Strongest Electric Type in Pokemon Go

[doulie]

So you are looking for a strong electric type to round off your Pokemon GO team? Maybe you are looking to counter those pesky Vaporeons and Lapras that are often left as gym defenders. Well, let's jump into your options.

For now, there are only 9 electric type Pokemon in Pokemon go.
They are:
Pikachu
Raichu
Magnemite
Magneton
Voltorb
Electrode
Jolteon
Electabuzz
Zapdos - Has yet to appear

Since we are looking for the strongest possible electric type, all pre-evolution Pokemon are eliminated, leaving us with Raichu, Magneton, Electrode, Jolteon, Electabuzz and Zapdos.

So which is the strongest? And by strongest, we mean 'who does the most damage?'

According to the Pokemon GO CP tier list, the only S tier electric type Pokemon is Zapdos. It is yet to appear in the wild, but when it does, expect it to be on par with the powerhouse Snorlax. This will be your strongest electric type when it finally shows up in the game. But until it does, or in case it is only available to team instinct members... let's look at your alternatives.

After Zapdos, your second strongest electric type Pokemon appear in the B tier. Electabuzz and Jolteon tie for an average 28 CP per power up. Raichu is a close third at 27 CP. Magneton is in the lower B tier, at 25 CP per power up. And Electrode does not appear until the C tier with an average of 22 CP per power up... Let's eliminated.Magneton and Electrode right here. We are now down to the three front runners, Electabuzz, Jolteon and Raichu.

Let's take a looks at their Maximum Combat Power.

Electabuzz has a maximum CP of 2119
Jolteon has a maximum CP of 2140
Raichu has a maximum CP of 2028

Jolteon takes the cake. It is the strongest electric Pokemon with regards to it being able to achieve the highest CP of the electric types outside of Zapdos.

WINNER
Jolteon

Best Moveset
Thunder Shock, Thunder

 

[Marc]

thanks for this Doulie, I was starting to look into it today as I am in need of an electric type

 

[doulie]

thanks for this Doulie, I was starting to look into it today as I am in need of an electric type

Yea, no problem. I found myself looking into it too... i fugured that others might be in a similar situtation since electric types are a bit few and far betweem.

A couple things I should mention are.

1. IVs. Because the maximum CP of the 3 front runners are soo close, if you can only choose one to evolve and powerup. Choose the one with the highest IVs.
2. Magneton does have that second typing of steel. Which give it resistances to Fairy, Ice, Dragon, Bug, Rock, Normal, Grass and Psychic. Something the pure electric types do not have.

 

[Beck]

Never really thought of this, hardly see any electric-types holding gyms but gotta take the movesets into account too.

 

[Hazama]

The DPS of all of these are fairly similar, and between Electabuzz, Jolteon and Raichu they all have thunder which has roughly 29 dps when used. Raichu does have the most DPS in it's quick move out of the three, but that's only if you're able to get spark instead of thunder shock. The CP only truly matters for how high of a place you are in a gym, as the pokemons base stats can still be high with it being a pokemon with lower base CP. Example of this would be Electrode using the theme of electric types we have going here. It has higher base defense than a perfect IV Electabuzz, Raichu and it comes close to Jolteons by being 4 cp less. Being a frail pokemon it's stamina is only 120 and attack is 150. The reason for lower CP is the calculation on what a pokemons CP should be is more heavily biased on bulkier pokemon such as Vaporeon and Lapras ect.

• Max CP = ((Base_Attack + 15) * ((Base_Defense + 15)^0.5 * (Base_Stamina + 15)^0.5 * 0.7903001^2) / 10

Since most electric types favor speed ( at least in Gen 1 so far) they get shafted in the CP department. Speed only goes into attack and defense very slightly and the formula is this.

• Base Attack = 2.6 * (Atk^0.46)(SpAtk^0.46)(Sp^0.04) + 3
• Base Defense = 2.6 * (Def^0.46)(SpDef^0.46)(Sp^0.04) + 3
• Base Stamina = 2 * HP

If we do these calculations on say ampharos when gen 2 comes out it should have roughly 3700+ CP which is scary to think about. The electric type is a wonderful type in pokemon go that is very good for bringing down bulky water types such as vaporeon, tentacruel and gyarados, which we see in the meta as viable gym holders.
I do agree that Jolteon is one of the better electric types as it is easier to get it's quick move to have STAB as it only has one, and all of it's charge moves are viable options. Where both Raichu and Electabuzz have either a non stab quick move, or charge move.

 

[Hazama]

I forgot to mention how underrated electrodes moveset of spark thunderbolt is. roughly 25.4 dps per second on thunderbolt and spark has 12.5 dps. I am hoping that speed gets a little more balanced in new patches, as it doesn't help the pokemon who usually specialize in speed much. Although they still hit very hard, nobody places them in gyms because you want to keep your pokemon closest to the top as you can. So you can hold onto the gym longer and collect a bigger defender bonus.