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Tier 3 solo planning and the gaps in my attacker squad

With the scanners down:
1. Finding legendary raids requires some luck. Smaller crowds make optimal teams more important.
2. Soloing tier 3 raids becomes more important, but I can no longer check what charge move the boss has before spending my pass.
3. Hunting for specific rare species is no longer feasible.

My tier 3 solo progress is as follows (all attackers are level 30 wonders unless otherwise stated):
Piloswine - Two Gyaradoses and a Machamp can take it down with 50 seconds to spare.
Machamp - Close Combat is easy and Dynamic Punch is doable. Not sure about Heavy Slam. My team comprises a Conf/DG Gardevoir, a PC/FS Alakazam, a Conf/FS Alakazam, a Conf/FS Espeon and a DT/Hu Dragonite, with two Exeggutors (Conf/Psyc and Conf/Solar) as backup.
Gengar - Focus Blast is easy with the glass cannons that I use for Machamp, supported by a Bite/Crunch Tyranitar, a Hex/SBall Gengar, a MS/EQ Groudon and a Snarl/FP Houndoom. However, Sludge Bomb tears them to shreds and I have yet to try Shadow Ball.
Jynx - Nowhere near ready, but I expect my FS/OH Entei, Tyranitar and Houndoom to make the team.
Granbull - Nowhere near ready. Only viable attackers are a TS/WC Raikou and that Entei. Hard to justify powering up and TMing a Poison-type just for this.
Pinsir - Nowhere near ready.

Hence the four gaps in my squad are:
1. More Fire-types for Jynx, Pinsir and Granbull (in future, they will be good for Regice and Registeel). Fortunately, this is the gap that I can rectify soonest with hefty stardust investment, first into the Moltres from the research breakthrough (also needs 86 Rare Candy) and then into a low-level Flareon with OH.
2. A BP/FC Metagross for Jynx, Granbull and as an anchor for the Lati twins (in future, also good for Regice and Regirock). Hatched two Beldum (both non-wonders), walking one and throwing berries at every Metagross that I see in gyms. 96 candy so far. Too slow, considering the next gap.
3. A ZH/Psyc Metagross for more bulk against Machamp with Heavy Slam and Gengar with Sludge Bomb (or Shadow Ball). See above. Tempted to use some Rare Candy.
4. Another Bite/Crunch Tyranitar for Jynx, more bulk against Gengar with Shadow Ball (or Sludge Bomb) and more damage to the Lati twins. Need some luck to find a Tyranitar raid with enough people and then successfully catch it (failed the last two times) but if I manage to (and its IVs are high), I have 77 candy to power it up.

If I successfully acquire the above, would I be able to solo all Tier 3 raids (regardless of boss moves) with level 30 teams? Have just over a million stardust, 238 Rare Candy, 15 Fast TMs and 7 Charged TMs.

Asked by hkn6 years 11 months ago
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Answers

For Gengar with Sludge bomb, consider Groudon or Rhydon with Earthquake. They doubly resist Poison, and do Super effective Ground damage. Snorlax with Lick and Earthquake is also a good option, but doesn't get you ahead of the clock - last resort only.

For Machamp, consider adding a Ho-Oh. Resists both fighting and steel damage, has a better attack than Lugia (although not a lot better), and has the Extrasensory/Brave Bird moveset that does SE damage against Machamp. It's not quite as good as Lugia against pure fighting, but is way better against steel moves.

For Granbull, consider Aggron. I haven't done much against Granbull, but I've found two 91%+ Arons at level 35 (both on snowy days, ironically, given that there's way more partly cloudy days here), and both got double steel moves when evolved. So for zero dust and 250 Aron candy, I have two strong steel attackers (yes, I admit I was lucky here - I don't use scanners). Their DPS isn't great, but they can take a pounding, and Heavy Slam is a decent if not stellar two bar move. Even if they aren't optimal, they are pretty good for zero investment of scarce resources.

Finally, if you can't scan the boss moves, there are two things you can do.

1) Look at the recommended pokemon. Against Latios, it's usually clear what it has from the recommendations. Solar Beam gets Dragons, Psychic gets Ttars, and Dragon moves gets no dragons, with steel and fairies, etc. Use that to guide which team you bring to the dance.

2) If you guess wrong, it doesn't cost much (about 4 minutes time and a few healing potions), to bail on the fight, and then try again with the right team. In fact, before we (collectively) had a better handle on how raids work, it was a common strategy for one player to go in solo with a Blissey just to find out the charged move, so everyone else in the raid could go in with the right counters.

