What are the need to have's now?
So I am just recently getting back into the game after a very long break. I left shortly after gen2 and I have very little idea of what the meta is. Any advice on pokemon I should be powering up, hunting, using rare candy on etc. I for the most part mainly do raids with a small group of friends. I am level 31, have a 3087 DT/OR 97% dragonite, a 2873 B/CR gyarados, and a 2616 P/HB blissey. As well as some personal favorites such as my 2222 78% RL/SB Venusaur, my 2138 73% PC/FS alakazam, and my 2604 100% RT/SE Golem. Also my only Legendaries are three lugias I caught yesterday.
Answers
The must-have non-legendary attackers are:
1. Machamp with Counter + Dynamic Punch
2. Dragonite with Dragon Tail + Outrage
3. Tyranitar with Bite + Crunch
Hariyama is a slightly worse Machamp and Salamence is a slightly worse Dragonite.
Of course, the best defender remains:
1. Blissey with Zen Headbutt + Dazzling Gleam
Other crucial species:
1. Alakazam or Espeon with Future Sight (Machamp solo)
2. Gardevoir with Confusion + Dazzling Gleam (many roles)
3. Gyarados with Waterfall + Hydro Pump (as you lack Kyogre)
Exeggutor and Metagross are useful, but complex, because they have multiple good movesets and each moveset plays a very different role.
Check out the new research feature!
Ho-Oh is returning with a new Fire Charged Move and the possibility of a shiny. Your Golem is gonna be ready for that! Here are some key things to look out for now:
- Gyarados can learn a Water Quick Move, Waterfall! This puts it way ahead of the meta, and you'll need it for Ho-Oh, especially because its Flying typing eliminates its weakness to Solarbeam. Bite/Crunch on Gyarados is really not that useful at all compared to its Water set. Consider spending some TMs (rewards from Raids) to change the movesets of some of your 'mons~
- In raids, you don't lose the damage bonus you've built up if you faint out - you can rejoin, so you want to do as much damage as possible. This means you want to shoot for ZH/DG on your Blissey, so it will shine as a Defender rather than an Attacker.
- Tyranitar is, in my opinion, the absolute best and safest bet in terms of non-legendary Pokemon to max out. It's a fantastic generalist and won't be replaced anytime soon, and Psychic-types are among the most-seen in terms of Raid Bosses and especially Legendaries. Mewtwo is still the current EX-Boss so having a squad of maxed Tyranitars is a smart goal to have, especially when looking forward to most mythicals and the Eon duo. Hit up some Tyranitar raids or walk some 10k Eggs to get candy and good IV candidates, and Tyranitar is one of the best buddies to have IMO. It's really the best non-Tier 5 raid to spend a pass on and you generally don't ever need more than 3 people to get it done.
- Nothing non-legendary in gen 3 has really destroyed the meta, but keep your eyes peeled for Ralts and Beldum. Gardevoir makes a great counter to Fighting types and Psychic Types carrying Focus Blast, and is one of the best and underrated Gym Defenders out there. It completely covers most Blissey/Snorlax/Slaking/Tyranitar counters and has arguably two of the best defending movesets out there: Confusion/Dazzling Gleam and Confusion/Shadow Ball. Metagross isn't a fantastic 'mon right now with its poor movepool but it's by far the best Steel attacker out there (and thus a viable counter for Fairy types) and double resists Psychic without a weakness to Fighting.
- On April 15th a Mareep event is going on with Ampharos likely learning a new (better) move so keep your calendar dated for that
- Legendaries weigh pretty heavily on the meta right now, but many of them are coming back and they're potentially a reward from the new Research System
- Quests were just added via the Research System. Make sure to claim a Field Task reward each day for a Stamp, and make progress on the Mythical Discovery long-term questline to get yourself a Mew!
- Lots of players have access to legendaries, since the past few were out for over a whole month, and after a recent Dratini event most people have at least one Dragonite by now. This means that, when setting up gyms, you should plan that people will have strong Ground, Water, or Dragon types to bring. Lots of players also have at least one Machamp, though Blisseys are still by far the best gym defender. It's usually a good idea to supplement a gym with anti-fighting counters such as Gardevoir, Espeon, Metagross, Gyarados, Slowbro, etc.
- Golden Razz Berries are more common now, and they greatly increase catch rates and can also be used as a "Full Restore" to a Pokemon's Motivation (the heart) gauge in gyms.
- THE MOST IMPORTANT CHANGE: Weather boost system: Pokemon caught that share a type with the boost provided by the current weather (i.e. Fire-type caught on a Sunny day) can be caught up to level 35, wild. This means that, if you want to for example make a Vaporeon counter team, rather than waste stardust on a >90% IV Exeggcute hatched at level 20, just catch 6 of them at level 31+. Even at low IVs they'll be great and will save you a mint in Stardust. This goes for all mons that are counters but not good overall, such as Exeggcute, starters, Golem, Rhydon, Jolteon, Alakazam, etc.
