"New Excel Dashboard for Attackers -- with Legacy movesets!"

#PokemonGO: About the spreadsheetDear Pokémon Fans and Reddit Community,Given how many files were floating around the internet, some with wild results for the best move sets, I decided to make a file for myself. I used this for quite some time on Gen I, found it comparable to what I think are the better and more reliable sources out there. Right now, I cannot find anything exceptionally good for the post Gen II release on move sets or an understandable comparison for the legacy move sets, which are often weaker but sometime stronger than the new move sets (Gengar).For this reason I wanted to share insight I created. You can find my Excel in the link that I will share through Google Drive. To use the spreadsheet, you must download using the icon from the top right corner because Google sheets is too slow. Note already, that this is done for the attacker-perspective only:http://ift.tt/2m7m6Vg is the file that I use to determine ideal move sets for each Pokémon (does not compare Pokémon – only moveset per Pokémon). This now includes the most recently updated moves and is based on Silph Road, so credits to them for making my analysis possible. This also includes legacy move sets, i.e. the move sets that are no longer available with the release of Gen II from two weeks ago, in case you might be wondering how your old-moves Dragonite compares to its maximum potential.You can type in the name of the Pokémon in the yellow box (or use the drop down menu) in the Excel file. Further down, still in column B, you can specify what attacks the opposing Pokémon shows weakness or resistance to, including double weakness for your ice-move dragon destroyers (also in a drop down menu). A few things about the layout that are should be noted:Blastoise supposedly is a bit different with its water gun attack (see Silph Road’s moveset). Since Blastoise is not used so often, I decided to ignore his entry instead of making an exception. Apologies in advance to any Blastoise lovers.When the weaknesses and resistances are listed for your Pokémon at the bottom, I only included the type of attacks that effective/ineffective for each of your Pokémon’s type. This means that I did not filter unique entries, so you will see two “electric” entries for Gyarados or cancel effective with ineffective: “fire” attacks are shown as both resistance for for Lapras’ water-type and weakness for Lapras’ ice-type.Maybe I missed something else… Any comments appreciated.If you simply wanted a calculator to use – voilà! If you want to know some reasons for why I built this calculator as I did, why I prefer to use my file over other lists floating on the internet, or are interested in my understanding of numbers in this game, please continue reading about my game experiences.I do not consider myself an expert in gym battling or PokémonGo but I also like to think that my experience in this game is non-zero: I have about 2000 gym battles on my account, played with various battle simulations, and Excel files.ReferencesSilph Road move statistics: http://ift.tt/2mA1Kjq sources I recommend:Tier List by rankedboost (best for casual players, still waiting for attacker list): http://ift.tt/2m7iend simulator (not perfect but excellent): http://ift.tt/2mzZEjE to the game after Valentine’s Day 2017:Charge moves do much more damage. This means that you will be punished much harder if you cannot dodge those moves in gyms. This also means that you basic attacks are more valuable for energy generation than damage.Note that there are no Pokémon anymore, where spamming the basic attack is more effective than using charge moves (your previous WaterGun/WaterPulse Vaporeon). That was bad design and what we now have makes more sense.About other calculatorsSome basic lists with calculations ignore STAB bonus, which should not be ignored because STAB gives +25% damage (too big to ingore).Many other lists ignore effectiveness for specific match ups. For simplicity, these lists simply show the “best” move set, when more often than not, such a combination does not exist. If I may use two examples:You can use Victreebel with two poison to shut down fairy-type of Pokémon and Victreebel with two grass moves to shut down water-type Pokémon but a Victreebel with one poison and one grass attack has limited uses despite maybe having higher damage output against neutral Pokémon like Snorlax or Blissey.I expect Lanturn with two electric moves to be amazing vs. Vaporeons because it will benefit from super effectiveness, STAB, and resistance to Vaporeon’s water-attacks, even though Lanturn might have a higher “raw” damage output with water-moves.You will notice that many Pokémon will show sub-par moves on some lists you find floating on the internet, and that is something I wanted to avoid with my Excel because you can select the weaknesses and resistances of your opponent to have ranked move sets for your specific match up. Then you can consider your play style to determine what move set is the “best” for you (if this is possible).Rounding DamageThe damage that a Pokémon outputs is not only based on the move damage and the attack stat of the attacking Pokémon: it is also related to the defending Pokémon’s defense. An attack that is listed to do 10 damage might therefore, after applying the attack and defense stats, only do 6 damage in reality. While the calculations go into fractions, the final value rounded to an integer.Some calculators online ignore this and go into fractions (like mine does), while others do their calculations where the defending Pokémon has a defense value of a “typical” defender but is arbitrarily set between 150 and 180 to give more realistic damage output and are then rounded. While I have no major issues with setting a defense stat of the defending Pokémon, I see a problem when the damage output is rounded from a fraction because the comparison is then based on only one specific circumstance where the defender has the defense value that you set, and this can over and under estimate the damage difference.To clarify the issue I have with rounding, let us compare two cases:One Pokémon’s damage is reduced to 6.4 (rounded to 6) after accounting for attack and defense stats, while another Pokémon will do 6.7 (rounded to 7) damage. The calculated difference is 0.3 (5% higher for the second Pokémon) but appears to be 1.0 (17%) in the game.The same two Pokémon fight another defender. This time, the first Pokémon will do 5.8 (rounded to 6) damage while another will do 6.2 (also rounded to 6) damage. While the calculated difference is 0.6 (7% higher for the second Pokémon), the damage appears to be zero (0) in the game.You should assume that the second Pokémon will output about 6% more damage than the first Pokémon against dummies but if you set one specific value for the defense stat to determine damage absorbed (which is also dependent on the level and the IV that you typically do not know) then you cannot tell if the difference is 0% or 17% and how close the boundaries make it.If you are interested in further exploring differences with IV, level, defense stat, I recommend using the battle simulator under the link I posted to simulate results from the spreadsheet but you can use any other that you are familiar with.About IVsSomething similar can be said about the in-game effect of IVs.While a 100% IV (15-15-15) is always at least as strong as the Pokémon with the same move set and 80% (12-12-12), some people forget that good attackers can an attack stat of 200, and which state the difference in damage output between an attack stat of 203 vs. 200 (1.5% attack stat; not damage which is even lower) will rarely be noticeable, if ever. Similarly, when your attacking Pokémon is down to 20hp and a Vaporeon is about to use Hydropump, it won’t matter if you have 15 or 20hp remaining or a defense stat of 150 or 155: your Pokémon will faint.Note also that 80% is not always worse than an 85% IV Pokémon because the “usefulness” (utility?) of the IVs (the score out of 15 for each attack, defense, and hit points) will depend on how the final stats compare to each other. For example, let us pretend a Pokémon has base stats of 50-50-200 (atk-def-hp). If this Pokémon’s IV are 15-0-0 then it will have 65 attack, which is an increase of 30%, which could shorten the battle by 20-25%, so the hit points you are left with could result to also be about 20-25% higher too. In comparison, if this Pokémon’s IV are 0-0-15 then it will have 215 hit points, which is an increase of 7.5%, so it will endure about 7.5% longer in battle, which is a lot less than the 20-25% that results with the increased attack. So, despite both Pokémon being the same IV (15/45, 33%), one will clearly perform better in a duel.About attacksTypeA big point to keep in mind about this spreadsheet is that the highest calculated DPS ignoring (in)effectiveness does not mean that it is the best move set for that Pokémon. I remember doing a calculation a few months ago, where I found that Rapidash’s highest DPS move set was something like low-kick and ember. Despite this being the highest DPS move set where strengths/weaknesses do not apply, it is not a move set I would generally recommend because the Pokémon you typically should select for battle are the ones that make use of your opponents weaknesses to your attacks, and this will almost always mean having two move sets of the same type. For example, you should prefer a Rapidash with two fire moves (despite slightly lower DPS) instead of a mixed move set types because you are likely to only use Rapidash against a grass Pokémon.