please remove my account

This website is why. It makes the others sound like trash. Besides onix and chansey they all seem somewhat usable. I personally can't wait for my machop and gastly to evolve. They are the ones I want the most and the most rare in my area. I'm so close.

I'm going to max them out, could care less about their rating. They look badass. I'd take a machamp over my 20th boring Vape any day.

I literally haven't seen anything in gyms but snorlax, dragonite, exeggutor, vaporeon, and arcanine in weeks. It's sad because there's so many to choose from. Need a balance update or something.

You are playing the game the way it is meant to be played.

I am currently maxing out my Charizard because he was always one of my favorites.

It's not optimal, but if it's fun then of course it's okay.

There's also a side question of optimal - you should power up whatever you want to attack with, and variety is a key there. It's better to have 2000CP every type than a couple 2500CP big ones and nothing else (arguably). Although it doesn't really make sense at all to power up something that isn't the best of its type in some way, unless you don't have something better of the same type.

E.g. I've powered up:
Vaporean
Exeggutor
Nidoqueen
Poliwrath
Vileplume
Nidoking

It's no where close to the ideal fighting team, and I wouldn't have powered up several of these if I had better stuff to attack with. I powered up a Vileplume with moonblast because Fairy is strong to Dragon and I had no Lapras at the time to fight Dragonites with. Same reason I powered up my Nidoqueen with Stone Edge (rock strong against Flying). Now that I have a few decent Lapras though, that's a lot of stardust I spent. Sure, it got me a few gyms, but it's questionable whether it was worthwhile.

To me, it would make sense to power up any of the following pokemon if they have good moves:
Dragonite
Snorlax
Lapras
Arcanine
Exeggutor
Vaporean
Raichu
Machamp
Gengar
Nidoqueen/Nidoking (but not both)
Muk
Clefable
Wigglytuff
Rhydon/Golem (but not both)
Blastoise
Venusaur
Charizard
Victreebell/Vileplume (but not both)
Magneton
Alakazam
Omastar/Kabutops (excellent counter to Lapras) (but not both)
Scyther (counter to Exeggutor)

There are probably others worth powering up as well, but the point is that even this quickly thought of list is fairly lengthy. There are lots of Pokemon you can make great use of when attacking. That said, I wouldn't power up a Sandslash, Pidgeot, or Parasect for any reason pretty much. I also think Gyarados is fairly useless. Similarly, Ninetales and Flareon are okay but outclassed by Arcanine, etc... (since I don't have an Arcanine I battle with a reasonably tough Flareon, but I don't power her up).

The problem is that these low CP creatures can't hold slots in a gym.

Where I live creatures need to be at least 2,200 CP to be able to hold a slot, but often 2,200 CP is far too low.

For instance my 2,304 CP Slowbro with Confusion and Psychic is currently holding the 10th slot in a local gym.

When he gets bumped out I will need to put something in that is at least 2,400 CP though 2,600 CP is probably better.

All these creatures you are talking about can't get above 2,200 CP so they can't really hold anything but the 10th slot.

I don't put creatures into gyms that are less than 2,200 CP and this means I am only putting Execcutor, Snorlax, Dragonite, and the occasional Gyarados, Slowbrow, and Poliwrath.

There is only so much stardust to go around.

Obviously the primary purpose of the game is for you to have fun! If powering up a diverse squadron is fun for you, then by all means go ahead and do it (not like you need anyone's blessing to play the game your way anyway)! :)

That said, for many players another important goal is successful gym battling, specifically 1. Being able to conquer enemy gyms, and 2. Being able to collect lots of gold daily from gyms. The best way to be successful at gym battling is to have a small cadre of elite pokemon with ideally 1. Excellent stats/movesets and 2. (Relatedly) High CP. The result is a squadron comprised primarily of Dragonites, Laprases, Snorlaxes, Vaporeons, etc. This setup will allow you to conquer and keep several gyms while at the same time investing the lowest amount of stardust necessary.

Part of me does wish that there was more balance to the game/a larger group of "relevant" pokemon. I don't think that'll change anytime soon though.

I love what you are doing, in fact I do pretty much the same.

Even tho I already have a Snorlax, Exeggutor, Arcanine, Lapras, Vapo, etc

I'm now focusing on those fun mons that aren't that "popupar" in the game.

