Levels up to 30 are way more rewarding than levels over 30. Also lower levels cost less. If you don't have a full party of good counters to the Gen 4 dragons (and possibly returning Gen 3 dragons), I would suggest powering up more attackers to the level 30 soft cap. If/Once you have a party of level 30 attackers, start raising them to 40. At least that's what I would do if I were you, cause I really like playing in a cost-efficient way
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I've got around 400 dratini candy and 218k dust, and im wondering is it better to bring a level 14 96% 15 HP, 14 atk/def lucky dragonbreath/dragon pulse dragonite (going to be tm'd) up to higher levels, power up and evolve my level 15 98%, 14 def, dratini or power my level 20, 91% 12 atk dragonite (evolved before I knew much about IV's) and level 28 100% dragonite first or some combination
My only dragons that are sufficiently powered up are currently a 93% traded rayquaza, 13 atk max level, 96% max attack/def draco meteor dragonite level 38, and the 100% one
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As the guy above said, don't blindly power up to lvl 40 since the costs are astronomical for little gain after lvl 30. Going for party of lvl30 attackers is more than enough for most raids anyway.
And if you want you can check damage breakpoints/bulkpoints for the attackers in the raids you want to use. Maybe there is no real difference between a 12 atk vs a 15 atk Dragonite vs Giratina for example.
I would lvl up the lvl28 drago and then the lucky one for the reduced stardust cost
Max the 100% level 28... You'll literally never find a better one. I know there's a lot of talk about IVs not being super important but that's only really because we're at one end game, but not the true end game. I'd max the hundo over a lucky 98 because of that (although I'd always max a lucky 98 good Pokemon too!).
After that the 96% lucky is great too. Will save you loads of dust.
Don't waste candies evolving more when you already have lots of good candidates.
Since Dragons are weak to other dragons (except for Dialga) you might need more than 6 to short man. In a typical Giratina raid, my 5 top dragons go down while players using Ttar and other tankier options may only lose 2-3, but I'm doing almost twice as much damage as they are, carrying the raid more, and getting more team and individual balls. Short manning is the extreme extension of this idea, until you get Dialga, who can take on other dragons.
In short:
Palkia - weak to Fairy and Dragon.
Dialga - weak to Fighting and Ground.
Good news is that most people have an army of Machamps ready to take on Dialga, with Groudon tanking at the end, and still doing some good damage.
Think about how much stardust you grind. If you don't grind that much, you can power up two lucky for the price of a regular. If you trying to build a good team quickly then having two powered up lucky beats one normal dragon. And as a general rule usually level 30 give you 90% of your attacking power but if you are short manning and going to the extreme, you will need to use the breakpoint calculator. I think the next good breakpoint for the dragons are about level 31 or 32 but requirement will be different based on the attack IV. I don't know about you but I don't mind having extra balls when it comes to catching. I know I had some close calls with catching them on the last ball. Once you can answer those questions then you will be able to decide what to do.
