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.