"[Analysis] How Good Are The Legendaries In The Current Meta?"

#PokemonGO: Overview:This is a comprehensive analysis of how Legendaries function in Pokemon Go, within the context of the Legendary Raid meta, regular Raid meta, and Gyms in general. Using that information, you can determine which Legendary Pokemon are worthy of resource investment. Top Power Up Choices: Mewtwo and Raikou (Zapdos)1. MewtwoI bet nobody saw this one coming…Mewtwo is indisputably the strongest generalist in the game. It boasts the highest DPS, Effective Health on par with Rhydon and Tyranitar, and the ability to output massive amounts of damage over the course of its life. Due to its mono Psychic typing, you’ll be hard pressed to find defenders and Raid bosses with coverage against Mewtwo, not to mention that Psychic type moves are largely unresisted anyway. Remember, Game Freak had to create Dark typing in order to counter how unbalanced Psychic types were in Generation I. Now at this point, you only want to know one thing: how does Mewtwo stack up against specific ideal counters? Considering that type effectiveness was buffed and STAB was nerfed, is there still a place for a Generalist in a Specialist meta? Even after the changes to type effectiveness, Gengar actually has a higher DPS than some Super Effective counters to various defenders. But this may not be apparent, because Gengar is a glass cannon (moreover, one of the glassiest from that category), and therefore often overlooked. Mewtwo not only doesn’t have Gengar’s fragility problem, but has an even more impressive DPS output. Let’s look at some examples. Disclaimer: This is going to be a common pattern. Mewtwo is strong to keep up with type effective counters, and in some cases surpass them. This is mostly in comparison to non-Legendaries. Later in this write-up I will compare Mewtwo to the likes of Raikou and Zapdos in their type effective matchups. Arcanine and Flareon. Both Tier 3 Raid bosses, Arcanine and Flareon’s highest DPS counters include Gengar, Omastar, Golem, and Starmie. With the arrival of Mewtwo, it will be the new highest DPS counter for this raid. Alakazam. Obviously, Gengar has the highest DPS against Alakazam. But Confusion/Shadow Ball Mewtwo can keep up with Shadow Claw/Shadow Ball Gengar, despite Confusion being NVE to Alakazam, and more importantly outlives Gengar by a long shot. And when I say keep up, I mean we are talking about a roughly 6% difference. Shadow Ball Mewtwo will kill another Psychic type faster than Tyranitar and Houndoom. Jolteon. You may not know this, but Jolteon’s SE counters like Rhydon and Golem are already outclassed in terms of DPS by generalists like Gengar, Alakazam, Dragonite, and Flareon. So Mewtwo obviously claims the top DPS spot in this matchup as well. Gengar and Machamp. Mewtwo, PoGo’s unmatched DPS king, now has type advantage. Enough said. Many of Gengar’s best DPS counters are punished by its Ghost/Dark type moves, so in my opinion this doesn’t diminish Mewtwo’s value. Even Tyranitar has to worry about possible coverage from Gengar’s Focus Blast. Vaporeon. Vape has some very high DPS counters in Exeggutor, Victreebel, and Jolteon. Mewtwo doesn’t outright surpass them, but its DPS is definitely competitive, within 10% of Solar Beam Exeggutor. Venusaur. Mewtwo has type advantage. Enough said. Blastoise. Similar story to Vaporeon, except Blastoise has Ice Beam which can be a problem for Grass counters, erasing any effective health advantage they could have gleaned from a Water resistance. Yes, Blastoise learns Bite, but no, Mewtwo doesn’t care. Charizard and Rhydon. We now have two Pokemon with a double weakness. At this point, type effectiveness creates a gap that even Mewtwo can’t bridge, which is a good thing in my opinion. Of course, if you don’t have 6 Rock Throw/Stone Edge Golem (or double Rock Omastar) to use against Charizard, Mewtwo is going to have a higher DPS than some of the “go-to” single SE counters like Vaporeon (however, Vape does have a higher effective health). Against Rhydon, Mewtwo of course is not