Came back from a long break. How do I adapt to the new meta?
I gave up on the game a week after the new gym system was released because the game was too unstable and prestiging was no more. Last week, I decided to give the game another try; glad they fixed the berry feeding bug.
Still walking Larvitar; 84 candy so far. Have won over 10 raids and have 17 rare candy, but only 1 Fast TM (no Charged TM yet). I live in a water/grass biome where gym turnover is high and level 5 raids may attract crowds. With over 400K stardust, how do I quickly adapt my lineup to the new gym meta? My defenders and former prestigers are listed below (all wonders except those marked with * while + ... means I have more with lower CP but non-wonder or non-optimal moveset):
Dragonite (3000 SW/DP, 2250 SW/Hurr, 2000 SW/OR, 2000 SW/HB)
Blissey (2600 Pound/DG)
Snorlax (2550* Lick/HB)
Rhydon (2800 MS/SE, 2100 MS/SE)
Golem (2250 MS/SE, 1600 RT/RB)
Machamp (2100 C/DP)
Poliwrath (2050 B/IP, 1800 RS/HP, 1800 RS/HP)
Gyarados (2750 Bite/HP, 2050 Bite/HP, 2050 DT/OR)
Vaporeon (2700 WG/AT, 2100 WG/HP, 2000* WG/HP, 1850 WG/HP + ...)
Exeggutor (2450 Conf/Psychic, 2050 Conf/Solar, 2000* Conf/Solar + ...)
Espeon (2400 Conf/Psybeam)
Alakazam (1900 Conf/SB)
Slowbro (2100 WG/IB, 2050 Conf/IB, 1800* Conf/IB)
Jynx (2000 FB/IP)
Cloyster (2000 IS/IW)
Flareon (2000* FS/OH + ...)
Arcanine (2150 Bite/FT, 2000 FF/FT)
Venusaur (2150 VW/PB, 1900 VW/PB)
Lapras (2150* WG/IB, 1950* FB/IB)
Omastar (2250 WG/AP)
Jolteon (2000 TS/DC, 2000* TS/Thunder)
Houndoom (2000 Snarl/FP)
Umbreon (1600 Snarl/DP)
Clefable (1900 ZH/DG)
Wigglytuff (1600 Pound/PR)
Steelix (1350 IT/HS)
Answers
"Gyms are easy and you don't need any investment for them."
Not in a high turnover area. Read his post carefully, he said his area has high gym turnover.
In fact, the reverse can be said: In dense cities, gyms are the meta, not raids. Raids are easy and you don't need any investment for them, other than T3 solo.
Get a B/SE Tyranitar
power up a C/SoB Exeguttor
power up a Hydropump Vaporeon
TM a Dragonite to get double Dragon
power up Machamp
power up a double rock Golem (but not pressing since there are no legendary raids to use him against right now.)
in general build two good counters for each legendary raid and participate in those.
Once you have done that, Tier 3 raids are fun. They usually require investment though. Check out the pokémon pages for counters.
Should I feed all my Rare Candy to my Larvitar then? I still have another 100 km to walk. Larvitar is Lapras-level rare here (mine was hatched) and I have yet to see a Tyranitar raid (where I could use my Machamp, WG/HP Vaporeons and RS/HP Poliwraths).
Going to calculate how much stardust it will cost to power my Exeggutor, Vaporeon and Machamp to level 30.
