While I don't fully agree with the rankings, I have full respect as for why they have ranked the pokemon the way they do.
You can find it at gamepress.
Their corresponding gym attackers ranking list is out of date though.
Monday, March 06, 2017
Deserves better, slowbro
Today's pick might seem like a strange one. Slowbro comes with abyssmal max CP with a potential just above 2400.
Still, this water / psychic pokemon comes with the same bulk as dragonite and friends, a little over 150 HP.
For primary attacks we have Confusion and Water Gun, making the pick an absolute no-brainer.
Charge attacks are Ice Beam, Psychic and Water Pulse. All three are relatively slow with Psychic the fastest despite being a one bar attack. Normally this would have Psychic the preferred attack, but in a defensive position it's usually favourable to mix attack types, and we're already running with a psychic type primary attack.
All three are perfectly servicable, making slowbro one of the friendliest pokemon to evolve into. As long as you get Confusion as your primary attack you have a quality defender.
Slowbro is one of the pokemon that makes good friends with lapras in a gym designed around lower CP quality defenders. Having to attack into a water type pokemon that hits back with a different attack type is always awkward, and slowbro does this job just as well as lapras.
Still, this water / psychic pokemon comes with the same bulk as dragonite and friends, a little over 150 HP.
For primary attacks we have Confusion and Water Gun, making the pick an absolute no-brainer.
Charge attacks are Ice Beam, Psychic and Water Pulse. All three are relatively slow with Psychic the fastest despite being a one bar attack. Normally this would have Psychic the preferred attack, but in a defensive position it's usually favourable to mix attack types, and we're already running with a psychic type primary attack.
All three are perfectly servicable, making slowbro one of the friendliest pokemon to evolve into. As long as you get Confusion as your primary attack you have a quality defender.
Slowbro is one of the pokemon that makes good friends with lapras in a gym designed around lower CP quality defenders. Having to attack into a water type pokemon that hits back with a different attack type is always awkward, and slowbro does this job just as well as lapras.
Sunday, March 05, 2017
Deserves better, chansey
The next in line of quality defenders that have fallen behind is chansey.
Chansey is different in as much that it's a pokemon with an evolve. It becomes the juggernaut blissey, but chansey still stands on its own in a gym. This is largely due to the absurd HP pool available.
I won't even go into the attacks, because, quite frankly, when it comes to chansey its attacks aren't interesting. It's patently unable to inflict any damage.
You place chansey in a gym because of its huge bulk. Also, you're probably just waiting for enough candy to evolve it into a blissey if you have a chansey worth putting i a gym in the first place, and that evolve will randomise the attacks anyway.
A chansey used for gym battles realistically comes with a CP in the range of 800 to 1100, because if it was any bigger it probably already got evolved to a blissey.
That said it still remains one of the top five defenders in the game. It's perfect in the bouncer role for a gym where you want to focus on pokemon in the 2000 to 2500 range.
If at all possible it should protect the gym in the 40000 to 49000 prestige range.
Chansey is different in as much that it's a pokemon with an evolve. It becomes the juggernaut blissey, but chansey still stands on its own in a gym. This is largely due to the absurd HP pool available.
I won't even go into the attacks, because, quite frankly, when it comes to chansey its attacks aren't interesting. It's patently unable to inflict any damage.
You place chansey in a gym because of its huge bulk. Also, you're probably just waiting for enough candy to evolve it into a blissey if you have a chansey worth putting i a gym in the first place, and that evolve will randomise the attacks anyway.
A chansey used for gym battles realistically comes with a CP in the range of 800 to 1100, because if it was any bigger it probably already got evolved to a blissey.
That said it still remains one of the top five defenders in the game. It's perfect in the bouncer role for a gym where you want to focus on pokemon in the 2000 to 2500 range.
If at all possible it should protect the gym in the 40000 to 49000 prestige range.
Saturday, March 04, 2017
Deserves better, lapras
Next underused good defender is lapras.
Generation 2 brought a brutal nerf to lapras, effectively pushing a high CP defender down to a middling CP one.
