Why do the raids (for soloing) suck?
Im looking at the current raids, and everything tier 1-3 aside from machamp and magikarp, and maybe jolteon/Electabuzz seems completely pointless to get.
all the other tier 1's are useless, the tier 2's other than electabuzz aren't useful (mawile's trash, sudowoodo's obsolete with Tyrantar's rock set, manetric's a discount jolteon, and electabuzz would be good if you could get Electivire, but all you can do is stock up), for tier 3's machamp is the only real stand out thats good and jolteon is a good pokemon too, but you literally cant solo it unless you have groudon or near max level weather boosted golem/Rhydon with movesets that are horrible for other things, Onix and Aerodactyl arent that good (I suppose Steelix could be great on defense, but do you really want to use a raid pass just to get a maybe defensive pokemon?) I know the rewards for tier three solo's are on par with large group teir 5's, but for solos why go for the harder to beat raid bosses when they're all bad options because the rewards are the exact same (again, machamp and jolteon are good, but if you already have 6+ champ, or no groudon and your rhydon/golem have better uses/not sunny where you are, theres no reason to go for jolteon solo)
A small part of me is glad that aerodactyl's a raid boss because that means I get stock up on candy for a 98 IV one I have for when mega's are added, but these raids seem more about the rewards than about getting a useful pokemon, the tier 4's are fantastic, but those cant be solo'd
Answers
It's pretty simple, you go for solos for rewards when you don't have time to coordinate with a group or can't get to a raid when it starts to join randoms. Soloable raids you can simply walk up, spend 5 minutes and continue with your day without having to worry about latecomers, resetting the raid because someone glitched out etc.
I agree, Ii really wish they'd do away with machamp, we've had it for so dang long its taking up another raid boss slot, and everyone has a million of them, pokemon like tyranitar that have always been around should stay there because its the only real way of getting them
I wish they'd bring back piloswine, or some other actually useful pokemon
I mean, not immediately but eventually. I'm guessing Niantic is able to read the data of which raid bosses get the most traffic, and I'm also guessing Machamp is towards the top. I'd wager this is why it's been around as a boss so long, notably when it didn't make sense for it to be (see Rayquaza, when Niantic began gearing lower raids toward the T5 bosses).
With how quickly trainers can level up now and with how easy it can be to get strong counters for Machamp specifically odds are new players could build a respectable team fairly quickly. Quickly enough that they don't have to worry about Machamp going away any time soon due to previously mentioned popularity.
Machamp has far more value than Alakazam. You talk about Alakazam as a Mewtwo counter but there are far better counters (including Mewtwo himself) and Mewtwo has limited accessibility due to how EX raids work.
Machamp is also one of the easiest solos, which makes it friendly for newer players. One of its top counters evolves from the widely available Eevee.
It is a blessing for me..
I only play with group at weekend. So any soloable raid is a source of item with using a raid pass
Some member of our group get salty about their area dont have EX eligible gym
I said to them, " You are taking your area for granted, with 10 gym in view, lots of pokestop, i dream playing here eveyday"
I would rather have tier 3 bosses that are fun to solo even if not valuable. Personal favourite is Gengar due to his huge grin. Although rare in the wild and eggs, Aerodactyl is much easier than Machamp (assuming a level 30 non-legendary team). Yet to try Onix or Jynx, but quite obvious which battle would be more interesting. Miss Omastar; my Exeggutors, Venusaurs and Sceptile are collecting dust.
I agree that Gengar was fun. Omastar not so much...just spam, spam, spam with big grass types. I didn't think Ninetales was much fun either, even though it was somewhat difficult before Kyogre was introduced. Machamp, despite being rather easy, is fun because there are so many different ways to structure a team to make it a challenge.
[Many of these have already been listed and are in no particular order]
(Estimation) about 25% of all raid bosses ever featured have been terrible or boring or both. 75% have had some value for one or more:
• Chance to catch a shiny
• Best readily obtainable attacker for a type
• Rare Candies
• Evolves in future generation (sometimes meta relevant)
• Defensively effective (to your credit this isn’t that important)
• Rarity (Previous or current)
• Mega Evolve (I assume this will eventually happen because of Community Day Ampharos and like a year ago the CEO
• Chance at catch a perfect
• Challenge
The park I did Squirtle CD was an Onix nest, we had to catch them or hope they flee to even engage the turtles. Now I’m fine on bag space (not many balls) but when I last looked at my items had 7 metal coats!
I actually traded a 2711 Aggron, it went down to 2450. May have traded my bigger Steelix, too.
I still do Machamps when I see them boosted, the only tier 4 I look for are Absol and Tyranitar...so I sometimes need to see a tier 3 at an EX gym. Machamps I catch are almost always 2000cp. I just trade them. To get a boosted 100% it would take 100s of raids.
Yeah - I lose 4 seconds off the front and 2-6 (inconsistent) off the back. With sunny (for venusaur) or rainy for Gyarados no problem. Neutral weather I have yet to fire off that last Waterfall before the clock bites me. My son and I duoed it because he wanted the dex entry - without the clock bug either of us could have soloed.
You have vastly over complicated raiding.
Raid tier 1-3 for whatever reason you want. I do it for rare candy. I still do Aerodactyls, Mawhiles, and any tier 1s because people want shiny. Heck, I do low tier raids just so I can gold badge my raid medal.
Or skip it altogether. You already know everything you'd miss. Whether or not it matters to you is an entirely personal decision.
I mostly agree, the raid scene is kind of lackluster right now.
T1's only meta-relevant boss is Magikarp, everything else is just a shiny chance.
T2's have Mawile (raid exclusive, shiny chance) and Electabuzz (stock up for Electivire), the other two are fairly lame.
T3's are actually mostly interesting, just incredibly limited for solo players. Aerodactyl is another shiny chance and a decent candidate for megas if you're playing the long con. Machamp is a star and an excellent starting point for newer players to focus on more meta-oriented goals. Jolteon is still the best non-legend electric type (though Gen 4 will likely change that), but unfortunately isn't soloable for most. Onix is the only actual turd here, having a defense that can make newer players fumble to beat it while providing little use as a reward catch. Steelix's high defense would make it a worthwhile defender if it wasn't for its weakness to Machamp. Gengar or Alakazam should be considered as mainstays for T3, respectively providing a glass cannon for newbies and a challenge for new and veteran players alike.
T4 is where I disagree with you. I think the T4 scene is painfully bad. Of the three mainstays (Absol, Tyranitar, and Aggron), Tyranitar is the only real prize. Absol's novelty was being raid exclusive with a shiny chance - since it can be found via research now there's less incentive to raid one (not saying people won't still raid them, I've noticed in my own group interest in them dropped once research callouts started happening). Tyranitar is the premier dark type attacker and the only one of the three worth targeting. Aggron is just... why? Apart from the Kanto event it's been a raid boss since introduction, and most people are sick of autoselect always picking it. Despite its shiny being available it's unobtainable via raids. If I had to pick a single raid boss to remove it would be between Aggron and Onix. Of the other two, Golem is there mostly for people who missed Larvitar Day (and will likely be outclassed further when Gen 4 drops), and Rhydon being the best non-legend ground type sadly doesn't count for much when ground moves are trash. Still, it's worth considering for Rhypherior although most people I know already have a Rhydon army lying in wait for it.
I think one way to spice up the T4 raids would be to cut Aggron, Rhydon, and Golem and replace them with the Gen 1 starter evos with the twist of making their Community Day moves raid exclusive. Even if they get outclassed by better things they'd always have the novelty of signature attacks.
