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My personal defender tier list

Based on my gym experiences I have made a defender tier list. Assuming all pokemons are at level 30 and have equalish IVs.

Highest CP in each tier is the best defender due to gym placement, meaning that the highest CP within each tier is the best defender to use. Obviously higher tier is the first thing to consider when choosing defender.

Tier 1
Snorlax with Zen Headbutt and (Hyper Beam or Body Slam)

Tier 2
Dragonite with Steel Wing and Dragon Pulse
Snorlax with Lick and (Hyper Beam or Body Slam)
Snorlax with Zen Headbutt and Earthquake
Vaporeon with Water Gun and Water Pulse
Lapras with Ice Shard and (Ice Beam or Blizzard)

Tier 3
Dragonite with Steel Wing and (Hyper Beam or Dragon Pulse)
Dragonite with Dragon Breath and Dragon Pulse
Snorlax with Lick and Earthquake
Rhydon with Mud Slap and (Stone Edge or Earthquake)
Gyarados with Dragon Breath and/or Dragon Pulse
Vaporeon with Water Gun and Aqua Tail
Lapras with Frost Breath and Ice Beam
Lapras with Ice Shard and Dragon Pulse
Exeggutor with Confusion and (Psychic or Seed Bomb)

The rest is basically useless. The low CP but tough to beat (Omastar, Venusaur, Poliwrath, Slowbro, Wigglytuff, Kangaskhan, Chansey) simply do not work due to danger of losing spot and suboptimal prestiging.

Also, at this point, most people have enough level 30 pokemons from the listed tiers above.

Any thoughts?

Asked by 11egend8 years 4 months ago

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Answers

Your Rhydon should be Mud Slap and Stone Edge or Earthquake, shouldn't it?

I'm not sure if Venusaur qualifies as low CP, it could possibly make the list. Would be a great mon to slide between Gyarados's.

Otherwise sure, it's your opinion under your assumptions. I'm not level 30 yet but lots of people are. My area is pretty ripe with this stuff too. Chansey, Poliwrath, and Slowbro are pretty much the only ones I see in gyms that aren't on your list.

Rhydon could be with Earthquake also, yes.

You are right about Venusaur not being very low cp, although it has considerably lower CP than the mons listed in the three tiers. Venusaur is probably in tier 4 along with Omastar, Alakazam and Golem.

Chansey is an interesting one for next generation with its evolved version.

nice list,

for me pokemon with double weakness have no place in tier 2, so would place dragonite to tier 3. In tier 3 i would not place rhydon or gyarados, these are really soft when attacked with the right pokemon (vaporeon, jolteon) (but nice to prestige against) Exeggutor can still get away with its double weakness to bug because a lack top offensive bugs. Venusaur (RL/SB) would make my tier 3 list.

Yes, those 3 are the soft ones but I feel their high CP makes up for it. Also, as you say, they are useful for prestiging.

Venusaur could probably make tier 3, although I don't like the low CP. It has been so rare that I haven't made my mind up yet. But this current event will fix that for sure.

Dewgong, Clefairy, and Muk.

Gym stagnation goes both ways. Gets kinda boring seeing and attacking the same mons. Everyone already knows who the best defenders are by now. Regardless of CP gym placement, it's always refreshing to battle different mons that you don't always see but are good defenders nonetheless. Like Tentacruel, Charizard, Muk, heck even Raichu with a santa hat :)

Now we're talking. Let's see some personal non ranked mons tier lists. That would be interesting.

This is a good list. Really hard to put this list together though because it is so dependent on the gym composition / context. For example, if a gym has 5 Snorlax in it, I might be inclined to sneak my Dragonite behind those 5 Snorlax, regardless of moveset. Even if I have a Snorlax with ZH/BS ready to go...

On the other hand, if I see a gym full of Gyarados and Vaporeons, I am more inclined to stick my Lapras or Exeggutor at the front to try and deter attackers. Or sneak my Snorlax behind them (but I may choose my Snorlax with L / EQ and save my ZH / BS for a better gym that may have 2-3 Lapras in it).

Movesets do matter to me, but more when I choose what pokemons to power up when I have multiple options, instead of what I put in gyms and in what order.

All in all, it's hard to do an absolute list of how pokemons and movesets rank against each other. But I generally agree with your rankings.

At the end of the day, the best gym compositions are:
* Lots of Snorlax & Lapras
* Or a total mix (Snorlax, Lapras, Exeggutor, Vaporeon, Dragonite, Rhydon)

Without an overwhelming number of Snorlax/Lapras or no healthy mix (e.g., mostly water types or Dragonites) gyms are really attractive and easy to attack. All gyms can be taken down, but some are more annoying / expensive than others to take down.

How is Lapras hard to take down though? I have a gang of arcanines waiting to be used versus Lapras and I've yet to encounter a gym with more than 2 Lapras. And Arcs tear through them.

Here are just my thoughts:
T1:
Snorlax:
Zen headbutt and body slam.
Zen headbutt and hyper beam. (T1.5 moveset)
Lick and body slam. (T2)
Lick and hyper beam. (T2.5)
Zen headbutt and earthquake. (T2.5)
Lapras:
Ice shard and Blizzard or Ice Beam.
T1.5:
Dragonite:
Steel Wing and Dragon Claw.
Steel Wing and Dragon pulse.
Steel Wing and hyper beam. (T2.5 moveset)
Vaporeon:
Water Gun and water pulse.
Water Gun and aqua tail.
Water Gun and hydro pump. (T2.5 moveset)
Exeggutor:
Confusion and seed bomb or solar beam or psychic.
T2:
Rhydon/Poliwrath/Slowbro/Gyarados/Omastar/Venusaur
T2.5:
Clefable/Wigglytuff/Jolteon/Arcanine
T3:
Kabutops/Flareon/Charizard/Blastoise/Ninetales
???:
Ditto/Chansey

Curious that you don't distinguish Snorlax with BS vs HB - I much prefer fighting against HB as it is telegraphed so far in advance that I can get off several quick attacks, dodge, then hit it with my own special. I like it when I'm on attack though.
Also I think Gyarados with twister is unappreciated - since the best counter is electric and they are still underpowered with HP, it's a nuisance to have to dodge so much.
My defending strategy has largely changed to "highest CP I can" although I do like to mix things up a bit in lower level gyms that get flipped a lot, just to cost the attackers an extra potion or two (by breaking up similar type pokemon with a logical counter if possible)

I also prefer BS, but is it enough to put it on a seperate tier?

I've also seen some people arguing that HB is preferred as it deals more damage when not dodging or missing a dodge,. Furthermore, they claim that it does enough damage also when dodging, and that many people will use more time as they don't attack while waiting for the dodge after animation.

I find the lower CPs good for level 1-3 placement. I figure everyone is going to place above me anyway; so why set the bar high? (Except for Chansey-too hard on prestigers)
High CP defenders are better for established, high-level gyms that take more prestiging to get into.