Here are some tips for those of you who are starting out with bows, or maybe wanting to learn more about them, from someone who has over 31,000 crucible final blows with them over the course of the 2 or so years that they've been in the game.If there's something I've missed, I'd like to know in the comments so that I can add it to the post, or at the least to my own knowledge.
In general, there are standard rolls that are perfect for lightweight and precision frame bows.
Lightweights have a few more options for you, and it depends on how you are using them.
The only thing that persists across all of the bows is that you're aiming for
Fiberglass Arrowshaft as your second column perk - this is because of the effect to the accuracy stat.
Accuracy and Stability
Accuracy is to increase the length of the aim assist cone, and be able to hit shots easier at a distance, and the stability stat is to keep the cone from expanding as much in the air, and to help you deal with close quarters, mid range, hip fire and fast firing engagements.
The recoil direction actually depicts which side your bow is likely to land after firing a shot, so counterbalance mods may have a small effect here
Lightweights
The String and Masterwork
The string and masterwork are very much tied together on these frames, and it depends on what you're going for.
There's a draw time cap of 540 on lightweight frames (even the perk archers tempo only reduces this to around 536) - If you have Elastic String, I would recommend an Accuracy Masterwork, however, you can get away with a Reload Masterwork if you have Moving Target, or another accuracy increasing perk available. For the strings with a higher draw time, you'll want a draw time masterwork almost every time. If you're wanting handling, go with Flexible String - It's an absolutely solid choice on the Arsenic Bite, but if you want to increase your accuracy, Polymer String is the play.
Precision Frames
The String and Masterwork
You're always going to want Elastic String on these frames. Choose between a Draw Time or a Reload Masterwork.
I personally prefer the Draw Time of 576, over the reload bonus, which can be catered to with mods and exotics
Legendary Damage Numbers and Perks
Draw Type | Precision | Lightweight |
No Draw Body | ↓ 61 | ↑ 71 |
Quarter Draw Body | ↓ 67 | ↑ 76 |
Half Draw Body | ↑ 91 | ↓ 81 |
Full Draw Body | ↑ 101 | ↓ 86 |
Over Draw Body | ↑ 95 | ↓ 84 |
No Draw Precision | ↓ 91 | ↑ 113 |
Quarter Draw Precision | ↓ 100 | ↑ 121 |
Half Draw Precision | ↓ 109 | ↑ 129 |
Full Draw Precision | ↑ 152 | ↓ 138 |
Over Draw Precision | ↑ 143 | ↓ 134 |
Explosive Heads will take half of the damage from the original arrow and put it into a blast radius, instead of being a flat damage number - this means that the more you draw back, the more your explosion will do. This can range from 31-51 (precision frames) and 35-43 (lightweights).
Note: Explosive Heads themselves are unaffected by Rampage, Swashbuckler and other damage related perks. Rampage on precision frames will 1 tap at 3x, or at 1x with most other damage buffs. On lightweights it's used to up the weapon consistency. 2 bodyshots with 1x rampage will kill 4th tier resil and less, and 2x will double body any guardian.
Dragonfly will do around 49-56 damage while I was testing, and when you add dragonfly spec, it increases to 95.
Swashbuckler is quite possibly the most broken damage perk on bows. Pair with a damage buffing melee (or any other damage buff) on lightweights to one shot kill (before the buff it will do 183 to the head at x5). Precision Frames will deal 202 on a perfect draw at x5, killing every guardian.
Rapid Hit is pretty much a dead perk if you have bow reloader, as it will go up to around x3 before it stops having an effect. If you have anything else that enhances reload speed (ophidian aspects come to mind as a great one) then it really becomes useless.
Archers Tempo is a risky perk to have. You'll want it on a bow with a draw time that is greater than its archetypes minimum to get any noticeable effect out of it, but if you feel like you need more accuracy and prefer a longer draw because of that, then this will be the perk for you. I’ll be trying to get some more numbers for this over the next week or so.
Moving Target and Surplus are two neutral perks that are fantastic. If you use your abilities often, I'd go with moving target, but a heart of inmost light titan or someone more conservative with their abilities may prefer surplus.
Snapshot Sights is a great perk on bows, and will give you a good transition point if you're used to Le Mon's ADS speed.
Opening Shot is a fantastic perk if you're having issues with the accuracy (perhaps you don't have Fiberglass in the second column) - and even if you do, this will make your shots crisp as all hell at a distance.
