Pokemon Go Unofficial Viability Rankings (Beta)

[phalanx]

here is an example of how the game mechanics for attacking and defending differ
Flareon has 3 moves.
Heatwave
Fireblast
Flamethrower

Flamethrower is the worst charge attack at 23.7 DPS Heatwave has 26.3 and fireblast has 30.5
for attacking you want fire blast.
but for defending the best move of the 3 is Flamethrower.

 

[Grumpig]

here is an example of how the game mechanics for attacking and defending differ
Flareon has 3 moves.
Heatwave
Fireblast
Flamethrower

Flamethrower is the worst charge attack at 23.7 DPS Heatwave has 26.3 and fireblast has 30.5
for attacking you want fire blast.
but for defending the best move of the 3 is Flamethrower.

Oh yeah, definitely. However, you need to take into consideration the fact that, if you live in a populated area, you're most likely going to lose every gym defense. For me anyways, living in a place where there are 30+ attackers at any gym at any given time of day, a better attacking moveset (higher DPS) carries more weight than the latter

 

[phalanx]

live in a populated area yes.. but the number of stupid snorlax and Dragonites in gyms are putting people off hitting them.

 

[Grumpig]

Fair enough, but if you have decent CP mons, and throw enough resources at a gym, anyone can beat em
(almost anyone)

 

[PsychicAcademic]

As on defense, any reason to put Gyarados at A+? To what I remember, it may have great Attack, but its bulk is not that good. Its only saving grace in move pool is Hydro Pump. I had my difficult time facing those walking trees, and Gyarados just isn't as difficult to face and Hydro Pump is easier to dodge than what that tree can throw at you with STAB. I feel like it should at most be on the same rank with Exeggutor and Slowbro or A- at least.

 

[Conni]

Gyarados does have insufficient defense as the other Pokemon in A+ but it makes up with it's large cp max and wide movepool so I think it should stay in A+ since there aren't any Electric-type Pokemon currently powerful enough to beat Gyarados in a defensive situation.

 

[Vinc2612]

Gyarados is a water that doesn't fear grass Pokémon. And it has high CP, meaning that it won't be removed first. I don't know why, but half-gym removal has been a thing lately... I guess people asking their friends from another team to free a spot in a stacked gym

All in all, Gyarados is not the best around, but it has its perks to justify a great ranking

 

[phalanx]

unless it has twister which makes it toast to electabuzz 400 cp lower then it
so battled some gyms due to blue team taking all the gyms I had before i could claim.
Snorlax and Lapras are stupidly OP in defending.
did power up parasect to 1187 or something, the thing tore through a 1600 exeggutor, and its damage output is actually comparable to to things like electabuzz 300-400 cp higher in attacking.
and vaporeon is just stupidly easy to attack with
Gyarados has less CP then vaporeon btw, which has a better STAB defence move.

 

[PsychicAcademic]

It is still a little weird that Gyarados ranks higher than Slowbro or Exeggutor who can get much better movepool and bulk and yet still decent power though. Bite and Dragon Pulse (latter of which I heard is removed in a patch) isn't as hard as Confusion they throw.

 

[Conni]

Slowbro A --> A+
Agreed that Slowbro can hit hard with it's STAB Psychic-type and Water-type moves also it's bulk is pretty good so this a good point you made there, thus Slowbro also doesn't fear it's threats: Electric types as most of them have low bulk, and it can fare well against other Pokemon in the A+ tier so it's being moved up.

Exeggutor stays A because of it's primary fire weakness which Arcanine can deal with easily, however Exeggutor is a massive counter to all the Water-type Pokemon in the A rank but most of them can counter with Ice-type moves, some even run Pinsir as a 4x Weakness to Bug which can cripple Exeggutor, although it's very good against the good Water-type Pokemon, it is also walled by Gyarados and if it uses Psychic-type moves, Gyarados can still take it out, so Exeggutor remains in A.

