Hi all,
As far as T3 solos are concerned, Machamp has always been my arch nemesis. I have had bad experiences in my first attempts, especially against Heavy Slam variants. "Easy side of tier 3 raids to solo"... yeah... not really. With time, levelling, improvement of my team and experience, things got better. I am now level 35 and my current team shreds Close Combat variants. I have yet to find a Heavy Slam to take my revenge upon. I failed terribly against a Dynamic Punch one recently, but I realized afterwards that it must have been weather boosted so that reassured me.
Yet, this morning I failed (fainting out) a Dynamic Punch on my first attempt, not weather boosted... What a shame... Had to re-entry but this took some time and my B-team was not optimal. I won the 2nd time by swapping out an Espeon for my Ho-Oh. I was hoping to beat wheather boosted Dunamyc Punch variants with the last improvements to my team but clearly I'm not there yet. I can go further but this time I would like to get opinions from you guys before investing a lot in a bad solution.
My current team (IVs are all A/D/S):
1. Espeon, 15/12/7, lvl 34.5, zen headbutt / psychic
2. Gardevoir, 14/9/5 lvl 33 or 13/7/3 lvl 34, confusion / dazzling gleam
3. Mewtwo, 15/10/15, lvl 28, psycho cut / shadow ball
4. Exeggutor, 12/14/15, lvl 34, confusion / psychic
5. Dragonite, 5/12/15, lvl 35, dragon tail / hurricane (caught as a weather boosted Dratini from community day and evolved like this)
6. Espeon, 11/10/10, lvl 34, confusion / psybeam
6bis. Ho-Oh, 12/11/14, lvl 25, extrasensory / brave bird (caught like this weather boosted, I swap the last Espeon for him when the team faints out)
Other candidates I may swap in (removing Gardevoir against Heavy Slam or when weather suggests it) are:
7. Espeon, 9/14/8 or 10/14/7, lvl 30, confusion / psychic
8. Espeon, 5/9/15 or 7/6/15, lvl 31, zen heabutt / psybeam
9. Exeggutor, 13/8/7, lvl 33.5, confusion / solar beam
My B-team, not updated because unused until this morning:
2 double dragon Dragonites, 3 Gengars, double psychic Slowbro.
As you can see, my Espeons are far from optimal. I had bad luck with Eevee's IVs (that sounds funny, heh) so I eventually went with my best CP ones because I needed Espeons. I caught better ones since then though, I could try to evolve more. I have no relevant Alakazam (only one I have has Focus Blast). I am too short on CTMs to gamble and look for Future Sight, especially since I doubt the difference will be that huge. I am dodging charge moves with Zen Headbutt Espeons and with Mewtwo, the other (Confusion and Dragon Tail users...) just tank every move.
I have several leads to improve my team. I could power up:
1. My Ho-Oh to improve its performance. I have the ressources, it's already lvl 25 and can also resist Heavy Slam. But is it enough?
2. My second Mewtwo, 14/11/11 or 14/12/10, lvl 20, confusion / psychic. Top DPS, good TDO. Would cost me more rare candies that I have right now but I could see no better candidate to sink rare candies in, except maybe...
3. My Rayquaza, 13/14/10, lvl 20, air slash / aerial ace. Comparable to Mewtwo, I have the ressources to power it up and I've been willing to do it anyway since Breloom raids where I used birds with outstanding results. Breloom being gone, it was less important.
4. My Lugia, 12/11/15, lvl 20, dragon tail / future sight. I am really lacking Lugia candies and I would need Sky Attack, I don't have the CTMs right now. That being said, it's TDO is so high it could be the long term investment that would allow me to beat every Machamp.
5. Evolve another Eevee to Espeon? I doubt it would be enough.
Available ressources:
* Enough stardust to power up any mon from lvl 20 to 30 or 35
* 30 or so rare candies, about as many Ho-Oh and Rayquaza candies
* A handful of FTMs
* Short on CTMs (but this slowly gets better), Mewtwo candies (very slow income as well), Lugia candies.
So I have my own ideas but I would like to hear your thoughts about this. Is weather boosted dynamic punch Machamp doable or should I avoid it?
Thanks and have a great day!
