"An analysis of Steel as an offensive type"

#PokemonGO: Hi travelers,I was recently faced with a decision: I have a Scizor with Bullet Punch/Iron Head. Should I TM him to have Fury Cutter/X-Scissor to make him into a Mewtwo/Celebi counter, or should I leave him with Steel moves? This led me to the more general question: is there any value in having a Steel type attacker in Pokemon Go?I decided to do some analysis. This is a bit long-winded, but I tried to look at a Steel attacker in the same way I view my current raid attackers. For example, I pick Machamp for Tyranitar because 1) Fighting is double super effective, 2) Machamp resists Dark attacks, 3) Tyranitar's other attacks are not super effective against Machamp, and 4) Machamp has good overall DPS. So would I ever want a Steel attacker based on those kinds of considerations? I have mainly based my analysis on dueling ability in favor of pure DPS, but pure DPS does come into it for some things.For those are just here for the tl;dr: Steel is not a great offensive type, and there is almost always more accessible and equally (or almost as) good alternatives. Scizor is an alright Steel attacker, but once Gen3 is out, Metagross will be the king of Steel-type offense, assuming he has access to fast and charged Steel moves.Which Pokemon are decent Steel-type attackers? If there's a good reason to have a steel attacker (which we'll go into in a second) it's probably going to be Steel type, have both quick and charge Steel moves, and have a high attack stat. Of course, there are non-Steel types that learn Steel moves, and potentially movesets with a non-Steel high EPS quick move and strong Steel charge move. But for a "Steel attacker" role, those are my prerequisites. Given that, I'm basically looking at Scizor, and Metagross once Gen3 launches.If gamepress is correct (I think they've used the updated formulas), they have/will have the following stats: Scizor MAX CP: 2801 ATTACK: 236 DEFENSE: 191 STAMINA: 140Metagross MAX CP: 3644 ATTACK: 257 DEFENSE: 248 STAMINA: 160So unless Metagross has a rubbish moveset, he will be better than Scizor in every regard.Gen4 brings Magnezone; a very potent Steel attacker, as well as Empoleon and Lucario, but Metagross will most likely still be better. I don't see the point in looking further ahead than that.How does Steel fare as a type? Offensively, Steel is super effective against Rock, Ice, and Fairy. It's not very effective against Fire, Water, Electric and Steel.Rock is also weak to Water, Grass, Fighting, Ground Ice is also weak to Fire, Fighting and Rock Fairy is also weak to PoisonDefensively, Steel is weak to Fire, Fighting and Ground, and resists Normal, Grass, Ice, Flying, Psychic, Bug, Rock, Dragon, Steel and Fairy, and has extra resistance (Immunity in other Pokemon games) to Poison.As you can see, Steel is an incredible defensive type, and an average offensive type.How do Steel attacks fare compared to other types? This is probably the worst thing about Steel as an offensive type - the moves just aren't very good. Or more correctly, there are some good fast moves and good charge moves, but no Pokemon that can have both.I struggled a bit to find an up-to-date ranking list of neutral moveset DPS, but ending up working from this: http://ift.tt/2umS8jB with Bullet Punch/Iron Head is 120th in these rankings, and thats the first appearance of a Steel/Steel moveset. Bullet Punch/Iron Head has a weave damage of 1796, considerably less than Counter/Dynamic Punch Machamp (2225), Dragon Tail/Outrage Dragonite (2160), Fire Spin/Overheat Flareon (2261), and so on. Scizor has the 15th best attack stat in the current game too, so that's not holding it back.I tried to calculate some theoretical Steel movesets, for example would something with Steel Wing/Heavy Slam be any better? But I think in the end that's no more valuable than trying to predict Niantic suddenly changing all move damage and energy values again.For the practical current game, pure Steel movesets don't fare too well.So when would you want a steel attacker? As mentioned, Steel's main benefit is that it resists a lot of things. This gives it some advantages in dueling ability. Unfortunately, it's good against types that have other counters that are useful in more cases.Lets break down the match-ups.Case 1: generalist attacker First off, how do Steel attackers fare as generalists alongside the likes of Dragonite? Well, Dragon has better neutral-coverage than Steel, but Steel's array of defensive resistances are definitely useful. This mostly comes down to moveset DPS, and given the current available Steel movesets, your