 

[Grumpig]

Keep in mind Gyarados' Bite

 

[phalanx]

Exeggutors 4x bug weak makes even lowly bug bite on parasect deadly.
only thing with Gyarados is Dragon Pulse meaning it can be used against other waters, Exeggutors (and flying neutralises the grass weakness) while also having bite.
people hate dragon pulse, but its handy against the top tier due to not being a water move.

 

[Vinc2612]

Don't quote me on this, but I think there are no x4 weaknesses in Pokémon Go. You're either weak, strong or neutral.

Also unfortunately, not being a water move does not help. Stab is x1.25, NVE is x0.8, which means that water vs water is '=damages*1.25*0.8', which means damages x1. dragon vs water loses the stab, loses the super effective tag, so is also x1.

Non-stab dragon move is never better than stab (outside of pure dps) unless fighting against an actual dragon.

 

[Conni]

Don't quote me on this, but I think there are no x4 weaknesses in Pokémon Go. You're either weak, strong or neutral.

Also unfortunately, not being a water move does not help. Stab is x1.25, NVE is x0.8, which means that water vs water is '=damages*1.25*0.8', which means damages x1. dragon vs water loses the stab, loses the super effective tag, so is also x1.

Non-stab dragon move is never better than stab (outside of pure dps) unless fighting against an actual dragon.

Sorry I messed up a little, there aren't 4x that just counts as normal super-effective but nevertheless Pinsir is a good counter to Exeggutor, also have to agree with Vinc on Gyarados

 

[Grumpig]

Don't quote me on this, but I think there are no x4 weaknesses in Pokémon Go. You're either weak, strong or neutral.

Also unfortunately, not being a water move does not help. Stab is x1.25, NVE is x0.8, which means that water vs water is '=damages*1.25*0.8', which means damages x1. dragon vs water loses the stab, loses the super effective tag, so is also x1.

Non-stab dragon move is never better than stab (outside of pure dps) unless fighting against an actual dragon.

There's 4x, but it just translates to 1.56x (1.25x1.25). Likewise, 4x resists are 0.64, (0.8x0.8)

 

[phalanx]

yes it counts as that, but you do notice it when parasect with bug bite starts ripping things apart.
oih and I have an oddball Hypno counter.. a Shadow Ball hypno

 

[PsychicAcademic]

Don't quote me on this, but I think there are no x4 weaknesses in Pokémon Go. You're either weak, strong or neutral.

Also unfortunately, not being a water move does not help. Stab is x1.25, NVE is x0.8, which means that water vs water is '=damages*1.25*0.8', which means damages x1. dragon vs water loses the stab, loses the super effective tag, so is also x1.

Non-stab dragon move is never better than stab (outside of pure dps) unless fighting against an actual dragon.

I had heard of this verified in SilphRoad too, although it had been long since I heard it.

Either way, having STAB on one attack pretty much as effective as having move that is super effective (not sure again about double effectiveness). This either brings up STAB importance or cheapens type effectiveness, which I don't really like in GO as it makes it inclined to button-mashing as opposed to more tactical.


Oh and about Parasect (isn't it?)... it is a little out of topic, but it seems better than most people think it is. Maybe not by this viability ranking, but I heard it is among 4 best Pokemon to use when training a gym. So it seems better than just a "lowly bug" I think.

 

[phalanx]

yes it its very powerful, I use it to attack gyms, in theory the same rules for attacking gyms apply to leveling gyms. the low CP of Parasect and that fact it deals with things 400-500 CP higher means it can add a lot of gym prestige.
the same thing with Electabuzz if there is a Gyarados.

 

[Blitz]

I didn't write that big list for nothing :( I would hope shit would be added to the OP (mainly the C rankings). But mainly, holy shit get rid of Weezing in Defending. That's like B- at best. Offensively it's like B and that's a stretch.

Regarding Parasect: It is the reason why I think we should have a Prestige Viability Rankings, because it's easily S rank in that department. Prestiges against literally most common defenders super well thanks to a combination of low CP, an amazing move combo (Bug Bite / Solarbeam), and necessary resists (namely Water) to do so. Outside of that, it is garbage because it can't compete with high CP mons as a direct attacker and has too many weaknesses to be a defender.

