Amazingly, there are L40 players who still trust the autoselect
I did a Latios raid today with another L40 player (same player with whom I previously failed an Absol duo, despite the fact that I can do 2/3 of the Absol myself). We organized the Latios raid on Discord, and thought it was going to be a very small group, so I said in advance "bring your best Dragonites and Rayquazas." This other player responded "I will power a few up!"
Then, when we started the lobby, the other L40 player said "I guess those Rayquazas and Dragonites I powered up aren't going to do me any good." I said "Uh, they will if you use them," to which the other player responded "but it's telling me that my Tyranitars & Aggrons will be best."
This other player is a very nice person, and I certainly didn't want to be rude or mean, but it is frustrating to potentially squander a raid pass because someone won't be convinced that the autoselect team isn't always best. If they won't listen to me, you'd think they'd at least figure it out based on all those Skarmories and Aggrons that are always being selected for the first spots.
Luckily, a couple of extra people showed up, so we won the raid easily anyway, but I wish there were a good, polite way to educate people on this simple matter.
Answers
I tried a boosted Dragon Claw Latios by myself yesterday. Initially checked to see the moves at the hatch of a Sprint store 430pm...but nobody showed. Three max dragonites, level 39 Salamence, level 38 Rayquaza and a 34.5 Dragonite. That party died twice, max revived them and then half the party died in the remaining time. Seemed like I did 35+%. Think the new article is saying: use your max dragons and max revive them (if you have both hands free), otherwise you too are leaving potential power unused. However, why does Steelix never get a mention?
Someone can get to level 40 by always raiding with a crowd, through the magic of lucky eggs and 10,000xp per legendary raid, and never have to develop pokemon that are capable of short-manning any particular raid boss. If such a person also doesn't spend much time grinding for dust and serendipitous catches, they may not even have the resources to develop good raid teams, let alone the knowledge.
After I discover someone is a paper level 40, I usually just try to wait until more people have gathered, to compensate.
If that is not possible, I might try explaining the way I pick my squad, "Auto selection makes too conservative choices for short-manning. When in a small group, I try to pick mon that put out more damage, and just spend more potions and revives, like this raquaza, here. He doesn't last long, but he sure takes a bite out of Latios." As long as, it is not directly about what your friend is doing wrong, at worst, he'll think your chat is a bit boring, or he may learn something, if he is interested.
I never understood that, even here I’ve seen people talking about struggling with relatively easy tier 3s at level 35+ while I had to figure out how to Solo almost all of them with lvl 28-33 Pokémon forever. I’d almost say some are “privileged” lol but it makes sense I guess. I get stoked to go to the Tri Cities or somewhere there is a lot of gyms and stops since my towns besides one even have many stops at all. That doesn’t even add into the fact that I work virtually every weekend and work at times that don’t allow me to raid but in the mornings.
I also try to be hella meta with almost every game I play so maybe some truly play without such a competitive edge. Although getting to lvl 40 seems like way too much of a grind for someone who’s so oblivious to certain strats and knowledge of the game
It’s usually not about not having stardust or powered up Pokemon. Yes, sometimes the problem is them hoarding dust. But usually it’s about powering up the wrong Pokemon because of lack of knowledge of Pokemon types and raid boss counters.
Personally, I know a L40 (and L39 alt account) “hardcore” player who had been playing PoGo since the early days, even earlier than me. He reached 40 in December last year, and reached 40 soon on his son’s account (his son doesn’t actually play anymore since end 2016). Now he regularly does T3 raids with 2 phones.
He has maxed lots of 100% mons to L40, even things as useless as Pidgeot, and doesn’t know the optimal moves for the somewhat useful ones like Pinsir. I had to TM away Vice Grip for him at an EX raid last week!
T5 raid in 10 minutes opposite my block. I’ll continue my story later
OK,some lack the knowledge,you are correct. But the also do not listen!! Even though I am a level 40 hardcore with deep knowledge of game mechanics I do not judge them. But being obstinate is unacceptable in a social game. Many times my blood pumped through my cephalic veins when I saw steelix or aggron in a few-man Lugia raid
This is why I don't care how long it'll take me to get to level 40. If someone's at level 40 but only has things powered up to level 25 then they may as well be a level 25 trainer. In a similar vain this is why I don't hoard stardust; I don't want to be a slouch when it comes to raids in case I have to short-man one.
Stolen idea from some reddit thread: All raids should have their own badge, organized in their own menu like gym badges. The raid badge records the number of times you've done that raid, the minimum number of players you've completed it with, maybe the number of times you've done it with the minimum number.
