LEGENDARIES | pokedave

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Perparing for Legendaries

Legendaries have been released! And they are popping up everywhere!

The legendaries that are currently live are Lugia and our three Kanto Legendary Birds Articuno, Zapdos and Moltres! Check out some of the weaknesses and strengths below to find out the best chance you have to defeat them.

Catch Rates

Getting together the 6-10+ people you’ll usually need to take down a Legendary in the first place might be tough, but past that, it’s catching them that seems to be confounding players the most. At baseline, Legendaries have an incredibly low base capture rate of just 3% (2% for Lugia, Mewtwo and Ho-oh). That means if you throw a ball and it hits with zero bonuses, you will only catch them with 3 out of 100 balls, and you usually won’t get many more than 10 per attempt.

But this creates a situation where players land a few “Great!” throws and are fuming as to why the Legendary Pokémon broke out of five balls or so. But if you stop and look at the math with all the bonuses you actually need to give you the best chance of capture, it’s a bit daunting, and explains why Legendaries might be running away from you constantly.

On top of this, there's currently a known bug where it's impossible to catch it on the last Premier ball unless you critical catch it. Niantic knows about this and addressed the issue by adding another bonus ball for all players. So pretty much look at your second to last ball as your last ball. :-/

The graph below was made by /r/TheSilphRoad user Epimetheos that perfectly illustrates what I’m talking about here.

So as you can see, they didn't make it easy (as expected). There's also a graph with a 2% Lugia catch rate as a base that is even rougher, while Articuno's above is slightly better with 3%.

Even with an excellent curveball throw with a gold medal (nearly impossible to hit for the vast majority of players), that means you will still get a breakout 75% of the time. Clearly the best way to increase your odds is by switching from a regular through to a CURVEBALL, as it's believed to be a flat 2x boost to your capture chance. No berry use, to Golden Razzberry will bump your chances from 2-4% to 6-10% just by itself.

To make things worse, remember this counts towards EACH throw. So start practicing those throws! So for instance, if you have a Golden badge, and use a Golden Razzberry, even 7 normal hits mean you have a 44% chance to capture by the end. If you do the same and can land great curvedballs, that skyrockets to a 77% chance with 7 hits.

In short, try to golden razz and curve great throws for best chances.

Articuno, Moltres and Zapdos Catch Chances

On July 25 2017, BCR was updated for the three Kanto Birds, up to 3% from the old 2% rate. Therefore, we have two separate tables for Kanto Birds and Lugia/Ho-Oh.

Lugia, Ho-oh catch rate

The GAME_MASTER still shows 2% BCR for Lugia and Ho-Oh, resulting in a different table for these two Pokémon.

Mewtwo catch rate

The GAME_MASTER still shows 6% BCR for Mewtwo, resulting in a different table for these two Pokémon.

Lets take a look at some of the Legendary stats below from Gen1 and Gen2 Legendaries

One thing we notice is that Mewtwo has the best stats out of all the pokemon shown. With some of the highest attack in the game. And since you aren't able to leave Legendaries at gyms, it's ideal you'll want to go with a Legendary that has the highest attack.

That said, I've ranked the top 6 Legendary Pokemon (from Gen1 and Gen2 by the overall personal rating (highest attack and averages from CP, Stam, Defense). I've also included the best moveset (for attacking) below them.

Check out this page for best Mewtwo Counters and their breakpoints

(Know how much to power them up before you start wasting your Stardust).

1. Mewtwo

Highest attack and CP; this is a no brainer. On top of that, he's Resistant to Fighting/Psychic which is great since a lot of people have been building their Machamps, Alakazams, etc. The only downside I see is that he's vulnerable to Tyranitar and we know that a lot of raiders have been working hard on their Tyranitars.

Best Moveset: Confusion/Psychic

Ideally, you want to go with a ghost or dark type pokemon that has dark or ghost type moves (STAB bonus). This is why you see Gyarados with a move like crunch instead of Hydro Pump, but gyarados is not a dark/ghost/bug type pokemon so he won't have that STAB bonus (Same Type Attack Bonus). A dark type pokemon with dark moves makes it the best counter.

(Summary: Tyranitar is awesome).

2. Ho-Oh

Ho-oh comes in close second with a high CP total and third highest attack in the game! Not to mention his defense is a lot higher than Mewtwo's making him a very valuable pokemon to tank hard battles. A huge bonus is that he's also resistant to 7 types of pokemon.

Best Moveset: Steel Wing/Brave Bird

Go for the Rock Pokemon with Rock moves. By now everyone should have been building up their Golem's to take on the Kanto Legendary birds. Now you can continue to use him for Ho-oh. Tyranitar's Stone Edge move soars over the Mewtwo Crunch combo because of it's rock effects. But Tyranitar isn't a rock type pokemon so you aren't getting that awesome STAB bonus like you do with Golem. Another great counter is Omastar (rock pokemon with rock moves).

3. Lugia

With the same resistances as Mewtwo, Lugia is a good choice when building a team for fighting (PVP and Raids). He also has an insane amount of Defense which helps. The downside is that he's vulnerable to Dark, Ghost, Electric, Ice and Rock which makes him an easy target. And his attack isn't very high compared to other Legendaries.

Best Moveset: Extrasensory/Future Sight

Lugia has a ton of weaknesses so it makes building a team against him a little easier. Because of how Level 4 raids have been, everyone should have at least ONE good tyranitar on their team. This dark pokemon and his dark moves is a great counter against Lugia. Golem comes second with his rock type and rock moves. STAB is super important if you want to get Lugia down quickly!

4. Zapdos

Another high CP and high attack Legendary worth using on your lightning team. This will be a great fight against all the Water pokemon in current gyms. Plus Zapdos is the highest attack Kanto Legendary bird, making him a great addition to your team.

Best Moveset: Charge Beam/Zap Cannon

Golem, being king of all Kanto birds is first choice with his rock type and rock moves with Tyranitar in second. Make sure Stone Edge is active instead of Crunch to get that rock bonus. Dragonite is pretty neutral but tanky. Jinx and Poliswine are a suprisingly good pick with their ice moves (weakness to Zapdos).

5. Moltres

Very comparable to Zapdos; Moltres has high CP and attack making it a decent choice to fight with. Since Vaporeon and Tyranitar are pretty common now thanks to raids, it might make it a little tough to take certain gyms down.

Best Moveset: Firespin/Overheat

Double effectiveness with Rock, so choose a rock pokemon with rock moves for the most effective fight. Golem is the perfect choice! Omastar probably second best because of the same reasons. Ttar and vaporeon are great because their effectiveness on top of being tanky.

6. Articuno

Best Moveset: Frost Breath/Blizzard

7. Raikou

Very comparable to Zapdos; but maybe just a little bit better. Awesome for us we've been building good Golem and Rhydon teams. This should be a good one to dps down.

Best Moveset: Frost Breath/Blizzard

Double effectiveness with Rock as well! So choose a rock pokemon with rock moves for the most effective fight. Golem is the perfect choice! Omastar second best because of the same reasons. Flareon and Arcanine (easily obtainable), great as well because of Articuno's fire weakness.

SUMMARY

All in all, your main focuses here are going to be Tyranitar (which, luckily is more easily obtainable thanks to raids), Golem (which is an amazing counter to all the flying type Legendaries (which is most of them), Gengar (who doesn't have a lot of defense but some of the highest attack against Mew and Mewtwo, so be sure to dodge!) and of course, Houndoom is really good because of his dark type attacks and resistances against Ghost, Psychic and Dark.