This water / ice type pokemon was, and still is, the demise of dragonite. A well over 200 HP bulk allows it to take the punishment while it eats away at its opponent.
Like so many other pokemon lapras comes with a set of legacy moves. They are the primary attack Ice Shard and the charge attack Dragon Pulse. The bad news is that Ice Shard still remains the preferred defensive primary attack.
The optimal setup for a defending legacy lapras is Ice Shard / Ice Beam. It still totally walls an attacking dragonite, even though we have to assume that players have learned never to attack into lapras with a dragonite.
A new lapras can come with Water Gun or Frost Breath as the primary attack. As Frost Breath has become slower it's perfectly servicable as a defensive primary attack. Water Gun is best left to vaporeon.
For charge attacks we have Blizzard, Hydro Pump and Ice Beam.
Blizzard is the one bar ice-type attack preferred when attacking into dragonite. It's a comparatively fast one bar attack, and for that reason servicable in the defensive role.
Hydro Pump, just as is the case with Water Gun, is best left to vaporeon.
Bear in mind, though, that both Water Gun and Hydro Pump is a very, very bad surprise for anyone attacking with rhydon. Not to speak about flareon and arcanine.
Ice Beam is a slow, two bar, attack. While effectively a reduction in dps you still want attackers to spend their time dodging when your defender has access to a hefty HP pool, and for that reason Ice Shard remains the preferred defensive charge attack.
Apart from the legacy move Dragon Pulse, all attacks available to lapras comes with the STAB bonus.
A new lapras should come with Frost Breath and Ice Beam, with Blizzard being a servicable alternative charge attack.
The CP nerf left lapras with the bouncer role. As such it has lost its popularity, but since it still remains one of the top five defenders in the game it's worth designing a gym with lapras in mind.
A 2400 CP or higher lapras defending in the 30000 to 39000 or 40000 to 49000 prestige regions is bad news for an attacker.
The preferred attacker into a lapras is probably a jolteon, since an attacker has to be vary of running into a lapras sporting water type attacks with one of the rock / ground type pokemon, most probably a rhydon. For the same reason attacking with flareon or arcanine has become a lot more iffy than before.
Grass type pokemon, while super effective against lapras, self destructs during the attack since ice attacks are super effective against grass. Most high level players should know this by now.
Generation 2 brought a brutal nerf to lapras, effectively pushing a high CP defender down to a middling CP one.
This water / ice type pokemon was, and still is, the demise of dragonite. A well over 200 HP bulk allows it to take the punishment while it eats away at its opponent.
Like so many other pokemon lapras comes with a set of legacy moves. They are the primary attack Ice Shard and the charge attack Dragon Pulse. The bad news is that Ice Shard still remains the preferred defensive primary attack.
The optimal setup for a defending legacy lapras is Ice Shard / Ice Beam. It still totally walls an attacking dragonite, even though we have to assume that players have learned never to attack into lapras with a dragonite.
A new lapras can come with Water Gun or Frost Breath as the primary attack. As Frost Breath has become slower it's perfectly servicable as a defensive primary attack. Water Gun is best left to vaporeon.
For charge attacks we have Blizzard, Hydro Pump and Ice Beam.
Blizzard is the one bar ice-type attack preferred when attacking into dragonite. It's a comparatively fast one bar attack, and for that reason servicable in the defensive role.
Hydro Pump, just as is the case with Water Gun, is best left to vaporeon.
Bear in mind, though, that both Water Gun and Hydro Pump is a very, very bad surprise for anyone attacking with rhydon. Not to speak about flareon and arcanine.
Ice Beam is a slow, two bar, attack. While effectively a reduction in dps you still want attackers to spend their time dodging when your defender has access to a hefty HP pool, and for that reason Ice Shard remains the preferred defensive charge attack.
Apart from the legacy move Dragon Pulse, all attacks available to lapras comes with the STAB bonus.
A new lapras should come with Frost Breath and Ice Beam, with Blizzard being a servicable alternative charge attack.
The CP nerf left lapras with the bouncer role. As such it has lost its popularity, but since it still remains one of the top five defenders in the game it's worth designing a gym with lapras in mind.