Good luck with all of it.

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I have a level 30 Rhydon with MS/SE that was a gym defender ages ago. Could try CTMing to get EQ for an anchor against Sludge Bomb Gengar.

Unfortunately, it never snows in Singapore. Recently hatch a 89% Aron (15A) which got IT/HS upon evolution, but was advised to not spend any stardust on it.

Looking at the autoselected attackers is a great idea. Thanks! That may help me avoid wasting a raid pass on a tier 3 boss with moves that are too difficult for me to solo. (Hence bailing on the fight does not help.)

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You will still waste the pass, even if you bail without fighting.

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Machamp: If you can do DP, you can most likely do HS. Substitute your Gardevoir for Eggy. The dodge timing and damage from HS is very similar to DP.
Gengar: Add a Rhydon against Sludge Bomb. It's fast, so get your dodges on point. Shadow Ball is as easy to dodge as FB, it just fires twice as often.
Granbull: Lol. You can literally solo it with level 30 BEEDRILLS. This boss is a joke and you should not worry about it that much. It resists the most common attacker types, but any team of level 30 trash mons with poison type moves that you can scrape together will win the raid. Fire mons are great and if you have an extra DT/Hu Dragonite, you can FTM it to SW for a great attacker (144s TTW at lvl30).

1. Good idea. 2 more fire types gives you a complete team for Jynx (Gengar, Tyranitar, Houndoom and Entei being the other 4). Also helps with Granbull if you can't find Beedrills.
2/3. You already have a squad for Jynx with the fire mons and you don't need help for Granbull. Machamps and either your best fire or water mons will be better against Regis. Lugia is a better Lati anchor (more DPS and TDO) and a much better Machamp anchor (Metagross only works against HS). Do not spend rare candy on Metagross, it's not a bad pokemon but there are better options for almost anything it does.
4. Another Tyranitar is a great idea. I recommend putting some effort into finding those Tyranitar raids as you have the resources ready, and if you happen to score IT/SE as the moveset, it'll still be useable against Jynx and Granbull without TMs.

Solo all teams? Get the Moltres and powered up Flareon and you can do everything except Pinsir. The Tyranitar will help make Jynx and Gengar with all movesets easier.
As for Pinsir, you need more. You would only have 3 mons with time to win below 170s and DT/Hu Dragonite with 190s. 2 more FS/OH Flareons at level 30 is the bare minimum I'd recommend you to get before you attempt it.

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Gengar: How much damage do Alakazam and Espeon take from a dodged Shadow Ball (which they are weak to), compared to a dodged Focus Blast (which they resist)?

Granbull: The ironic thing is that all my five Dragonites (including the DT/Hu one that I use for Machamp) originally had SW upon evolution. Guess I can spare some FTMs (I have 15). With my Entei and Raikou, if I power up a Moltres (far better use for Rare Candy than Metagross) and a Flareon, my team would be almost complete. Almost.

Tyranitar: Completely slipped my mind that IT/SE is viable against Jynx and Granbull (mainly because it is useless against Gengar); thanks for the reminder!

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Zam and Espeon can usually survive 1 dodged ShB. Don't expect to fire more than 1 FS with each. If you get knocked out dodge with the ttar as well, timing out is not an issue with gengar unless you use slow Mons to tank (e.g. rhydon or snorlax).

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Alakazam and Espeon can survive 1-2 dodged Shadow Balls at level 30 depending on RNG. Tyranitar and Houndoom will tank for ages if you dodge all Shadow Balls with them.

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Machamp: don't use Gardevoir on HS Machamps, switch to Ho-oh or something tanky. AS/AA Rayquaza works against Dynamic Punch and Close Combat, and should also be useful soloing Pinsir.

Pinsir/Granbull: Flareon is poor man's Moltres/Entei, get some if you don't have the dog and/or the bird.

Gengar: Tyranitar is the key, a Lick/Earthquake Snorlax can be a great anchor despite its low DPS.

Get a high level Beldum and evolve it if it has a great attack IV, it saves you ~60 Beldum candies.

Granbull is somehow annoying if you don't have your Aggron/Metagross team, adding Roselias/Victreebels/Vileplumes can help.

If you acquired the optimal Pokémon, you should be able to solo all tier 3s, but dodging against Shadow Ball Gengar is critical.

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