Well, Pokeminers has the community's back once again, as their recent discovery has given us some pretty big news. This time, we've got the initial stats for Rayquaza and Mega Rayquaza's upcoming signature move; Dragon Ascent.
Dragon Ascent added pic.twitter.com/JEoPXCAnQW
— PokeMiners (@poke_miners) June 27, 2023
The keen-eyed among you may notice that the data says that Dragon Ascent is a Dragon Type move, but a few minutes after this Pokeminers would announce that Niantic had fixed it and rightfully made it a Flying Type move. So how exactly does this move stack up? Let's take a look.
Here's a look at the top Flying Type attackers with this new version of Dragon Ascent attached onto Rayquaza and Mega Rayquaza. And just for fun, we'll also include the objectively great Flying Type move Fly for the sake of comparison:
Image Source: The Comprehensive DPS/TDO Spreadsheet
....oh, oh wow...
Yes, in its current incarnation it seems that Dragon Ascent is downright broken. But let's see just how broken by comparing this monster to the top attackers in the game, including the long-anticipated Mega Mewtwo Y:
Yup. As it sits, Mega Rayquaza is set to become the absolute strongest attacker in the entire game, and Flying is set to become one of the absolute strongest types in the game.
Without a doubt, this version of Dragon Ascent will make Mega Rayquaza one of the most valuable Pokemon in the entire game. But why exactly is this move so great? It's because Dragon Ascent has stats fairly similar to power-house attacks like Overheat or Draco Meteor, but while those moves take a full 100 energy charge to launch, Dragon Ascent only takes 50. In short, it's a 2-bar move with 1-bar stats. This is absolutely broken, especially on an absolute monster like Mega Rayquaza, not to mention the ability to potentially build an entire army of normal Rayquaza packing the move as well with enough meteorites. The one issue with this move is the fact that it's not going to be great for dodging, but this is thematically appropriate given the fact that it lowers the user's defensive capabilities on use in the main series.
However, we do have to ask: how likely is it that Dragon Ascent will keep its current stats into release? Niantic is notorious for changing stats on moves pre-release, and it's entirely possible that Rayquaza's signature move may see a change. For example; given the move's stat-base, it's entirely possible that its energy cost here is a mistake, and that it could be updated to a full 100 cost before release. So what would it look like if that happened?
Given this change, Dragon Ascent would allow Mega Rayquaz to sit right around Sky Attack Shadow Honchkrow; it's objectively better than Hurricane, yet still substantially weaker than Fly. Overall, this seems fairly likely given our current precedents for move stats, but we've also seen some genuinely powerful moves drop as well, like Origin Pulse and Precipice Blades. And while this is a bit broken, the fact that Rayquaza is the canon progenitor of the Mega Evolution phenomenon and the star of the upcoming Go Fest 2023 means that we could very well see this move slip through as-is or with only mild changes.
Regardless of the outcome, this is huge for the Pokemon Go community. We're already working on the Mega Rayquaza Raid Guide to help everyone get ready as early as possible, so in the meanwhile here's to the near future and Go Fest 2023!