going to be better than a double SE Vaporeon. And actually, you do run the risk of taking a hit from Megahorn, which will hurt - Mewtwo isn't really worth using against Rhydon. Lapras and Snorlax. Both are currently countered, in terms of maximum DPS, by Machamp. Counter is a very strong fast move which gives Machamp the edge considering Mewtwo is only going to be able to deal SE damage with its charge move, Focus Blast. So no, Mewtwo does not reign supreme here in terms of raw DPS, however, Focus Blast Mewtwo hits very hard. Mewtwo is generally superior to Machamp in terms of bulk, and resists Snorlax’s Zen Headbutt. Mewtwo could care less about getting hit with Lick. Tyranitar. No question, as with Charizard and Rhydon, specialized counters reign supreme in double weakness matchups. Tyranitar is best countered by Machamp in terms of DPS. But how does Mewtwo fair with its Psychic quick moves taking a significant dive in DPS due to Tyranitar’s immunity? Well, you may find this surprising, but it is possible for Focus Blast Mewtwo to kill a regular/non-Raid Iron Tail/Crunch Tyranitar without dodging. It manages incredible DPS considering Tyranitar’s immunity to Psycho Cut and Confusion. Focus Blast Mewtwo will be around 15% worse than Machamp. Zapdos, Moltres, Articuno, Ho-Oh. Unsurprisingly, Mewtwo is going to get out-DPS’d against the birds with a double weakness to Rock. Against Zapdos, as far as I can tell, Confusion/Shadow Ball Mewtwo not only keeps pace with Golem and Tyranitar, but outright exceeds them in terms of DPS (only beat out by Frost Breath/Avalance Jynx, but Jynx is so glassy I wouldn’t even bother). Against Moltres, Articuno, and Ho Oh, Mewtwo will be on par with many single weakness counters like Vaporeon (against Moltres and Ho-Oh, Mewtwo’s DPS is actually better here than Vape’s) and Jolteon. Suicune, Entei, and Raikou. Against Suicune, Mewtwo does find competition from the current non-Legendarfy Grass and Electric counters, not to mention it will not be as strong as Raikou and Zapdos here. But against Raikou itself and Entei, Mewtwo is the DPS king. Lugia, Mew, Mewtwo, Celebi. Similar to the Alakazam matchup, what makes Mewtwo worth looking at here is access to Shadow Ball (and Confusion/Shadow Ball happens to be its strongest neutral DPS moveset anyway). Against Lugia, Mew, and Mewtwo you’ll find that Gengar indisputably possesses the highest DPS output. The problem is that it is extremely fragile even taking neutral damage, and taking Psychic damage from Mewtwo especially renders it unusable in my opinion. (fun fact: Haunter is actually one of the highest Psychic DPS counters as well, but should be ignored for obvious reasons). Shadow Ball Mewtwo out-DPS’s all Dark and Bug types against Mew, Lugia, and another Mewtwo. Despite losing out on damage due to its quick moves being NVE to other Psychic types, Mewtwo’s Shadow Ball is delivered by an ungodly Attack stat. Its weave DPS with Confusion/Shadow Ball outmatches everything that isn’t Gengar. And yes, it even outperforms Bite/Stone Edge Tyranitar against Lugia in terms of DPS. Against Celebi, there is a lot of competition. Scizor and Pinsir enjoy about a 15% DPS increase over Mewtwo, because double SE is just that much of a game changer. Mewtwo is, however, neck and neck with Fire Spin/Overheat Flareon in the Celebi Matchup, but possesses a clear durability advantage. Conclusion: Smash That Power Up Button 2. Raikou and ZapdosTo give them context, Raikou’s DPS with Thunder Shock/Wild Charge is on par with Fire Spin/Overheat Charizard, and Charge Beam/Zap Cannon Zapdos is on par with Air Slash/Overheat Charizard. Which is to say, they both have a fairly strong DPS output, but nothing too crazy. What makes the Electric Legendaries useful are their type matchups. They both out-DPS the current Water type counters (as well as Mewtwo), which makes them useful against Raid bosses like Vaporeon, Blastoise, and Lapras – although Raikou clearly outshines Zapdos against Blastoise and Lapras due to its superior bulk and lack of weakness to Ice moves. Though