Gym Defenders Tier List after defensive rebalance and Sinnoh Stone release?
Of course, Blissey remains Tier 1, while Chansey and Slaking would significantly drop.
Milotic, Snorlax, Dragonite and Metagross look like the best among the rest, while Gyarados deserves more than an honorable mention.
Togekiss has more bulk than Gardevoir and better fast moves, but slightly worse typing (weak to Raikou and eventually Mamoswine).
Do any other new species (perhaps Rhyperior or Electivire) have potential as defenders?
Steelix walls dragons, Metagross, Tyranitar, Raikou and Mewtwo, but its weakness to Machamp remains and its bulk was hurt by the rebalance.
What about the rest, like Lapras, Exeggutor, Clefable and Slowbro?
Answers
togekiss, while it has more weaknesses, still has its best coutner as metagross, the same as gardevoir, so the multiple weaknesses it has over gardevoir isnt that significant. As well as mamoswine and other counter to togekiss arent as good generlists aside from maybe raikou, but legendary status does hurt it.
Snorlax also took a hit with the rebalance, while the others did gain, chansey and slaking likely are gone for good thankfully. Steelix also saw a substantial CP drop with the rebalance as well.
Lapras also took a hit, but the slowdudes and clefable did get a buff, but clefable's still inferior to togekiss and gardevoir
From what ive seen at least, the defensive list seems to be Blissey and metagross at the top(its high DPS threatens attackers plus hgh bulk)
>a step below them is togekiss, dragonite, milotic, venasaur
> Gyarados somewhere between the tier above and the one below
> Then the slowdudes, clefable, Charizard,
> then the bottom being gardevoir steelix tyranitar, chansey and lax
Thats just what ive observed but that seems to be faily consistent with what friends from back home and a few other places have seen The meta's not just about loading the normal tanks and the machamp speed bumps anymore, a lot more emphasis seems to be on diverse gyms with much more type coverage.
Metagross with its exclusive move is less accessible than Raikou (the best counter to common Water defenders) or Mamoswine (which will be the best counter to dragon defenders, which are also common). Togekiss being weak to both means attackers have less need to switch and could even use the preceding defender to build up energy.
I still see Chansey and Slaking in gyms, though they are certainly less common than before. Cheers to more diversity!