A 2400 CP or higher lapras defending in the 30000 to 39000 or 40000 to 49000 prestige regions is bad news for an attacker.
The preferred attacker into a lapras is probably a jolteon, since an attacker has to be vary of running into a lapras sporting water type attacks with one of the rock / ground type pokemon, most probably a rhydon. For the same reason attacking with flareon or arcanine has become a lot more iffy than before.
Grass type pokemon, while super effective against lapras, self destructs during the attack since ice attacks are super effective against grass. Most high level players should know this by now.
Friday, March 03, 2017
Deserves better, exeggutor
The defenders I'll start upon today aren't nearly as usual as they deserve to be. All of them are better than dragonite, tyranitar, rhydon and gyarados.
Let's start with exeggutor.
Exeggutor comes with a fairly high max CP, capping out at some 2900. It's a grass / psychic pokemon, meaning that you can't brainlessly use a vaporeon and attack into it. Dragonite is a neutral choise, but you'll have to be careful when attacking with the new tyranitar.
The normal pick will be something with fire type attacks, despite exeggutor suffering from double weakness against bug type attacks.
Not so strange, maybe, since there are only two pokemon in the game that could abuse it. Heracross, which is region bound to south and middle America and Ariados, which caps out at 1600 CP.
Exeggutor comes with two legacy primary attacks, Zen Headbutt and Confusion. Of those Confusion is the best for defence, but both a perfectly servicable for defence.
Since the release of gen 2 exeggutor can have Extra Sensory or Bullet Seed for primary attacks. The best defensive move is Extra Sensory, which basically is a marginally boosted Zen Headbutt.
The pick of charge attacks are the same as before, Psychic, Seed Bomb and Solar Beam. Psychic has become a relatively fast one bar attack doing poor dmage, and Solar Beam is a super slow attack doing absurd damage. None are suitable for defence.
Seed Bomb might not look much, but it's a very fast, three bar, attack that will hit over and over and over again. Add the benefit of having two attack-types in a defending position.
Every attack availabe for exeggutor comes with STAB bonus.
The best exeggutor defender out there comes with a legacy Confusion as primary and Seed Bomb as charge attack. If you want to create one today you're stuck with Extra Sensory and Seed Bomb.
Exeggutor shares the weakness of a relatively low HP bulk with several of the most common, ultra high CP, defenders, but in difference from them there isn't a readily available lineup of 2500 CP or higher pokemon attacking for double damage bonus.
Unless you're living surrounded by heracross, in which case exeggutor is dead as a defender.
Exeggutor is best used for mixing into a level 30 style snorlax gym, or a non-maxed exeggutor can take that role in a similar blissey gym. So we're talking 2800 CP exeggutors in the first place and 2600 CP ones in the second.
While exeggutor doesn't make the top five it's still a good defender. Maybe not because of superb stats, but rather because there aren't any really good pokemon out there to abuse its weakness, OK heracross aside.
Let's start with exeggutor.
Exeggutor comes with a fairly high max CP, capping out at some 2900. It's a grass / psychic pokemon, meaning that you can't brainlessly use a vaporeon and attack into it. Dragonite is a neutral choise, but you'll have to be careful when attacking with the new tyranitar.
The normal pick will be something with fire type attacks, despite exeggutor suffering from double weakness against bug type attacks.
Not so strange, maybe, since there are only two pokemon in the game that could abuse it. Heracross, which is region bound to south and middle America and Ariados, which caps out at 1600 CP.
Exeggutor comes with two legacy primary attacks, Zen Headbutt and Confusion. Of those Confusion is the best for defence, but both a perfectly servicable for defence.
Since the release of gen 2 exeggutor can have Extra Sensory or Bullet Seed for primary attacks. The best defensive move is Extra Sensory, which basically is a marginally boosted Zen Headbutt.
The pick of charge attacks are the same as before, Psychic, Seed Bomb and Solar Beam. Psychic has become a relatively fast one bar attack doing poor dmage, and Solar Beam is a super slow attack doing absurd damage. None are suitable for defence.
