New to raiding, how to start a team?
I've recently returned to PoGo after a long absence and am interested in getting started in raiding. What's the best way to go about getting a competitive team? Also, I'm struggling to figure out what is worth leveling up/ evolving. Some sites have said IVs aren't *that* important, while others say its not worth investing in anything with less than 15s all around. For reference here is what I have that I thought might be worthwhile, although I have lots of other wonders I didn't calculate. So far, it looks like I've been getting unlucky with movesets :/
Vaporeon 13/11/13 2326 CP
Water Gun+Water Pulse
Exeggutor 14/14/15 2318 CP
Confusion + Psychic
Golem 14/12/13 2204CP
Mud Slap + Earthquake
Rhyhorn 15/13/13 2187 CP
Rock Smash + Stone Edge
Jolteon 10/14/13 2013 CP
Thundershock + Discharge
Golem 15/10/12 1822 CP
Mud Slap + Ancient Power
Cloyster 11/12/14 1742 CP
Frost Breath + Blizzard
Tangela 13/15/12 1649
Vine Whip + Power Whip
Poliwrath 15/15/14 1391 CP
Bubble + Hydro Pump
Rhyhorn 15/14/12 1119 CP
Rock Smash + Megahorn
Alakazam 15/15/7 1132
Psycho Cut + Focus Blast
Vileplum 12/14/11 1056 CP
Acid + Petal Blizzard
Vaporeon 12/12/12 1755 CP (not a wonder, but close)
Watergun + Waterpulse
Vaporeon 11/15/5 1307 (not a wonder, but good moveset?)
Watergun + Hydro Pump
Machoke 13/15/12 1100 CP
Weepinbell 14/14/14 748CP
Graveller 13/15/3 999 (not a wonder, but maybe still worth it?)
Larvitar 14/12/15 502 CP (48 candy)
Rhyhorn 15/10/12 1104 CP
Answers
The level is just too low on that Alakazam. Yes moves can be changed, but better to find a good eevee and make an Espeon. That is a great Exeggutor and the first Golem is pretty good to take to level 30. Gamepress rates species, if 8.5 to 10 and high IVs and a decent level then usually worth some attention (attention, as in: you can ask us more specific questions, then possibly drastically power something up)
Because you don't have any 100's (Don't worry I have nearly none too) I would focus on powering the most meta-relevant, potent counters. Mons that will get you in the game while you gather dust, candies, and better IV mons.
- That Larvitar of yours is 91% and a pretty good level. Start by walking it. Better than most of the ones I have.
- Your first Vaporeon (82%, 2326 CP) has the suboptimal moveset but is a good CP and IV. Vaporeon is a great Pokemon to get your foot in the door, being well-rounded, tanky, having a very useful offensive typing (Water), and having decent damage output. Best of all, candy is relatively easy to come by. I would start by making it your strongest mon. However, I don't think it's worth a TM unless you use an iPhone 5 (as WP lags it).
- Your Exeggcutor has very good IVs and they make decent Psychic attackers with relative bulk and great attack. However, Psychic is a pretty weak move on it, and somewhat better Psychic attackers exist. Luckily, yours knows Confusion, an extremely rare legacy move (it can no longer be obtained). You may want to consider TMing it in the hopes of getting Solarbeam. Confusion/SolarBeam synergize towards a very powerful generalist, Grass-type attacker, as well as the current highest-DPS Gym Defender. This Pokemon is definitely worth some investment and won't get replaced unless Gen 3 introduces a massive grass-type Pokemon rebalance.
- Your Golem (2284 CP), Jolteon (2013 CP), Cloyster (1742 CP + Legacy Charged Move), and Tangela (1649 CP) are of note and may want to be included into your teams for their relatively high CP. That being said, I wouldn't power them up, as the first two have relatively poor movesets and the latter two have relatively low IVs (their IVs aren't that bad, but because these Pokemon aren't meta-centered but instead cover niche uses, I would wait for a very good IV one to power). All in all, the only one I personally would consider ever powering up would be the Tangela.
Now that you're back in the game, try the new Raid Boss system. You get a chance to capture a powerful (Level 20) Pokemon with 67-100% IVs. You can win Rare Candies, which are best used powering up a Legendary Pokemon should you catch one (Currently Ho-Oh and Mewtwo are up for grabs).
Happy hunting!
Lots of people have their hard and fast lines for what should be powered up and what shouldn't. But what it comes down to is how much are you willing to grind, to raid, to improve your team.
Things you want (in no particular order):
Golem RT/SE
Exeggutor BS/SolB
Raikou TS/WC
Entei FS/OH
Tyranitar B/SE
Tyranitar B/C
Espeon CF/FS or ZH/FS
Lugia ES/FS or ES/SA
Ho-Oh ES/BB or SW/FB or SW/SolB
Machamp C/DP (C/CC is close, but not as good)
Dragonite DT/O (DT/H has uses too)
Rhydon MS/EQ
Vaporeon WG/HP
One or two of each of these will get you started on a strong team to do raids. I may have forgotten a few; I'm sure other posters will mention them. Everything else is just filling in the blanks. And remember, you bring 6 mon into a raid, so having 6 good options for any raid you want to do is critical. Say you're raiding Machamp. Something like:
Espeon CF/FS
Espeon ZH/FS
Exeggutor ES/P
Exeggutor ES/SolB
Dragonite DT/H
Lugia ES/FS
That team should do well if powered up to level 30 or so. Check for breakpoints if you struggle. Close Combat is easy, Heavy Slam is hard, and Dynamic Punch is very hard (but still doable with the right team, just harder than the other two). And I assume you don't have a Mewtwo, if so, that's a no brainer to put on the team.
