'Pokémon Go' guide: Best movesets and attacker Pokémon to win a gym

Gather 'round, trainers: It's time to talk Pokémon Go attack strategy. 

Figuring out which Pokémon are worth your stardust and precious candy comes down to more than IVs and total CP. Certain Pokémon perform better on attack than they do on defense, and so figuring out which Pokémon to sink your precious resources into depends on what kind of Pokémon you need for your squad.

The Pokémon Go community GamePress has put together a list of the best Pokémon for attacking gyms. It's a detailed analysis that explains the rankings and specific advice on how to use different Pokémon as attackers. This is the tool you need to decide what your Pokémon team looks like on offense.

The top 4 gym attackers in Pokémon Go

GamePress puts Dragonite, Exeggutor, Lapras, and Snorlax as the four best gym attackers in Pokémon Go. Note that each listing specifies an optimal moveset. 

Movesets are the Pokémon's combination of quick attack and charge attack. Certain movesets offer specific advantages while on attack, while other movesets are better on defense. They are also determined randomly for each Pokémon when you find and catch them.

The amount of detail for each individual species breakdown on the GamePress best attackers list is fantastic. Not only does it include general appraisals as to why each species is ranked the way it's ranked, but the analysis also includes specific advice about strengths and weaknesses relative to different types or individual species of Pokémon.

Why you want to know which Pokémon are your best attackers in Pokémon Go

Organizing a squad of Pokémon that are only used on attack ultimately allows you to capture and hold more gyms simultaneously, for larger Pokémon Go store rewards when you cash in your defender bonus.

Every time you capture a gym in Pokémon Go, you have to station a defender at that gym. You might also want to lend Pokémon to defend a gym that someone else on your team has already captured. Either of those things will remove Pokémon from your total pool.

If you have a team of six Pokémon that you use only on attack, however, you'll never lose someone on your offensive squad to defense. For that, you want to identify your best defenders as well.

And if developer Niantic ever adds face-to-face battles to Pokémon Go, knowing your best attackers will come in handy — you can throw down immediately without having to look through your entire Pokémon collection to see who wants to battle.

Learn how to dodge attacks if you want to be a good gym attacker in Pokémon Go

Figuring out the best gym attackers in Pokémon Go is more difficult than determining which Pokémon are the best gym defenders. Attackers can dodge, defenders cannot. Any attempt to simulate gym battles has to account for the effect of dodging on combat, and different Pokémon are better in the hands of a skilled gym battler than others. It comes down to their ability to pull off dodge moves.

To work around this, the analysts at GamePress looked at different Pokémon and how well they could battle if they did not dodge at all. Pokémon that were not able to hang in a fight without dodging were not even considered for the best attackers list.

To suss through the Pokémon that can battle even without dodging, the GamePress analysts then looked at how much efficiency a Pokémon could gain if they dodge attacks. Pokémon that are faster attackers can take greater advantage of the bonus time earned by successfully dodging a charge attack.

Looking for more awesome Pokémon Go tools? 

Check out the best Pokémon to defend a gym and how to track Pokémon nest migrations.