Is there still any point to having ice attacks?

Question

This question is more about the attacks, rather than ice type Pokémon, as Lapras (IN MY OPINION) is still a horrible wall to bring down. Back in gen 1, ice beam was by far the best option against Dragonite (although rock slide was also a threat), and being frozen by your mate in a link battle meant your Pokémon may as well have been fainted. Now, with a range of powerful fighting and fire type attacks/Pokémon, fairy types and better dragon type attacks to cover dragons, a 'frozen' status that lasts less time than the 'sleep' status (despite there still being no attack with 100% chance of freezing), and a very specialised battle plan being required to take advantage of hail, I wonder if ice has lost it's 'sparkle'. And if so, what would you replace an ice type with?

Comments

ice is still good. I have two Pokemon on my cometitive team that carry Ice Beam, which I use frequently to bring down big Dragon threats. I also only have one dragon type move on my entire team, (seeing as ice does just as well taking down Dragons as well as other threats) which the pokemon that knows it only sees use around half of the time while my two Ice Beam pokemon come out more frequently to battle.

---

Ice will always be a solid type. It has coverage against Ground, Grass, Flying and Dragon. Most of the attacks are solid and it has some really good Pokémon e.g Lapras,

Answer 1

Well, sure there's a point. It might seem like ice isn't relevant anymore, but I think it is. Only Ice attacks have freeze hacks, but ice has a lot of weaknesses, so I don't recoment a pure Ice type, but if you can pull it off, go for it.

Comments

I find it ironic that you put less effort into this answer than Jade and I put into our comments.

---

sumwun. your comment should be an answer.

---

fine. have it your way.

Answer 2

Ice is only paralleled by rock for super effective coverage. Fire, ground, and fighting may be strong against more types, but there are types and/or abilities that grant immunities to fire, ground, and fighting attacks. You will battle more Pokemon with quadruple ice weaknesses, as ground Pokemon and dragon Pokemon are common in many competitive battling formats. Most Pokemon with quadruple rock weaknesses are bug flying types that are all outclassed by mega Pinsir.

Answer 3

Today in the metagame, Ice types are more useful for coverage rather than on ice Pokemon or as filler moves. Ice Beam/Punch are very good coverage moves, and with the (small) freeze chance, you could change the game around. To be honest, the move depends on the Pokemon. For example, Icicle crash is good on Mamoswine, but not weavile. Weavile needs to attack quick, so ice shard is good.

By the way Lapras is not bad, you're probably not using a good set.

Comments

But Weavile already outspeeds just about every Pokemon...

---

no no, lapras is horrible to BEAT, not use. It's a good wall

---

Since when is icicle crash bad on Weavile? I’ve run a Weavile with both, it worked fine. Ice shard was a revenge Killy thing. And sumwun is right, Weavile is fast as frick.