Gengar options
Looking to TM and power up one of my psychic gengars for use in raid battles but have no clear best one. Three I'm going between (hp/atk/def): 15/13/14, 13/15/12, 10/15/14 - all level 25. Thoughts?
Answers
Attack is far more important, let me explain why.
First of all, it's the element you control. If you are using your Gengar vs a certain raid boss for this month (let's say Cresselia), you can check the break points and be certain which level your Gengar needs to reach to maximize his efficiency. It's not the same for bulkpoints, because the boss has different movesets with different bulkpoints for your Gengar.
Also hitting a breakpoint is far more important than hitting a bulkpoint. Your Gengar is attacking with Lick every 0.5 second while the Raid boss is attacking Gengar every 3-4 seconds. It's better to focus on making Lick hit for +1 damage than focus on making the boss' fast move hit for -1 damage.
Lastly, HP doesn't matter a lot. 15 stamina Gengar has 3 more hitpoints than 10 stamina Gengar at levels 30-35. How often does your Pokemon survive with 1-3 hp? More often than not, you get overkilled by a charge move. Defense is slightly better in case the boss has a weak fast move (like psycho cut), it will help you a lot if you happen to hit a breakpoint.
TL;DR: Attack is far more important than Defense, which in turn is more important than HP
Think that's where I was leaning. Got a little held up because during mewtwo month I only had 1 gengar that I could power up enough to have the stamina to survive three confusions, so it made me acutely aware of gengar's bulkpoints - but you're right about the variance from boss to boss and moveset to moveset.
Think I'll opt for the 15 atk and 14 def one first then...
Theoretically, attack might be more important.
Are you often shortmanning raidbosses weak to ghost?
Are your marginal then a question of a few seconds?
Does the boss in question have some critical break points?
If not yes on all three questions, I dare say you will never see a difference.
Knowing your attack teams, the ins and outs of weaknesses, move sets and taking weather boosts and friendship bonus into account are much more important than a few attack points.
Yes, level, candy and stardust costs are important factors.
High IV does little good if it is not powered up.
I usually have a couple of level 33+ C/DP Machamps in my dex to trade to new players if we have to shortman a lvl 4. It is rather common that new players get stuck with the hardcore jargon "everything below 95%/attack 15 is worthless". I have lost count on how many lvl 30-35 players I met with only one or two Machamps.