Killing Wind is absolutely a fantastic perk to go for, and going for Natural Fletching instead of Fiberglass can be recommended in this case, as the stability + the extra weapon aim assist range will doubly effect the accuracy cone
Sympathetic Arsenal is the archers auto loading holster, meaning you can use your killing capacity to reload that machine gun in PvE, or the quickdraw fusion in your back pocket in PvP. Don’t sleep on the pairing with fighting lion either, double dipping for consistency on the thin the herd playstyle, always having your heavy loaded
Firmly Planted is an interesting one, as it will increase accuracy, stability and aim down sights speed while crouched - this also procs on slides - and drawing back your arrow at the start of a slide will mean it’s drawn by the time you’ve finished, the whole time, your arrows will be more sticky
Lightweight Frames
A no draw headshot and no draw body shot will kill at 2nd tier resil, but a quarter draw is needed above that for 1 of the arrows - preferably the head to cover most resilience tiers, but a body should cover 6th tier and less.
Precision Frames
You're gonna need to flick shot the head twice at a quarter draw or more, or fully draw and hit the head before you can flickshot an arrow into someones body.
Note: A guardian at max resilience will survive the double quarter draw flick approach You can also body shot and melee with this build with no buffs in a perfect draw (max resil) or an overdraw (6th tier or lower)
Exotic Damage Numbers
Draw Type | Le Monarque | Trinity Ghoul | Wishender | Leviathans Breath |
No Draw Body | 61 | 21x3 | 61+30 | 51 |
Quarter Draw Body | 67 | 23x3 | 65+30 | 100 |
Half Draw Body | 91 | 25x3 | 68+30 | 143 |
Full Draw Body | 101+24 | 35x3 | 72+30 | 343 |
Over Draw Body | 95 | 33x3 | 71+30 | 300 |
No Draw Precision | 91 | 31x3 | 109+30 | 91 |
Quarter Draw Precision | 100 | 34x3 | 116+30 | 159 |
Half Draw Precision | 109 | 37x3 | 122+31 | 228 |
Full Draw Precision | 152+24 | 52x3 | 129+30 | 548 |
Over Draw Precision | 143 | 49x3 | 126+30 | 479 |
Vorpal Weapon (Precision Frame) Damage Numbers
Super | Head | Body |
Goldie | 181 | 121 |
Chaos Reach | 145 | 97 |
Blade Barrage | 124 | 83 |
Well of Radiance | 121 | 81 |
Daybreak | 119 | 79 |
Hammers | 119 | 79 |
Nova Warp | 119 | 79 |
Shadebinder | 119 | 79 |
Spectral Blades | 117 | 78 |
Sentinel | 114 | 76 |
Striker | 114 | 76 |
Arc Staff | 114 | 76 |
Burning Maul | 114 | 76 |
Thundercrash | 114 | 76 |
Tether (while tethering) | 114 | 76 |
Revenant | 114 | 76 |
Spectral Blades (Invis) | 111 | 74 |
Behemoth | 97 | 65 |
The Reticle and Draw Length
⊙ | | | - This is what the reticle looks like when you aren't drawn back (well, this is sideways, but you get the idea) - when you draw back your arrow, the bottom lines will be accurate for a quarter draw and the lines will get closer together past the half draw mark to keep accurately representing the flight distance - ⊙||| - before disappearing entirely when you're fully drawn back and you no longer have to lead your target - ⊙
If you're sprinting towards a target, tap/pull back in the opposite direction to be able to get that reticle back (same as every weapon in destiny) so you can judge the distance to draw time and actually start drawing back your bow without having a small delay or whiff entirely because of it cancelling your sprint instead of drawing
When you're aimed down sights, there is a line at the bottom of the reticle, that will be accurate up to around 15 and 20 meters before you have to judge additional falloff height (precision and lightweight no-draw ranges respectively) this distance will increase the longer that you draw.
Draw Type | Precision | Lightweight | Line |
No Draw | ↓ 12m | ↑ 18m | Bottom |
Quarter Draw | ↑ 24m | ↓ 20m | Middle |
Half Draw | ↑ 31m | ↓ 25m | Top |
Full draws and near perfect draws will tend towards being on target to the center of the reticle - and it's just about practice (note, when I'm using quarters and halves, it's more about where the string is drawn back visually, rather than how long you've been drawing back, as that depends on what string you have).
The lower draws can be effective, but they do require learning of how your draw time effects the flight path and where you have to release your shot to get the best accuracy - if you want to rely more on flick shots and getting your accuracy down, you could go for a higher draw time lightweight frame to train with before increasing the draw time when you’re able to judge your shots better.
A perfect draw isn't when the bow starts glowing, there's about an 8 frame window just before where the arrow will release silently and do full damage. That's the perfect draw.
