Overthinking Gym Defense and Legendary Raids
It seems like this site and users over think Gym Defense and Raids.
Gym Defense
Why use anything other than a Snorlax or Blissey to earn coins in gym defense?! Successful gym defense is based, in my experience, on gym location versus defender. I have a nice collection of Snorlaxes and Blisseys who net me 50 coin at gyms on a regular basis. They aren’t anything particularly special, but they do the job.
Legendary Raids
I keep seeing all the Rayquaza raid team posts. Forgive me, but your perfectly curated team won’t do anything for you unless you have a good sized team. I’ve been 4/4 on a Mewtwo, 2 Groudon, and a Kyogre.
I did nothing special. I even got that Kyogre w/ Blizzard despite a team of Dragonites.
My point is why spend that much time and resources on that which doesn’t really matter? I mean, using star dust on, mostly worthless, Ice Pokémon for Rayquaza? REALLY?!
I’ve wasted my share of resources, but won’t do so to catch another Legendary as they’ve, mostly, been better trophies than useful Pokémon.
Answers
I live in a med pop city and about 1/3 of the time its only 4-5 people for a legendary. Now these are like 28-35 lvl players so every bit counts. Better trophies then useful? Your not talking about Groudon who will hold the best ground type for a long time or kyogre who is hands down the best water type.
Groudon will hold best ground type literally forever unless Garchomp gets a stupidly amazing new ground moveset that Groudon doesn't. It won't even be outclassed by a mega evolution if those come into the game, because it has its own primal form. Kyogre is in more danger, Palkia challenges it in the next gen. But it's unlikely that Kyogre will get outclassed by any significant amount, at worst it'll be the close second of water types until eternity.
I couldn't agree more that they're far from trophy mons.
If the turnover rate is low, gym defense is indeed overthought. For Legendary Raids, this site is made for a variety of players, from beginner to the hardcore, the hardcore raiders who want to duo Rayquaza will definitely need to power up the ice types.
Same as Groudon and Kyogre, they are the very best of their type right now, hardcore raiders would definitely want to catch them as much as possible, in order to prepare for the best team for a relevant raid coming in the future.
If you are focusing on gym battles, and player numbers is never a problem, or you never want to try short-maning raids, there is indeed no need to invest that much time and resources on raid counters, which is useless for you.
I raid with just a handful of others and havecompleted many raids with 10 or less seconds left. I attribute this success to me putting millions of dust into my counters and “overthinking” things. I also have goals (like catching 80% of Kyogres) and need every damage ball to do this. Plus, raids seem like the only end game right now.
People have already posted about the need for good raid teams in smaller areas. I'll take a different approach.
This game has three main combat aspect. Gym offense, gym defense, and raids. You have already said you believe the latter two are not worth resources. Gym offense is trivial, with time/motivation being the primary concern. As long as you have a couple machamp (I actually like hariyama for the efficiency), no gym is a challenge to attack. Mostly, I attack gyms with leftover raticate and pidgeotto from lucky egg sessions. So, with gym offense, gym defense, and raids all being a waste, what would you ever spend stardust on?
I over think raid counters because they are really the only thing worth spending stardust, along with the legendary "trophies" (as you called them).
Using the same Pokemon on gym defense can be boring. To you, it might be 'overthinking'. To others, it's just 'thinking'. It adds, for me, a little more excitement to my experience of the game being in the position to throw a high-IV/high-CP Muk/Ampharos/Steelix/Donphan into a gym rather than the usual Blissey. or, more appropriately, Snorelax. To each, their own.
And others have covered your 'point' about powering up ice-types for Rayquaza, so I need not mention anything about it.
I suppose the main takeaway for you here is to re-read TKAM, and pay a little more attention to when Atticus Finch is teaching Scout about empathy.
Weather boosting now also helps with stardust usage. I've been catching a lot of greater than level 30 Exeggcutes, including a few in the 82%+ rating range that I have evolved, used a single TM to get a double grass moveset, then added to my Kyogre team with no stardust investment. This saves me stardust that I can spend on something else later.
I like to throw unusual defenders in, 1) to clear out rubbish when I'm short of revives and potions, 2) four defenders for 2+ hours each gives a better chance of 50 coins than one for 8+ hours, 3) variety is good, 4) I get bored of seeing the same old stuff, 5) lower cp mons demotivate slower and can slow down attackers (wigglytuff, slowbro and noctowl all get used on a regular basis) and 6) theme gyms are a good thing to see. Here's one I was in last weekend
I once held a gym with one Lickitung and 10 razberries. That was pretty fun, the attacker quit attacking.
Also, our gyms are pretty chill, there's plenty of them for everyone. So a gym would normally change teams once a day. Anything can stay for 8 hours because of that. But they're more likely to kick Blissey and Snorlax out for some reason, than to let your whatever unusual mon (especially Unowns) stick around.
Our raids though... I rarely see anyone raid, and they mostly restrict it to team-based. Yet for some reason there's usually 2-3 other players taking on a freaking Ivysaur or Wailmer or in the past Quilava and Bayleef.
Your point of over thinking is true. Especially all those my team vs x boss posts bore me to death.
On the other hand using right pokemons matters a lot in small groups. Large groups are basicly faceroll. Nothing gives more then 1 ball. New damage % required for 2-3 balls are bullshit.
Gym defence... The point is , you dont defend gyms with pokemons anymore. You defend it with golden berries. So look for highest stamina stats. Put those pokemon in gyms. So basic and sooo bullshit. Niantic way!