Will Articuno be much better functionally than Lapras?
I don't think there's much doubt he wouldn't be as a defender.
As an attacker his stats are HP-180, attack 192, defense 249. Comparing that with Lapras at HP 260, attack 165, and defense 180 I don't see where he would be markedly better enough to be a "one event super limited release" type mon. A little faster I guess but not as durable. Not strong enough to rank as a generalist attacker either. I haven't looked into other legendaries like this but how many others won't really effect the current meta? Just glancing over them most of them do not appear to be game changers. So what's the wait and why should they not be available to catch in the wild, an aspect of the game less discussed but falling as hard as others quickly.
Answers
I agree.
If the movesets and stats listened are the stats they get, the Articuno and Molteres are quite useless. Articuno is, as already mentioned a worse Lapras and Moltetes, what should I do with him? Almost all Top defenders (Dragonite/Vape/Gyra/T-Rex/Rhydon) resist fire. And for Snorlax/Blissey are way better options. Also as defender, everyone has a Vape..
Only Zapdos is useable, but also only a better Jolteon, SE against Vaporeon/Gyrados but thats it. Nothing like a Dragonite.
But I'm really excited how they implement it. If you can only catch one, how about IV/Moveset? There would be many sad players if they get a bad moveset and low IV and can't do anything to get a better one.
Maybe this is a dumb question, but....
Any reason that Niantic couldn't doctor the stats on these legionaries to make them stronger?
Surely they understand all this...and I'm sure they would agree with the players that the legionaries SHOULD be gym relevant. But it sounds like unless they do something to buff them, they'll just be a weaker Lapras/Vap/etc
They should use the base stats from the main series games as a starting point, but be open to manually adjusting them so they can balance their game. It is an entirely different combat system, so it has different needs. They could make some slightly too weak pokemon a little better, and some -- mainly Blissey -- a little worse.
I think simply giving them exclusive moves or simply, better moves solves everything.
You don't even have to play with their stats since Machamp, with new moves is the fastest attacker into Snorlax/Blissey...
Same situation for Fire Spin/Overheat Flareon...
I assume move damage can be played around with by Niantic to make anything more/less powerful.
