I had a similar post a couple of weeks ago. I have a 100 IV Slowbro with Confusion/Ice beam and wondered if it was worth maxing it out. Most said yes. Even someone from gamepress answered saying that it's a recommended moveset for gym defense due to its most common attackers - Dragonite and Exeggutor. Both being weak to ice.
Ice Beam Slowbro?
Hey guys. First of all I want to thank everyone for their previous feedback, always very helpful. Another question for the think tank...
I have a 95% IV Slowbro with Confusion/Ice Beam -- is it worth the dust as a defender? Or should I wait for Psychic? Does the convenient type coverage make up for the lack of STAB in you opinion? Thanks in advance!
Answers
Both C-IB and C-P are top tier movesets for defense, and as the other commenter said: the most common attackers into Slowbro actually take more damage from Ice Beam (Dragonite / Exeggutor), so it's preferable in the most common matchups.
I've got a 96% Confusion / Psychic, and a couple 89% Confusion / Ice Beam and they both perform very well.
Definitely worth the dust.
I'd wait for a psychic one, but may depend on your meta. Over here exegg is very rare and most people will attack him with a jolteon. At least that's what I do, and IB would make the job even easier.
I'm actually slightly disappointed by slowbros performance. I fought against my maxxed C/P for the 1st time yesterday, took a lower CP jolteon and crushed him way more easily than I expected. I won with more than 50% hp left. C/P hits hard but is slow and easy to dodge. And even if you fail to dodge or get some server lag, psychic can't surprise-OS you like some other moves.
Slowbro can be alright as a defender, depending on your gym situation. He won't really last long if your local gyms keep changing and won't function as a deterrent against attackers in the same way that Snorlaxes will... but if you can insert him into a decent mid-high level gym with a sensible roster he can play a part in defending it for a bit.
In terms of powering up, what level is he currently at, and what level do you intend to power him up to? And, for the same stardust what are your other available options?
I have one floating around 2000 cp that is tougher to beat than it should be. That being said, I actually didn't invest any stardust into it, I was lucky enough to find a level 30 poke with decent IVs in the wild, and evolved it.
In general, psyhic is better than ice beam in almost every way, with 2 exceptions. It is slightly better against dragonite, and it's primary use is exegutor repellent.
Remember that exxe's have a resistance to psychic, as well as water. So if an attacking egg monster has a grass secondary move, then it's lights out for slowbro.
But with ice beam, eggsy no longer has resistance, and now has a weakness.
So now "defensivly" psychic is doing around 11.4 dps, and ice beam is around 14.5.
Its small, but it does help.