"A practical analysis comparing Machamp and Hariyama as raid attackers using Tyranitar as a case study"

#PokemonGO: BACKGROUNDHariyama (Hari) and Machamp are two of the best fighting pokemon in Pokemon Go, and they both can obtain the best fighting moves: counter (quick move) & dynamic punch (charged move). The main differences between the two are that Machamp has about 10% higher attack, and Hari has about 10% higher bulk (ie defense x stamina). Although Hari has higher bulk, it has lower defense than Machamp, which means it loses HP more quickly during battle; and therefore, gains energy more quickly, which could allow more frequent use of its charged move. Also, because Hari has greater bulk than Machamp, it allows Hari to last longer in battle. The combination of greater bulk and lower defense means Hari could have an opportunity to throw more charged moves than Machamp during a battle because it can gain more energy and last longer to be able to use its energy to throw more charged moves. So, although Machamp has higher attack, Hari can potentially make up some of the difference in his lower damage per second (DPS) output by being able to use more charged moves (which have higher DPS than quick moves) and use them more frequently. DPS is important because it often determines how many trainers are needed to defeat a raid boss and (of lesser importance in my opinion) can potentially determine whether or not a trainer receives an extra premiere ball after the raid.In my experience (which is likely common but not the same as every trainer), Makuhita (Mak) is much more prevalent than Machop, and Mak can be evolved into Hari using 50 candy. Mak and Machop can spawn at up to level 35 in cloudy weather, and both have the same base capture rate. Machop requires 124 candy to evolve into Machamp, so the lower spawn rate of Machop compared to Mak and the greater number of candies required to evolve Machamp compared to Hari makes evolving a high level Machamp more difficult than evolving a high level Hari. Notably, Machamp is currently (December 2017) a Tier 3 raid boss. A Machamp can be obtained from a raid in non-cloudy weather at level 20 with stats between 10/10/10 and 15/15/15. In cloudy weather, the Machamp will be level 25. The maximum Mak that can be obtained in the wild is dependent upon trainer level. For high level players in non-cloudy weather, Mak can spawn at up to level 30 with stats between 0/0/0 and 15/15/15. In cloudy weather, the maximum Mak that can be obtained in the wild is up to level 35 with stats between (4/4/4 and 15/15/15). Powering up pokemon to higher levels requires stardust, which is often a limiting resource for trainers. Powering up a level 20 Machamp captured from a raid will often result in a very good, high level Machamp; but the stardust investment is something which many trainers do not choose to do (or do not choose to do on multiple Machamps). It is generally recognized that investing stardust up to level 30 has the greatest value because after level 30, the return on investment is less than 50% compared to powering up before level 30 (although this is not absolutely true as breakpoints can be considered).THE QUESTIONSThe questions that I set out to address are, (1) practically, how significant is the difference between Hariyama and Machamp for raid battling? And (2) how useful are wild caught, high level Makuhitas that can be evolved into Hariyamas in comparison to Machamps that can be captured from raids?THE APPROACHAs this is meant to be a practical analysis, I considered startdust to be an important and limiting resource, so I tried to emphasize the options for creating Hari and Machamp attackers without investing a lot of stardust. Unless stated otherwise, analyses were performed using Pokebattler.com with a “no dodging” strategy and extreme weather (ie no weather bonus for attackers or raid boss), and an unknown raid boss moveset. Only Tyranitar (T-tar) was used as a raid boss in the analyses. I considered T-tar as an appropriate raid boss to analyze because fighting type pokemon are good to use against T-tar; T-tar is valuable in the meta and therefore worth pursuing in raids; and it has been demonstrated that T-tar can be defeated with only two trainers when using high level Machamps, where DPS is of critical importance. I’d like to be able to duo a T-tar using wild caught and evolved Maks, if that is possible. Emphasis was placed on time to win (TTW) and the number of faints. TTW is important because if TTW is too long, then the raid battle will time out before defeating the boss. In order to theoretically duo a T-tar, the TTW has to be 360 seconds or less, although in real life and depending on the T-tar moveset, the actual TTW will be different. Faints are important because if all six pokemon on a battle team faint, DPS during the raid battle is lowered due to the time required to pick a new team (and the rebound health that occurs with the raid boss—hopefully this bug will be fixed in the future), which raises the TTW. Both Machamp and Hari were added to the PokeBox at PokeBattler.com, and each pokemon had at least 15 variants: level 20, 25, 30, 35, 40; and stats of 5/5/5, 10/10/10, or 15/15/15 at each level. All of the movesets were counter & dynamic punch. A couple special scenarios were also analyzed.THE FINDINGSThe data are here and are sorted in time to win (TTW) against T-tar: goo.gl/xrXuJbThe maximums: Machamp at level 40 (15/15/15) has a TTW of 306 seconds with 12 faints. Hari at level 40 (15/15/15) has a TTW of 327 seconds with 11 faints.The following example is meant to compare an excellent Machamp captured during a raid with no stardust investment to a mediocre Mak that is evolved into Hari. A level 30 Mak with terrible IVs (0/0/0) that is evolved into a Hari is essentially equivalent to a perfect Machamp caught at a raid (level 25; 15/15/15). TTW: Machamp at 376 seconds and Hari at 370 seconds. Faints: 20 Machamp faints and 16 Hari faints.The following example is meant to compare a Machamp with a thrifty investment of stardust to a good wild caught Mak evolved into a Hari (without using any stardust). A perfect (15/15/15) Machamp at level 30 is better than a 10/10/10 level 30 Hari and marginally better than a 10/10/10 level 35 Hari. TTW: Machamp at 333 seconds, level 30 Hari at 364 seconds, and level 35 Hari at 343 seconds. Faints: 15 Machamp faints, 17 faints for the level 30 Hari, 14 faints for the level 35 Hari.Duo T-tar with Hari: The models predict duoing T-tar with level 30 Hari teams is possible, but will be challenging to do so without reviving or switching teams as the faints are greater than 10. Weather and T-tar movesets will obviously greatly influence the ease at which Hari can be used to duo T-tar. It should be possible for casual players to duo T-tar in cloudy weather if T-tar has an easy moveset. For example, bite/crunch T-tar can be defeated in cloudy weather in 316 seconds using teams of level 30 Hari (0/0/0) with 13 faints. This is similar to a team of perfect (15/15/15) Machamps at level 25 (314 seconds; 15 faints) under the same scenario.NOTEShttp://jop.space/powerUp/#!/ is also a useful site for trainers looking to optimize their raid teams.TL;DRWhen both Machamp and Hariyama have counter and dynamic punch, a bad level 30 Hariyama is practically equivalent to a perfect level 25 Machamp when battling Tyranitar. Also, a good level 35 Hariyama is almost as good as a perfect level 30 Machamp. If casual players have good access to Makuhita, then they should be able to duo Tyranitar with teams of Hariyama under the right conditions. via /r/TheSilphRoad http://ift.tt/2zNfn4N