Hi, I plan to evolve one of my Clefairy solely as a gym defender.
They are quite hard to find ard my area. I found three of them. I been trying to hatch a Cleffa but I seem to have no luck with it. I been trying to research on how IV work as defender but I couldn’t understand it. Below are the state of all three by poke genie.
1) First IV 5-15-10; general IV 67%; LVL 21.0 (cp588)
2) Second IV 6-14-12; general IV 71%; LVL 12.0 (cp340)
3)Third IV 11-13-11; general IV 78%; LVL 17.0 (cp499)
Could u recommend me which one should I evolve? If possible, can you pls explain the reasoning so I could learnt to filter it myself in future. Thank you.
Ps- I am likely not going to spend stardust on it after evolving.
None of them have good enough IVs that powering up would be advisable. Because of that I vote for 1) since it's the highest level and thus the most likely to be any good without spending stardust.
IVs on defenders generally speaking don't make much difference. Higher IV is better, but unlike for attackers, there's no easy rule of thumb like atk 15.
Thanks for answering. That is interesting to know.
For the first one, I am a bit confuse because of the low general IV, but the higher IV on def and sta IV.
Some article mentioned that for defender role, it should be atk < def and sta IV. At the same time, the first clefairy have low general IV.
In another word, how diff would the first one and the third one be after I evolve them?
Attack IV correlates with how easy it is to reach offensive breakpoints, defense IV with how easy it is to reach defensive breakpoints and hp IV correlates with hp. In a fair number of situations none of the defender's IVs will make any difference because of breakpoints and the tendency to die to charge moves that overkill. And the defender CP decay also factors in to make it hard to gauge whether the one with better IVs has any actual advantage.
I'm curious, is your plan to evolve and place the Clefable in gyms, or do you also plan on powering it up?
The reason I ask is that, while Clefable will prove irritating (when placed between Normal-type tanks) to players who want to plow through a gym only using Machamp, it's not something I'd recommend investing dust in due to the fact that it's stats are pretty lackluster overall.
If you're dead-set on evolving one, I'd pick the third option, as it has the best stat distribution of the three and the stardust costs between lvls 17 and 21 are low. However, if you're looking to invest into a strong Fairy-type Mon, I'd highly recommend Gardevoir over Clefable. If you've had any luck at all hatching Togepi from eggs, Togekiss is likely going to blow all other Fairy-types out of the water once Gen IV is released.
Thanks for answering. You have asked a really good question.
I don‘’t think I plan to spend stardust on it considering i do put several gym defender around the town. I have edited my post after you reminded me about that.
I have no luck with togepi, and am currently collecting candy for Gardevoir (The spawn rate is so low ard my area).
I understand it is more clearly distribute among the thrid one. But. I was wondering how would atk contribute to the defender role? First Clefairy have higher def IV as compared to the first Clefairy.
I am looking at the second one (because of high def and stat IV). However, I dont think the CP itself is worth investing.
PS- How diff would the first one and the third one be after I evolve them?
Ralts tend to be an infrequent spawn in most areas outside of windy weather. Hopefully with the psychic-themed event starting tomorrow, you'll be able to find more of them in the wild to get enough candies for a Gardevoir!
To address your questions on IVs, they don't have as much of an impact on defense as they do for attackers. Let's take two Clefable that are both lvl 20 with Zen Headbutt as their quick move, but one has an attack IV of 15 and one has an attack IV of 5. Against a level 40 attacking Machamp, both end up doing about the same damage per hit (8). At level 29, the Clefable with 15 attack reaches a breakpoint where it's Zen Headbutt would deal 9 damage per hit. The Clefable with 5 attack wouldn't hit this breakpoint until level 34.5. So the one with the higher attack IV will hit that breakpoint at a much lower level, but we're talking about a whopping one extra damage per hit (and gym defenders use their moves at a much slower rate than attackers can).
The HP IV doesn't matter all that much on defense either. This is in part due to the fact that Pokemon have their hitpoints doubled while they're defending a gym. So a level 20 Clefable with a HP IV of 15 will have 122 hitpoints (244 when it's in a gym). A level 20 Clefable with a HP IV of 5 will have 116 hitpoints (232 when it's in a gym). That's a pretty small difference considering that one Clefable has a perfect HP IV and the other has an awful HP IV.
The defense IV is more or less the same story for defenders. A Clefable with a higher defense IV might mean that its taking ~1-2 points less damage per quick attack (more variation for charge attacks), compared to the same level Clefable with a low defense IV.
TL;DR: don't sweat the IVs too much for a Clefable that you're planning to throw into gyms and not power up. The higher level one or the one with a move even IV distribution will perform about the same.
