THE THUNDER IS MINE!!!! Finally
Team Instinct welcomes its bird
Answers
Yep, I feel ya, on all counts.
Never been in a big raid before, was at the park when Zappy popped up. Hung around for a bit spinning stops and grinding, was about to leave, and all these cars pull up. I think 15 trainers, some with multiple accounts (sssh!), and more coming. So we go, I hit the lobby, queue up my three Golems with Rock moves, two D'nites and a RT/SE Rhydon. Take a peek in the lobby, and am pleased that while others are also at level 34, no one is higher, so I'm doing well locally.
Go time, we pound the tar out of zap chicken, my first D'nite fights but takes zero damage as we win. Just Revives, Golden razzies and a little rare candy, 10K exp (nice), and we go to catch round. With instinct being as rare as we are, I get no damage bonus or gym bonus, and have to go to bat with only 7 balls. Golden razzie, first throw hits but no bonus, and a catch! Stoked.
Check out IVs. CP 1830, 10/10/12, and CB/Thunder. Literally 2 stamina from being the worst possible Zapdos catch. And I have no idea if I'll get another, since this was a fluke thing, I went to the park after some errands to get Houndours. The only "group" raids I've done are ones where a couple of people joined me as I was failing to take down a Machamp.
Sometimes this game is so frustrating. Other times it rocks. I've literally been preparing to get Zapdos from day one - I looked for Geodudes, and walked with them for a lot of the beginning of buddies, reveling in the 1 candy/km (or more during events) to get to this point. As a free player, I'm not walking 9 eggs at at time, or raking in stardust by other $$$ methods. Having three golems above level 31 was a serious commitment, and between the raid group structure and my lack of a PoGO community locally, I don't know if that investment will really pay off. Sure, it's another entry in my pokedex, but that is just what will happen when I stumble upon my first Unown or Pupitar (yep, don't have one of those, or Tyranitar yet).
On the other hand, someone has to get the crappy Zapdos. Maybe I wouldn't mind so much if the only one of my 7 Machamp raid catches that was above 80% was at 83.3% with steel moves. Someday I'll get one worth putting stardust into. And then I'll be able to help out in T'tar raids (unless they switch them out of raids by then.)
Rant over. Back to your regularly scheduled chat group.
If you happen to run into that or a similar group at another raid, ask them if they have a local Discord channel or use some other means to communicate. My spouse and I were totally floundering with raids, convinced that there were maybe 5 players at most left in our town. But we got lucky and ran across a group still gathered at a raid, and I happened to ask the right question. I got connected with my area's Discord chat and have been happily chasing legendaries all over town with loads of players. Seriously, I had no idea that there were so many players left in my area.
BTW, my Zapdos isn't much better than yours: 11A/10D/13S with CB/T. But at least we have one and have a week to improve on that, right?
Maybe a simple suggestion is if you had 15 trainers pull up, maybe try "talking" to these guys/gals and see if they go raiding, you can join a few...or ask if they have or use a chat app to organize to meet up for raids.
Since I assume not everyone can make every raid, they may even appreciate it if you can help at times when their main crew is working and can't do every raid...
Again, I understand not everyone is very social and all that and I generally don't even like people (at least not anymore being an old married fart with kids...), but most people are generally actually half decent and nice enough during these raids...Even all my hated rivals that take over all my old gyms, etc...
15 people doing any raid means there are probably more people in your area IMO than you think.
Chat Apps like Discord, Whatsapp, etc help a ton too...and ultimately, I think this is where the game is going...more raids, more need to get other trainer's help, etc...
Good suggestion, but it's a total lifestyle thing. I'm a 50 year old college professor with two grown kids out of the house, who is happy to foster his inner child. Almost all of the other raiders were 20 somethings in grunge wear. I have no problem with that, many of my students are kind of the same way, but I doubt that it would be easy to talk to them. And it was all guys, except for the two kids in a car with their dad. But their cheers (the kids) were the loudest when Zapdos went down.
Anyway, I'm thinking about how to get some groups going on campus - that would work well; we have 3 gyms on campus and 3 more within walking distance, as well as maybe 15 stops. I'm gold at three of the gyms already, silver for the rest. When the fall semester starts, we need to get organized - I'm sure there's a ton of players, and I want to join them.
The other point was that this park wasn't in my area - it was near the Home Depot I had to go to for house stuff. Had an hour and knew this park was a good walk and grind spot with Houndours nesting. Got one level 30 Houndoom out of it with dark moves, but only average IVs. So no dust needed, somewhat useful.
Next two weeks, wife and I are traveling to Croatia on vacation. She doesn't play and doesn't know I play (she'd give me a lot of crap about it), so I'll be hard pressed to do more than keep daily streaks going (we should be staying in dense regions, I can probably spin from the hotel at night). My luck, with the regional stuff coming up, I'll catch a Tauros in Europe to bring home to the USA. And raids are pretty much right out unless wife decides on an afternoon nap while I stroll around.
But I'll see what can be done with chat apps.
Heh, I guess that's the college life...I'm around your age, lit younger, but of course, if you are at a college, it's not surprising people playing are in their 18-24 age group...
Sorta funny since I rarely see young people play honestly...Probably my area, but most are old farts like me None of the really hip/cute/young people I see on all those Niantic commercials...
I assume older folks play in your area as well so you could ask them, but yeah, raiding is much much much easier (and probably funner with decent folks) with chat apps and even if you don't know anyone, you could also just start a conversation and say there's a Zapdos at this so-and-so gym...I'll be checking it out with as a Lvl 34 guy with 6 Golems..., etc.
...all assuming there is a discord server for your area of course...
Best of luck!
