Pokémon GO

Expert Evan

every battle has a smell!
is a Forum Moderator Alumnus
I'm very excited about mewtwo being the new raid boss, it's what we've waited for all this time, and at a whopping 49k you'll need your strongest lineup to take it down along with the help of other raiders of course.

gamepress has a list of good counters here to get ready:
https://pokemongo.gamepress.gg/pokemon/150

I already have 2 fully powered up tyranitars with bite/crunch and 2 fully powered up dragonites with dragon tail & outrage. I've been hesitant to convert my scizor with steel moves over to bug moves though I have another at level 20 with bug moves but that needs stardust that I don't readily have and others higher up on the priority list. To round things up, I have another level 20 dragonite with dragon tail & outrage and might as well get that one powered up since its damage per second (DPS) is hard to resist. I'll have to use charged TMs to fix a 4500 stardust houndoom and another to fix a perfect IV pinsir at level 20, so lots of grinding for stardust will be necessary. Oh I also have 2 highly powered up gyarados with bite and crunch as those will definitely be handy and resistant to focus blast as well. Other hard hitters like vaporeon and some of the other legendary birds may come in handy too. I was going to immediately power up my best zapdos but now my 3rd dragonite takes priority there.

Edit: I successfully used a charged TM to change my 100% pinsir from vice grip to X-Scissor, and since pinsir's X-Scissor is the same and barely better than scizor's X-Scissor, and since pinsir resist focus blast then pinsir gets the nod here for preference over scizor.
 
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Blitz

Mightiest of Cleaves
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The addition of Mewtwo brings two implications so far:

1) Base stat nerf. Mewtwo received a 9% reduction to all of its stats prior to its release in Yokohama. While it's still the best attacker in the game, this sets a precedence that hasn't been established by Niantic: Could Blissey get a nerf? Could something like Noctowl be buffed? It's very arbitrary to just randomly choose Mewtwo and nerf it like that...

2) Exclusive Raid Passes. As some of you have heard by now, Mewtwo can only be obtained by participating in Exclusive Raids, which consists of an invitation to a gym that you have raided in prior. While the details are not known at all at the time of writing this post, this already seems very dangerous for rural players and those who are travel a lot. For example, the college student demographic who is mostly (this week) moving back to their dorms. We'll see in the coming days how Niantic handles this as it will not only apply to Mewtwo, but other powerful Pokemon as well.

As an aside, the legendary birds + Lugia have been extended to August 31st.
Basically a money grab but allows people who missed out on the birds to be able to obtain them as a final hurrah + usage of these legendary birds to counter each other (e.g. Moltres as a counter to Raid Boss Articuno, Zapdos as a counter to Raid Boss Moltres).
 

breh

強いだね
You should probably swap over Scizor to bug moves eventually cause it's not really going to get a useful outlet for its steel moves any time soon (you can debate articuno if you want though, I guess, but mono fire types do that (and Regice) better). Fairy mons are bad til we get gardevoir.
 

FlamingVictini

FV - msg on discord FlamingVictini#3784
is a Top Tiering Contributorwon the 16th Official Smogon Tournamentis a Three-Time Past WCoP Champion
Ugh, these raids are never gonna let me get back to more casual playing are they?
Or you can just choose to play casually... nothing is forcing you to go out and raid like crazy. Sure, its legendaries, the rewards are nice and they have limited availability - but you already probably have a few of each, and the return for getting another one with a slightly higher iv really won't be worth the effort. Why don't you just take the day easy and do that one raid nearby when the opportunity arises? If you can manage to do that consistently you've alredy got another 17 or so more legendary raids which is well worth it, and you can throw in a few extra from coin earnings if you want. I have only done 18 legendary raids so far despite spending 4 premium passes (have 2 leftover, and considering that I spent the 3 legendary raid weeks on a campus with 27 gyms in the vicinity and didn't spend all of them, i'm thinking its a bad idea to buy another special box), so personally another 2 weeks with a daily legendary raid would be blissful. Don't force yourself to grind out 80 more raids because at some point you're just not having fun and it won't be worth it. Play the game as you wish and don't sacrifice other responsibilities for it. Also keep in mind that the birds + lugia aren't even very useful to invest in (atm), and there are gonna be many more legendaries down the road. Just take your time and don't rush it.