Gyarados deserves A+ because Bite is a great move on it still (even if Dragon Breath was removed) and it has 2nd strongest Water-type charge move in the game iirc (behind Vape). Dragon Pulse is actually p solid for gym defending as well.

High CP caps are also incredibly favorable because it lends to a natural stat increase, gets high placement in gyms, and has that psychological effect on people (why waste resources on a gym with these mons) - this is why I think Dragonite should still be S rank even if it is the weakest of all of the current S ranks in the defending department.

 

[phalanx]

attacking a gym is the same, regardless of whether it is prestige or clearing.
it can compete with higher CP mons, it works great on Slowbro which is weak to bug bite AND solar beam, and the ever common and annoying Vaporeon, it can easily beat those a fair few hundred higher.
Weezing, maybe, I caught my first grimer yesterday 648 CP and 100HP, Hypno doesnt reach 100 until after 1000 hp, so I dread to think how strong Muk is.
so had a quick look at some my own pokemon statistics for gym attacks.
Old Hypno (125)
Parasect (88)
Electabuzz (83)
Vaporeon (77)
Main Hypno (73 and 1 defend)
Gyarados (72)

if parasect was such a terrible attacker, it wouldn't be, my main go to attacking poke currently.

 

[Conni]

Weezing moved to C+ for Defending and B- for Attacking



This thing has not so great movepool, decent cp max but has bad Base Stamina, and is countered by nearly everything above it (eg.) Hypno, Starmie and Slowbro.
It's Attacking capabilities is mediocre for Grass-type Coverage but Exeggutor still destroys it and Venusaur walls it with superior stats.

It is the reason why I think we should have a Prestige Viability Rankings

This is worth discussion but if you think that there are some Pokemon that would be fitting for this list and worth looking at then I'll add it,
Blitzamirin if you have more points about a Prestige Ranking please do share your thoughts, others feel free if you to share as well if you have any ideas for Pokemon that would be ranked in Prestige Viability.

 

[PsychicAcademic]

Eh, there will be a major revamp in Gym Training, and we are soon able to bring 6 Pokemon there just like gym fighting (I just hope training doesn't get nerfed and become tedious job...,) Yeah, seems like we will need Gym Training viability ranking soon enough.

 

[phalanx]

well its the same.
Gym training viability depends on the highest CP thing in there.... When its a dragonite you can practically cash in on using things like maxed out CP Parasects, (highest one in gyms at 25 scales to 2650+ Parasect is only around 1310, meaning things like 15-17k vaporeons are toast, can also lump in a few other hard hitting squishies. in high level gyms, those hard hitters are handy, only issues are snorlax (zen headbutt is a pain in the backside for most of my 1000-1200, and I have 2 1395 poliwraths as well loads of poisons and those all weak) Lapras (too freaking Bulky and hits like a train)

well restocked my potions/revives by leveling up.. in getting that last EXP i found a High CP psyduck i never knew I had caught over the past 2 days, turned out it has 15/15/14 and is now a Hydropump Golduck \o/

 

[Grumpig]

this died but with the release of gen 2, here's some relevant (not complete in any way) stuffs you might want to consider

[Gym Attackers]

S:
Tyranitar
Ursaring

A
Donphan
Espeon
Kingdra
Blissey
Heracross

B
Politoed
Ampharos
Granbull
Miltank
Porygon-2
Feraligatr
Typhlosion
Houndoom
Crobat
Scizor


C
Meganium
Sudowoodo
Bellossom
Slowking


[Gym Defenders]

S+
Blissey

S
Forretress
Umbreon

A
Miltank
Donphan
Ampharos
Steelix

B
Lanturn
Porygon-2
Skarmory

these are all likely fairly unaccurate, as we're only a few weeks into the gen 2 metagame, and I personally haven't tested all of these in gyms, so feel free to make changes/whatever you desire

also a shoutout to voltswitch raichu for a revamped bubblestrat

 

[Panic Station]

Can confirm, Ursaring is bae. Be careful around water-heavy gyms if base move is Metal Claw, though.