt/Confuse Ray/Rest (standard) Body Slam/Horn Drill/Ice Beam/Rest
As the Legendary Bird of Ice, Articuno has the highest total stats of all ice types, and the sixth highest of all 151 Pokémon. However, he is hampered by a limited moveset and a *4 weakness to Rock -- Rhydon (or a lucky Golem) can take out Articuno with a single Rock Slide. Unfortunately, with Articuno's limited moveset, defensive is pretty much the only way to go in RBY. Between 298 Defense, 348 Special, 383 HP, and an element super effective against his Achilles' Heel of Rock/Ground types, he is a rare exception to the general rule not to use Double Team on a Pokémon that can be taken out in one non-critical hit. On the offensive side, 348 special and STAB with Ice Attacks means that Ice Beam will do plenty of damage. Blizzard does even more, but Ice Beam's extra PP may very well be needed. Bubblebeam, however is a bad idea -- even though it's *4 damage to Ground/Rock types, the lack of STAB means that Ice Beam does more damage. For a physical attack, Fly is standard, but it lets the opponent switch in a resistant Pokémon, so Double Edge or even Body Slam may be better. Peck, of course, is too weak to be considered. Some movesets:
Ice
Beam/Fly/Double Team/Rest (standard)
At first, with total stats only 10 points behind Articuno, Cloyster seems like a real winner. But aside from the total, Cloyster's only impressive stat is his 458 Defense, the highest of all 151 Pokémon. He has only average Special, poor Speed, and HP as horridly low as Metapod. However, Cloyster is the only Pokémon (aside from Shellder of course) to get Clamp, the strongest multi-turn attack. With paralysis support, or against slow Pokémon, Cloyster can juggle Pokémon fairly effectively with Clamp. He also, of course, can use Surf or Blizzard (or even Ice Beam) and do a nice amount of damage with STAB -- despite having the lowest Special of all Ice-types, 268 isn't bad. As for physical attacks, 288 Attack means he'll do a nice amount of damage considering the lack of STAB, especially if he use Explosion. Unfortunately, Cloyster can't learn Body Slam, so he'll have to choose between carving a chunk out of his meager his meager 303 HP with Double Edge's recoil or resorting to Strength. Finally, you should consider using specialist moves on him -- Supersonic is great if it works, Toxic works well with Clamp, and with some luck and a lack of Thunderbolt users around he might be able to DT successfully. Avoid Spike Cannon (which is inferior to even Strength) and Withdraw (he already has plenty of Defense). Some suggested movesets:
Surf/Blizzard/Explosion/Double
Edge
Ah yes, Jynx, the result of programmers spending too many long nights at work, away from their wives and girlfriends... She has some of the worst stats in the game -- Ponyta's an unevolved Pokémon, yet he has higher total stats than Jynx! Her 333 HP is as bad as Beedrill, 198 Attack and a lack of STAB makes her useless with physical attacks (even Pikachu is 208), and 168 Defense is truly awful, equal to that of Caterpie and Zubat, and lower than any other final evolution except Chansey. Yet she kind of makes up for them with some cool moves and STAB with the two best types of attacks, Psychic and Ice. Reflect doubles her Defense to 336 -- just two points behind Rhydon -- and between her 288 Speed and the 90% accurate Lovely Kiss, she can do sleep juggling on many Pokémon, especially if Sleep Clause isn't being used. Lick, on the other hand, is totally worthless. Double Team can be tried, but it's dangerous with her low stats -- even with Reflect, Rhydon takes her below 50% with a single Rock Slide. Here are a couple movesets:
Psychic/Blizzard/Lovely
Kiss/Reflect
Dewgong is the worst of the Ice types, mainly because everything he does, Lapras does better. Articuno has 348 Special, Cloyster has massive Defense, and Jynx has LovelyKiss and STAB with Psychic, but Dewgong is just a weakened version of Lapras with 20 more Speed (which still leaves him with onlpy 238) as his only saving grace. He has 80 fewer HP than Lapras, 30 less Attack, and only a fraction of the number of good moves. Yet if you still insist on using him, you might as well go with DT/Rest and hope you get lucky. Alternately, you can try for Horn Drill, but that again requires luck. Here are three suggested movesets:
Ice Beam/Surf/Double Team/Rest
And there you have it, a comprehensive guide to all the Ice-type attacks and pokemon. May Articuno guide your footsteps, and may all your Ice Beams freeze!
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