Lugia will always outperform Ho-Oh when it comes to countering Fighting-types and is king of Machamp solos. Sky Attack is much better and brings its neutral damage output to around Tyranitar's level, but Future Sight will still serve well if paired with Extrasensory.
If you want an anchor then powering up is really important, I would be looking at Lugia instead of Ho-Oh tbh since Lugia has STAB, really optimal moves, and plenty of bulk.
Looking at the timer and the HP Machamp has, my DPS looks fine but I'm lcking in the survivability department. Hence Zen Headbutt the first Espeon to ease dodging, I trade DPS for more survivability (and usually the opportunity to fire off one additional Psychic). Plus I'm short of CTMs to aim for FS on one, let alone two Espeons.
For Mewtwo, I am hesitant indeed to switch to Confusion. PC helps me dodge but the DPS is really far behind... I'm not doing it right now because I need the additional survivability, but if I add a Lugia of Ho-Oh to my lineup I'll probably do this... if I don't power up my double psychic Mewtwo.
Cycle DPS suggests double Psychic Exeggutor is better, except in clear weather where I swap for the Solar Beam one. Problem is SB is slower to fire up and yesterday I could fire up one SB versus two P the previous time... heh, bad luck.
Dont know about your TM , RC, and Stardust, but i wont make another Counter to save resources
Your espeon should have Futuresight on both of them
If you wanna use mewtwo, it will improve a lot if you go with psychic charge move against machamp, try to power it up till it need 6000 stardust just to be sure
Non Cloudy weather, put mewtwo first, Cloudy weather Gardevoir first
For postion 3,4 Espeon, then Exeggutor and Dragonite
It help if you can dodge once for mewtwo, garde, and espeon if it can get on more charge move. You can dodge using Confusion if you are not spam it, just be patient
Try to eyeballing when there about 90 and 50 second left, compare the Machamp stamina and your counter that still not in battle yet, to measure if you are out of time or out of counter.
You can try to look for final breakpoint if you want, i dont use breakpoint, i just eyeballing it, and from my experoence many pokemons has a good improvement in atk when it reach level 35 (8000 Stardust).
You can power up some that have atk iv of 15 to that level if you still cant win but try with changing moveset first
For one thing, do you dodge? Because your more glassy attackers with full bar charge moves really need to get at least 2 charge hits off to be useful, namely Espeon.
Your lineup matters a lot more than you probably realize. Higher DPS counters need to go first with your tankier options at the rear. Your last Espeon should be before Exeggutor and Dragonite.
As others have said, moves matter. Future Sight is much better than Psychic and Psybeam. Unless you plan to power up the Mewtwo more it should have dual psychic.
Below is my team I use. Admittedly it comes close depending on moves and weather but until I hit a point where I can't solo Machamp I see no need to power them up more (IVs a/d/s):
1. Mewtwo, 11/11/13, lvl 32 Psycho Cut/Shadow Ball
2. Espeon, 15/12/15, lvl 32.5 Zen Headbutt/Future Sight
3. Espeon, 14/14/15, lvl 30 Zen Headbutt/Psychic
4. Gardevoir, 14/14/13, lvl 33 Confusion/Dazzling Gleam
5. Dragonite, 11/13/12, lvl 30.5 Dragon Tail/Hurricane
6. Lugia, 14/15/14, lvl 30, Extrasensory/Sky Attack (Formerly Future Sight)
Before Gardevoir I used a Psycho Cut/Future Sight Alakazam. Where applicable I've TM'ed Confusion off because I find it too hard to dodge incoming charge moves when using it. It isn't so much Machamp is hard to take down, it's that a lot of people underestimate the importance of dodging its moves. This is especially true for Heavy Slam variants since it's unresisted or in Gardevoir's case super effective.
I dodge with the first Espeon and Mewtwo, reason why I have Zen Headbutt and Psycho Cut.
Lineup: I put Espeon first for that reason, because in the beginning of the fight Machamp's energy bar is empty and so he won't fire charge moves, improving Espeon's survivability. After that, correct me if I'm wrong, but it doesn't change much. As long as mons faint it doesn't matter in which order they do, since it doesn't change their TDO. It's different for the last slot but there I use Espeon because of PB being multi-bar, to reduce the risk of fainting out or timing out with a partially charged bar. Poor anchor though, hence my will to change something.
