How many stardust and TMs to save for Gen 3?
I have 660k stardust, 7 Fast TMs and 4 Charge TMs. 75k will be spent on my first Tyranitar once I have enough candy (27 more to go).
In Singapore, legendary raids are common, so I try to do one per day, with around 80% success rate (since raids end early and after the first few minutes, there may not be enough people).
Keen to start trying to solo Scyther and Machamp to avoid wasting my daily free passes, but also cautious about spending stardust and TMs with Gen 3 around the corner. How many should I save if I never power up beyond level 30?
Potential Scyther solo team (all wonders except Charizard):
1. L30 Golem with RT/SE
2. L30 Raikou with TS/WC
3. L28 Charizard with Ember/FB
4. L25 Flareon with FS/OH
5. L27 Arcanine with Bite/FT
6. L25 Arcanine with FF/FT
7. L20 Golem with RT/RB
8. L20 Entei with FF/OH
The Raikou and first Golem are among my key attackers. Could try evolving my two L30 wonder Growlithes hoping for FF/FB. Powering up one Entei or Flareon (no Moltres) to L30 is certainly in my long-term plans; just not sure whether now is the right time. Although I could easily win by powering up the second Golem, is that really necessary, considering Gen 3 may make Golem less useful?
Potential Machamp solo team (all wonders):
1. L30 Exeggutor with Conf/Solar
2. L30 Exeggutor with Conf/Psyc
3. L30 Espeon with Conf/FS
4. L30 Alakazam with Conf/SBall
5. L29 Gengar with Hex/SBall
6. L30 Dragonite with DT/OR
7. L29 Espeon with Conf/Psyb
8. L22 Dragonite with DT/Hurr
I definitely want FS on Alakazam, whether now or later. Can spare 10k stardust to make Gengar a key attacker. Main dilemma is the second Dragonite; what other uses would he have if I power him up and more importantly, does Gen 3 have better Flying attackers?
Answers
I would save at least 500k and all your TMs. We have no idea what's happening and conserving resources is the best preparation in case there's a large meta shift.
Scyther team: You're ready. First 6 are fine and should result in a win.
Machamp team: 3, 4, 7, 2, 1, 6 in that order is a good team. Powering 8 to 30 is a notable boost to your performance and against double fighting movesets you can bring in Gengar for additional tankiness and still ok DPS if you have troubles with fainting out. Gengar will not be a key attacker no matter what, psychic SE damage is much better.
Gen 3 might have better flying attackers but acquiring them will be hard most likely. If you make the Dragonite L30 now you will get a lot of use out of it before you get even a chance of spending dust on a better flying attacker.
I can confirm that you can comfortably do Scyther with the first 6 you listed. If, however, you decide to power up that Dragonite with Hurricane it improves your Scyther team, too.
As for the dust, I won't be saving much. Actually I've planned to spend more than what I even have currently! I figured that it'll probably take more time to get the gen 3 mons I want than to gather the dust to power them up to a reasonable level.
1) Save everything for Gen 3. It's coming SOON - by the end of the Month most likely - so you'll need them soon.
2) If you do decide to power something up: All being Wonders is nice, but it's possible to have a Wonder with a low Attack score which makes the Wonder less useful. Some of my top attackers are "Grab my attention" (Really Strong for me, being Instinct) but have Attack of 15 - most of them have Attack 15 Stamina 15, with Defense being 5 or less. So I'd focus on anything that has an Attack of 15 first, even if it has a lower overall IV than other ones. It sucks, but that's what makes things work in the current Meta; Stamina and Defense are nice, but essentially useless - particularly when Soloing something.
Right now, if you don't have Attack of 15, don't power it up. Maybe that will change (hopefully that will change) in the near future, but don't count on it. Don't power up Defenders, and don't power up any attacker without an Attack of 15. (maybe, MAYBE 14 at the lowest.)
Powering up the Dragonite is a great, great idea - too many of us have focused on the Specialist role, and Dragonite sucks as a Specialist because so few Raid Bosses are weak to Flying or Dragon. But right now with Ho-Oh, Dragonite is a beast - it isn't destroyed by Solar Beam like nearly every other main counter to Ho-Oh is. (Which means it's also good against Ninetails, which is impossible to solo. IMPOSSIBLE! (many censored words) it's tough, holy (many more censored words) it's tough. *cough*)
Your Scyther team is okay, but really could use beefing up to all being around level 33. As it stands now... you might be able to win if you get lucky and get a few dodges in at the right time. Your Machamp team... eh. It's not terrible, but if the Machamp has a Steel move, you aren't going to win. Your line up is set up to defend against Fighting primarily, and all take neutral damage from Steel. They'd need to be in the low to mid 30's to stand a reasonable chance of beating a Steel Machamp.
So... yeah. Don't spend your TM's or Stardust until Gen 3 comes out unless you really, really, really want to Solo those Raid Bosses before they potentially change. Your teams aren't terrible, they're just too low of a level to reliably solo either of those bosses. And until the game is rebalanced, only focus on Pokémon with Attack of 14-15 - the other two stats are nearly irrelevant. Heck, if you caught a high level (28+) but low IV (Above Average/Not Making Headway) Pokémon with Attack 15? It MIGHT be worth it to evolve it to the highest form (Like a Geodude to a Golem) assuming you have the candies to "waste". I've got about 30 low IV, Attack 15 Pokémon that I'm considering evolving (particularly Houndour/Houndoom - that Halloween event was awesome for me. I've got more than 700 candies still). I've done it for a few Level 30's, used them a few times then transferred them when I got an overall better Pokémon to replace them.
I disagree with the statement that the attack must be 15 or maybe 14 i look at the breakpoint calculator and normally at the levels that my mons are at or in future power ups there is no difference I look at stardust per breakpoint, as a pokemon strait from lvl 30 with 10 attack might only take 5k dust to get to its next breakpoint but a 15 attack from a raid or egg would take so much more
If breakpoint close to lvl 30 you completely right. But powering up pokemon with low att iv is a slippery slope, say for first boss you power up to lvl 31, for another to 35, then to 39 and you end up not able to reach breakpoint for next boss.
15 att is especially important for low power moves, like psycho cut, bite, thunder shock since 5->6 breakpoint is 20% improvement and 20->21 is only 5%.
And also one should consider candy rarity
