Do defending movesets REALLY matter?
Sure, of course it makes a difference in battle, but has there ever actually been a case where an attacker isn't able to defeat a defender only because of it's great moveset, so they just give up? Isn't it the case that if someone wants to take down a gym, they will take it down regardless of mons/movesets? It seems to me like once someone decides they are going to take down the gym, moveset isn't going to do much to prevent it. If anything, a good moveset may just make your gym harder to prestige - it's hard to max prestige a ZH/BS Snorlax, but it's not hard to bring him down with your 6 best attackers. Maybe I'm wrong though?
Answers
Yup and that's the biggest problem with the game , cp matters.
If suggested a while back that they have to implement 'gym bioms' that would make some types stronger than others for example:
A poison biome: you will fight on a poison playing field so poison types get 1.25 more damage and receive 0.8 damage.
This way people will look at there pokemons by type and not by cp.
I want gym diversity!!
I disagree that high CP makes a good defender. From a egoistic point of view maybe yes, from a team playpoint of view no. Of course it's tempting to put a qyarados at the top of a gym and hope for protection from below. The problem arises when everyone thinks like that and gyms become full of Gyarados and Rhydon because these gyms are really easy to take down. A gym full of Poliwrath and Lapras is much harder to take down. Even harder when type mixing doesn't allow opponents to sweep through the gym with only few Pokémon. But this requires coordination.
It's basically a prisoners' dilemma.
Dunno, I have a few time seen a gym being attacked and not taken down. I can only see that happen for two reason:
-the attacker hadn't realised what mons came after the first one
-he had such a hard time after fighting the 1-2st mons that he decided it wasn't worth the time/potions. And here having a pokemon with a good defensive moveset sure made a difference (I could see a polywrath or cleafable with the right moveset doing that, maybe exegg or slowbro)
Although to be honest, the only thing that can keep attackers away imo is a gym full of snorlax/lapras, and they both don't have any bad movesets.
That's also what I think. Better defending movesets just make the opponent burn through more potions.
Given how easy attacking is, I think the only way to prevent a gym going down is to deter attackers from attempting in the first place, by placing stuff that takes a long time to defeat, so that it's not worth their time / effort.
Attacking movesets matter because it makes your job easier. I'm saying that it seems like once you put a mon in a gym, a moveset isn't going to prevent someone from kicking your mon out of that gym, but may actually make it significantly more difficult for friendlies to prestige your gym, since prestiging is harder than attacking.
Only cases in which I think it matters are Dragonite and Snorlax (the quick move mostly, but also if they equip Dragon Claw/Body Slam)
Steel Wing Dragonites outright invalidate my attempts to use a Fairy type against it, and makes me much more cautious in dodging. Zen Snorlaxes invalidate fighting types along with some other top attackers with a part poison typing.
If it is a Dragon Breath Dragonite coupled with anything but Dragon Claw, I can mow it down with my cloyster/lapras team by simply dodging the charge move. Dragon claws put me off a bit as they're harder to dodge.
Same story for Snorlax, if he doesn't have Zen or Body Slam, I will just mow it down with a Dragonite by just dodging the charged move.
If I go through a 10 Snorlax gym finding all of them to have lick, I will happily take it down solo. If they are 10 zens, then, I'll give up on the second run.
In an individual battle probably not much impact. But in aggregate, if one team is using better move sets overall it's going to take more resources in revives and heals for another team to take them again and again and over the long term will have to work harder to beat them repeatedly. If I really want to take a gym I can, but if I come out licking my wounds I may quit with that gym but if I can breeze through it without it costing me much I will move on the the next gym and the next.
Some people may start to recognize you putting that tough Snorlax with Zen/BS for example in that same gym. Or w/e mon you keep putting in thats a beast. That will make them decide whether its worth downing in the long run. That's what I do. I put my same Snorlax and Lapras with best moveset in the same gym. It stays my gym alot longer now...
I believe defensive movesets do matter. Better defending moves result in more damage against the attacker, which results in a higher use of potions and revives, which results in less gyms being attacked/prestiged which means the turnaround of gyms is lower and gyms last longer.
At least for me the amount of gyms I am capable of taking is restricted by revives. Also if my revives are limited id rather prestige a level 6 gym then take down a level 3 one. So forcing players to use more revives/potions is beneficial to defending.
Don't let your attackers KO if you are low on revives, switch and then run away. You should have a place by now where you get your inventory back up. Just drop any Pokémon into the gym. I don't know anyone trainer who leaves a gym still standing once he starts an attacking them when his timer is up. I have never seen a gym stand more then a one night. So for me a maxed out Snorlax is the same as a Magicarp just holds a spot. People round take down the 10 closest Gyms to them and cash out.
