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With the release of Pokemon GO's Psychic Spectacular event, many players have access to a lot of Pokemon they have not had before. Claydol is one of the Pokemon that players may find themselves acquiring during the event due to the abundance of Claydol's pre-evoled form Baltoy.
Players wanting to use Claydol in Pokemon GO's Battle League may not know how to make the most of the Pokemon. This article will go over what moves Claydol can learn and the role it can serve on a team.
Pokemon GO: Best moves for Claydol that take advantage of its defensive capabilities
Claydol is a Psychic and Ground-type, this means that moves that are those types receive a boost to their base damage. However, this is a very weak defensive typing as this leaves Claydol open to Bug, Ghost, Water, Ice, Grass, and Dark-type attacks while only resisting Fighting, Poison, Rock, Electric, and Psychic.
Claydol has access to a few different fast attacks in Pokemon GO. Confusion provides a great balance of damage and energy generation. Confusion is also a Psychic-type move so it deals more damage to Fighting and Poison-type Pokemon. Mud-Slap is a Ground-type fast attack that deals the highest amount of damage per second in Claydol's Pokemon GO moveset. However, while it does do a lot of damage, it lacks in energy generation. Ground-type moves like Mud-Slap hit Electric, Rock, Fire, Steel, and Poison-type for super effective damage. Due to the large amount of types Mud-Slap hits for super effective damage, it is the recommended move for a defensive build. Claydol's last fast attack in Pokemon GO is Extrasensory. Extrasensory is a Psychic-type attack like Confusion. Unlike Confusion, however, Extrasensory deals less damage but generates a lot more energy with every use.
For charged attacks, Claydol has a lot more options in Pokemon GO. Many of these options provide Claydol with a lot of useful coverage. The two Ground-type moves Claydol has access to are Earthquake and Earth Power. Earthquake should be used if the player chooses to run a Ground-type move as Earth Power is worse in every way aside from energy usage. Gyro Ball is a decent Steel-type move that does not use a lot of energy, however, it does not cover any of Claydol's weaknesses and should be avoided. Shadow Ball and Ice Beam are great moves on any other Pokemon and are probably good on Claydol if the trainer can predict what Pokemon Claydol will be up against.
However, both of these attacks only cover one of Claydol's weaknesses. Shadow Ball covers the Ghost weakness while Ice Beam covers the Grass weakness. Psychic is Claydol's last charged attack in Pokemon GO. It's a great move to run if the player chooses to run Mud-Slap as it will provide great offensive coverage. The type of the move is Psychic, because of which it gains a boost and hits harder.
In summary, Claydol can play a pretty good Ground or Psychic tank as well as being a decent all-rounder in Pokemon GO with all of its coverage options and a defense stat of 229. Claydol should not be used for its offensive capabilities as it only has an attack stat of 140. Claydol should utilize Earthquake and Confusion on a defense team as this provides a strong Ground move to shake up the opponent's active Pokemon, and a great damaging fast attack that can chip away at the opponent.
