GamePress

What to use against Giratina

I think this is a question all of us are asking ourselves. I know that against mewtwo Tyranitar was the king because great bulk + high dps, but crunch is kind of a bad charge move, will it still be able to keep pace with other giratina counters, or will Tyranitar not be as good against it? And if so, what would be better counters than Tyranitar (aside from the obvious shadow ball mewtwo and rayquaza)

I'm aware the CP rebalance could alter things, but likely something that has higher dps now will still have higher dps after

Asked by MetagrossMaxis6 years 6 months ago

Report

Answers

Tyranitar's use pretty much depends on how many potions you need to save. Any meta-relevant dragon, SB Mewtwo, and SC Gengar out-DPS it by a fair bit but enjoy no resistance to either STAB, or worse they suffer a weakness to it. Tyranitar is neutral to dragon and resists ghost which could keep you from needing to re-lobby.

I figured this out with the DPS/TDO table. You can still punch in unreleased Pokemon and assign them random moves to crunch numbers. I opted for Hex/Shadow Ball here. All in all I wouldn't be too concerned about it until the stat rebalances come out. DPS rankings may stay consistent but if bulk varies it could push some options ahead or behind others due to overall performance shuffles.

Good to know. Been planning on three man runs of legendary Pokemon with some friends.

The dps tdo spreadsheet has been acting kinda strange lately for me, as in not working at all. It also doesn't tell what instances bulk is more important than it normally is, that's really something you need to hear from others/ apps and such. So its nice to hear in a more cohesive manner what it means.

Giratina is Ghost/Dragon, so use mostly dragon, ghost, and dark. Ghost and dragon are both types that are weak to themselves. Depending on the boss's moves, you will might want to adjust your team balance to more of the other type.

Pokebattler already has the predicted stats available. The moves are just likely placeholders; Niantic will probably give it at least one "why is this here"-move.

https://www.pokebattler.com/raids/defenders/GIRATINA/levels/RAID_LEVEL_5/attackers/levels/30/strategies/CINEMATIC_ATTACK_WHEN_POSSIBLE/DEFENSE_RANDOM_MC?sort=TIME&weatherCondition=NO_WEATHER&dodgeStrategy=DODGE_REACTION_TIME&aggregation=AVERAGE&randomAssistants=-1&friendLevel=FRIENDSHIP_LEVEL_3

Pretty much expecting that "why is this here" move to be focus blast/aura sphere or earth power, (gets all three in main series, and we all know how much niantic loves giving fighting moves to raid bosses weak to tyrnatiar, and its also weak to earthpower)

Bokebattler, thats the thing I was thinking of, never can remeber the name.

Typically (not always) the "why's that here?" is usually counter-coverage to make the raid fight more interesting. I would expect Focus Blast to prey on dark types rather than Earth Power preying on the secondary typing of a couple specific counters.

Aura Sphere would be a nice addition but since it wasn't in the apk teardown I'm not banking on it being there. Not to say it couldn't be added later though.

Agreed. I only thought earth power because counter coverage Vs dialga, then I remembered "oh wait, its weak to fighting too" so I think focus blast will be there and we might not be getting dialga till after

No, I'm not asking myself that question. Front load with Gengar, then shadow ball mewtwos and Rayquazas.

"I know that against mewtwo Tyranitar was the king ...."

I disagree. My preference was to use Shadow Ball Mewtwo against all Mewtwo raid bosses. It resists psychic and fighting, and isn't weak to anything the boss could throw out there. While SB Mewtwo's TDO is less than TTar's, SB Merwtwo's DPS is significantly higher, and raids are about DPS. If you're barely finishing, the more high DPS pokemon you bring to the raid the better, and if you're winning easily, higher DPS means more damage balls, for you, and possibly for your team.

I'm lucky enough to have four SB Mewtwo powered up. Wish I had more. Used two TTar to fill out the team, except against FB, where I used two SC/SB Gengar.

Giratina should be weak to Ice, Fairy, Dragon, Dark, and Ghost. Most Ice stuff is weak, except possibly Mamoswine and IB Mewtwo. Further, Giratina has a single weakness to ice, not a double like a flying dragon.

Rayquaza and the other dragons should be a good counter against non dragon move Giratina. High DPS and weakness. That includes Giratina with dragon moves as an attacker, of course.

SB Mewtwo and Giratina with a Ghost charged move should be good counters too, except against ghost moves, along with SC/SB Gengar.