againsr Lapras you’ll find that Machamp still reigns supreme over the two Electric type Legendaries, as long as it has Counter or Karate Chop/Dynamic Punch. If Zapdos wasn’t stuck with Charge Beam, and instead had Thunder Shock, it would be sitting up on the DPS charts closer to something like Counter/Dynamic Punch Machamp, but alas we on Team Instinct got Hanke’d. What’s interesting to note here is that Focus Blast Mewtwo does have a better DPS than either Electric type Legendary against Lapras, with better survivability as well. In Legendary Raids, both Electric type Legendaries will be obviously outperformed in matchups when a double Weakness can be exploited. Raikou has great DPS exploiting a single weakness, though of course it cannot hope to match Rock Throw/Stone Edge Golem dealing double SE damage. Now anytime that Electric is SE, Raikou is strictly superior to Jolteon, in terms of DPS and Survivability. Zapdos’s Flying typing does make it undersirable to use against Articuno, and in this matchup Raikou is easily the better choice. However, Zapdos sets itself apart from Raikou in the matchup against Solar Beam Ho-Oh, and is in fact the only hard counter in the game to Steel Wing/Solar Beam Ho-Oh. That’s all well and good, but can Zapdos actually tank a hit from a 180 base power move powered by a 263 Attack stat (the same as Dragonite’s)? Yes, if you pour dust and Rare Candy into Zapdos to get it to a high level (36+) it should be able to survive a hit from Solar Beam that would kill Raikou and virtually every other counter to Ho Oh, aside from Dragonite. The problem is, how will you know what Ho Oh’s moveset is before you attack (unless someone from your raiding group checks it while the rest wait)? Overall you will be better off with Raikou in most cases, though I have no idea when either will be released. Should we get Zapdos first, I will say it is definitely good enough to warrant investment anyway. Conclusion: Raikou Gets Priority Over Zapdos. It is overall the more powerful of the two, and Zapdos really only shines in the very specific Solar Beam Ho Oh matchup.* The Usability Of Fire TypesMoltres: The fire bird offers the highest Fire type DPS, and it comes at a time when the meta isn’t as unforgiving to Fire types. Most of the top 7 CP defenders resisted Fire: Vaporeon, Gyarados, Rhydon, Dragonite, and Tyranitar. Now we see less Water/Rock heavy gyms in general, and Raids offer many neutral matchups that allow good Fire types to function as generalists. For dealing SE damage, your only Tier 4 Matchup is Venusaur, and your only Tier 5 Matchups are Articuno and Celebi. Moltres, strictly an improvement over Flareon and Charizard, has higher DPS and higher effective health than either of them. This essentially allows Moltres to function as a much stronger generalist than Flareon, performing well against anything that doesn’t resist Fire (and deal SE damage back). Fire Spin/Overheat Moltres is basically another Dragon Tail/Outrage Dragonite, though slightly less bulky. You could use it against Mew, Mewtwo, and Lugia for decent DPS if you do not have type effective counters. Though Moltres has one problem - it is also a Flying type. This greatly hinders its general usability against the likes of Raikou and Zapdos. So while I did recommend Flareon (assuming you didn’t have better type counters) to power up for Raids, with Moltres you need to consider that its typing detracts from its overall utility. Conclusion: Maybe Power Up Moltres. Entei: Entei is a bulky Fire type with better survivability then Moltres and Flareon, though not quite as good DPS. Because of its Effective Health, Entei will deal more damage over the course of its life then either Moltres or Flareon. But please note that its bulk is largely comprised of its Stamina, it has a much lower Defense stat than Flareon - Entei takes more damage per hit and is less potion efficient as a result. Now here’s what we need to consider: Moltres isn’t really a glass cannon; it has a respectable Effective Health, which can be bolstered by a double resistance