In the latest Season Trailer, we saw something that could be interpreted as a tease for GMAX Eevee.
If GMAX Eevee also brings with it DMAX Eeeve, how would those stack up? Let's explore:
- Vaporeon is a reasonable water type defender, but will find it kinda difficult to find a niche. It has pretty high HP, but has less defense than blastoise (so shields are less effective) – I would view it as a sidegrade to it, if you don't have the gmax. Is about as powerful an attacker as Omastar, and gets outclassed pretty hard by Inteleon (both dmax/gmax) or urshifu rapid.
- Jolteon is less bulky than zapdos or raikou, and also has less attack. It has, however, slightly more attack than toxtricity and is reasonably more bulky. If you do not have zapdos, raikou or gmax toxtricity, this might be interesting for. Has access to 0.5 second fast move without elite TM (looking at you, zapdos).
- Flareon might be interesting if you don't have a fire type gmax. It has higher Attack than both Charizard or Cinderace. So, if you do not have either of those gmax pokemon, this will be an alternative for an fire type attacker. No 0.5s fast move (no fire type has one, though).
- Espeon has an impressive 261 Attack, which puts it ahead of even metagross (257) and Hatterene (237), but still gets outclassed by Latios (268). Not being particulary bulky and missing an 0.5s fast attack, it doesn't make a good defender/on-fielder, but a more accessible psychic type attacker option compared to latios (IMO this makes latios kinda obsolete, if you did not already build it up. Eternatus firmly outclasses it as a dragon type, even if you did not level it up very high, as it essentially acts as a gmax in terms of power, and Espeon potentially being a more accessible option as a psychic type)
- Umbreon. Oh, what could have been… Umbreon has almost everything to make it an impressive defender/on fielder. Decent HP, good Defense, great typing [dark is double resistant to psychic, as it is immune to it in the MSG] making it more bulky against psychic attacks than blissey, but having that completely ruined by not having access to a 0.5 second fast attack. This leaves it in a wierd spot with the other 2 dark types we have access to – urshifu single (that has access to a 0.5s dark attack), that has way better attack, but isn't as good in soaking psychic attacks due to its fighting sub type and more attack focused stats, and sableeye, that still has better attack than umbreon, but is very fragile.
- Leafeon brings with it a mix of bulk and attack. It sits right in the middle between venosaur and rillaboom, so it might be viable as an attacker if you do not get your hands on even a regular dmax rillaboom. As a defender, it boasts less HP than either previously mentioned grass types, but has a much higher defensive stat. Grass, however isn't a great defensive type, so that's not really going anywhere.
- Glaceon. Prolly the best eeveelution for dynamax battles at this stage of the game, finally outclassing gmax lapras in the max damage department, doing about 12% more damage per max attack in my example calculation* against rillaboom. No 0.5s fast attack, still the best ice type attacker we would have access to, with many ground, flying, grass and dragon type pokemon still on the horizon, this looks very promising, and would definitly be the one i'd want to pump some candy into.
- Sylveon in a similar story to umbreon, it is hamstrung by not having acces to a 0.5s fast attack, and it being offensively being outclassed by Hatterene – speaking of which, this would only be the second fairy type added to dynamax, but as it doesn't have a good fast move, it can not utilize it's double resistance against dragon attacks effectively.
Aside from Glaceon, this wouldn't really power creep the game as hard as i thought it would when i first started to assemble this post.
Anything i might've missed in this first look, at what could potentially be?
* simplifying Damage formular as 0.5 * (move bae power) * (attack / defense) * STAB (1.2), Ignoring weakness from target, Rillaboom has 168 defense, all attacks weighted with tier 3 max attack for 450 power for gmax lapras, and 350 for the other 2.
Lapras 265.17 damage (450 bp, 165 attack)
Articuno 240 damage (350 bp, 192 attack)
Glaceon 297.5 damage (350 bp, 238 attack)
Values for attack, defense and availability of moves taken from https://pokemongo.gamepress.gg/
tl;dr: Glaceon looks very promising, Espeon could be a cheaper alternative to latios. The others don't have much going for them, even compared to regular dynamax pokemon.
Edit: some wording changes, edits to Espeon (comparison with latios), Umbreon and Sylveon.
No AI was used in this post, all mistakes are my own.
by marsmage