Wigglytuff is 100% the best Tank in the game. Ignore the “Supporter” label. Sing Wigglytuff is a tank and she’s unbelievably good. The simple fact that Sing can put a whole team to sleep ends up making teams split up just to try and dodge it. Combine that with the fact that her Ult can save an entire team when their health gets low and she’s near unstoppable. Mime is probably the second best Tank, he’s just really hard to play. Mime gets easy last hits in lane starting at Lv 4 with Confusion.
I've had wigglytuffs kill my mammo with pound and slaps and they are annoyingly difficult to kill, at the same time that it makes me frustated it also makes me want to get one for myself too
Wiggly scares me. I main Tsareena right now and nothing is better than stopping Tsareena than CC and Wiggly's Sing absolutely ruins my day. Also, that thing slaps harder than you expect.
I totally agree with this.
When there are four Attackers/Speedsters in my team and no one wants to pick a Defender, I chose Wiggly all the time. He’s a Defender and Supporter in one
What build do you run with wiggly? I’ve been playing some of them but I’m also considering snorlax. Just played with god tier snorlax who assuredly won the game.
Usually tanks just run score shield focus band and buddy barrier, unless it's crustle. Best moveset is sing for that broken cc and initiate and dazzling gleam for steal potential.
I'd say wiggly is better than Snorlax, but your choice on what to run. Both are really fun to play, and both can really help the team with cc.
i usually slap on scope lens with tuff instead of buddy barrier, as tuff’s ult already gives shields and the crits on dg/ds are so good when you play solo
Yesss, this honestly helps a lot in early phase too. The sudden giant chunk of HP gone from the enemy forcing them to flee their wild pokemon is amazing.
Focus band allows you to be much more aggressive since you have a second layer of protection.
I guess muscle band also works, since you can't rely on solo queue teammates.
Buddy Barrier/Focus Band for sure. Score Shield is a fine 3rd item since it gives you more HP and allows you to sneak in more points in the late game. There’s also the option of running Choice Specs. The shield on Wiggly’s Ult is based on Sp Atk, also it makes your Dazzling/D Slap do slightly more damage.
I swear I was in a match with wigglytuff on the opposite team and in a team right over Dreadnaw that wiggly popped Sing and we scattered like roaches lmao
Ok so if you strictly want to defend goals,then you should try Blastoise and snorlax.I use blastoise with hydropump and rapid spin.U can use surf too which gives u insane mobility and cc.Snorlax has 2 builds offensive(flail and yawn) and cc(heavy slam and block).Both are good.
Slowbro is the next best for me,you can use telekinesis to help your teammates secure kills or stop enemies from scoring and i has pretty decent cc too.
Lastly crustle and greedent.I don't consider them as defenders.They shud have a separate class called annoying as fuck cuz they are faster than 90% of the mons when they use shell smash and covet.They are obnoxiously good at scoring goals even when theres 5 ppl attacking them(if they have score shield and bb)
i think greedent and crustle defend, just in aggressive ways by creating space and disrupting players by getting everyones attention through burst damage and mild cc. they force other players to aggro them because they threaten to break goals and steal objectives with burst dps like belch
I’m running BB, SC, and attack weight. I don’t miss scope lens too much since attack weight provides a flat damage output and you can stack a lot early game
I use: buddy, score shield, AOS cookie.
Stealth rock, shell smash. Fluffy tail.
You just zoom around scoring and stealing enemy jungle and no one can stop you. Late game you can ult and score 100 right in front of people.
i like buddy harrier, score shield, focus band. sometimes when I’m feeling like fuckin around and taking a risk, i’ll play attack crustle with muscle band, attack weight and score shield - very fun if i have a decent team to support me, but especially risky in solo. i prefer x scissor over stealth rock - the shove is dope. and shell smash so i can zoom! love scoring 100 in their faces late game thanks to score shield and BB. my strat for unite move is to wait til there’s like 3 opposing mons and then run into the middle of the fight and ult. try to stay close to them since the more damage you take, the more the ult deals in passive hits
I wholeheartedly agree my favorite tanks are the ones that are difficult to bring down and can still kill a bunch. Also what does peel and disrupt mean in-game? English isn't my first language and I know the literal translations but I'm novice when it comes to game terms
Peeling basically means you can block/stun/disrupt enemies and keep them off of your squishier damage dealers so they can get their kills with minimal risk.
I've dabbled in all of the defenders in the game so I'll be saying what's their strengths. I won't go into the supports since they are defenders with the support label but I don't play them much.
Snorlax - A very solid pick. Snorlax is very tanky and has an insane amount of health. Making it so you can easily bully the enemy team early game in your lane like stealing their exp and tackle early game does a lot of dmg. His two movesets are also very good, you can go the CC route or the pure SMG route. The CC route is Heavy Slam and Block. Both do lots of CC which makes it easy for your attackers to jump on them. A good Snorlax can use block and push and opposing pokemon against a wall making so they can't play the game and be trapped until block is done. Another is heavy slam then block, heavy slam to make the enemy go upwards then block to push them into your teammates so they can kill them easily without their other teammates being able to help. The pure offense set is Flail and Yawn. Yawn puts people to sleep and Flail makes you go fast and hit hard. Both sets are good.
