Is Staraptor worth using in Pokemon GO?

With the Starly Community Day event in Pokemon GO only a few hours away, players have begun to wonder if the fully evolved spotlight Pokemon is worth using. After all, Shiny Pokemon do not provide any bonus during battle and the only thing a Community Day provides is an extra move to add to the Pokemon's movepool.

With this in mind, Staraptor has become somewhat of a topic of discussion among the mobile game's competitive battling community. This is due to the possibility of a small change in its movepool potentially changing how it can be used entirely. However, many feel this may not be the case given its such a small change.

So what about Staraptor has truly changed? More importantly, what about Staraptor makes it worth or not worth using in Pokemon GO's competitive Battle League? If one intends on using Staraptor, it would do good to learn about it in order to capitalize on its strengths while mitigating its weaknesses.

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An analysis of Staraptor in Pokemon GO

Staraptor as it appears in Pokemon: Evolutions (Image via The Pokemon Company)

Staraptor, much like almost every region-dedicated bird Pokemon, is a Normal and Flying-type Pokemon. This is a serviceable defensive typing while also giving it some great offensive potential. Staraptor is weak to Rock, Ice, and Flying-type attacks but can resist Ghost, Bug, Grass, and Ground-type attacks.

Staraptor's stats are offensive-oriented, with its highest stat being its attack at 234. However, this leaves it as a bit of a glass cannon with its weakest stat being its defense at a total of 140. This leaves its median stat being its stamina sitting at a reasonable 198. This leaves it open to all forms of super-effective attacks.

Looking towards Staraptor's movepool, this topic is very much up for debate at the moment. With Pokemon GO's Community Day event adding the Gust fast attack to Staraptor's arsenal, the Pokemon has to be tested before it can be determined if this move adds more to it in terms of viability at different tiers of play.

As it stands, Staraptor's most common moveset is a combination of Quick Attack and Brave Bird. With the latter being one of the best Flying-type moves in the game, this charged attack will most likely always run on competitive Staraptors in Pokemon GO. Gust is an improvement but may not solve all of its problems.

The fact of the matter remains that Rock-type Pokemon like Rampardos and Rhyperior dominate higher tiers of play and can absolutely melt Staraptor. In the lower tiers of play, it is completely walled off from dealing meaningful damage thanks to the over-abundance of Steel-type Pokemon that resist its attacks.

In summary, Staraptor is a cool Pokemon but that's about it. While it does have excellent coverage options like Heat Wave and Close Combat, it sacrifices valuable damage that it needs to uphold a Pokemon with such weak defenses as itself. Sadly, a new Flying-type fast attack will not do very much to fix this issue.

Staraptor may perform better in special limited-time tiers in Pokemon GO's Battle League like a potential Sinnoh Cup. As it stands, Staraptor is uneventful in competitive play.