Is the reviews underestimating the "Mediocre" water types or overestimating Vaporeon?
I'm seeing that Vaporeon is still getting a 4 in the ratings. Swampert and Milotic are strictly better than Vape (Actually Hydro Cannon Blastoise is already strictly better than Vape) and they get a lower rating.
I'm not saying that those pokemon were good but Vape is so obsoleted by Gyarados and Kyogre and it deserves somewhere around 3.5. Blastoise with Hydro Cannon should be 3.5 as well since it actually performs slightly better than Vape. 4 is defnitely too much for a pokemon that is outclassed by around 5 or 6 pokemon. Milotic should be 3.5 as well since it's actually better than Vape due to the extra bulk and is on the level with Swampert, but one side of me believes that it should stay at 3 because it doesn't have as much dps as the rest. Needless to say the only water pokemon anyone should be seriously using at this point is Gyarados and Kyogre.
Unless the theory is Vape is easily accessible but those were not? Does the guide put accessibility into count?
Answers
I'm guessing accessibility is played into it, but I think you're slightly overselling the others.
In a vacuum HC Blastoise only has slightly higher DPS than Vape (< 0.5 DPS) while having much lower overall damage output, over 100 points less. Swampert is a similar case but slightly better than Blastoise on both accounts. Milotic has similar TDO as Vape (~20 points lower) but with lower DPS.
With all of them floating around similar DPS (~1 point at the extremes, Swampert to Milotic), Vaporeon has the highest overall damage output between all of them while being the easiest to obtain. That's likely why it's ranked higher than the rest.
Do you have the numbers? This is my understanding without having the numbers in front of me...
Offense:
Vaporeon should still have the highest TDO behind Kyrogre and Gyarados due to its bulk. It is bulkier than Blastoise and Swampert and has a better attack than Milotic. It is my understanding that HC Blastoise still isn't very good, certainly not good enough to replace Vaporeon on teams if you already have powered up Vaporeons.
Defense:
Milotic is strictly superior to Vaporeon on defense due to similar bulk but with much better defensive moves that counter attackers. Swampert is strictly inferior to Vaporeon on defense as it has a double weakness to grass. Blastoise has better charge moves on defense, but equally bad fast moves, and isn't nearly as bulky.
Overall:
Vaporeon is only outclassed on both fronts by Gyarados, which has a 4.5 rating, which is outclassed by Kyrogre, which has a 5 rating. I could see Milotic being bumped to 3.5, but I assume Blastoise stays so low because it is only 1 moveset, which you could only get during a 3 hour window, make it viable. Venusaur and Charizard by comparison are still solid pokemon without their special move.
But yes, Kyrogre and Gyarados are the only investment worthy pokemon on offense, as most of us have high level Vaporeons. Milotic could be worth investment if defense matters to you.