Mewtwo: I will power this one up if I don't power up my double psychic one. Both are waiting for a decision :)
Fully agree on dodging Machamp's moves.
Hey, I just wanted to piggyback on your thread to not clutter up the board. I wanted to make a lock down team for a weather boosted Machamp. I have a few sure things, but wanted to round out my team. I could normally do him, but I think I lacked the bulk and timed out trying to reenter. For that reason I want to add Lugia and/or Mewtwo. Looking at the breakpoints, it may have been as simple as slightly missing breakpoints.
Here are my forsure pokemon...
Espeon-lvl 40 15-14-15 c/fs
Exeggutor-lvl 40 15-14-15 c/p
Gardevior-lvl 36.5 12-12-11 c/dg (1 power up hits last breakpoint)
Other options...
Espeon-lvl 29 zh/fs (needs to be 31.5 for breakpoint)
Alakazam-lvl 30 9-13-8 pc/fs
Alakazam-lvl 29.5 11-7-8 pc/fs
Both of my Alakazams need 1 power up to reach the breakpoint. I also have a level 32 15-13-10 Abra.
I also have...
Lugia-lvl 26 10-14-10 es/fs (31.5 for breakpoint)
Mewtwo-lvl 23.5 13-14-12 pc/sb (31 for breakpoint)
I think will either focus on Mewtwo OR Lugia. Mewtwo would help me in Mewtwo raids. How would you compose my team? Thanks.
I would do the Mewtwo, personally. I only Consider Lugia for Machamp raids (1-2× a week) whereas I consider Mewtwo in any relevant situation, especially when we had bulky Lugia as a raid boss.
That said...I probably use Lugia more, as most current bosses have better counters than a 30 14/10/15 PC/SB Mewtwo. I have a selection of other Mewtwos to power up/TM, but that was my best for a long while so it's gotten the gains first.
Do you have any Alakazams? A C/FS Alakazam, even at lvl 30 would be a huge addition to your team. And definitely invest in the Lugia. FS is a great charge move against Machamp, even if it is not quite as good as SA.
Don't listen to people who tell you that you need to dodge a lot. If you have a high enough DPS team, with a couple tanky anchors, you are better off spamming DPS. I always beat Machamp with 30-40 seconds left, and I never dodge.
Regarding your current team:
1. TM the Espeon, both fast and charge. Against Machamp, you want confusion on every pokemon that can have it. Confusion is what beats Machamps. People will tell you it's harder to dodge with confusion, but they don't tell you that confusion's DPS is so much higher that you basically need to get off an extra charge move with ES or PC just to break even with no-dodge confusion. And with a CTM, you have a 50% chance of getting FS, which is way better than P, and if you end up getting PB, you won't really be any worse off.
2. The Gardevoir is fine.
3. Again, you want confusion on the Mewtwo. PC/SB really isn't that good against Machamp. PC doesn't do enough damage. It's not worth risking a CTM to get psychic, but it's DEFINITELY worth FTM'ing to confusion, if reliably soloing Machamp is your goal.
4 & 5. The Exeggutor and Dragonite are good enough.
6. Invest in that Lugia. It is head and shoulders above Ho-Oh against Machamp, and you need a tank in the last slot in place of that glassy Espeon.
Following these suggestions will allow you to solo any Machamp with no dodging. A good Alakazam with C/FS would make the team even better, and it could replace either the first Espeon, the Mewtwo, or the Exeggutor.
TLDR: Spam confusion, don't dodge, and power up that Lugia for the last spot.
I never understand not dodging unless like you said, they’re 35+ with Lugia and Mewtwo. I don’t have either of them and can beat Machamp with 40-60 even if weather boosted and before the past couple of months I was sub level 33. I only use Espeons and Alakazams except for when I used to use DNitd for bulk. My biggest issue is my connection, otherwise I dodge everything I can and can win easily. He’s flat out easier when you dodge his charge moves. I’m pretty sure the fastest times involve dodging
Great and useful reply. To answer your points:
* I have one Alakazam with FB. And I'm short on CTMs.
* For the same reason, I can't CTM my Espeons right now. FTM is an option though, but...
