"My first (many) thoughts on the new metagame"

#PokemonGO: Following the new re-balance by Niantic, I have imported the updated pokemon stats that /u/Cshikage provided into /u/negreac's spreadsheet (note: I fixed a few mistakes in the type dependencies, Dark and Dragon attackers were swiped), and played with it for a while. I am describing here some of my observations; some of these have already been echoed in other posts (e.g. this Silph Road official post and Gamepress' post), but I'm repeating them for completeness - any additions are welcome in the comments.Snorlax, with its significant CP boost and normal type, becomes the ultimate king of gym defense. Alakazam (Psycho Cut/Psychic) becomes a good option against Zen Headbutt Snorlax, but you'll need to dodge. Otherwise, use Dragonite, Arcanine, Rhydon or Gyarados. Hitmonlee (Rock Smash/Stone Edge) is also powerful but incredibly fragile especially against Zen Headbutt. Also, forget about Machamp.Rhydon (Mud Slap/Stone Edge) is now an interesting defender - It has crazy high CP, and is so tanky that even despite its double weakness to water it should now be as annoying a gym defender as Slowbro (attacking it with Vaporeon gives it a defender score similar to Slowbro). Hence despite its appearance, it does not belong to the family of "selfish defenders" like Dragonite and Gyarados.Dragonite stays an awesome attacker, and will still definitely be used as a defender because of its high CP even though it has a double weakness to Ice.Gyarados joins Dragonite as very high-CP defenders that has a double weakness. However, don't be fooled by its high CP - It is an absolute mess of a defender. Even if the attacker doesn't take advantage of its many weaknesses, it is a worse defender than Arcanine, Tentacruel, Charizard. But then if the attacker uses an Electric type, it becomes as bad a defender as Dodrio or Seaking. That's saying something. If you thought that putting Dragonite in gyms was selfish, you should hate Gyarados at a whole new level.Vaporeon also gains a major buff as a gym defender because of its new ability to sit on top of gyms. It is not as great as Rhydon, Snorlax, Lapras, Poliwrath or Slowbro at it, but it will be sufficiently annoying to take it down to call it a good gym defender. Vaporeon is also a better defender now because of the Exeggutor nerf.Lapras has lost its ability to be among the highest-CPs in gyms, and hence it did lose some of its power as a defender. However, it is still second to only Snorlax in terms if tankiness X defensive DPS. It is however only 87% as good as Snorlax under this metric. Finding a good counter to Lapras is still not so simple. Snorlax with Lick/Hyper Beam is the safest choice (highest tankiness x offense), but a relatively slow one. Golem and Rhydon seem tempting, but both are weak to Ice and therefore not viable. Arcanine (Fire Fang/Fire Blast) remains a good option, but after its nerfing and Vaporeon's buffing, Vaporeon (Water Gun/Hydro Pump) is a safer option, although much slower as it has only 74% of Arcanine's offensive power. Rhydon (Mud Slap/Stone Edge) becomes an interesting option with 7.6% more offensive power than Arcanine and should be able output 99% as much damage during its lifetime. However, considering that Rhydon is better used as a gym defender, Arcanine may still be the best option for a faster match.Poliwrath (Bubble/Hydro Pump) is still an ok defender despite its low CP, and Bubble/Ice Punch Poliwrath is still awesome to surprise Dragonite. However, Poliwrath now has its kryptonite: Alakazam. Put simply, Alakazam will annihilate Poliwrath (just make sure to dodge).Slowbro (Confusion/Psychic) is still a good defender despite low CP. Confusion/Ice Beam Slowbro is also awesome due to metagame. Gengar (Shadow Claw/Shadow Wave) is a very good counter against Slowbro (5% more offense than Dragonite) because Shadow Claw is super effective. However, be prepared to dodge if Slowbro has Psychic moves ! Dragonite is still a great choice to take down Slowbro, but be wary of Ice Beam.Venusaur (Razor Leaf/Sludge Bomb) still a decent defender despite its low CP, but will get ripped apart by Alakazam as it is weak to Psychic.Golem, Flareon, Machamp, Alakazam, Pinsir (!), Jolteon, Kingler (!), Charizard, Omastar, Gengar and Aerodactyl join a similar max. CP range to Exeggutor, Arcanine and Muk. For this