to Grass. Is Entei’s general combination of DPS and general bulk preferable to Moltres’s superior DPS? Moltres is about 80% as bulky as Entei, while Entei’s weave DPS is about 94% of what Moltres can do (both with Fire Spin/Overheat). Based on my calculations, I can expect Moltres to deal about 87% of the damage that Entei can deal (to a neutral target, receiving neutral damage) over their lifespans. Their performance is neck-and-neck. What it really comes down to is that Moltres is going to be the better specialized attacker into Grass defenders (e.g., Venusaur Raids), while Entei is a better overall generalist in the current raid meta because it doesn’t have a weakness to Electric or Ice. Which makes Entei the more broadly usable choice. Much like Flareon, you have a type advantage into Articuno and Celebi (with the resistance to its coverage move Dazzling Gleam), in addition to solid matchups for general DPS and survivability against Mew, Mewtwo, Zapdos, and Raikou. I would choose Entei over Moltres as the successor to Flareon. Conclusion: Maybe Power Up Entei. Ho-Oh: The Leader of the Johto beasts has unbelievable base stats, with an even higher PoGo BST than Mewtwo. Tankier than Snorlax, and able to hit like a Dragonite. Ho-Oh’s amazing potential is squandered because of its movepool. Extrasensory or Steel Wing/Solar Beam Ho-Oh would have made for a great defender, even with its double weakness to Rock. But you can’t use it to defend gyms (and even if you could, it would suffer from the high CP decay rate). Which leaves us with figuring out how to use it on offense. First, Ho-Oh’s weave DPS on its best offensive movesets underperform relative to its base 263 Attack stat. Steel Wing/Solar Beam has the highest neutral weave DPS, which is similar in strength to Fire Spin/Flamethrower Flareon. Not bad, but considering with Fire Spin/Overheat its DPS would surpass Dragon Tail/Outrage Dragonite, it is somewhat disappointing (note: Ho-Oh does not learn Fire Spin in the main series). And moreover, Fire Spin/Overheat Ho-Oh would have had the highest Total Damage Output on offense in the game, higher than Mewtwo and Blissey. That’s how good its base stats are (and how good those moves are). And if you can indulge me on this brief tangent, Ho-Oh appeared to be able to use Sacred Fire in Niantic’s Legendary Trailer, but doesn’t have it in its actual in-game movepool. This nettles me, especially since it is saddled with Fire Blast and instead of being given Overheat. Anyway, Let’s talk about Ho-Oh’s other problems. Most of the Gen I and Gen II Legendaries are of an elemental type that resists Steel – being Zapdos, Raikou, Suicune, Entei, Moltres, and Ho-Oh itself. Next, many of them resist Grass moves, which renders Solar Beam pretty useless on offense in Legendary Raids, the only exception being Suicune. Solar Beam is double SE against Rhydon, and SE against Tyranitar and Lapras, but you risk taking a double SE Stone Edge from Rhydon and Tyranitar, as well as an SE Hydro Pump from Lapras. Brave Bird again runs into usability problems against Zapdos and Raikou, not to mention Rhydon and Tyranitar. With Extrasensory/Fire Blast, you could function as a generalist into some of the Legendaries at least, but remember Ho-Oh is also a Flying type and takes SE damage from Electric. The Extrasenory/Fire Blast moveset only has type alignment with one raid boss, Venusaur. Whereas, Extrasensory/Brave Bird covers at least Machamp and Venusar, but it still isn’t that useful, not to mention it has less than impressive DPS hindering generalist functionality. So we have an extremely confusing situation, in that Ho-Oh has problems attacking into many Pokemon. The question you want answered is, does Ho-Oh’s tremendous bulk and raw power negate its various type disadvantages? The answer is no. As of now, matchups do exist where Ho-Oh will turn in great performances, but it will always be out-DPS’d by the ideal attackers, and I don't think its bulk makes up for that. Solar Beam Ho-Oh is strong enough to approach the performance of top tier