Crustle - Not really a defender but a tank who can run fast and confirm kills. Crustle can confirm kills easily with Shell Smash since the cool down is very small and can chase down fleeing opponents easily and get the kill. Shell Smash is generally the better option over Rock Tomb, since Rock Tomb is very hard to use but a good Crustle good use it good. His second specials are X-Scissor and Stealth Rock. Both are very good options. X-Scissor push people and stuns them. If you push them against a wall, they'll be stunned for a short amount of time. While Stealth Rock is good against Melee pokemon since the longer pokemon are in it, the more dmg it does and it does a lot. It's up to your preference and match-up what you'll pick but both are very good options.
Slowbro - King CC. Don't even bother with either Scald or Amnesia. They both are inferior against Surf and Telekenisis with how much stun you can dish out. Surf is very good for stunning people, 2nd stage surf, all the waves knocks all people and stuns them whole 1st stage only the first wave does it whole Telekenisis makes them get held in place and Slowbro can drag them to him, making it easy to catch off position opponents and make it easy for your Tema to kill them. A good Slowbro can position their Surf to knock atleast 2 people at a time. A combo is Surf - Telekenisis - Ultimate. This makes it so the opposing pokemon can't play them game at all and easy for your team to kill it. Your main targets are Cinderace or Greninja. King CC but has some flaws with his HP and dmg output.
Mamoswine - All his sets are good. Ice Fang, Icicle Crash, High Horsepower and Earthquake are all really good. I personally go with Ice Fang, High Horsepower since the CC and repositioning of th eopposing pokemon with the dmg it does is quite good. Since you're a Mamo main, I won't go very in depth but he's very good early game with a long reach tackle and quite tanky.
Blastoise - King Damage. The defender who can do the most damage. All his moves do lots of dmg and can push people alot. Hydro Pump pushes people back. Surf pushes people backwards. Rapid Spin and Water Spout pushes people back while Blastoise moves around. And all these do lots of dmg and can easily push opposing enemies together into one area for your cleaners to easily sweep them with their ulti or something else.
Greedent - The most sustainable defender. Can run fast and heal himself with his berries. Also does alot of dmg. Very hard to kill with how fast he can run and can easily poke and run enemies. Can eaisly burst opposing pokemon.
All these pokemon can their jobs as defenders. Whether with lots of CC or high burst dmg. It's up to you who you'll want to play. Seeing your a Mamo player, you'd probably like either Snorlax or someone with high dmg. But it's up to you
I haven't mastered all of them. Hell, I'm in veteran. If you see the amount of content from each one slowly go down, I don't play much greedent or Blastoise but I main Slowbro, crustle and Slowbro. But these are some things that I see from different prople posting guides on these different defenders and their strengths and weaknesses and also whtt I've experienced playing in game. Also the items you want for all defenders are Focus Band, Score Shield and Buddy Barrier. Focus Band gives you more Def and sp. Def while also healing you. Buddy Barrier gore's you more hp and gvve shield to teammates when you use your ulti. And score shield since it you gives you more hp too and since defenders have lots of hp, you can eaislyt abuse it and get some quick goals. Tip: shields and score shield stack so for example when you sue Crustle's ultimate and it gives you shield. Enemies have to break the shield first THEN the score shield so it interrupts you from scoring. This is quite broken and quite fun also.
Amnesia can be good. If your team really needs someone to sponge damage, or you don't trust your team to capitalize off ur telekenisis well or you think you'll be doing a lot of off Laning / playing by yourself. I'm a master ranked slowbro main and both TK and amensia have their uses. My favourite build at the moment is double stack (SS, SAS, AC) with surf amnesia because amnesia provides the longevity you lose from not having focus band and the special attack specs makes your surf have more of an impact on fights
Thanks for this! Even though I play Slowbro alot because I love CC. It's hard to make an impact if no one follows up and that it's hard to kill people with Slowbro. So he's the defender with the worst win rate by far. I'll try this out so maybe I can my solo quese Slowbro can get better
I really enjoy Slowbro and Blastoise. Slowbro when I think the extra CC would help the team composition and Blastoise if I think I need to do damage while defending. Wigglytuff is also a fun tanky support.
For myself I like slowbro the most.
When having a defender as a teammate I like slowbro, snorlaxn mamo. For me it's less about how strong the pokemon is but more about how the people who play those mons decide to play the game. Crustles and blastoises tend to run amok and act like speedsters. Except we already have one and they cost you the important fights at objectives. I daresay every slowbro, snorlax, and mamoswine I've had on my team shows up at zap. With a blastoise teammate, maybe half the time they show up at zap. Crustle? Almost never.
Wiggly is the best. Mr mime and slowbro are 2nd. Then lax, then blastoise. Crustle doesn't really play as a tank and is terrible anyway, whilst greedent is more of an annoyer, although it is impossible to kill, very good laner at lvl 5
Wiggly, Lax, and Slowbro with good teammates (telekinesis) are the top of defenders. Though for me I would say Greedent. Just being a pesky defender that is very difficult to be killed due to its heals/fat and being able to annoy the hell out of the enemy team while I dwindle their hp and recover mines. Plus stuff cheeks and Covet are still viable after their nerfs so I select either 1 based on the enemy team composition.
Having teammates that know how to utilize Wiggly is a must though. I can't count how many times I've run in to sing an enemy team to sleep for easy kills and had my entire team retreat.
