With season 3 coming to a close, Pokémon UNITE has now gone over a month without a major patch. Patch 1.4.1.7 saw a strong constricting of the meta while 1.4.1.10 opened everything up. But all good things, even a dynamic meta, can come to an end.
As we enter season 4, where do things stand among the top players of Pokémon UNITE?
S Tier:
- Lucario – 16.5% (+3.5)
A Tier:
- Hoopa – 11.5% (-1.5)
B Tier:
- Greedent – 9% (+2)
- Talonflame – 7.5% (-4)
- Ninetales – 7% (+1.5)
- Wigglytuff – 6% (+1)
- Blastoise – 6% (-2)
- Greninja – 5.5% (+4.5)
C Tier:
- Blissey – 3% (+/-)
- Venusaur – 3% (+1.5)
- Dragonite – 3% (-1)
- Mime – 2.5% (+1.5)
D Tier:
- Duraludon – 2% (+0.5)
- Slowbro – 2% (-2)
- Absol – 2% (-0.5)
- Machamp – 2% (+0.5)
- Gardevoir – 2% (+2)
- Garchomp – 1.5% (+/-)
- Decidueye – 1% (-3.5)
- Cinderace – 1% (-2.5)
- Pikachu – 1% (-2)
- Charizard – 1% (-0.5)
- Trevenant – 1% (+1)
- Snorlax – 1% (+1)
- Mamoswine – 1% (+1)
- Azumarill – 0.5% (-1.5)
- Cramorant – 0.5% (+0.5)
Aegislash, Crustle, Eldegoss (-1), Gengar, Sylveon, Tsareena and Zeraora saw no noticeable play among top 100 players.
Below is the four-week moving average for the 10 most used Pokémon:
Return of the king
The past few weeks have been an anomaly in Pokémon UNITE: no Pokémon reached S tier placement. In this dataset, the S tier is defined as greater than 15% usage rate among top 100 players, which converts to a greater than 75% pick rate in any game. Lucario has been in the S Tier in 63% of data updates while that tier has been occupied in 92% of updates. What briefly looked like an opening of the meta in the top lane has not come to pass, as Lucario still dominated compared to Machamp.
Attack, damage, Talonflame
ADCs (Attack damage carries) are characters able to deal consistent, heavy damage but they generally need a level advantage to shred the opposing team. In Pokémon UNITE, these ranged physical attackers like Cinderace, Decidueye, Duraludon and Greninja have filled this role.
Historically, these Pokémon have an average combined usage rate of 13% and dominated the jungle. For the last month, though, each of these Pokémon has been outdone by Talonflame, a highly mobile ambusher. This is only the third period of time that the ADCs of UNITE have been muscled out of the jungle. The other two times occurred with the introduction of Blastoise and Dragonite.
Talonflame’s reign as the premier jungler and dethroner of the ADCs is not nearly as commanding as the other Pokémon to topple their reign, but it could be the most interesting. Talonflame has not seen any buffs in recent patches and has been in the game since release. This could be a sign of a shifting meta. However, even if score based meta was down in the March finals, Talonflame has become mandatory for those compositions while bleeding into more traditional team compositions.
Methodology: This data is collected using both the rankings tab in Pokémon UNITE and the Pokémon UNITE API. A Pokémon is considered a “main” of a player if is it the most played Pokémon in their most recent 16 ranked matches. In the event of a tie or near tie the data will reflect that. If more than two Pokémon are tied, the 32 most recent matches will be considered instead.