Fairy attackers are intriguing, too. C/DG Gardevoir will do well unless it has Ghost attacks, perhaps not the highest DPS option, but serviceable. (Edit - forgot Giratina doesn't resist psychic, so C/SB Mewtwo will be better than PC/SB)

It all depends on Giratina's moves, though. If it has a fighting move, TTar is in trouble. Dragon moves beat the dragons, Ghost moves beat Mewtwo, Gengar, and Giratina. And it could have dark moves, normal moves, possibly even a new bug move (maybe, I don't know). When we see what it's packing, we'll know how to counter it. Given that it is weak to it's own two types (Dragon and Ghost), counters will be interesting.

Four Shadow Ball Mewtwo is an insane luxury, I would expect very few people to have that many powered up. I have two powered up and will likely leave it at that.

Surely you mean C/DG Gardevoir as Charge Beam is resisted while Confusion is not?

Of all the possibilities of new moves, I think we can rule bug out. In the mian series the only bug moves it has access to are Fury Cutter, Silver Wind, and Hidden Power Bug. Two are fast moves that would be immensely disappointing for it to learn and Silver Wind is a pretty pitiful charge move reserved to dex filler bug types. Any of these three seem too left field for Giratina to get given the plethora of more sensible attacks it has access to.

Living in an EX rich zone, I managed 4 SB Mewtwo without even trying (4/8, I think only my first needed to be TMed.) I only made it to 1/3 or less of the possible raids too. Mine are, however, not particularly powered up. 20, 21, 26 and 30. If I had invested Rare Candy there instead of Kyogre and Rayquaza, would easily have 4 Mewtwo at last breakpoint.

tl;dr It's a resources management game as far as how SB Mewtwo rich you are, provided you were in an area where you could get regular invites.

Don't get me wrong, I have as many SB Mewtwo as well. I've taken my power-ups to the extremes though, one is at L35, another L37 and growing, and the other 3-4 sitting at L20 still. I suppose had I kept the two at L30 I could have used the gotten candy to power two more to L30 as well.

Four SB powered up is nice, but there are players in my area who have 7 or more. Given that we're getting a ton of Mewtwo candy right now, the frequent raiders want to put it somewhere.

Edited Gardevoir comments - I keep forgetting that Giratina is Ghost, not Psychic, so it's takes Psychic normally, but is Dragon so resists electric.

My four are levels 40, 36, 34, and 33. Given that it doesn't look like we'll get SB Mewtwo back for a while, they are the best I'll get (and likely the only), so it makes sense to power them up for Mewtwo, Giratina, and other raids.

According to the Type chart on this page, Ghost/Dragon is weak to:
Dark
Fairy
Ghost
Dragon
Ice

And takes Neutral damage from:
Psychic
Flying
Ground
Rock
Steel

So I'd say Dark Tyranitar, Mewtwo with Shadow Ball or Ice Beam, Gengar with Ghost moves, Jynx, Rayquaza, Salamence, Dragonite, Latios/Latias, and Gardevoir would be the top choices.

Checked on Pokebattler. They guessed Giratina's moveset as Dragon Tail/Shadow Claw and Dragon Claw/Dark Pulse/Shadow Ball. According to their calculations, in every weather but Foggy, best counters are Rayquaza, Dragonite, Salamance, and bringing up the rear, Latios, all with double dragon moves preferred.

In Foggy weather, SC-Gengar, SC/SB Giratina, and PC/SB Mewtwo are the top three, followed by Rayquaza, and then more Ghost attacks. So, barring fog, looks like the Dragons will rule the roost when Giratina is the raid boss. Of course, their stuff is somewhat speculative, but I would be surprised if it were far from wrong. The attacks they gave it were all pretty potent - Outrage was the only optimal one they passed on, so the moves could change, but it looks like Dragons are optimal counters.

Surprising they speculate Dragon Claw over Outrage. I hope they do my boi Giratina-O right and give it proper moves. I also hope the stat balance doesn't nerf it to hell, it's on the higher end of the HP scale where it risks getting cut down.

Whether it gets DC or OR isn't that relevant, it can't possibly compete as a dragon attacker. As long as we get a good double ghost set I'm happy.

Latest Content

Pokemon Go 8th Anniversary Celebration
2024-06-18

Goodra PvP IV Deep-Dive
2024-06-09

Pokemon Go: Content Update for June, 2024
2024-05-29

Cyndaquil Community Day Classic
2024-05-29

Goomy Community Day
2024-05-29

Shared Skies Go Battle League Update
2024-05-28

Slumbering Sands Event
2024-05-28

Stadium Sights
2024-05-28