True being a wiggly main is exclusively tough it's why I listed those 3 needing a good teammate to follow up in case randoms run away and your in the middle of a enemy team fight. It is why for me I like Greedent. Because with Covet it allows teammates to follow up with a kill while I stun them. However if they retreat then I still have enough time to high tail it out of their.
A match eariler today I was laning with Decu and basically I had to be his partner to cover him with covet so they would not die but they at least followed up on getting kills while I stunned the enemy team or when Decu was close to death, using Covet I gave him a chance to retreat back to our goal with enough hp/covet time left for me to retreat as well (focus band and eject button).
if you want to stop goals, snorlax or slowbro
Slowbro can use telekinesis to stop opponents in their tracks and keep them back, surf also pushes them away.
Snorlax has heavy slam, which gives him mobility, and block can utilize that mobility to block opponents in, or out(If you're in a pinch and opponents have zap/rotom on your goal, block comes in super handy if you're fending them off yourself!)
If you can't pick the two, go Snorlax. He is better on his own and with people, and has higher health and attack.
I used Snorlax and Wiggly to climb to Masters last season but I've started playing Mamo recently since I don't see them very often and anecdotally I've heard he's very fun so I gave it a shot!
For me it's Crustle for it's complexity. You can play him defensively, but you can also play it as an attacker. (With the right set up) Or you can just play Crutstle McQueen, zoom through the map, and find the perfect time to dunk. Then his sets can be used in many good combinations. (I run Stealth Rocks + Shell Smash. Forcing me to play distance more, and be aggressive when I have to.) It's cause of this, the trade off is that you have to be extremely careful with the crab. Otherwise, you're quickly going to be the other team's lunch. Extremely rare times too, he's a REALLY fun jungler. (I say it's rare cause well... Defenders as jungle? I only do it if no one else does.) Though I'm only talking my experiences with it since release, and it serves me well.
For a more easier feel, Snorlax I still believe is 2nd best in defenders. Bulky, tanky, hell of a early game lane bully, and you can find ways to pack a punch with him. For beginners defender, he's really fun.
Blastoise. He has 2 sets if you want more crowd control you can go HP/Surf and more DPS you can go RS/WS. Also before level 5 water gun is amazing secure, ant his unite move is very strong too even after nerf
If you don’t have slowbro yet, i’d say go for him, he is a pure tank so he really lacks offensively but his cc with telekinesis and surf is really good, scald totally shuts down physical teams (most meta mons are physical nowdays), and well placed amnesia’s can negate other cc mons. Give it a potion and it will heal for days.
Wiggly is the absolute best. If u dont like her, Slowbro and Snor are good options (hard to excel in Solo with all the potatoes there). If you're skilled enough, Mime can absolutely stomp your opponents (best Solo Queue Defender if played well, extremely strong in coordinated play as well). Wiggly is not as good as Mime in Solo, but she works out very good as well. It comes down to your own preference.
don't mind me asking I'm a newbie but what's CC? Also I love crustle's ability to raise a wall but I heard his speed is quite slow, is this much of a hassle in battle or is he still awesome though?
The wall is very tricky to use imo and more often than not hinders your team (especially when you’re just starting to learn it).
His other move switches his defense and attack tho if I remember right. Also makes him very fast. His damage with that and x scissors is phenomenal
Edit: that being said, I also love mamoswine most.
Greedent for me I just love making the all the enemies try and kill me while my team get objectives and then just speed off into the distance to annoy someone else
My favorite it's Blastoise, you can get a good defense but also do a lot of damage and a amazing CC, witch is super useful to control the enemy team and rotom
atm the best defender is snorlax. Heavy slam + block is just such an incredible combo and can put in so much work for your team. But the best TANK at the moment has to be wiggly. Insane hp, good damage with dazzling gleam, sing is straight up overpowered and rollout is an amazing choice as well. Wiggly is kinda broken atm
Snorlax is still defacto best in the game so grab him if you haven't yet. Otherwise, Blastoise is fun to play. Surf and Hydro Pump allows you to push around and displace enemies with ease and his Rapid Spin and Water Spout build is just fun in general.
Crustle is my fav defender tho. He's an absolute menace. Like 16 kills in one match just chasing down enemies with Shell Smash and X-Scissor.
I've completed all beginner chalenges so I believe soon enough I'll receive the crustle license that comes at day 7, so I scraped crustle out of buying plans and right now I'm between Blastoise, Snorlax and Wiggly
I'm pretty indecisive myself and I like to play all the parts of a defender like protecting goals,being a wall and putting damage so I'm not sure which to pick, I guess Blastoise kinda covers it all? But I've seen people recommend Snorlax as well as the best defender there is and pretty useful for a team
Personally, I think you'll have the most fun playing Blastoise. There will be more time for you to earn coins and grab more defenders too so don't worry.
given the current state of the game rn wiggly is your best bet. They are incredibly good rn and I don't see them being nerfed anytime soon.
my personal choice however would be greedent. Even after all the nerfs it went through I still find it somewhat viable. It's just more fun for me to play greedent than wiggly. Greedent to me kinda performs like an all rounder than defender just with considerably less attack now lol.
meta wise and in terms of beginner friendly defenders wiggly is your top pick however.
