Is there still any point to having ice attacks?

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?

Pleaselog inorregisterto add a comment.

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.

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.

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.