'Pokemon Go' Rebalances Game, Leading to Major Buffs and a Few Nerfs

Pokemon Go's long-awaited rebalance is finally here.

Earlier this fall, Pokemon Go announced that they would impliment a mass rebalance of Pokemon stats, mostly to make Defense stats a bit more relevant to the game. While we got a sneak peek of this last month, Pokemon Go rolled back the changes due to a glitch that made most Pokemon in need of healing after the changes were implimented.

Now, Pokemon Go is rolling out the changes for real this time. In a tweet released last night, Pokemon Go confirmed that the changes would go into place today at 4 PM ET.

As mentioned in our last Community Note, we’ll be making some changes to Pokémon effectiveness in battle. Most notably, CP values will be adjusted to improve in-game balance. The rollout will begin November 14 at 1 p.m. PST. More details here: //t.co/OkeJA0nqbi

— Pokémon GO (@PokemonGoApp) November 14, 2018

So - what do these changes mean for players? Well, the biggest change is that "glass cannons" like Gengar will be a lot more useful in battle. Gengar suffered from low defense and stamina stats, which meant that they couldn't take more than one or two charge attacks during raids or gym battles. The rebalance gives "glass cannons" a lot more bulk, which gives these Pokemon a chance to make a bigger impact in the game.

Gengar in particular benefits from this rebalance due to the number of Psychic-type Legendary Pokemon set to be released in the coming months. This Ghost-type Pokemon will be a lot more valuable going forward in Legendary raids.

Other Pokemon that get big boosts from the changes include Breloom, whose high Attack stat is more relevant now that it has a boost in HP, and the Starter Pokemon, which all become solid non-Legendary options in certain Raid and Gym Battles.

The biggest losers in the rebalance are definitely Chansey and Blissey. These two Pokemon are traditionally the top defenders in the game, frustrating low level players with their inordinately high HP. While Chansey and Blissey will still be the top two defenders after the rebalance occurs, their stats have taken a huge hit and their "bulk (a fan-created stat measuring a Pokemon's relative ability to stay alive) has decreased by 25%. Snorlax and Slaking also took more moderate hits to their stats, meaning they are a lot easier to beat in gyms.

While the rebalance isn't a total gamechanger, it will shake up the Pokemon Go meta and create some new niches for Pokemon to fill. Let us know what you think about the changes in the comments below!