Pokemon GO: The best moveset for Slaking

One of Pokemon GO's beefiest fighters, Slaking hails from the Hoenn region and has a massive HP count similar to Pokemon like Snorlax and Chansey.

But what moves does it benefit the most from in Pokemon GO?

With a limited moveset, Slaking doesn't have the flexibility in type advantages that many other Pokemon do, but with high HP and only one elemental weakness, (Fighting-type) it can win plenty of battles of attrition.

Being a Normal-type Pokemon, most of Slaking's moveset is Normal-type as well, but it also packs a Ground-type and a Fairy-type move for the chance to gain the upper hand in type advantages.

---

Pokemon GO: Slaking move breakdown

Image via Niantic

Taking a look at Slaking's moves within Pokemon GO, things aren't as varied as they are in the main line Pokemon series:

Fast moves

• Yawn (Normal-type)

Charged moves

• Hyper Beam
• Earthquake
• Play Rough

Legacy charged moves

• Body Slam

Although Yawn can be seen as a significant liability with respect to damage, its ability to build energy is impressive compared to many fast attacks. For the moment, Pokemon GO trainers will have to make do with Yawn as a fast attack, as it is the only one available to Slaking.

This may be subject to change down the line, as Niantic is always working on Pokemon GO's move system, but there's no current information on when Slaking's moveset will be updated.

Since Yawn is essentially meant to power up a charged move quickly, the charged move in question becomes even more vital to Slaking's success in battle.

Taking a look at all of Slaking's potential movesets, the move combinations can be broken down into three metrics:

• Damage Per Second (DPS): The amount of damage a Pokemon's moves deal every second during the battle if it is constantly attacking.
• Total Damage Overall (TDO): The total amount of damage a Pokemon can deal at a maximum before it faints from sustaining too much damage.
• Time to First Activation (TTFA): The number of seconds that are expected to pass before a Pokemon can activate its charged move for the first time.

With the main three measurements explained, Pokemon go players can check the statistics for the movesets:

• Yawn + Play Rough - 11.67 DPS / 625.74 TDO / 6.8 second TTFA
• Yawn + Body Slam - 11.55 DPS / 619.32 TDO / 5.1 second TTFA
• Yawn + Hyper Beam - 9.56 DPS / 513.03 TDO / 11.9 second TTFA
• Yawn + Earthquake - 8.28 DPS / 444.33 TDO / 11.9 second TTFA

Given that everything else in a battle is equal, like type advantages and weather boosts, Yawn and Play Rough is the statistically superior moveset for Slaking. Pokemon GO players shouldn't expect heavy damage potential from this tanky Pokemon, but they can be certain that it won't fold easily and will last plenty of time in a fight before it is defeated.