I think of Donphan as kind of a poor man's Snorlax. If you don't have any good (i.e., high CP) defenders, and you have spare dust, then it wouldn't hurt to invest in a Donphan. I would probably evolve A - if it gets counter and either play rough or heavy slam you could power it up to max. If it gets earthquake, then I'd evolve B (and hope for no earthquake).
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What to do with Phanpy/Donphan
OK, so I have hatched a bunch of Phanpies and currently have 174 candies for it. It costs 50 to evolve Donphan. I already have one Donphan caught in the wild that is level 23 with IV's of 57% and with Counter/Heavy Slam.
These are my possible targets:
(CP - level - IV - A-D-S)
a) CP 501 - Level 15 - 98% - 15-15-14
b) CP 658 - Level 20 - 93% - 13-15-14
c) CP 660 - Level 20 - 87% - 15-14-10
d) CP 655 - Level 20 - 84% - 15-11-12
I have a couple of other good ones, but they are slightly inferior to b/c/d in that they are the same level but with a few points lower cp.
174 candies. Would you want to power up any of them if they get the right moveset or just evolve three of them? Or maybe focus on the 98% one and power it up?
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Answers
I'd go 98% as 15-15-14 is awesome. And just slowly collect more candies to power it up. Over time you will get more. It can be your project.
98% will always be 98%!
I think these guys look awesome and I would definitely power up the 98% and toss him in a gym. Rhydons are soft like butter and they get put in gyms. So don't worry about it and power that guy up!
I'd actually consider waiting for Donphan since it doesn't have a STAB quickmove...I would definitely not power it up at this time.
After the last move change, sometimes it's better to hold off (like Machamp) and save the great IV ones for better options. As your odds of getting Earthquake (STAB) is 1/3 and Counter is better than Tackle, it's 1/6 to get ideal moves which are low odds...
For my area, Donphan's max CP is far too low as max CP barely cracks 3000 so it'd be useless as a defender in the current gym setup.
Fortunately I live in a small town where 2000cp can usually get you in a gym. We only have four gyms and only in one of them do you currently need something like 2400cp to get in at the bottom. 3000cp should get you a top 3 slot in any gym here. So that's the good news. The bad news is that it is a small town with super tedious standard mons and nothing rare ever (seemingly). Every cool pokemon I have ever caught in the wild have been when I have visited other places, like when I went skiing in Norway recently and caught a live Dragonite and a live Donphan despite barely playing.
