What to walk for hallowe'en
Unlike most of the posters here I've had no great luck in my catches. So there's really no 'optimal' pokemon to power up, but I'd still like to make good use of the 4x candies.
Options:
Lapras: I've caught 4 Lapras. A 1980 Breath/DP with low IV that isn't worth powering up, but the next is a 1695 Breath/IceBeam with ~70% IV that in my opinion could be if I had the candies.
Snorlax: I've caught 4 Snorlax. The best is 1696 with Lick/EQ and low IV. There's also a 1409 with Lick/Body Slam and 91% IV. The latter may be worth powering but I'm guessing it's better to wait to hatch or catch a better one...
Growlithe: I have a hatched 85% one, and am yet to evolve an Arcanine (have about 30 candies).
Grimer: I have a decent level 20 Grimer (685CP) and am yet to evolve a Muk (have about 18 candies).
Dratini: I have a strong Dratini (level 26). I've only caught 1 Dragonite and it's garbage (68%, Steel Wing/Hyperbeam, ~800CP). I also only have like 30 candy though.
Charmander/Bulbasaur: Don't have Venasaur or Charizard and likely will never get enough candy to evolve them otherwise. May get lucky to find a spawn but seems unlikely - I've never seen either on my nearby.
Maybe anything else I'm completely forgetting? I'm currently walking a Geodude and just got enough candies to evolve my first Golem. I was going to swap to Growlithe next because the order really didn't matter, but now it sort of does.
EDIT: Thanks for all the help! I think I'm going to go with rushing the Arcanine and then getting some Lapras candy. At minimum I'll have a good Lapras to attack with and hopefully a good Arcanine on top of that. If I get any leftover I could either use the DP Lapras for defense too, or start going for the Grimer candy I think. Dragonite is really tempting but seems too risky if I don't get DB, probably better to just hold out and hope to catch one someday...
Answers
4 lapras, 4 snorlax, and a dragonite sound like good catches to me.
Anyways.. venusaur is handy, growlithe has a good chance of getting a bad moveset,dratini would take a ton of candy to evolve AND power it. In your position I would knock out venusaur real quick and then lapras, most will tell you to just pick snorlax though.
I was beyond happy to find those catches of course - just unimpressed with the move sets for the most part.
I wanted a Dragonite to attack with, but the one I caught has a defensive moveset and is way too low leveled to be worth powering up anyways.
I was thinking Lapras as well (hence the ordering), my Snorlax simply aren't good enough to power up whereas the 1695 Lapras is. Was stoked for the 1980 (which came before the 1695) and was disappointed to have DP and really low IVs.
Is Venusaur still a priority in your mind when I have multiple Vileplume and Victreebell? Both are relatively easy to evolve in my area. I don't have one with a decent moveset yet (I never get grass quick&charge), but they still do well attacking in to water. I have an 1800+ Vileplume with Razor Leaf and high IV (just the charge is Moonblast). EDIT: I also have a 2000+ Exeggutor with Confusion/Psychic. Didn't mention because I prefer the Vileplume for beating Vaporeon, but Exeggutor is a strong option as well.
Venusaur is a beast imo. Better than vileplume and victreebell for sure. Both quick moves are grass too which helps in your case. Just depends on how prevalent Vapes are in your area I guess.
Normally I wouldn't consider him a buddy, but you mentioned you would never have enough candy for him which changes things. It's a toss up between lapras and Venus in my eyes. You may hatch a lapras and get a ton of candy, who knows. 1 day for Venus and the rest for lapras maybe?
The gyms in my area are typically one of two types:
5 or 6 of the 10 are Snorlax/Lapras at high (2200+) CP. There's basically no good strategy to take it down other than brute force and dodging, preferably with allies.
Multiple Dragonites to dominate the top (often having kicked out lower CP stuff). Easy to beat with Lapras if you get to them.
Vaporeons definitely show up, but almost always it's 1 or 2 per level 10 gym. Nothing my Vileplume can't handle. I'd say Arcanine, Exeggutor, Dragonite, Venusaur, Slowbro, Victreebell and Vileplume all show up only slightly less often than Vaporeon does. The players who loaded up on Vaporeon downtown now seem to have moved on to Snorlax/Lapras/Dragonite defenders, while the others only have 1 or 2 Vaporeon from playing in the area and would prefer to save them for attack.
So my only problem with Dratini is I only have ~30 candy right now. Getting another 95 candies is like 24*5=120 kilometers. That's not happening over 6 days or so (I mean, I work full time and have other responsibilities...). So I'll make progress towards it, but if I get to say 90 candies I'll still be a long ways off of a Dragonite. The progress could be worth it, but I found one in the first 30 candies so if I find another? I guess still a chance it will be another bad one (at least if I evolve one I know it will have good IV and level, albeit it could still have Steel Wing and not Dragon Breath).
I guess my question then is:
Is dragonite an attacking machine with Steel Wing still? Or only really truly great if he has DB?
Yea, so basically if I use the whole bonus to walk a Dratini and end up evolving a Steel Wing, I'll have something to put in gyms at the top (although he'll be a weak defender anyways as Lapras is pretty common among the high level players in my area) and nothing better to attack with. Attacking seems to be my weakness right now so I'd really be throwing all my eggs in one basket going for a DB Dragonite out of this as opposed to snagging an Arcanine + leveling up an already good Lapras and possibly a little leftover.