Builds
Get Down Mr President
- Biting Winds with Swashbuckler
- Insurmountable Skull Fort on Top Tree Striker
Simply shoulder charge your way to 1 tap headshots
But I am the shotgun...
- One Two Punch shotgun in your kinetic slot
- Liars Handshakes
- Top Tree Arc Strider
- Trinity Ghoul
Shoot with the shotgun, 1 down, punch the next, 2 down, dodge and switch to Trinity Ghoul, punch again, 3 down, shoot the floor with trinity and carry on punching... FANTASTIC WORK You now have all of the combination blow, so just trinity the floor and punch away
Thomas the Siege Engine
- Khepri's Horn
- Deafening Whisper
- Whispering Slab with Swashbuckler
- Sunspot Titan with Thermite Grenades
I'm not sure if this one even needs explaining - but when you make a sunspot, stand in it and have swashbuckler, you'll one tap
Wrath of Cupid
- Top Tree Dawn
- Karnstein Armlets
- Biting Winds with Swash
Like with the first build, except you can deliver the punch down the hallway heal from it, pop heat rises for perfect in air accuracy and kills to get your melee back to start the entire process again
Corrosive Sting
- Le Monarque
- Khepri's Sting
- Middle Tree Night Stalker
Invis when you're crouching and get that precision final blow, poison clouds everywhere and the ability to melee yourself out of most situations, this will be the build for you if you like watching your opponents suffer in their final moments. Also, note, if you hit someones face with your smoke from a distance and they stay in the cloud, they're probably going to die from that alone
A Hunger For Wishes
- Blink Devour Warlock
- Autoloading Holster Demolitionist Truth Teller
- Wishender
- Felwinters Helm
You can see through walls, you can bounce grenades off of walls, you can no draw bodyshot guardians and clean them up with a melee to heal and you can debuff the surrounding enemies with a fully charged melee. I don’t even know what the damage numbers are on regular guardians on a full draw, it doesn’t display, it just deletes and you heal. Run alongside your favourite behemoth buddy for their tectonic harvest for the best results
Edit I’m going to start working on a PvE post like this, as there will be a lot more damage numbers - I hope that you don’t mind waiting until next season for it though
submitted by "Its DNA is said to contain the genetic codes of all Pokémon, so it can use all kinds of techniques...." The "Under The Lights" article series provides deeper dives on Pokémon, ones with breakout potential in ongoing formats. My
last look at today's featured 'mon was many moons (in a time when GBL was just a twinkle in Hanke's eye, and there had been no such thing as a "move rebalance" yet) and nearly 150 articles ago, but with a format about to hit where it has top tier potential, it is time once again to put
Mew, the ultimate Pokémon Swiss army knife, back
under the lights.
MEW
Psychic Type Attack: 121 (
119 High Stat Product)
Defense: 120 (
122 High Stat Product)
HP: 128 (
129 High Stat Product)
(Highest Stat Product IVs: 10-15-13, 1499 CP, Level 16.5) So first, a caveat to frame everything below: while I still very much want to go back and do a FULL look at Mew across all three leagues at some point, that is a
massive undertaking (I don't think anyone has even gone in depth on Mew in ONE league like I did so long ago), and I frankly just don't have the time for that right now. (Maybe when things are hopefully slower in December or January?) For today, I am focusing once again on just Great League, and more specifically on Kanto Cup. Because I have gotten more questions about Mew than anything else for Kanto, and I barely even mentioned Mew in
my full budget/meta analysis on Kanto Cup because it IS such an arduous endeavor. I responded to some folks hinting at that and saying that Mew would deserve an entire article in and of itse--wait a minute. Why not just WRITE a feature article on it?
And so here we are.
Anyway, it is obviously the movepool that will be the primary focus of this article, but let's start simply with just the stats for now. Mew is pretty average across the board in terms of Attack, Defense, and HP. That's not a bad thing though. Its Attack and overall bulk are comparable to Swampert and Froslass, for example, and you know how well THEY perform in Great League!
Many of the major Psychic types in Great League come with a secondary typing (Steel, Fighting, Flying, Ground, etc.). So as a reminder, pure Psychics like Mew are inherently weak to Dark, Ghost, and Bug damage, and resist Fighters and opposing Psychics.
Okay, now strap in. We're going to at least list ALL of Mew's currently available moves, and this alone could take a little while. If I've done my math right, there are
312 possible combinations.
Fast move options first, in alphabetical order.
