The Dark Skies event starts August 18th and with it all previously available legendary Dmax pokemon will be in Max Battles. I’ll try to keep things brief since we’re covering eight bosses here.
imgur link for images if Reddit quality is poor:
https://imgur.com/a/dark-skies-legenadary-dmax-tables-7nMgVfK
Usefulness
August 18th
Latias makes for a top tier tank, bulky and lots of resistances.
Latios is great Dragon type attacker, until you have an Eternatus of about equal level.
August 19th & 20th
Articuno is very bulky, but doesn’t have much use currently. A new fast move could give it some more use as a tank.
Moltres is reasonable Fire type attacker and an excellent Flying type attacker, there are only a handful of other pokemon that could ever out preform Moltres as a Flying type attacker.
Zapdos is a reasonable Electric type attacker if you don’t have a Gmax Toxtricity.
August 21st & 22nd
Entei doesn’t have much going for it, it’s been out classed already by other currently available Max Pokemon.
Raikou, much like Entei, doesn’t have much going for it, but it does at least have a 0.5s fast move if you want to use it to fill the meter as a tank. Although better options are usually available.
Suicune is a bulky pokemon that shares a similar place next to Articuno. A new fast move would really help elevate Suicune as a tank.
Attackers
All attacker tables are calculated without any friendship, B-Blade, helper, or mushroom bonuses. Attackers are calculated at level 40 with 15 attack IV. Only the damage from the attackers Max Attack is being used, as most trainers use a Tank and Attacker swap strategy. The cutoff at the bottom of each attackers table is the best level 20 Gmax option with 10 attack IV, which outperforms any other level 40 pokemon that is missing from the table. Be sure to check the weather boosted columns, in some cases a lower attacker with a weather boost can reach a higher value than the best attacker.
Tanks
Tanks are all calculated as level 40 pokemon with 15 defense and HP IVs and no B-Bash boost. Max Guard level 3 is used where applicable.
Fast moves marked with an asterisk require an elite fast TM.
Guards Remaining per Cycle (GRC) is a value representing how many Max Guards this pokemon would have remaining after filling the Max Meter one time if it started the cycle with three Max Guard shields applied.
Max Cycles before Fainting (MCF) is a value representing the number of times the pokemon can fill the meter before fainting, without the use of any Max Spirit or Max Guard.
There are two version of Zamazenta on each table; the Zamazenta marked with two asterisks has the free started Max Guard shield (lvl 3) applied to its MCF value, essentially adding 60 HP to Zamazenta.
For the purpose of filling the Max Meter a team size of three is used in all calculations. The team is assumed with be three exact copies of the counter that is being calculated. Teams of three are used due to legendary Dmax battles tending to be too difficult for two average trainers, while four trainers becomes almost easy. Additionally in teams of four it is possible for some boss attacks to never hit, drastically changing the calculations for those boss moves. As such teams of four may experience better MCF and GRC values than shown here; while teams of two will has worse values.
MCF and GRC values can be found for individual attacks, as if the boss only used that particular attack for the whole cycle. Additionally MCF values can be seen for pairs of attacks. These values assume spread damage for both, which is roughly the same as if all targeted attacks are successfully dodged. MCF values for paired attacks are also weighted by expected attack usage from the boss. These numbers are all estimates based on the current understanding of Max Battle mechanics. Real world results can vary greatly, if the boss decides to, against all odds, throw multiple back to back Overheats, you’re likely not going to fair as well as the numbers suggest.
Scoring
The column labeled as score has both a GRC and MCF value for how the tank fairs against the boss as a whole. As always please don’t just look at this column, look at the other columns with individual or paired attacks to help determine which tank you’d like to use.
The GRC value is simply an arithmetic mean of the individual GRC values. The MCF in the Score column is calculated by taking the arithmetic mean of the paired attack MCF values, after applying a cap of 8 to those values. Due to the desperate/enrage timer in legendary Dmax battles, in a team of three you’re likely to fill the max meter less than 16 times before the boss is desperate/enraged. Since you have space for two tanks on your team, a single tank lasting more than 8 cycles isn’t likely to provide any additional value as the boss will be doing massively increased damage once desperate/enraged.
1.0s Fast Move Tanks
Noticeably some bulky pokemon that could be good tanks, but only have 1.0s fast moves are missing from the tables. Pokemon such as Shuckle, Suicune, Articuno, and more, could be of value to your team. However this requires coordination and knowing what other pokemon your teammates are using. Since these pokemon have slower fast attacks they take long to fill the Max Meter, sometimes leading to the boss landing extra attacks each cycle, and adding additional time towards the desperate/enraged state. If you know your teammates will be using exclusively 0.5s fast moves AND you know you won’t be allowing any extra boss attacks by filling the meter as a slower rate, then by all means bring your shuckle or suicune. I would not advise using a pokemon with a 1.0s fast move when going to a meetup with players using unknown pokemon. Risking the chance of multiple pokemon with 1.0s fast moves will quickly snowball and lead to very time consuming and difficult battles.
by TrueNourishment