>>43783777Before Gen 4. All moves of certain types used only one attack stat.
For example all water, fire, electric, etc type moves were special attacks, while all ground, ghost, steel, etc were physical.
The special split made it so the type of attack it was isn't decided by the type but rather the move itself, so something like shadow ball could be special while waterfall could be physical when previously they were stuck as a certain type of move.