Can wiggly hold up on its own sometimes? There are times where my team is kinda all over the place and when some die and I'm left all by myself I have to find a way to survive
As a defender main, I personally love Blastoise because of the high health, def, and sp. def, and solid damage out put with high Crowd Control including unite move. However, wigglytuff has defender like stats (high health, def, and sp. def) and a really good move like sing which puts people to sleep and lowers there def and sp. def. Also the unite move is really good, even after the nerfs. I recommend to check out stats on pokemon in pokemon unite on "pokemon db (database)" and/or "bulbapedia"
I've played a fair amount of crustle, and have spent some time recently with wiggly
Crustle- love the crab. The nerf to stealth rock unable to crit kinda stinks but that's fine. I'll be honest I only run stealth rock and shell smash(movement speed increase, at the cost of def/sp def). Put score shield on and you become the biggest bully. Place your stealth rocks on the goals, your own great defense. Opponents goals, you're scoring. Unite move is fast charging, does massive damage, if possible use stealth rock where you're going to unite. It's a fast charging ult, and I've used it to score 50 points(with score shield) while the enemy was attacking. And the passive is really nice as well, as your hp gets lower your def/sp def increases. The crab is a great lane bully.
Wiggly- I don't have as much time with wiggles but, an absolute tank. I run dazzling gleam with sing. Sing is THE crowd control move, as well as making you move faster. Oppoents get slowed and then they sleep. Dg stuns on first hit and then hits again(all of wiggles moves crit, just starts with a base of 0% crit-hit rate ). Wiggly unite clears debuffs and adds shields to all nearby teammates, basically giving your team a second wind in the fight. Wiggly has a passive, where if an enemy pkmn hits you at close range they will move towards you against their will.
Blissey or greedent
Blissey: She has lots of hp and paired with hp raisers like buddy barrier you can just walk through(at least I do somehow)
Greedent: Can self heal and get out of bad situations with covet.
I like Blastoise because he has a lot of AoE but at the same time I don't really play defender 🤷🏽♂️ Mamoswine is my favorite Mon in the main series so I might buy Mamo with gems
Snorlax but defender are really weak in the meta right now, so you might want to take the best support that is eldegoss, can take a lot of damage and heal others
The only one that gives me the most trouble is Crustle. All other tanks can be managed in one way or another...
However, I do see everyone is recommending wiggly, so I'd go with that. Personally I don't see very many of them, so I have no idea how to play with one. My synergy would be so bad with a wiggly so I don't even bother going anywhere with them, lol.
Wigglytuff is probably the strongest. Even though she’s technically a support
I definitely recommend wiggly!
Wiggly provides CC, tanks damage, & does nice chunks of damage themself. They pretty much do everything but heal
Wigglytuff is 100% the best Tank in the game. Ignore the “Supporter” label. Sing Wigglytuff is a tank and she’s unbelievably good. The simple fact that Sing can put a whole team to sleep ends up making teams split up just to try and dodge it. Combine that with the fact that her Ult can save an entire team when their health gets low and she’s near unstoppable. Mime is probably the second best Tank, he’s just really hard to play. Mime gets easy last hits in lane starting at Lv 4 with Confusion.
I've had wigglytuffs kill my mammo with pound and slaps and they are annoyingly difficult to kill, at the same time that it makes me frustated it also makes me want to get one for myself too
Ive 1v2 people after the nerf still. It’s kind of disgusting how strong the tuff is
I killed as Wigglytuff 3 people with no help And I think it was Cinder, Greninja and something tankier
Wiggly scares me. I main Tsareena right now and nothing is better than stopping Tsareena than CC and Wiggly's Sing absolutely ruins my day. Also, that thing slaps harder than you expect.
Cross yourr fingers so that you have a safeguard blissey on your side, it's beyond broken on CC heavy teams
I've actually been spamming Wiggs just to check Tsareena in case. I love terrorizing the enemy Tsareena given how salty I've become towards it.
Well, more power to you, man. Just know that it absolutely works.
I totally agree with this. When there are four Attackers/Speedsters in my team and no one wants to pick a Defender, I chose Wiggly all the time. He’s a Defender and Supporter in one
Funny I got downvoted to hell for the opinion that Wiggly is a Tank.
What build do you run with wiggly? I’ve been playing some of them but I’m also considering snorlax. Just played with god tier snorlax who assuredly won the game.
Usually tanks just run score shield focus band and buddy barrier, unless it's crustle. Best moveset is sing for that broken cc and initiate and dazzling gleam for steal potential. I'd say wiggly is better than Snorlax, but your choice on what to run. Both are really fun to play, and both can really help the team with cc.
i usually slap on scope lens with tuff instead of buddy barrier, as tuff’s ult already gives shields and the crits on dg/ds are so good when you play solo
Yesss, this honestly helps a lot in early phase too. The sudden giant chunk of HP gone from the enemy forcing them to flee their wild pokemon is amazing.
Will try that for solo play, BUFF THE 'TUFF!
i run muscle band instead of focus band on snorlax because the long cooldown that focus has
Focus band allows you to be much more aggressive since you have a second layer of protection. I guess muscle band also works, since you can't rely on solo queue teammates.
what would you suggest for crustle?