Grass types against mono Water defenders, but so is Mewtwo. Ho-Oh can also be incredibly strong into Rhydon with Solar Beam, but we already have powerful type counters that don’t have a double weakness to Stone Edge. Right now, there are only suboptimal niches for Ho-Oh that are already occupied by better specialists, and as a generalist its damage output and general usability is trumped by Dragonite (not to mention, Mewtwo). Even taking its Effective Health into account, Ho-Oh’s bulk is undermined by its relatively poor offensive typing. Both Moltres and Entei are better suited into attacking defenders weak to Fire, and it's not like either is a glass cannon. With a pure Fire moveset, they both accommodate more convenient type matchups, while Ho-Oh struggles to find an optimal defenders for both its fast and charge moves. Conclusion: Do Not Power Up Ho-Oh. LugiaI've been kind of hard on Lugia, but u/dondon151 changed my mind. Like Ho-Oh, Lugia is tankier than a Snorlax, but that bulk is somewhat wasted on a very average DPS output. Extrasensory/Future Sight or Sky Attack Lugia actually comes in lower on the DPS totem pole than Lick/Hyper Beam Snorlax. It would get praise for walling one of the strongest attackers in the meta right now, Machamp…but it’s the same old story – Legendaries cannot defend gyms. And even if it could, it is strongly hard-countered by the increasingly pervasive Tyranitar, which can be easily obtained in areas with organized raid groups. On offense, Lugia does have some benefits. In my opinion, while its DPS is too low to function as generalist, Lugia is redeemable when it has type advantage. Lugia has three type matchups in the current raid meta, Gengar, Machamp, Venusaur, and Celebi (Lugia resists Psychic moves, Sky Attack is SE against Grass. You'd want Dragon Tail instead of Extrasensory for this matchup). Now while it doesn’t excel in any of them in terms of time to win, it does have considerable bulk, and to my surprise, the DPS to be able to clear some of these raids in time. Against Machamp, you cannot expect it to come near the DPS levels of Alakazam and Espeon. Even though Dragonite can't hit Machamp for SE damage with its fast move, any Hurricane moveset will out-DPS Extrasensory/Sky Attack or Future Sight Lugia. Lugia's base bulk in combination with a double resistance to fighting make it a very durable choice for Machamp raids. Aided by an SE multiplier, Lugia manages DPS that is good enough to win in time, and the bulk to be able to outlast more fragile attackers, even Dragonite. Lugia's DPS isn't amazing. But its TDO is. After re-examining it, Lugia has merit as a raid tank when it has type advantage. If you are having trouble soloing Machamp raids because your attackers get killed off before you can win, that is the where Lugia shines. When I look at the matchup with Gengar, it obviously under-performs compared to Tyranitar, both in terms of time and survivability. Though it is going to be more useful than glassy Psychic attackers like Alakazam and Espeon, which really don't survive long enough to contribute significant amounts of damage to the battle. Lugia's use here is again going to be its Total Damage Output, enduring SE damage from Gengar while dealing an adequate amount of DPS back. Now let's look at Venusaur. Lugia resists Grass, and has a lot of bulk as we know. But it lags far behind the top DPS counters. The trade off for Effective Health is also somewhat negated as Pokemon like Charizard benefit greatly from a double Grass resistance (which Moltres will also have when it arrives). Overall, I don't really see much of a benefit using it over Flareon and Charizard, except maybe against Sludge Bomb movesets. I'll admit that it has usability against Venusaur. Conclusion: Lugia can fit some specific needs right now, but I think its a costly investment for a Pokemon that really doesn't have a broad utility on offense. Snorlax is a comparable raid tank in neutral matchups, so Lugia is relegated to a few niche matchups in Tier 3 raids when it can produce a superior Total