CONFIRMED: Pokémon CPs Updated

[ichiDad]

Edit: This change is officially confirmed by Niantic.

Today I opened my game and all my pokemon CP's have shifted! My Gyarados was around 2300 and now it is listed as 2818! My Golem was 2001, now listed at 2535. Both these are over the maximum CP for this monster. I have restarted a few times but things appear messed up! The latest update may have problems.

 

[anon786326]

same for me, some cps went up 500 ithers went down 1-309 points. whats happened? cant find any information on this anywhere

 

[VisualJae]

Dear lord, you're right. I'm not complaining because it could be a sign of a metagame balance overhaul, which we desperately need. A lot of Pokémon that are known to be underwhelming, such as Jolteon, Alakazam, and Gengar received hefty boosts.

Because all Pokémon in GO have their base stats calculated off actual core series stats, I can imagine they changed the formula. Speed may play a much bigger role now considering how some of the Pokémon's CP scaled. For instance, the ones I named above are known to be high speed sweepers in the core series games and their CPs have been massively inflated. Meanwhile, slower Pokémon like Slowbro, Exeggutor, and Nido's had their CP reduced.

Edit: that doesn't explain the massive Golem buff, though... mine jumped up about 500 points. Perhaps the Defense stat has been recalculated because I see Rhydon climbing up as well.

Edit 2: Despite popular demand, Lapras remains unchanged.

This is just an early interpretation. I'm sure the more diehard theorycrafters will figure out the root soon enough.

 

[VisualJae]

Confirmed:

 

[xShibbyx]

Rhydon got a HUGEEE buff..
had one that was 1500.. its now 2300
Jolteon was 1750 now 2250
I also had a Tauros 1400.. now its 2000
Gengar
Alakazam
Gyarados
Flareon
Vaporeon
Cloyster
also got a boost

some Pokemon i noticed get CP nerfed:
Arcanine
Rapidash
Vileplume
Poliwrath
Victreebel
Nidoking
Nidoqueen

 

[VisualJae]

More and more examples have me believing they did adjust the CP calculation formula.

Defense/Sp.Defense, Speed from the core series games should now play more of a role. The original CP formula favored those with high general stats over specialized ones.

The Speed factor favors glass cannon types like Alakazam, Gengar, Jolteon, but that shouldn't play into other buffed Pokémon like Snorlax, Golem, Rhydon, which is probably more between a balance of heavy physical Attack stat and Defense (or Sp.Defense for Snorlax). Meanwhile, those with both low Defense and Speed, such as Wigglytuff, received hefty nerfs.

Then again, Raichu looks relatively unchanged... that's one that confuses me. I really don't think they manually changed base stats for individual Pokémon as that would open up doors to a lot of future development/balancing headaches.

 

[ichiDad]

One confusing thing ... pokemon which were in gyms yesterday still have old CP values. They haven't resorted all the gyms, at least that is what it appears to me.

 

[ichiDad]

But are the actual battles different, or is it just a new formula for calculating CP? My new 2818 CP Gyarados seems overrated. And Golems are easy pickings for water pokemon, not sure why they should be so much higher.

 

[VisualJae]

You can't power up Pokémon that are in Gyms, so it makes sense they don't get updated. Many players who did not see the retroactive changes while logged in saw the results as soon as they manually powered up a Pokémon.

As for buffing Gyarados, I can see it as a move to reward people who grinded the Magikarp. It's the one Pokémon that takes the most grinding to evolve (comparing raw values) and so those who put in the effort should be rewarded plain and simple.

As for Golem, it's an offensive beast even before it was buffed. I can see it as a move to allow it to last a little longer on the defensive end when it was virtually overlooked prior. Again, I'm chalking this up to reformulated base stats. There are numerous "casualties" or Pokémon that don't deserve any nerfs, such as Blastoise and Dewgong. It's likely they were just caught in the stats overhaul and lost out.

 

[Neltharion83]

But are the actual battles different, or is it just a new formula for calculating CP? My new 2818 CP Gyarados seems overrated. And Golems are easy pickings for water pokemon, not sure why they should be so much higher.

All pokemons have at least one weakness, and the double-type pokemon tend to have a really bad weakness.

Sure, golems are easily destroyed by water pokemon, but water pokemon get destroyed by grass pokemon, and those get destroyed by fire pokemon, which get destroyed by water pokemon.

And gyarados has a nasty double weakness against lightning type, dragoran has a nasty double weakness against ice type, and exeggcute has a nasty double weakness against bug type.

 

[ichiDad]

How does this make sense? Under the new rules, I have a CP 2334 Alakazam with only 87 HP! Meanwhile, my best Hypno is CP 1770 and has 136 HP. I will have to try battling with the Alakazam to see if it is really that much better.

