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Arcanine for defending?

Snarl + Wild Charge seems like a great defending moveset, considering that 99% of attackers will use Vaporeon against it. Even Crunch looks pretty good. And of course he's already got the high CP and stamina, which is the most important thing in this metagame.

He's obviously never gonna be an elite defender (because Vape), but I'm personally expecting to see him around Tier 3. Do you agree?

Asked by lorma968 years 1 month ago

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The bonus for super effective and STAB is the same, so it likely won't be better than fire fang/fire blast.

But Vaporeon resists Fire.

Fire moves will benefit from STAB so it'll be neutral damage dealt to water types

I know, but Wild Charge will still be better as it gets the SE bonus, plus it's a 2-bar charge move.

Yeah

STAB Fire against Water:
+25%STAB -25% resistance -> Neutral
Lightning against Water:
+25% super effective.

Lightning is better.

But electric moves get no STAB so it's still neutral. No matter how you look at it both lose out on 25% damage potential. Wild Charge is better defensively

Snarl + Wild Charge seems like a great defending moveset, considering that 99% of attackers will use Vaporeon against it.

Looks like a good idea for a nasty surprise. I like this way of thinking. Even without consideration of types, Sn/WC is already the best defending moveset. Type advantage against vaporeon is just addon.

I see it on Tier 2,5. It has higher CP than typical Tier-3-Defenders. Not elite, but better than the 2100er-Pkm like Tentacruel or Cloyster.

I think, this Arcanine would not be worth powering up to 2500CP. It is not worth the stardust imo. I powered up some tier 3 defenders, just 'cause i like them, but i rarely use them.

Yes, "nasty surprise" is the perfect way to put it. I like how Niantic added some of these defensive-oriented charge moves that cover a mon's weakness, and Arcanine probably looks like one of the best ways to make use of that.

But yeah, whether to power it up or not depends on a lot of other factors. I might consider it if I get the chance, it'd make for an interesting option that's not gonna be stuck to the bottom of gyms like Slowbro or Poliwrath.

I'm currently looking for one with Fire Fang and Wild Charge got defending. Most people won't give this a try but I like using Arcanine

Defensive, Snarl is better than SE Fire Fang. It deals little less damage, but generates much more energy to support Wild Charge.
Comparison of these movesets gives +11% damage until faints for Sn/WC (with neutral attacker)

Thanks for the advice. Didn't know this

Good luck with that!

Thanks

pokebattler.com has pretty good rankings based on simulations. For measuring defenders, you pick a defender level (let's say 35) an attacker level (30, where lots of people stop powering up attackers), and a dodging strategy for attacker (let's say regular dodge only charge attacks). It measures defensive effectiveness by averaging what percentage of your attacker's health you take in your 5 worst matchups. Arcanine only ranks about 40, and it actually has FireBlast as a better defensive charge attack. I wouldn't expect to see him on the tier list at all. Even if you restrict to fire types, Flareon and Charizard perform better as defenders.