Pokemon Unite: You’re Playing Defenders All Wrong
If you’re playing Defenders like Tanks in Pokemon Unite, you’re doing it wrong.
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If you have some experience with MOBAs like League of Legends or Dota 2, you’re probably playing Pokemon Unite’s Defenders like they’re tanks. It’s an understandable mistake, given that they share a lot of qualities that traditional tanks might have, but defenders are called defenders for a reason. It’s time to stop playing your defenders like tanks, and start playing them like goalies.
In traditional MOBAs, MMOs, and even some hero shooters like Overwatch, tanks are meant to be played as frontline defenders. These characters typically have large health pools and abilities that help them sustain, either by healing or increasing defense stats, as well as abilities that CC opponents by stunning or displacing them. These abilities allow tanks to stand in front of their teammates and soak damage while peeling off additional damage with their crowd control abilities.
Pokemon Unite’s Defenders have a lot of these qualities. Both Slowbro and Snorlax have ways to recover HP during a fight, while Crustle becomes more defensive the lower its health gets. These characters have strong CC potential as well, especially Slowbro, who can use Telekinesis and Slowbeam to isolate and bind enemies, or even pull them in closer for an attack of opportunity.
There are a lot of times when Defenders should be played like a traditional tank. During big team fights especially, Snorlax and Crustle should position themselves in the middle of the fight so that they’re big, spongey targets for the enemies to focus on. By using Snorlax’s Power Nap or Crustle’s Rubble Rouser, you can soak up an absurd amount of damage and give your teammates time to rally or fight back. It’s important to be the tank when the time calls for it, but it’s equally important to remember that tanking is not the Defender’s primary role in Pokemon Unite.
This is because Unite doesn’t play like other MOBAs. Rather than working together to push lanes and knock down towers, your team’s goal is to score points and stop the other team from scoring. While every Defender should absolutely be scoring when the opportunity arises, your main job as a Defender is to stop the other team from scoring points on you. The Defender defends their team, but more importantly, they defend their goals.
When you start thinking like a goalie instead of a tank, you’ll see that there’s a lot more synergy to each Defender’s ability kit. Slowbro’s Surf, Snorlax’s Block and Heavy Slam, and Crustle’s X-Scissor are all moves designed to push enemies away from you. During a team fight, these abilities can end up hurting you by giving opponents an opportunity to flee and recover. But while defending goals, these abilities are essential for disrupting opponents as they queue up to score.
A good Defender uses their abilities to stop opponents from scoring, but a great Defender uses their abilities to punish them for trying. Baiting enemies towards your goal and then using abilities to either sustain damage or prevent them from escaping can give your team the time they need to catch up and turn the tables. Slowbro’s kit gives us a great example. It can use Amnesia + Surf to knock enemies away, dealing huge damage and causing them to flee, or it can use Scald + Telekenisis or Slowbeam to lock the enemy down and give your team a chance to kill. If you can punish opponents that try to score, you’ll not only stop their team from earning points, but you’ll also force them to drop some of their points when they die.
Slowbro is a bit of a hybrid Defender/Supporter because it leans so heavily into CC abilities, but if you want to get a true taste of what defending is all about, spend some time mastering Snorlax’s kit. With Block, you can walk right at opponents as they attempt to score and deny them for an extended period of time. This can absolutely win games on its own simply by blocking those late game, Zapdos-powered dunks that would otherwise give the team 100 points. Heavy Slam is yet another method for knocking opponents away from the goal, and if you specialize into both abilities, you’ll make any goal your defending completing off-limits. Alternatively, Yawn and Flail are both great moves for punishing opponents that try to score on you, and Power Nap can allow Snorlax to single-handedly defend a goal from an entire attacking team if you activate it at the center of the goal where you naturally receive passive healing.
Finally, Crustle is probably the most technically complex of the Defenders. X-Scissor and Rock Tomb are both useful abilities that can push opponents away from the goal or keep them at bay with a rock wall, while Shell Smash and Stealth Rock are great ways to deal damage when it’s time to fight back. Rubble Rouser can be used if you’re really in a pinch and have to keep the enemies from overwhelming you, but ideally it should be used during a team fight to peel as much damage as possible. Crustle is the tankiest of the Defender characters thanks to its Sturdy passive that adds defense as its health decreases, so it should typically be used to help push the line like a traditional tank. It leans more towards the attack/speedster side with its Shell Smash ability. That said, Crustle does have the tools for defending a goal, and you should always stay focused on that task as a Defender.
While each Defender is unique, they’re all well equipped for defending the goals. You should build your characters with whatever abilities best suit your playstyle, but choosing at least one ability with knockback will help you keep opponents from earning points. Speedsters and Attackers are designed for killing and scoring, but the Defender’s job is to defend. If you play your role well, you’re bound to increase your win rate in Pokemon Unite.
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