Evolving Dratini

Lvl 29 has too low IV.

So lvl 26 or lvl 21. If candies and stardust are not a problem, I'd power up the lvl 21.

Anyways if Dragonite comes with DB, any of them will be a beast.

Haha I think you know the answer actually.... go for #3.

If you level the others up you'll always be wondering what it feels like to own a 3k+CP Dragonite :)

12/14/15 evolve that one.

The obvious answer is #3.

You want to evolve the one with best IVs no matter what the level is. Think about it, its 125 candy to evolve fully. Do you want to waste that on a pokemon with bad IVs just to get higher CP? The CP does not matter at this point as you are already at lvl35 which is the home stretch and your focus should be better IVs and not high CP.

Here's an alternate thought process.

If Dratini are relatively rare there (and I'm assuming they are given that you're already level 35 but only have 219 candies), I'd suggest investing as few candies as you can to get something usable. There are a couple of reasons for this:

1. Candies are a premium where you are, so you want to get as much value for each one. The evolution is a fixed cost (assuming you can't find a Dragonair, of course), so the variable is how much you have to power it up.
2. You may not get the moveset you want (or even a good moveset). What if you spend 125 candies one the level 21 one and end up with Steel Wing/Dragon Claw? In that case, you will have inveted 125 candies, but will have something with both a poor moveset and low CP. It'll basically be back to the grind before you get another chance.
3. You may still find a better Dratini (or even a Dragonair) to evolve.

Given the reasons above, I'd suggest evolving the first one. It will only cost you 125 candies to get something strong (likely in the 2800+ range). If it doesn't get a great moveset so you don't need to power it up--it'll be very usable with that CP. And, of course, if you get a great moveset you can bump it up to 2931CP. You'll end up with a very strong Dragonite with a minimal investment (i.e. you'll have those valuable candies left over) so you'll be able to start to work on another.

I'm of the opinion that focusing on high-IV evolutions isn't worth it until you have a stable of alternatives available to use. Why wait for months to get lucky on finding one with great IV's and on the moveset from the evolution when you could be using a nearly-as-good attacker/defender today while you continue to work towards a better one?

Just another perspective.

If you powered up the first one to level 32, instead of stopping at 30, you would get to 3021 CP and you'd need to invest 153 candy and 32,000 stardust. Seems to me that would be a better plan than dragging #3 all the way up to level 30, which will cost you 186 candy and 70,000 stardust, and get to essentially the same CP.

I'm in the same boat, I have a 29% level 30 Dratini or an 82% level 17 Dratini to choose from. Unless I find something better I'm probably going to evolve the 29% guy and then invest some candies taking him up above 30 if he gets decent moves.

Evolve #3 first. If good moves, power up.
If not, save remaining candy to evolve #1.

Dragonite is a great attacker, so #1 will be valuable if you don't get good moves for #3.

Theres something to be said about quantity over quality. Ive argued about this with many people on these forums. In the long run going for High IV low CP evolutions will deplete your stardust and lower your quantity game. What I mean is you will have fewer mons then if you go prioritize high CP over IV which will yield more mons.
Case in point lets say you have 4 #1's that will cost you (131x4) 524 dratini candies to have quad 3K dragonites. Now lets say you have a quad of #3 you will need 744 dratini candy to take those to 3K. Basically you will need 558 (186x3) to evolve three of the four 3K Dragonites. Of course the triplets will only be slightly bigger then your quad but the 200 dratini candies you save will yield way bigger dragonites and you will have more stardust to power them up as well.
So the question is how much dratini candy can you get and what level will you become when Gen 3 comes out? Is it more important to have basically a free Dragonite today that can yield you profit now? Also a thing to note is #1 slot on a level 10 gym pays the same as the last spot. IMO Dragonite IV's are the least impactful of the common gym defenders while with Vapes and Gyarados the IV's mean the most. A low IV dragonite does not compete with anything else but other dragonites and very few dragonites are maxed out. The reason is cuz the candies are the limiting factor and many people evolve high IV low CP ones.
In the end I think you wanna mix and match, have some high IV that you plan to take to level 40 and the rest you take to 3200-3400. I would also recommend you go for quan over quantity early on rather then later. My 3rd Dragonite(DB/DC) was a level 16 96% dratini and I could have evolved a 80% level 30 and a 78% level 28 instead. Cant complain cuz I got the moveset I wanted but In retrospect I should have gone with the 2 and evolved the 96% later.
Another thing to note is look at who you are listening to as well. If you listen to a spoofer and dont spoof or listen to a big cash player but dont spend cash you may be disappointed with the advice. Some players say stardust isnt rare but they also have 9 eggs cooking all the time. We all play the same game but all of us are playing it very differently.

If you already have 10 solid defenders, then I'd do the Lvl 21st one.

Dragonite is only a good defender because of his high CP. If you have 10 other solid ones and at level 35, I'd guess you already do, then having a level 29 dragonite isn't needed really...I'm sure you have tons of other half decent attackers also and really, you don't "need" dragonite to take down gyms.

It's faster yes, but just a little bit vs. Zam or Vap (which everyone should have).

Since the majority of people are evolving high CP mons/Dragonites, having one with 100 less CP at 30 will put it closer to the middle of a dragonite gym than always at the top IMO.

Also, with everyone leveling and getting closer to your level since the exp required gets higher and higher, there will be gym creep everywhere eventually so having high CP is very important IMO...

Since candies are limited, I'd rather invest it in the one with the most promising CP since at the end of the day, you can live without a Dragonite (of course, I have neither a Zam or Dragonite so I probably just don't know what I am missing).

It depends a bit on what your master plan is.

If you are happy having a 3000 CP Dragonite and don't really have plans to power it up beyond that, then use the one that takes the less candy to get there. You'll probably need your Level 29 Dratini to go up to Level 31.5 to get to 3000 CP (an extra 12 candies).

If you are in it for the long run (ie, maximize all your top mons), then you may get annoyed down the line that your Dragonite will max out around 3300 CP (whatever the number is).

If you're not sure, go with your middle option with one extra power up to get to 3000 CP.

I posted a "General Investment Model" weeks ago which might help.
Basically, for each Dratini you need to calculate:
• The # of days of farming Dratini to fully covered your candy cost (evolution cost + power up cost) at your expected candy earning rate (from catching and buddy, ignore hatching)
• The chance of getting a higher IV one before that # of days. If it is very small, then invest it. If not, skip it.

Full post: [https://pokemongo.gamepress.gg/q-a/proposal-investment-decision-making]

Go for L21 and GL or MS.... about candies and dust you can gain it by keep playing but Good IV are seldomly comes...

Save for Gen 15 to evolve a Dragonite into a DragonLord.