Pokémon GO

Is it just me or did Niantic accidentally made Gastly shiny in the overworld? All the Gastly I have encountered today weren't shiny, but were blue-ish in the overworld...
 

Blitz

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Gyarados with 2x dragon not a counter?
A budget one but yea I guess?
https://pokemongolive.com/en/post/hoenn-pokemon-012318/

MORE POKEMON ORIGINALLY FROM HOENN REGION ARE HERE!

OMG
Should be showing up later today, thankfully. The list I (and no doubt others) predicted last week has the most promise and should be the 23 we get (in theory):

Nosepass, Aron, Lairon, Aggron, Numel, Camerupt, Torkoal, Trapinch, Vibrava, Flygon, Cacnea, Cacturne, Lunatone, Solrock, Baltoy, Claydol, Lileep, Cradily, Anorith, Armaldo, Whismur, Loudred, and Exploud

Of these, only Aggron and Flygon are noteworthy. Aggron is outclassed by Metagross but it's a decent Steel-type attacker otherwise thanks to his high bulk and decent attack. Flygon possesses Dragon Breath / Dragon Claw in addition to a triple resistance to Electric, but its usefulness stops there.
 
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Blitz

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Yea they're really holding out on those lol. Sucks but hopefully we get them soon.
 

Champion Leon

Banned deucer.
A budget one but yea I guess?


Should be showing up later today, thankfully. The list I (and no doubt others) predicted last week has the most promise and should be the 23 we get (in theory):

Nosepass, Aron, Lairon, Aggron, Numel, Camerupt, Torkoal, Trapinch, Vibrava, Flygon, Cacnea, Cacturne, Lunatone, Solrock, Baltoy, Claydol, Lileep, Cradily, Anorith, Armaldo, Whismur, Loudred, and Exploud

Of these, only Aggron and Flygon are noteworthy. Aggron is outclassed by Metagross but it's a decent Steel-type attacker otherwise thanks to his high bulk and decent attack. Flygon possesses Dragon Breath / Dragon Claw in addition to a triple resistance to Electric, but its usefulness stops there.
Well, it won’t be weak to Fire, Dark, Ghost, will have an Immunity equivalent to Flying, and Normal, as well as a Triple equivalent resistance to Poison.

This will serve it in Dragon matchups, against Rayquaza with Flying moves, Fire Blast Salamence, etc. if you don’t have an Ice Beam Lapras. It’s for anchoring hits and I guess Dragon Tail helps it out as a Quick Move...

I view it as a cross between Regirock and Registeel, Offense is desirable, but defense has it place, especially with the 5th biggest current defense in the game.

Also I am calling it: Cacturne is officially a gRass Cannon

Bagon would invalidate the Dratini event, while metagross would challenge Aggron. It makes sense.
 
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Blitz

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Anchors are a concept long dated - Aggron doesn't do that as well as Metagross. Like I said, it's decent, but Metagross outdoes it even in the resistances department (for Flying types, you use Rock / Ice / Electric; Aggron doesn't have a Rock quick move). You'd rather use Ice-types and Dragonite (esp with the coming event) for it due to their DPS.

EDIT: Actually yea your Rayquaza point is valid but still refer to above.

Also I'm getting conflicting sources on Flygon (Dragon Tail over Dragon Breath); looked at the GAME MASTER and it's Dragon Tail so it's w/e now. Aggron is our MVP; Armaldo has the stats too but mostly horrible charge moves (Water Pulse, Cross Poison, and Rock Blast) so also no bueno. Not a good wave in terms of usability.
 
Wild Loudreds near my house, love it. How shitty the game can be from time to time, updates like these keep me playing.
 
So opinion. In order to play well with my Rare Candies, which Kyogre should I power up first? The Weather boosted one, the one with the best IV's or the one that already has the double Water moveset? Given the chance I'd power them all up just because Water power, but prioritizing is probably smart in case I run low on Candy or Stardust
 

Blitz

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A Level 27.5 (iirc) Kyogre eclipses a level 40 Gyarados; that's all you need to be better than the previously best Water-type in the game. You can pick the highest level if you can spare the TM, otherwise go for the higher IV one. Dual Water should be fine even if it's not powered up, but you can pour some dust in it if you need it.

Aggron is a Tier 4 boss.

Torkoal is exclusive to India and Thailand... probably the entire Indian subcontinent and the Malaysian Peninsula.

Not very sure on Solrock and Lunatone but they are West and East Hemisphere and are said to be rotating regionals (like Zangoose / Seviper). Yes, you can find Solrock at night and Lunatone in the day.
 
