What's up with Defenders?

I never really researched it, but I'd heard a while ago that gym defenders don't use their speed stat outside the first 2 attacks of the fight, thus those that rely on speedy quick moves aren't good defenders typically.

After the first two attacks the defenders use their quick moves at a rate of 2.5 seconds per. That’s why fast, weaker moves make terrible defensive moves as they’re only doing 5-7 damage every 2.5 seconds, whereas a move like Volt Switch it does 25 damage every 2.3 seconds so the damage to time ratio is much better for defending. I definitely over explained that one lol

A defending pokemon starts a fight with two back-to-back fast moves. Then, after that, there is a random 1.5s-2.5s delay between each of its attacks, averaging to an additional 2s per attack.

This means, in general, fast attacks with a longer time and higher time will have a higher "defensive DPS".

For example:

Pound is
7 damage / 0.6s = 11.67 DPS
7 damage / (0.6s+2s) = 2.69 D_DPS

Zen Headbutt is
12 damage / 1.1s = 10.91 DPS
12 damage / (1.1s+2s) = 3.87 D_DPS

Volt Switch is
20 damage / 2.3s = 8.7 DPS
20 damage / (2.3s+2s) = 4.65 D_DPS

This delay affects charge moves too, but looking at straight DPS for charge moves is not an accurate representation. The energy cost is also very important. For defenders, generally speaking, more bars (lower energy cost) is more important.

The slower the fast move, the better it is on defense, and vise versa.

That's the only thing you need to know.

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