"[Discussion] Reminder of PoGo's Base stat calc and why some legendaries might feel underwhelming"

#PokemonGO: I've seen a few comment threads floating around that hype the tankiness or strength of the legendaries. A good example I saw said "Lugia is on par or better than Blissey at defending."While the strength of legendaries might have been apparent in the main series games, it might be misleading in Pokémon Go, and here's why:Pokémon Go calculates HP differently than the main games. The main series games add a flat 110 to HP at level 100, while Pokémon Go simply takes the base HP stat, multiplies by 2, and scales it down depending on level. For this example:PokémonMain Series HPPokémon Go HPLugia416212Blissey714510Ratio58%42%Comparing the ratios between the two, Lugia has 42% of Blissey's health in Pokémon Go compared to 58% in the original games. HP is the biggest driving force of tankiness in Pokémon Go.Defense and attack stats aren't nearly as polarizing as HP since they take 7/8 of the higher stat from physical or special ATK/DEF and 1/8 of the lower. In essence, a Pokémon with 400 total base stats in the original games could be a LOT stronger in Pokémon Go than a Pokémon with 500 total base stats due to stat distribution (see specialists like Alakazam/Rhydon). This is also apparent with Blissey; its notorious 10 DEF in the main series games was exploitable, but its 135 SpD (special defense) was what made it a top tier wall (alongside its immense HP, of course). The DEF stat calc in Pokémon Go circumvents its physical defense weakness.The trend with legendaries is that they have some of the highest base stat totals in the game (Lugia's 680 vs. Blissey's 540). However, most legendaries distribute their stat totals somewhat evenly between all of the stat categories. Mew and Celebi are the biggest offenders here with 100 in all of their stats, leading to an underwhelming strength in Pokémon Go.A notorious example where a legendary suffers under the calc is Suicune. Its equal 115 on physical and special defense gives it a suboptimal defense compared to a specialized wall:PokémonDefSpDTotal Def PointsPoGo DEFBlissey10135145229Suicune115115230235Since its defense is underwhelming, Suicune is deemed a worse variant of Vaporeon, which has higher overall tankiness and higher attack with less total base stats (Vaporeon's 525 vs. Suicune's 580).Some legendaries do not fit this mold and benefit greatly from the disparity between a strong physical/special attack or defense and a weak special/physical counterpart. We can see this when comparing Ho-oh and Lugia:PokémonDefSpDSpePoGo DEFLugia130154110323Ho-oh9015490301Because it has equal Special Defense to Lugia, Ho-oh's much lower defense is mitigated, and its Pokémon Go DEF stat is comparable to Lugia's. In combination with its much higher Physical Attack, Ho-oh is grossly more overpowered than Lugia, sporting a max CP of 4650 compared to Lugia's max of 3598 even though they have the same total base stats (680).Overall, because of the removal of distinction between Physical and Special Atk/Def and high impact of total HP, some legendaries might feel wildly different than they did in the original main series games. The overall translation isn't perfect, and some of the more common Pokémon you see today might feel strangely overpowered compared to the upcoming legendaries.Thanks for reading and reflecting!TL;DR: The over-centralization of HP and the atk/def calc in Pokémon Go might make some Legendaries feel underpowered compared to the original main series games.Edit: Formatting and grammar clean-up. via /r/TheSilphRoad http://ift.tt/2uiMJY5