* About dodging: I agree with you as long as you have a great anchor like Lugia. I don't at the moment so I may struggle for survivability and so I need to dodge, trading DPS for survivability. If I go for Lugia and its bulk is enough to tank Dynamic Punches of Heavy Slams of weather boosted Machamps, Espeon and Mewtwo are both getting Confusion.
* Lugia: far better against Dynamic Punch without a doubt, but what about Heavy Slam?
TM the first Espeon to Confusion + Future Sight, or at least Confusion + Psybeam.
Shadow Claw Gengar can tank well against Dynamic Punch if you are low on resources, but lacks the DPS, don't even bother if not SC.
Outrage Dragonites have lower DPS than Gengar and significantly less bulk against DP.
Rayquaza is good to boost DPS, but somehow fragile.
TM your first Mewtwo to Confusion and power it up once, it will reach a breakpoint where Confusion does 30 damage.
Lugia powered up to the 11 Extrasensory breakpoint can provide some surviability, but I highly doubt with Future Sight.
TL;DR:
1. Fast TM Espeon to Confusion, then use a Charged TM.
2. Place your Mewtwo in the first slot and use a Fast TM. It should be your main DPSer, swap places with Espeon
3. Use Gengar. It is useful if you don't lack DPS. I will assume that it has Shadow Claw.
4. Place either Dragonite or Exeggutor and Gardevoir in the fourth and fifth slots as team fillers.
5. Finally, tank with level 22 Lugia.
6. Dodge if you can dodge, DPS shouldn't be a problem with Mewtwo and (Future Sight) Espeon. Keep them in the battle as long as you can.
Have a good day! Hope you can solo DP Machamp soon.
A few days ago, I managed to solo a weather-boosted Machamp with DP using the following team (all level 30 non-legendaries):
1) 98% Alakazam with Cn/FS
2) 96% Alakazam with PC/FS
3) 93% Espeon with Cn/FS
4) 96% Gardevoir with Cn/DG
5) 89% Exeggutor with Cn/Ps
6) 87% Dragonite with DT/Hu.
Took two tries. Wiped out on my first try with 40 seconds left and the Machamp having very little health left, so dodged more DPs on my second try and still had 25 seconds to spare.
Although many regard HS as easier than DP, all my attempts to solo HS Machamp have failed, possibly because HS is ridiculously hard to dodge (and I have to swap my Gardevoir for a 96% Exeggutor with Cn/So). Recently powered up a Lugia and waiting to hatch a wonder Beldum so I can finally beat HS with six level 30 non-legendaries.
I always try to dodge charged moves, with a 20%-50% success rate for Confusion users, depending on the charged move and luck/lag (device used definitely impacts success rate). That is usually more than enough for CC and non-boosted DP, but for boosted DP, I had to try twice to get the timing right and my Alakazam with PC managed to dodge four consecutive boosted DPs.
In the end, there are more than one way to beat Machamp, use what you see fit.
Here is my old video purposely using too many high DPS counter a.k.a glass canon with Dodging. I already beat Machamp way before that with lower level counters, but i dont have the video for that as i still use ios 10 so i dont have screen recorder.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=q9pdg5qU_ME
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=7Je-BlQcH-E
PC/SB Mewtwo is good against Machamp. C/P Mewtwo is a revelation. With those two working together, you'll have plenty of DPS to take the four armed puncher down.
Lugia is a solid anchor, but I prefer Ho-Oh because:
1) While its attacks are inferior (EX/BB), Ho-Oh has a stronger attack than Lugia.
2) While Lugia double resists fighting moves, it doesn't resist steel moves at all, and 2/3 of the time you'll face at least one steel move. Ho-Oh singly resists both fighting and steel moves, so you're always covered.
Consider CTMing an Espeon to Future Sight. That's the move that hits hard. Or evolve and power up a better one.
My team leads off with FS Espeon at level 36, then PC/SP Mewtwo at level 36, then C/P Mewtwo at level 30, then a level 31 Ho-Oh with EX/BB, and then a level 25 Rayquaza (caught weather buffed) with double air moves, and then a level 25 Lugia (caught weather buffed) with EX/SA that almost never has to fight. Haven't even had a close call since I started using this team, against any moveset, even buffed. Took on double steel Machamp when it was snowing, the Lugia fought a little there, but I still had 18 seconds left when I won. CC means Ho-Oh doesn't take much damage, DP will get into the Rayquaza, and do a fair amount of damage to it if it's cloudy.