It did before the attack boost doubled the prestige lost. I suppose if you had a gym full of Snorlax with the best moveset you might not be able to bring it down, but even then you could. If I knew there were a ton of really good moves on a Snorlax gym I might avoid it just because it isn't worth it. Then again, I rarely attack gyms, personally, I mostly just prestige.
Your not wrong at all. It's just people like to over complicate everything.
The goal of any game is to have fun way to spend your free time. This game is different in the fact that it makes you get out away from your tv's and computers. Get some exercise and socialize in the real world.
This point of gyms are to allow you to earn coins instead of having to purchase them. To
have to you pick a team which makes you feel like a part of some group bigger then yourself, that your not you against the world. Mantic makes it that matter what Pokémon are in a gym you can take it down with common evolved forms of Evees and what ever common grass type is in your area. Which is why you find Evees almost every where and why their evolved form are so powerful. They will never make it so a team can hold a gym for any period of time.
I personally go after lvl 10 gums if I see them. Tell you then truth I only take down another teams gyms when my timer is up. I take down the closest ones until I control my limit of 10 per day or I see a lvl 10 of another teams which I take down and and leave a Licktung on top waging it tongue them. Found 7 so far :).
I don't know about your area but no gym lasts a full in my area so what really is the point. So just get your 10 gyms and cash out doesn't matter what you put in there.
Also level up a second account to around 18-19 and pick a different team so if you come across a gym that is already controlled by your mane's team you just log over knock out one guy to make room for yours. Prestiging is a waste of my time. Gotta keep those incubators moving, I don't even stop moving to catch. Lol used a lure once, ain't that special and walked away. Find some where that stops are less then a minutes walk from each other and there are at least 6. You get a at least a stop every min and catch everything you see, cause it all about the Dust in the end.
Have fun and stop over thinking it.
I strongly disagree. People on this site seem to forget one very important fact: Most players are NOT as hardcore as the crew here at Gamepress' forum. If a gym is filled with pokémon with strong defensive movesets, it will make a huge difference to the casual player.
Noone has infinite resources. This is especially true for casual or rural players. The resources needed to take down several defenders with good movesets will be much higher than what is needed to take down a squad with weak movesets.
The consequence? An attacking player won't be able to take down as many gyms as he would have been able to if the movesets were weak due to lack of resources.
Oh, and remember - to most people, time is also a resource. This also applies to those fully stacked with revives and pots.
Ultimately, the gym meta is a war of attrition and a battle for who wants to waste the most time or, use the least amount of time to get 100 coins a day...
In areas with tons of pokestops, no one will probably run out of revives/potions so that's not the problem for most folks in, say downtown SF.
Most of the high level hard core folks, I'd guess are all in their 25-45 age group...Probably more so in the 30-35 group...or older, and single, retired.
People with kids (like me) and a spouse usually can't play as much as we want so we simply don't have time to tear down every level 10 even if we can.
Being a single dude, I'd guess you can certainly do that, but a large number of folks probably aren't that hardcore and would skip lvl 10 gyms since it would take an hour for 1 gym and they'd use up a lot of resources...not to mention most have a full time job/school.
I took down a level 9 gym way way back in my low level 20s I think and burned through like 100 potions or something and wasted an hour and a half or more. This was when prestige drops was only 500 per mon so it was much much worst back then, not to mention a guy was trying to prestige it back up actually.
Even at 1000 prestige loss now, unless you have 30 minutes to burn, you'd probably rather do something else since it's not that exciting after the first few times.
Also, gyms in known red/blue/yellow areas get rebuilt insanely fast. I saw a level 10 tower tore down after 2 weeks it was up and within 6 hours, the thing was level 9 already (I got in this time!). Prestiging is also TONS faster since it's done by 10 different people. The early folks spend 0 time to do it and the rest, range from 5-20 minutes tops...Tearing it down wastes a lot more time for 1 person than any individual actually spent to build the level 10 gym so it's sorta a fools job to tear them down for little rewards.
Ultimately, if you do tear them down daily, you'd feel like you wasted your time since 10 people will rebuild it in a few minutes/hours and waste less time than you.
You can get MUCH more experience catching mons and I do a loop around my house yielding 2-3k in about 10-15 minutes (about 16-20). Knocking 20k prestige (without the added stardust gained from catching) with gym errors, crashes would take longer for most folks.
TL:DR: No movesets don't matter if someone wants to tear it down, but since the rewards are poor, leaving quality defenders wastes an attacker's time more so mon type (Snorlax/Lapras) with very high CP (higher HPs, damage) are much bigger deterrents.
