Best defenders # 5-10
After the 4 normal pokemon, who do you think are the 6 best defenders?
Answers
My definition of a "best" defender is anything that forces
1) Machamp/Hairy to swap
2) Dragons to swap
Cause really that's all I can do, force you to swap pokemon, or not let 1 of your pokemon beat 3 defenders in a row.
That means for me:
Gardevoir & Clefable are my 2 favorites. Sandwiched in between BSC.
Dragonite, Gary, Eggy, Slowbro all can work too
Bulk is def*hp, not def+hp. This is because of how damage is calculated, def is inversely proportional to the amount of damage taken and hp is of course directly proportional to how much damage is required to KO. Summing up defense and hp isn't based on anything and doesn't produce any kind of a meaningful result.
Tyranitar tankiness = 212*200=42400
Wobbuffet tankiness = 108*380=41040
My go to mon for gym sweeping is Ho-oh. If your gym isn't fully motivated, this line-up won't bother ho-oh much. If if is, I'll swap in a dragonite for the dragonite, and raikou for the gyarados. If I have a solar beam charged up before swapping, I'll use it and then swap. Swapping mon doesn't seem to slow me down much.
Best defenders after ,,elite 4''?
Number 5 and 6- support duo:
Slowbro C/IB and Tentacruel PJ/HP- good defense type (resist to fire and fighting attacks), good stats, easy access to get high lvl (if someone not want to powerup defenders), and strong attacks. Even when place them in gyms solo, thanks to typing and moveset can easily give high dmg to its own counters (Tentacruel weakness is electric, ground and psychic. Electric and psychic get neutral STAB dmg, when ground is weak to Hydro Pump. Slowbro weakness is bug, electric, grass, dark and ghost. Bug, electric and ghost get neutral STAB dmg from Confusion, and neutral from Ice Beam, grass get SE dmg from Ice Beam, and dark is only real counter, but ,,elite 4'' charge attacks deal SE dmg to dark type mons)
Number 7, 8 and 9- rest of strong defenders:
Steelix DT/C, Milotic, DT/B, Muk I/DP- overfall, strong defenders, but not combine with ,,elite 4''.
If someone curious why i why I don't think so Dragonite, Vaporeon, Gardevoir, Gyarados, Umbreon or any other mon is good defender thats why:
Dragonite and Gyarados- Double weakness= OHKO from charge attack even at max motivation,
Gardevoir- very good fast move and typing, but really poor defense (def and hp) stats and slow charge moves,
Vaporeon and Umbreon- very strong attacks and stats, but water and dark moves are resisted by its own counters (grass and fight).
You have some good points and I'm definitely a fan of Muk and Tentacruel. However, both Slowbro and Tentacruel get murdered by Raikou without much problem so I would avoid putting them into the same gym.
About the ones you discount as defenders:
Gyarados I agree on since most people have a Raikou nowadays. It's a good generalist anyway and Gary getting fried by pretty much a single WC is not good for Gary. Dragonite is different. Ice mons are completely useless in gyms battles other than for taking down the Dragonite so the attacker is wasting their time bringing in one and changing to it. If they plow through it with a Dragonite of their own (which is what I do) it will put serious hurt on them if they don't dodge all.
Gardevoir is incredibly tanky against its good matchups which is the point, it forces you to switch away from Machamp or Dragonite because it'll last longer than Snorlax against them. Again, forcing the attacker to plan for switches and bring in multiple different types is another way of slowing them down.
Vaporeon and Umbreon. There are a few more factors here. Vaporeon's fast move sucks for defense and Raikou is so bulky it doesn't care about not resisting water. They are both pretty good at wasting your time, but better options exist.
Your big 4 means Blessey+Snorlax+Chansey and ??
Out of these 3. I think those can be 4 to 10.
Lapras : great HP and med defense. IS is a good defensive move. IB/Surf/HP both are good on defense and water+ice move would make the attackers confused.
Umbreon: Great defense and med high HP. S and DP is good on defense. You will feel annoyed if you dont use fighting type.
Clefable: med high HP. Its great to put it behind Blessey and Snorlax to let the player change their pokemon. ZH can protect it when they face poison type. DG and M can make great damage to Ttar, Dnite and Machamp. P is fast and have SE on Machamp.
Tenterquel: high defense. HP has early dodge window and powerful. Acid is a good defense move. It can resist the fighting moves too.
Steelix: very high defense. HS is a two bar move and quite good on defense.
Venusaur: RL is good on defense. SB is a two bar move and has early dodge window. Venusaur can resist fighting moves.
Slowbro: I think its defense and HP is not bad. Also C is very good on defense. IB is fast and powerful. It can punish Dnite. P has early dodge window and can punish fighting types. WP is easy to dodge but is good to face Ttar.
Gya: although it is very afraid from electric move. It is strong when facing other mons. WF is strong on defense. We also know that how good is HP. Its stats is great too.
Milotic: very high defense. WF is good on defense. S is tricky to dodge and it is a two bar move. HP is med high too.
Vapo: WG is great on attack but poor on defense. HP and AT is good. AT is a three bar move. It can release the move in a short time or use it continuously. It has very high HP.
Amph: high hp and med defense. VS is great on defense. T has early dodge window but is a one bar move. I think Amph is quite bulk and can release charge move before it die.
Last but not least, Muk has high hp and strong moves. Its stats are good and poison can resist fighting moves.
If an attacker is going to bring 6 counters vs 6 defenders, it doesn't matter at all what defends. Everything in PMG has a counter.
If an attacker, is going to attack a tower, nothing will stop the attacker short of Golden Rasp on defenders to make them give up.
All of that said, there are a lot of pokemon that can make the lazy attacker who doesn't swap more difficult.
Machamp/Hairy is the number 1 Blissey killer. So forcing Machamp to not start Blissey with a full charge, or swap out right away before getting to snorlax is useful.
Dragons are the number 2 sweepers. Again forcing out Dragons is useful.
Fairy Types do both those roles. Gardevoir and Clefable are ideal for sandwhiching before or after a blissey/snorlax/chansey.
After that it really gets dicey
Water Types: are useful for Ho-ho sweepers. Ho-Ho with fire can resist 4 Gleams in a row I spoke of above. Vaperon, Gary, Tentacruel all have some use here.
Eggy with Conf/Seed and Slowbro with Conf/Ice are both good for not only punishing the Dragons/Machamps they will tempt the Autoselector and even the player to go for Tyrantir. And yet they have a charge move weakness.
Dragonite/Gary once upon a time were all bad double weakness choices. But if you view it as forcing out Machamp/Dragons they actually do well.
I'm not a fan of anything weak to fighting being near a blissey. So Lapras, Umbreon while okay themselves just invite Machamp to take them out along with Blissey.
Espeon is another normal splitter to chase off Machamp.
It really is about stopping Machamp & Dragons & making Blissey as annoying to beat as possible.