Gym defenders, lineup July 27 2017

Since Niantic tends to change mechanics on very short notice I have to time stamp this post.

The list depends on remote feeding gyms working again, which it currently does.

There are quite a few conditions that have to be met for this list:

• You're level 37 or higher
• You've maxed out 25 or more pokemon (or at least brought them to the most useful cut-off level)
• You're playing with a raid team that's fairly well cordinated
• You're boss raiding often enough to have a surplus of Golden Razz Berries
• Remote feeding defenders work at least at distances you can see in-game

So, that's the ground work. Let's assume the conditions above are met. That way a number of secondary aspects also kick in:

• You can afford at least five defenders
• Your defenders should be maxed out
• We're calling bullshit on the CP 3000 limit for defending pokemon
• You have access to a line-up of 20 attackers, which is the bare minimum for a smooth boss raiding experience

The ultimate defending line-up:

• 2 Blissey, ZH/DG
• 2 Snorlax, ZH/BS (legacy), ZH / HS or HB (current moves)
• 1 Lapras, Any combination of ice moves

If you can afford another five defenders:

• 1 Vaporeon, WG/AT
• 1 Slowbro, Confusion / WP or IB
• OR
• 1 Slowking, Confusion / any charge move
• 1 Steelix, IT / HS
• 1 Exeggutor, any psychic primary / Seed Bomb
• 1 Arcanince, Snarl / WC

The last two defenders in the 'affordable five' really is your personal pick. I just chose two defenders that screw attackers over a little extra since they're likely to break typing in a gym.

Wild Charge for Arcanine is a nasty response to the likely water type attackers.

If you have the opportunity to add a pokemon into a gym which is already populated by Blissey, Snorlax, Lapras and Vaporeon, then by all means bring in defenders with moves attackers are unlikely to expect. Especially if those moves have a higher statistical chance of being super effective against an attacker.

Well, that's the line-up.

You're home free with five to eight defenders depending on how you pick your gyms. Anything above eight is exessive unless you're in the game for territory, and I'll wait with analysing territory until the warm summers' days are only a memory.

Now, why do I call bullshit on the CP 3000 limit? Well, with remote feeding a raid team is able to rotate gym feeding among team members. There are after all six defending pokemon inside, and added to those actively feeding the gym you have the occasional passerby who'll use the gym as a berry dumpster.

If the gym is attacked immediately the strongest defender is, well, the strongest defender. It's not like it's losing motivation by the hundreds every minute.

It's visually more attractive to feed a pokemon with visibly lowered motivation.

There's an extremely small chance of getting a candy when feeding. Players should feed more often to increase the aggregate chance to receive one.

Keep team members motivated to feed the gyms by visually seeing that their berries count.