Is Dusknoir any good to use in Pokemon GO?

Many Pokemon GO trainers are planning on getting Dusknoir on Duskull Community Day, but will it be any good?

Traditionally, Duskull could only evolve into Dusclops. In Generation IV, though, Dusclops received a much stronger evolution in Dusknoir, with access to higher Attacks and a wider movepool. Unfortunately, it isn’t as powerful in Pokemon GO, but it will be receiving Shadow Ball through this Community Day. Getting such a strong move will certainly improve this Pokemon’s viability.

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Will this Pokemon improve with access to Shadow Ball?

Statistically, Dusknoir functions as a tank that can also do a reasonable amount of damage. With a 180 Attack stat, it definitely lags behind other Ghost-type attackers like Golurk and Gengar. Dusknoir gets 254 Defense, though, allowing it to withstand a multitude of attacks before its health gets threatened.

Given the usual moveset that Dusknoir runs, it’s clear to see how much of an impact Shadow Ball is going to have. Typically, Dusknoir runs Ominous Wind, a move that does a negligible 50 damage.

Yes, it’s true that this move has a chance to boost Dusknoir’s stats. The buff only has a 10% chance of this happening, though, meaning the other 90% Dusknoir does practically no damage.

There’s no question that Shadow Ball will increase Dusknoir’s damage output. That being said, though, it still shouldn’t be a good Raid attacker. Since its Attack is on the lower end of the spectrum, it won’t end up doing significant damage to several Raid bosses, especially those in Tier five.

In terms of PvP, though, it will be a much more viable option. It will lag behind other popular Ghost-type like Sableye and Cofagrigus, but Dusknoir will still go head-to-head against several threats.

Fortunately, not many Pokemon resist Ghost-types in the Great League meta. Even the best Ghost-type there, Sableye, takes neutral to Ghost. Meanwhile, Dusknoir will have great matchups against Deoxys Defense Forme and Medicham.

Despite this, though, the best thing to do with Dusknoir would be to place it on a gym defense team. Any trainers that have the golden bulky Normal-type Pokemon like Chancey, Blissey and Snorlax will benefit from having Dusknoir as a teammate. All of those aforementioned Pokemon are weak to Fighting moves, which Dusknoir resists and can hit back with Psychic.

Overall, Dusknoir will prove to be rather average. It won’t dominate any game mode, but it will do fine in PvP and gym defense. Being average will still be an improvement from the pitiful performance it has had without Shadow Ball.