Wait, Solrock at night, Lunatone at day? What the... are they trying to mimic GF's annoyance with the reverse world where we have to bring Solgaleo at night or Lunaala at day just to get past that? Or just drunk on brightpowder?

Either way, I haven't come out. I hope Aron is common enough to let me complete steel badge quickly... although I don't like it to compete with Eevee in Partly Cloudy hours when I'm particularly looking for them in another area later....
 

Blitz

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Wait, Solrock at night, Lunatone at day? What the... are they trying to mimic GF's annoyance with the reverse world where we have to bring Solgaleo at night or Lunaala at day just to get past that? Or just drunk on brightpowder?

Either way, I haven't come out. I hope Aron is common enough to let me complete steel badge quickly... although I don't like it to compete with Eevee in Partly Cloudy hours when I'm particularly looking for them in another area later....
No. It's just that Solrock and Lunatone are rotating regionals that are hemisphere exclusive; ergo, it does not matter if you find them at day or night, which ruins their gimmick.

Aron is HELLA common and many people here already evolved an Aggron on catches alone.
 
Oh, I misread that. You meant they are regional and not time-dependent. Well....

Anyway... personal rant. Trapinch is in 10km egg. Great. Just great. Flygon, Milotic, and Gardevoir were my most favourite when I played Emerald, and they they all are found in 10km eggs. I'm not sure about this... I have long accepted that Flygon is sadly outclassed so far, but now putting them into the rare, I feel like this is the next Mareep.
At least I still occasionally see Ralts. Have one ready for Gallade, but not 'voir. And as of Milotic I've accepted it as myth and decide to stick with Vaporeon instead, ain't no time to check every canals everytime....
 
last 2 10km eggs have been ralts... see ralts as much as sudowoodo or gligar in the right weather, so down the line I will see that being irritating. especially as Niantic are making every egg hatch gen 3 for a while. oddly don't have enough candy for gardevior despite finding a fair few and hatching 2 :/
most common finds around here are baltoy, not even weather boosted I have caught a load.
 

Champion Leon

Banned deucer.
last 2 10km eggs have been ralts... see ralts as much as sudowoodo or gligar in the right weather, so down the line I will see that being irritating. especially as Niantic are making every egg hatch gen 3 for a while. oddly don't have enough candy for gardevior despite finding a fair few and hatching 2 :/
most common finds around here are baltoy, not even weather boosted I have caught a load.
My suggestion to anyone looking for more candy is to deposit it into a gym or more than 1 if you have more than 1 (such as both of your Ralts hatches), and Berry feed them, if you don’t plan on buddy walking them. If you can get an additional candy 1x or 2x a day (returning to the gym after the Berry cooldown), you will have 30-60 candies by the end of this month. It doesn’t sound like much, but it’s a way of getting candies without interfering with your regular gameplay.

Otherwise, buddy walk your Ralts.

This is one of the reasons Legendaries cannot be included in gyms, they want people to have to raid to earn rare candies. It’s not about stats or how good they are (Suicune).

Oh, I misread that. You meant they are regional and not time-dependent. Well....

Anyway... personal rant. Trapinch is in 10km egg. Great. Just great. Flygon, Milotic, and Gardevoir were my most favourite when I played Emerald, and they they all are found in 10km eggs. I'm not sure about this... I have long accepted that Flygon is sadly outclassed so far, but now putting them into the rare, I feel like this is the next Mareep.
At least I still occasionally see Ralts. Have one ready for Gallade, but not 'voir. And as of Milotic I've accepted it as myth and decide to stick with Vaporeon instead, ain't no time to check every canals everytime....
Lastly... save your high IV Eevees!

If all you have to do for obtaining your first Sylveon is name it “Serena”, then keep whatever > 91% Eevee you catch. It would be stronger and bulkier than Gardevoir, unless you need counter STAB coverage for Poison Types, which defeats the point of using Gardevoir.

Same goes for Glaceon and Leafeon. Catch a level 35 at > 91%, and use the name trick. It’s better than rolling the gamble for Vaporeon, but ending up with Flareon or Jolteon.

I would say save 3 of your top Eevees (1 for each name trick of the 3 Future Evolutions). Especially if you already have enough Vaporeon, as that seems to be your most treasured go-to.

I’m sure they will make the way of Evolving it harder by then, but I am sure they will keep the name trick.

Sylveon > Gardevoir except at 2 things:
Taking Fighting Hits, Mega Evolution.

I assume when trading becomes a thing, the first thing people will take advantage of is creating a new account to store their additional Pokémon without having to buy storage, and of course that includes their extra Eevees that can be Evolved via the name trick. (Unless Niantic only allows it for catches on the original username).
 