Over the last months I have putting more effort in maxing out a Jolteon, Flareon, Wigglytuff, Cloyster, Poliwrath, Golduck, Victreebel and Tangela.
All of them with good IVs (above 87%) and perfect movesets.

And I'm currently looking for a good IV Pidgeot with Wing Attack/Hurricane, which it seems it's a hard task.

Basically, I got bored of using tier 1 mons to take down gyms. I prefer now to level up fun and not so popular mons that fit a specific role counter other tier 1/1.5 mons.

IMO this is the funniest part of the game.

Edit: Oh, and I have a 87% Omastar with Gun/Pump waiting for being maxed out also, I need to collect more candies and dust.

Also, one thing that people seem to forget about is that powering up creatures actually makes them LESS useful in many ways.

Personally, I use a very diverse squad of creatures on a daily basis... Clefable, Scyther, Omastar, Rhydon, Pinsir, Squirtle, Venusaur, Wigglypuff, etc, etc... but I use them to add prestige to my team's gyms.

Having really good creatures that have diverse moves that are all around 1,000 CP is FAR more important to my local scene.

My most valuable creatures are all around 800 CP to 1,500 CP. I am super excited when I catch a low CP fully evolved creature with good moves.

The worst thing I could do is power up my A team. Their value is in being able to train my team's gyms for massive amounts of prestige.

So while I only power up gym defenders and 3 attackers, I still love and use a very diverse roster of creatures... I just don't power them up as that makes them useless to me.

Kudos to you CastelyMist. I'm with you 100%. I'm a level 34, nearly 35, and for most of this level I've focused on powering up "the others" as Shaq would put it. The only criteria though is that they must be 100% and have a preferred moveset (don't care about "O" or "D").

"The Others" I've powered up, nickname in parenthesis:
- Hitmonchan (Triple G)
- Tauros (Redbull)
- Jolteon (Sparky)
- Flareon (Pyro)
- Starmie (Asterisk)
- Hypno (Hynotic)
- Golem (TMNT)

Of that group, Hitmonchan is especially bad but it's fun to try and use him as part of my attack. I find myself using Starmie and Jolteon a lot.

I'm working on the following, same criteria:
- Beedrill (Cheerios)
- Fearow (Beak)
- Persian (Gizmo)
- Magmar (Arsonist)
- Dugtrio (D-Cubed)
- Parasect (Wizard P)

Hey there, I love to collect rape pokemons, but povering them up requires too much stardust, moreover I'm not sure if this powered up one is usefull enough to spend dust on it... Now just waiting to get pokemons with high IV, just like I have ninetales and pinsir with 100% IV, so I'm powering them up and using in gyms. I also have slorlax with 1604 CP and about 80% IV, but I'm not sure about it, so I'm collecting candies until I get a moreful power one. I also have enough candies to evolve gastly into gengar and a bellsprout as well, but all they have low IV, so I'm still waiting to get a better one

The reason is, since Gym's pokemon are ordered by CP, the higher the CP, the higher they are in the gym and the longer they stay in it. The problem is... those 5 pokemons are the ones that go higher in CP, so they are the ones people power up the most.

CastelyMist, you are so lucky with your collection. I have a few rare ones (from my region) but totally weird movesets:
- The only Arcanine with Bulldoze is called Bulldog
- The only Charizad with Dragon Claw is call Cigarlighter
- One Chansey with Psybeam
- One Wigglytuff with Dazzling Gleam
- One Clefable with Zen Headbutt + Psychic
- One Ninetales
- One Golem with Ancient Power, and one Omastar with this move too
- One Kabutop iv100% but has Fury Cutter + Water Pulse
- One Electrode iv100%, Spark + Hyper Beam.
I'm still trying to catch enough Abra and Machop to complete my collection.
Now I'm level 28, may be it's too low comparing to your level. When I reach level 34-35 I will consider powering up my pokemons the way you do now.

clefable, zenH/daZZ, is over cheat for def arena ;-)
many people overused dragonite for attack all ennemy.
even 3K+ need dodge 2K cleafable for dont die.

gengar make many damage but need more HP

Wigglytuf are fun but need litel more def point.

i got this 3 pokemon lvl 34,5