Is Walrein a good defender?
For me a good defender is one who endures too much (Blissey, Chansey, Snorlax) or one who manages to throw charged attacks and have decent damage to spend potions (Dragonite, Rhydon).
There are also some who are in the midpoint, enduring regularly but at least manage to shoot a charged attack and do some damage (Vaporeon, Lapras), Pokemon that bother the enemy when you feed them with golden berry. For example, Tyranitar is not here because it is too easy to shoot down with Machamp and can't attack with charge attack, the same with Gyarados against Raikou.
Looking at Walrein's statistics, could this be at this midpoint? I ask this question because I got a walrein 100% and I need another good defender and some variety.
I have never fought against a Walrein with a good CP in a gym, so I need opinions from those who have faced it.
Answers
Lapras, and even Cloyster are decent defenders. Lapras has bulk comparable to Vaporeon and Milotic. Cloyster has the defence stat of a Steelix, but 2/3 of the HP. But access to Ice Shard (legacy for Lapras) and Avalanche (which Lapras can't learn) close up the gap between them.
And Walreins will find a lot of use when Rayquaza comes next month.
And Wobbuffet. Can't forget Wobbuffet among the top defenders, particularly in this new Gym system.
Seriously underestimated Pokémon. 230ish HP at Level 20, takes like a week to lose much motivation (I'm not sure I'm being hyperbolic here - I might actually be accurately describing how slowly Wobbuffet loses motivation), and with Counter/Mirror Coat it can even be an annoyance to a Tyranitar - more of an annoyance than a Blissey!
Most of the time when you're taking down a gym, you'll need to defeat Wobbuffet at least 2 times, if not a full 3 times - that's longer than taking down a Blissey, which might just take a single battle to knock it off the gym.
Even a 67% Level 20 Wobbuffet is a good gym defender now, and is seriously underestimated because of the abysmal CP and attack stat. Gym Defenders are nuisances now, not Defenders - and Wobbuffet is one hell of an annoying nuisance.
1 min after putting Wailord or Wobbuffet onto a Gym, Wailord is better. It will take longer to beat it 3 times than Wobbuffet.
1 hour after putting Wailord or Wobbuffet onto a Gym, Wailord is better. It will take longer to beat it 3 times than Wobbuffet.
9hrs after putting Wailord or Wobbuffet onto a Gym, Wobbuffet is better. It will take longer to beat Wobbuffet 3 times than it will take to beat Wailord 1-2 times.
1 Day+ after putting Wobbuffet onto a Gym, Wobbuffet is among the best defenders because it takes so damn long to knock if off of the gym - you have to wait a few days, if not an entire week, before you only have to beat Wobbuffet just once to knock if off the gym.
When it comes to defending gyms, the name of the game is making it take longer for an attacker to work to take down the gym because even causing the attacker to take 1 extra minute might get you 1 more coin. (or potentially 50 more coins, if the attacker is trying to take it out just before midnight) And Wobbuffet is GREAT at causing the attacker to take that 1 more minute. It isn't noticeably better in the first few hours, but once you get to the 9hr mark, few Pokémon are going to be better than Wobbuffet at defending a Gym.
Hell, even a Wobbuffet with Splash is a better defender at 9hrs than a Blissey because again, you have to spend 2x the amount of time to beat that Wobbuffet 3 times, not just the 1 time you need to defeat that demotivated Blissey.
Doesn't negate the fact that in places where there isn't that sort of insane turnover, Wobbuffet is a decent defender.
And that when it comes right down to it, there is no such thing as a "good" Gym Defender anymore because Gym Defense doesn't work. I can take down any gym in less than 10min. Doesn't matter who the defenders are - Level 40 Perfect Blissey, Chansey, Snorlax, plus any other three Perfect Level 40's, doesn't matter. The biggest issue I have is "How many Potion/Revives do I want to waste on this?". Heck, even my 5yr old daughter (who has an account so she can play on her own game) has the Pokémon to take down any gym she wants in about 15min, and the only reason she's level 29 is that my wife and I make sure to get her at least 1 pokestop and catch 1 Pokémon every day, so she gets the daily and weekly bonus. Hell, she just hatched a 10km egg that she picked up in November - it turned out to be a Dratini which was worth turning into a Dragonite, so she finally has a Dragonite.
Discussions about "Gym Defenses" that are seriously talking about Break Points and Coverage and Stats are useless discussions because none of it matters. There are only 2 things that matter - what Pokémon will reliably give me an extra 1min on the gym (because that 1min can be the difference between getting 0 coins and potentially getting 50 coins), and what Pokémon will cause Filthy Casuals (like me) drive by without fighting.
Nothing else matters.
I agree with your point overall, but Wobbuffet adds so little time to taking down the gym I don't feel it's relevant at all. Feeding a maxed Blissey once adds 2 minutes of battle time. Having a 600cp Wobbuffet in an otherwise fully demotivated gym maybe makes it take 3 minutes instead of 2 to clean out the whole gym.
Then again I live in a high turnover area so I have no idea how lazy people get if there's just no competition. Maybe that extra 1 minute starts mattering then.
It's a speedbump you normally have to run over 3 times. You have to see that "You defeated the Gym!" screen 3 times. You have to go back in and tap on "Battle" 3 times. And each time, it's barely less powerful than the time before.
That's where the use of Wobbuftet comes in - you have to beat it multiple times unless it's been on a gym for literally days (possibly even a full week). Every other popular defender will lose enough motivation so that only a single battle will knock it out after 9 hours, but not Wobbuffet.
And when it comes down to it, that's the only real metric that has any use in defending Gyms now. "How long can I hold the Gym?" Wobbuffet nearly always holds it for 3 long(ish) battles due to the insanely high HP and laughably low CP meaning low motivation decay.
If anything, Wobbuffet is overestimated. It's completely worthless on defense because of its low bulk and low attack, yet every now and then people bring it up. High HP doesn't do anything by itself, you also need defense so that HP pool doesn't just melt when an attacker looks your way. This is the exact same reason why Wailord is not a good defender.
The 67% level 20 Wobbuffet you mention gets taken down at full motivation by NVE L30 Machamp in 22 seconds. Needless to say that's not great results for a matchup where the attacker is at type disadvantage. Tyranitar hardly even notices the Wobbuffet before it's already on to the next defender.
If you want a good low CP defender, go for Chancey, Steelix, Azumarill, Clefable and probably some others before Wobbuffet. Below 1300 cp is what matters, anything below that doesn't give significant returns for decaying slower.