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Lastly... save your Eevees!

If all you have to do for obtaining your first Sylveon is name it “Serena”, then keep whatever Eevee you catch. It would be stronger and bulkier than Gardevoir, unless you need counter STAB coverage for Poison Types, which defeats the point of using Gardevoir.

Same goes for Glaceon and Leafeon. Catch a level 35 at > 91%, and use the name trick. It’s better than rolling the gamble for Vaporeon, but ending up with Flareon or Jolteon.

I would say save 3 of your top Eevees (1 for each name trick of the 3 Evolutions). Especially if you already have enough Vaporeon, as that seems to be your most treasured go-to.

I’m sure they will make the way of Evolving it harder by then, but I am sure they will keep the name trick.

Sylveon > Gardevoir except at 2 things:
Taking Fighting Hits, Mega Evolution.
I'd love to, but I happen to live not where Eevee often spawns. There are some residential areas I know, but they're too far to walk to. I have few times come there to try my luck in Partially Cloudy weather and happened to get high level vees, including one Max Atk Espeon now. Getting perfect Eevee is still pretty much pipe dream, though. At least I'm certain Sylveon shouldn't require praying to RNG like Vaporeon due to her most specific method to evolve. Although then again Togekiss has higher CP....

True enough, I have 5 Vaporeon within 2800-2999 CP range, helping me since little. And one S-Grade Vaporeon from last weeks of raids I haven't raised. But then again, there's never enough for me as I want to defend mostly with them so at least 20 of them will be enough (Unless I got other nice Water mon too like Milotic or Primarina, or am keeping my other actual defenders like Blissey and Snorlax. I usually just defend with what I love, maybe just to show off, unless I am pressed to defend it for long).

I think I'll skip the other two either, just like I skipped having great Jolteon as I never got one before I got my Raikou (The best role they had were prestige raising). There'll be better option like Manmoswine and Tangrowth later anyway....

Also, Gardevoir is still good to suddenly stop Machamp from their tracks in gym.
 

Champion Leon

Banned deucer.
I'd love to, but I happen to live not where Eevee often spawns. There are some residential areas I know, but they're too far to walk to. I have few times come there to try my luck in Partially Cloudy weather and happened to get high level vees, including one Max Atk Espeon now. Getting perfect Eevee is still pretty much pipe dream, though. At least I'm certain Sylveon shouldn't require praying to RNG like Vaporeon due to her most specific method to evolve. Although then again Togekiss has higher CP....

True enough, I have 5 Vaporeon within 2800-2999 CP range, helping me since little. And one S-Grade Vaporeon from last weeks of raids I haven't raised. But then again, there's never enough for me as I want to defend mostly with them so at least 20 of them will be enough (Unless I got other nice Water mon too like Milotic or Primarina, or am keeping my other actual defenders like Blissey and Snorlax. I usually just defend with what I love, maybe just to show off, unless I am pressed to defend it for long).

I think I'll skip the other two either, just like I skipped having great Jolteon as I never got one before I got my Raikou (The best role they had were prestige raising). There'll be better option like Manmoswine and Tangrowth later anyway....

Also, Gardevoir is still good to suddenly stop Machamp from their tracks in gym.
I would say you only ever really need 12 of a Pokémon, especially with a limited Move pool (really Aqua Tail as a defender vs Hydro Pump for offense). This way you can try and deposit a few in Gyms during rainy weather while still having primary Offense teams.

I agree that Tangrowth will be better, but probably require more candy, and I almost never run into Tangela to collect candies. Mamoswine is better but it’s Ground Typing really increases it Weakness to what it should be countering : Grass types, and Dragon types like Salamence will Hydro Pump it to oblivion. Latios can Solar Beam it, etc.
 
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Blitz

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Finally!!! An EX Pass!
Gonna quote you since you were saying "ball bonus doesn't matter for Mewtwo".

Instinct friend got her first pass and just finished her raid in India. You know how many balls she had for her Mewtwo? 6. All Curve Excellents and it fled. Hella feeling for her right now.

I hope it doesn't happen to you but THINK about maximizing your ball bonus before you throw the statement that "you'll catch it anyways". Every ball counts.
 
I would say you only ever really need 12 of a Pokémon, especially with a limited Move pool (really Aqua Tail as a defender vs Hydro Pump for offense). This way you can try and deposit a few in Gyms during rainy weather while still having primary Offense teams.

I agree that Tangrowth will be better, but probably require more candy, and I almost never run into Tangela to collect candies. Mamoswine is better but it’s Ground Typing really increases it Weakness to what it should be countering : Grass types, and Dragon types like Salamence will Hydro Pump it to oblivion. Latios can Solar Beam it, etc.
Latios, OK, but TIL Salamence can use Hydro Pump.

