End of Normal tank centric?
I've been looking over my pokemon and what I should and shouldn't be traiding/powering up, and re-reading the notes with the gen IV rebalance. I talked with a friend who's someone who is super into the meta, world record times and such, and asked him what he thought about how it could change, in particular the lines
"HP values will be adjusted to close the gap between Pokémon with high and low HP.
Pokémon Defense and Stamina values will be rebalanced, allowing Pokémon with high defensive stats to be valuable by outlasting opponents in battle rather than these Pokémon merely taking too long to defeat."
And he said he thinks it seems to be a pseudo-direct nerf at the normal tanks because it specifically mentions pokemon that just took long to beat and seems to be intended to make other pokemon more defensively viable. If this ends up substantially cutting into the normal tanks viability, what kind of defensive meta could we see? Blissey I have a feeling wont leave, but as the meta for gyms is largely fighting based because of Bliss/Lax/Chanc/King set ups, and pokemon like gardevoir are there for fighting stalls, could we see a more diverse gym set up?
And to a lesser extent, some others think this revamp might be also to allow legendaries on defense, but they're thinking was because of the three months of regi-raids, personally I dont think thats as likely, but anything is possible.
Answers
It doesn’t matter what Pokémon you put in a gym, no experienced trainer over level 35 with decent Pokémon is impressed or intimidated by ANYTHING put in a gym. What matters is who has more, Golden raspberries, Max revives, Max potions and most importantly the time to WASTE trying to flip a gym. As far as flipping a gym before an Ex raid or a tier 5 raid that boils down to which team can actual be organized 3 or 4 experienced players that actually communicate with each can hold down a gym against a huge crowd of casuals for hours the same way the can take down any gym lineup given an reasonable amount of time.... The gym Meta boils down to 3 things Will, Resources and Communication. It doesn’t matter if it’s a Blissey or a Blastoise if someone is willing to spend the resources and time to defend it or take it down.
Then it DOES matter. It is not quite the same thing to gRazz a Blastoise than it is to feed a Blissey now, is it? The "anyone determined enough" cop-out is a fallacy and honestly quite non-sensical. You wouldn't think twice to try to take down a pidgey if it was being fed when it goes down at full health a second after the fight begins. You, like many other ego-boosted, high-level players do not seem to understand what time actually means to people or the real value of raid rewards.
Golden Raspberries are irrelevant when used on a low-tier "defendant" whereas it gets premium value when used on a BlissLaxChan. It's not a matter of being "impressed" or "intimidated," it is a matter of playing in an optimal matter, that's where the real meta lies, not this superficial "I have counters for everything" attitude.
That's exactly how I read this announcement - that it is a concerted effort to nerf the tedium of constant BlissLaxChan gyms. And I, for one, am quite keen to see a shake up to the meta which will see a greater variety of mons in gyms, and even needing a little more thought 0on my behalf than just bringing out the Machamp army each time.
In my local meta it very much comes down to multi vs single accounts. The majority of higher level players have more than one account, some as much as six.
It is almost impossible to defend or attack against a skilled player with 3 or more accounts, only errors may help you. Of course diminishing Blissey´s might would reduce that, but I doubt it would even out things.
Best case scenario, instead of every gym being topped with the same 3-4 mons it will open up a pool of say 30-some equally viable defenders, each bringing something different to the table. Personally I've never sunk dust into a Blissey/Chansey/Snorlax/Slaking and likely never will when tossing randos into gyms does the trick all the same.
I do agree with the "nerf GRB" sentiments as well. There's no fun in sitting there trying to take down a gym when you know the defending Pokemon is just gonna get razzed before every 3rd wave. Some of us have shit to do that doesn't involve sitting at a gym for an hour, hoping to burn someone or someones through their GRB supply while we burn through our own potion/revive supply.
I agree with the "nerf GRB" as long as coins earned are tied to the effort it takes to attack a gym instead of defending it. I am open to some other mechanic but placing a defender in a gym, only to have it taken 10 to 20 minutes after you have left the scene and get nothing for your efforts is ridiculous.
