In our previous article “how Legendaries would affect Pokemon GO“, it was concluded that for the most part they should be something to look forward to rather than something to fear. Yes realize this is highly speculative, and many changes could take place beforehand. But topics are scarce these days, Gen 3 might be released this year, and so let’s just jump into why I believe Slaking is going to be game-breaking.

Stats

Slaking is a Normal type with a Legendary stat spread. It has a godly 670 base stat total, equal to Gen 3 Legendaries Kyogre and Groudon.

In Pokemon Go, Slaking has: Attack 319/Defense 201/Stamina 300. As a result, a 100% IV Level 40 Slaking will max at 5441 CP.

As you may know, despite Slaking’s ridiculous stats it had an ability called “Truant.” The Truant ability caused Slaking to only attack every-other-turn. This was a significant impediment to using Slaking, although people came up with ways to skill-swap to get around Truant (to varying degrees of success).

Slaking On Offense And Defense Without Truant.

Slaking is, more or less, the unholy union of Snorlax’s durability with Mewtwo’s attacking power. Regardless of moveset, it will be a very strong general attacker with no serious counters from Gen 1 or Gen 2 defenders (Rhydon with Super Effective Rock Smash isn’t better than STAB Mud Slap).

Slaking has a wide range of move types it can learn. Of moves currently in PoGo, Slaking could learn in various iterations of the Game Boy games (by Level Up, HM, TM, egg moves, etc.):

• Quick Moves: Counter, Rock Smash, Scratch, Feint Attack, Shadow Claw, Hidden Power, Cut (notably only learned by Farfetch’d in PoGo), Fury Cutter, Mud Slap, Sucker Punch.
• Charge Moves: Hyper Beam, Body Slam, Rock Tomb, Rock Slide, Ice Beam, Blizzard, Bulldoze, Earthquake, Solar Beam, Shadow Ball, Aerial Ace, Flamethrower, Fire Blast, Brick Break, Low Sweep, Focus Blast, Dynamic Punch, Thunder, Thunderbolt, Night Slash.

I’d place a bet that, ignoring the reasonable possibility of more moves added with the release of Gen 3, Slaking would get Hyper Beam and Body Slam for charge moves.

As for Quick moves, it is anyone’s guess, but for offense Scratch (the DPS/EPS equivalent of Dragon Breath and Bite) would be quite good. And for defense Hidden Power/Mud Slap/Rock Smash would work well with the Gym AI’s attack pattern.

Defensively speaking, Slaking (depending on moveset) could actually rival Blissey’s damage output (Confusion Mewtwo does, and while Slaking doesn’t hit quite as hard as Mewtwo, he is significantly bulkier). However, it would be fundamentally different in terms of battle strategy.

Blissey deals low damage that accumulates over a long period of time, and Slaking deals high damage but would not last as long. With Blissey, the strategy is pretty much to pick your strongest Pokemon and dodge only charge moves so you can finish in time.

Attacking into Slaking, the same holds true, however the main difference is you will want to dodge everything.

The problem with Blissey is taking it out quickly enough. The problem with Slaking is lasting long enough. I predict glass cannons will struggle with Slaking, because even a successfully dodged Hyper Beam could still cost you more than 30% of your HP.

But overall, the Slaking will be easier to deal with, as time constraints don’t apply. There could be room for players to choose bulkier (still dodge obviously), lower DPS attackers that wouldn’t be able to KO Blissey in time.

Whether Or Not Slaking Will Have Truant Is Irrelevant

Obviously, no one knows if Niantic will attempt to add something similar to Truant in PoGo. The important thing: Truant doesn’t matter.

Even if Slaking could only attack once every 15 seconds, even if it didn’t attack at all, people would still put it in gyms to get that guaranteed top spot.

Unlike Snorlax and Mewtwo, Slaking is an evolvable Pokemon (pre-evolutions are Slakoth and Vigoroth). Even if Slakoth is as rare as Larvitar and Mareep (or rarer), dedicated legitimate players and cheaters will be able to get their hands on a Slaking eventually through Pinaps and the Buddy System.

This is where spoofing could really get out-of-control (if it isn’t already…). A cheater that snipes a 100%IV Level 30 Slakoth could evolve it to a 4664 CP Slaking.

With literally no stardust investment, that CP is already high enough to outplace every Pokemon. That is higher than Ho-Oh’s maximum CP (4650 CP at 100% Level 40) and only 96 CP shy of Mewtwo’s (4760 CP at 100% Level 40).

The Future If CP Ordering Doesn’t Change

You might be wondering, will there be any Pokemon that outplace Slaking? Well there are. But you will have to wait until Generation 6.

At which point, only the Mega forms of Legendary Pokemon, Rayquaza (5752CP), Mewtwo X form (6185CP), Primal Groudon (6276CP), Primal Kyogre (6276CP), and Mewtwo Y form (6856CP) will out-CP Slaking. And good luck getting your hands on those (the Pokemon could be event-exclusives, and then you’d still need the mega stones).

I don’t know how long it will be till Generation 6 drops. It could be a few years. If we still have a CP-ordered Gym system by that time, Slaking will have taken over. However rare Slakoth might be, after a few years I guarantee you that many legitimate players will have multiple Slaking (not to mention cheaters…).

Solutions

• We finally ditch CP: I don’t think this is likely to happen, at least not entirely. When Niantic was first developing Pokemon Go, they could have just used the 6 Base Stats. In November, when they changed the Attack/Defense Base Stat formulas, they kept the CP Formula the same.
• Moves have changed, Movepools have changed, Max CP has changed, Gym prestiging has changed, but the CP formula itself (and gym ordering) is still the same as it was last summer. From this I can only conclude that Niantic likes CP, and it will probably always be around in some shape or form.
• Individually target Slaking’s CP for a nerf, which would be unprecedented in the game.
• We use something else to order gyms that isn’t CP
• Slaking is banned from gym defense (I don’t think we should do that) or limited in some way.

Raid Guides :

• Raid Boss
• Raid Pass
• Raid Egg
• Premier Ball
• Type Effectiveness
• Rare Candy
• Golden Razz Berry
• Legendary Raid Battles
• Gym Badges
• Technical Machines (TMs)

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