Best Defensive Pokemon Go Tier List - Who Should You Place In Gyms?

Defending against enemy teams in Pokémon Go is nearly a futile task. As a defender, you get the opportunity to battle multiple people at the same time with the game's built-in AI, each of which is running six Pokémon.

Needless to say, even the strongest Pokémon drop very quickly.

Introduction

Defending against enemy teams in Pokémon Go is nearly a futile task. As a defender, you get the opportunity to battle multiple people at the same time with the game's built-in AI, each of which is running six Pokémon.

Needless to say, even the strongest Pokémon drop very quickly.

How Do We Defend the Onslaught?

With such a difficult challenge ahead, how can we possibly defend our gyms for the 21 hours necessary to get our hard earned Pokécoins?

The answer lies in a diversified team that focuses on defeating Pokémon that counter that others in your group.

For example, if you live near the water and happen to have gyms full of Golducks and Gyarados, drop in an Exeggutor or a Victreebel to see if you can milk some wins that way.

However, note that ice moves will make quick work of your Pokémon.

That being said, certain Pokémon are definitely better than others at defending, including Lapras with her powerful ice moves and stats, and Vaporeon, who can generally take down most electric types despite her type disadvantage.

Toolkit and Options

Search for a Pokémon:

The Tier List

God Tier [Optimal Gym Defenders]:

General Use: Mewtwo, Lapras, Dragonite, Snorlax, Vaporeon, Exeggutor, Moltres, Zapdos, Articuno, Gengar, Victreebel, Poliwrath

Tier 1 [Moderately Impressive Effort, Will Die]:

General Use: Gyarados, Wigglytuff, Blastoise, Slowbro, Golem, Nidoqueen, Nidoking, Venusaur, Golduck, Muk, Mew, Raichu, Rapidash, Cloyster, Starmie, Clefable, Aerodactyl, Omastar

Tier 2 [Will Quickly Get Taken Down]:

General Use: Arcanine, Charizard, Jolteon, Flareon, Vileplume, Dewgong, Weezing, Ninetales, Primeape, Hitmonlee, Hitmonchan, Alakazam, Kabutops, Machamp, Tentacruel, Seaking, Electabuzz, Magneton, Dodrio, Kingler, Seadra, Venomoth, Jynx, Porygon, 

Tier 3 [EXP Fodder]:

General Use: Scyther, Pinsir, Pidgeot, Magmar, Golbat, Sandslash, Persian, Hypno, Electrode, Parasect, Tauros, Marowak, Tangela, Lickitung, Kangaskhan, Mr. Mime, Rhydon, Butterfree, Beedrill, Raticate, Farfetch'd, Chansey, Fearow, Arbok, Dugtrio, Onix

Instructions and Caveats:

• Pokémon in BOLD I will talk about shortly
• Within each tier the Pokémon are strongest from left to right, but within a tier each Pokémon's strength is relatively close.
• This list takes into consideration the damage per second of each Pokémon.

Data Sources

• Moveset DPS sources from this link, 7/30/16 update
• Movesets from Pokemongodb
• Image from wallpapercave.com, let me know if you can find the original artist so I can credit ~

God Tier: These champions are almost impossible to keep down. If your team doesn't make it a priority to shut down these champions and shut them down hard, even if they lose their lane, lose in CS, and it's their first time playing the champion, they can be a massive nuisance for your team. On the other hand, if they're actually good at the champion...that's when it's time to throw in the towel. Tier 1: These champions generally do very well regardless, and have some sort of advantage over most other champions. When they do well, their team does well. Even when they don't do well, their team still has a good chance of a comeback victory by utilizing one or more aspects of their late game utility. Tier 2: This is the Tier of balanced champions where Riot shoots to place their designs. These champions generally do well in their own right, and are very strong picks with a good chance of winning. However, they're not overpowered by any means and do have their weaknesses. Tier 3: These champions can still do very well, but tend to need a little more snowballing to get rolling. Even if they get an early lead, it's still very possible to turn the tides on them with just a mistake or two. They may also have some weaknesses that can be capitalized on. Tier 4: These champions are either underpowered or offer less reward than other champions for the same amount of effort. These champions basically start winning from the get-go or get made fun of for the rest of the game. They need gold to do their job correctly, and if they don't get enough of it, they become sandbags for the enemy team to punch. Chances of a comeback with one of these champions feeding on your team is almost none.

Pokémon Explanations

• Arcanine - Fire types naturally get slaughtered in this game as a result of Vaporeon's strength and popularity, even after the Water Gun nerfs. As a result, he tends to be an impressive Gym placement, but ends up getting smashed down in short order. The last patch did buff some of skills though, so we may start seeing him around more if only because he looks awesome.
• Dragonite - Dragon types have few weaknesses, but he still needs to watch out for Lapras or any other Pokémon packing ice moves as a result of his dual weakness.
• Lapras - One of the strongest Pokémon offensively, Lapras also packs quite a bit of defensive bulk. When combined with her powerful ice moves and her dual water type that reduces fire daamge, she ends up being one of the best gym defenders.
• Pinsir - Pinsir is one of those Pokémon with decently high CP, but awful type advantages and special attacks. As a result, placing your own Pinsir in the gym allows you to quickly train up your gym's prestige and your own experience by utilizing Pigeottos (with flying moves) as training fodder.

Agree? Disagree? Comment below and be sure to check out the Offensive Tier List as well!