What should I do with this?
Ok so Niantic has listened to me and give me a Christmas gift, I opened the 8x10km eggs I was saving and got a Lapras, I know that I can't complain but I have never seen a Lapras on the wild (and probably never will) and I feel really frustrated that again my Lapras has the worst charge move, Dragon Pulse.
I have now 80 Lapras candies and no one good to use them with because both of them have Dragon pulse, what will you do? Wait for another lucky hatch? What are the odds of getting another one with the new babies on the 10k eggs chart? (those 8 I just hatched were prior to the babies addition)
Answers
Power it up and use it.
Yes Dragon Pulse lacks STAB but it still deals a lot of damage. I've got one with Blizzard and one with Dragon Pulse, and both get the job done perfectly well. Yes Blizzard is better but if you stick it in a gym you're only talking a few seconds extra survival against a strong attacker.
If it has good IVs, I think Dragon Pulse is ok in gyms, minus the CP weakness of course.
Most folks won't use Dragonite to attack into Lapras even though the damage dealt is still great due to Dragonite's attack stat.
That being the case, most use Arcanine as a counter so Dragon Pulse will just provide neutral damage which is similar to an Ice Beam (since Arcanine resists Ice attacks, but Lapras will do SE damage with Ice)...
Can still walk with it for candies and for lower CP areas, Lapras is still a good defender due to HPs and ice quick move (vs, say a Vap with similar HPs).
If I were in your shoes (If I had 80 candies with the said lapras's) I personally would wait. I'm not trying to showboat; I have hatched 4 lapras and caught a wild one. I powered up a 75% IV one with frost breath + ice beam. I have since powered it up using all of the candies i've gotten (90-100?) and looking back, I regret it. Here's why: yes, lapras is a fantastic defender and no lazy attacker. However, if i had waited, I could have saved those RARE candies, and instead have powered up either a cloyster or dewgong to fill the roll on offense (temporarily; for dragonites), until I find a lapras with a more ideal move set.
So to answer your question, I would hold off on powering either up. I know it's tempting, but those candies will become more and more harder to find (besides walking) due to the probable addition of future generations.
Dragon Pulse isn't a great move on lapras. It doesn't get stab, but its not bad for defending. When I see lapras, I use a fire type to neutralize the STAB lapras gets. In that scenario, both ice beam and dragon pulse would be hitting about(?) the same on my fire attacker. Hope this helps!