I'm travelling rn and have missed 3 days of raiding already, so I would love to do more raids. I'm only gonna get back with another 3-4 days to try while school is starting up, so its doubtful i'll have more than a few chances to get some raids in. But that's fine. I'd rather take the time to enjoy this trip with my family and just catch some pokemon (like corsola which I got yesterday!) in "exotic" places. Personally I do want to catch 2 more moltres (because I'm valor and want to power one up to 30, and I specifically put enough rare candy into moltres to hit 60 because I needed bag space but I knew I wasn't gonna power him up right away, and I thought I might as well put in a little less incase another chance to catch him comes up). I'd also love another shot at a good cuno/zap since my best ones are way on the lower end of the spectrum and I only did 3 raids for each. Despite this, I realize its not a necessity, and I already made peace with myself and am happy with what I have - anything else is just a bonus. Take it easy and have fun.
 
I have done plenty of raids.. however about 70% of the accounts I have seen all around are under level 30... which is not that useful on invitation only raids, really wish Niantic wouldn't touch base stats, goes against the game imo.
 

Champion Leon

Banned deucer.
Or you can just choose to play casually... nothing is forcing you to go out and raid like crazy. Sure, its legendaries, the rewards are nice and they have limited availability - but you already probably have a few of each, and the return for getting another one with a slightly higher iv really won't be worth the effort. Why don't you just take the day easy and do that one raid nearby when the opportunity arises? If you can manage to do that consistently you've alredy got another 17 or so more legendary raids which is well worth it, and you can throw in a few extra from coin earnings if you want. I have only done 18 legendary raids so far despite spending 4 premium passes (have 2 leftover, and considering that I spent the 3 legendary raid weeks on a campus with 27 gyms in the vicinity and didn't spend all of them, i'm thinking its a bad idea to buy another special box), so personally another 2 weeks with a daily legendary raid would be blissful. Don't force yourself to grind out 80 more raids because at some point you're just not having fun and it won't be worth it. Play the game as you wish and don't sacrifice other responsibilities for it. Also keep in mind that the birds + lugia aren't even very useful to invest in (atm), and there are gonna be many more legendaries down the road. Just take your time and don't rush it.

I'm travelling rn and have missed 3 days of raiding already, so I would love to do more raids. I'm only gonna get back with another 3-4 days to try while school is starting up, so its doubtful i'll have more than a few chances to get some raids in. But that's fine. I'd rather take the time to enjoy this trip with my family and just catch some pokemon (like corsola which I got yesterday!) in "exotic" places. Personally I do want to catch 2 more moltres (because I'm valor and want to power one up to 30, and I specifically put enough rare candy into moltres to hit 60 because I needed bag space but I knew I wasn't gonna power him up right away, and I thought I might as well put in a little less incase another chance to catch him comes up). I'd also love another shot at a good cuno/zap since my best ones are way on the lower end of the spectrum and I only did 3 raids for each. Despite this, I realize its not a necessity, and I already made peace with myself and am happy with what I have - anything else is just a bonus. Take it easy and have fun.
I'm glad you posted this. Pressure/obligation removed like an Abra that used Teleport.

However, at first I was sick of Lugia, but then I see it is a better wall (not Counter) to Mewtwo with Psychic, AND Focus Blast than Blissey, and will only fear Shadow Ball which Blissey will handle (won't say Snorlax because the STAB Quick Moves are gonna hurt way more than Alakazam).

The article says that a Focus Blast Mewtwo is slightly worse than Machamp against Blissey, and my Blissey had a hard time today in a raid vs Articuno, and just to be clear this is the Blissey that had a hard time: http://imgur.com/a/0Jvcd

So you know, Mewtwo forces all Trainers to pack:

4 Tyranitar + 2 Blissey for Shadow Ball or Hyper Beam Mewtwo.

4 Tyranitar + 2 Lugias or Blissey for Psychic Mewtwo.

4 Bite/Crunch Gyarados + 2 Lugias for Focus Blast Mewtwo. A double resist in Lugia takes 1% more damage than an immunity, and Giratina isn't released yet...

Lol if they ever make Shuckle a raid boss (the increased HP with base 396 Defense)... that would be boss- the Great Wall.

