- IVs matter more for pokemon with lower base stats than those with higher base stats.
- Level matters more than IVs, but level can always be raised while IVs are fixed (aside from trading).
- Moves matter more than IVs and level, but moves can be changed with TMs.
- For meta-irrelevant pokemon, IVs matter more just from the perspective of collection value. We catch tens of thousands of pokemon, but currently can only hold onto at most 1,500. Need some metric to cull those catches to decide what is worth keeping over others. Ranking based on "better IVs" is pretty good if you are not going to power any up anyway.
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IV's vs. level
IV's seem to be what everybody cares about, and I know that it makes a huge difference in the pokemon's performance at a good level. But when the pokemon is not as useful, somebody like Meganium, why do the IV's even matter? I got one on community day that was a 98%, but it was only level 24ish. So I decided to evolve all of the weather-boosted level 35's because there's no way in hell I'm spending stardust to power up the 98%.
This is just one example, but it's something I think about a lot. Unless I get a perfect or the pokemon is very meta-relevant and powerful, I'm mostly going to focus on keeping higher level pokemon, especially for trades because that's what matters. Thoughts?
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Why would you be powering up not-so-useful Pokemon anyway? A large part of this game is collecting, and what you collect is up to each player. For me, I would rather have a 98% Meganium at level 24 than a level 35 with bad IVs. I'm not going to power up or use either, so why not go for the former? But if your goal is to collect higher CP mon regardless of the IVs, you'd probably want to go for the latter.
Aside from moveset, which can be TMd, level is the most important. You can do fine with 6 high level Machamp or TTar (as an example) that are an 80 IV as opposed to 90+.
I agree with your theory of evolving the level 35 which will be much less investment of candy/dust and can be useful immediately. Even though I have a few 100 iv Machamps, I still evolve any level 35 Machops I find and they are very useful in battles. You can never have too many. Also, if you have a level 35 with bad IVs those can become great for someone else via trade.
I would say as you work your way up in the game use guys in battle that are the least investment while you save up resources and find your high IV guys. Then you can replace those lower IVs with better ones and power them up.
I remember someone posting here a long time ago:
Species >> Moveset >> Level >> IV
But to play devil's advocate: it's so fast and easy to determine highest level via CP/dust cost then best IV - I'm trying to get to that mindset to limit my time appraising and PokeGenie-ing (at least for the majority of useless PKM).
If one is only interested in the meta game, there are three kinds of pokemon that are valuable:
Meta relevant pokemon with near best IVs (near best being a relative term - the best you're likely to get given how often you play and how often you catch that pokemon).
Pokemon that other players are interested in that are high level (likely meta-relevant), for trading purposes. A level 35 Ralts with horrific IVs is a great trade piece, for example.
Pokemon that other players are interested in because they are rare or hard to obtain, also for trading purposes. I was in Europe and Western Asia recently, and caught a number of Volbeats. They have high trade value in the US because almost no one here has them. Also legacies like Bug Buzz Scyther - not really meta relevant, but no longer obtainable, and therefore possibly worth something to the right person.
A non meta-relevant pokemon at a low level with tremendous IVs doesn't have much value to me. And while there might be people for whom the IVs are valuable, they aren't preserved in a trade, so they have no trading value.
