Most people I know just level certain Pokemon (within current meta) to their breakpoints rather than maxing them outright. This saves on dust so that when something new comes the table, they have all they need to power the necessary counters to their breakpoints.
Personally I have the same approach to the game and tend to only power the most useful pokemon with the highest ivs. IMO I would say get each of those Pokemon to their respective breakpoints (most useful for raids/attacking gyms first). Obviously this is just my preferred play style and yours may be different. Regardless, I hope this is somewhat useful to you and/or other players.
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Dust investment
Where do you allocate your dust atm?
For me the most obvious choices all require rare candy which is hard to come by in masses, so my dust pool grows. Any Pokemon you power up apart from the legendaries?
The ones I am thinking about are:
1. Dragonite 15/15/13 96% DT/DM lvl 35,5 (2 Dragonite maxed already 100%, 98%) I also have two 100% Dratini at lvl 20 and lvl 13 but I already have a Rayquaza and 6 total Dragonite at lvl 35+. Candy is not a problem.
2. Rhydon 15/14/15 and 15/14/14 both lvl 35,5 MS/EQ. Three others at lvl 31,5 with around 80% IV, a maxed Groudon and another one at lvl 31,5. Just caught a 13/15/15 lvl 30 Rhyhorn.
3. Gyarados 15/13/15 and 15/11/14 both lvl 35,5 WF/HP. I have a Kyogre and a Vaporeon at lvl 35,5 as well and two other Vaporeon at lvl 31,5 (one has just 11a). I have a lvl 21 Gyarados 98% 15/14/15.
4. Scizor 91% 15/13/13 double bug lvl 31,5. My Mewtu team consists of 5 Tyranitar >lvl 35,5 and a SC Gengar at lvl 35,5 89% (a power up option as well).
5. Venasaur 91% 15/13/13 FP lvl 35,5. My other grass attackers are a maxed Exeggutor a lvl 35,5 Sceptile and other Venasaurs.
Which one would you power up or priorisize? Thanks!
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Answers
Well, obviously this is not my style of play as you can see in the mentioned mons. I either power up to 31,5, 35,5 or max in most cases. Only powering up when needed is a good strategy, but I don´t have the patience and so I spend some dust from time to time in mons who are the best of their type (that´s why I am hesitant on Rhydon and Gyarados for example. They are not the best, but who has 6 Kyogre or Groudon?).
👍 Awesome. Then perusing your list:
1-- As tempting as those two 100% might be, probably don't need another Dragonite unless you are trying to short-man dragon raids and want to build a backup team so you don't waste time healing. Maybe a Latios if you don't have a Dragonite with Dragon Claw.
2-- Ground is not too important right now. Wait until Rhyperior is added before you decide to spend any more dust.
3-- Probably enough water attackers. Water can usually be supplemented with ground or grass for most raids where you might need more.
4-- Your Scizor already hit the offensive breakpoint for Fury Cutter against Mewtwo. Its last defensive bulkpoint against Confusion is level 32.5, so after that power ups would mainly be for small improvements of X-Scissor and small reductions in damage from charge attacks.
5-- A Venusaur with good IVs and Frenzy Plant is worth dumping dust into. I'm slowly maxing my first one, and have two more that I might eventually raise to 30-35.
1) Dragonite - Yes. Absolutely those 100% Dratini. Maybe as a long-term project as you've got other Dragonites at Level 35+, but 100% Dratini demand to be powered up.
2) Rhydon - Not until Rhyperior is released, and we can see its Moveset.
3) Gyarados - If you can ensure that you have 400 Magikarp candies in reserve at the end of powering up those Gyarados, then yes. Personally, I'm hoarding Magikarp candies just in case, but if you've got lots, Gary's a good power up option. Particularly if it's Spring where you are and is likely to be raining on a regular basis and it will be Weather Boosted.
