The finer points of kamikaze

There honestly isn't much in the way of different tactics after you've picked your attacker and are on your way into the fight.

Basically we have dodge everything, dodge charge attacks and kamikaze.

One would think that a player who picks a kamikaze approach is left without anything resembling options after the fight has started. However, in reality things aren't that easy.


We need to understand the game mechanics here. Quite often I've see the term cool down being used for the pokemon charge attacks. That term is, as far as most old school gamers go, incorrectly used.

Coold down is the time from some defined starting point (for example the time since your last spell took effect) until the same ability can be attempted again.

In Pokemon Go only defending pokemon in gyms have a cool down. I've read numbers varying from 1.2 up to 1.6 seconds. The exact number isn't important for this article, but let's assume the number is 1.5 seconds. That means that after your attacker has taken damage it takes 1.5 seconds before the defending pokemon is allowed to start attempting the next attack.


So, cool down was the incorrect term. What is the correct one then?


Cast time. Cast time in general means the time from when an ability is attempted until it has taken effect.

In Pokemon Go this is the time it takes from when you (succesfully) tap the screen until the attack goes off. During this time your attacking pokemon is locked in place and can't do anything, like dodge for example.


This is where the finer points of kamikaze come in.

Let's have a look at machamp, or the attacks Counter and Dynamic Punch to be more exact. Counter comes with a 0.9 second cast time, and Dynamic Punch takes 2.7 seconds to take effect.

Now let's have a look at blissey, or its best charge attack specifically. Dazzling Gleam comes with a 3.5 second cast time.

This means that unless your energy bar is at fifty points it's impossible to fire off a Counter and a Dynamic Punch during the time it takes the defender to cast Dazzling Gleam.


Effectively this means that when your health is low enough for the announced Dazzling Gleam to send your attacker unconcious you should almost never attempt to start attacking with Dynamic Punch when you notice an incoming Dazzling Gleam. You'll be spending a small or large fraction of 2.7 seconds doing zero damage before going down. Better keep tapping away those 0.9 second Counters unstead.


I won't even try to argue why firing off that 3.9 second Outrage with your attacking dragonite is an excersise in futility against just about any existing charge attack in the game hellbent on knocking your nite out.

Clefable, the surprise defender

In the current gym battle meta an attacker is likely to line up machamps and burn right through the gym.

The main reason is that machamp is SE against blissey, snorlax, chansey, tyranitar, steelix and lapras.

Seen any of those in a gym lately?


How to hurt an attacker when it looks like this?


If you arrive alone at a gym you're limited to dropping something inside and have to rely on what's already there. Well, unless you're the player tearing the gym down, in which case you'll probably drop a blissey or snorlax inside to give fellow team members a little extra time to fill the gym up.


If you're a party then it's time to design the gym. Most definitely so of you're four or more players.

The trick is to mix up the typing, which is why a dragonite or gyardos no longer is a total waste of defensive space when placed between one of the big three, blissey, snorlax and chansey.


And then there is the surprise defender.

Clefable.

It has a semi decent bulk which is further increased by the fact that basically no attacker will go to the lengths of digging up a poison or steel type attacker. Thus clefable should only see neutral incoming damage.

With access to the same defensive moveset as blissey, Zen Headbutt and Dazzling Gleam, funny things happen should an unwary attacker throw a cursory glance at the pink defender and go to work with a machamp.

Fighting type attacks are ineffective versus fairy type pokemon, basically adding bulk to clefable to the degree that it almost stands side by side with snorlax should the attacker commit this mistake.

To add insult to injury clefable comes with almost 50 percent more attack compared to blissey, which means that Zen Headbutt will hit a lot harder. Add STAB on top of that to Dazzling Gleam and you can expect an attacking machamp to be utterly destroyed by the first charge attack.


Even when your trick is detected you'll still force the attacker to switch pokemon back and forth between machamp and a gym sweeper of some kind.

Should that sweeper be a dragonite then it'll meet almost the same fate as machamp since dragon type attacks are ineffective against fairy type pokemon and fairy type attacks are SE against dragon type pokemon. Zen Headbutt does neutral damage to dragonite though.

And here comes the killer.

The same goes for tyranitar as well. While it'll take next to no damage from Zen Headbutt tyranitar's dark type attacks are ineffective against fairy type pokemon, and when that Dazzling Gleam goes off funny things happen to the health bar of the attacker since fairy type attacks are SE against dark type pokemon.


Raikou, groudon and kyogre should move through your clefable more easily, and the same goes for mewtwo for those lucky enough to have one. Still, most players won't have one of those in their gym raiding lineup.

Kyogre raid boss

Seems there are still some questions about how to handle it.

Basically, if it has Blizzard as a charge move you might want to rethink your lineup.


Raikou is always good, so if you have a good one put it to use.


Jolteon, victrebeel and sceptile are good as a first attacker no matter the moveset of Kyogre.



Non-blizzard:

• Zapdos
• Exeggutor
• Venusaur

Blizzard (if you care about incoming damage):

• Groudon with Solar Beam
• Kyogre with Thunder
• Ho-Oh with Solar Beam

Personally I run with the same lineup no matter what. Jolteon first, then Victrebeel and after that Zapdos and Exeggutor. The cost in potions and revives is massive against Blizzard, so you might not want to do this. My reason is that I prioritise damage done over damage taken, and hence the preferred Blizzard-alternatives are a no-go as far as I'm concerned.

Harder than beating the boss is catching it. Switch AR on and off and it'll reset in the centre for an easier throw.

New package deals

So, with the arrival of Kyogre as a raid boss we also have three new package deals.

Special Box, 480 coins:

• 5 incense
• 6 premium raid pass
• 10 pinab berry

Great box, 780 coins:

• 9 premium raid pass
• 10 pinab berry
• 10 star piece

Ultra box, 1480 coins:

• 6 lucky egg
• 6 max revive
• 15 premium raid pass
• 20 star piece

This time each deal is a great deal for its intended user.

The boss raider on a budget can't go wrong with the Special box. 600 coins' worth of premium raid passes at a 120 coin discount. 5 incense is just icing on the cake.

If you're boss raiding but also spend a lot of time throwing poke balls at pokemon, then the Great box is perfect. 900 coins worth of premium raid passes at a 120 coin discount. Add 10 star pieces and you have five hours' worth of 150% stardust for free.

The Ultra box comes with 6 lucky eggs. That's either a bonus or detracts from the value. If you're totally uninterested in XP then that's 6 units of bag space you need to free up.

15 premium raid passes at a 20 coin discount is fair enough since you also receive a whopping 20 star pieces. I personally value the max revives at exactly zero coins despite the shop selling them for 180 coins. If you're interested in lucky eggs this is the best deal.