Minimum IV for Trading Legendaries?
So, to follow up with my previous question about IVs, I now wish to know how much of a gamble trading shiny Pokemon is. I have a shiny Groudon and shiny Lugia that are at 80% and 78%, respectively. Is it worth risking it to trade them for one of the same to try to get a higher IV? I know IVs are re-rolled when trading, but do legendaries get some kind of benefit of not going below a certain IV? I don't want to end up with a shiny legendary that's "not likely to make much headway in battle..."
Answers
My reasoning is that you wouldn’t really power up a 11/13/12 anyway so it’s worth a shot to reroll and even if it goes below 10/10/10 it’s not the end of the world. Above 13/13/13 or so then maybe you will power, so is not worth the trade.
But up to you really. The average is 10/10/10 but so maybe your odds are 35% better and 65% worse or something like that. That’s pretty good odds compared to many gambles out there.
There's a picture floating around of someone who traded a shiny Lugia shortly after trading became available that rolled the floor of 1/1/1. Unless you're doing someone a solid and trading a shiny they don't have or if it's part of a guaranteed lucky trade I'd be very wary about trading them with the intent of rolling higher IVs. Not that it can't happen; while not legendary I did a shiny Psyduck swap and got a 96% non-lucky.
Of course your preference may differ:
My opinion is that if I'm not going to power as is, I might as well try rerolling.
I wouldn't power my 76% iv shiny over my 91% lucky or 96% regular, so I might as well try trading shiny for shiny. Maybe I'll get a lucky trade or roll better IVs, and since we both already have the dex entry I assume the Stardust cost is okay.
That said, if you plan to power your shiny anyways, then I wouldn't recommend trading it. Generally if you're accepting more variance you should have a higher expected value, however in this case you're accepting variance and a lower expected value.
Basically: if my shiny is just going to sit at level 20 as a trophy anyways, it doesn't really matter if it's 11/12/11 or 5/6/7: either way it's never being used. But if I happen to reroll lucky or anything higher iv, it might become worth powering and hence a great trade!
I'm wondering if something around 80% is still worth powering. I mean, of course you want the highest IV possible, everyone wants that. But I posted a question about how much IV really matters, and the general consensus seemed to be that it is mostly the icing on the cake, not the cake itself. I'm thinking moveset, type matchup, and base stats matter a bit more than IV, although higher IV does equal better (slightly). Your answer does say that if I'm planning on powering the shiny regardless, then not trading is probably a good idea. I really want that shiny powered up, so I'm thinking of keeping it as-is.
