I feel like I need to get this off my chest.
We know the Blissey isn't the beast it used to be, but it's still the most time-consuming Pokemon to battle in gyms. *And that's the entire point.*
Golden berries are still annoying as f***, and still the best defender. When I look at a gym, I'd rather it be demotivated than whatever high-range Pokemon are in there.
This 3-pass system for gyms that Niantic implemented is frustrating, specifically when trying to gather coins. The rewards aren't proportional to your effort in attacking the previous gym, the amount of damage you've done, oreven how many Pokemon your Pokemon has knocked out.
This needs to change. "Hoping for a few hours where nobody attacks the gym" is a horrible gameplay mechanic (it's what it's become, accept it) and that needs to be abolished.
Players need to be rewarded on more than just how long their Pokemon stayed in the gym. Niantic needs to include the points I just mentioned, along with the following.
Make the gyms 3/4 times as hard. That means raise the Pokemon's stats by like 300 %. I'd rather have single meaningful battles that half-rushed battles which almost any Pokemon could beat any other Pokemon in the gym. Niantic needs to make us EARN the wins, which would tie into the rewards.
Imagine instead of not even bothering to change Pokemon for the Machamp that just came out because whatever Pokemon you have will do fine, to that same Pokemon dying in 6 seconds because you couldn't strategize accordingly.
Instead of it being a speed test vs Berry feeding, I'd rather have 6 intense battles ONCE. However much damage the opponent's Pokemon do, ties into their reward at the end. They could almost be like mini-raids. Force us to strategize against each individual battle.
And yes, allow a limited number of legendaries.
One player takes down a gym and five others get free slots. In fact, the player who put in the most effort may not get a slot due to last-minute sniping. There should be nine slots, with only three free and the rest earned by prestiging (which, to me, was the best part about the old system). Using six attackers to take down nine defenders would be more challenging.
The ten-minute timer should be reset each time a defender is knocked out.
"Make the gyms 3/4 times as hard. That means raise the Pokemon's stats by like 300 %. ... Imagine instead of not even bothering to change Pokemon for the Machamp that just came out because whatever Pokemon you have will do fine, to that same Pokemon dying in 6 seconds because you couldn't strategize accordingly."
They kind of already did this by changing SE damage from 1.4x to 1.6x. That increases the importance of type matchups. Typically good gym attackers match typing, and now they are doing an extra 15% damage (or 30% for double SE) because of typing.
Also, there's radically different gym environments all over the place. What works well for a rural gym that turns over once every two weeks won't work in Hong Kong or NYC where you get into a gym and hope you get 5-6 coins from it (or maybe 7-8 if a raid boss is about to take the gym over).
Free slots seem unfair, but I remember being lower level in the first gym system, and almost never able to get into a lot of gyms, and not staying there very long when I was (lowest CP out first). So whatever system they switch to has to allow mid level players to get some coins.
There's good reason to add, say, two to three slots that are specifically for trainers under lvl 20. Even the buffest defender I could have posted at lvl 20, even assuming I was Dark master Sperglord and could have a shiny perfect Blissey with the best moveset, doesn't add all that much time.
The free slots could even forbid mons above a certain defensive threshold, limiting how long these two or three extra, low-rank mons take to burn through on the attacker side. Getting players into the system is what a free-to-play game is all about.
The one thing I wish they'd change right away is the order you fight gym defenders: Go in reverse order they were put in: most recent is first to fight, first defender should be last.
1- it allows for the person who beat the gym to not be the first one to be harassed whenever someone challenges the gym, and to potentially have the best candy reward.
2 They could even add an icon for "Gym Leader". When you beat a gym and put in a defender, you become the gym leader. They are the very last one you have to take on in a gym. Niantic could even add a new badge, "Time spent as Gym Leader".
And THEN they can work on a gym-system overhaul...
I kinda like that idea. Throw in a minimal coin treat for being gym leader, and I'm sold. Something like one additional coin per hour, up to five. And, let it count against your regular 50-coin limit, so spoofers don't have a further incentive to spend their lives all day on the game screwing others.
If you're looking for another improvement to add, it would be some sort of "TKO" for pokemon when defeated within a small time limit (say 5 seconds or less) which would avoid the 3 round rule. I dislike it when setup + battle intro +heal takes longer than the actual fighting. It also might encourage stonger defenders.
I think taking gyms has become extremely easy. True that it was even easier for a brief time when the super effectiveness first came out but now as long as you choose a good team based on the gym it’s no challenge. I think it is a little more fun because you have to think about who to use and put in gyms though. But it also easier for spoofers.
I find that grb’s do nothing to ward off an attacker. Especially spoofers
I wish the charge moves for defending pokemon charged-up faster, proportionally to the number of bars.
i.e. 3-bar charge moves charge 10% faster, 2-bar charge moves charge 15% faster, 1-bar charge moves charge 20% faster.
Since the A.I. cannot dodge and defending pokemon cant switch out to be S.E. against attacking pokemon, something like this gives the defending A.I. an additional edge over players, but not something insurmountable.
TRUE STORY:
Where I work, there is a gym. I work nights.
I took over the gym Friday 1/11 evening at the start of my shift and installed a Level 20, 97% Metagross, feeding it berries throughout my Friday/Saturday shift.
When my Saturday evening shift starts, I still control the gym. After midnight (Sunday 1/13), a gang of Team Mystic take over the gym and install a Blissey, Wobuffet, Azumarill, Chansey (in that order).
I take out the Blissey, Wobuffett and Azumarill (intentionally leaving without fighting the Chansey). One 980 CP Chansey versus my Level 39, 100% Machamp.
Whoever owned that Chansey proceeded to drop 10 golden raspberries into the Chansey. I assume this person only stopped because even GRB have a 10-berry-per-30-minutes limit (is that true? I dont even know!)
It was kinda funny -- somebody who had invested less than 30 minutes into that gym was determined to waste 10 GRB to keep that Chansey in the gym. I kept fighting, kinda hoping that there was a car in the parking lot with four Team Mystic ruffians -- and by keeping the gym under constant attack, the other three trainers couldnt get their pokemon back in. But it was probably one guy dumping GRB into the gym from miles away.
I wish there was more incentive to participate in as many gyms as possible, even if it potentially meant going back to a limited number of gyms (say, at least 10).
Not more coins, but something -- stardust, candy, potions. It's discouraging to see "POKEMON FOUGHT BRAVELY AND RETURNED +50 COINS" immediately followed by "POKEMON WAS KICKED OUT OF THE GYM x7" and get nothing for it.
Niantic could come up with a formula that awards stardust, candy, potions -- something after the 50 coin daily limit is received. 10 stardust per hour? 1 candy per consecutive 24 hours (this might encourage some more variety in defending pokemon, depending on individual trainer needs)? A potion semi-proportional to the CP of the pokemon defeated?
I already have all the requisite achievements for defending gyms. I want some additional incentive to want to take over (or maintain) a gym, beyond 1-2 per day for 50 coins.
Make it happen, Niantic.
I would personally like this but it would harvest an incredibly abusive and toxic environment of gym hoarding. I am thinking locally of course, where Smurf team is already 2 times as big as reds and yellows combined and they like to dominate every single gym in the area by sheer strength in numbers. Not fun and I wouldn't want them to have even more reasons to be dicks.