If Clefable is a Mon you enjoy just because (we all have our personal favorites), then evolve one and toss it in some gyms! Just don't expect Clefable to hold down the fort on it's own though, given that it's base stats are pretty underwhelming.
Word in favor of Clefable: It's a budget Gardevoir. No double resistance to fighting, no Confusion and worse stats, but it's still moderately painful to plow through it with Machamps and it walls generalist Dragons with the double resistance. Being pure fairy helps it not take super effective damage from other common gym attackers.
IVs do not matter much in defense. But they don't matter *at all* if yon don't intend to power them up. What counts are global stats, meaning the sum of the base stats and the IVs, multiplied by the CPm (a multiplying factor depending on the level). In other words, 1) has a stronger attack than 3) because it's higher level, so better IVs are completely irrelevant. It would count if you intended to power them up to roughly the same level.
For defense, forget about IVs and just look at CP. It's useful because you can have different strategies based on CP, on which motivation decay rate depends: the lower the CP, the slower the demotivation. For example, I use 5 categories of defenders based on CP:
A) The strongest possible for short term defense.
B) Around 2100 CP for 4h defense (over 2/3 motivation -> still need to be defeated 3 times during the first 4 hours). I barely use those.
C) As close as possible to 1952 CP to optimise gym height for the longest time and target 6h defense. Often used.
D) Around 1500 CP for 8h defense (over 2/3 motivation -> still need to be defeated 3 times during the first 8 hours). Used sometimes.
E) Around 1000 CP for very long term defense (over 1/3 motivation -> still need to be defeated at least 2 times during the first 24 hours). Used sometimes.
Sources:
https://pokemongo.gamepress.gg/meta-analysis-gym-defense
https://pokemongo.gamepress.gg/specific-gym-defense-tier-list
Once evolved, your Clefables will have CPs of:
1) 1322
2) 761
3) 1102
My advice is to pick a strategy and evolve and power up a Clefable to reach the corresponding CP threshold. They will never be strong enough to fit category A, but 2) and 3) are good as is for category E. Or you could power up 1) so that it fits in categories C or D. Check what other pokemon you already have that could fit in those categories :)
as Kazlu pointed out in his reply IVs don't matter unless the Pokemon are roughly the same level.
I'll just help you understand the defensive IVs here, by comparing 15 and 0 IV values. Between stamina and defense, you need to compliment the stat that your Pokemon species lacks. An extreme example: Chansey has an enormous amount of hitpoints and moderately good defense. 15 Stamina IV means just 12 more hit points at level 40, which is just a 4% increase in his HP. On the other hand, having a 15 Defense IV might mean that an enemy fast atttack will hit you for 1 less damage, let's say 9 instead of 10. That will effectively "give" your Chansey 40 HP if your opponent attacked you just with fast attacks. So 15 Defense IV is 4-5 fast attacks endured, 15 Stamina IV is between 1-2
Extreme example 2: Steelix. Has amazing defense, low stamina. With 15 Defense IV, you are increasing an already big number by a very small (in comparison) flat value, from 333 to 345 (at level 40). Damage calculation is done with a formula with Defense being the denominator, so the change we are talking about is negligible and it's more likely to not affect the damage you take at all! On the other hand, 15 Stamina IV is still 12 more HP at level 40, but this time is much better cause steelix will be taking half the damage Chansey takes. So 15 Stamina IV is 3 or 4 more fast attacks endured, 15 Defense IV is probably nothing.
When placed on a gym, all health is doubled. So it's 24 more HP instead of 12. Since Clefable has all around balanced stats, you'd definitely want one with high Stamina IV for the role of gym defender
One of the most underrated gym defenders but not one of the best. I honestly like using Clefable as a gym defender. I patiently waited to get a lucky one cause I couldn't justify the use of full stardust one a normal Clefable. Finally got this guy and it does knock out full hp machamps that don't dodge and dragon types take a long time to take it down.
If you're not going to power it up, you should always wait to find the highest level one you can get (and with as close to perfect IVs as possible).
As for me, my area tends to have a good amount of Clefairy (outside of events anyway; I've caught 354/410) so I have tons of Clefable and I usually just toss them out when they don't have DG. Only exception so far is the 93% lv35 I caught & evo'd which I've kept in case I never find one I like better and decide to power it up (and, of course, change the move to DG). However, it's a 2163CP and I have several Clefable with DG right around 2120CP (as well as ones falling right under 2k) so it's not like I strongly need it. (And, given that it has the wrong charge move, I certainly don't use it.)