4) Scizor - Yes. No. Yes. No. Yes. Dammit. Yes. No. No. Yes. Ask me in 10 seconds. Yes. No. I WANT Scizor to be awesome, but I've been very underwhelmed by Scizor so far. I've got 3 powered to Level 35, and every time I use them they seem to faint REALLY fast. But I keep 6 Metal Coat's in my inventory because I Want To Believe that Scizor and Steelix will become the awesomeness that I want them to be. So no. Yes. No. Dammit. No.
5) Venusaur - Yes, but only because it has Frenzy Plant.
Pretty much everywhere.
But mainly on the ones that are useful for soloing or helping out in raids.
So currently I'm investing in my dark types. I've got a somewhat good Eevee which I'll turn into an Umbreon. Also a kabutops better than my previous one but with same moveset. I'm kind of low on Kabuto candy though.
Everything in my top 9 is now maxed, plus my 100% pilo and two Xatus.
To be honest I would only bring up a 100% Dragonite, but maybe not even that. Palkia/Dialga are some more potential top dragon types not that far away and Rayquaza already surpassed it. A team full of 6 max dragons should be everyones goal though in my eyes and yours are perfect.
If u have a decent IV Kyogre left over and some rare candy I would bring it to like 30 and you already have a better option than Gyarados in most cases. Besides, your Garys are good right where they are, so are your Rhydons.
Scizor looks cool, but its performance is not as good as we all were hoping for, when it was freshly released.
FP Venu may be pumping worth dust into aswell, but imo having grass attacker is not that useful, at least I barely ever need them and always just use Kyogre/Raikou/Machamp instead.
EDIT: missed the Gengar side note; an absolutely worthy max candidate!
A second Kyogre is very tempting, but I am low on rare candy which go to Mewtu and then Rayquaza. Also the best I have left is 13/15/14. I might eventually go with this, but as long as I have other prorities for rare candy I will wait and hopefully get lucky if Kyogre ever comes back to eventually max one out. The 98% that flew hurt after 12 excellent/perfect throws.
I grind for dust a lot so I'm using it on many mons that don't really deserve it. The last somewhat meta relevant powerups I've done were a new Blissey and two Chanseys because I've been going harder on the gym defense game. Also maxed a Salamence recently to add to my Lati team.
1. The only one that makes any sense to power up as it's a current Legendary counter. The 100%s are tempting but it's hard to justify the dust cost in the short run.
2. Do you need a stronger ground team for something currently? Probably not. Wait until Rhyperior is released.
3. Same deal, what are you using water attackers for? Powering up Kyogres to level 30 is the best thing you could be doing but as you're limited by RC, the next best thing would be to power up your 98% Garys to a useable level. But I repeat, do you need to?
4. Double bug Scizor is regrettably completely second tier in everything and powering it up won't help it make your Mewtwo team. Double steel has a small but clear niche in killing fairy types in gyms, double bug would require a double weakness to attack against. I have a maxed Scizor that gets used for challenge solos and nothing else.
4.5. The Gengar you mention might not be a bad investment, SC Gengar is great for clearing some of the hard content even though it dies to a bad stare.
5. Do you need a better grass team for something? The Venusaur isn't a bad investment, but Roserade might dethrone it as DPS king in the next gen.
My Tyranitar-team is pretty much complete. One 100% maxed and 4 others at lvl 35,5 in the 89-91% IV range. I am not considering maxing those. If I should ever get another 100% I would maybe go for a sixth.
Gen 3...I won't consider doing major investments into salamence. DM is one bar and he is no upgrade over Dragonite and Rayquaza. Candy is very hard to come by, I don't have a good IV one yet and as I mentioned there are two 100% dratini under consideration.
Metagross...I will max one eventually, but my best IV one is a 80%...candy is there, but no luck for the moment. Guardevoir...as much as I would love to, I don't use my two that I have. I put them im gyms from time to time but I don' t see the hype. Both are 84% 15a at lvl 31,5, caught high level. I am not willing to invest major dust before a double fairy moveset. Even transfered a lvl 9 96% ralts.
