Pokemon GO has buffed and nerfed several attacks, most notably for player-favorite Pokemon Vaporeon. So who do you use now?
In its recent patch, Pokemon GO updated a lot of attack values in some important ways. The “quick attacks” have dropped the maximum possible Damage Per Second (DPS), but introduced a 1.25x multiplier Same Type Attack Bonus (STAB). Let’s take Vaporeon’s quick attack Water Gun. Originally, it did 10 damage, and took 0.5 seconds to occur, so the attack had 20 DPS – pretty high. Now, Water Gun does 6 damage, but has 1.25 STAB with Vaporeon, a Water type. So generally, Water Gun has 12 DPS, but for Vaporeon it has 15 DPS.
In fact, Psycho Cut, the strongest quick attack pre-patch with 26.32 DPS, now deals a maximum 15.35 DPS. Meanwhile, the common and Normal-type move Pound has gone from 14.81 DPS to a STAB DPS of 16.20, making it the best quick attack in the game.
This also affects how quickly Pokemon can access their “charge attacks”, which are charged from using quick attacks repeatedly. Pound has a high charge with 12.96 CPS, though Water Gun is still one of the highest with 14 CPS. The strongest charge moves now include Blizzard, Body Slam, and Hurricane, used by Snorlax and Lapras; Lapras has a guaranteed charge move winner, but a Snorlax with the quick move Lick has decent DPS and builds energy for a charge attack quickly.
Hidden stats also determine true attack and defense values. Dragonite has some of the highest DPS across the board, not to mention the highest attack stat and second highest defense (not counting legendaries). Meanwhile, Snorlax and Lapras have comparable DPS and much higher health. Taking into account max attack, defense, health, and DPS, and excluding legendaries, the top fighters are:
- Dragonite
- Snorlax
- Lapras
- Arcanine
- Blastoise
- Exeggutor
- Vaporeon
- Gyarados
- Slowbro
- Venusaur
So who to go with? My honest answer, and the answer most are taking, is still very much Vaporeon. Here’s why.
Vaporeon is 4th best in moveset for attacking and 12th best for defending, although it doesn’t make top 15 for base attack or defense stat; it’s 11th in DPS. Dragonite beats it in all above categories, as do Snorlax and Lapras, excepting DPS. However, Vaporeon has higher health than Dragonite, comparable health to Snorlax and Lapras, and higher DPS than Snorlax and Lapras.
The Pokemon who average better than Vaporeon are Dragonite, Snorlax, Lapras, Arcanine, Blastoise, and Exeggutor. But Vaporeon has one stat on all of them: Accessibility. All of the above Pokemon, and for the most part their pre-evolutions, are rare, so finding Candy to evolve them or buff them is difficult, and even catching them at a decent level is difficult and risky.
Meanwhile, Eevee abound. Vaporeon Power Up at comparable rates to the rest, and it’s easy to get a high-level Vaporeon. If you want a CP1000 Vaporeon, you just need to evolve a CP 381 Eevee. CP 572 for CP 1500. CP 762 for CP 2000. And buffing your Vaporeon will always be easier. More importantly, you might be able to get a couple of the above onto your team at a worthwhile CP, but you could make 6 superpowered Vaporeon in a few days.
That all said, Wigglytuff’s looking better after the patch, is also fairly easy to acquire and Power Up, and is at least a change of pace.