Poliwrath versus Politoed

USER GUIDE | Submitted by marcosm8 on 8th of March 2017With branched evolution currently active in the game, we would like to discuss the best option for evolving your hard earned Poliwhirl. Poliwhirl is rather common in most biomes and areas, so Poliwrath and Politoed are going to be rather common in Gyms also.

We will analyze both options individually and then compare them with the current Gym meta in mind.

Poliwrath

Poliwrath has access to both Water and Fighting type and comes with the following stats:

• Attack 182,
• Defense 187,
• Stamina 180,
• Max CP 2441

Poliwrath is a balanced attacker/defender Pokemon, with average stats. Also we can look at all the possible Poliwraths’ moves, but be advised, there is a lot of possible moves for Poliwrath, so expect some evolution anxiety.

In reality you want one of the any of the movesets with Hydro Pump, but remember that Mud Shot is now a legacy move.

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PoliwrathWATER FIGHTING

BEST POLIWRATH MOVESETBUBBLE12HYDRO PUMP130POLIWRATH MOVESETS Move Type Power DPS STAB DPS Rock smashFIGHTING Hydro pumpWATER 15/130 25.45 31.80 BubbleWATER Hydro pumpWATER 12/130 24.70 30.85 Mud shotGROUND Hydro pumpWATER 5/130 23.85 28.75 Rock smashFIGHTING Dynamic punchFIGHTING 15/90 22.40 28.05 BubbleWATER Dynamic punchFIGHTING 12/90 21.65 27.10 Mud shotGROUND Dynamic punchFIGHTING 5/90 20.80 25.00 Rock smashFIGHTING SubmissionFIGHTING 15/60 19.40 24.25 BubbleWATER SubmissionFIGHTING 12/60 18.65 23.30 Mud shotGROUND SubmissionFIGHTING 5/60 17.80 21.20 Rock smashFIGHTING Ice punchICE 15/50 18.90 20.35 BubbleWATER Ice punchICE 12/50 18.15 19.40 Mud shotGROUND Ice punchICE 5/50 17.30 17.30

Politoed

Unlike Poliwrath, Politoed can still learn Mud Shot and has access to some rather interesting move combinations with Blizzard and Hydro Pump. It’s stats are also rather average, even more balanced than Poliwraths:

• Attack 174,
• Defense 192,
• Stamina 180,
• Max CP 2337

Unfortunately, it’s lowish CP holds it down and creates a situation in which Politoed is almost always dealing less damage than Poliwrath. Evidently, it’s easier to get a Politoed with a good moveset than Poliwrath.

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PolitoedWATER

BEST POLITOED MOVESETBUBBLE12HYDRO PUMP130POLITOED MOVESETS Move Type Power DPS STAB DPS BubbleWATER Hydro pumpWATER 12/130 24.70 30.85 Mud shotGROUND Hydro pumpWATER 5/130 23.85 28.75 BubbleWATER BlizzardICE 12/130 25.95 27.20 Mud shotGROUND BlizzardICE 5/130 25.10 25.10 BubbleWATER EarthquakeGROUND 12/120 21.65 22.90 Mud shotGROUND EarthquakeGROUND 5/120 20.80 20.80

Poliwrath vs Politoed

When we first approached this topic, we were quite sure that we knew the answer. Surely, the newly introduced and very expensive to obtain Politoed, was to be the better evolution than the “dirty old” Poliwrath.

After a fair amount of simulations and testing, we have to say: we were wrong. In every scenario where we pitted Poliwrath against Politoed, Poliwrath came on top and that includes:

• Gym offense (STAB testing & Normal mix defenders)
• Gym defense (STAB testing & Normal mix attackers)
• Prestiging with a variety of defenders

After all the tests we’ve done, there is no scenario in which Politoed is better than Poliwrath. Poliwrath has better stats, higher CP, access to better moves and simply a better overall position in the meta.

Save that King’s Rock for Slowking and stick with your favourite Poliwrath.