On June 27 2010 00:21 XtrEEmMaShEEN3k2 wrote:
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Being a "Bug" type in and of itself is not a "weak" type. Bug is often a very helpful secondary type.
Offensively, Bug has fairly decent coverage, hitting Psychics, Plants, and Darks for super effective. Heracross, for example, as a Bug/Fighting type, was one of the best physical attackers in the game in the II and III generations, and the Bug typing goes fairly well with the Fighting typing, since its Bug attacks will ward off Psychics that hurt Fighting types. Fighting also gives Bugs a way to deal with Steel and Rock types.
Defensively, Bug is also okay with a few key resistances against Fighting, Ground, and, to a lesser extent, Grass (which isn't that great of an offensive type). Fortress, for example, is one of the best defensive monsters in the game, seeing play in both OU and even Ubers. Being Bug/Steel, it has a total of 9 resistances and only 1 weakness, allowing it to Tank attacks while being a good Support Pokemon. Scizor shares its typing and is used more for Tankish offense, being able to switch in and deal a lot of damage.
The PROBLEM with a lot of bugs though that they often have a secondary typing that's a piece of **** with Bug. The particularly large number of Bug/Flying types is notorious for this. Both Bug and Flying are fairly good defensive types. Put together, though, they're ABSOLUTELY horrible defensively, as they don't cover their weaknesses very well because they LITERALLY resist the same types (the Flying additionally resists Bug and is IMMUNE to Ground), but a lot of different resistances among the two, so they are shared when put into 1 Pokemon. 4x weakness to Rock is particularly jarring. With Stealth Rock in play, all Bug/Flying types lose 50% every time they switch in. Why Nintendo keeps literally spamming Bug/Flying types is mind-boggling.
Parsect's Bug/Plant typing isn't AS bad, as its resistances aren't as redundant. The problem is while Bug is an okay defensive type, plant is a pretty bad defensive type. Like Bug/Flying, when these types are put together, their weaknesses are particularly magnified. Six weaknesses, particularly TWO 4x weaknesses to Flying and Fire. The Fire weakness is particularly notable. One of Parasect's 2 possible abilities is Dry Skin. While Dry Skin gives it an immunity to Water (which, again, is kind of redundant with its Plant typing), it also gives Parasect the ONLY 8x weakness in the game, to Fire.
As mentioned before, while Bug is an okay-good Offense type, Plant isn't particularly good. As you mentioned, Parasect's low stats don't exactly help it either. It being one of the slowest Pokemon in the game doesn't help it either. Its only saving grace is that it's only of the only 2 Pokemon in the game to learn Spore, and even then, Breloom is always going to be the better choice, unless you're going for a gimmicky Kyogre counter.
Its "skills" wont help bring down anything. Its poor defenses prevent it from doing anything with "leech his opponent’s health away", and its poor speed makes it unlikely to hit anything before it dies after it "amplifies its power". It's just an overall bad Pokemon.
Sorry, Pokemon nerdiness seeping into this discussion.
+ Show Spoiler +
Being a "Bug" type in and of itself is not a "weak" type. Bug is often a very helpful secondary type.
Offensively, Bug has fairly decent coverage, hitting Psychics, Plants, and Darks for super effective. Heracross, for example, as a Bug/Fighting type, was one of the best physical attackers in the game in the II and III generations, and the Bug typing goes fairly well with the Fighting typing, since its Bug attacks will ward off Psychics that hurt Fighting types. Fighting also gives Bugs a way to deal with Steel and Rock types.
Defensively, Bug is also okay with a few key resistances against Fighting, Ground, and, to a lesser extent, Grass (which isn't that great of an offensive type). Fortress, for example, is one of the best defensive monsters in the game, seeing play in both OU and even Ubers. Being Bug/Steel, it has a total of 9 resistances and only 1 weakness, allowing it to Tank attacks while being a good Support Pokemon. Scizor shares its typing and is used more for Tankish offense, being able to switch in and deal a lot of damage.
The PROBLEM with a lot of bugs though that they often have a secondary typing that's a piece of **** with Bug. The particularly large number of Bug/Flying types is notorious for this. Both Bug and Flying are fairly good defensive types. Put together, though, they're ABSOLUTELY horrible defensively, as they don't cover their weaknesses very well because they LITERALLY resist the same types (the Flying additionally resists Bug and is IMMUNE to Ground), but a lot of different resistances among the two, so they are shared when put into 1 Pokemon. 4x weakness to Rock is particularly jarring. With Stealth Rock in play, all Bug/Flying types lose 50% every time they switch in. Why Nintendo keeps literally spamming Bug/Flying types is mind-boggling.
Parsect's Bug/Plant typing isn't AS bad, as its resistances aren't as redundant. The problem is while Bug is an okay defensive type, plant is a pretty bad defensive type. Like Bug/Flying, when these types are put together, their weaknesses are particularly magnified. Six weaknesses, particularly TWO 4x weaknesses to Flying and Fire. The Fire weakness is particularly notable. One of Parasect's 2 possible abilities is Dry Skin. While Dry Skin gives it an immunity to Water (which, again, is kind of redundant with its Plant typing), it also gives Parasect the ONLY 8x weakness in the game, to Fire.
As mentioned before, while Bug is an okay-good Offense type, Plant isn't particularly good. As you mentioned, Parasect's low stats don't exactly help it either. It being one of the slowest Pokemon in the game doesn't help it either. Its only saving grace is that it's only of the only 2 Pokemon in the game to learn Spore, and even then, Breloom is always going to be the better choice, unless you're going for a gimmicky Kyogre counter.
Its "skills" wont help bring down anything. Its poor defenses prevent it from doing anything with "leech his opponent’s health away", and its poor speed makes it unlikely to hit anything before it dies after it "amplifies its power". It's just an overall bad Pokemon.
Sorry, Pokemon nerdiness seeping into this discussion.
I think you're pretty much only talking about all of the Pokemon that came after the first 151. Bug-types from Pokemon Red and Blue got owned pretty hard in general, since they were only super-effective against Psychic... and they were usually too weak to stand up to Psychic Pokemon anyway, since almost all Bug-types were also Poison-types. (But not Hyukasect!) As you mentioned, the other type in the dual-type Pokemon could do more harm than good, but Bug was still generally considered a pretty crappy type. There were a lot of little Bug Pokemon, but not that many useful strengths or attacks. I guess they made them stronger later on, but come on now... who cares about the other Pokemon?
OP is awesome; Hyukasect ftw.