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Overall, here's the best advice I can give you:
- Best 'mons to be walking as a buddy right now (in order): Tyranitar, Ralts, Beldum, Blissey, any Legendary (20km), Machamp/Magikarp, Bagon/Dratini
- Rare 'mons to look out for right now (Non-Nesting Decent 'mons):
Larvitar, Ralts, Beldum, Slakoth, Bagon, Chansey, Dratini, Feebas, Slakoth
- Good Nests to look out for:
Aron, Geodude, Eevee, Machop, Makuhita, Treecko, Abra, Spheal, Exeggcute, Onix, Scyther
- Raids to prioritize (in order):
Legendary, Tyranitar, Machamp, Aggron, Magikarp
Pokemon to spend Rare Candy on:
I really only ever spend Rare Candy on Legendaries. Anything else can be walked/hatched/raided at a later time.
Excellent candidates for Stardust:
Tyranitar, Blissey, Gardevoir, Dragonite, Salamence, Legendaries, Gyarados, Metagross
Decent Candidates for Stardust:
Machamp, Vaporeon, Milotic, Snorlax, Slaking, Donphan, Aggron, Alakazam, Scizor
Be picky with your stardust, prioritize evolving with weather-boosted mons, and keep an eye out for non-nesting species such as Ralts and Larvitar, as they spawn more often in their favored weather conditions. Good luck, and welcome back!
I feel like it's much harder to prioritize Gengar without a legacy set but that is something that I probably should have placed in somewhere.
If he doesn't have a Kyogre and candy is hard to come by I retain what I said, but yeah Gengar is probably a better candidate than Aggron.
Then again, it's also easier to evolve a Gengar than a Gyarados and Gengar dies a lot more quickly and isn't as great of a generalist, meaning you could in theory be better off catching 6 level 35 Gastlies than powering up a level 20 one. Magikarp is a good candidate for dust because evolving them takes so long and they're such stellar Pokemon.
When hkn listed key pokemon to have, what he didn't mention is that you need more than one of them. To do a raid well, you should have a few. It's about teams now. You want 6 Golems to take down Ho-Oh (if that is indeed the next legendary) and some of the other legendary birds, and a few other mon, 6 Machamps to take down Tyranitar (as well as fight Blissey, Chansey, Snorlax in gyms, but you only need 1-2 for that), 6 Tyranitars to take down Mewtwo or other Psychic threats, etc. And a few good generalists like Dragonite, and to a lesser extent, Tyranitar. But all of that is pretty specific to raiding - if you don't want to raid legendaries, not that critical, but if you want some kick-ass pokemon, you should be gearing up to raid legendaries.
One or more of your new Lugias will be useful on your Machamp team - a good Lugia with ES/FS or ES/SA can almost solo a pure fighting Machamp (but will struggle a bit more with the steel moves).
And we're all collectively figuring out the quest thing - rumor is that the first reward for seven days of field research stamps will be the chance to capture Moltres, but possibly only at level 15, not 20, like a normal raid boss, or 25, like a weather buffed raid boss. Once some time passes, we'll have a better handle on all this.
And then there's the special quest and Mew. Not sure how to use the little dude (or dudette, I think Mythics are genderless). Maybe psyshock would be good against Machamp, paired with a quick move that Machamp is weak to, but I can't find one - it seems that the current list may be incomplete. I have 25 FTMs, so once I get a Mew, I may play around with it a bit. Otherwise, more of a dex entry and less of a useful pokemon.
Finally, the mew quest requires you to evolve a magikarp, so you might want to start stocking up on magikarp candy and find a good karp to evolve. As Water... said, the new move Waterfall makes Gyarados the best non-legendary water attacker, passing Vaporeon by virtue of a much stronger attack, but not being as tanky as Vaporeon.
Bottom line, play some, find out what is the most fun for you in the current game (raiding, gym battling, doing quests, hunting pokemon, grinding dust [uggh], etc.), and then we can help you figure out what you need for that.
Hey, I'll give my opinion as a now casual player. Outside of legendaries, there isn't really any new must haves. I would say the biggest difference is that you can now catch Pokemon over level 30, so you really don't need to power stuff up. If you are playing with friends there isn't a make or break. The only real difference I made is TMed a Gyarados to get waterfall. Other than that, Machamp and Dragonite clear gyms, and you still want your Golems and Tyranitars for raids. This is my gym sweep team.
Dynamic Punch Machamp is probably the most useful one out there
Crunch Tyranitar, or Stone Edge, you can never have too much Tyranitar.
Water Gyarados with waterfall finally surpassed Vaporeon
Rock Golem, somehow underrated but handles things real good
Ground Rhydon, overshadowed by Groudon and slow moveset yet the next best ground one
Gen3
Leaf blade Sceptile one of top 3 grass mon, glass cannon
Hariyama budget machamp
Milotic, very much like Vaporeon
Gardevoir,
Aggron, slow potion efficient
Metagross is good to have but not crucial
Salamance, dragonite with TM trap
Any eeveelution is still viable and second best at worst non legendary
Just to add up some suggestions on top of what you've been suggested already:
- You are missing a powerful electric type. Since Raikou and Zapdos are not available anymore, I would recommend you to get a good Jolteon with thunderbolt. Jolteon is currently a T3 raid boss, not easy to solo. Get a friend to help you and if possible battle a jolteon raid on a rainy day to get a weather boosted one.
- You are also missing the best grass attacker (venusaur with frenzy plant, only obtainable on the last community day). As the second best option Exeggutor is currently a raid boss. It can be soloed (it's a T2 raid) and you should probably get one during windy or sunny weather to get a weather boosted.
Your 100% golem is a jewel against legendary birds, make sure that it learns rock throw/stone edge as moves. Other than that you got plenty of good recommendations above.
