5 Pokemon Unite licenses that need a nerf (April 2023)

Balancing in any competitive video game can be a nightmare, and this is especially true with Pokemon Unite, the first MOBA game for the Pokemon franchise. Since this is the series' first dip into the MOBA genre, there are bound to be a few factors that need to be ironed out, and character balancing is a great place to start.

As new characters are introduced to the game, controversy often follows, so it's important for the balancing team of a game like Pokémon Unite to learn from their mistakes and make adjustments accordingly. The current state of Unite leaves a lot of players feeling like they lose the game at the character selection itself, which is never a good sign.

As of now, some of the characters in Pokémon Unite are in need of nerfs as they are overly oppressive for a variety of reasons. For this list, there will also be some changes pitched for each pick to get a better idea of what exactly needs to change to achieve a balance for the beloved MOBA title.

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5 Pokemon Unite creatures that need to get nerfed in April 2023

1) Zacian

Zacian as it appears in the anime (Image via The Pokemon Company)

Zacian has very strong fundamental issues with her kit in Pokemon Unite that have yet to be fixed. Being a Legendary Pokemon, she is bound to have incredibly high base stats that make for a smoother early-game. However, creatures of a similar status that do not require evolutions, like Buzzwole, typically fall off during the late game.

Zacian's high base stats and her access to powerful area damage make her scale well by participating in team fights. A good way to even her power out a bit in the late game would be to lower the passive increase in her attacks per level-up while also providing the same changes to her defense. This would add some risk for taking all-ins early and provide a more balanced gameplay experience.

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2) Goodra

Goodra as it appears in the anime (Image via The Pokemon Company)

Goodra still has a few "new character" powers in Pokemon Unite, resulting in it being the best defender in the game at the moment. While what they were going for with Goodra's kit is not broken in practice, the dragon has a bit too much sustain for the current metagame. This is thanks to the second part of its passive, Gooey.

A big part of what makes Goodra such an oppressive tank is the health regen it receives from this passive ability. When in patches of grass, Goodra will heal for a large percentage of its missing health. As such, a good place to start when nerfing Goodra would be to slightly decrease the amount of healing it receives from Gooey.

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3) Sylveon

Sylveon as it appears in the anime (Image via The Pokemon Company)

Sylveon is currently one of the scariest snowball picks in Pokemon Unite. This is thanks to how easy it is to stack its passive, which increases special defense and special attack with each stack. This is very easy to stack if players take Mystical Fire, which allows for multiple damage procs in one cast.

The best way to balance Sylveon out would be to put a cooldown on how often players can stack Sylveon's Pixilate passive. Adding even a one-second cooldown on each stack of Sylveon's passive would make its all-in snowball playstyle much riskier, resulting in an attacker that is more fair to play against.

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4) Greninja

Greninja as it appears in the anime (Image via The Pokemon Company)

Greninja is one of the most infuriating creatures to play against in all of Pokemon Unite. Being a hyper-mobile character with dashes, stealth moves, a way to blind opponents, and being able to create fake copies of itself allows it to shred opponents if they make one wrong move in a fight.

Since Greninja is a character that rewards skilled players, a great way to nerf Greninja without lowering its skill ceiling is to increase the cooldown on Water Shuriken, while possibly lowering the amount of health it gives back, making all-ins more of a high-risk, high-reward scenario in Pokemon Unite.

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5) Urshifu

Urshifu as it appears in the anime (Image via The Pokemon Company)

Single-Strike Urshifu has been a bit too oppressive in the current state of Pokemon Unite. Since it is a build that sits in the jungle, it can seem a bit unfair to get one-shotted by the enemy before you even see what hit you. This is a playstyle Single-Strike Urshifu tends to aim for, so a good course of action would be to nerf Single-Strike, while giving players a bit more incentive to try Rapid-Strike.

Single-Strike Urshifu is a high-burst character in Pokemon Unite that has a large weakness against opponents with crowd control. Punishing players that pick the wrong fights would be a great way to increase Single-Strike Urshifu's skill ceiling, so lowering Single's base defense may be worth considering. Leaving Rapid-Strike as it is if this change goes into effect may convince players to give the other form a try.