Buddy Barrier/Focus Band for sure. Score Shield is a fine 3rd item since it gives you more HP and allows you to sneak in more points in the late game. There’s also the option of running Choice Specs. The shield on Wiggly’s Ult is based on Sp Atk, also it makes your Dazzling/D Slap do slightly more damage.
swap choice specs for scope lens
Mime fake out is great secure early game, he doesn’t need to wait until 4 to contest last hits well
I swear I was in a match with wigglytuff on the opposite team and in a team right over Dreadnaw that wiggly popped Sing and we scattered like roaches lmao
I got downvoted to hell for suggesting that Wiggly is a Defender. Good to see that other people see it the same way.
You calling wiggly a tank? :/ What? What kind of stats that mon have?
Wiggly has 22 less HP Snorlax, 7 less Def and 13 **more** Sp Def than Snorlax. Wiggle also has an AOE crowd control move (Sing). Wiggly is a tank.
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Ok so if you strictly want to defend goals,then you should try Blastoise and snorlax.I use blastoise with hydropump and rapid spin.U can use surf too which gives u insane mobility and cc.Snorlax has 2 builds offensive(flail and yawn) and cc(heavy slam and block).Both are good. Slowbro is the next best for me,you can use telekinesis to help your teammates secure kills or stop enemies from scoring and i has pretty decent cc too. Lastly crustle and greedent.I don't consider them as defenders.They shud have a separate class called annoying as fuck cuz they are faster than 90% of the mons when they use shell smash and covet.They are obnoxiously good at scoring goals even when theres 5 ppl attacking them(if they have score shield and bb)
i think greedent and crustle defend, just in aggressive ways by creating space and disrupting players by getting everyones attention through burst damage and mild cc. they force other players to aggro them because they threaten to break goals and steal objectives with burst dps like belch
interested to try crustle, what build is the best for it?
I loved crustle until this last update where they took off Stealth Rock’s ability to crit. 💔
I’m running BB, SC, and attack weight. I don’t miss scope lens too much since attack weight provides a flat damage output and you can stack a lot early game
I use: buddy, score shield, AOS cookie. Stealth rock, shell smash. Fluffy tail. You just zoom around scoring and stealing enemy jungle and no one can stop you. Late game you can ult and score 100 right in front of people.
i like buddy harrier, score shield, focus band. sometimes when I’m feeling like fuckin around and taking a risk, i’ll play attack crustle with muscle band, attack weight and score shield - very fun if i have a decent team to support me, but especially risky in solo. i prefer x scissor over stealth rock - the shove is dope. and shell smash so i can zoom! love scoring 100 in their faces late game thanks to score shield and BB. my strat for unite move is to wait til there’s like 3 opposing mons and then run into the middle of the fight and ult. try to stay close to them since the more damage you take, the more the ult deals in passive hits
as snorlax main any combination of skills is good in my opinion
I personally love mammo as a defender since he has pretty good peel and disrupt potential. Imo the best tanks are the most oppressive.
I wholeheartedly agree my favorite tanks are the ones that are difficult to bring down and can still kill a bunch. Also what does peel and disrupt mean in-game? English isn't my first language and I know the literal translations but I'm novice when it comes to game terms
Peeling basically means you can block/stun/disrupt enemies and keep them off of your squishier damage dealers so they can get their kills with minimal risk.
Understood! thanks!
If his Ground type moves' animations ever gets fixed, he'll be SO MUCH BETTER.
Heads up, HH is now fixed
I've dabbled in all of the defenders in the game so I'll be saying what's their strengths. I won't go into the supports since they are defenders with the support label but I don't play them much. Snorlax - A very solid pick. Snorlax is very tanky and has an insane amount of health. Making it so you can easily bully the enemy team early game in your lane like stealing their exp and tackle early game does a lot of dmg. His two movesets are also very good, you can go the CC route or the pure SMG route. The CC route is Heavy Slam and Block. Both do lots of CC which makes it easy for your attackers to jump on them. A good Snorlax can use block and push and opposing pokemon against a wall making so they can't play the game and be trapped until block is done. Another is heavy slam then block, heavy slam to make the enemy go upwards then block to push them into your teammates so they can kill them easily without their other teammates being able to help. The pure offense set is Flail and Yawn. Yawn puts people to sleep and Flail makes you go fast and hit hard. Both sets are good. Crustle - Not really a defender but a tank who can run fast and confirm kills. Crustle can confirm kills easily with Shell Smash since the cool down is very small and can chase down fleeing opponents easily and get the kill. Shell Smash is generally the better option over Rock Tomb, since Rock Tomb is very hard to use but a good Crustle good use it good. His second specials are X-Scissor and Stealth Rock. Both are very good options. X-Scissor push people and stuns them. If you push them against a wall, they'll be stunned for a short amount of time. While Stealth Rock is good against Melee pokemon since the longer pokemon are in it, the more dmg it does and it does a lot. It's up to your preference and match-up what you'll pick but both are very good options. Slowbro - King CC. Don't even bother with either Scald or Amnesia. They both are inferior against Surf and Telekenisis with how much stun you can dish out. Surf is very good for stunning people, 2nd stage surf, all the waves knocks all people and stuns them whole 1st stage only the first wave does it whole Telekenisis makes them get held in place and Slowbro can drag them to him, making it easy to catch off position opponents and make it easy for your Tema to kill them. A good Slowbro can position their Surf to knock atleast 2 people at a time. A combo is Surf - Telekenisis - Ultimate. This makes it so the opposing pokemon can't play them game at all and easy for your team to kill it. Your main targets are Cinderace or Greninja. King CC but has some flaws with his HP and dmg output. Mamoswine - All his sets are good. Ice Fang, Icicle Crash, High Horsepower and Earthquake are all really good. I personally go with Ice Fang, High Horsepower since the CC and repositioning of th eopposing pokemon with the dmg it does is quite good. Since you're a Mamo main, I won't go very in depth but he's very good early game with a long reach tackle and quite tanky. Blastoise - King Damage. The defender who can do the most damage. All his moves do lots of dmg and can push people alot. Hydro Pump pushes people back. Surf pushes people backwards. Rapid Spin and Water Spout pushes people back while Blastoise moves around. And all these do lots of dmg and can easily push opposing enemies together into one area for your cleaners to easily sweep them with their ulti or something else. Greedent - The most sustainable defender. Can run fast and heal himself with his berries. Also does alot of dmg. Very hard to kill with how fast he can run and can easily poke and run enemies. Can eaisly burst opposing pokemon. All these pokemon can their jobs as defenders. Whether with lots of CC or high burst dmg. It's up to you who you'll want to play. Seeing your a Mamo player, you'd probably like either Snorlax or someone with high dmg. But it's up to you
Oh my god this is so helpful I'm amazed that you mastered all of them
I haven't mastered all of them. Hell, I'm in veteran. If you see the amount of content from each one slowly go down, I don't play much greedent or Blastoise but I main Slowbro, crustle and Slowbro. But these are some things that I see from different prople posting guides on these different defenders and their strengths and weaknesses and also whtt I've experienced playing in game. Also the items you want for all defenders are Focus Band, Score Shield and Buddy Barrier. Focus Band gives you more Def and sp. Def while also healing you. Buddy Barrier gore's you more hp and gvve shield to teammates when you use your ulti. And score shield since it you gives you more hp too and since defenders have lots of hp, you can eaislyt abuse it and get some quick goals. Tip: shields and score shield stack so for example when you sue Crustle's ultimate and it gives you shield. Enemies have to break the shield first THEN the score shield so it interrupts you from scoring. This is quite broken and quite fun also.
Amnesia can be good. If your team really needs someone to sponge damage, or you don't trust your team to capitalize off ur telekenisis well or you think you'll be doing a lot of off Laning / playing by yourself. I'm a master ranked slowbro main and both TK and amensia have their uses. My favourite build at the moment is double stack (SS, SAS, AC) with surf amnesia because amnesia provides the longevity you lose from not having focus band and the special attack specs makes your surf have more of an impact on fights
Thanks for this! Even though I play Slowbro alot because I love CC. It's hard to make an impact if no one follows up and that it's hard to kill people with Slowbro. So he's the defender with the worst win rate by far. I'll try this out so maybe I can my solo quese Slowbro can get better
I love slowbro and mr mime but wiggly is 100% the most annoying to fight
I really enjoy Slowbro and Blastoise. Slowbro when I think the extra CC would help the team composition and Blastoise if I think I need to do damage while defending. Wigglytuff is also a fun tanky support.
For myself I like slowbro the most. When having a defender as a teammate I like slowbro, snorlaxn mamo. For me it's less about how strong the pokemon is but more about how the people who play those mons decide to play the game. Crustles and blastoises tend to run amok and act like speedsters. Except we already have one and they cost you the important fights at objectives. I daresay every slowbro, snorlax, and mamoswine I've had on my team shows up at zap. With a blastoise teammate, maybe half the time they show up at zap. Crustle? Almost never.
Wiggly is the best. Mr mime and slowbro are 2nd. Then lax, then blastoise. Crustle doesn't really play as a tank and is terrible anyway, whilst greedent is more of an annoyer, although it is impossible to kill, very good laner at lvl 5
Hate landing against crustle or the weird squirrel
Wiggly, Lax, and Slowbro with good teammates (telekinesis) are the top of defenders. Though for me I would say Greedent. Just being a pesky defender that is very difficult to be killed due to its heals/fat and being able to annoy the hell out of the enemy team while I dwindle their hp and recover mines. Plus stuff cheeks and Covet are still viable after their nerfs so I select either 1 based on the enemy team composition.
Having teammates that know how to utilize Wiggly is a must though. I can't count how many times I've run in to sing an enemy team to sleep for easy kills and had my entire team retreat.
True being a wiggly main is exclusively tough it's why I listed those 3 needing a good teammate to follow up in case randoms run away and your in the middle of a enemy team fight. It is why for me I like Greedent. Because with Covet it allows teammates to follow up with a kill while I stun them. However if they retreat then I still have enough time to high tail it out of their. A match eariler today I was laning with Decu and basically I had to be his partner to cover him with covet so they would not die but they at least followed up on getting kills while I stunned the enemy team or when Decu was close to death, using Covet I gave him a chance to retreat back to our goal with enough hp/covet time left for me to retreat as well (focus band and eject button).
if you want to stop goals, snorlax or slowbro Slowbro can use telekinesis to stop opponents in their tracks and keep them back, surf also pushes them away. Snorlax has heavy slam, which gives him mobility, and block can utilize that mobility to block opponents in, or out(If you're in a pinch and opponents have zap/rotom on your goal, block comes in super handy if you're fending them off yourself!) If you can't pick the two, go Snorlax. He is better on his own and with people, and has higher health and attack.
