Who is the best gym attacker?

The article states that it's the "greatest overall attacker in the game, along with resisting every single attack from the greatest gym defender Blissey."

They put Metagross ahead because they also considered it's defensive uses. Machamp and Rayquaza may have better DPS or type coverage, but they are kinda frail and they don't resist Blissey's moves like Dazzling and Psychic. Which of course, puts Meta ahead.

Personally, I'm fine with them putting Metagross ahead as they did consider other variables such as defense rather than simply "Who does more damage". DPS isn't always the most important thing. I dislike using steel as an offensive type so I always use Dragons/Fighting/etc... over Meta.

Edit: Have they also considered the availability of certain attackers? If they did, Rayquaza would not qualify since it's a tier 5 raid only and a majority of the player base does not have one. Whereas, Metagross is a CD pokemon.

6 maxed Machamp still gets the job done around here, 6 Dragons when it’s windy in game... Things get way overhyped in Pokémon Go I’m looking at you Shadow Claw Gengar, Rayquaza, Blissey, and the new kid on the hype block Metagross

I'd say metagross even still, with the meta shift the CP nerf to the tanks brought, that took out most of machamp's advantages. Metagross has enormous neutral DPS, its ability to contend with super effective damage from machamp is a testament to that, but what really made it was its fantastic bulk. Metagross is essentially the dragonite/Tyranitar of its generation, only that's in a league of its own because of how powerful meteor mash is and the massive number of resistances it has from that type combination

MEtagross also can do something machamp cant, run through a blissey without fainting or dodging. Most people only consider the time spent in the actual battle when the time spent out of battle having to select pokemon/scroll to a premade team or even healing up is just as important, and metagross' bulk and type combination is heavily favored by the auto select, most of the time being the first pick against blissey and also doesnt need to be healed up like machamp does.

Toss between Machamp and rayquaza

Rayquaza is more usable now with the hp buff albeit slight, and machamp is still far and away the best blissey clearer. Don’t even compare metagross to machamp, it’s not close when it’s neutral weather, and it’s difference is shocking when weather is cloudy which is a fairly common weather type.

Metagross does some specialist matchups very well but if I can’t attack into fire, water and electric without being resisted it’s a very big problem

For me my maxed out MM Metagross replaced my DB Dnite at the 1. I love the gym mechanics of the DB/OR combo but the resistances/high def/MM dps of Metagross are amazing. I dont have a Rayquaza.