(DPT = Damage Per Turn, EPT = Energy gained Per Turn, CD = Cooldown turns; 1 Turn = 0.5 Seconds) Fast Moves: - Charge Beam (Electric, 1.67 DPT, 3.67 EPT, 1.5 CD)
- Cut (Normal, 3.0 DPT, 2.0 EPT, 0.5 CD)
- Dragon Tail (Dragon, 3.0 DPT, 3.33 EPT, 1.5 CD)
- Frost Breath (Ice, 3.5 DPT, 2.5 EPT, 1.0 CD)
- Infestation (Bug, 2.0 DPT, 4.0 EPT, 1.5 CD)
- Poison Jab (Poison, 3.0 DPT, 3.5 EPT, 1.0 CD)
- Pound (Normal, 2.5 DPT, 2.0 EPT, 1.0 CD)
- Rock Smash (Fighting, 3.0 DPT, 2.0 EPT, 1.5 CD)
- Shadow Claw (Ghost, 3.0 DPT, 4.0 EPT, 1.0 CD)
- Snarl (Dark, 1.67 DPT, 4.33 EPT, 1.5 CD)
- Steel Wing (Steel, 3.5 DPT, 2.5 EPT, 1.0 CD)
- Struggle Bug (Bug, 3.0 DPT, 2.67 EPT, 1.5 CD)
- Volt Switch (Electric, 3.0 DPT, 4.0 EPT, 2.0 CD)
- Waterfall (Water, 4.0 DPT, 2.67 EPT, 1.5 CD)
STILL a who's who of mostly mediocre moves... despite many move shakeups since Mew's release, these are still mostly so-so moves at best, with a few notable exceptions. Let's get this out of the way:
Cut,
Pound,
Rock Smash, and
Struggle Bug are all bad, bad moves. 3.0 is considered exactly average for damage output and energy generation for fast moves. If a move is below average in one category, it better be above average in the other or there's really no reason to consider it. And Cut, Pound, Rock Smash, and Struggle Bug all break that mold in the wrong way, having one stat at or below average... and the other stat below average as well. They are all non-starters.
Others with above average damage and below average energy generation (
Frost Breath,
Steel Wing) or the opposite of higher EPT but below average DPT (
Charge Beam) are viable, but unexciting. Personally, I recommend TMing away any of these fast moves for PvP purposes.
And then there are the standouts....
- Snarl was 2.67 DPT/3.67 EPT move way back when, but now it has one of the very highest EPTs in the game (4.33 EPT), representing Mew's highest energy potential and making it an exceptional move. It is a strictly better Charge Beam in a better typing.
- Dragon Tail and Poison Jab have above average EPT while maintaining the "average" 3.0 DPT, and both come in typings with good overall coverage.
- Waterfall has way above average damage in exchange for dipping just below average in energy generation.
- Volt Switch used to be Mew's WORST fast move back in the day, with a putrid line of 2.4 DPT, 2.0 EPT, and a 2.5 second Cooldown. 🤢 But now, it is by far one of its best, with good steady damage and way above average energy gains. But there are two strikes against it. Volt Switch is very slow, with an awkward 2 full seconds for each fast move to complete its cycle and allow you to take further action, which can be very inconvenient when you're rushing to make use of those energy gains and fire off a charge move. And second, it's not the greatest typing, with several common typings (Grass, Ground, Dragon, and opposing Electrics) all resisting it.
These moves are all viable, and if you're running out of TMs to the point that you may end up stuck with one of the many poor move options above if you keep TMing, you can stop here. I will at least briefly show what each of these can do for you in Kanto Cup and beyond.
But despite move shakeups over the last year of PvP play, there is still one move you really, REALLY want above all others, regardless of charge move(s) or role you want Mew to fill on your team, and that move is
Shadow Claw. It is strictly superior to both Dragon Tail and Poison Jab, matching their damage output and exceeding their energy generation, while also having a lower cooldown than Tail (lower cooldowns making it easier to avoid oveundertapping). On paper, it has the same DPT and EPT as Volt Switch, but half the cooldown, making it far less awkward to race to critical charge moves and/or dip out of battle before the opponent can muster a proper response. Claw is unfortunately resisted by Dark types, and double resisted by Normal types, but it does rip into another Mew nemesis--Ghost types--for super effective damage, as well as the many popular Psychic types (
hey there, Hypno!), and has
very wide neutral coverage. Even Dragon Tail, with its generally wide neutral coverage, is resisted by a greater number of relevant Pokémon in open GBL, including all the varied Steels (Skarmory, Bastiodon, Jirachi, Steelix, Melmetal, Lucario, Registeel... yeah, it's a pretty big and relevant list) and Fairy types. And in Kanto Cup, while there ARE numerous Normal types, only a very small handful (Snorlax, Wigglytuff, and MAYBE Lickitung) are likely to actually come out and play... and the only viable (and the only eligible!) Darks are Alolans: A-Muk and A-Raticate. So you can quite literally count on one hand the number of meta Pokémon in Kanto Cup that resist Shadow Claw. Out of the 3 DPT and >3 EPT moves, Claw is almost unquestionably the best, and
especially in Kanto Cup.
