Why are the old "big 7" defenders still common now?
I have no idea why people are still putting those as defenders, besides Snorlax and Blissey.
Why are people still using high CP bad defenders as defenders now, even after CP placement was removed?
The most logical reason I can think of is because they powered them up in the old meta.
I usually leave a CP 2k Confusion Slowbro if there's already a Blissey and Snorlax in the gym.
Answers
Some reasons come to my mind for this:
- They want to discourage attacking at least to get some coins (mostly in high turnover gyms)
- They want to get their medals up, staying as many hours at their local gyms if they have already cashed
- They want candies for those mon, maybe defenders are not important those days, but they may become very useful again in the future, and those candies are still the most precious in the game right now, at least for me mainly because of their rarity, so I put my Lapras, Blissey, Snorlax etc in gym and feed them with all my spare berries in order to get dust & candies
- They want to get the gym control bonus in case a raid happens there. This a good reason a lot of people does not think about it but some extra balls now that the last ball is actually fixed can make a huge difference in catching those beasts.
I am answering your question man...I have stated the reasons why those defenders and not a Slowbro. Do you think a Slowbro is a better defender than Snorlax and Blissey? lol
Edit: Even Dragonite and Tyranitar are more valuable as defenders than Slowbro right now, of course they are, not a single mon in the game will deter the attacker, but those top tier will slow them more down than a Slowbro for sure, and you can get candies for feeding them and also more people is willing to feed them, so they are better right now, because there is no defensive game as of today. The only defense that exists is called feeding and being lucky to get a raid spawn on that gym, that's all.
Really only a nightmare if you try to take it down immediately after all six get placed at the same time, just come back in a couple hours and any decent CP mon will destroy the entire gym, or if the people in your area waste all their Golden Razzes. Honestly the gym candy bonus is a bigger incentive for players other than yourself to feed your mon anyway.
Lapras and Chansey are obviously also very feedable, just like Tyranitar and Dragonite. But the point still stands that Tyranitar/Dragonite are not top tier defenders. And if you got Tyranitars/Dragonites to place in gyms you should definitely have a Steelix/Muk/Chansey/Lapras, which is what I almost always go for so I don't take a Blissey/Snorlax spot from the real hardcore players.
Meh. In the current system of motivation decay, tankiness is much less of a deterrent factor than damage output, which requires higher healing item use regardless of how quickly the mon is defeated, a category which Steelix, Muk, Chansey/Blissey and Lapras all fall a bit short in, not that any factor is currently that much more beneficial than another for defending. And since the meta is almost entirely focused on raid effectiveness most players will focus gym feeding on what will be more helpful in that regard. Chansey and Lapras candy are still very hard to come by, but neither is particularly helpful in a raid (this may change as far as lapras is concerned if we get a Dragonite, or perhaps Salamence, raid in the future, but that remains to be seen), whereas Dragonite remains the premier generalist and Tyranitar is nearly as powerful, much more tanky, and will be invaluable when Mewtwo is available. And since the gym rework there is less incentive to be on 10+ gyms at once, I personally have around half a dozen 2000+ CP Blissey, nearly 10 2500+ CP Dragonite (not counting the four 2900+ CP 85%+ IV ones I save for raids), and 5 Tyranitar between 1600-2500 CP (not counting the 3 2500-3000 CP I also save for raids), these leave me plenty of gym holders to earn my 50 coins per day, and when I go to feed berries it's never the blisseys that are already kept near their max motivation before I do. And when you get right down to it, the main factor in deterring players from attacking a gym is whether or not a majority of the currently placed mons are closer to their max motivation, since that will necessitate multiple battles, and therefore, more time commitment. No gym will stand under the current system if the attacker is committed enough, but you can make them feel like it is not worth the effort, and unless you want to commit to using your Golden Razz Berries, the only way to encourage that is to place mons that other will feel inclined to feed, and that feeling is increased when there is a possible (albeit very small) candy incentive.
I like to use my old defenders! Some reasons:
Sometimes I'm in a hurry and grab one from my top 12, high CP mon. Putting my 3 shiny gyarados (> 3000) in gyms seems to encourage rivals to attack and send them home with coins. On the other hand, if I need the mon to stay in the gym past midnight, I put in something tanky/high CP (lax, Blissey) to discourage immediate attacks.
Why not use them?
To answer your question, I think our player profile in our country consists of a good bulk of uncles and aunties, who get their pogo knowledge from hearsay.
So most of them will just place defender based on the old meta thinking that it still works the same. Sometimes it's amusing/appalling what you hear them say to each other during raids.
I suspect the obvious most likely answer is a lot of people don't know any better. The only metric that we are given in-game to measure our pokemon is CP and HP. How else are people that do not check websites for tier lists supposed to rate their pokemon than by highest CP?
That being said, I do occasionally stick some of my old double-weakness high-CP monsters in gyms because I want to deter fighting early on, and I also want the increased motivation loss that comes from 2000+CP pokemon to reduce chance of too-long stagnation.
The answer is: Nothing outside Blissey/Snorlax is a good defender.
Also, after the first run through, gyms are usually taken by a sweeper anyway. In which case, that sweeper isn't ice or electric. Making the double weakness immaterial and making Gary, Dragonite, and Tyrantir actually better defenders than Slowbro, Muk, etc
