A thread on why astonish needs a buff in #PokemonGO, specifically in PvP

Astonish's current stats (via @GamePress_PoGO). Its DPT is 1.67 and its EPT is 3. So it has somewhat decent energy gains but very poor damage. Several Pokemon have access to astonish but are held back by it or are restricted to their other fast move

My solution is to increase its energy delta to 13, making it a snarl/bullet seed clone. This would increase its EPT from 3 to 4.33, which would be significant enough to make some Pokemon with astonish viable, namely the following:

Dunsparce! It has access to rock slide, which is a great coverage move, and drill run, which just got buffed. Those moves can deal with Altaria and Registeel, and can chunk Azumarill. Making astonish a snarl clone would absolutely give Dunsparce the buff it deserves

Cofagrigus has the stats and charge moves (shadow ball, psychic, dark pulse) to be successful, but astonish holds it back. Being able to spam shadow ball and psychic would make Cofagrigus pretty threatening imo

Misdreavus is a very niche Pokemon atm with access to ominous wind. It would be easier to throw more ominous winds or dark pulses with a better energy gaining fast move, which in this case would be more than its other fast move, hex

Exploud is another Pokemon that could see some usage with an astonish buff, but it would likely only be a spice pick for a silph cup, if that. Its charge moves (crunch disarming voice, fire blast) also hold it back

Drifblim. This would be pretty massive for it, since it has 3 good PvP charge moves: icy wind for attack drops, ominous wind for potential boosts, and shadow ball for damage. It's also a tank, so it would be able to throw more of those charge moves than other astonish users

Dusknoir is essentially useless atm, but it could be interesting in ultra league if you have a hundo. Its charge moves are ominous wind, dark pulse, and psychic. 254 defense stat combined with an energy gaining fast move could make it more than just a dex entry

Finally, Golurk. It has mud slap, so it can still hit Registeel hard, but if astonish gave it good energy gains you could run shadow punch and earth power/dynamic punch to play some baiting mind games

This is something I started pondering last night when I was thinking about how to make Dunsparce good. So even though nobody asked for this thread, here it is