I realize Bronzong isn’t a big deal, but I was still curious - if nothing else but to keep my naming nomenclature consistent, to know what it should be ranked with Psyshock as the charged move.
At first glanf it seems like it would be a little better than Psychic. But I’m frequently mistaken about how the various mechanisms affect the damage and output.
Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.
Signed,
Confusion/Psyshock Bronzong
From a PvE perspective, Psychic is the better move, but Bronzong isn’t suited to this application primarily because its attack stat is far too low.
It does have a strong home in PvP Great League though, and in this regard Psyshock generally is the move of choice. In PvP, Confusion hits hard but charges energy slowly, and Psyshock is the cheaper option.
Minor thing, pvp speaking confusion does not charge energy slowly, it’s at 3 energy per turn, just like water gun and bug bite. And it hits like a truck. Actually in terms of damage/energy generation is placed as the second best fast move, just behind counter (4/3.5)
Agree with everything else, bronzong is not at home in PvE. PvP is where it belongs
“per turn” look at the per second generation. Water gun and bug bite have a much faster cooldown and will generate energy much faster than confusion.
Not really
A turn is 0.5 seconds. The benefit of using water gun and bug bite is that they only take one turn to use, that way you can reach energy requirements every single turn, confusion every 2 seconds. But the energy generation is the same, 3 energy per turn (12 every single confusion).
This cooldown situation has it’s pros and cons, but the energy generation per turn is the same in this 3 moves: confusion, water gun and bug bite.
And confusion is at 4 damage per turn, 33% more than the other 2 moves…
You’re right. I still think the 2 second cooldown doesnt hold much benefit over a move like dragonbreath (which has the same stats @ a 1/4 of the cooldown), vine wipe, or shadow claw. Dying while waiting for cooldown with a sliver of energy needed for a charge move is the worst.
damage is great, but you’re gonna be able to get off more charge moves in that span of time using water gun or bug bite depending on the energy requirements of the charge move. Using aqua tail as an example: with water gun, you’d get it off 1.5 seconds faster than using confusion. So i wouldn’t put it 2nd to counter. I’d say dragonbreath and shadow claw are easily better than confusion in that there is less chance of undershooting your energy requirements while waiting for your fast move.
If I recall correctly, Psyshock is still preferrable for PVP, where Bronzong matters. It has lower energy cost that compliments Heavy Slam or Bulldoze or whatever second charged move you run, and works wonders with Confusion.
No, Confusion does not charge specials slowly. However, sometimes it can feel that way because it’s clunkier to use (more damage and energy per hit but less total hits). But as far as I remember it still has fairly high energy generation.
For PvE, Bronzong shouldn’t be an attacker so that’s moot, and as a Defender it probably wants Heavy Slam.
The exception is that you get all the damage and energy in that first hit. If your opponent uses a charge attack, you still deal 16 damage with Confusion vs 4 with Dragonbreath, etc. Pros and cons to each.
Wouldn’t that depend on when they last attacked? If your opponent times 3 dragonbreaths right before your next confusion, would it not matter if you did 16 damage after the charge attack? That’s what would happen regardless, you still missed out on 12 damage.
Yep, you mentioned all the pros of “short” fast damage moves, wich are true.
But you also have cons.
PvP is quite complex: like PvE, you have fast moves and charged moves. But you also have 2 shields, and the play around them is what defines the game, and makes it so fun.
When the match starts both mons use their fast moves, dealing damage and farming energy at the same time. Lets say for example Dragon Breath dragonair vs Confusion bronzong. At one point, one of them will use a charged move. At that moment, let’s say dragonair, goes for the aqua tail. The game freezes, animation going to dragonair, mini game, 5 seconds, unleash, the opponent can shield or not. Then the game continues. But when you tap the charged move, the game registers one last move from the opponent side (move, not turn). So, when you tap aqua tail, bronzong gets a confusion. You can notice that because of the animation, try it and you’ll see a purple wave hitting dragonair right after the zoom. This confusion is 16 damage and 12 energy advantage to the opponent, because the game records the whole move, not the turn.
Now let’s say you wait to use aqua tail. Bronzong uses psyshock, you have the chance to go a last Dragon Breath to get the advantage. Dragon breath is 4 damage, and 3 energy. It’s good to do that, but not as good as doing it with confusion.
This mechanichs have been there since the beginning of the game, and people who play competitive PvP use it all the time. Is it on purpose? Is it a bug? We don’t exactly, but I believe it’s done intentionally by niantic, to somehow remedy the “long animation fast dealing damage moves”, and priority issues.
There are some ways to evade this extra move, but only if you move after the opponent.
At first, the key was “piggyback”: waiting for the opponent to use it’s charged atk, and inmediatamente use your own charged atk. The game won’t register a fast move from your opponent, and That way you record one extra fast atk, wining the race for the next charged move. This was esential in mirror matches. Vigoroth vs Vigoroth used to be straight counter, not a single body slam.
This was eliminated, and replaced by 2 new sistems:
“Back to back” (same as piggyback but you use 2 charged atks in a row, lets say 2 aqua tails. You get only one hit instead of two. Hard to use but can prove amazing. Bibarel for example can back to back surf for the sure win against alolan ninetales, otherwise it’s a tie or a loss)
“QSA”, also known as piggyback 2.0, same Effect but little more complex to use. Google it for more info.
So, as said before, PvP is quite complex. There are pros and cons between fast fast moves and slow ones. It’s not that dragon breath is better than confusion, or the other way… it depends on every single situation and player. Niantic knows what’s doing I believe. Shame on bugs, but well
And there was me thinking it was all about who has the fastest finger tap!
Quite looking forward to the battle league gonna be a big learning curve but hopefully something I can play during tea breaks at work? 
