The new way, ....
So we used to catch the best level mon we could (up to 30), or power up egg hatches or raid captures from level 20 to get to 30 or so, and those would be one's top battlers.
Now, with the weather buff, we can get raid captures up to level 25 (sometimes without any extra risk, as when taking Tyranitar with B/C on a cloudy day, the captured Ttar is buffed, but the raid boss's attacks are not), and wild mon up to level 35.
This has the obvious effect of making all our old candidates obsolete. Why power a 96% level 20 Exeggutor from a raid to level 31 when I can catch a level 35 Exeggcute in the wild, hopefully with strong IVs, and evolve it to level 35 without investing stardust? 50 candy for the latter, whereas it would cost 130 candy and 137,000 stardust to get the former to the same place.
The old way was that rare candy was for legendaries, or mon comparable to legendaries. The new way is that candy is king for non-legendary mon, and dust is reserved for the best of the best non-legendaries and for the legendaries.
Even among the ranks of the legendaries, anything powered up is safe, but of the candidates for powering up, they are pretty much obsolete. As soon as the birds or beasts are released again, everyone will be on a mad dash to get them when weather buffed. Moltres and Entei in clear weather, Articuno, Zapdos, and Raikou in the rain, and for those with amazing luck, if it's windy for your EX raid for Mewtwo, well, you're set. The savings of 31,000 dust and 28 rare candies for getting a level 25 instead of a level 20 is huge.
So, for those just starting the game, or those who are just reaching level 30, where things really take off, they haven't missed out on much. Sure, they might not be able to get Suicune with Hidden Power, but they can have all the tools they need to compete with the old guard who were level 40 before Gen3 (or even Gen2) came out.
Finally, all this change does, over the long haul, is compress the scale. Level 35 is the new level 30 (for mon), and there's less room for leveling at the top. That strongly suggests to me that an increase in the level cap is coming. I could see them making the steps from 40-50 even smaller than the steps from 30-40, which themselves are half the size of the steps from 0-30 in terms of mon increases.
As an example of this change: way back when my level was in the low 20's, last fall, I caught a wild Exeggutor. Stats were 10s/15a/15d, and it was the max level I could have. Additionally, it had the ideal moveset (for back then) of ZH/SoB. It was quite a catch. As I leveled up, I dragged it along with me, keeping it 1.5 levels (the max back then) higher than my level. When I reached 35, I only powered it up to level 36, and I stopped there. It's now at CP 2716, QTMd first to Extrasensory, and then to Bullet Seed, to meet different needs. It's a mon that I put a lot of work into, and it has hundreds of gym wins under it's belt, which is impressive for a non-generalist (or mostly non-generalist back then).
Last night, I was cruising through a park and saw a weather buffed Exeggcute, and caught it. Evolved it, and got a 9s/8a/11d Exeggutor with a CP of 2563. Not the equal of my old friend, but pretty darn close, for the investment of one great ball, one raspberry (didn't want it to flee) and 50 Eggy candy.
That's the new way. What we have powered up is safe, everything else old is now second hand. And level 35 is the new level 30.
Professor Aero
Answers
"Now, with the weather buff, we can get raid captures up to level 25 (sometimes without any extra risk, as when taking Tyranitar with B/C on a cloudy day, the captured Ttar is buffed, but the raid boss's attacks are not), and wild mon up to level 35. This has the obvious effect of making all our old candidates obsolete. Why power a 96% level 20 Exeggutor from a raid to level 31 when I can catch a level 35 Exeggcute in the wild, hopefully with strong IVs, and evolve it to level 35 without investing stardust? 50 candy for the latter, whereas it would cost 130 candy and 137,000 stardust to get the former to the same place."
--Not entirely true. The level of a Pokemon found in the wild is not important to me. What matters to me is its IVs; IVs are permanent, not the level of a Pokemon. If I find a lvl 35 Pokemon with great or perfect IVs, then awesome! This is the only time I would deem my old candidates obsolete; if I find a lvl 35 Rhyhorn with 98% IVs, then I will choose that over my current maxed out 93% Rhydon. The Rhyhorn can be any level, as long as the IVs are better or perfect. If the lvl 35 Rhyhorn had garbage IVs, though, it's going to the trash can without a second thought. That's how I've always done it, weather boost doesn't change how I choose which Pokemon to invest in.
"The old way was that rare candy was for legendaries, or mon comparable to legendaries. The new way is that candy is king for non-legendary mon, and dust is reserved for the best of the best non-legendaries and for the legendaries."
--Nope, my rare candies are reserved exclusively for legendaries, and have pretty much used them on legendaries 99% of the time. The only non-legendaries I've made exceptions for are Snorlax and Lapras, since Snorlax/Lapras raids seldom show up in my area (plus, still don't have a Lapras to this day), and candies are actually difficult to build up for those two.