Seed Bomb might not look much, but it's a very fast, three bar, attack that will hit over and over and over again. Add the benefit of having two attack-types in a defending position.
Every attack availabe for exeggutor comes with STAB bonus.
The best exeggutor defender out there comes with a legacy Confusion as primary and Seed Bomb as charge attack. If you want to create one today you're stuck with Extra Sensory and Seed Bomb.
Exeggutor shares the weakness of a relatively low HP bulk with several of the most common, ultra high CP, defenders, but in difference from them there isn't a readily available lineup of 2500 CP or higher pokemon attacking for double damage bonus.
Unless you're living surrounded by heracross, in which case exeggutor is dead as a defender.
Exeggutor is best used for mixing into a level 30 style snorlax gym, or a non-maxed exeggutor can take that role in a similar blissey gym. So we're talking 2800 CP exeggutors in the first place and 2600 CP ones in the second.
While exeggutor doesn't make the top five it's still a good defender. Maybe not because of superb stats, but rather because there aren't any really good pokemon out there to abuse its weakness, OK heracross aside.
Thursday, March 02, 2017
Common defenders, tyranitar
And here comes the second generation 2 pokemon, tyranitar.
Tyranitar has the highest possible CP of all pokemon obtainable in the game, and for that very reason quite a few caught and unmodified mons have already made their way into gyms.
It's a dark and rock type pokemon.
Primary attacks are Bite and Iron Tail. Bite is a fast attack with STAB, while Iron Tail lacks STAB and is a slow attack. As usual the slow attack is preferred for defence.
Observe that if your metagame is filled with vaporeon the advantage of Iron Tail diminishes as it's ineffective against water.
Charge attacks are Fire Blast, Crunch and Stone Edge. Fire Blast is a no-go, since it lacks STAB, is stupidly slow and does poor damage for the long wait.
Crunch is very slow for a three bar attack, but 70 damage with STAB is brutal when they stack up. At the other hand Stone Edge also comes with STAB and is very fast for a one bar attack, even though the damage done is underwhelming.
I've encountered both, and my personal experience is that I prefer handling a fast one-bar defender compared to having to dodge all over the place. For that reason I recommend Crunch, but then I'm a poor dodger. Stone Edge may very well be the better attack even for a defender.
My recommendation for a defending tyranitar is Iron Tail and Crunch, but I may be wrong here.
Tyranitar comes with over 160 max HP, which makes it a little less squishy than dragonite but still lacking a few HP compared to rhydon.
Tyranitar is another high CP pokemon unsuitable for defence. Vaporeon is supereffective against it, but doesn't destroy a tyranitar the way it crushes rhydon.
So why unsuitable?
High level players have built their decks for handling snorlax. Snorlax is a normal type pokemon making fighting type attacks appealing. In the end machamp just didn't make it, but they're still lying around in the pokedex.
As people get more and more used to seeing tyranitar in gyms it's only a time before players in general find out that tyranitar suffers from double weakness against fighting type attacks. Doing less damage and receiving extra punishment is not acceptable for a defender lacking in bulk.
To add insult to injury the new version of machamp can get a Counter / Close Combat combination, which will quite simply destroy a defending tyranitar. It might even work decently against snorlax.
Tyranitar is best used for the WOW-factor or placed in a remote gym.
Tyranitar has the highest possible CP of all pokemon obtainable in the game, and for that very reason quite a few caught and unmodified mons have already made their way into gyms.
It's a dark and rock type pokemon.
Primary attacks are Bite and Iron Tail. Bite is a fast attack with STAB, while Iron Tail lacks STAB and is a slow attack. As usual the slow attack is preferred for defence.
Observe that if your metagame is filled with vaporeon the advantage of Iron Tail diminishes as it's ineffective against water.
Charge attacks are Fire Blast, Crunch and Stone Edge. Fire Blast is a no-go, since it lacks STAB, is stupidly slow and does poor damage for the long wait.
Crunch is very slow for a three bar attack, but 70 damage with STAB is brutal when they stack up. At the other hand Stone Edge also comes with STAB and is very fast for a one bar attack, even though the damage done is underwhelming.