reason, we may begin to see more of them in gyms, although none of them may be great gym defenders. This is however very cool as it will create much more diversity from the players that only look at their mon's CPs before putting them in gyms. I will not get into the best defenders for each of those in this post, as it would take forever.Exeggutor lost its ability to stay on top of gyms, hence it's probably not a great defender anymore. Gengar (Shadow Claw/Sludge Bomb) is a good counter to Exeggutor despite its low tankiness. Arcanine and Charizard are still good options, and Scyther (Fury Cutter/Bug Buzz) is now a much better option than before, but I expect to see less Exeggutor in gyms. Lapras (Frost Breath/Blizzard) is now one of the most secure (but slower) options to take down Exeggutor (second only to Lick/Hyper Beam Snorlax).Chansey has the potential to be a very annoying gym defender by timing out the battle. I have yet to test this, but consider that its tankiness (HP*DEF) is now 45% higher than Snorlax. Thanks to /u/CreativiTimothy for bringing this consideration. Just be sure not to place it in a gym that anyone would want to prestige against !Snorlax with Lick/Hyper Beam becomes a slow but amazingly durable attacker if you want to save on revives or take down a very strong gym.Alakazam (Psycho Cut/Psychic) becomes on par with Dragonite for its attacking power (actually 0.7% better), although it is much more fragile. For this reason, unless a defender is weak to Psychic (e.g. Poliwrath, Venusaur, Machamp, Vileplume), Dragonite still seems somewhat preferable as an attacker.Gengar (Shadow Claw/Sludge Bomb) becomes #3 in terms of offensive power, right after Alakazam & Dragonite. It is effective against Slowbro and Exeggutor, but be sure to dodge cause it's not tanky.I will expect to see many more Gyarados in gyms even though they don't seem like great defenders due to their double weaknesses. Many players probably won't realize this or won't care and will just aim for high-CP defenders. Hence Jolteon becomes a very useful attacker to be maxed out next to your attacker Dragonite. Jolteon with Thunder is a whopping 34% faster at killing Gyarados (although it is less tanky) than Dragonite. Even Jolteon with Thunderbolt is 29% faster (Spark/Thunder Raichu and Thunder Shock/Thunder Electabuzz are also slightly faster).Vaporeon becomes even more useful as an attacker. Vaporeon with Water Gun/Hydro Pump is a significant 28% faster at killing Rhydon than Dragonite is. This will be especially useful since Rhydon will now be a top defender.For the more adventurous or the absolutely impatient, Starmie is even a bit faster than Vaporeon (by 2.3%) at killing Rhydon, but it is way more squishy (a single Starmie will allow you to kill half as many Rhydon).Golduck now has 7% less offensive power than Vaporeon, and since it is also less tanky, Vaporeon is now preferable under any circumstance.Legacy Gyarados (Dragon Breath/Dragon Pulse) becomes more powerful to take down Dragonites. It is still behind most Lapras movesets in terms of offensive power (e.g. 80.5% of Frost Breath/Blizzard). However, Jynx, Cloyster, Golem (Rock Throw or Mud Shot/Stone Edge), Gengar (Shadow Claw/Sludge Bomb) and Seadra (Dragon Breath/Blizzard) are all faster than Legacy Gyarados at taking down Dragonite. Bite/Hydro Pump Gyarados also becomes a good all-around attacker, and more powerful than Dragon Breath/Dragon Pulse in General.Cloyster is now as good offensively as Lapras against Dragonite, although a bit less tanky (65% tankiness compared to Lapras).Exeggutor and Arcanine lost a ton in this update, and I think both will not be as relevant as before as gym defenders. As attackers, it seems like they may remain relatively good (but not the best) in a few circumstances.Kabutops is surprisingly decent as an attacker, especially against fire types. If someone is uninformed enough (let's use this adjective) to put Flareon or Arcanine in a gym, Kabutops will be a fun option to take it down. It is good as vaporeon offensively, but half as tanky.Golem (Mud Shot/Stone Edge) and Rhydon (Mud Slap/Stone Edge) are now pretty good attackers too. They're both your best options against fire types, although keep in mind that Rhydon with this moveset may be better used as a gym defender.As far as training is concerned, Chansey completely dominates. Pound