In celebration of the gym rework being done very VERY soon, let's look back at the current gym metagame's top threat: Blissey. I'm sure anyone whose seen their fare share of gyms have seen a gym that is filled with 10 Blisseys. It's a nightmare to bring down, especially when you play alone. You may find it weird why this Pokémon is the one breaking the game, not Pokémon like Dragonite and Tyranitar. Let me show you the reasons why Blissey is the top threat that she is.
Massive HP
Anyone familiar with the original games know that Blissey has a massive HP. Her HP is not only the highest among other Pokémon, it's the highest stat in the whole game. Her HP, which is 255, is the maximum possible stat. Of course that stat reflects in Pokémon GO as well.
Of course, HP is not the only stat used to determine its overall defensive capabilities, but here's the thing about Blissey's other stats. She has 10 Defense and 135 Special Defense.
10 Defense is abysmally low, meaning any physical attack will definitely make a huge dent on Blissey, regardless of her HP, and to make matters worse, Fighting type, her only weakness, is mostly physical, so almost any Fighting move can break her. On the other hand, 135 Special Defense is very high, and coupled with a massive HP like hers, Special attacks are pretty much useless.
Overall, Blissey is a specialized tank in the original games. She has a very exploitable weakness, so she isn't the gamebreaker unlike in Pokémon GO. Why is Blissey so bulky in Pokémon GO then?
Stat Calculation
In the early part of the game, the Defense of each Pokémon are based on the average of their Defense and Special Defense in the original games, and the Attack are also based on the average of their Attack and Special Attack. This made Pokémon such as Arcanine, Exeggutor, and even Pidgeot rule the gym metagame, and made threats in the original games like Alakazam, Machamp, and Gengar totally unusable.
A few months after launch, they changed the stats calculation, and made it better for Pokémon with specialized stats. Instead of averaging the physical and special stat, it's now favored heavily on the higher stat, meaning Alakazam and Gengar had a huge attack boost. Their Attack stat in Pokémon GO is not limited by their very low Attack stat in the original games, but is instead boosted by their very high Special Attack. The same is true for the Defense stat.
Now, imagine Blissey. Blissey has 135 Special Defense, meaning it will almost certainly have a very high Defense stat in Pokémon GO. That is not all. Blissey has 75 Special Attack. Though it's not that high, given her great Defense and HP, it will make Blissey have more chance to attack multiple times, thereby making it enough to leave a good dent to the opponent, and most certainly KO Pokémon that has High Attack yet ver low Defense.
The past stat calculation will actually hurt Blissey very much. With 10 Defense, it will pull down it's overall defense to 72.5, which is below average.
If this is enough to make you worry about Blissey, there's something else boosting her already massive HP.
Gyms
When you battle a Pokémon defending a gym, the defender's HP is doubled. Imagine Blissey, an already bulky behemoth, and double her HP. That's right, the reason Blissey is a monster in gyms because the gyms made her a monster by doubling her HP.
Also, gym battles have a time limit of 100 seconds. An extremely bulky Pokémon like Blissey will almost certain you will reach the time limit. Even when you defeat a low level Blissey, she will make you spend half the time limit to do so.
You might be thinking, Blissey must have a weakness, right? But her typing is another reason she is hard to defeat.
Normal Typing and Move Coverage
Blissey is a Normal type, which only has one weakness, Fighting types, but there's a catch. Blissey's Fast Move is Zen Headbutt, a Psychic type, which is Fighting's weakness. Also, 2 of her 3 moves are also Fighting's weakness. The only one that isn't strong against Fighting is Hyper Beam, which is bad news if you don't dodge because Hyper Beam hits hard.
Sure, you can use Non-fighting Pokémon with Fighting movesets like Pinsir and Ursaring, but because they are not Fighting types, they produce less damage because they don't have the Same Type Attack Bonus.
There's still a light beyond the dark tunnel. If you can dodge well, Machamp is the best answer to Blissey. Machamp can defeat Blissey less than 50 seconds if both are on the same level. Pokémon that have massive defenses and passable attack can also work. Rhydon (especially with Rock Smash) and Golem both resist Pound, while Tyranitar resists both Pound and Zen Headbutt, but look out for Dazzling Gleam Charge Move though. If the Blissey is at a lower level, you can always Power it through using a much higher level Pokémon. I personally use my High CP Dragonite to power through Blisseys below 3000 CP.
With the gym rework being released soon, the Blissey nightmare might be over. Remember, whatever happens, Blissey still has 255 HP, so it will be bulky, but Niantic might find a way to make Blissey be bulky but at the same time be vulnerable. Let's all hope that Niantic has an idea on how to save us from this nightmare.
PS: In the current Pokémon metagame in the main series games, Chansey is more popular than Blissey battling-wise. An item called Eviolite makes Pokémon that can still evolve (like Chansey) double their Defense and Special Defense. Chansey has a massive 250 HP defense (only 5 HP less than Blissey), but has 5 Defense and 105 Special Defense. If you invest IVs on Chansey's Defense and Special Defense, it will make Chansey w/ Eviolite a better and bulkier defender compare to Blissey.
No comments:
Post a Comment