The biggest issue people have always had with Pokebattler is that the simulator is too good. It does not accurately portray a real result. It turns out that in the real world, people do miss dodges. They get death loop bugs. They can’t see the special coming due to the super effective text covering the incoming special warning. That has been rectified in the new release out today!
To go along with the earlier realistic dodging shakes up defender rankings article, we will go over realistic dodging for the most difficult Pokemon in the game, Blissey. Blissey has been timing out players since release and is notoriously difficult. In addition, what many have long been considered the best counter to Blissey, Machamp, is extremely vulnerable to a missed dodge, with a single Dazzling Gleam ensuring a loss.
Blissey Realisitic Dodging Counters Analysis
The following results are for level 30 vs 30, attacking as fast as you can, only dodging specials. Overall rating is used that takes into account damage done, damage taken, time to win and potions used. For more information see the help section. Dodging is using realistic dodging to give a much more accurate simulation of the real world. Here are the dodge rates for each of the special moves in question:
- Hyper Beam: 90% dodge rate, 68% dodge rate if super effective bug
- Dazzling Gleam: 72% dodge rate, 54% dodge rate if super effective bug
- Psychic: 56% dodge rate, 42% dodge rate if super effective bug
These numbers will likely be adjusted slightly for very fast moves in the future and based on feedback from this release. Of course if the super effective bug gets fixed, then there will be major improvements for fighting Pokemon like Machamp. Power numbers below 100% means that the match-up is on average a tie – higher numbers are better.
Quick note: Due to the way random numbers work, the actual rankings will shift around by +/-1%, so your favorite Pokemon may be better or worse than shown here. The rankings are so tight that these small differences will still matter.
Zen Headbutt/Dazzling Gleam, Dodge Specials Pro, Realistic Dodging
A combination of slow quick moves and short dodge window, super effective vs. fighting, high damage special move is unsurprisingly the best moveset on defense. All but 2 Pokemon die to this moveset. Worst of all, if you slow down your attacks to make sure you dodge, you will time out and lose anyhow! With experience you can beat the dodge rates given here as you get a feel for when the moves could be coming but if you can dodge Dazzling Gleam
1. Snorlax Zen Headbutt/Hyper Beam 
93.7%
Snorlax wins fairly comfortably with a power of 123% and sneaks in a win at 88.2s in. You definitely need to make sure you do not miss too many quick attacks while dodging or you will time out. Luckily Snorlax is strong enough that taking a few special moves actually increases his DPS enough to kill faster.
2. Tyranitar Bite/Stone Edge 
89.9%
Tyranitar loses about half the time with a power of 92.0%. I expect that when I add in a small boost to dodge for fast quick moves like bite, he will just barely sneak in a win. If you have 2 Tyranitar they wins in 62.2s, with quite a bit of health remaining on the second Tyranitar – slower than Machamp but far far less squishy.
3. Gyarados Dragon Breath/Hydro Pump 
89.6%
Slightly behind Tyranitar in overall rating comes Gyarados. Power is at 98.8% which means you will often win with a sliver of health remaining. Time to win is at 70.3s which puts him pretty solidly between Snorlax and Tyranitar, likely to win and very unlikely to timeout
4. Vaporeon Water Gun/Hydro Pump 
85.2%
Vaporeon is the most common high strength Pokemon a player can have and it is usable here. Power is at 95.6% and Time to win is at 79.1s making it strictly worse than Gyarados but still likely to win.
5. Dragonite Steel Wing/Outrage 
84.9%
Dragonite as usual is an offensive powerhouse, with Steel Wing beating out Dragon Tail due to typically getting 1 extra outrage off just before death. Power is sitting at 81.9% meaning you will lose pretty consistently with time to win nearly identical to Tyranitar sitting at 61.9s
6?. Steelix Iron Tail/Heavy Slam 
82.1%
Steelix is a very interesting case as it stresses the accuracy of the simulator to its limits. Not only is power sitting at 101%, but time to win is sitting at 99s. Theoretically this means you win with 1 second on the clock exactly. The actual battle simulations vary greatly, sometimes timing out and sometimes not. Much like Snorlax, taking a full damage Dazzling Gleams speeds up the battle helping you win but in this case, too many hits and you lose. I’d love to hear feedback from whether Steelix actually wins or loses vs. Blissey. It should depend on how you dodge and how fast you spam and how lucky the defender gets!
7. Rhydon Rock Smash/Stone Edge 
81.7%
Rhydon suffers from the super effective bug making it difficult to dodge Dazzling Gleam. Power is at 86.6% and Time sitting at 77.3. There is no good reason to actually use Rhydon as Vaporeon is more common and strictly superior.
