Adjusting to the new meta and planning investments accordingly
Trainers are still adapting to the defensive rebalance, but second charged moves and the new effectiveness multiplier are shaking up gyms (and raids) as much as PvP.
As a level 39 Mystic serious solo F2P trainer in Singapore, holding on to 2M dust, 42 FTMs, 38 CTMs and 239 RC, here are my thoughts and observations:
GRB feeding is less prevalent and more selective than before. Gyms are easier to get into and harder to stay in. Choosing good gym defenders has become more important; no longer can an Alakazam hide behind a maxed Blissey. On the other hand, attacking gyms is now more fun and smart strategy will pay off.
Soloing tier 3 raids is no longer fun or worth significant investment in. Hard to tell the impact on legendary raids, which remain attractive due to the rewards, especially if I can carry a small group of casuals.
I will do a daily battle with the gym leaders and try to get another two with my few friends (or strangers met at raids) for Sinnoh Stones, making PvP a nice addition to my game experience but unlikely to shift my focus away from gym battling (and getting gold badges).
Guess I should walk Feebas (L23 15/15/9 or L20 14/11/15?) and Togepi. Maxing out a second Blissey is a key medium-term goal, but I am not going to spend RC on it.
How the following would fare in PvP may be the deciding factor whether I max them out:
a) Dragonite with DT/OR (15/15/14) is a great gym defender with relevance in future (Palkia/Zekrom/Reshiram) and past (Giratina, Lati twins) legendary raids, but its days as a generalist gym attacker are probably over.
b) Tyranitar with Bi/Cr (15/14/15, already maxed a 15/13/15) is excellent against many legendaries (especially in small groups) and for several tier 3 solos, but is mediocre at attacking gyms (Metagross is a bulkier Blissey counter and Psychic defenders are rare) and terrible at defending them.
c) Gyarados with WF/HP (15/15/14) is a great gym defender and can learn a second charged move at low cost. Unfortunately, it has few relevant matchups on gym offence (Rhyperior used Stone Edge!) and legendary raids (only Groudon as Heatran is doubly weak to Ground), while Flareon, Ninetales and Onix solos are no longer difficult. Even a level 30 Kyogre is more powerful than a maxed Gyarados, while Feraligatr with HC will also outclass my beloved water dragon.
Answers
Unfortunately some pokemon will have separate niches. I think Gyarados will be a well rounded option for PvP, but it won't excel in PvE (until it mega evolves). But it's such a cheap investment that there's no need to consider, just get him the second move if you're not sure about maxing it out.
Dragonite is a safe investment when it comes to PvP or PvE. However it doesn't benefit from a second move (with its current move pool). Don't spend 75k dust on a second move and you can use that to max out.
I'm not sure about Ttar. B/C is probably the least versatile version of it. At both, PvP and PvE. I wouldn't invest on that one.
Disagree. According to the Silph Road spreadsheet, Water Gun does 3.00 DPS and 3.00 EPS. Waterfall does 3.33 DPS and 2.67 EPS, so you're trading a little energy for a little damage. Seems pretty fair, and both moves occur in the top third of listed fast moves. I've been ranking the fast moves by DPS * EPS, weighting them both equally, and they are both solid. (Unfortunately, this metric makes Psycho Cut, Mud Shot, and Thunder Shock look pretty poor - their DPS is terrible, but EPS is top shelf, so the metric may need work.) But in any event, Water Gun and Waterfall are very close in performance, and will remain so in most metrics.
Except water gun is a highly desirable 1 turn move that can be spammed relentlessly to the point where its broken and waterfall is a slow 3 turn move. Big difference in performance there. Bite and Dragon Breath on Gyarados are both much more desirable as they can hit for SE against prime targets and like Water Gun are highly desirable 1 turn moves.
For gym defenders, I almost only place Blissey, Chansey, Snorlax, Gardevoir, Togekiss or Clefable. Maybe Steelix when I start powering that up. Sometimes I place some random Gyarados, Dragonite or Metagross when I run for that last gym slot, but it doesn't really matter when it's the last. Personally I think Metagross is a very annoying gym defender, but I usually keep them for attacking.
For Master League, I started off using the same party of "the 3 M's" Machamp, Metagross and Mewtwo. Now, I also use some others now such as Dragonite, Ttar and Kyogre. I might try Lugia soon as well.
I was hesitant to get the 3rd charge moved on my maxed Gyarados despite the low cost, but after reading about its use in PvP, I'm planning to do it next. I'll use it a lot more in my PvP team once I get it. I got it on an Elekid (which is now an Electivire), and thank god I got WC/TP.
Edit: I just found a shiny Gyarados at 1416 CP. I may get a 2nd charge move on that too and use it for Great League.
For Great League, I use FP Venusaur, Electivire, and some other random mons each time.
It's hard to believe that gym battleing is that hard somewhere.
I think you make this up a little bit...If you play F2P i can understand the 50coins have priority but there is no such thing as a real meta. If somebody attacks he wins. End of story The only thing you can do is annoy him that he wont try (Blissey, Chansey, Snorlax, etc) or stops because you feed GRB
If you do PVP mostly for the rewards play the master league it gets you more. 1 Team leader and first 3 PVP get you a reward.
For the 2 other leagues CD Starters are very good and also cheap to get a second move.
If there are lots of gyms everywhere, the weakest ones go down first on average. If somebody wants some gym in particular it doesn't matter, but players who are just looking for some gym to fight will likely choose that one that will go down the fastest. It also plays into feeding, the more annoying a gym is to fight, the more likely it is that the attacker will try the next gym when they see berries coming in. Of course it's still horribly inefficient use of time to try to get gym coins in areas like this, but if you want to maximize your chances you should care about your defensive lineups.
In addition, the tougher a gym is to fight, the more likely that others will berry it. They may feed only three or four defenders, letting the weaker ones drop so they can place their own (usually better) defenders after ten minutes.
Before the defensive rebalance, when I attack any gym, the chance that it would be berried was over 90%, but now only about half the gyms that I attack get berried (of course, location matters as much as defender choice).
I’ve noticed an increase in yellow gyms/players in my area lately, since the GRB nerf. On the other hand, red has been going downhill.
Blue is always (and likely will always be) the strongest, but their gyms get attacked way more nowadays than pre-GRB nerf.
Also, I’ve heard that some players play very dirty in my area. Some uncles and aunties create extra yellow alts, spoof with alts to take revenge (attack back) on players who took down their gyms, bypass the berry cap, or (with sgpokemap) spoof all over the island to farm GRB field research. Also, there are many active young players now, mostly yellow, and some want to “create the presence of yellow in the area”.
This is only the tip of the iceberg. (Nope, they don’t confront you physically, but you may get a whole bunch of them staring at you)
There’s also a know yellow spoofer and gym sniper in my area, but somehow this guy has never sniped the regular players there when they do not intend to put yellow.