Steel attacker is probably not as good as Dragonite or other good generalists.Case 2: vs. pure Rock or Ice types with no shenanigans In this case you will almost certainly find a more accessible and stronger attacker of the type's other weaknesses. Rock type is weak to Fighting, and Fighting resists Rock; pick Machamp. Ice is weak to Fire, and Fire resists Ice; pick Flareon. Steel doesn't bring anything above and beyond.Case 3: vs. Rock/Ice duel type There is only one Rock/Ice type family in the game (hence having a double weakness to Steel), and that's Amaura/Aurorus. I don't think it's even worth speculating what movesets Aurorus will have, since it won't come out until Gen6, but a Steel attacker might have a niche there. Note that Fighting is also double super effective against this type combo, but won't resist Ice attacks.Case 4: vs. Rock or Ice Types with better defensive type coverage Here's where "dueling ability" really comes to the front over DPS. Consider a Rock/Grass type Pokemon (we'll ignore the fact that Grass type introduces more weaknesses). Now Water, Grass and Ground are no longer super effective, and Fighting wont resist Grass attacks. Meanwhile, Steel is still super effective, and resists both Rock and Grass to boot. This gives Steel an advantage over those types, per se. But these type combinations are very rare. There is only one Rock/Grass family, and that's the Cradily chain; a Gen3 Pokemon with a measly (projected) Max CP of 2081.Ice/Flying is a type combination that is no longer weak to Fighting, but is now doubly weak to Rock, so that would be the preferable attacker type.All type combos (involving Rock and Ice) that Steel is good against are still weak to other types that have more easy-to-obtain and generally more useful attackers. Steel might have the bonus resistance, but I don't think this offers enough of a benefit to power up a Steel attacker.Additionally, some of the type combos where Steel might shine, such as vs. a Ice/Poison or Rock/Poison type, simple don't exist in any Pokemon game right through to Gen7.Case 5: vs. Rock or Ice Types with better offensive type coverage Here we get into even more niche territory. Imagine a Rock/Grass type like Cradily, but with Psychic attacks. Now Water, Grass and Ground are not super effective, and your Fighting type attackers are also going to be taking super effective hits. Meanwhile, your Steel attacker is still resisting the attacks and dishing out super effective damage. A Steel attacker might be very valuable in these cases, but they are extremely rare (I can't think of any that currently exist).Case 6: Fairy type Here is where things get interesting. Fairy is only weak to two things: Poison and Steel. Further to that, it resists Dark and Dragon, making your generalist attackers like Tyranitar and Dragonite less effective.Poison is only good against one other type (Grass), which has 4 other weaknesses too, so the usefulness of a Poison attacker is pretty limited. Poison types are probably more accessible though, at least for the current game (Muk/Nidoking&queen/Victreebel). Gen3 doesn't really introduce any good Poison types.So Steel attackers (and Metagross in particular) really start to shine when tough Fairy types like Gardevoir and Togekiss are in play (although those each have other weaknesses that are probably a bit easier to prosecute).Case 7: Fairy type with Rock or Ice What about the problematic Fairy type, combined with a type that resists Poison, or a type that makes Steel double super effective?Well, there are exactly 3 of those, and we won't see any of them until at least Gen6: Carbink and Diancie - Rock/Fairy types from Gen6 - double weakness to Steel. Mimikyu - Ghost/Fairy type from Gen7 - resistance to Poison.By Gen6/7 the game will likely have gone through so many balances and moveset adjustments that it's not even worth speculating. But a Steel attacker will probably be your best bet in those cases.Conclusion So, is it worth having a Steel attacker? Not really. When Gen3 rolls around, Metagross will be a champion Steel attacker, and as the pool of Fairy types slowly increases, Steel will have more uses. For now, the uses for an offensive Steel type are so niche that I think your stardust is better spent on other things.And what of my Scizor? Well, I've left him with the Steel moves for now, but mainly because I'm wanting for TMs. I will probably change him to Bug attacks eventually.Thanks for reading this far. If you have personal experience with a Steel attacker, or would like to add or correct anything, please go ahead! via /r/TheSilphRoad http://ift.tt/2tPLTly