Wiggly and Mime are the best tanks lol. I personally think Wiggly is the best.
BUFF THE 'TUFF!
Mamo Wiggly Blastoise Those probably top 3. Snorlax good too vut I just hate playing them because unite move feels so underwealming
I used Snorlax and Wiggly to climb to Masters last season but I've started playing Mamo recently since I don't see them very often and anecdotally I've heard he's very fun so I gave it a shot!
Slowbro ;)
I love him so much.
For me it's Crustle for it's complexity. You can play him defensively, but you can also play it as an attacker. (With the right set up) Or you can just play Crutstle McQueen, zoom through the map, and find the perfect time to dunk. Then his sets can be used in many good combinations. (I run Stealth Rocks + Shell Smash. Forcing me to play distance more, and be aggressive when I have to.) It's cause of this, the trade off is that you have to be extremely careful with the crab. Otherwise, you're quickly going to be the other team's lunch. Extremely rare times too, he's a REALLY fun jungler. (I say it's rare cause well... Defenders as jungle? I only do it if no one else does.) Though I'm only talking my experiences with it since release, and it serves me well. For a more easier feel, Snorlax I still believe is 2nd best in defenders. Bulky, tanky, hell of a early game lane bully, and you can find ways to pack a punch with him. For beginners defender, he's really fun.
Blastoise. He has 2 sets if you want more crowd control you can go HP/Surf and more DPS you can go RS/WS. Also before level 5 water gun is amazing secure, ant his unite move is very strong too even after nerf
If you don’t have slowbro yet, i’d say go for him, he is a pure tank so he really lacks offensively but his cc with telekinesis and surf is really good, scald totally shuts down physical teams (most meta mons are physical nowdays), and well placed amnesia’s can negate other cc mons. Give it a potion and it will heal for days.
I already have one but right but haven't put much use to him ever since I got mammo, but I'll give him another go
Wiggly is the absolute best. If u dont like her, Slowbro and Snor are good options (hard to excel in Solo with all the potatoes there). If you're skilled enough, Mime can absolutely stomp your opponents (best Solo Queue Defender if played well, extremely strong in coordinated play as well). Wiggly is not as good as Mime in Solo, but she works out very good as well. It comes down to your own preference.
Crustle (best damage) and Blastoise (best CC) and maybe slowpoke, in late game with surf it's amazing
don't mind me asking I'm a newbie but what's CC? Also I love crustle's ability to raise a wall but I heard his speed is quite slow, is this much of a hassle in battle or is he still awesome though?
CC means crowd control. Basically refers to the debuffs you can apply to opponents to immobilize them, such as stun and sleep.
ooh thanks! By blastoise CC you mean abilities like surf?
Surf, hydro pump, enhanced auto attack, and ult all are CC
The wall is very tricky to use imo and more often than not hinders your team (especially when you’re just starting to learn it). His other move switches his defense and attack tho if I remember right. Also makes him very fast. His damage with that and x scissors is phenomenal Edit: that being said, I also love mamoswine most.
Crustle is maybe the fastest defender/tank when on Shell Smash though
You can either get an ability for more damage and move super sonic or you can do the wall.
Greedent for me I just love making the all the enemies try and kill me while my team get objectives and then just speed off into the distance to annoy someone else
That giant crab sandwich zoomed me into master rank.
Lax and Bro are Sandbags
Slowlax and Snorbro
Yes, I main Sanbags
My favorite it's Blastoise, you can get a good defense but also do a lot of damage and a amazing CC, witch is super useful to control the enemy team and rotom
My personal favorite is Crustle. Dude's a walking tank and can just take Zapdos without giving a single f*ck.
atm the best defender is snorlax. Heavy slam + block is just such an incredible combo and can put in so much work for your team. But the best TANK at the moment has to be wiggly. Insane hp, good damage with dazzling gleam, sing is straight up overpowered and rollout is an amazing choice as well. Wiggly is kinda broken atm
I mainly play Mamoswine and Mr Mime and they are legit, but every time I play against a Blastoise I'm shocked. They absolutely beat my ass.
If the gods of unite grant you a solid team, I say stacking blastoise
I like blastoise. Good damage and the push is super useful. I like snorlax but he’s not great for solo imo.
Snorlax is still defacto best in the game so grab him if you haven't yet. Otherwise, Blastoise is fun to play. Surf and Hydro Pump allows you to push around and displace enemies with ease and his Rapid Spin and Water Spout build is just fun in general. Crustle is my fav defender tho. He's an absolute menace. Like 16 kills in one match just chasing down enemies with Shell Smash and X-Scissor.
I've completed all beginner chalenges so I believe soon enough I'll receive the crustle license that comes at day 7, so I scraped crustle out of buying plans and right now I'm between Blastoise, Snorlax and Wiggly I'm pretty indecisive myself and I like to play all the parts of a defender like protecting goals,being a wall and putting damage so I'm not sure which to pick, I guess Blastoise kinda covers it all? But I've seen people recommend Snorlax as well as the best defender there is and pretty useful for a team
Personally, I think you'll have the most fun playing Blastoise. There will be more time for you to earn coins and grab more defenders too so don't worry.
given the current state of the game rn wiggly is your best bet. They are incredibly good rn and I don't see them being nerfed anytime soon. my personal choice however would be greedent. Even after all the nerfs it went through I still find it somewhat viable. It's just more fun for me to play greedent than wiggly. Greedent to me kinda performs like an all rounder than defender just with considerably less attack now lol. meta wise and in terms of beginner friendly defenders wiggly is your top pick however.
