"Gen 1-4 Pokemon Investment for Raiding the Future"

#PokemonGO: Introduction:This is a follow up to my post about the best Pokemon to power up from Gens 1-4 for future T5 bosses from Gen 5-7 and the remaining bosses of Gen 4. I originally wanted to tackle this question because I would see plenty of posts in my community asking if they should power up a specific Pokemon such as Kyogre. Kyogre is the best Water type so the default answer was, “Of course that one is safe to power up!” But for the vast majority of us that want to tackle optimal counters for T5 raid bosses, are we really going to use Kyogre? I aimed to to get full view of what we will be using most often!This is my personal assessment of what Pokemon are worth investing in and should not be taken as Gospel. Please weigh the pros and cons I list and make informed decisions based off your personal play style.Caveats:The biggest feedback I received initially was that the counters were sorted purely by DPS. I treated all the bosses listed as glorified punching bags. Unfortunately because we have no idea what any of the bosses in Gen 5-7 will have moveset wise, it was difficult to create a flushed out image of what the boss will hit back with. A user pointed out that I could look to the main series games for the learnset and then create models with possible movesets and while this is true, this is more time consuming that I’m willing to commit to for now. I’ll be linking my work for reference but I will be presenting the BEST Pokemon based off a full view of ease of candy, dust, TDO/DPS and many other factors. I also encourage healthy discussion about my choices!Not every legendary/mythical is included. Pokemon like Arceus, Zygarde, Keldeo, Genesect, Meloetta, etc have complicated mechanics or a multitude of formes that I have no idea how Niantic plans to implement them. Because of this, I included what I felt were “safe” bets for raid bosses. Including everything would skew or weigh results unfairly and I didn’t want to do this. I encourage healthy discussion about this decision and if the community thinks I should include more, I can look into this.This spreadsheet will likely change, and I will occasionally update it and maybe do a new post as the meta changes. New moves will be added through Community Days or just because Niantic adds more. I’ll address these to the best of my ability.This is only looking at Gen 1-4 as counters. Gens 5 and beyond have a slew of powerful Pokemon that will shake this list up but without knowing their future move sets, I don’t know how they’ll shake out.The future will bring a lot of changes which I can't predict, Megas to name one specifically. Megas will be a huge power leap and without knowing how that will be implemented, I have ignored it.Sources:All information was obtained through Gamepress’s TDO/DPS sheetMy Counter SheetOriginal ThreadPokemon Rankings by Type and Usage:Gengar, Giratina Origin, and Darkrai, Psychic/Ghost Killers: Gengar is a top counter against the plethora of Psychic types coming and pulls double duty against the Fairy types (even though it’s not a TOP counter against them). That being said, while Gengar counters the Psychic and Ghost types, it is also weak to them. Couple that with its meager bulk, Gengar is a glass cannon and that should be weighed carefully. It also is a “cheaper” Pokemon to power up, being far easier to obtain candy for than Legendary/Mythicals. Giratina Origin counters the same Pokemon Gengar does except the Fairy types. Giratina also gets the move set that makes Gengar so amazing (Shadow Claw / Shadow Ball) and has an phenomenal bulk. Couple that with the last of Poison typing means Giratina O is not weak to Psychic either. Gengar will out DPS but Giratina O will stay around far longer for less relobbies and revives. The downside is Giratina O is a legendary so Rare Candy will be needed, especially if you’re wanting multiples. Darkrai isn’t implemented yet and we have no idea whether it’ll be a research quest reward, T5 or EX raid boss. However, with how good it is I didn’t want to exclude it. Darkrai is also a frail pokemon but considering you’ll use it to counter Psychic and Ghost types (both of which it resists) it should be considerably serviceable with a stellar movepool.Mamoswine, Weavile, the Chilly Victors: Mamoswine gets an interesting, powerful position due to a great moveset and a plethora of Flying types coming, some of which are double weak to Ice or resist Electric attacks. Mamoswine isn’t always the premier counter but it will be a genie-eater in Gen 5 and is serviceable against many others. Weavile follows Mamoswine around as an Ice type but gets to pull double duty against Psychic and Ghost types due to its great Dark movepool. Weavile doesn’t top any charts but due to it being a top choice against so many things, it’s an honorable choice to conserve stardust.Rampardos, the Tyranitar Everything Killer: Rampardos single headidly made every Rock type "useless". Start saving them now! Rampardos has an amazing moveset and a ridiculous Attack stat. It’s the top counter against quite a few bosses and although frail on the defense side, it resists the Flying types will knock down. It even smashes many of the future Dragons due to their secondary typing. This is a hard Pokemon for some to find but one to be hungrily sought.Rayquaza/Palkia/Garchomp/Salamence/Dragonite/Dialga, the Dragon Hit Squad: I’m going to cover these all at the same time with a special note at the end. We will see a LOT of Dragons as raid boss in Gen 5 and this squad all does similar things with comparable levels of success. Dragonite is of course the easiest to obtain at this point by virtue of being around so long but Rayquaza is the top DPS option. Salamence is on paper, better damage than Dragonite but a single bar charge move is difficult to get off against another Dragon (a better CD move in April mixed with better accessibility may boost its worth). Palkia has unique resistances that will prove useful. Garchomp isn’t out yet but has a “good” Ground moveset (if there is such a thing) and gives it use the other Dragons lack. Rayquaza also counters a couple Grass types (looking at you Virizion) and has some extra mileage because of this. Dialga is unique here due its bulk, typing and resistances. It’ll never win the top spot but not being weak to Dragons, Fairies, and being able to hit both back Super Effective gives it a meaningful niche.Breloom, Machamp, the Fight Club: These two do almost the same thing. If you don’t have a team of Machamps at this point then what are you even doing? Breloom has slightly higher damage but is frailer than ‘Champ. Breloom has the benefit of countering different things with Grass Knot (legacy) but not much more. Machamp is generally the way to go but won’t see as much use as the above.Metagross, Roserade and Toxicroak, the Unique Killers: Metagross with Meteor Mash is the top counter against the Fairy king, Xerneas and whallops a small group of others. Roserade eats the Fairy totems in Gen 7 but doesn’t do much of anything else. Toxicroak jabs the same Fairy’s but with a good Fighting set, punches into things the others can’t but never as well as Machamp or Breloom.Honorable Mentions: Raikou, Electivire, and Magnezone will serve well in Gen 5 but hardly anywhere else. They don’t pull the wide coverage Weavile and Mamoswine do but in some cases, do it better. Just not often enough. Mewtwo has had an interesting fall from grace with changes to damage multiplies and arrival of Giratina O. Shadow Ball Mewtwo, once coveted with awe, is now dropping down the ladder of use and while Mewtwo has a wide movepool, other Pokemon are doing it better but Mewtwo is still the switch army knife of coverage many people can make an argument for.TL;DR:The above Pokemon appeared the most often as respectable counters against future raid bosses. Please consider your own playstyle, habits and resources before deciding what to focus on. This list does not include Pokemon from Gen 5-7 as counters.Thank you all for reading and feedback is appreciated! Will adjust things as needed.EDIT: Added original reddit thread/discussion.EDIT2: Added Salamence because... whoops. via /r/TheSilphRoad https://ift.tt/2UiqW25