Introduction

Many Pokemons have great stats, great potential, but a suboptimal movepool, resulting in suboptimal performance. Now, we’ll analyse some of these pokemons, and see how far they can actually get

Slaking

Slaking is a Pokemon with Great Potential, having a 290 Attack stat, one of the highest among non-legendary/non-mega evolutions. Unfortunately, it has Yawn as fast move, the worst possible move, as it does 1 damage per time and has pitful energy gain. Also, as it is Normal Typed, which is a huge disadvantage as normal moves are not effective against anything. Even if it has charged moves of other types, the moves aren’t boosted by STAB, reducing its viability. I am investigating on how slaking’s viability can increase by changing its movepool.

New Fast Move

We introduce Lock-On as the fast move, a move that doesn’t do much damage itself but has a ridiculously high energy gain.

Potential Ice Type Attacker?

Why?

  • Ice type is one of the weaker types in pokemon go
  • Ice type is quite useful in raids, as many strong pokemons are doubly weak to it, such as rayquaza, dragonite, etc

Ice Type Charged Move

We introduce an Ice Type move called Ice Blast. It has the same parameters as Aeroblast++, one of the strongest charged moves in the game.

Simulation

I use This Website for simulation

Note that I included Pound, “Ice Counter”, A Normal type move with same parameters as the fighting move Counter

Slacking is ONE OF THE best ice type with this ridiculously good move, having roughly 20-30% better bulk while only trailing behind slightly in damage

Other Ice Moves?

With Lock On + Avalanche, it is a decently good ice attacker, around the same as glaceon, which isn’t that good to start with. It is bulky, however. Pound + Avalanche is even weaker, but not by too much, surprisingly

Potential Ghost Type Anchor

Why?

  • Slaking is doubly resisting ghost type moves
  • It can become an anchor, like Lugia

Ghost Type Charged Move

We introduce an Ghost Type move called Ghost Blast. It has the same parameters as Aeroblast++, one of the strongest charged moves in the game.

Simulation

Its Damage is strictly inferior:

However it has a good \(\text{TDO}\)

TDO stands for Total Damage Output

However It as a high ER \((\text{DPS}^3 \times \text{TDO})^\frac{1}{4}\), which makes it viable (or even optimal) in many-person raids, if you don’t want to use/ don’t have energy for your primal groudon.

Below provides an insight on why using ER as a metric, and its importance: Reasons for using ER

Fairy Type

  • Reason: Fairy type is extremely weak
  • Relevant Raids: Hydreigon

Fairy Type Charged Move

We introduce an Fairy Type move called Ghost Blast. It has the same parameters as Aeroblast++, one of the strongest charged moves in the game.

Simulation

Slaking immediately becomes stronger than Mega Gardevoir, with a slightly lower \(\text{DPS}\) but a higher bulk, resulting in a higher ER. It has a \(31.6%\) higher DPS than the next non-mega and non-shadow pokemon, Gardevoir.

Note: Lock-On with the existing move, Play Rough is also quite potent.

Conclusion

Slaking is a pokemon with real potential. Despite without STAB, if it has good charged moves, it can potentially become one of the best pokemons in the whole game. However, I don’t see this happening because Slaking is essentially the lazy pokemon, well known for being bulky and powerful but extremely lazy. I hope this analysis does provide you with some entertainment, however. See you next time around!

Shadow Articuno

Articuno is my favouite pokemon

It’s shadow form is a huge improvement over its base form, however, its DPS is still lacklustre.

New Charged Move

I’ll introduce Sheer Cold as its charged move:

  • Sheer Cold is a move learnable by Articuno
  • I will assume it has the same parameters as Glaciate
  • Unlike Ice Blast, Sheer Cold isn’t very broken
  • Kyurem has this move also

Simulation

With Sheer Cold (Indicated as Glaciate), Shadow Articuno becomes the 7th strongest Ice typed Pokemon, with a DPS between Mega Glalie and Mega Abomasnow. However, what’s impressive is that it has the 2nd highest TDO, just behind Mega Gardevoir, which has a low DPS! This makes shadow Articuno an amazing anchor.

Suggested PVE Attacker Tier list Ranking: B+/A

Shadow Hitmonlee

Hitmonlee has stats, and fighting type pokemons don’t need a high attack stat to stand out (from my experience, 240 in fighting is top tier, while 270/280 is stil outclassed as a psychic type attacker)

Moveset

Consider shadow hitmonlee. I’ll give hitmonlee counter+ dynamic punch, the standard strong fighting moveset (Sacred Sword is MUCH stronger, but unfortunately is too OP)

Simulation

Shadow Hitmonlee has now the 7th higher DPS, close to keldeo, which is impressive.

However, its bulk is really low, so consider it as a glass cannon

Suggested PVE Attacker Tier List Ranking: B+

Shadow Salamence

Shadow Salamence is one of the strongest dragonite type Pokemons, having the the second highest dragon-typed DPS of all time, just lagging behind Mega Rayquaza by a bit. It is a bit squishy but nevertheless it serves well.

What if it has flying type moves? Will it make it a viable flying type attacker?

From the main series, it can learn Air Slash and Aerial Ace. Against Machamp, this will give it a 33.519 DPS, behind Shadow Moltres (37.481) and Mega Rayquaza (35.282). However, if it is blessed with a move with the same power as sky attack (note that it cannot learn sky attack), it will have a DPS of 40.068, which is pretty good. However, since it is directly competing against psychic type pokemons, it is still strictly worse than Shadow Mewtwo and Mega Alakazam.

Against Sceptile, Air Slash with “Sky Attack” is the 4th higher DPS option against Sceptile, while Fire Fang with “Sky Attack” is the 3rd highest. It’s surprising that even without STAB, Fire Fang is better than Sky Attack!

Salamence, despite its high attack stat and Fire Fang + Fire blast moveset, suffers from the lack of STAB and the poorness of Fire Blast. It is ranked 41th in terms of ER value, while countering pure ice typed pokemon. With Flamethrower it can rank 23rd, which it’s still nothing great. If salamence is a dragon/fire typed pokemon however, it ranks 4th, just a bit worse than shadow metagross.