Successful solo of Arcanine with S/C
In my second attempt, I was able to solo Arcanine with S/C using this team in this order:
CP 2851 lvl 33.5 15/14/14 Vaporeon WG/HP
CP 2974 lvl 33.5 15/14/13 Rhydon MS/SE
CP 2622 lvl 33.5 13/15/15 Golem RT/E
CP 3214 lvl 33.5 12/15/15 Dragonite DT/O
CP 2950 lvl 33.5 14/13/15 Gyarados DT/HP
CP 2702 lvl 31.5 12/11/14 Vaporeon WG/WP
I am TL32, so most of these mons are maxed out for my level. When the raids started, I decided I wanted to be able to solo some level 3 raid boss, and the counters for Arcanine were close to what I already had.
Like everyone recommends, I restarted my phone before the first battle. I am not sure if it helped or not. I know I was lucky to battle an Arcanine without WC. In case I was up against WC though, I put the would-be glass cannon Vaporeon first in an effort for it to receive fewer charge attacks.
In the first battle, everything seemed to go wrong. The battled started with about 4 seconds already off the clock. Arcanine's charge move seemed to keep landing when my mon's energy was nearly full. For some reason, Golem didn't pull his weight; I think he only got off one charge move. Someone messaged me on Skype which brought down an overlay from the top of the screen that covered up my Dragonite's energy bars so I didn't know when to charge. When the overlay finally disappeared, both of his energy bars were full. While on my last mon, the game said that I ran out of time even though there was still at least 2 seconds on the clock. Whatever. Things had gone so wrong that 2 more seconds wouldn't have been enough time anyway.
Before the second battle, I powered up Gyarados four times to lvl 33.5 as I listed above. I didn't want to power up my weaker Vaporeon because of its somewhat lower IVs and suboptional charge move for the current meta (remember when WP used to be the optimal charge move for a defending Vap?).
In the second battle, things seemed to go much better. The clock started with only about 2 seconds already gone. Arcanine's charge move seemed to land at times when I was able to fully absorb the energy or as an over kill. I know Vaporeon was able to get off three HPs. I think Golem also got in three Es. I lost count on how many Os Dragonite got in, but I do know that he never had his second energy bar full. I finished with about 4 seconds left after my final Vaporeon delivered one or two WPs.
Others have complained about Rhydon being so much worse than Golem in terms of DPS against Arcanine. I didn't notice a big difference, but maybe that is because I have the highest DPS moveset for Rhydon against Arcanine but not for Golem.
One other thing that was lucky about this is that I had just received my second fast TM less than an hour before when a big group of us took down a Snorlax. I used it on this Dragonite to get DT instead of SW. In the end, I was rewarded by beating this Arcanine with a charge TM. Very happy about getting two TMs in two raids today.
I hope everyone has enjoyed reading my solo story as much as I have enjoyed reading everyone else's.
Answers
Congrats; very impressive. I solo'd an Arcanine the other day, but just barely despite being level 37; Wild Charge was super frustrating. I started off with Rhydons, Vapes, and a combo of my highest dps pokes. Must've timed out 5-6 times when an extra 10 seconds would've been enough to win. On my last attempt, I just went all in with Vape 1-6 and managed to take him down.
Bender - You rock! Great post. You are my hero and my inspiration! I tried to solo Arcanine yesterday with a team of 5 Rhydons (one MS/SE at 2844; four MS/EQs at 2772, 2761, 2699 and 2694) and one MS/EQ Golem at 2467. I used up only the first three Rhydons and was on the fourth when time ran out with the Arcanine having about 10% to 15% of its meter left. I tried two more times with slightly tweak pokemons and line-up but similar results. Oh great guru, what would you suggest I do? I have some Vapes and one Dragonite comparable to yours. Was there a reason you used the order you did?
I don't know about being a guru, but I will certainly give you some advice.
Since you had more than 2 mons worth of HP left, you should replace some of these mons with others that have higher DPS vs Arcanine. Recall that GamePress describes supreme counters (like Rhydon and Golem against Arcanine) in part by saying "almost always top in DPS" so maybe Vaporeon with HP has higher DPS against Arcanine. I haven't check that. I would have done this more detailed DPS vs survivability analysis if my Arcanine solo attempt had been unsuccessful.
Good luck!
Oh, I forgot to tell you why I picked this order.
First, to be clear, this is my only Vaporeon with HP, high IVs, and leveled up, my only Rhydon, my only Golem, my only Dragointe, and my only Gyarados. In fact, I used all three TMs that I got before this raid to give these mons better moves: Dragonite SW to DT as I said before, Rhydon RS to MS, and Golem RB to E.
For the order, I started with Vaporeon since it would have been a glass cannon if Arcanine had WC. I still lead with him in the second battle even though I knew this wasn't the case out of principle; sort of practicing for the case when I will be up against WC. From there, the order is the order that GamePress lists counters for Arcanine except my that weak Vaporeon is last. Other than putting my weakest mon last, I don't think the order should matter for me since I had to use all six of my mons. Once you pick your team of six though, the main idea is to put them in order of higher DPS to lower DPS with the one deviation being that a glass cannon should go first in the hope that it will take one less charge move to the face.
I have read about this idea of breakpoints and understand the theory but have yet to do any of these calculations myself.
Could you (or someone else) explain this calculation as an example for me?
In my head, the one thing I don't recall is how to compute (say) the attack of a mon based on their level. Of course you add the base value and the IV together. Is the rest of the value 2 times the mon's level?