Damage Output. Everything ElseUnless they’re your favorite, and/or you’ve got more Rare Candy and dust then you know what to do with, don’t just start pouring resources into these Pokemon without thinking it over very, very, very carefully. Suicune: A bulky Water type with a respectable defensive DPS (better than Water Gun/Aqua Tail Vaporeon) that cannot be placed in gyms; adding to that, Suicune has a below average offensive DPS, unable to reliably secure type advantage with Psychic/Dark type quick moves paired with Water type charge moves. Not particularly usable on offense, and categorically unusable on defense. Conclusion: Don’t Power Up Suicune. Articuno: The Mystic mascot is an incredibly potent Ice type attacker, in a game that has little need for an Ice type attacker at the moment. Articuno is one of the tankiest Pokemon currently available, due to its very high base 242 Defense and solid 180 base Stamina. Articuno almost has Lapras’s bulk, and its DPS is on par with Frost Breath/Avalanche Cloyster, giving it the highest Total Damage Output for an Ice type in the game at present. But here’s the problem: we don’t have stacked towers of Dragonite anymore. You don’t need a Pokemon that can make it through multiple defending Dragonite when there can only be one in a gym at a time. Further, Articuno has little to no use in the current raid meta. The only High-Tier Raid Pokemon you can deal SE damage to are Rhydon, Venusaur, and Zapdos (when it becomes available). Articuno risks being hit with a double SE Stone Edge (In exchange for only exploiting a single weakness – Vaporeon’s DPS and overall survivability is much better here), and Zapdos deals Electric type SE damage to Articuno. Articuno is terribly outclassed by higher DPS counters into Venusaur. But do not despair – Articuno has the potential to be great in the future. We may get Dragonite Raids at some point, or other pseudo Legendaries from future generations may get added to the rotation (Gen III’s Salamence, Gen IV’s Garchomp, etc.). Hold onto as many as you are able to catch; just don’t invest in them quite yet. Conclusion: Don’t Power Up Articuno Right Now. Mew: Technically a Mythical Pokemon and not a Legendary, Mew as well as Celebi find themselves with very solid and well-rounded base stats: 210 Attack, 210 Defense, 200 HP. I previously criticized Mew for not having a STAB quick move, but now the problem is even worse. Pound is not only non-STAB, but also not Super Effective against anything. That’s a huge detriment to its usability. Especially considering that its wide array of possible movesets shift Mew towards becoming a sub-optimal specialist for that type. It will never deal as much Grass type damage as Exeggutor; as much Ice type damage as Articuno; as much Electric type damage as Raikou, Zapdos or Jolteon – the list goes on and on. Regardless of what charge move you get, be it Solar Beam, Thunder, Blizzard, or even its STAB charge move Psychic, Mew is going to be a sub-optimal user of that typing. Its good base stats are completely wasted, outclassed as both a specialist and a generalist, leaving it no place in the meta other than as a souvenir from a Tier 5 raid. Conclusion: Don’t Power Up Mew. Celebi: Another Grass/Psychic type like Exeggutor, but with considerably more bulk (Mew and Celebi are close to Rhydon) and less DPS (Confusion/Hyper Beam Celebi is about 19-20% worse than Confusion/Solar Beam Exeggutor). Celebi’s problem is its highest DPS moveset makes it impossible to get type advantage with both fast and charge moves being SE against the same defender. Since Hyper Beam is Normal, it will never be SE against anything. Celebi would have been great for its Grass typing, but it learns no Grass type charge moves. Its only double STAB moveset is Confusion/Psychic (overall its 2nd best neutral DPS moveset). Well that’s a huge problem, because you know who else learns Confusion/Psychic? Mewtwo. I’ll leave it to you to decide who’s worth the resource investment. Conclusion: Don’t Power Up Celebi.  via /r/TheSilphRoad http://ift.tt/2eLgsFB