Moveset for Poliwrath and Slowbro
Hi Team,
I just have a Slowbro 98IV with Confusion and Ice Beam and I would like to know of it's gonna be a good gym defender. I'm in a city with a lot of dragonite ...
I have the same question for my Poliwrath 84 IV with Bubble and Ice Punch.
Thank you for your answers and what you did ! Great website !
Answers
Some people enjoy min-maxing their Pokémon. There's plenty of reasons to have a strong defending Pokémon. Collecting daily coins isn't the objective of every player. It's a game where people can enjoy doing different things, that's why it's been as successful as it is. Some people want to fill their pokedex, some people want to collect high IV Pokémon, some people want to collect strongest defenders and attackers. It's a game after all.
Even though the movesets don't seem optimal, they are actually stronger than the pure damage output would suggest. Simply because these Ice moves protect water's weaknesses. Normally you would want to attack into Slowbro with Dragonite, Exeggutor, Venusaur, however, Ice move deals super effective damage to those Pokémon whereas Hydro Pump would deal 'not very effective' damage. So even though on paper you'd want Psychic or Water Pulse, Ice Beam in my opinion is at least just as good. The only downside is that Psychic would be a lot more effective against the most common attacker, Vaporeon.
Well, if you are interested specifically in the Dragonite matchup, the slowbro should work well enough, Confusion does neutral damage against Dragonite, and Ice Beam does super effective damage (x1.56). As for the Poliwrath, bubble is the best attack it can get, even if it's not ideal against a Dragon/Flying type, plus the Ice punch, just like Ice Ray, does x1.56 damage, so they are not as bad as the DPS suggest.
This is, in the Dragonite matchup, as you point out they are very common in your area.
