Hello everyone, I'd like to thank those who voted on the survey. This time we have received 170 votes, and while being less than the first survey, it's still a solid amount. There's nothing much else to add to this introduction, so let's get into the results, shall we?
The average response to how enjoyable do you find the metagame scored an average rating of 6.38, which while being a median amount is still concerning as it went down nearly a point from the last survey. With that being said, we understand threats like Walking Wake, Annihilape, and the elephant in the room, Terastallization, are some very controversial elements in the metagame at the moment which make it sometimes not very enjoyable, but rest assured there will be action taken.
The average response to how balanced do you find the metagame was just 5.21, meaning that a significant number of players find the metagame unbalanced in some way. From what this shows, there are several issues that must be dealt with, and it's worrying as well as this score once more suggests that there are elements out of player control when playing the tier. Terastallization is most definitely the biggest source of these concerns, and this is something we will be monitoring closely.
Firstly, Dragapult was given an overall average of 2.97, again! This shows that the playerbase finds Dragapult a strong force in the metagame, but nothing too overwhelming. This generation, Dragapult is still a solid and threatening Pokemon but does have more negative traits than it did last generation. For example, not utilizing Tera often as it usually wants to use Z-Moves, and even when it comes to its other sets, it's not the best Tera abuser either. It also has to deal with metagame forces like Kingambit who nearly fully blanks Dragapult, being able to revenge kill it and trap it as well. Common defensive Tera options like Fairy and Dark also give Dragapult some problems, albeit having opportunity cost for the opponent.
Annihilape was given a somewhat skewed score of 3.18, showing that the player base finds it quite problematic. Annihilape has been brought up a lot in discussion with the council, as it rightfully should, since it forces the opponent to play extremely passive in order to not let it snowball out of control. That quality is even harder to manage in tandem with relatively unpredictable defensive Tera types like Water, Fairy, or Fire. While counterplay has been found such as Toxic, Nasty Plot, or Taunt Tornadus-T and Toxic Gliscor, Annihilape has started to pair with clerics that get rid of its status issues or speed creep the latter, and often has teammates that can deal with Nasty Plot Tornadus-T such as Tapu Koko and Clodsire. Overall, Annihilape has little to no safe counterplay on slow, balanced playstyles and doesn't necessarily perform poorly into offensive playstyles either. It forces a large sense of passivity onto the opponent to the point where it is certainly a problem in the metagame.
Kingambit scored an average rating of 3.14. This shows that while Kingambit is a metagame staple due to the valuable traits it provides to nearly every teamstyle, it has some problems regarding Tera Dark and Supreme Overlord, and how often it is able to reverse sweep without much skill involved. Kingambit's ability generally reduces the cost of incorrect plays made by the user over the course of a game and boosts its damage output to a potentially unbalanced degree, so it's something that will be kept an eye on.
Walking Wake scored the highest on average, that being 3.46. Walking Wake has been a very controversial figure recently in National Dex, as it has little safe counterplay due to its extremely strong Protosythesis-boosted Hydro Steam and Draco Meteor, and even has Flamethrower for Pokemon who would otherwise take its STAB hits well like Ferrothorn. Other sets such as SubSunny have been experimented to take advantage of Pokemon like Toxapex and Garganacl and fire off its strong attacks behind a Substitute, making it hard to revenge kill and deal with in combination with Tera Dragon to break through Pokemon like Toxapex and sit on Ferrothorn and Rotom-W. Overall, Walking Wake is a very oppressive force that synergizes incredibly well with the two strongest weathers in the metagame. From a balance perspective, it is disliked by the community and council alike, and will most definitely have action taken on it in the near future.
Garganacl scored a relatively lower average in 2.77, showing that while Garganacl can be a little annoying at times due to Tera Water and Fairy with its Salt Cure + IDPress, Curse, or Protect sets, it is generally considered manageable in the eyes of the player base.
Heatran's vote was largely skewed towards balanced, having a 1.92 average rating. This shows that Heatran needs no action taken on it as of now, even if Tera Grass and Flying sets can be an annoyance at times.
Cyclizar's average rating was a 3.06, which mainly comes from the Shed Tail shenanigans it is able to pull off with Regenerator while also having a decent utility movepool in general. This rating is high but not entirely surprising and will be kept in mind for next tiering steps.
Rain was given an average score of 2.72, which is probably due to the playerbase finding ways to deal with rain, such as bulky playstyles with a weather disruptor like Hippowdon, Tera Water Pokemon like Garganacl and Zapdos, and the rise of Pokemon like Kyurem and Rillaboom, meaning that the playerbase seems to not struggle with Rain that much anymore. The follow up question to this was
" If you feel that Rain is an issue, which part of rain specifically do you find to be problematic?", which does indicate that there are still some issues with certain aspects of Rain. The most common answer was STAB Tera Water abusers such as Floatzel, Barraskewda, Urshifu-R, and even rare abusers like Kingdra. The next two most common answers were Swift Swim and Damp Rock, which the former would be a complex ban, and the latter being a reasonable solution, as we previously voted on Damp Rock a few months back and agreed that it's the best solution when it comes to taking action on rain. However, with the somewhat lower average score rain has, we may not address it at the moment as we continue to monitor how the metagame progresses.
Hyper offense scored an average rating of 3.19. This is likely due to the abundance of set up sweepers, ranging from Volcarona, Mega Gyarados, Iron Valiant, Dragapult, Gholdengo, Annihilape, Mega Scizor, Dragonite, Latios, and more that are amplified by elements like Shed Tail and screens, making them very threatening and often able to find free set-up turns. As such, the follow up question was
" If you feel that Hyper Offense is an issue, which part of HO specifically do you find problematic? " The most common answer was Tera set-up sweepers, as a majority of the aforementioned set-up sweepers often utilize Tera to perform their sweep and become very large nuisances as a result. The second most common answer was Shed Tail, and the council agrees that Shed Tail is indeed a large problem regarding hyper offense due to the degeneracy of the Hyper Offense playstyle it enables with these team structures becoming increasingly linear. After OU's recent banning of the move, there will most likely be action taken on this to address the concerns the player base has with Hyper Offense.
Tera scored an average of 7.09, showing that the community believes that Terastallization certainly enables some problematic aspects of the National Dex tier. The player base has previously made its decision regarding Tera in National Dex. However, the council will continue to monitor how these opinions evolve over time. We encourage anyone with thoughts or opinions on Terastallization in our tier to share them in our
Tera discussion thread here.
That just about sums up the most important results from this survey. We will be moving quickly to take action on the issues identified here, so stay tuned!
