Pokemon Go

Yeah, so far, we appear to be getting the evolutions that require unique items, the Dusk Stone, or the Shiny Stone. Evolutions requiring the Dawn Stone, knowing particular moves, or evolution based on a particular location are not yet live.

I've seen confirmation that research breakthroughs will produce a Sinnoh Stone, but I haven't seen yet anyone mentioning any other way to acquire one (but honestly, given that I get maybe one evolution item a month outside of weekly bonuses, I'm not terribly surprised).

It appears that Rhydon is the big winner of the ones getting Sinnoh evolutions - a stat buff all around, and the only change in possible movesets is that it can have Smack Down instead of Rock Smash, turning it into a slightly weaker but non-limited (and tankier) version of CD Tyranitar. That said, I'm also looking forward to building a Honchkrow as a glass cannon double Dark attacker, and I have a solid shiny Roselia that I'm going back and forth when it comes to whether I should make it double Grass or double Poison (probably going with the former, but I think it may depend on just how well I think it'll work to break Dazzling Gleam defenders).

Togekiss would probably be the only real main consideration there (Gardevoire can be a threat, but it's been out long enough that I'd think you already have an answer to that one), as far as stuff vulnerable to the Poison attack. Blissey is still a strong defender and, of course, not vulenrable to poison, despite being able to learn Dazzling Gleam. Granted, it will resist the Dazzling Gleam attack, but I'd personally rather risk bursting it down with Machamp rather than getting into a protracted tanking contest with a Blissey. The caveat to my preference for this approach for me, is that I'm often trying to race and burn down a Blissey ASAP when there's about a 50/50 that a given gym I'm attacking will have someone actively Golden Razz the Blissey (for some stupid reason, my city is overrun with spoofers who insist on trying to be in random multiple gyms for days at a time).

I have a 100% Togetic that's been waiting for this day... but now, I find myself wondering if I should hold off in case a Community/Raid day is announced that'll give it Fairy Wind as a fast move.

That's the downside of limited edition movesets: it makes you hang on to everything just in case.

Edited by Anura on Nov 15th 2018 at 6:00:07 PM

It won't be optimal, but meh and move on.

Leave optimization to the main series, where you have a greater degree of control.

Also, Ingress just released a pair of chatbots representing their faction leaders. Maybe we'll get something similar on this side. Probably not, because chatbots are easy to subvert which TPC wouldn't like, and PoGo doesn't do the Alternate Reality Game stuff that Ingress does, which a chatbot would be handy for.

Yeah, I have a very solid answer for Gardevoir already - I have two powerhouse double Steel Aggron, and they just rip through Gardevoir without a problem. I've also occasionally thrown in my legacy Gengar and had plenty of success with that on Dazzling Gleam sets (though obviously, Psychic sets watch Gengar put the "glass" in Glass Cannon). Of course, not to mention my Meteor Mash Metagross.

As for Blissey... eh, even when I can burst one down, it still takes so long that I generally find that Golden Razz campers will bring her back from the brink if they're paying attention. I don't mind playing the attrition game against them, and I've gotten solid enough that, pre-rebalancing, I could generally take an Aggron against a Blissey and win so long as the CP was at worst roughly equal (like, within 30 points of each other). It's still slow, but I still find it takes ridiculously long even if their motivation has dwindled to "about to be knocked out." I think the fastest I ever dispatched a Blissey was still 10 seconds, and it was a very low level one that was about to be knocked out.

Of course, with the rebalancing, that may change, so I probably should test to see if Blissey is still as much of a problem as she once was. That said, between that and the fact that Water types are still very common gym defenders locally (not to mention Ground and Rock types), double Grass Roserade is probably simply the safer choice all around.

Yeah, I've really grown to dislike the limited moves for that reason. I've got a 100% Charmander that has long missed the boat on Blast Burn. Got a rather lot of Mewtwos sitting around being unhelpful because they can't learn Shadow Ball. Even sitting on those 98% Beldums forever and getting rewarded with Meteor Mash for doing so just doesn't feel right.

I probably wouldn't care as much if I lived in a bigger city, but as is, I'm frequently raiding under-manned, so being able to field optimal stuff is borderline mandatory.

Machamp is what you want to be using against Blissey. Hariyama, Blaziken and Breloom are decent backup choices. I even used Ursaring with Fighting moves before I had a decent Machamp.

No, Machamp is what everyone else wants to use against Blissey. The Rhyhorn line has long been one of my favorite Pokemon lines, and honestly, that is my go-to Blissey stomper (I've yet to see a Blissey that can stand against my best Rhydons, let alone what Rhyperior will be able to do - I've saved up over 500 Rhyhorn candy just to make an army of them).

That said, Aggron is not a bad choice if you've raised them sufficiently/caught some good Arons (around here, they're so common and so frequently weather boosted that you'd have to avoid catching them to not have a good one). Particularly if you regularly deal with gyms that have problematic local reception or your phone doesn't have the best reception (i.e dodging, for whatever reason, is not practical), Aggron is a better choice because you cannot guarantee that you'll avoid Psychic or Dazzling Gleam (particularly the latter and its annoyingly early dodge window). Machamp certainly works, but I don't like relying on hoping either that reception will always be perfectly stable or that I'll only run into Hyper Beam Blisseys (particularly since, so far as I can tell, Hyper Beam is the least common Blissey set).

