"Potential Move Pool Shake-Ups"

#PokemonGO: There has been a lot of talk about how the upcoming Gen 4 Pokemon will stack up against our current go-tos, but I haven't seen much on what gems we could gain from the expected move pool shake up that may come along with the new 'mons. How could the Pokemon we already have improve? I decided I'd take a crack at it. It's intimidating, because you all do such great work, and I am the farthest thing from an analyst or graphic designer. Here goes nothing.In short, I used GamePress' phenomenal Comprehensive DPS/TDO Ranking to create a scenario where each type would be a significantly more desirable attacker than any other. Generally, that included using a defending Pokemon (always an unspecified species, and sometimes with a typing that does not exist in the game yet) with a double weakness to the attacking type and weather favoring the attacker. I noted the top five or so attackers in each setting, and cross-checked them with GamePress' Pokemon List sorted by attack stat just in case some were outclassed in the preliminary simulations due to an unfortunate move pool (Lookin' at you, Metagross).The next step was adding learnable moves to each of the Pokemon on my list for that type. I used the Gen 6 learn set list from Bulbapedia. Usually, I just stuck to adding STAB/weather boosted moves. I chose to go ahead and include legendary Pokemon and expected community day moves even though we are more likely to see them introduced in an event rather than a Gen-4-release move pool shift. In addition, I added all learnable moves that are currently in Pokemon GO to the three Pokemon with the highest attack stats: Mewtwo, Slaking, and Rayquaza. This often caused my computer to run VERY slow! I saved screenshots of all results (mostly so I wouldn't have to go back and type in those moves ever again - woof.), and kept a pretty thorough spreadsheet.I chose to measure strictly by DPS without regard to bulk. I am not suggesting that, for example, Breloom is a better Pokemon than Machamp. Without having to select a defending Pokemon and a corresponding moveset, this little project became much MUCH less complicated. Obviously, bulk is still an important measure in the usefulness of an attacker, but TDO and other measurements vary greatly depending on the defender's specs.Below are the top five DPS attackers of each type (top ten for overall/neutral attackers), both current and with optimized move sets. Apologies for the slight blur on the image, and the handful of formatting inconsistencies that are surely lurking, a couple of which I have already noticed.. But this is my fourth night in a row staying up past 2AM working on this, and I think I just need to get it out there. It probably would have been better to put them in alphabetical order, but I tried to match the colors to each type symbol in POGO, and the rainbow is so fun!Results:https://ift.tt/2Mm64A3 quick note on Slaking- I included all learnable fast moves, instead of just Yawn. FYI, Yawn Slaking is never among the top DPS-ers in these scenarios. The closest it comes is as a Fairy attacker (Yawn/Play Rough, 23.19 DPS) and as an Ice attacker (Yawn/Ice Beam, 22.152 DPS).Highlights:Overall- No weather boost and no defender type specified; purely neutral DPS. I went ahead and included Precipice Blades and Origin Pulse, since they're in the code, we know which Pokemon will get them, and they're cool. Counter/Burn Blast Blaziken and Fire Spin/Sky Attack Moltres were surprises to me.Ghost- Yes, Lick Gengar technically out-DPSes Shadow Claw Gengar, but the .045 increase is negligible. It should be noted that Alakazam is beat out by a few Dark-type attackers in this scenario, but I just passed over them. And oh hi there, Slaking.Poison- Gengar with Poison Jab could actually make us want to use a Poison-type attacker.Fairy- Still waiting on a Fairy fast move... sigh... Anyway, DT/O Rayquaza clocks in here at 25.943 DPS, beating out Kadabra and everything below it. Still not planning on using Fairy attackers any time soon, excluding the occasional Gardevoir against Machamp or Focus Blast Mewtwo.Fighting- Believe it or not, there is one tiny change.Psychic- Future Sight Mewtwo would be just grand. And we need more Pokemon with Psyshock. Oh look, Metagross doesn't have to be completely useless!Fire- If you didn't see Blast Burn Blaziken, go back and look. I'll wait.Ground- All hail Precipice Blades Groudon! But, let's not count our eggs before they hatch. Dig would also give Groudon a little boost (31.977 here). Too bad he can't learn Drill Run, which here makes Rhydon a little bit useful.Electric- This is kind of the one that inspired it all. I hate that Raikou is better than Zapdos, because I'm a Zapdos fanboy. The addition of Thundershock got Zapdos close enough for horseshoes, but Wild Charge would really make Zappy happy.Rock- Smack Down/Rock Slide.Bug- Bug Bite/X-Scissor. Come on Heracross, get with the program.Grass- I did not realize how great Grass Knot is. Three Grass Knot Pokemon jumped over our current Grass King, Venusaur.Steel- Again, a relevant Metagross. #nianticplsDragon- Like our Fighting friends, we are already mostly optimized in the Dragon department.Water- All hail Precipice Blades Groudon! Origin Pulse Kyogre! Also, we need more Pokemon with Surf.Flying- MOLTRESIce- Jynx stays on top for our current Ice types, but Mammoswine is coming. Included Avalanche on Articuno for fun, even though it can't learn the move in Gen 6 (it can in Gen 4 by TM).Normal- Just.... don't. Only included so the Normies wouldn't feel left out. I shouldn't have. This was a huge pain in the Ash. None of these, except the fictitious Cut/HB Slaking, can really be considered "Ideal."Dark- The opponent's Normal/Psychic typing was the only way to keep the Ghost Pokemon out of the way, so no "4x" SE damage here. I want a Snarl/Foul Play Tyranitar so bad.TL;DR-Don't get lost in Gen 4 hype and forget that we may get an updated move pool for our current Pokemon. via /r/TheSilphRoad https://ift.tt/2vG1pld