8. Flareon Fire Spin/Overheat 
80.2%
Flareon has been promoted as a good attacker vs. Blissey and it’s no suprise it’s on this list. Flareon suffers from being a bit squishy and missing a dodge hurts a lot. It is also strictly worse than many of the Pokemon above with Power way down at 74.3% but with a very strong time to win at 62.2s. Definitely a good prestige option but expect your Flareon to only do about 75% of the battle.
9. Machamp Counter/Dynamite Punch 
79.9%
Those of you paying attention have been waiting for this. Where is Machamp? Why is he so low? This simulator is crap, I always win with my Machamp! So lets get the numbers out of the way. Machamp is by far the fastest vs. Blissey at 50.7s but a power of only 64.4%. Blissey is often winning with about 20% of her health left. What is going on? First, Counter is a super effective move which has a 25% penalty to dodge in the simulator since you can not see the special move coming. I have witnessed this in real life with my wife’s perfect Machamp. Unless you have a ‘feeling’ for when the special is coming, you are not going to dodge it very reliably. You either start dodging every move or you sometimes get lucky and dodge and sometimes don’t. Second, a Machamp even with 100% perfect dodging is only at 123.4% power, with just a single missed dodge causing death.
So what to do? As many have suggested, you can just try and dodge all and still easily beat Blissey. Testing this with a dodge weave strategy and 90% dodge chance Machamp easily wins with a power of 130.1% and a Time to win of 68.6s. To speed things up a bit. you could skip dodging the first 4 attacks and then start dodging everything. Fight would normally start 6 Counters, Dynamic Punch, 4 Counters, Dodge. Use your Dynamic Punch after each Dazzling Gleam, then 4 more counters and dodge some more. This type of strategy is NOT in Pokebattler but can be found out by looking at the combat logs of the various strategies.
10. Donphan Counter/Earthquake 
79.9%
Donphan finishes up the top 10 at a Power of 78.8% and a time to win of 72.2. Not worth using in any way but stopping at 9 seemed strange.
All in all, Blissey smashes the entire competition. If you go against Blissey with a lazy dodging strategy like you would with most pokemon, you are going to lose. Now lets check a more paranoid dodging strategy
Zen Headbutt/Dazzling Gleam, Dodge All Pro, 90% Dodge
Next , I looked at Dodge All Pro, 90% dodge assuming that you can get into a good rhythm. Dodge Weave was not chosen as like Dodge All strategy, it waits to use its special until after Blissey uses hers. This is a losing strategy most of the time. Since Zen Headbutt is a bit faster than Dazzling Gleam, you should most likely be able to dodge the Dazzling Gleam if you are trying to dodge everything. A whole bunch of Pokemon are very similar here, with different pros and cons.
1. Tyranitar Bite/Stone Edge 125% Overall – 175% Power – 67.2s
A great choice, very good power, fast
2. Flareon Fire Spin/Flamethrower 125% Overall – 164% Power – 71.8s
Potion efficient, a bit slower than Tyranitar
3. Machamp Counter/Dynamic Punch 123% Overall – 149% Power – 54.0s
Don’t miss dodges and he’s great
4. Muk Poison Jab/Gunk Shot 
122% Overall – 191% Power – 83.9s
A bit slow but if you have a Muk, give it a try, you might be able to kill 2 Blissey with 1 Muk. Besides what else are you using Muk for?
5. Gyarados Dragon Breath/Hydro Pump 122% Overall – 178% Power – 76.6s
Not as good as the others above but still quite consistent
6. Dragonite Dragon Tail/Outrage 121% Overall – 159% Power – 62.7s
Quite fast and tanky, a good choice
7. Vaporeon Water Gun/Hydro Pump 117% Overall – 194% Power – 90.7s
Very tanky but you are getting close to time out range.
8. Heracross Counter/Close Combat 
116% Overall – 140% Power – 59.7s
A bad Machamp but still quite fast
9. Forretress Bug Bite/Heavy Slam 
116% Overall – 172% Power – 96.1s
Not sure he can actually finish off consistently at 96.1s but he’s very tanky. Probably dodge a bit less to get some extra energy and you should win. A possible prestige choice.
10. Scizor Fury Cutter/Iron Head 
114% Overall – 154% Power – 81.8s
Rounding out the top 10, comes another mediocre choice
Summary
Blissey is a complete beast and dodging is hard. If you want to win quickly, you are almost certainly going to need a little more than 1 Pokemon to kill a Blissey. If you want to dodge all to guarantee that you dodge all the special moves, there are a few different Pokemon you can choose that can almost kill 2 Blisseys by themselves. I expect all this to change very soon with the upcoming gym changes but I expect this kind of analysis to be even more useful with a more diverse gym setup.
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