Gyms should delete the Flash
Ok, we are in the fifth month in this game. In the beginning the flash signal for dodging was great. By now almost everyone knows about it and good at dodging. And gyms are way too easy to take down. Niantic, forget the tinkering and adjusting prestige points on enemy gym battles. Just take out the stupid flash and make it more challenging to fight AI defenders. This suggestion comes from a trainer that dodges everything. You can leave the dodge flash on training gyms but for gods sake take it out during real battles. By doing this an attacker will have to have skills other than see flash then dodge. But during training friendly gyms leave the flash on for TRAINING purposes to memorize timing of dodges. What u all think?
Answers
No. Just delete the flash for now. This will cause some apprehension on attacking gyms. It will be exciting and challenging. The dodge window will stay the same. It just brings a whole new level of skill needed for attacking gyms and gives defending mons a chance. The reason why there were stagnant level 10 gyms in the past were not because defending mons were hard to defeat. It was because it took too long. It was a time issue. Not a skill issue. This game needs to boost the skill level needed. And I'm not talking about CoD skill level. Not even mariocart level. Just take the flash out to force people to hone their dodging skills through practicing during friendly gym training which will show the flash and memorize each mons moves animation, attack window, etc.
I think, without a flash most trainers would just not dodge or will swipe wildly after a charged attack is announced.
So, without a hint when to dodge, gym play would change back to the wild tapping until one pkm faints. I don't think, this is desirable.
Maybe, some players would manage to dodge without a sign. For the others, those, who need a sign, gameplay would change quite a lot. No intelligent and exciting matchups with Alakazam, Jolteon or tangela, just the return of the bulky generalists as gyarados, vaporeon, dagonite, snorlax, rhydon.
Please dont take the flash away. If a player wants more challange in gyms, he can have all the challange he needs just using different attackers.
I'm sure some would spam attacks but that would only force attackers to use true hard counters which is an actual strategy. But that would not be potion efficient. The attacker would defeat the mon without fainting but would probably drain its HP. So to be potion effecient and to maximize the 6 attackers into a level 10 gym some dodging would be required to beat all 10 defenders in one cycle to get the extra 1000 points taken off the gym. I don't consider gyarados, vaporeons, and Rhydons generalist attackers. I think only Dragonite and snorlaxes are true generalists that are noteworthy. Intelligent match ups would be more needed without the flash IMHO. Also, choosing defending mons would need more intelligence. Maybe mons with move sets that are currently shitty would actually be quite useful such as Heatwave or twister because dodging would be more difficult. And powerful move sets such as Hyperbeam and Blizzard would actually be meaningfull. How many times have we read here "I like to go up against Hyperbeam because it's easy to dodge"? It's true. It's easy as hell to dodge it. And snorlax ZH/HB is SUPPOSE to be the best defending move set so let it be as it was intended. Attackers should fear Hyperbeam, not be overjoyed to see it. The flash actually takes away the purpose of these moves. If you get hit it's bye bye but if you have the real skill to dodge it because you worked hard to memorize the exact timing then defeating it gives more satisfaction and can call yourself a master of dodging Hyperbeam or Blizzard or Bubble etc
Pokemon go is a game on mobile phone. This should be concidered when thinking of difficulty.
If i am sitting in front of my Computer, with an ultraprecise gaming laser mouse, a keyboard and a superfast gaming display, i have the possibility to notice subtile accustical or visusal signals and react fastly.
On the other hand side, i stand somewhere in public, with cold fingers, look on a small display, maybe i have direct sunlight and hardly see anything, noises around me. The difficulty of such a game has to match these conditions.
Another point is, that pokemon go is not a game for hardcore gamers, it is for the casuals. Even those who write and read on gamepress are by far not representitive, there are many outside who just play the game, without any deep insights to game mechanics. These players are costumers to niantic too.
I am happy with the clear "dodge now" signal as it is. Maybe i am kind of slow or stupid, but with my cold fingers i sometimes get hit even with the easy-to-dodge solarbeam or hyperbeam.
Instead of removing flash, maybe they should make it so if a gym has 1 mon, you can only attack with 1 too...
Sorta like in the show, there's no, "Yeah, let's have a 6 on 2 battle!"
That'll make it harder (more skill), if you can't always outnumber the enemy AI and steamroll it due to sheer numbers.
Of course, this breaks the gym attacking mechanics if you can have 2 people attack the same defender or 1000 vs Mewtwo.
My thinking of the best way for changing the gym attacking should be. For adding a mon to a gym the minimum CP must be 1000. Then let attackers only make a choice out of 6 lower CP mons then the first 6 defenders in a gym are in the first place. Bigger CP attackers maybe could be awarded only half the prestige. When skipping or locking out the bigger cp attackers when taking over a gym. The attackers are more forced to choose type advantage mons. Low level players with nowledge of type advantage have a chance to take down gyms this way Also, and hardcore players or even spoofers are forced to think twice no that they can't use there 3000 cp dragonites army annymore for attacking. Suddenly the complete Dex has become more useful.
Also the gyms could be more mixed in the future becourse of this. I do like the sparks.
First of all they need to repair animations and attack announcements. When you are facing Vaporeon and he charges to full for 4 Water Pulses and then attacks with them 1 by 1, you only get animation and notification for first one. Others just hit you suddenly without notification and animation. Without the flash you won't be able to dodge at all.
You just proved my point. Water Pulse is suppose to be the best defending charge move for Vapes. With the flash it's easy to dodge it negating the purpose of it being the best defensive move. So it takes more work to figure out how to dodge some of it without the flash and also to bring in true hard counters to attack it. I get this is a casual game but it's getting boring and unchallenging. Someone said "bring weaker mons to attack instead for the challenge" or something like that. Well, what skill is involved in that except dodge everything with the flash?
