Machamp as a defender?
I was just wondering, why is Machamp so overlooked as a defender? He has very high CP, which is probably the most important thing in the current gym meta, as well as decent base stats and few weaknesses (Psychic, Fairy and Flying).
Although I have never faced it, Bullet Punch + Submission looks like a pretty good defensive moveset on paper, considering that that charge move always gives me issues with dodging. Also, the not-so-expert players will not really know what to use against it straight away, which is an axpect I'd not underestimate.
What do you think? Am I just looking too much into it?
Answers
Good hint, thank you!
I was just wondering, why is Machamp so overlooked as a defender?
It seems, you are right. There are no double super effective attackers, and the usual attackers are not even single super effective.
Does everybody know, alakazam is super effective, does everybody have a good alakazam?
[Edit]
I overlooked the weekness to flying, thus weekness to dragonite and gyarados. This weekens machamp significantly.
[/Edit]
Of course, Machamp is not a wonder, if someone wants to take the gym, he will.
Maybe i will pull my Machamp to Level30 / 2376 and test it - just to look cool, and surprise the attackers. In my region, it will not even be at the very bottom of a gym.
Good stuff! Let me know how it does eventually. With 2300+ CP it'd settle nicely at the middle of gyms in my area as well. It looks like it's really gonna need Bullet Punch + Submission to do a decent job at defending though.
And as the other user pointed out, the weakness to Dragonite and Gyarados is irrelevant as they don't learn Flying moves. Also yeah, Alakazam can probably kill him in seconds, but to be honest he can do that to any other mon too.
It will depend on your area, but in heavily contested areas where gyms bottom at 2600-2700, I don't even seen Lapras anymore so anything below Vaporeon will pretty much not be in a gym since the max CP gap from Gyarados to Vap is 124 and from Vap to Lapras is 177. That's too high to push a lvl 30 mon for most folks, at least until you hit lvl 36+ to allow your Lapras (or anything below that) to catch up to be above 2800.
Again, this ALL depends on your area and I see tons of level 10 gyms still due to no rewards to beat them.
Also, I'd guess the top prestigers (prob only skill in the game currently) will have no trouble with any mon...I'm still trying to improve my skills/team myself.
...For those, who know the Type Chart by heart. For those..... 2%?
GamePress-Readers are not representitive for all Players. Surely, there are many casuals who maybe now have understood that water is good to fight fire, and some players, who at least know how to fight the most important defenders.
Which fraction of players does know the counters to each type? I guess, they are not too many.
No. Machamp is a worse defender than Vaporeon; it's just not worth the stardust.
A defender is evaluated by three criteria:
1. CP cap (to get higher slot in the gym);
2. Tankiness (DEF * STM, also considering typing);
3. Moves (defending DPS and easiness to dodge).
Let's see how Machamp performs:
1.Even a 100iv Machamp at level 39 could only go over 2800. Vaporeon, on the other hand, reaches the same CP at about level 33. Between 33 and 39 is 9.6w Stardust.
2. Machamp's CP mainly comes from his Attack, thus his DEF*STM is not great. Also, his Fighting typing is double-way weak to Psychic, one of the two strongest attacking types (the other being Water) in the meta. One doesn't even need an Alakazam to beat him; a Slowbro would just do.
3. Machamp's best defending move set, Bullet Punch + Submission, is just not elite. Besides, they're both not so hard to dodge.
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I once prestiged against a 2200cp Machamp with my 1089cp Pidgeot (WA + H). Pidgeot beats him with over 1/3 HP left. And after this event, I believe almost everyone will get a WA Charizard, which will crash Machamp as well.
No. Machamp is a worse defender than Vaporeon; it's just not worth the stardust.
In my region, contest for gyms is not too hard. So i can afford to put a less optimal defender, as i am sick of seeing all these vaporeons.
And after this event, I believe almost everyone will get a WA Charizard, which will crash Machamp as well.
All hardcore-players. For those, Machamp will not be a problem anyway.
I am a moderate level-32-player and i will not have collected 300+ Charmander-candy and 3+ high-iv-Charmanders (To get a decent Charizard with wing-attack and without dragon claw) walking through the snow with freezing hands.
I thought about the same thing - anything with high CP that adds variety to gym defense is a contender in my book.
But even Pidgeots w/ 1/2 his CP walk away with 2/3 HP left
Combination of a few things make him sub-par.
- ATK as 40% total stats - Higher ratio than Gyarados or Arcanine
- Bad quick move - hits every check box for bad quick move. Non-stab, ineffecient typing that doesn't cover any major weaknesses, and mediocre dmg
- Inefficient typing - Fighting just isn't a good typing in this gen. Between the two attacks, the list of types that will resist at least one is long - Water, Fire, Electric, Poison, Flying, Psychic, Bug, Fairy, etc. In fact, almost any random Pokemon you pick will resist at least one of the 2 moves. Being weak to Psychic doesn't help, either.
I like machamp and powered mine up.. yes he's not the greatest defender but what mon really is? At the end of day machamp has good max cp and cp is all that matters in this game. Not whether they are great defenders. Any determined trainer that wants to take down the gym will do regardless of whats in there.
Regretably Karate Chop is a horrible move in Pokemon Go. So Machamp's only good defensive moveset is Bullet Punch+Submission. Except fire, water, and electric are all resistant to steel, with nothing really exciting that is weak to steel. (Since Pokemon Gold/Silver, I've always thought that psychic and grass should have been weak to steel.)
This could all change if Niantic ever decides to fix the strength of moves like Karate Chop though. So if you have a good IV Machamp and you have enough pokemon storage space to spare, hold on to it.
I have a ~2600 BSu Machamp with 90+ IVs that I put into gyms just to help break up the monotony of typical gym defenders.