Either way, thankfully I have run across few Tangela before, I should have at least enough candy, although to find a good one....
Maybe I should really invest in Articuno then. This Freezerbirb should do well when types are concerned. Still, I'm not very convinced to use Glaceon (even with putting a slight personal vendetta aside), maybe other than being low investment mooks like the 'vees have always been.

I forgot to say I got one perfect bullet/beam Eggy anyway, and few more high rankers from my Forest Force who were vital in Vaporeon solo raid.
 

Champion Leon

Banned deucer.
Gonna quote you since you were saying "ball bonus doesn't matter for Mewtwo".

Instinct friend got her first pass and just finished her raid in India. You know how many balls she had for her Mewtwo? 6. All Curve Excellents and it fled. Hella feeling for her right now.

I hope it doesn't happen to you but THINK about maximizing your ball bonus before you throw the statement that "you'll catch it anyways". Every ball counts.
Anchors are a concept long dated - Aggron doesn't do that as well as Metagross. Like I said, it's decent, but Metagross outdoes it even in the resistances department (for Flying types, you use Rock / Ice / Electric; Aggron doesn't have a Rock quick move). You'd rather use Ice-types and Dragonite (esp with the coming event) for it due to their DPS.

EDIT: Actually yea your Rayquaza point is valid but still refer to above.

Also I'm getting conflicting sources on Flygon (Dragon Tail over Dragon Breath); looked at the GAME MASTER and it's Dragon Tail so it's w/e now. Aggron is our MVP; Armaldo has the stats too but mostly horrible charge moves (Water Pulse, Cross Poison, and Rock Blast) so also no bueno. Not a good wave in terms of usability.
iPhone doesn’t notify me of new posts, so I am not sure if you saw my most recent edits, made even more relevant by your most recent post highlighting the importance of “maximizing your ball bonus”:

Anchoring-

I disagree, I know using Golden Razz berries to hold a gym before a Raid is useful, and earning coins means more Raid Passes.
Anchoring is also good at saving Revives, I usually switch to my Anchor to tank Charge Move hits (last slot of my team so if it happens to faint it sends in a full HP Pokémon). Nothing except Ludicolo/Kingdra, Blissey, Lugia, Snorlax can handle Hydro Pumps from Kyogre, especially under the weather, so I switch to my Blissey to tank the Hydro Pumps and switch back to my attackers until the next one. Plus my anchor prevents my entire team from having to switch out, costing more time setting the right pre-set Team (the animation time of switching isn’t as bad vs the animation of all 6 pokemon fainting, taking you to the wipe out message, and pick your next team room).

Not only do I save Revives, but I still get my raid team gym bonus, I increase my contribution bonus because I maxed my time in dealing Damage, and therefore I improved my # of Premier Balls.

Anchoring has 4 effects:
Earn more coins for more Raid Passes for the best Pokémon (Kyogre) by holding the team Gym, by anchoring the right defenders.

Gym Badge Points per minute and points per defender: Spin for better items like (Max) Revives when your team controls a gym, and also get additional items when you have earned a silver or gold badge. Less item Drought.

Spend Raid time wiser by anchoring 1-2 near max Blissey to take the Charge Move, and switch back to offense to earn more Team Contribution bonuses for Premier Balls to actually catch those Pokémon.

Saving items so you can spend Potions on Blissey instead of finding rare Revives. I have item Drought and it sucks if you get 4 Revives but have 6 Pokémon fainted, and it adds up Raid after raid, basically losing 2 Revives per raid, and sometimes I get 0 Revives from a Raid. Would I rather have 2 low HP Blissey that need Hyper Potions or need to use 6 (Max) Revives on 6 Pokemon? Potions are easier to get from Raids and spins, Revives aren’t as common.
 
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Blitz

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You have 2 definitions of Anchoring... I'm talking about the one where you use a Pokemon in a raid like Blissey, so anything that has to do with Gym Points... or getting more items from spinning the gym stop is irrelevant.

It's widely agreed in the community that using anchors in raids doesn't do anything for you other than bullet point #4 (save items) - this is especially noteworthy now that the ball bonus glitch has been fixed. "Traditional" anchors like Blissey take away from DPS significantly as killing your 6 mons, reviving your 6 counters (or swapping to party #2) is quick and more than makes up for what the anchor will do; the anchor is not adding to the damage as your post seems to imply unless it is something that outputs damage and also survives (think Lanturn vs Kyogre).
 

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