Things are not so clear cut with the charge move(s) of choice, however. There are a slew to choose from:
Charge Moves: - Ancient Power (Rock, 45 damage, 45 energy, 10% Chance to Raise Attack/Defense +2 Stages)
- Blizzard (Ice, 140 damage, 75 energy)
- Bulldoze (Ground, 80 damage, 60 energy)
- Dark Pulse (Dark, 80 damage, 50 energy)
- Dazzling Gleam (Fairy, 110 damage, 70 energy)
- Dragon Claw (Dragon, 50 damage, 35 energy)
- Energy Ball (Grass, 90 damage, 55 energy)
- Flame Charge (Fire, 65 damage, 50 energy, Raises Self Attack +1 Stage)
- Flash Cannon (Steel, 110 damage, 70 energy)
- Focus Blast (Fighting, 140 damage, 75 energy)
- Grass Knot (Grass, 90 damage, 50 energy)
- Gyro Ball (Steel, 80 damage, 60 energy)
- Hyper Beam (Normal, 150 damage, 80 energy)
- Ice Beam (Ice, 90 damage, 55 energy)
- Low Sweep (Fighting, 40 damage, 40 energy)
- Overheat (Fire, 130 damage, 55 energy, Lowers Self Attack +2 Stages)
- Psychic (Psychic, 90 damage, 55 energy, 10% Chance to Lower Opponent Defense -1 Stage)
- Psyshock (Psychic, 70 damage, 45 energy)
- Rock Slide (Rock, 80 damage, 45 energy)
- Solar Beam (Grass, 150 damage, 80 energy)
- Stone Edge (Rock, 100 damage, 55 energy)
- Surf (Water, 65 damage, 40 energy)
- Thunder (Electric, 100 damage, 60 energy)
- Thunderbolt (Electric, 90 damage, 55 energy)
- Wild Charge (Electric, 100 damage, 45 energy, Lowers Self Defense -2 Stages)
A fun fact for those who are seeing a review on Mew for the first time: Mew has no Flying moves. It has at least one move of each type except for that.
The more you know.... As we did with the fast moves, let's see if we can eliminate any really poor charge moves and pare down our analysis. First let's pluck out the moves that are the only one of their typing:
Surf (for Water),
Dazzling Gleam (for Fairy),
Bulldoze (for Ground),
Dark Pulse (for Dark), and
Dragon Claw (for Dragon) are the only charge moves available of their respective typings, so they make the cut... for now.
Big slow moves can be okay, but not if they don't give some kind of distinct advantage. For that reason, I think we can safely eliminate
Hyper Beam, which, as a Normal type move, will never offer any real advantage.
Solar Beam has the same cost and damage as Hyper Beam, but with a typing that will at least SOMETIMES hit for super effective damage, so it's better... but that being said, there are better, faster moves available in their same typing (
Grass Knot and
Energy Ball), so Solar Beam doesn't really have a place. Same with
Blizzard...
Ice Beam is going to be more useful overall if we want Ice damage. And
Psyshock makes
Psychic (the move) mostly moot, so we'll push Psychic off the raft. Same thing with
Thunder and
Thunderbolt...
Wild Charge is also available and is a better all-around Electric move than both of them, so Thunder and Bolt are out as well.
Similarly, while
Flash Cannon could be labeled a big slow move with a faster move of the same typing being available, that other Steel move,
Gyro Ball, costs only 5 less energy and deals
30 less damage. Flash Cannon is a much better move overall, so it's in and Gyro Ball is out. I'm also going to eliminate
Low Sweep for the same reason. Yes, the other Fighting move
Focus Blast is very slow, but Low Sweep is just a terrible, terrible move, with just 40 damage for 40 energy. You're better off using something like Surf or Dragon Claw, even against things weak to Fighting, because they will still both end up dealing more damage for the same (or even a cheaper!) cost.
The final typing to tackle is Rock. There are THREE moves available and you'll notice I have not yet eliminated any of the three. When I wrote the original Mew article,
Ancient Power was stil a 70 damage move at the time, so it made the cut... but now, in its humbled state, there's no need for it, so it goes too.
