[Quick Analysis] Community Day Mega Slowbro as a raid attacker

by | Mar 16, 2023 | Raid, Raids, Teban54 | 0 comments

Shortest I’ve ever written, trust me.

TL;DR

CD move Surf is an upgrade over Water Pulse, but Mega Slowbro is still too slow for anything meaningful.

  • Barely shows up on charts in raw power.
  • Great bulk lets it contribute good damage in 6-player lobbies, but still behind or barely ahead of other megas. And only if everyone else uses the same type as you.
  • Doesn’t even have a niche double dutying as an attacker and XL booster, outside of possible Keldeo raids.
  • If you want best possible version of every mega, evolve one during CD.

Keep reading for:

  • Water-type attacker charts
  • Water and Psychic-type mega charts
  • List of my previous analyses, in Appendix

Introduction

Slowpoke (and Galarian Slowpoke) Community Day happens on Saturday, March 18, 2-5pm. All forms of Slowbro and Slowking get Surf.

Surf is an upgrade over the non-legacy Water Pulse in raids, but the Slowdudes’ defense-weighted stats make them too slow as raid counters. The only form with any possible relevance in raids is Mega Slowbro, a textbook defensive mega with top-tier bulk, but still only 224 base attack. (Even Mega Aggron does better!)

Can Mega Slowbro be a good “support mega”, that is, a mega whose primary goal is to survive as long as possible and give other players a mega boost of 30% (or 10% with moves of different types)?

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Mega Slowbro as a Water attacker

Let’s look at raw power first…

Water attackers ranked by their average in-raid performance, using ASE, ASE with dodging, and ASTTW.

Welp.

Water Gun/Surf, being better than Water Pulse, does allow Mega Slowbro to at least show up on the chart now. If you haven’t built a Mega Slowbro, might as well evolve one during CD.

But…

Non-mega Gyarados > Mega Slowbro, in individual power.

You have to get down to stuff like Crawdaunt to find a good comparison for Mega Slowbro… That’s a no from me, dawg.

Mega Slowbro among Water-type Megas

Comparison of water-type megas and primals, in terms of damage up to a fixed time frame (relative to the no-mega baseline).

As long as one other player is using water types, you using Mega Slowbro is better than not using any mega.

But…

In most lobbies with sizes that matter, Mega Slowbro is still the worst water-type mega to bring (almost).

Surf does have higher DPS than Water Pulse, and Mega Slowbro has the 2nd longest time on field (with neutral typings), only second to Primal Kyogre. But the much lower DPS is too hard to overcome, even compared to Mega Gyarados which has similar bulk.

Mega Slowbro among Psychic-type Megas

Mega Slowbro does have the best non-signature psychic moveset, Confusion/Psychic, without requiring Elite TMs. But…

Comparison of psychic-type megas, in terms of damage up to a fixed time frame (relative to the no-mega baseline).

Compared to water megas, Mega Slowbro fares a little better in large lobbies as a psychic mega, but not meaningfully so.

The only scenario where it shines: 6+ raiders, others all using L40 Mewtwo – then Mega Slowbro does better than Mega Latios, Gardevoir and Alakazam.

But good luck having that happen, and even then, it’s still completely outclassed by Mega Latias and future Mega Metagross (with neutral typings).

  • To be clear, using a Mega Slowbro is better than not using any mega, most of the time. But there are other megas you can use.
  • If you’re curious about raw power, it’s bad. I won’t even make a dedicated plot for it, but you can refer to my latest psychic chart here (Mega Gardevoir analysis).

Does its typing have any use in raids?

Even if we consider “being a raid attacker and an XL candy booster at the same time”, Mega Slowbro fails to shine – unless Keldeo comes to raids. But even then, you can use Mega Gallade.

The other legendary/mythical is Victini, but good luck waiting for that in raids.

Summary and Verdict

If you want the best version of every mega, evolve one during CD.

If you haven’t built a Mega Slowbro yet, or want an excuse to build another one, CD is the best time to do one.

Otherwise… Not much reason to bother. Definitely NOT worth an Elite TM.

Articles coming up next

  • Which shadows are useful in raids? This will be more of a tier list with no plots involved. Hopefully before the Rocket takeover on Mar 21, and hopefully with an infographic in collaboration with my Go Hub colleagues!
  • Shadow Sceptile and Shadow Blaziken, the two raid-relevant targets among new shadows. I intend to make this a standalone article from the tier list, but the article itself may get delayed a bit. Results from this analysis will contribute to the tier list, for sure, and I’ll mention preliminary results in the tier list.

Appendix: Past analyses on other types

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