I have an Alakazam with great IV and Confusion+Psychic. It's 1,618 CP.
I only have 51 Abra candies .
I now have to decide whether to invest in it as a gym defender, or keep working for one with Psycho Cut.
I know its not the tankiest of defenders but i'm guessing it could still be pretty compelling. I'm guessing i'll manage against fighting and poison pokemons with other stuff in my bag.
What do you think?
For me, the answer shines clear as a crystal: Collect for a new one with Psycho Cut.
Alakazam is not a great defender, its def-stats are simply too small. Even with a "A"-rated defending moveset does not help much, it will faint very fast.
Alakazam is great in exactly one case: As attacker with Psycho-Cut, when dodging. Charged move does not matter, it is just Psycho-Cut, that actually has the most DPS in game, in connection to Alakazams high attack-stat.
I wouldn't since the main deterrent to gyms staying up is time/potion wasted...Mostly time since at higher levels, you don't even need much pots as most gyms (for me) aren't lvl 10 still...and your attackers are high lvl/more hp and powered u p.
Alakazam with so few hps doesn't make people not attack...
I would prob power up an attacker, but even then, he has so few type advantages that from posts here, seems a bit underwhelming.
Depends if Abras are hard to get where you are. If they are, and you only want an attacking Alakazam - that's their one niche, they're mediocre defenders - then save up for another one.
If Abras aren't rare where you are, even then you might want to hold off on powering up this one, because it's still going to cost you stardust. Stardust is a limited resource and investing into this one just to get a mediocre defender wouldn't be that good of an investment.
It depends on how much stardust you get. Don't need exact numbers, but if you're a city player catching pidgeys all day, then you could probably afford to still power up this Alakazam and place it in gyms for style points, and still have plenty of dust for powering up other mons, while if you're a suburban / rural player who gains dust much slower, then you might want to save your dust for something that's a bit higher up the tier lists.
If you just want something that sits near the top of gyms, sure a powered up Alakazam can do that, it's max CP is pretty high, but so can other Pokemon that are easier to acquire, like evolved Eevees. Even the lowest max CP Eeveelution, Jolteon, has a max CP that is 95% of Alakazam's.
If you're a decently high trainer level, i.e. in the high 20s or more, you could wait until you find a high level Eevee in the wild, evolve it and it doesn't matter what it evolves into, it's moveset or its IVs because you aren't going to power it up, and just use that as gym fodder instead of the Alakazam, saving you candies and dust that you would have otherwise spent on powering up the Alakazam.
Depends if Abras are hard to get where you are.
No, it does not.
If they are,
Independend on their availability...
and you only want an attacking Alakazam - that's their one niche, they're mediocre defenders - then save up for another one.
Yes. fullstop.
If Abras aren't rare where you are, even then you might want to hold off on powering up this one, because it's still going to cost you stardust.
The OP wrote about his abra-candys, so obviousely there is no star-dust-issue but a candy-issue.
Stardust is a limited resource and investing into this one just to get a mediocre defender wouldn't be that good of an investment.
Indeed.
It depends on how much stardust you get. Don't need exact numbers, but if you're a city player catching pidgeys all day, then you could probably afford to still power up this Alakazam and place it in gyms for style points, and still have plenty of dust for powering up other mons, while if you're a suburban / rural player who gains dust much slower, then you might want to save your dust for something that's a bit higher up the tier lists.
This way, the OP does not get the possibility for a great attacker for a long time, because he spends all his candy and much stardust on a want-to-be-defender that looks great. He could use a kingler for this use too.
If you just want something that sits near the top of gyms, sure a powered up Alakazam can do that, it's max CP is pretty high, but so can other Pokemon that are easier to acquire, like evolved Eevees. Even the lowest max CP Eeveelution, Jolteon, has a max CP that is 95% of Alakazam's.
Indeed.
If you're a decently high trainer level, i.e. in the high 20s or more, you could wait until you find a high level Eevee in the wild, evolve it and it doesn't matter what it evolves into, it's moveset or its IVs because you aren't going to power it up, and just use that as gym fodder instead of the Alakazam, saving you candies and dust that you would have otherwise spent on powering up the Alakazam.
Indeed.
It is easy. There are no reasons to power up a confusion-alakazam.
Well, I'll provide another perspective –– I have a confusion/psychic Alakazam I maxed out for defense during the double stardust event. Is he a good defender? I dunno. The last time I had him in a gym he lasted for about six days and had two "battles won" –– which is more than I can say for my perfect Rhydon. He sits fairly high up because of his high CP, and more importantly, he's not an Eeveelution, a Dragonite, or a Snorlax –– I would much rather have a slightly weaker but unique defender than subject other players to seeing a sixth Vaporeon in the same gym. Alakazam is fun to see in gyms, fun to fight, and fun to have maxed out, if only for nostalgia's sake. It would take forever to evolve another Alakazam, and the likelihood of Psycho Cut/Psychic is so low that I'd rather have spent around fifty candies on a mon I'd enjoy using than another RNG Dazzling Gleam disappointment. Now I can work toward a Psycho Cut one without being bummed that I don't have a decent Zam to use.
