"[Analysis] Slaking’s role as gym defender revisited"

#PokemonGO: It’s an established fact that Slaking, as a gym defender, is nowhere close to challenging Blissey’s dominance.That being said, does that mean Slaking doesn’t have a role in the current gym defense meta? The analysis below aims to shed some light on this question. Afterall, gyms have 5 additional defender slots to fill beyond Blissey.Disclaimer: this analysis is only meant for areas where gym play is active and competitive. Anyone who’s going to say “there’s no gym meta” can save some time and stop reading - I completely understand it doesn’t matter what goes into gyms in your area.Here’s a comparison of defense performance for various commonly-seen defenders (all type-countered by Machamp, to keep the comparison apples-to-apples), vs a C/DP Machamp attacker. The sims are level 35 vs level 35, dodge special PRO/realistic dodging for the attacker.DefenderDefender MovesetAttacker Time-to-winAttacker HP leftBlisseyZH/DG48.8 secs1 deathChanseyZH/DG38.7 secs78/148SnorlaxZH/BS26.2 secs49/148SnorlaxZH/HS26.1 secs37/148SlakingYN/PR22.5 secs63/148SteelixDT/HS22.3 secs88/148LaprasIS/IB22.0 secs77/148RhydonMS/SE19.6 secs57/148TyranitarB/C15.4 secs110/148Blissey and Chansey are, as expected, the best defender choices, followed by Snorlax. What’s interesting is how Slaking stacks up against the rest:Slaking barely edges out Steelix and Lapras on time-to-win, while taking out noticeably more of the attacker’s HP than the latter two.Slaking outperforms Rhydon and Tyranitar as a gym defender (Rhydon’s number will look even worse when facing double-grass attackers).This seems to suggest that Slaking, while nowhere close to Blissey, may still very well deserve a role in gym spots 2-6.In a perfect gym defense, you probably want 3 tanky normal-type defenders sandwiched by 3 flying/psychic/fairy types. However, in reality this doesn’t happen all the time, because not a lot of players put in defenders with a good overall defense in mind. So in some practical cases, having a 4th normal type defender may not be unreasonable. For example: first 3 trainers put in Blissey/Snorlax/Chansey, followed by a Dragonite in the 4th spot.Of course, this analysis won’t be complete without comparing Slaking to several commonly-seen non-normal type defenders:DefenderDefender MovesetAttackerAttacker MovesetAttacker Time-to-winAttacker HP leftSlakingYN/PRMachampC/DP22.5 secs63/148VaporeonWG/ATRaikouTS/WC21.3 secs113/148DonphanC/PRGyaradosWF/HP18.1 secs119/156ExeggutorC/SBombTyranitarB/C16.5 secs118/163ArcanineFF/CGyaradosWF/HP15.7 secs112/156DragoniteDT/OArticunoFB/IB15.4 secs91/148HariyamaC/DPEspeonC/FS14.2 secs50/110MachampC/DPEspeonC/FS12.2 secs75/110GyaradosWF/HPRaikouTS/WC12.1 secs104/148Slaking is superior to all of these defenders on both time-to-win and damage done to attacker.One last point: against a non-dodging Machamp (laggy connection, attacker is a new player not good at/doesn’t know dodging, etc), Slaking will actually faint one Machamp, and put serious hurt on a second one before it itself faints! The only other defenders capable of this are Blissey and Snorlax (Chansey cannot faint a non-dodging Machamp).So it does appear that Slaking, while clearly inferior to Blissey, is still a reasonable choice for the remaining 5 defender slots! It will cost the attacker anywhere between 1-10 extra secs to take down (depending on what alternative you’re comparing to), will cost a non-dodging attacker one Machamp death and then some, and will deal more damage to the attacker than all common alternatives.While this probably won’t make much of a difference in a normal gym fight vs a knowledgeable, prepared high-level attacking player, it could be quite material in battles where every second counts (for example when fighting for gym control before a raid), or to make things difficult for low-level players trying to take the gym. via /r/TheSilphRoad http://ift.tt/2ChFh6b