Question

I've played a lot of pokemon games, and all of them have moves that inflict every status problem, sleep, burn, confusion, infatuation, paralasis, and poison, but no move that freezes the foe on contact. many moves have -may freeze the target- as an added affect but no move that has freezing as its sole purpose, like toxic. or will-o-the wisp. Why is that?

Answer 1

Freeze is the most powerful effect is why. It completely stops the foe from attacking, and it takes a lot longer than Sleep to get rid of. It would be too unfair to have more than a 30% chance to freeze (which I think is the max with Tri Attack.)

Edit: A frozen Pokemon has a 10% chance each turn to defrost while a Sleeping Pokemon wakes up in 1-7 turns (always two using Rest.) A frozen Pokemon can end up being frozen past 7 turns.

Comments

Really?, ive had sleep last longer sometimes, but then again sleep is strategic in the sense that rest is good, and you can snore and sleep talk

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There are ways to get rid of Freeze. A fire type attack on a frozen Pokemon will get rid of the Freeze. Some Pokemon have abilities lik SHed Skin which get rid of Freeze. Also, when it is Sunny, the frozen Pokemon defrosts. Also some berries heal freezing, as do some items. If the frozen Pokemon uses Flame Whel or Sacred Fire it will defrost. And having an ally use a move like Heal Bell will to. You are right that the opponent can still attack when sleeping, although not many people use Snore (too low power) Sleep Talk and Rest is a popular combination. Nothing can attack while they are frozen except for Pokemon with Flame Wheel (which is very rare) and Ho-oh (which is rare except in the Uber enviroment).

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Also note some important downsides to other status inflictions:

Burn: Pokemon that have Guts or are Fire types are immune.
Paralysis: Pokemon still have a 75% chance of attacking, plus some of the really fast ones are able to still go first, as do priority moves.
Poison: Poison and Steel types are immune.
Sleep: Pokemon can still use Sleep Talk.
Infatuation: Pokemon of the opposite gender and genderless Pokemon are immune, whic makes this really useless in the Uber enviroment especially.
Confusion: Ends when the Pokemon switches out, and only lasts for up to four turns. The most reliable way to confuse (besides the rare Teeter Dance), Swagger, also raises the foes Attack.
Curse: Can only be afflicted by a Ghost type and really damages the user.

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Fun fact about Tri-Attack: the 30% extra effect is spread across the three possibilities, resulting in only 10% chance for each. Pretty lame, huh? =/

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Oh, I didn't know that. I thought it was 30% for each. That is lame then. Oh well, still a nice Special Attack for Normal types like Porygon.

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Tri Attack is actually 20% chance, so Freeze is actually 6.666666666666666666666666666666...% chance

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no tri attack is 30%