So, that leaves us with Bulldoze, Dark Pulse, Dazzling Gleam, Dragon Claw, Energy Ball, Flame Charge, Flash Cannon, Focus Blast, Grass Knot, Ice Beam, Overheat, Psyshock, Rock Slide, Stone Edge, Surf, and Wild Charge, 16 remaining from the original list of 25. Now comes the heavy number crunching....
One of the main jobs you want to do with Mew is counter Hypno. Mew resists Confusion while dealing super effective damage to Hypno with Shadow Claw, but
Claw alone is not enough. What you need to guarantee the win there is a non-resisted move that you can fire off at least twice so that at least one can (hopefully) get through unshielded, AND deal damage sufficient to finish Hypno off. Out of the remaining 16 moves, only
Dark Pulse,
Dragon Claw,
Energy Ball,
Grass Knot,
Ice Beam,
Rock Slide,
Stone Edge, and
Surf fit both of those criteria. Wild Charge does as well, but each use comes with a very painful debuff, so ideally you're not left with THAT as your only option. Dark Pulse is not suprisingly the most effective, leaving Mew with 2/3 of its HP as the second Pulse kills Hypno immediately. The next closest are Surf and, surprisingly, Stone Edge.
Surf is able to be used THREE times, but also has the option to
throw only two and pocket energy for the next 'mon up, which costs Mew only 14 HP and leaves it with one Surf charged and a second only 2 more Shadow Claws away. That is some GREAT flexibility.
Stone Edge wins by just dishing out BIG neutral damage that leaves Hypno one Claw (actually like 2 HP) from death, with Mew having plenty of life to get that last bit of damage in afterwards. A further surprise: Rock Slide, generally considered a better Rock move overall,
falls short.
So let's start there, with
Surf and Stone Edge, pitted against the whole Kanto core meta. You can see it gets Mew to over a 50% win rate, which is nice to see. And there are some big names on there, including Lapras and Dewgong, A-Wak and Charizard, Articuno and Zapdos, both Ninetales, both Raichus, Machamp and Poliwrath, Golbat, Beedrill, and Alolan Sandslash. That's a nice list! And it's actually a hair better than that... notice that Hypno is mysteriously listed as a loss. How can that be? Well, obviously it's not... as noted already,
Surf AND
Stone Edge are each able to take Hypno out, so ignore the awkward timing of
this silly sim that flags it as a loss. In this case, just ride ONE of the charge moves to victory. Another hidden win?
Alolan Graveler, which the sim shows as a loss by default but, as you can see, Mew can win with Surf alone before A-Grav can reach a killer Stone Edge.
So what does that moveset lose to? Surf, as a Water move, has pretty good coverage, but obviously it's no help against Grasses and opposing Waters. Stone Edge also has decent coverage, but does nothing to help out the blind sides of Surf. The Darks and Ghosts (well, other than A-Wak, who is weak to Surf AND Edge) all still win, as do Fairies and, yes, the Grasses. So too do the Dragons, Snorlax, and Muk.
With that all in mind, are there better move combos that cover some of those weaknesses without giving up too much? Here are some of the better alternatives to pair with Surf:
- Overheat and Flame Charge give Mew Fire coverage to go along with Water, and combined they hit everything but Dragons and Waters for at least neutral damage, and allow it to hit Grass, Bug, Fire, Rock, Ground, Steel, and Ice for super effective damage. With Surf providing spammy damage, Overheat is the ideal Fire move to pair with it, but the gains are probably not what you would expect. The major Grasses still escape (able to outrace Overheat in even the most favorable-for-Mew circumstances), and Dewgong slips away. The gains ARE there--Clefable and Kanto Muk--but like I said, not the ones you probably expected. Of course, in the real world, outside of sims, having Overheat WILL lead to some toasty Grasses in many games, as we humans don't think like a machine/sim. But this does not reap the immediate rewards you'd like it to... Grass remains an issue, and Waters are much more of a threat as well, resisting both of Mew's charge moves here.
- One of Mew's few STAB moves, Psyshock isn't a terrible idea. While you don't want to use it as a replacement for Surf as a spammy move--primarily because it is resisted by Hypno and the Darks that threaten Mew--as a support move alongside Surf, it can do some nice things, like picking up Venusaur, Muk, and Shadow Dragonite. But you again lose Dewgong, plus Articuno and any real shot at the Charmers. You also lack closing power, with both moves capping out at decent but not typically KO type of damage.
- Pulling on that same thread, Psychic (the move) isn't a terrible idea. Surf still deals nice cumulative damage to Hypno and Darks, while Psychic provides killing power sufficient to retain Dewgong and Articuno wins. But just as Overheat had an issue coming in time to finish off Grasses, Psychic (the move) has the same issue, and your Venusaurs and Victreebels again escape, basically always unless they don't shield.
