A Rant About Aggron
The other day, I wasted a remote raid pass. I saw a Legendary Mega Raid for Mega Latias, saw 4 other people doing it and thought I’d join in. 5 accounts sounded plenty, right? As I jumped in, I felt even better as I noticed that I was the lowest account there, at level 45. It takes genuine effort to get to level 40, let alone 45. Yet somehow we failed this raid. We failed it 4 times before I gave up, having gone through a huge number of potions and revives. The Mega Latias had Charm and Psychic and no double weakness. Charm meant that most of its weaknesses, Dragon and Dark in particular, would take super effective damage, and STAB Psychic could easily kill Pokemon that didn’t resist it. Sure, dragon types do a bit more damage, but Dark resists Psychic so you can stick around for longer. Hydreigon was not a good choice at all due to Charm hitting it for x4 damage, but I have an army of Breaking Swipe Tyranitars, backed up by a couple of level 40 Dialgas.
There are multiple reasons why we failed, but I like to think I was not the reason why. After all, despite having 5 accounts in the raid, I only ever saw two Mega Pokemon, my Mega Tyranitar and a Mega Salamence. After the second attempt, I swapped the Tyranitar out for a Mega Rayquaza, but it died way too quickly because it didn’t resist Psychic, and Psychic is hard to dodge. At the same time, I could keep my Tyranitar out for longer because Psychic did less damage to it than Charm did. Rayquaza and Mamoswine are good for damage, but not when one Psychic takes out 3/4 of their health and Charm finishes a Rayquaza off.
But frankly, I don’t think my choices mattered. Because I saw not one but TWO Aggrons in this raid. In the first raid. I’d kinda understand on the 4th raid, if you were running out of potions but didn’t have much else, but fucking come on! All these accounts were level 45 or higher, YOU SHOULD NOT BE USING AGGRON! It doesn’t even have any moves that are helpful here! Sure it can learn Dragon Tail as a fast move, but Aggron has a low damage stat and doesn’t do STAB damage because it’s steel/rock!
And speaking of steel/rock, if you need either for a raid, there are a lot of better options. Aggron has a really low attack stat. Meteor Beam has done a LOT to help Aggron as a rock type, but even then, Rampardos is so much better, and Rhyperior does way more damage while having pretty good bulk as well. And as a steel type, Metagross outclasses it in every way. Even Mega Aggron is outclassed by normal Metagross.
The only thing Aggron has going for it is bulk and a long list of resistances. However, its weaknesses, ground, fighting and water, are all pretty damaging ones, and pretty much everyone has a Machamp or two. At the same time, a lot of bosses also have Close Combat or Focus Blast as charge moves, even if they’re not fighting types. This means that it can’t compete in Master League, because there are a lot of water, ground and fighting types around, and at lower levels, there are Pokemon with better moves. For example, Bastiodon is also rock/steel, but has even more health and defense, but it also gets better moves – Smack Down is a vastly superior fast move and Flamethrower gives it coverage, while Aggron at low levels needed for Great and Ultra League doesn’t quite have the same bulk.
There’s only ONE place you should use Aggron, and that’s a Mega Aggron in a Xerneas raid. Because, at the time of writing, we don’t have Mega Metagross. And even then, that Aggron is only there to boost everyone else’s Metagrosses. Mega Aggron will sadly be completely useless when Mega Metagross comes out. And, to make matters worse, you can’t even use Mega Aggron as a Mega rock-type Pokemon, because the Mega Evolution actually LOSES the rock typing. But even if it was still a steel/rock type Mega, Mega Tyranitar, Mega Diancie and Mega Aerodactyl all outclass it, and Mega Aerodactyl came out at around the same time Mega Aggron did.
But the thing is, I really want to like Aggron. It’s a fucking cool Pokemon. It’s one of those big, dinosaur-looking badasses like Nidoking and Tyranitar. Except cooler, because it’s also a steel type. Heck, I really like Lairon as well, I think that’s a badass Pokemon too. And Aggron is WAY cooler-looking than the weird, bald-looking Rhyperior, who seems to lose a lot of Rhydon’s plating in exchange for a rocky safety vest. But in Pokemon GO, it’s just such a bad Pokemon.