Defenders Tier List
What are your expectations of the new Defenders Tier List?
Am I missing something?
Tier 1:
Blissey, Snorlax
Tier 1.5
Exeggutor, Vaporeon, Ampharos, Dragonite
Tier 2:
Lapras, Miltank(?), Slowbro, Porygon2(??), Tyranitar
Answers
Thanks for this constructive comment.
I think it will be almost as stated above. I'm really wondering where Lapras will sit with the last nerf... RIP my buddy.
Porygon2: Is it a good defender? I have never seen one yet and his moveset don't seem great. Any thoughts?
Maybe we can put Poliwrath somewhere despite his low CP?
Am I missing something?
Yes. Gyarados and Rhydon are missing. They may not be the best defenders, but as they sit in virtually every gym, you cannot ignore them.
Lapras, Slowbro, Steelix, Porygon2, Cloyster, Tentacruel..... all these good defenders are now tier 3 because of their low CP.
Concidering damage done, until it faints (without types), I give you top 10 defenders (Each species only once, second best moveset ignored) as
1 Blissey (ZH / HB)
2 Dragonite (DT / OR)
3 Lapras (IS / IB)
4 Snorlax (ZH / BS)
5 Tyranitar (IT/ Cr)
6 Exeggutor (ZH/SB) Edit: Confusion
7 Rhydon (MS/SE)
8 Jolteon (VS/Di) !!
9 Golem (MS/AP)
10 Gyarados (DT/OR)
Where 2,5,6,7,9,10 are double week to something.
Jolteon with its new Volt Switch is a real surprise for me.
Vape is very low. I explain it as follows:
Its quick attack is very week on defense now. So it does its damage almost only with charged attacks on defense.
Vape has a high stamina, and gets much energy when it takes damage. This is not concidered im this calculation. So vaporeon is better than its position implies. (same applies for blissey, lapras and snorlax; Jolteon and Exeggutor - on the other hands side - do not profit very much from this effect and move down.)
Using Time to Kill metrics from Pokebattler, http://pokebattler.com/rankings/defenders/levels/40/attackers/levels/30/strategies/DEFENSE/DODGE_SPECIALS?sort=TIME
Blissey
Snorlax
Umbreon :)
Steelix
Vaporeon
Lapras
Wobuffet
Milktank
Tyranitar
Muk
Rhydon
I like that now you have more options based on the type of defence you like and how knowledgeble your "attackers" are:
1. Highest CP - i.e Rhydon/Gya
2. Consume time for the other team: i.e. Steelix, Umbreon until you learn to conter them
3. Consume potion for the other team: i.e. Exeggutor, Slowbro
And there a a certain few that works for every aspect: Blissey, Snorlax, even Dragonite
Thanks for the tentative list.
Tier 1: I can only agree
Tier 1.5: yep, but I have never battled against Ampharos, is he really that good??
Tier 2: I am sceptical about Poygon2. As for Tyranitar, IMO it is really an attacker, not a great defender. Seems to me he falls into the same Tier as Rhydon (that is absent of your list).
Re Rhydon and Gyarados: not great defenders, IMO Tier 3...
Tier 0: Blissey
Tier 1: Snorlax, Vaporeon, Lapras (still)
Tier 1.5 (Strong Pokemon with one double weakness): Dragonite, Tyranitar, Eggs
Tier 2: Donphan, Heracross, Rhydon, Feraligatr, Typhlosion, Machamp
Tier 2.5 (glass cannons): Alakazam, Espeon, Scizor
Tier 3: Venusaur, Charizard, Jolteon, Ursaring, Golem etc. (Pokemon with 2500-2600 Cp and not very big stamina)
Tier 3.5: Poliwrath, Slowbro, Slowking, Clefable etc. (Pokiemon with 2300-2500 Cp)
guess so
I agree with most of it. I think Gyarados should be included though. Possibly Ursaring, Heracross, Donphan, and Espeon although I don't know much about how they will perform. They might all be more suited for attacking. Like Bruno eluded to, many will be useful just because of their very high CP (Tyranitar, Rhydon, to a lesser extent Dragonite) even though there are better choices in terms of how well they actually do. On the other hand many others will not be selected even though they could be good (Slowbro, Omastar, Lapras) just because their CP would put them on the bottom rungs.
I have just asked a similar question.
I do not think that Ampharos or Exeggutor are good defenders. They only have half the tankiness of Snorlax and a quarter of the tankiness of Blissey.
I made Blissey Tier 1
No Tier 1.5 since there is nothing close to Blissey
Tier 2: Snorlax and Chansey
Tier 3: Pokemons with high tankiness. CP for getting a spot above the Chanseys is probably more important.
I wish it were that way... unfortunately tankiness doesn't get you that far in the gym defense meta, outside of blissey and snorlax (RIP lapras). I haven't got the data to back this up but imo there's a range of attackers with stats so high that, unless ur facing a big fat wall, nothing will stop you.
cloyster, for example, is very tanky but against a top tier attacker, especially with type advantage, doesn't last too long. it is, therefore, more desirable to have something that hits hard with gym AI, such as exeggutor, over something with high def/sta.