- There are others that kinda work, but have notable holes. Grass Knot obviously is no help versus Grasses, but it does punish Waters and can also make the A-Grav win easier. Ice Beam operates similarly to Psychic in threatening but usually not outright beating Poisonous Grasses. Wild Charge projects out as one of Mew's better moves, at least on paper, but actually functions not all that differently from Stone Edge and comes with that crippling 2x Defense nerf. This is a very bold statement, I recognize that, but I think I would actually recommend Stone Edge OVER Wild Charge for those reasons, though it is worth noting that Wild Charge is better in the Mew mirror match, at least.
And there are others that are okay-ish alongside Surf, like
Focus Blast and
Flash Cannon, but the others just underperform.
Dazzling Gleam provides a nice answer to Darks, but there are only a couple of them and it's a pretty lousy move outside of that... and it usually comes too late to hurt the Darks anyway.
Blizzard is a good move but just too slow.
Rock Slide is fine but not QUITE as good as Stone Edge in most cases. Non-nerfing
Electric moves are okay but don't truly add a lot to Mew's performance that even things like Stone Edge can't do better. And even Hypno and Ghost killer
Dark Pulse underforms, needing the opponent to be out of shields or screw up to make an impact, in a manner similar to the extra help Overheat/Ice Beam do versus Grasses.
Still with me? I know this is a lot, sorry... blame Mew! 😅 To sum up where we're at so far, with a good spam/bait move like Surf, the better second charge moves seem to be Overheat, Psychic, and especially Stone Edge, with Grass Knot, Wild Charge, Ice Beam and a couple others showing at least
some promise.
So what about the other side of the coin: is there a spam/bait move that works better than Surf? Maaaaaaaaaaaybe....
- Dragon Claw is Mew's fastest move, costing only 35 energy. (Surf costs 40.) Other good news: it has VERY wide neutral coverage, with only Steels and Fairies resisting it, and you can also count the number of relevant Pokémon with one of those typings on one hand (Magneton, A-Slash, Wiggly, Clefable, and maybe A-Tails). Or on one foot, if you prefer, or if you lost a finger to an unfortunate knot tying lesson gone horribly wrong or something. ANYway, it looks superior to Surf with some moves like Overheat, getting Dewgong back (albeit JUST barely) thanks to not being resisted, and Dragonite due to being super effective, but on the downside you give up Shadow Machamp and, damningly, Alolan Marowak. No bueno. Dragon Claw is also decent with Psychic (the move), gaining Dragonite again, but giving up Alolan Graveler to get there. Always an annoying drawback! 😤 And it's more of the same even when paired with Stone Edge: gain Dragonite, lose Machamp, A-Grav, and even Alolan Sandslash (which loses to Surf spam, but resists Dragon Claw and takes only neutral from Edge, so....). Overall, Dragon Claw is certainly viable, especially if you're running low on TMs, but it's a small step down from the coverage Surf provides.
- Conversely, a move we already talked about that costs only 5 energy more than Surf is Psyshock. Even on its own, it's a fantastic move for Mew. But being a little slower than Surf and Claw gives it a little less bait/setup potential, and as mentioned before, being resisted by Hypno and Darks is a big downer. And even with it giving Mew a full moveset that is super effective against Haunter and Gengar, it still cannot outrace them. But it DOES have some good things going for it. Paired with Stone Edge, it actually CAN still beat Hypno... if you get the bait. It also overcomes Muk (Kanto, not Alolan) and deals enough damage to beat Dragonite too. (Dragon Claw is now sobbing in a corner somewhere.) But you can no longer outrace Alolan Raichu, and Alolan Marowak again appreciates the lack of Water damage from Surf and walks away, albeit with a severe limp. I will venture to say that Psyshock is ALSO viable, and I might even rank it ahead of Dragon Claw, but definitely a tier below Surf's coverage.
And as far as spammy moves go, that uh... that's actually it. There IS Rock Slide also clocking in at only 45 energy, but you don't want to pair it with another Rock move in Stone Edge, so your best potential is probably
Overheat or
Psychic... viable movesets to be sure, but a slight step below Surf (or even Psyshock) paired with those moves. Ancient Power and Low Sweep are cheap but just BAD moves. And beyond that you're in to moves that cost too much to be considered true bait moves and operate best as closers instead.
So to bring it all home, it looks to me like your best plan of action is thus:
- Move #1 should be something "spammy" (45 energy at the absolute most, and ideally lower) to bait shields or just spam to victory in neutral matchups. Surf, Psyshock, and Dragon Claw all fit in this category, and probably in that order.
