PVP and the Community Weekend

The big news over the last few days is the imminent release of PvP. The rough structure looks like this: three leagues, CP < 1500 (Great), CP <2500 (Ultra), and no CP limit (Master). Teams of 3 pokemon do battle against the team from another trainer.

So, what does one want to do to get good teams for this?

For the Master league, it's all about the strongest pokemon. Legendaries will dominate this league, and the pseudo legendaries. If you actively participate in raids, then you probably have many good candidates for this league, and know what the strongest ones are.

This post will focus on the CP limited leagues. These are of particular interest, and it's possible that in order to play in the Master league, you will have to accomplish some goals in the lower CP leagues before you can play, so it may be of interest to everyone (or not, we don't know yet).

When CPs are capped, that means that a number of variables are no longer in play. A CP 1500 Pidgeot and a CP 1500 Rhydon, to a first approximation, will fight about the same. This change will open the door to a lot of former 'dex-fillers' becoming desired pokemon for PvP. Here's the things that will differentiate pokemon in the limited CP leagues.

Stat Shape: The balance of stats for the species will matter. This will be far more important than the individual IVs. After all, a pokemon with IVs of 0/0/0 can have a CP close to the same species pokemon with IVs of 15/15/15 by leveling it up a few levels. But the shape will matter. There will be roughly seven shape categories; balanced, attack heavy, attack light, defense heavy, defense light, stamina heavy, and stamina light. Some examples: Rhydon is balanced. Gengar is attack heavy. Blastoise is attack light. Shuckle is defense heavy. Blissey is stamina heavy.

We don't know what balance of stats will be optimal for PvP combat yet. It might be the case that this is the least important consideration. The key lesson here is that the middling CP mid level Squirtle that you catch this weekend could contribute to a lot of PvP wins for you, so don't categorically chuck it because of low level or IVs.

Finally, here, don't get hung up on getting every point of CP. Finding the exact combination of IVs that gets you exactly 1500, or 1499, for a pokemon won't make a significant difference in battle versus using one with a CP of 1485 or 1492. Half levels get most pokemon about 20-30 CP between levels 10 and 30, so targeting 1490 is just fine.

Weaknesses and Resistances: These are independent of CP, so pokemon with more resistances and fewer weaknesses will do better overall. PvP might be the place where Steel truly shines. Metagross, Magnezone, and the flying Dragons might be very strong here.

Attacks: Again, decoupled from CP. For the same reason that Espeon with Psychic is weaker than the same Espeon with Future Sight (20% more damage with the latter), the strength of attacks will matter a lot. So which attacks are the best? Looking at DPS*DPE, a reasonable measure of charged attack strength, some of the best attacks are the special moves from CDs. Hydro Cannon tops the list of these, at 85.3, followed closely by Frenzy Plant and Meteor Mash at 76.9, and Blast Burn at 73.3. All of these beat out the traditional strong attacks like Shadow Ball, Sky Attack, Wild Charge, Outrage, and Dynamic Punch, which fall between 60 and 66. These values can be checked at https://pokemongo.gamepress.gg/charge-moves, by sorting on the last column.

Weaker (in CP) legendaries probably aren't the best option here. Mewtwo is kept in check by having Psychic instead of Future Sight. As a result, a CP 2500 Mewtwo with Psychic will probably have a weaker attack than a CP 2500 Espeon with Future Sight. This brings a lot of other pokemon into play, making the limited CP leagues very interesting in that variety.

Another key point about attacks is that some of the mid stage evolutions have better options than the final evolutions. For example, Haunter and Vigoroth have some decent options available to them. These are worth considering - it's not critical to squeeze out every point of CP by evolving in a CP capped situation.

So getting versions of HC Blastoise, BB Charizard, FP Venusaur, and MM Metagross that are below 1500 CP and some below 2500 CP should be a priority for this weekend. We suspect they won't be around again, or if they are, it may be a while. Their attacks are more efficient, and they usually have a decent resistance profile that you can use, building a team where the weaknesses of one are countered by the strengths of another.

Yes, FP Sceptile will be 'stronger' than FP Venusaur, but it might not adapt as well to PvP; with higher DPS it is ideal for raids, but maybe not for PvP. Same for Blaziken, Swampert, etc.

Given all that, two CP 1495 MM Metagrosses and a CP 1490 Blastoise might be a ridiculously strong PvP team. Makes me wish I had several hundred more Metagross candy to play with.

I'm going to follow this post with suggested targets to stay below with catches to evolve the CD pokemon to get pokemon under the 1500 and 2500 CP limits. That info should be helpful. And of course, remember that if you're a fair bit below one of the targets, a few power ups can solve that. Just be sure to use the CP calculator here to check that you don't go over the cap. Spending 125 candy to evolve a MM Metagross and then powering him up to 1501 CP would be pretty frustrating.

Again, the big take home messages here are that:

IVs don't matter that much for PvP. Species, moves, resistances are the key.

Many species that were not useful before may dominate in PvP. Pidgeot, Shuckle, Nidoqueen, we don't know what will be best. We do know that Weedle, Caterpie, and Wurmple won't dominate.

Stocking up on low powered CD pokemon with the special moves will put you in a good position going forward. So get busy this weekend, stocking up on Blastoise, Charizard, Venusaur, and Metagross, but not worrying about IVs or powering them up, just evolve for the special move.

Happy hunting.

Regards,
Prof. Aeronaut

To catch the following base species at a level so that it's evolution stays under a given CP, use the following guidelines. Note that these were made assuming IVs of 10/10/10. Changes from this may produce small deviations. Exercise caution when evolving, and use a CP calculator, like the one here (https://pokemongo.gamepress.gg/cpcalc#/) to check before spending hard earned candy on evolution.

Bulbasaur: CP 1500 - 590. CP 2500 - Any.

A level 37 Venusaur with 10 IVs will have a CP of 2480, so anything you catch will meet this limit. To keep under 1500, target Bulbasaurs with a CP under 590 (you might be able to get away with a little over, too).

Squirtle: CP 1500 - 546. CP 2500 - Any.

A level 40 Bulbasaur with perfect IVs will have a CP of 2466, so good IVs matter here for the Ultra league. Under 546 will keep you in the Great league, giving a Blastoise with CP 1472.

Charmander: CP 1500 - 490. CP 2500 - 813.

Level 19 Charizard has CP 1496, so the 490 is a stiff cap. Level 33 Charizard has CP 2480, so unless it's weather buffed, you're fine.

Beldum: CP 1500 - 359. CP 2500 - 616.

Level 14 Metagross has CP 1455, so there's a lot of play in this one, but level 14.5 goes over 1500. Level 24 Metagross has CP 2494, so it's a stiff cap. Note that these are two very low level pokémon for their leagues, meaning their dust and candy costs are lower.

In short, try to catch at or below:

Bulbasaur: 590/Any
Squirtle: 546/Any
Charmander: 490/813
Dratini: 370/635
Larvitar: 384/631
Beldum: 359/616

It's possible that Meganium and Typhlosion will be better in PvP than Venusaur and Charizard, but I doubt it. A weaker fast move for Typhlosion hurts it, and the question of whether Meganium's Stat shape is better than Venusaurs is still open.

Happy hunting.