For: High Level Players 30+ what would you power up?

I'm glad you pose this question because here's a lot of debate on what to power up. What to invest etc.

Here is my take on this whole situation:

Gym attackers:
Power up high IV top tier generalist attackers such as dragonites with attack movesets to the max. This goes against the grain of common advice. The reason I abide by this for efficiency of attacking enemy gyms. You want to use as few possible mons as possible to clear a gym including level 10 gyms with the least usuage of potions. And don't let them faint. Switch when low on HP. This requires high CP attacking mons. And dodge everything for efficiency

Gym defenders:
High CP high IV mons regardless of movesets are best. Movesets are overrated for defenders. Attack moves are much more important. If someone wants to take down a gym they will. That being said, coins and dust rewards is what's important. Make sure you have at least 15 gyms to guarantee 10 gyms rewards daily. Also, evolve high cp base mons with easy candy access regardless of IV such as Eevees so you won't need to waste dust.

Prestigers:
These are so easy to get that don't need any power ups. Parasects, tangelas, wigglytuff, Pinsirs, small vapes, are best prestigers. If you got small dragonites then you are lucky. Don't get upset when you see a wild dnite at 900 CP.

Dust:
This is pogo currency. Use wisely. I only use dust on high IV top tier mons with good movesets. I'm talking 93% IV but I'm a egg hatcher. If you are not constantly smoking that incubator then reduce your IV threshold.

Set rules for yourselves on dust and candy usuage. My minimum dust on hand is always 500k.

Don't over think it.

Power up what you enjoy using.

Dust is a renewable resource and can always be replaced with a spot of Pidgey grinding.

I think there is so much debate on what to power up for the fact that the gyms are so different in everyone's area. For my area gyms are plentiful and stops are not, so a high level gym with great defenders will stand for quite some time since they can easily just go down the road and clear a much easier gym and save precious potions.

I focus mainly on good defenders with good moves to help my team out and stay in gyms as long as possible so I don't have to drive as often. If I put 10 in on a weekend I typically have 7 in by the end of the week.

I have a few good attackers I invest in and evolve evees to transfer them after battling them once to save potions.

I kept as less stardust as I can!
Here is the theory! Stardust become yours only when you spend them instead of when you gain them!

80% threshold is too low. You will end up having too many Mons to power up. And getting a higher iv Mon when you fully powered a lower one is very frustrating.

I would say 91% should be minimum except for snorlax zh/bs and dragonite since such high Cp.

My minimum is 96% for most mons.

IV is especially important for defender since its determines cp. I agree that moveset, especially charged move, is secondary for defense. Quick move does matter when there is a huge difference. Like between Dragonbreath and steel wing.

For attackers you can tolerate lower IV since it won't change much the overall power of your mon. However you power up only optimal movesets for attack and optimal Mon for one type. Example : powering up victeebrel or vileplume as grass attacker is a mistake since venusaur is way better.

Then you can power up 2-3 Mons that don't follow those rules because it is your favorite or it has 100% iv.

Hello man. I am almost level 33 now, and i powered up these mon (some of them im working in yet):

Attackers:

Dragonite, 91.1% IVs, DB/DP;
Gyarados, 86.7% IVs, B/HP;
Vaporeon, 93.3% IVs, WG/HP;
Exeggutor, 100% IVs, Zen/SoB;
Jolteon, 95.6% IVs, TS/TB;
Gengar, 91.1% IVs, SC/SB;
Dragonite, 93.3% IVs, DB/DC;
Alakazam, 86.7% IVs, PC/Psy;
Cloyster, 88.9% IVs, FB/Blizz.
Arcanine, 71.1% IVs, FF/FB (just to level 30, caught with high level already).

Defenders:

Dragonite, 77.8% IVs, SW/DC;
Snorlax, 93.3% IVs, Zen/BS;
Lapras, 82.2% IVs, IS/Blizz.
*i have other 3 or 4 high cp defenders caught in the wild (never powered).

My stardust now is 390k and i'll still maxing out to level 40 my Snorlax, Lapras and all the attackers except the Arcanine. The cost to keep ur elite team maxed is low, you can still reaching more than 100k dust per level without problems unless you start maxing out many low level mon.

I started out powering up my name brand pokes as I leveled up. I figured that there were maybe 12, or so, that I could keep maxed out. Then two things happened. First, I hit the lvl 30 knee in the power up curve. It is really expensive in dust and candy to go past lvl 30, and only you only get half as much cp and hp for each power up. Second, the re-balance changed my view of what were my 12 best mon. I think the release of gen 2 will do the same.
Anyway, I started broadening out what I was powering up, and just powering to a point where the mon is good at what I'm using it for.
Somewhere in the range of lvl 20-30 is the sweet spot for most attackers. Defenders look better beefier, but I'm not developing a lot of them. The top tier defenders are very rare, and to be honest the only advantage to using one is that it might hold the gym long enough that I can walk to another gym and get a double defender's bonus. If I'm hoping to hold a gym for 21 hours, I'd have as much luck with a 10 cp magikarp. So, I only am going to use as many as there are gyms within walking distance of where I live.

Here's my suggestion:
1- The only pokemon to power up more than lvl30: Dragonite, Snorlax, Lapras, Gyarados, Rhydon
2- The rest is good at lvl30