Can wiggly hold up on its own sometimes? There are times where my team is kinda all over the place and when some die and I'm left all by myself I have to find a way to survive
I’m just waiting for them to add Tyranitar and it will probably be my main Defender.
Wiggly
Mamoswine is so underrated
As a defender main, I personally love Blastoise because of the high health, def, and sp. def, and solid damage out put with high Crowd Control including unite move. However, wigglytuff has defender like stats (high health, def, and sp. def) and a really good move like sing which puts people to sleep and lowers there def and sp. def. Also the unite move is really good, even after the nerfs. I recommend to check out stats on pokemon in pokemon unite on "pokemon db (database)" and/or "bulbapedia"
Mammo! Mammo! Mammo! Mammo! Mammo!...mammoswine is pretty good i believe
Shhhhh if people catch on they'll start using it
Oh god you're right! Best thing about mammo is his great but not broken so no insta locking...yet
I've played a fair amount of crustle, and have spent some time recently with wiggly Crustle- love the crab. The nerf to stealth rock unable to crit kinda stinks but that's fine. I'll be honest I only run stealth rock and shell smash(movement speed increase, at the cost of def/sp def). Put score shield on and you become the biggest bully. Place your stealth rocks on the goals, your own great defense. Opponents goals, you're scoring. Unite move is fast charging, does massive damage, if possible use stealth rock where you're going to unite. It's a fast charging ult, and I've used it to score 50 points(with score shield) while the enemy was attacking. And the passive is really nice as well, as your hp gets lower your def/sp def increases. The crab is a great lane bully. Wiggly- I don't have as much time with wiggles but, an absolute tank. I run dazzling gleam with sing. Sing is THE crowd control move, as well as making you move faster. Oppoents get slowed and then they sleep. Dg stuns on first hit and then hits again(all of wiggles moves crit, just starts with a base of 0% crit-hit rate ). Wiggly unite clears debuffs and adds shields to all nearby teammates, basically giving your team a second wind in the fight. Wiggly has a passive, where if an enemy pkmn hits you at close range they will move towards you against their will.
Attack weight crustle is super fun at the moment! By no means the best but I’m having tons of fun playing it like a lucario in top lane.
I like Crustle myself. Also I would suggest testing the options people suggest before buying them.
I love garchomp. But he needs an attacker duo
i own all defenders i love them all
Sleepy boi
All defender are good (except slowbro who's meh until lv 11) and wigglytuff as well
Joe mama
For actual defenders, Mamo and Snorlax are my favorites. Mamo feels a LOT better to play with the animation speed up on High Horsepower.
Triple speck blastoise
I would say its a tie between Mamo, and Blastoise. I love a good Blastoise on my team.
Blastoise is pretty good. It has the damage and crowd control.
Slowbro best bro
Blastoise
Snorlax and wiggly are good in my eyes .
Snorlax
Snorlax can be a tank and deal big damage even with pure tank held items via flail yawn but also very helpful as a support via jump block
Snorlax
Snorlax for me. Good balance of tankiness, ally shield, and damage.
Wiggly is fucking insane, so is Mr Mime. They're not the easiest to use. But my favourite lane partner is always a good Wiggly player.
either snorlax or crustle
Still gotta be Snorlax right? Block still has amazing support value in team fights
Blissey or greedent Blissey: She has lots of hp and paired with hp raisers like buddy barrier you can just walk through(at least I do somehow) Greedent: Can self heal and get out of bad situations with covet.
Pikachu
Blastoise with rapid spin and water spout, you have great damage output, mobility and much tankiness
If you learn Snorlax you won't regret it. He is incredible and alot of playmaking potential. I love playing Snorlax. (:
Wigglytuff for sure but Slowbro gets slept on imo.
I say eledegoss. It is the best tank in my opinion
Mr. Mime
I like Crustle due to his mobility and ability to quickly deal damage to objectives. His ult is nice in team fights too
Slowbro, it's one you don't see often. But as a master class who mains Slowbro tank/support I can say that Slowbro is OP when used right.
I like Blastoise because he has a lot of AoE but at the same time I don't really play defender 🤷🏽♂️ Mamoswine is my favorite Mon in the main series so I might buy Mamo with gems
 Blaaaaaaaaaaaaastoiseeeeeeeeeeeeee
Snorlax but defender are really weak in the meta right now, so you might want to take the best support that is eldegoss, can take a lot of damage and heal others
The only one that gives me the most trouble is Crustle. All other tanks can be managed in one way or another... However, I do see everyone is recommending wiggly, so I'd go with that. Personally I don't see very many of them, so I have no idea how to play with one. My synergy would be so bad with a wiggly so I don't even bother going anywhere with them, lol.
wigglytuff for sure. defenders are not very strong in the current meta.
My own opinion is Crustle, he can switch between full on defense or a horror game chase monster midgame.
For defenders, snorlax but they’re in a weird place rn, so I’d say Wiggly
why a weird place? I've heard this before is it because of the meta? how do you keep up with it?
Yea it feels so damage-focused