Good luck.
In terms of IVs, know how much you'll hunt, and if you get something that it seems highly likely you won't get better, power it up. And if you get a better one, power that up too when you have the dust and candy. Some people won't power up anything below 96%, some people power up anything over 82%, and some over 60%. Find your edge, the region where you're not more likely to find something better in a reasonable period of time, power it up, and be happy with it. Repeat until you can take down anything.
IVs do matter. A 10/10/10 needs about 3 levels of powering up to match a 15/15/15. (For machamp, 15/15/15 at level 30 is CP 2476, 10/10/10 at level 33 is CP 2479.) But the difference between 15/15/15 and 15/15/14 (whichever stat) is negligible.
It's not all about breakpoints, but they do matter. My rough estimates indicate that a normal half level bump makes the mon about 2% better, and hitting a breakpoint makes it 4-5% better for that one step. So that step counts 2-2.5 x relative to the other ones. Not world shaking, but a slight edge. Doesn't mean that powering up to a non-breakpoint won't make the mon better, it will, but not quite as much as at a breakpoint. Breakpoints matter the most for light, quick attacks like Fury Cutter or Bite, where going from 3 to 4 or 4 to 5 damage is a big deal (33% or 25% damage improvement). For something like Confusion, it doesn't really matter much at all.
Listen to these people, this is some of the best advice you could get. Mine? I'd walk that larvitar and power up a couple golems. If your biome spawns geodudes in abundance, hunt them to extinction and wait for a decently leveled one. Evolving high level Pokémon will set you up for a long time while you keep grinding candies in hopes of finding one with good IVs. Once you find those, prioritize them over everything else. That's how you plan ahead into the endgame while still making the game playable and fun until you get there. Do not power up any mons above level 30 unless you REALLY, REALLY need them or you find some that have the highest potential of their species (high IVs). Don't worry about movesets, in time you'll be able to fine-tune them with TMs you get from raids. Never waste a free daily raid pass, but prioritize levels 4 and 5 if your local raid scene allows you to tag along to big-enough groups, preferably 8 players or more. Do not enter a raid lobby unless you see enough players in it or you'll risk wasting a raid pass. In my experience, and because of the biome I live in, Rhydon armies make great fillers once you start finding Rhyhorns above 1200 cp and take no effort to build. Just about any Rhydon moveset will be useful while you acquire more specialized Pokémon for every need you may require them. 2300+ cp, Rock Smash Rhydons can take down Blissey's in gyms with some seconds to spare and require no investment. Oh, and never forget to always have an egg in the incubator cooking, you'll need the stardust eventually, so save as much of it as you can once you have enough fillers.
I think that the advise of Frostystuff is a good one.
You have a limited quantity of startdust so you want to use it smartly.
For water, psychic, fire, and electric, you can build a good team at no stardust cost by just evolving level 30 eevee.
For fight, you can get a good team by evolving level 30 wild poliwag and teddiursa.
For ghost and grass, you have the gengar, vileplume and victreebell.
Complete your team by raiding Tyranitar, Machamp, Moltres, and Raikou.
Then use your stardust on what will really provide a great improvement, focusing on high IV:
- Mewtwo
- Dragonite
- Tyranitar
- Machamp
- Exeggcutor
- Rock Golem
- Mud Rhydon
- Machamp
- Raikou
- Moltres
IMO 12 atk is enough, but many might disagree here. Don't evolve it until you have enough candies to fully evolve and power it up to lvl 30 in a single go tho, you might hatch another one or get a Ttar in a raid by then. It is a very powerful attacker but it serves best as a specialist so waiting on a better one might be wiser.
It's raid boss specific as to what attackers are the most useful as counters to which boss you are targeting. First figure out what you want to do in the game and what your goals are. Are you looking to raid the latest legendary? Are you trying to solo a tier 3? Decide what you want to do next in the game and power up the mon that are the best counters to your goal.
Despite what everyone says, take a look on this article. I'm surprised no one has linked it before: https://pokemongo.gamepress.gg/safest-pokemon-bets-gen-3
Tho many have Golem as their favourite power up. I don't see him shine in the future anymore. Would just follow the order of the article above.
You can’t raid Zapdos, moltres, Articuno, Lugia, raikou, Entei, or suicune anymore. So, no use even talking about them.
What is your objective and access to help?
If you are wanting to solo, you need to study the tier 3 and see what from tier 2 would help and look at counters for that boss and build for that objective. Unfortunately, the current bosses aren’t quite as well laid out for progression as the previous set of bosses were (magmar —> Egg —> vapor and champ —> ttar .... it is really too bad that egg isn’t a boss anymore. It was really useful).
If you have a group to raid with, then the answer is different. Get in on zam, gengar, machamp, golem, ttar, and Ho-Oh raids. Your vapors point toward better contribution to golem, ttar, and Ho-Oh. Getting these will be useful for subsequent raids (zam —> Champ —> ttar, Lapras, Snorlax). In the end, you’re going to need big group raids to avoid heavy revive and potion demand. Lots of trainers go through that though....many times worrying how they are going to revive and heal their lower level and/ or sub-optimal attacker squad.
remember!!!!! You can use a Pokémon you intend to power up in battle and THEN power it after the battle is over and after it fainted. In most cases, you will get a HP or 2 when powering and then you only need potions. Basically, you use dust as a mini revive. I’ve powered my raikou to 2800 (so far), 3 champ to 2400, 3 ttar to 2800+ raid catches despite having 150 max and regular revives (which I have to toss periodically). I rarely invest dust except using it as a mini revive.