(This is the case for attacking only. For defense, it is quite good to have a mixed move set to avoid being countered easily with Pokémon that make your attacks ineffective.)ChargeIf two Pokémon have two move sets with (nearly) identical damage output but one is 100% charge move while the other is a 50% - which of the two is better?Fortunately, this depends on the specific battling case. For example, going against an enemy gym with a 1000cp Vaporeon and 3000cp Gyarados, I prefer to go with a 100% charge-move Jolteon because it will allow me to destroy the Vaporeon with basic attacks quickly, keeping the charge-bar high, so that I can start the Gyarados battle that follows with a 100% charge move. The advantage of using bigger charge moves is that it gives you the opportunity to focus more on dodging your opponent’s moves. That said, if it was a 2000 Vaporeon and a 2000 Gyarados, I might prefer the 50%-charge move Jolteon to make good use or the built up charge and prevent “overkills” by using Thunder when the opponent is at 20% HP and destroying opposition quicker.Move set or IV?All else equal, almost certainly move set. But what if the DPS for the two different move sets is almost the same and you are comparing 60% IV with 90% IV? I don’t think there are any fast rules you can apply but you can also check for yourself with the posted battle simulator.Gengar might look good on other sheets out there but has no good match ups against common defenders where ghost is super effective (25% more damage done!) or where poison can act as good defense (25% less damage received). He is fun though against squishy targets (<2000 CP).Defender move sets and calculationsI decided purposefully not to do any calculations for defenders. Frankly, if someone wanted to take your gym, they can almost certainly do it (Blissey…), and they will not care about a 0-10% stronger defense, particularly with a gym with less than 10k prestige. The real question is whether your attacker has the potions and time to take out your gym, but you cannot influence this.Having varied gym defenders is good because it will deter the attacker from using the same Pokémon after each battle, forcing them to switch each time, and losing their accumulated charge. For example, going against a Vaporeon-Dragonite-Rhydon is a much stronger defense against a solid gym attacker than three of any one Pokémon.What I generally recommend as a defenders are 50% charge moves to force the attacker to waste time on dodging frequently, mixed move sets to prevent an attacker to select a Pokémon that will show resistance to the defender’s attacks, high CP to make sure you are above a strong defending Blissey), and variation in gym defender types.See also the defender tier list, which I think is very good: http://ift.tt/2m7hfDu mention all this IV & CP stuff because I noticed how fixed people seem on the forums on catching that 95%+ IV Pokémon simply because the IV is an easy KPI to compare Pokémon, when the high IVs (60-90%) in reality have very little if any effect. Move sets have a much greater effect but many lists show the one and only bet move set, when this is often not the case. This is why I decided to share my experiences and spreadsheet.If you are an avid gym battler, I recommend learning how to consistently dodge basic attacks (not always possible). If you learn to dodge one additional basic attack per battle, you might even be better off than choosing between a 50% vs 100% IV Pokémon with optimal move sets. With that in mind, if you dodge at the wrong time instead of attacking, you can lose 1s, which could be one attack, valued at 10 damage and 10 energy, which is a much greater difference than the difference between Pokémon of IV 90% and 100%.This is when you might decide to go for a Pokémon that can hit once heavily but allow you to dodge basic attacks instead of hitting twice without dodging anything, and so, slow moves might be better for your play style or defender move set. The last point I want to make here is that there is no “best” move set for every use (for most Pokémon at least).ConclusionsNumbers, numbers, number, … all-in-all, I think that Niantic has thought of the moves quite well for most Pokémon and quite a few unusual move set have their niche uses, whether for specific match ups or defense variety (which I do not go into much detail).I like numbers, and I like doing this sort of analysis but it is still a game and you should do you enjoy most. Sometimes this means solar beaming water Pokémon, max powering up unusual Pokémon simply for high CP, placing Santa-Pikachus and other weaklings in gyms. Even if you prefer catching and holding on to high IV or strong Pokémon without using them in battles (collect > battle) – if that is what you enjoy then you are “winning” this game!Like conducting my analysis, I play for fun and the difference in my game experience for optimizing move sets and IV are almost unnoticeable for me. I grew up with franchise, still have a favorite group of Pokémon, and continue to appreciate the naming of Pokémon across different languages.I understand that there are some very competitive people who might appreciate the calculator and my tips for optimizing battles but I also hope that my lighter approach to the game is apparent. With that, I hope some of my experiences have helped you better understand my view of the game and I hope the spreadsheet can be of use too. via /r/TheSilphRoad http://ift.tt/2nDyJEz