Mega Gen 3 Starters as Grass, Fire and Water attackers (very quick plots / half analysis)

I just finished making these 12 plots. I’ll continue working on a full analysis article on Friday in my time zone, and I hope to finish it before the raid day starts in Americas or even Europe, but definitely not APAC. Therefore, I’m putting these plots out here first for our APAC beta testers friends.

The full analysis will include a more detailed writeup, DPS/TDO plots which include Primal Kyogre (*), and future Grass/Fire/Water attackers. Part 2 of this, Fighting (Mega Blaziken, Keldeo) and Ground (Mega Swampert, Shadow Mamoswine/Golurk, Primal Groudon), will be out next week. Stay tuned!

(*) Primal Kyogre is not on Pokebattler yet, so I can’t get its ASE/ASTTW.

Miscellaneous points that may be relevant right now:

  • DO NOT PURITY your Shadow Mudkip/Swampert! Yes, Mega Swampert is better than Shadow Swampert, but you can always run both. Find another high IV non-shadow to mega evolve.
  • Even if you only use megas for XL boosting, Mega Swampert is one you will still want. Use it against ground-type bosses, so that you can take it down with water moves and get the ground XLs.
  • All 3 starters can make use of both of their fast moves (Fury Cutter, Counter, Mud Shot).
  • Mega Blaziken is very similar to Mega Charizard Y. In practice, it will likely depend on typing. Both have merits and are worth building.
    • Mega Blaziken also boosts other players’ fighting damage against ice and steel types, in addition to fire.
    • On the flip side, against grass and bug, Mega Charizard Y does the same for other players’ flying damage, but this is less common.
  • If you’re unfamiliar with my metrics, ASE and ASTTW, refer to Appendix 1 of one of my past articles like this.

Plots

Grass Attackers comparison
Grass Attackers comparison #1
Grass Attackers comparison #2
Grass Attackers comparison #2
Fire Attackers comparison #1
Fire Attackers comparison #1
Fire Attackers comparison #2
Fire Attackers comparison #2
Water Attackers comparison #1
Water Attackers comparison #1
Water Attackers comparison #2
Water Attackers comparison #2

Appendix 1: Guide on how to read the charts & Technical details

Don’t know how to read the charts?

If you’re totally lost, just look at the first two plots, or just the first one if you don’t dodge in raids. These two plots are based on my Average Scaled Estimator (ASE) metric, which approximates in-raid performance using Pokebattler Estimator, best suited for realistic shortmanning (2-5 raiders).

The Average Scaled Time to Win (ASTTW) plots are similar, but best suited for medium or large lobbies (6+ raiders). This metric assumes no relobbying (i.e. reentering the raid after all Pokemon fainted).

The DPS3*TDO and DPS plots are for experienced players who want to check these metrics.

In all six plots, the higher, the better. Example: Mega Gengar is generally better than Hydreigon, which is better than Yveltal, if they’re all at the same Pokémon level. But everything listed is perfectly usable and will let you pull your weight in raids.

You can also compare different attackers at different levels: points on the same horizontal line mean they’re equally as good. Example: Looking at the “ASE no dodging” plot, A Level 30 Hydreigon performs similarly to Level 40 Yveltal and Level 50 Tyranitar.

Reminder: All plots show average performance against many raid bosses. Against a specific raid boss, the rankings can be different.

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