"Is moveset really more important than IVs? Actually, it depends."

#PokemonGO: The generally accepted conventional wisdom is that when considering the optimal choice for what Pokemon to power up, the priority goes species > moveset > IVs. The oft-cited reason for this is because the option of quick or charge move can have a huge effect on a Pokemon's combat ability, whereas IVs can only contribute to ~10% of a Pokemon's power.First, the ~10% figure isn't true, or at least it doesn't mean anything useful. The number was originally obtained by comparing the CP of a max-IV Pokemon to the CP of a min-IV Pokemon of the same level. The problem here is that CP doesn't actually mean anything. It's calculated by multiplying attack by the square root of stamina and defense. Here's why this is inaccurate:Suppose that you have a Pokemon with 150/150/150 base stats, so a max-IV Pokemon has 10% more of all stats than a min-IV Pokemon.This Pokemon has 10% more attack, so its attacks do 10% more damage, hence it does 10% more damage before it faints.This Pokemon has 10% more HP, so it survives 10% longer, hence it does 10% more damage before it faints.This Pokemon has 10% more defense, so it takes 10% less damage, hence it does 10% more damage before it faints.Now the issue is that the damage formula works with integers, so in reality you are probably getting less than 10% improvements, but let's set that aside for now.If the attack IVs are contributing 10% to this Pokemon's DPS and the HP and defense IVs are each contributing 10% to this Pokemon's survivability, then a max-IV hypothetic-mon is doing 33.1% more damage before it faints than a min-IV hypothetic-mon.150/150/150 isn't representative of the typical gym Pokemon - it has easy numbers to work with, but it rather underestimates the Pokemon commonly used in gyms. Here are the average base stats of the 30 Pokemon with the highest base stat totals in the game, excluding unobtainables and Chansey (because Chansey is terrible):StaminaAttackDefense186.3190.9184.8And here's a table of how a Pokemon's IV % affects its max damage potential:Pokemon's IV %10066.733.30% of max dmg potential10092.885.979.4Next, let me direct you to the Species/Moveset Analysis Tool.I'll look at 2 Pokemon here: Flareon and Starmie. I'll also only consider their offensive potential for the sake of simplicity.Flareon's worst offensive moveset is Ember + Heat Wave, which has 92% of the DPS of its best offensive moveset, Ember + Fire Blast. For Flareon, its worst moveset is roughly equivalent to ~40% loss in its IVs.Starmie's worst offensive moveset is Quick Attack + Power Gem, which has 50% of the DPS of its best offensive moveset, Water Gun + Hydro Pump. Actually, even its second best offensive movesets, Water Gun + not-Hydro Pump, are only 79% of the DPS of Water Gun + Hydro Pump. So getting Water Gun + not-Hydro Pump is like getting min IVs.So I suppose the takeaway here is that spending the extra effort culling the good-IV Pokemon from the average-IV Pokemon is like going from the 3rd- or 2nd-best moveset to the 1st-best moveset, depending on the Pokemon. And since you're going to be catching lots of Pokemon for their candy anyway, it is typically easier to play the lottery for better IVs than for the absolute best moveset. via /r/TheSilphRoad http://ift.tt/2b35dTe