PC/SB Mewtwo sucks against Machamp. Not only is it worse than C/SB (and C/P and PC/P, obviously), but it is also worse than C/FB, C/HB, and PC/FB.
You might prefer Ho-Oh, but that doesn't change the fact that it is objectively worse than FS or SA Lugia in almost every scenario. Not only does Lugia have better DPS (it's great charge moves more than overcoming the attack stat deficit), but it is tankier against any moveset that doesn't include heavy slam, and roughly the equal of Ho-Oh for tankiness even against BP/HS Machamp.
No argument about TM'ing Espeon to FS, but FTM'ing it to confusion will be equally effective.
The fast move doesn't really matter, as even when Counter is single resisted it still does more DPS than Bullet Punch. On the other hand, Bullet Punch threatens Gardevoir, and has more EPS, which allows it to fire it's charge move more often.
When facing weather boosted Dynamic Punch, bring more tankier counters into the fray, such as Lugia, Hurricane Dragonite, and double psychic Eggy. Heck, even Metagross works, even without a resistance to fighting.
DO NOT use Alakazam or Espeon to get ahead of the clock here, as they will be slaughtered because of the weather boost.
Use your Rayquaza and Mewtwo to spearhead the army, have another mon after, (Good tankier options are Dragonite and Psychic exeggcutor, and even better, Gardevoir, which packs a DOUBLE resistance) and then Lugia. You'll be so far ahead that you don't even have to look at the time anymore. If the Lugia somehow dies, I suppose you could put Alakazam in the final spot, as even though Espeon is better, Alakazam has better DPS which is crucial.
For Heavy Slam, use Mewtwo and Rayquaza to once again lead the charge. The next slot will need to be a tankier mon, once that should resist Steel. (Metagross) It's also fine to have Zam or Espeon, making sure that you can get off at least 3 Future Sights. (Heavy Slam has the easiest dodge window to account for, but make sure to use dodge friendly fast moves as it still hits quite hard and fast, even without STAB) Then, Ho-Oh and Lugia should carry you the rest of the way. (Even better, Ho-Oh resists Steel as well)
With Close Combat and no benefical weather on Dynamic Punch, go nuts with Alakazam, Espeon and any other good Psychic attackers as you should have no problem at all.
Have a nice day!
-Karper
Your current team can already do it with good dodging but it's going to be hard. The easiest upgrades would be to FTM your Mewtwo and Espeon to Confusion.
As for new team members, Lugia stands above all in TDO against Machamp and pretty much guarantees winning. Rayquaza, Mewtwo and Ho-Oh would all help with the solo but not nearly as much as Lugia. Another Espeon doesn't really do anything.
Thank you all for your replies. Very interesting to see that many of you actually have very different strategies! I'll need to come up with my own.
You convinced me to aim for FS on my Espeons. I'm less short in Eevee candies and good Eevee candidates to evolve than in CTMs, so I might try to evolve another one before burning a hypothetical future CTM :)
I'm leaning more towards Lugia now, which seems to be a solution many consider paramount. I am just a bit doubtful about Heavy Slam variants, but the comprehensive DPS/TDO ranking on Gampress' website tells me that Lugia (E/SA) is still slightly ahead Ho-Oh (E/BB) in TDO while being far superior in DPS, so...
This will be a long term project. In the meantime, powering up my Ho-Oh to the next Extrasensory breakpoint (almost there) and maybe FTMing Mewtwo to confusion should ease things.
Enjoy your last days of peace Machamp, I'm coming for you, no matter the weather, no matter your moves...
Good, you can pick strategies that suit you better.
Trainer that like to dodge ussually prefer the glass cannon/ high dps option, sometimes to be able to dodge is a satisfaction by itself.
Trainer who like to straight fight it obviously like the bulkier pokemon..
Machamp is been for long in raid, people start using alternative counter like unique challenge( no duplicate, with no legendaries even no pseudo legendsries),all Xatu, Gyarados in rain, even Machamp itself in cloudy weather,using one Lugia only,etc.