I'm very excited about mewtwo being the new raid boss, it's what we've waited for all this time, and at a whopping 49k you'll need your strongest lineup to take it down along with the help of other raiders of course.

gamepress has a list of good counters here to get ready:
https://pokemongo.gamepress.gg/pokemon/150

I already have 2 fully powered up tyranitars with bite/crunch and 2 fully powered up dragonites with dragon tail & outrage. I've been hesitant to convert my scizor with steel moves over to bug moves though I have another at level 20 with bug moves but that needs stardust that I don't readily have and others higher up on the priority list. To round things up, I have another level 20 dragonite with dragon tail & outrage and might as well get that one powered up since its damage per second (DPS) is hard to resist. I'll have to use charged TMs to fix a 4500 stardust houndoom and another to fix a perfect IV pinsir at level 20, so lots of grinding for stardust will be necessary. Oh I also have 2 highly powered up gyarados with bite and crunch as those will definitely be handy and resistant to focus blast as well. Other hard hitters like vaporeon and some of the other legendary birds may come in handy too. I was going to immediately power up my best zapdos but now my 3rd dragonite takes priority there.

Edit: I successfully used a charged TM to change my 100% pinsir from vice grip to X-Scissor, and since pinsir's X-Scissor is the same and barely better than scizor's X-Scissor, and since pinsir resist focus blast then pinsir gets the nod here for preference over scizor.
First off, congrats on Gyarados:
1. It's an accomplishment to get 400 candies.
2. You read my Pro-Gyarados rants.
3. Perfect use of Bite/Crunch to resist Focus Blast on Mewtwo, just like when it resists Hydro Pump on Lugia

Afterall, Gyarados' Bite is only 2 DPS less than STAB Tyranitar's.

Will Pinsir have the defenses to take Mewtwo's Quick Moves? Scizor's resist give it hope, so I am concerned Pinsir will eat up your Stardust...
Maybe focus on Tyranitar raids for now, or Lugia raids. They will be useful for him, and once you have Mewtwo he can be used to pretty much take out any non-resist Pokémon. Similar to when people raided for Machamp to get Tyranitar.

You should probably swap over Scizor to bug moves eventually cause it's not really going to get a useful outlet for its steel moves any time soon (you can debate articuno if you want though, I guess, but mono fire types do that (and Regice) better). Fairy mons are bad til we get gardevoir.
I agree he shouldn't worry about losing Iron Head, overall X-Scissor has 3 uses per each Iron Head
 
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And the moment I'm finally happy with Outrage Gyarados, they make Bite/Crunch relevant again.

Well, btw, what's your opinion on Tracking Apps like Pokétrack? I'm kinda on the wall on this.
 

Champion Leon

Banned deucer.
And the moment I'm finally happy with Outrage Gyarados, they make Bite/Crunch relevant again.

Well, btw, what's your opinion on Tracking Apps like Pokétrack? I'm kinda on the wall on this.
I'm a spoofers so I don't mind tracking apps, it's a shorthand for people who use Discord or Facebook groups to tell you the coordinates.

If I drive somewhere and post saying "raid here", it's not much different than finding the raid on a tracking app. Only difference is by posting it means at least 1 person is already there, and the tracking apps can lead to getting banned.
I would suggest weighing the risks. But I also encourage people to be safe and smart and not post on Facebook / Discord unless they are responsible adults so they won't accidently reveal information on where they live. Facebook has your real name, and photo, afterall.

Here is what I would say about Gyarados, it's only the best against 25% of the Mewtwo, so don't reset Gyarados.
Do Tyranitar raids to get Tyranitar, after all, you want some TMs so you may as well focus on Tyranitar, and if you catch a few you won't need to spend them on Gyarados. If you don't catch it, then you will likely get TMs- win win either way so you can go for Gyarados.

If there are Focus Blast Mewtwo you can use Dragonite as they resist and deal neutral coverage, (if you don't have enough Gyarados / want to preserve TMs).

My post is:
If you already do have Bite / Crunch Gyarados, just like for when Metagross is released (Tyranitar is weak to Steel and Dragonite will be resisted on all moves), then it suddenly has a use beside Hydro Pump Lugia.