"Even among the ranks of the legendaries, anything powered up is safe, but of the candidates for powering up, they are pretty much obsolete. As soon as the birds or beasts are released again, everyone will be on a mad dash to get them when weather buffed. Moltres and Entei in clear weather, Articuno, Zapdos, and Raikou in the rain, and for those with amazing luck, if it's windy for your EX raid for Mewtwo, well, you're set. The savings of 31,000 dust and 28 rare candies for getting a level 25 instead of a level 20 is huge."
--See my first response.
"Finally, all this change does, over the long haul, is compress the scale. Level 35 is the new level 30 (for mon), and there's less room for leveling at the top. That strongly suggests to me that an increase in the level cap is coming. I could see them making the steps from 40-50 even smaller than the steps from 30-40, which themselves are half the size of the steps from 0-30 in terms of mon increases."
--I wouldn't mind the level cap being increased. I just don't know if the majority of people who play this game would be content with that implementation.
"That's the new way. What we have powered up is safe, everything else old is now second hand. And level 35 is the new level 30."
--Everything else old that I have powered up/maxed out is at least 90% IVs, and will be kept until I find one with better or perfect IVs, since I keep one of each Pokemon. That's my way. At the end of the day, my 95% Exeggutor at lvl 40 will still have a higher CP and better performance than your weather buffed Exeggutor at lvl 40.
Czar,
There's even something in this update for you. Weather buffed mon have stats that vary between 5 and 15, not as good as the 10 to 15 you get from eggs or raid catches, but better than the 0 to 15 you get from a general wild catch.
This means that your chance of finding a perfect IV weather buffed mon (of any level, well, 6-35) is now 1 in 1331, as opposed to the 1 in 4096 chance for a general wild pokemon, assuming the stats are still uniformly distributed. Thats about a factor of 3.
Further, players who only go for the highest possible IVs are the exception, not the rule, and fall into one of two types:
1) Players who play so much that they will have plenty of perfect and near perfect IVs, and plenty of stardust and candy to power up a perfect level 6 Gastly to a powerful Gengar.
2) Players who are fixated on IV to the exclusion of all else, and end up having less effective teams (relative to invested effort) than if they were willing to expand their IV range.
I suspect that you're in the second group, if you don't have a good Lapras. Nothing wrong with that, this is a game, and we all play for fun. If your idea of fun is 100% IVs, power to you. I'm sure once breeding is introduced, there will be players who are just so proud of their 5th generation Shuckle, and that's fine too.
Ironically, I have one pokemon with 100% IVs. It's a Lapras, one of my eight. Not powered up because I have an older one with solid IVs at level 32, and the meta doesn't really demand Ice so much now that we don't have gyms full of Dragonites.
And sure, I get that good IVs are good. My top mon are a 96% Dragonite (DT/O) at L36, a 98% Ttar (B/SE) at level 34, 98% Dragonite (DT/H) at L33.
"At the end of the day, my 95% Exeggutor at lvl 40 will still have a higher CP and better performance than your weather buffed Exeggutor at lvl 40."
Perhaps, but my 5 Exeggutors at level 35 with BS/SoB will have a much easier time soloing an Omastar than your one perfect one will, and I'll have spent a lot less dust on them. And they will be much more effective (nearly 5x) against EQ Groudon and SB Groudon, than your one can ever be. To each their own.
Further, my 10/15/15 Exeggutor at level 40 will perform at something like 99.4% of the level of your perfect one, and in most fights, will end up doing exactly the same damage to an identical foe before fainting. Only if those last few hit points allow another quick attack will there be a small difference - the chance that will allow an extra charged attack is so small to be laughable, and all of these differences are well within the error of the timing of tapping on the screen, dodging, and network lag. So if we did 100 actual fights under identical conditions, you might do a smidge more damage in 54 of them, and I'd do more in 46 of them. If all the work you do to get perfect mon is worth that little edge to you, great. If you have fun getting there, better yet. But don't blithely assume that your way to play is the only right way.
Alright, seems fairly convincing to me. I can certainly understand your point of view, and I definitely respect it. There was once upon a time when I used to hold multiple of the same Pokémon, and as you said, will still prove effective in battling than having just one with high or perfect IVs, since the difference in performance isn't too large. But, now, I just like to collect and battle with one of each Pokémon with the best possible IVs I can find for them, which makes it fun for me personally. I get that my way isn't the only way. I just wanted to point out that you don't have to invalidate the Pokémon you've already put so much time and effort into just because you found a Pokémon in the wild with a higher level than the one you already have. They can still be useful, especially if you have an army of them. But, as you said, to each their own. Appreciate the response!
The way I see it, is the weather buff allows you to have a powerful low cost rental until that 100% version comes along. It'll save you stardust (which is coming in faster with weather buffs) since you no longer have to power anything up unless you want to. Which in turn makes powering the 100% version, regardless of level, easier.
Nice, I enjoyed the read.
I'm not so sure about increasing the player's level cap to 50. Niantic are quite conservative with their game design. But it's possible.
Certainly things are smoother for newcomers. They have it easy to get competitive pokemon and theoretically don't rely on stardust anymore. Unless you find this perfect version of the mon that you really want to use as your go to attacker