is the most desirable quick attack, in which case don't bother using the special attack. Zen headbutt Chancey is a bit worse but still better than any other trainer; in this case, only use your special attack if it is Psychic. Wigglytuff (Pound/Hyper Beam) is the second best trainer, at only 58% the training score (offense x tankiness at equal CP=1000) of a Pound Chansey. Lickitung (Lick/Hyper Beam) is a close 3rd. Dewgong (Frost Breath/Blizzard), Wartortle, Blastoise and Vaporeon (Water Gun/Hydro Pump), Lapras (Frost Breath/Blizzard), Snorlax (Lick/Hyper Beam), Hypno (Zen Headbutt/Psychic), Tentacruel (Poison Jab/Hydro Pymp), Golem (Mud Shot/Stone Edge), Slowpoke (Water Gun/Psychic), Graveler (Mud Shot/Stone Edge), Parasect (Bug Bite/Solar Beam), Pidgeot (Wing Attack/Hurricane), Tangela or Ivysaur (Vine Whip/Solar Beam), Sandslash (Metal Claw/Earthquake), Nidorina (Bite/Sludge Bomb) are all still excellent trainers, in that order. Raticate (Bite/Hyper Beam) is slightly (5%) worse than these choices, but still considerable because it is so easy to find.When you keep trainer pokemon, it may be worthy to keep in mind that CP 1200+ trainers are not as useless as before, because a lot of pokemon can now have CPs above 2400. I'd put the new cut around ~CP1400 on my set of trainers (Dragonite, Snorlax, Rhydon and Gyarados can all have CP2800 at level 30 now).Pre-update, I previously keeping these five attackers maxed out for taking down gyms efficiently:Dragonite (Dragon Breath/Any)Arcanine (Fire Fang/Fire Blast to take down Exeggutor and Lapras)Exeggutor (Zen Headbutt/Solar Beam to take down water-types)Vaporeon (Water Gun/Hydro Pump to take down Arcanine)Lapras (Frost Breath/Blizzard to take down Dragonite).Considering all that I have mentioned above, I now plan to keep as many as ten maxed out attackers:Dragonite (Dragon Breath/Any)Vaporeon (Water Gun/Hydro Pump to take down Rhydon)Lapras (Frost Breath/Blizzard to take down Dragonites) - Use Cloyster with the same moveset if you can't find a good Lapras or lack the Lapras candies.Jolteon (Thunder Bolt/Thunder to take down Gyarados or Lapras)Alakazam (Psycho Cut/Psychic against Poliwrath, Venusaur, Vileplume, Muk, Gengar, Machamp, and possibly Lapras)Venusaur (Vine Whip/Solar Beam to take down Vaporeon)Gengar (Shadow Claw/Sludge Bomb against Slowbro and Exeggutor)Arcanine (Fire Fang/Fire Blast against Lapras)Snorlax (Lick/Hyper Beam for resource-dry moments).Gyarados (Bite/Hydro Pump or Dragon Breath/Dragon Pulse for a decent all-around option)You will probably ask "why Venusaur over Exeggutor ?". The reason is this: After Exeggutor's nerf, Venusaur is 97% as strong offensively when facing a water type, and it is 5% more tanky. Putting these together, Venusaur will output 2.8% more damage than Exeggutor during its life. However, the main reason why I really prefer Venusaur is that Vine Whipe is super fast, making it much more easy to dodge Vape's attacks compared to Zen Headbutt.You can see that this recent update makes the meta much more complicated, and will make my set of attackers much more diversified. For these reasons, I'm absolutely happy about the update. Great job Niantic !PS I'm not using plural forms for Pokemon names, if any one finds a reference for proper plural forms I'll be happy to adapt.EDIT: What I hope they would now include to achieve a better balance:Make "Ember" a better quick attack (make it faster and higher DPS) to bring Charizard and Flareon in the meta (maybe that would make fire types relevant ?).Increase the type effectiveness multiplier (higher than 1.25) to improve diversity and make Dragonite less of a no-brainer attacker choice in most situations.Bring "Speed" as its own stat that would actually affect attack speed, which would make the game vastly more complex.Make gyms easier to train up (like before) but kill karping/bubblestrat as this is seemingly what they tried to do with the half prestige gains (although it ended up hurting regular trainers way more)I haven't looked at all of the details that these changes would entail, but I think that combined with this recent CP balance they would be absolutely beneficial to the game. It would become a nightmare to create the spreadsheets such as the one that I'm using, which is a good think as it means the game becomes more complex and diverse. via /r/TheSilphRoad http://ift.tt/2fXDDbx