P.S. Mewtwo raids get huge heads-ups, which encourages everyone to join at once, so that means you can rely on other people who have better Pokémon to win; so no need to change yours if their Pokémon up your team average DPS. People in Yokohama said he was surprisingly easy to defeat.

Well Lugia with Hydro Pump and Mewtwo with Focus Blast will not be, Without Bite/Crunch Gyarados, but Lugia with Sky Attack/Future Sight and Mewtwo with Hyper Beam, Shadow Ball and Psychic will be.
 
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breh

強いだね
Ugh, these raids are never gonna let me get back to more casual playing are they?
What is casual? Just walking by yourself or specifically not spending money?

The biggest problem with raids for me casually is that I can't play at night only; I need to go out into the sun :/
 

Champion Leon

Banned deucer.
Niantic needs to remember, they don't make the game fun. We do.
Everyone searches google to get information that Niantic doesn't put together on their website, Silph Road, YouTube, even here we work together to make the game "worth it" because it's like we are coming together to maximize the potential Niantic doesn't seem to capitalize on.

It's a shame, each intentional flaw of not giving us more than the bare minimum forces us to debate spending money, and ultimately debate quitting. I hope they don't mess up Mewtwo like they did many things already. For many it might be their last straw.
 
the fun, I did 3 legendary raids yesterday and caught all 3. giving us the bare minimum is why we have scanners and trackers thriving... at least Niantic are now giving potions for from raids now. I was running low on those.
 

Champion Leon

Banned deucer.
Here, all the good raids are happening in the early morning, like 5~6 in the morning. Then we have a bad drought in the afternoon. It's sad.
I agree, the Raids right next to the SF City Hall are Level 1, and Level 4 (Snorlax/Lapras), no legendaries.
They should make Legendaries level 30 upon capture, having to rely on rare candies to power them up and not getting any guaranteed due to Potions replacing all items is bizarre. Why don't they just have separate item slot gaurantees: 50% Potions and revives per battle (say 4 of each), rare candies, golden razz berries, and % to get each TM type.
---
I literally got only 8 super Potions from my Snorlax Raid today. It ended up being 91% with Perfect Def and HP and 11 Atk, but the fact I got no rare candies, nor TMs and no Golden Razz Berries is pretty disappointing.

What if I didn't catch Snorlax? The Super Potions would be like negating the damage from the raid and I wouldn't have anything from it. Even the Journal doesn't track items from raids, only regular pokestop / gym spins.
----
 

Codraroll

Cod Mod
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Just got my third 100 % IV Pokémon today!

...and just like last time, it was a Rattata. The first I caught was a Pidgey. Not that I'm not grateful, but- ...eh, screw it, I'm not grateful. Useless piece of Route 1 junk.
 

Expert Evan

every battle has a smell!
is a Forum Moderator Alumnus
As much as I may not necessarily want to place blisseys in gyms, it's getting to the point I have little or no choice to do so since it's annoying they come up in initial team selection against legendary raid bosses especially when coming back in when my originally line-up had all fainted.
 

Blitz

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I would just have them all fainted; given anything defends in this metagame... Unless you're spamming Golden Razz Berries on a particular Blissey, you're better off just having them dead so the lineup doesn't annoy you for raids, and revive them when appropriate (placing it in a gym).
 

Expert Evan

every battle has a smell!
is a Forum Moderator Alumnus
Main reason I stick to legendary raids is for the item redemption. Today's successful zapdos raid even though I managed to catch one on first toss, I only got 3 rare candies and a bunch of potions this time so I'm not sure what was up this time. I'm usually satisfied if I received any TMs, particularly the charged TMs which lately I'm hoarding and only using when necessary. Inventory is at 16 fast TMs and 12 charged TMs.

I am currently at 185 towards dragon tamer, and have 5 dragon scales with over 1000 horsea candies so I'm at a point where I'll just evolve the next 5 in a push towards gold in this last type needed.
 

Blitz

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Yeah, the raid tier rewards were nerfed significantly following the addition of Potions, Super Potions, and Hyper Potions into the fray. The Tier 5 rewards seem to give out what a typical Tier 4 gives out... so, less items... and with the increased item saturation, Rare Candies are much harder to come by as a result. =/
 

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