Edited by 32_Footsteps on Nov 15th 2018 at 2:10:58 PM

I guess I just live somewhere with better coverage, since I can dodge pretty consistently. And after two Kanto events in a place that's often Windy I have 6 Machamp, so even if I do fail there's another one ready to go.

If I'm racing the Golden Razz clock, I usually don't bother dodging and just face tank Blissey's charged moves (same as when I'm pushing a DPS-intensive T3 solo). I have a couple level 40 Machamps I usually run as the front line of my gymming team and this allows me to let the first one go down and keep going with the second. The idea is to perhaps as quick a solo assassination of Blissey as possible so that she's gone before the other player gets the low motivation message (the one single advantage of fighting shameless spoofers, is if they're trying to defend many gyms all over the city, if I'm fast enough, I can catch them while they're juggling too many things). If two ends up not being enough, I've got four level ~35s that I can line up behind them (though these ones will be weaker than my 100% and 96% because they were just weather-boosted Machops I grabbed off the street and put a bit of candy and a few TMs into).

Part of my problem is that I regularly go through transit hubs with spotty reception - wholly or partly underground, several overpasses, et cetera. Not only do several of my local gyms/my commuter gyms have spotty reception, but there's also some nasty GPS drift (to the extent that I can hatch eggs if I have a sufficient wait for the next bus). I've been known to time out simply due to my phone hitting a particularly bad patch at any given time. I have had to adopt a different playstyle than the frequently recommended style simply because what I have to work with is not what others have to work with.

Mind you, I do have a few Machamps that I use. I just generally use them in safer matchups that don't require dodging nearly as much - Snorlax, Tyranitar, Lapras, Rhydon, Aggron, the occasional Golem... those are the ones that I use Machamp to blitz down. Depending on their current CP (and thus, whether or not I think I can take them out before a charged move is used), I'll occasionally use them on Slaking and Ursaring, but I generally don't because of the threat of Play Rough.

In that case, I'd probably just spam them and let them get knocked out and Max Revive them afterward.

Weavile, though glassy, is both the best Dark and the best Ice attacker; it'll be worth having for when Rayray returns. Roserade is the same for both Grass (excellent for both Kyogre and Groudon when they return) and Poison (making it amazing for soloing Granbull raids, and dealing with Togekiss which is set to be a choice defender thanks to walling Machamp). And Electivire has detrhoned Raikou for top Electric DPS, with a much smaller loss of bulk compared to the other two. In addition, they already have basically their best possible movesets so they're safe investments.

Isn't Mamoswine supposed to be the best ice attacker? Granted, it's not out yet, but its impending existence might make dark Weaviles a better investment over ice ones.

Well, Dark Weavile is still outclassed by Gengar and Shadow Ball Mewtwo, since Ghost is good against the same stuff as Dark. But if you need more coverage in that area, Weavile has your back.

Personally, I'm evolving a shiny Roselia first. She's named after a shiny Roserade in a Quest Thread* I'm following, so it's only right.

*Shameless plug for my Forum Quest YTTKW, which really needs help!

Edited by Anura on Nov 15th 2018 at 10:54:44 AM

I need something that gives me 50k worth of walking.

Last year I used to have to walk 14 km 3 times a week. I would have gotten oh so many Riolu and Shinx eggs if they were implemented...

I feel like holding off on Weavile on the hope/theory that, if/when Rayquaza returns, we'll already have Mamoswine by then. Though if you're lacking in solid double Dark for Giratina raids, I could see building in that direction to handle those.

Between the fact that I only bother with Granbull raids if I'm looking to burn a pass for the day, plus the fact that Water defenders are still absurdly popular, I feel that double Grass Roserade is the only sensible option for me. Togekiss is a potential concern, yes, but between double Rock Rhyperior, the CD Tyranitars I have (though yes, the Dazzling Gleam issue is on my mind), and the double Steel Aggrons I have, I feel like I have enough counters for them already (plus, honestly, I have a decent collection of Jolteons, Zapdoses, and Raikous to handle those, even before I finally evolve out a Luxray or a Electivire... plus, down the line, the double Ice Mamoswine will also be good for those).

I'm going to do Rhydon first, for the aforementioned "long time favorite" reason, but I do have an awesome shiny Roselia, so that's going to be my second Sinnoh Stone evolution.

Is there a reason the five Alolan eggs I hatched today all have less than full HP to start? Two Wynauts, a Pichu, a Geodude, and a Meowth, all missing 15-25 HP out of the egg.

The rabalance changed everythings HP values. We got a free heal with it, but that didn’t apply to things in eggs.

So Meltan's quest line is out and a LOT of its quests will be EASY to complete during this event running through the 27th, however after that point when spawns go back to normal, I've noticed it is going to be insanely hard to gather the required pokemon it asks for depending on where you live. So get going while the going is hot!

Examples: Drowsee, Magnemite, Cubone, Anerith, Omanyte, and Ditto NEVER spawn where I live....like EVER except during events.

Edited by Darkflamewolf on Nov 17th 2018 at 8:27:55 AM

I got Ditto from one of the field encounters. But yeah the Anorith one is annoying.

Thought that might be it. Thanks.

The most hilarious one hit by the "hit points for old eggs" bug is Shuckle. I just hatched one (one that was perfect in defense and HP, too), and it was at half health when it hatched. I can spare the potions needed, so it's just funny to me (also, I finally have the perfect troll Shuckle for gym defending, so that helps).