Intro:

What is CT?

Catch tanking is a player strategy to vastly increase DPS through energy efficiency. It's absorbing the energy from large boss charge moves & using that energy to skip the fast move buildup & very quickly return a charge move. Catch Tanking is medium risk, high reward strategy which, under the right circumstances, can result in anywhere between 10-20% eDPS increase.

What makes a good CT?

Pokemon with
– High attack stats
– Powerful charge moves
– Light to medium bulk
Ex: The most fragile but usable catch tank is undeniably Regieleki. A bulky & difficult to use catch tank is Dialga-Origin due to its stats & typing.

Method:

Data was collected from VODS, Rotation Calculator & simulations to understand the average duration of a non-PP CT interaction. Buffs are accounted for with shadow pokemon gaining a direct 20% increase in move damage & 20% increased damage taken. Non-STAB & lack of super effectiveness for certain moves has also been accounted for (Regigigas for instance). Pokemon are then sorted into various Tiers based on the DPS performed within the swap. There are some error margins to consider before reading the tier list:

Terminology:

Tick: Smallest unit of time for a game to update. This is 0.5s. Calling 0.5s fast moves 1t fast moves is identical.
AD (t): Animation Duration in unit of ticks. Dragon tail for instance has a 1.0s animation or 2t fast move. Outrage has a 4.0s animation duration or is a 8t charge move.
Yellow Highlight: These are theoretical, unreleased pokemon.

Errors:

Error 1: Not every CT duration is the same; but the tier list best reflects actual results when also adding on empirical evidence (vods). Feel free to ask for any details; a great example is how NDM is preferred as a CT over Zacian-Crown vs Terrakion.

Error 2: IV's have a minor effect. Small dips in defense means more energy sponged which could speed up certain CT interactions.

Data:

The tier list is sorted from S+ to C tier starting with Kyurem Black and moving down to Shadow Kyogre.

Original Sheet: Solo Raid Sheet
Ignore the Zacian Crown data point at the top, that's a test row.