"How the Fairy type changed the balance of the main series games."

IntroI made a post a few months ago showing some results of a battle simulator I made and how I used it to give some insight on what some of the best typing combinations are. The results seems to correlate quite strongly with the competitive scene showing high success rates for some of the most prevalent types out there.Here's a quick preview of the main results:Top 10 Types by Win RateRankTypesWin Rate1Ground / Water67.82%2Flying / Ground67.71%3Flying / Steel67.53%4Fire / Ground67.47%5Dragon / Steel66.24%6Flying / Water65.18%7Grass / Steel64.47%8Fairy / Steel64.35%9Ground / Steel63.76%10Bug / Steel63.35%After a thought occurred to me recently, I came up with the idea of using this to give some insight on the success of the Fairy type and see how it impacted the type chart overall with the changes to the Steel resistances included too.MethodUsing the same script that was used for the previous simulation, I deleted any data for the Fairy type and removed the resistances to Dark and Ghost for the Steel type. Then I ran the simulation again using the same parameters, fixing the base stats to 80.ExpectationsSome of main reasons the Fairy type was introduced was to push some lesser used Pokémon into the spotlight and to provide some balance to type chart. The intended issues being fixed by these changes are: - Give the Dragon type a proper weakness, one that the Dragons can't hit through without some resistance. - Make the Steel type easier to hit through, so many resistances here. - Make the Steel and Poison types better offensively, Poison super effective hits were covered by Fire, Ice, Flying and Bug as were Steel super effective hits by the Fighting type.If the changes made here show in the results and there is a general reduction in the variance of the win rate, I think it is safe to say the Fairy type works as a balancing mechanic.ResultsTop 10 Types Pre Gen 6RankTypesByRatingRatingWin PercentageTypesByDamageInflictedDamageInflictedTypesByDamageReceivedDamageReceived1Flying / Steel108.571.38%Dragon / Water44278.4Flying / Steel29994.52Dragon / Steel107.170.46%Fighting / Ghost42068.6Electric / Steel30310.63Flying / Ground104.168.49%Dragon / Ground41879.4Fire / Steel308654Fire / Ground102.967.70%Dark / Fighting41608.9Ground / Steel31064.65Steel / Water102.567.43%Dragon / Steel41501.2Dragon / Steel31637.96Ground / Water101.866.97%Dragon / Fire41465Steel / Water31718.57Ground / Steel101.266.58%Ground / Ice41446.9Ghost / Steel31732.18Electric / Steel99.965.72%Flying / Ground41366.4Rock / Steel31821.19Dark / Fighting99.965.72%Flying / Water41357.3Flying / Ground32116.510Bug / Steel99.765.59%Steel / Water41048.9Fighting / Steel32444.4Top 10 Types Post Gen 6RankTypesByRatingRatingWin PercentageTypesByDamageInflictedDamageInflictedTypesByDamageReceivedDamageReceived1Ground / Water115.367.82%Flying / Ground60049.2Fairy / Steel39340.92Flying / Ground115.167.71%Fire / Ground59746.3Flying / Steel39847.23Flying / Steel114.867.53%Ground / Ice59472.1Ghost / Steel41795.74Fire / Ground114.767.47%Fairy / Ground58362.4Ground / Steel42177.45Dragon / Steel112.666.24%Ground / Water58180.8Steel / Water425146Flying / Water110.865.18%Ground / Steel57958.2Dragon / Steel42869.97Grass / Steel109.664.47%Flying / Water57313.9Fire / Ground43447.88Fairy / Steel109.464.35%Fairy / Ghost57031.6Fighting / Steel43541.99Ground / Steel108.463.76%Fighting / Ghost56288.5Flying / Ground43887.710Bug / Steel107.763.35%Flying / Steel56209Bug / Steel44028.3Dragon Type StatsTypePre Gen 6 RankPost Gen 6 RankRank DiffPre Gen 6 Win RatePost Gen 6 Win RateWin Rate DiffDragon / Steel25-370.46%66.24%-4.23%Dragon / Water1233-2164.34%56.71%-7.64%Dragon / Ground1942-2360.13%55.35%-4.78%Dragon / Fire3250-1856.91%54.06%-2.85%Dragon / Fighting3380-4756.78%48.82%-7.95%Dragon / Ghost6369-651.84%50.71%-1.14%Dragon / Electric78102-2450.39%45.71%-4.69%Dragon / Rock83110-2749.14%44.47%-4.67%Dragon / Ice91118-2748.03%43.65%-4.38%Dragon / Flying94112-1847.17%44.29%-2.88%Dragon / Bug107135-2845.33%39.41%-5.92%Dragon / Dark109121-1244.87%42.94%-1.93%Dragon122139-1742.50%38.24%-4.26%Dragon / Normal130147-1740.66%35.00%-5.66%Dragon / Psychic132140-840.53%37.88%-2.64%Dragon / Poison1331013240.53%45.94%5.41%Dragon / Grass143148-537.04%34.35%-2.69%Steel Type StatsTypePre Gen 6 RankPost Gen 6 RankRank DiffPre Gen 6 Win RatePost Gen 6 Win RateWin Rate DiffSteel / Flying13-271.38%67.53%-3.85%Steel / Dragon25-370.46%66.24%-4.23%Steel / Water510-567.43%63.12%-4.32%Steel / Ground78-166.58%63.76%-2.81%Steel / Electric811-365.72%62.35%-3.37%Steel / Bug109165.59%63.35%-2.24%Steel / Grass137664.21%64.47%0.26%Steel / Ghost1413163.68%61.06%-2.63%Steel / Fire2025-559.08%57.41%-1.67%Steel / Psychic2255-3358.68%53.29%-5.39%Steel / Fighting2319458.62%59.00%0.38%Steel / Poison2637-1158.03%56.00%-2.03%Steel / Rock2727057.96%57.12%-0.84%Steel / Ice3643-756.45%55.35%-1.09%Steel / Dark37122556.45%61.71%5.26%Steel / Normal4040056.12%55.53%-0.59%Steel7684-850.59%48.00%-2.59%Extra StatsStatisticValueStandard Deviation Win Rate Pre Gen 69.00%Standard Deviation Win Rate Post Gen 68.28%ConclusionSome points that I've taken from this: - Despite the hinderances made to the Steel type's resistances, it's still by far the best defensive type to have. - The Dragon type was quite dominant as an offensive type, although the title for top spot seems to have been claimed by the Ground type. - The only Dragon type combo to benefit from these changes was Dragon / Poison, makes sense really as Poison can hit Fairy super effectively. - The Steel type combo to get hit the hardest was Steel / Psychic, Dark and Ghost becoming weaknesses did it no favours... Poor Metagross and Bronzong :( - The standard deviation of the win rate went down indicating less variance between the quality of the type combos. - The top win rate went down from 71.38% to 67.82% so the spike of best types combos has been flattened.Overall I'd say the changes made in Gen 6 to the type chart were very healthy for Pokémon and provided some much needed balancing in areas that needed it :) Although the competitive scene is much more complex than just a type chart I think this does a decent job of highlighting how the game is impacted by a change in just one mechanic.Hope you all found this interesting :)TDLR: Fairy good. via /r/pokemon https://ift.tt/36QYSHF