I've encountered both, and my personal experience is that I prefer handling a fast one-bar defender compared to having to dodge all over the place. For that reason I recommend Crunch, but then I'm a poor dodger. Stone Edge may very well be the better attack even for a defender.
My recommendation for a defending tyranitar is Iron Tail and Crunch, but I may be wrong here.
Tyranitar comes with over 160 max HP, which makes it a little less squishy than dragonite but still lacking a few HP compared to rhydon.
Tyranitar is another high CP pokemon unsuitable for defence. Vaporeon is supereffective against it, but doesn't destroy a tyranitar the way it crushes rhydon.
So why unsuitable?
High level players have built their decks for handling snorlax. Snorlax is a normal type pokemon making fighting type attacks appealing. In the end machamp just didn't make it, but they're still lying around in the pokedex.
As people get more and more used to seeing tyranitar in gyms it's only a time before players in general find out that tyranitar suffers from double weakness against fighting type attacks. Doing less damage and receiving extra punishment is not acceptable for a defender lacking in bulk.
To add insult to injury the new version of machamp can get a Counter / Close Combat combination, which will quite simply destroy a defending tyranitar. It might even work decently against snorlax.
Tyranitar is best used for the WOW-factor or placed in a remote gym.
Wednesday, March 01, 2017
Common defenders, blissey
And here's the new king, or queen if you prefer.
Blissey is the best defender in the game by a very, very, very wide margin. Like snorlax blissey is a normal type pokemon, meaning that it's only weak against fighting. Which means it's effectively not weak against anything you want to bring to combat.
Blissey has Pound and Zen Headbutt as primary attacks. While Zen Headbutt lacks the STAB given to Pound, Zen Headbutt is a slow attack better suitable for defence. I'd say Zen Headbutt is better but not by a huge margin since the STAB bonus for Pound pushes it into a similar range of damage output.
For charge attacks we have Dazzling Gleam, Hyper Beam and Psychic. Under normal circumstances Hyper Beam would have been the best attack, given it's STAB bonus, since Dazzling Gleam is almost as slow. Psychic is just a poor attack.
However, blissey isn't normal. You're not placing a blissey in a gym because of the massive damage output. You're placing it there to consume time. Lots and lots of time. An attacker who ducks risks running out of time, and for that reason Dazzling Gleam is the best charge attack since it is a two bar attack and has to be dodged twice as often as Hyper Beam.
I recommend Zen Headbutt and Dazzling Gleam for blissey. Pound and Hyper Beam are still servicable.
Blissey can get over 400 HP, making it a beast in any gym. Combined with CP among the best you have a clear winner.
Blissey is definitely wasted on a remote gym. The place for this beast is to prove that every gym can stand no matter where it's placed.
Blissey is the best defender in the game by a very, very, very wide margin. Like snorlax blissey is a normal type pokemon, meaning that it's only weak against fighting. Which means it's effectively not weak against anything you want to bring to combat.
Blissey has Pound and Zen Headbutt as primary attacks. While Zen Headbutt lacks the STAB given to Pound, Zen Headbutt is a slow attack better suitable for defence. I'd say Zen Headbutt is better but not by a huge margin since the STAB bonus for Pound pushes it into a similar range of damage output.
For charge attacks we have Dazzling Gleam, Hyper Beam and Psychic. Under normal circumstances Hyper Beam would have been the best attack, given it's STAB bonus, since Dazzling Gleam is almost as slow. Psychic is just a poor attack.
However, blissey isn't normal. You're not placing a blissey in a gym because of the massive damage output. You're placing it there to consume time. Lots and lots of time. An attacker who ducks risks running out of time, and for that reason Dazzling Gleam is the best charge attack since it is a two bar attack and has to be dodged twice as often as Hyper Beam.
I recommend Zen Headbutt and Dazzling Gleam for blissey. Pound and Hyper Beam are still servicable.
Blissey can get over 400 HP, making it a beast in any gym. Combined with CP among the best you have a clear winner.
Blissey is definitely wasted on a remote gym. The place for this beast is to prove that every gym can stand no matter where it's placed.
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