 

[VisualJae]

How does this make sense? Under the new rules, I have a CP 2334 Alakazam with only 87 HP! Meanwhile, my best Hypno is CP 1770 and has 136 HP. They have similar movesets (Psycho Cut/Psychic and Confusion/Psyshock).

Stamina stat remains unchanged. What changed is how base Attack and Defense stats are calculated, which will influence how they're factored into the overall CP formula.

Hypno only has 144 base Attack.

Alakazam has a whopping 271.

Alakazam's new Attack stat greatly outweighs the advantage Hypno has in Defense/Stamina (215/170 vs. Alakazam's 194/110).

 

[Kid=1412]

I like this meta change! Never thought there would be buffs and nerfs in Go as PoGo players were not as adamant complainers as compared to Clash Royale.

Expect to see more diverse gym defenders moving forward.

The only nerf I hate even if just for quite a bit is the Clefable one. She is my Dragonite killer.

 

[ichiDad]

I'm not so sure. Vaporeon is stronger while most of its grass attackers are weaker. Electric are mostly stronger which is good. But I fear gyms will now have even more Vaporeon. I see Rhydon replacing Arcanine and that's about it. I'm feeling neutral about the change.

Personally, on the plus sign I do have a near-perfect Rhydon (15/14/15), which is better than any Vaporeon, Gyarados or Dragonite I have. He is only level 18 now, but if I can mine 100K in dust this week I can get him up to CP 2887!

 

[VisualJae]

The Vaporeon buff isn't that bad. A pre-buffed Jolteon that's roughly 30-40% lower CP can still beat a Vaporeon 1v1, though it's essential that charge attacks are dodged.

Now that the CP cap for Jolteon is closer to Vaporeon, with Jolteon receiving a massive base Attack boost and some Defense boost (Vaporeon also gained some Defense, but not on the level of Jolteon's gain in Attack), the competition should be closer.

Lastly, Grass-types completely owned pure Water-types like Vaporeon. Powerhouses like Venusaur could defeat an equal CP Vaporeon without losing more than 15-20% HP. I would see a closer fight between a Victreebel and Vaporeon, though, as Victreebel lost out on both Attack and Defense stats.

Of course, most players will run high CP Pokémon in Gyms without giving additional thought. But like before, the meta will adapt in time. I don't see Rhydon posing too much of a threat given its horrendous double weakness to common Grass and Water attacks. The same applies to Golem. Both of them will be better suited for offense.

 

[Taemin]

Oh thank god. At least some of their stats make a bit more sense, now. ;;;

My two strongest went down, buuuut that's ok. More motivation to raise some others that I have and should be paying more attention to.

 

[ichiDad]

My top 10 are now:
Dragonite 3093 ^
Gyarados 2818 ^ ^
Vaporean 2723 ^
Vaporean 2648 ^
Golem 2535 ^ ^
Vaporean 2491 ^
Vaporean 2478 ^
Exeggutor 2416 v
Arcanine 2402 v
Arcanine 2360 v

Sadly, I do not have a good Jolteon, even now ...

 

[VisualJae]

Just conducted a few Gym battles during my lunch break to see any differences.

- My CP1450 Wigglytuff can still beat a CP2400 Snorlax on its own and still put up a fight against non-Steel Wing Dragonite.
- My CP2200 Jolteon can beat a CP2400 Vaporeon easily (much easier than pre-buff) and completely melt Gyarados, even those close to CP3000.
- Defensive Rhydon are jokes. They get completely wrecked by my Vaporeon/Venusaur.
- Charizard is beastly and is a very legitimate counter to Exeggutor. Wing Attack for quick move is ideal.
- Flareon and Arcanine are much more comparable to each other now. My Flareon edges out my Arcanine for DPS (both around CP2400), but Arcanine is still noticeably beefier. Less Defense, but more Stamina.

 

[Neltharion83]

So the ones that are awesome for attacking will be bad gym defenders and vice versa. Mostly. There will no doubt still be some allrounders.

We need new tier lists for attackers and defenders.

The event is well-timed, we can let this sink in, and then its double stardust, and then we all have a really huge pile of dust as we figure out how best to spend it. So there are few regrets for the pokemon you powered up that now got nerfed, and lots of dust to spend it on those which are now good but which were not worth powering up until now.

 

[ichiDad]

I battled a few Rhydons in gyms, didn't dodge Earthquake a few times, paid the price! Heatwave by Flareons I also find tricky to dodge, I think it's underrated as a defensive move. Blizzard is the hardest of all to dodge for me.

Gengar vs Alakazam didn't seem that favorable. I had much better luck battling Alakazam with Ninetales (with Feint Attack).