Featured Pokemon: Jolteon

Jolteon: the hair gel Pokemon

Greetings trainers!

Watts up with all the Jolteon hate!? You might be shocked to hear that the buzz in town is: Jolteon is the most disappointing Eeveelution to get. But don't despair, while Jolteon's CP and defences are vastly inferior to its sibling Vaporeon, Jolteon's typing at least helps cover for its shortcomings; particularly so for the purpose of leveling up gyms. While Jolteon isn't going to make for a great defending Pokemon, it can serve as a solid addition to any team in the right circumstances.

Recommended movesets

Jolteon is pissed about
Thundershock's inferiority

Attacking
Thundershock + Thunder

I don't know if this is some sort of cruel joke, but Thundershock is 1 base power weaker than Water Gun, yet it takes 0.1s longer to recharge. Despite this, Thundershock is still a fine attack that gives you ample time to dodge opposing charge moves, and will also fill up your own charge meter for a devastating Thunder.

Jolteon's greatest use as an attacker is to take down the doubly-weak-to-electric Gyarados, which can otherwise tango toe-to-toe with many elite attackers. Thanks to the ability to dodge readily, Jolteon can even be used to take down strong water Pokemon such as Slowbro or Vaporeon, but if either has Water Pulse, your ability to dodge goes down the drain and scuffs Jolteon's otherwise gleaming potential.

Jolteon can also tackle electric-weak Pokemon such as Charizard, and Blastoise, while resisting common defence moves like Wing Attack and Flash Cannon from these Pokemon.

Defending
Thundershock + Thunderbolt

Don't. That about sums up Jolteon's defence potential. Jolteon's weak primary move, coupled with its low CP and poor defences make it a poor choice for holding a Gym. If you really have nothing better, I think you need to just go through your box and evolve something because it will probably be about as useful for defending a gym, it just won't use up your Jolteon which you may want to hold onto for attacking purposes.

Base stats

Hey! Pay attention to me!
Don't write off my stats!

Attack: 192

Defence: 174

Stamina: 130

Sorry but... pretty unremarkable, Jolteon's stats aren't worth writing about. Its typing is where its strength lies.

Jolteon's niche

As mentioned above, Jolteon can deal handily with opposing Gyarados. What this makes it incredibly good at is levelling up a friendly Gym! Even better if someone was unfortunate enough to get Twister as their Gyarados' charge move. Jolteon can readily tackle a Gyarados up to 400 CP higher than it depending on the Gyarados' moveset, if Jolteon has a solid charge move like Thunder, and your ability to dodge.

However, it should be noted that while Jolteon is a readily accessible Pokemon for this purpose, its fellow electric-type Magneton fills the role much better thanks to Magneton's Steel typing. Magneton has the added bonus of resisting Gyarados' dragon-type moves, which gives Magneton a bit more leeway in how low your CP can get while still defeating Gyarados; my 1140 CP Magneton takes down 1700 Gyarados consistently if Gyarados has dragon-type moves, and my Magneton only has Discharge.

Can Jolteon remain current? Any way to amp it up?

While Jolteon isn't the best at anything, the lack of strong electric-type Pokemon makes Jolteon as useful as any. Indeed, Jolteon is amongst the best electric-types currently in the game. And electric typing has its uses, which makes Jolteon itself useful! Once you get a Jolteon with Thunder, it can even be worthwhile to level it up to a range you find to be just right for whatever Gyarados you plan on levelling up against. If you live in a close-knit area, you may even have an opposing team's Gyarados in mind regarding where you stop levelling up Jolteon.

But the point is, Jolteon is really most useful for Gyarados, and it makes a decent Pokemon to take on other water types with. Far worse could be said about a Pokemon than "you can actually use this thing, and it will do the job you want it to." Heck, by using Jolteon, you also get to avoid needing to use Hyper Potions every time something goes down to the red.

Cheers,
Let's GO