My Gym Defenders Tier List
Hey guys,
since we have no updated Gym Defenders Tier List yet, I decided to make one by myself so that we know how to deal with gen 2 and the new move balancing inside the gym. Keep in mind that I did not take legacy movesets into account. Feel free to comment and watch my other posts ;) Hope you can make use of my gym defenders list: https://www.facebook.com/1690531431236729/photos/a.1722597491363456.1073741828.1690531431236729/1722598531363352/?type=3&theater
Answers
slowbro/king hit like a truck with confusion. and watergun is a terrible defending moveset having a atk of 5(even less than before the update where it had 6), thats why vape is relatively low. ampharos is so high because of volt switch witch hits as hard as confusion but a little bit slower. Exeggutor has no confusion anymore. A legacy eggy is a beast!
I don't agree with Dragonite being a tier1, he has double weakness to ice, I would say tier 2. And also Vaporeon for me is same tier than Tyranitar, he should be tier 2. Another thing I would say is that Exeguttor is higher than 3.5 for sure, at least tier 2-3, but taking into account that you said no legacy moves then probably is ok at 3.5.
Just my thoughts but no double weak mons should be on tier 1.
The reason why i listed dragonite so high is because of dragon tail, which is a great defending move. but i agree with you that it does not fully deserve tier 1, but i think its better than any of those tier 2 mons. and all ice mons are mediocre at maximum. vaporeon, is really not a that good of a defender if you compare him too the larger defender-pool that we have now, plus his watergun has only 5 atk!
Rhydon and Vaporeon all tier 3? How do you make that? Vaporeon should be rated at least 0.5 tiers above Rhydon.
Steelix Tier 3.5? It should be rated higher on the list.
Slowbro and Slowking Tier 2? Nope, too low CP.
Lapras Tier 3.5? It is still a high CP defender, should be rated in where Vaporeon being rated, also has a good performance with both ice/water attacks.
Exeggutor Tier 3.5? This is almostly impossible despite its low max CP. I think it should be at least Tier 2.5.
Gyarados Tier 3.5? Don't forget about its high max CP, and eletrics are still weak.
Blissey Tier 1, Snorlax Tier 1.5, Dragonite Tier 2, others drop 0.5 tiers.
Ampharos is good, but eletric moves, as stated above, still weak, except for Volt Switch for defense. I think you rated it correct.
A lot of focused is placed behind cp with this response. While I think that it is helpful for a Pokémon to sit higher in a gym, it's cp is a poor indicator of how it performs as a gym defender.
As well, Lapras's max cp was drastically reduced, and should not be a reason as to why it should be rated higher. I do agree that it should, but more so due to its accessibility of both water and ice STAB'd fast + charge moves.
I also don't think gyarados should be rated higher, as even though electric types are still 'weak', they sure take gyarados out with little resistance.
I agree with the rest of the above post
The Gym Mechanics are different now. AI is more intelligent and spam Charge Attacks more quickly and smartly (Body Slam can be used 4 times in a row by AI). I guess this need to be considered to rank correctly.
My observations (just my opinion, you did a great job here):
I would put Vaporeon and Lapras in Tier 2 (even after his nerf, the spreadsheet shows he still with a good Defense %) and down Slowbro-Slowking to tier 3, Psychic isnt that good anymore and Ice Beam or Blizzard are not that good without stab (check speadsheet). For Tyranitar, Iron Tail-Crunch works better on defense and any Blissey still tier 0 UNLESS Pound-Psychic which is Tier 1.
Last Spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1iXCn4liP8_bWqCqai5jC6M6VqV6vm6tRcT0QOsy72_U/htmlview?sle=true#
Most people be like: You should place Vape & Eggy higher, Dnite lower. I wonder if they recently battled gyms.
Guys, vapeoreon is a joke! Do you really want me to place watergun in tier 2? the only reasons why vape is in my list are it´s hp and cp. Eggy, double weak to bug, gets destroyed by scizor, pinsir and any fire type mon. legacy eggy with C is okay, but the new eggy deserves only tier 3.5 for me. I always hear them talking about Dnites double weakness. So what?! The ice mons in the game are mediocre at maximum. And Dnite got a little bit better since the update. And dont forget: gym placement is all about CP! Your Dnites will be protected by blisseys under them, but your highly loved vapes and eggys not.
Where is the point of doing a list without legacy movesets? 90% of our mons have legacy movesets... we want to know which old movesets got useless and were replaced with better ones or which of the old sets are still the best or just marginally weaker to newer moves, so that it´s not really worth to invest.
Thank you so much for preparing this and for your thoughtful answers to all the questions. I am a serious player but I have a lot of other responsibilities and am new to any form of pokemon and to computer games, really. But I'm serious and so I search for and rely on expert advice from others. After the change up with gen2, I have sometimes felt like quitting because I feel I can't keep up! I have searched this gamepress site daily to look for the official gym tier list and am so happy to find your excellent "draft." I only wish I knew where my legacy moves fit in, especially as it is said that the moves were variously "nerphed." Thanks too to the commentators.
Thank you for your comment. To answer your question about the legacy moves: Bodyslam on snorlax is better than the current defensive moves. I would place a legacy exegguttor with confusion in tier 2. Legacy Dnite with Dragon Claw has the better charge move, but no Dragon Tail which is one of the best defensive moves in the game. It's legacy dragon breath is worse than dragon tail for defending. Same goes for gyarados. I didnt make tier 4, but a legacy omastar with rock throw and kangaskhan with stomp would make it in there. without those legacy moves they are worthless for defense. I think thats about it.
