The best moveset for Deoxys (Defense Forme) in Pokemon GO

One of Pokemon GO's most popular battle picks, Deoxys in its Defense Forme is a hulking juggernaut that can withstand an astounding amount of damage.

Capable of hitting a maximum defense stat of 330, Deoxys on the defensive is a difficult obstacle to defeat. As something of a natural balancing move in this form, Deoxys' attack stats suffer somewhat and its damage potential is curbed. That doesn't mean it is useless on the offensive, but Deoxys will need some tweaking to its moveset in this form in order to maximize the damage it can dish out in battle.

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Pokemon GO: Deoxys (Defense Forme) move breakdown

Image via Niantic

With a fairly standard array of five moves in Pokemon GO, Deoxys won't win any contests for attack flexibility in Defense Forme. However, battling in Pokemon GO can largely be considered something of a numbers game, and trainers will want their Deoxys to deal the best damage numbers it is able to within its limitations.

Before investigating Deoxys' attacks in Defense Forme, it's important to know what moves they are exactly, as well as their elemental types:

Fast moves

• Zen Headbutt (Psychic-type)
• Counter (Fighting-type)

Charged moves

• Thunderbolt (Electric-type)
• Rock Slide (Rock-type)
• Psycho Boost (Psychic-type)

With the exception of Psycho Boost, which is a Deoxys-exclusive move, these moves are fairly standard for a Psychic-type legendary like Deoxys. Even so, these moves can be arranged for maximum effect when type effectiveness and Weather Boosts are omitted from the equation. Though these factors matter significantly in Pokemon GO's battle scenarios, it can be difficult to calculate baseline damage with those involved.

When measuring any moveset, the statistics come down to three numerical totals:

• Damage Per Second (DPS): The amount of damage that a Pokemon deals with its move each second if it attacks continuously.
• Total Damage Overall (TDO): The maximum amount of damage that a Pokemon can deal to an opponent before it faints from losing all of its HP. This is calculated by taking the Pokemon's move DPS and multiplying it by the amount of time it will remain in the fight before fainting.
• Time to First Activation (TTFA): Charged moves are a huge part of dealing damage in Pokemon GO battles, so activating them before an opponent does is an important advantage. This statistic measures how long in seconds it will take to activate a Pokemon's charged move for the first time.

With these categories in mind, each move combination can be broken down for this particular iteration of Deoxys:

• Counter + Thunderbolt: 9.02 DPS / 468.67 TDO / 6.3 second TTFA
• Zen Headbutt + Thunderbolt: 8.88 DPS / 461.04 TDO / 5.5 second TTFA
• Counter + Rock Slide: 8.64 DPS / 448.87 TDO / 6.3 second TTFA
• Zen Headbutt + Rock Slide: 8.47 DPS / 440.2 TDO / 5.5 second TTFA
• Counter + Psycho Boost: 7.15 DPS / 371.32 TDO / 6.3 second TTFA
• Zen Headbutt + Psycho Boost: 7.10 DPS / 368.83 TDO / 5.5 second TTFA

Though slightly slower in TTFA than other movesets, Counter and Thunderbolt present the best damage on equal footing. These numbers can change depending on type effectiveness and Weather Boosts, but these are the baseline numbers within Pokemon GO.

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