"Equality for all Gyarados: A Quick Gyarados Analysis"

#PokemonGO: Too often do I see posts titled “My 100% IV Gyarados has Bite/Crunch . Should I just uninstall PoGo and throw my phone into a river?” This archetype of post has been going on since day 1 of the game with Twister instead being the offending move. My answer then and now has always been “Bite+X is fine.” Why would I say that when Gamepress gives these lesser movesets a D+? Well, to start:Bite isn’t that bad.In “Dodge All” scenarios, the % change in performance between Bite sets and Dragon Tail sets is quite small. Using Pokebattler, setting a level 30 Jolteon with Thundershock and Thunderbolt against a level 30 Gyarados with Hydropump, Outrage, and Crunch, the % change between the fast attacks was 8%, 3.8%, and 5% respectively.In “Dodge Specials Only” scenarios, Dragon Tail was always the clear victor; however, in real life battling situations, a lot of players are sensible enough to dodge the threatening Dragon Tails but often don’t dodge the Bite due to its negligible damage. Assuming players will dodge Dragon Tail and not Bite, you’ll find the Bite sets will end up outperforming their fully dodged Dragon Tail counterparts, suffering a mere 2-3 seconds on time, but dealing roughly 1.5x damage.On the subject of Bite vs Dragon Tail, if your opponents are mindful and dodge all attacks, Bite and Dragon Tails Gyarados have the same performance. If your opponents are selective and neglect to dodge Bite because it’s weak, the Bite sets will outperform the Dragon Tail sets. If your opponents are negligent and don’t dodge either of the specials, may ruin come to them.Crunch is arguably the best charge move in practice.I don’t know how many Gyarados you’ve fought in your adventures, but more often than not, when I’m plowing ‘dos I will not even see a single charge move unless it’s Crunch or Twister. Given how much charge move damage plays into a defender’s DPS, a Gyarados firing off it’s un-STAB’d chompers has far more impact on its battle performance than that wet-willie it has stored up.If there’s one thing that impacts a Defenders DPS more than firing off charge moves, it’s them actually landing. Crunch and Twister have such a fast onset of damage that a player could be cruising along, Thunderbolting away, and get taken completely unaware by it, especially if they aren’t dodging the fast attack. In this same vein, Hydropump is better in that it can take a sloppy Jolteon from Hero to Zero in one hit! Just to clarify, I’m not here to say that Crunch is objectively better than Hydropump; rather, that all Gyarados movesets are valid for Gym Defense.Gyarados’s #1 job is to sit high on gyms, not be a supreme defender.If you can clear the bottom 5 Pokemon in a level 7+ Gym, Gyarados is serving you well. If you can get him above a Blissey, even better. I’m definitely of the opinion that having a good defender quotient is important for gym defense, and that it’s inadvisable to put poor defenders in a gym, but most defender rankings place Gyarados pretty high, and as I’ve pointed out above, all Gyarados movesets are valid for Gym Defense.Gyarados’s #2 job is to make the attacker bring in Jolteon.While Jolteon’s position as an attacker has split opinions (if it’s a generalist, a specialist, or a glass cannon), it goes without saying that a gym that has a Gyarados begs for a Jolteon to attack it. If the gym has very few Pokemon other than Gyarados to prey upon, the fight more or less becomes 5 v 9 opposed to 6 v 10, especially considering a surprise charge move from Gyarados instantly shuts down Jolt. If the players defending the gym were smart or lucky, Gyarados may even find itself wedged between Rhydon, Donphan, Golem, or Tyranitar, which will cause swapping on the attacker side, further buffing Gyarados’s usefulness, regardless of moveset.More seasoned and equipped fighters know that a good Dragonite or Tyranitar can perform the job as well if not slightly better (given circumstances) than Jolteon and may forgo swapping nonsense entirely; however, doing so opens them up for punishment from Dragon or Water attacks respectively, shutting down their presumed “advantage.”Outside of Jolteon (Dragonite, and Tyranitar) Gyarados is a beast.Even inside favorable match ups, Gyarados is considered a force to be reckoned with. If you’re fool hearted and try to slay the Dragon without one of its more optimal counters, you will enter what can only be described as “the pain cave.” And with Gyarados, Bite, Dragon Tail, Hydropump, Outrage, Crunch; all the principles I’ve gone over in this thread are magnified when within the pain cave.Mega-Gyarados is Dark/Water.If we ever get to Mega’s, you will locked and fully loaded with your high IV bite/crunch Gyarados. What that will matter has yet to be seen, but aayyyy double STAB.Swag.At the end of the day, we can give our anecdotes and run our simulations, but only two truths remain:If someone wants to take down a gym, not matter what’s in it, no matter what their movesets are, it will go down.And as it goes down, at the very top, will be you with your 100% bite/crunch Gyarados, FINGER IN THE AIR.That is all.I hope this write up as cleared up the debate of “which Gyarados is best” or “I got bite/crunch, should I snap my phone in half and give up?” To clarify, not only are Dragon Breath, Dragon Pulse, and Twister legacy moves, but they have more or less the same exact DPS as Bite, Outrage, and Crunch, so treat them respectively. via /r/TheSilphRoad http://ift.tt/2oyeo3t