Lucky power up question
How much is a better defender worth versus increased Stardust cost?
I've had pretty bad luck with my Chansey research, having caught 33 research Chansey's and of the first 32 none being impressive. I was trading the bad ones to my girlfriend for distance candy and her likewise to me, and I happened to get a lucky 12/12/11 that I figured I'd end up powering up if I didn't get anything really impressive.
This morning I got a 13 or 14hp/ 14A/ 15D Chansey.
Assuming it's the 96%, at level 36 (where I have the candy to take it to) the CP difference is 2939 to 3011. The Stardust costs are 87.2k / 174.4k.
Further, if there's no significant difference between those cp values on deterring attackers / surviving longer, then should I just take it to 30? They'd be 2671 and 2737 at 30, costing 48.2k / 96.4k Stardust.
With the leftover candy I could also take a Chansey to level 30, so let's say I take both to 30 and evolve the better one, that's 146.6k Stardust.
Answers
^ Agree.
Regarding level. Level 30 is just OK for a Blissey, it won't make sweat a well prepared trainer. If you push it to level 36 as you suggest it will make a difference as deterrent.
For Chansey, level 28-30 is totally fine. I think that below 1010 CP is the best value to prevent motivation decay.
Defending is one of the poorest investments currently in the game. The true defense is the great razz berry in connection with time waster pokemon to include a Blissey Chansey and mixing in other to encourage switching. If there is a determined attacker then no pokemon will last that long unless actively berrying them. With all that said, I still have several high level Blissey's and chansey's for the times when I want to keep a gym a little longer and hopefully send the message to move along to another gym. It works sometimes. I personally feel like the IV's are not as significant as spending the least amount of resources to have a serviceable Blissey. The choice is yours and if you are in no immediate need then wait for a better one. If you want it now then I would use the lucky one and save some stardust resources for attackers.
The lucky is absolutely the better investment for resource optimization. If you don't have lots of excess dust, go with the lucky. The difference in performance at level 40 is a few percents at most.
I'd like to advice to go for the high IVs with Chanseys because the candy is so rare and valuable, but if you also need dust for your attackers, that should take priority.