- Move #2 should be a good closing move, things that cost somewhere in the 50-70 (at MOST) energy range and have typings that provide solid coverage. Your best bets here are Stone Edge, Psychic (the move!), the risky Overheat and Wild Charge, and then viable but unexciting options like Ice Beam, Grass Knot, and Focus Blast.
And the fast move... well, I've been talking about Shadow Claw throughout, but never circled back on others. Let's take a peek at the more promising ones real quick:
- Volt Switch, as mentioned a while ago, has the same damage output and energy gain as Shadow Claw, but can be awkward to use since it has a cooldown of two full seconds (compared to Claw's single second). It also has narrower neutral (and even super effective) coverage against the Kanto core meta, being resisted by Grounds, Electrics, Grasses, and Dragons. And this is all borne out in the numbers. Yes, stuff like Lapras obviously gets much easier, but things like Magneton, A-Grav, AhChu, and most alarmingly, A-Wak and Hypno flip the script. Volt Switch is in a pretty good spot in open GBL play, but not in the Kanto Cup meta.
- Snarl gives Mew its highest energy gains, but in actual practice, it ends up just missing Shadow Claw's damage output more than anything. Mew IS known for its varied charge moves, but at least down here in Great League level, getting more damage from the fast move is especially important, as not many things (Mew included!) have the bulk to hang in there and deliver more than a couple charges before fainting anyway.
Before I conclude and present the results of my analysis, I want to throw a big banner up. Any analysis on Mew in PvP is subject to what I call the "last fish in the pond" scenario. When you're fishing a pond, how do you know when you've caught every fish there is to catch? How do you know when it's time to stop? Answer: you don't. You take things so far before you have to decide to declare your day is done and pack it up. And so it is here. Yes, I am sure there are many, MANY simulated scenarios not in here that would paint a more complete picture. I bet you know of some situations yourself that I didn't cover, of some nuances that sims don't show or that only work in certain circumstances or on certain teams or with certain IVs. I am POSITIVE I have not pulled the last fish--or heck, probably even the last netfull of fish--from the Mew pond. But it's still time to wrap it up. The sun's getting low, with Kanto Cup just a handful of hours away now (yes, even that sheet bend slip knot mangled hand), so I am going to leave things right here and offer some advice based on what I DID fish out of the waters.
So here you go:
Your TL;DR follows! - Shadow Claw is indeed Mew's best fast move. There are cases to be made for things like Volt Switch and Snarl in other metas, but here in Kanto Cup, it's Shadow Claw for its wide neutral coverage, high damage, and ability to shred Hypno (and other Psychic types) and Alolan Marowak. Try very hard to get Claw, and if you can't, you may want to consider letting Mew sit this one out.
- Surf seems to be the best overall Move #1, again thanks to coverage and speed, and it with Shadow Claw alone easily takes down Hypno and A-Wak, among others. Psyshock and Dragon Claw are acceptale replacements that function much the same, but know that Hypno and A-Wak will usually escape unless you have a shield and/or energy advantage.
- Stone Edge is actually my recommendation for the second charge move (as long as it's paired with a spammy move in that first move slot). The coverage is great in this meta, and it's fast enough to even fire off in multiples in matches that matter (like Hypno, Lapras, Articuno, and others). Other perfectly viable options include Psychic, Overheat, Wild Charge, Ice Beam, Grass Knot, and even Psyshock, roughly in that order. If you're low on TMs and end up rolling one of these, yes, you CAN stop and have a viable Mew.
So, what is THE definitive moveset for Mew? Well, there really ISN'T just one. But there are many moves you can "settle" for, and many more that are probably best re-rolled. While I have highlighted my own move recommendations, I certainly won't tell you what to use, as it depends on team composition and what holes you need to fill. Mew
can fill a lot of holes, and the fact that it DOES have so many potential "mewves" is its biggest advantage, and you can't really sim that.
A reminder one more time: this is not 100% comprehensive... but it's probably much more comprehensive than anything else out there on Mew, so hopefully this helps! As always, THAT is the #1 goal of me writing these things. And I've written a bunch... my next big PvP article (likely on the December Silph Arena Cup) will officially be #200! 😱
Until then, you can always find me on
Twitter for near-daily PvP analysis nuggets, or
Patreon. And please, feel free to comment here with your own thoughts or questions and I'll try to get back to you!
Thank you for reading! Best of luck in Kanto Cup, and catch you next time!
P.S. - Just in case you missed it, I do strongly recommend going back and reading
Kanto Cup "Nifty Or Thrifty", by comprehensive review of the entire Kanto meta. ✌️
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