There was a thread day and half ago where a large number of people stated the lowest of anything they keep is 93%. I agree with your view, evolve and keep 75%+ level 33-35 and potentially power up 96+% Dragonite, Tyranitar, 100% Ralts, 100% Torchic; 100% Machamp, etc. Main effect is candy has value, before it was about stardust saving and scrooging
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Is it even less incentives to power up over L30 in view of weather spawns?
I understand many players just power up to L30 for their useful mons and max out for only selected few. Considering weather spawns, you can evolve useful mons up to L35 without stardust cost. In such case, mediocre iv L35 mons can perform better than high iv L30 mons.
For me, only legendary or almost perfect iv (95%+) useful mons worth dust now.
What do you think?
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Except that in raids, you don't just need one of the best thing, you can use up to six, or more if you have time to send in the second team.
The raid meta makes multiples useful. I have four Golems that helped take down a Ho-Oh tonight. Would have been better to have six. So you very might well want multiple Ralts with the same moveset. Does anyone really have enough Tyranitars?
The main question is: Are you willing to invest dust in this species?
If no, overall you’re going to want to go with a with a higher leveled Pokémon.
That being said, this could change slightly if the Pokémon has any meta relevance to you.
An example for me would be like... Victreebel. I’m probably never going to put dust into any of its evolutions. Do I want an excellent one? Sure. I have a level 20 Victreebel with with great IVs but I’m saving candies for a high level, great IV wild catch. (Disclaimer: This example is specific to me being an average player, Bellsprout being uncommon, not including recent weather benifits, and general disinterest in doing raid battles for said Pokémon)
I think it still depends on the rarity of the mon coupled with the frequency of the weather pattern. Larvitars are still super rare even with weather boost. Plus, there are plenty of places in the world where snow (for example) is very uncommon.
But personally, I feel it allows me to spend more on specific mons (particularly 100%s) since run of the mill play can be sufficed with mediocre IV high levels until the perfect one comes along. Also, the difference between taking a 35–>40 (88k) vs from 20–>31 (85k) isn’t a whole lot. People may start maxing out for fun.
(Edit) Finally, with 25% more stardust the pinch isn’t as bad.
