The best moveset for Mienshao in Pokemon GO

Trainers in Pokemon GO who get the opportunity to get a Mienfoo encounter through Battle League rank might want to consider investing into Mienshao, a surprisingly strong Pokemon.

Mienshao might not be the first to come to mind when thinking of big offensive threats in the game, but it has a really high 258 Attack stat. That’s higher than Mamoswine, Zapdos, and even Metagross (by one point exactly). That being said, Mienshao also has a low 127 Defense stat, which certainly puts it in the glass cannon category. With these moves, Mianshao can drop some serious damage on opposing Pokemon.

Note: This article is subjective and reflects the opinion of the writer.

---

How is this potent Pokemon going to get damage off?

Low Kick may be a very weak quick move by Pokemon GO standards, but it’s Mienshao’s best option. It’s animation only lasts for 600 ms, which is very fast. At 6 power plus STAB, this move will end up doing 12 DPS from Mienshao. This move also charges 10 EPS, which will be a huge benefit to this Generation V Pokemon.

The interesting thing about this decision is that its other option, Poison Jab, does more damage. The trade-off here is that this move is slightly slower (800ms) and charges less energy than Low Kick. Poison Jab can hit Fairy-types hard, but it’s important to keep in mind that Mienshao is a glass cannon. Any Togekiss or Gardevoir will assuredly KO Mienshao before it KOs them. Switch out this Pokemon if you see any fairy-types.

An unfortunate fact about Mienshao that really hurts its viability is the lack of a strong Fighting-type charge move. It does get access to Brick Break, but that’s only 40 base power, albeit only requiring 33 energy to use.

Trainers who use Mienshao can benefit from charging two Brick Breaks at a time. This is a great strategy in PvP to make opponents waste their shields. Once both shields are used up, other strong Pokemon can spam powerful charge moves without fear. If your opponent has a good switch-in to Brick Break, though, they will almost never shield.

While it’s a shame that Mienshao didn’t get access to Close Combat or Focus Blast, it did get one of the stronger charge moves in Stone Edge. If Mienshao manages to get this charged up, it can do some serious damage with this move. It might be able to catch Pokemon like Togekiss switching in to inflict huge damage and potentially KO them.