There honestly isn't much in the way of different tactics after you've picked your attacker and are on your way into the fight.
Basically we have dodge everything, dodge charge attacks and kamikaze.
One would think that a player who picks a kamikaze approach is left without anything resembling options after the fight has started. However, in reality things aren't that easy.
We need to understand the game mechanics here. Quite often I've see the term cool down being used for the pokemon charge attacks. That term is, as far as most old school gamers go, incorrectly used.
Coold down is the time from some defined starting point (for example the time since your last spell took effect) until the same ability can be attempted again.
In Pokemon Go only defending pokemon in gyms have a cool down. I've read numbers varying from 1.2 up to 1.6 seconds. The exact number isn't important for this article, but let's assume the number is 1.5 seconds. That means that after your attacker has taken damage it takes 1.5 seconds before the defending pokemon is allowed to start attempting the next attack.
So, cool down was the incorrect term. What is the correct one then?
Cast time. Cast time in general means the time from when an ability is attempted until it has taken effect.
In Pokemon Go this is the time it takes from when you (succesfully) tap the screen until the attack goes off. During this time your attacking pokemon is locked in place and can't do anything, like dodge for example.
This is where the finer points of kamikaze come in.
Let's have a look at machamp, or the attacks Counter and Dynamic Punch to be more exact. Counter comes with a 0.9 second cast time, and Dynamic Punch takes 2.7 seconds to take effect.
Now let's have a look at blissey, or its best charge attack specifically. Dazzling Gleam comes with a 3.5 second cast time.
This means that unless your energy bar is at fifty points it's impossible to fire off a Counter and a Dynamic Punch during the time it takes the defender to cast Dazzling Gleam.
Effectively this means that when your health is low enough for the announced Dazzling Gleam to send your attacker unconcious you should almost never attempt to start attacking with Dynamic Punch when you notice an incoming Dazzling Gleam. You'll be spending a small or large fraction of 2.7 seconds doing zero damage before going down. Better keep tapping away those 0.9 second Counters unstead.
I won't even try to argue why firing off that 3.9 second Outrage with your attacking dragonite is an excersise in futility against just about any existing charge attack in the game hellbent on knocking your nite out.
Showing posts with label Terminology. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Terminology. Show all posts
Tuesday, January 30, 2018
Friday, March 10, 2017
Gym battles, attack versus defence, combat mechanics
There are a number of websites explaining the difference between attacking and defending a gym, but they kind of do a pretty bad job for players who aren't already into game mechanics as an interest of its own.
I'll use gamepress as the main source, and I'll totally disregard wether the data given there is correct or not. It's good enough to be used for explaining why there's a huge difference between attacking and defending a gym.
When explaining damage done I'll use tyranitar as an example.
First off: yes you benefit from having company when you're attacking a gym. But only if you're currently fighting the same defender. I you join the fight after your friend has already defeated the first defender you'll fight two separate battles.
If you catch up, for one reason or another, you're likely to take a huge chunk of damage. This is the game attempting to deal out the damage already taken by the player being caught up with.
As an added bonus the xp awarded isn't split between the attackers. Each attacker gets a full 10% of the prestige carved away from the gym.
Second: no you can't team up on defenders when you're adding prestige to a gym. You're on your own.
Now for the combat mechanics.
When you place a pokemon in a gym it doubles its HP for the purpose of defending the gym. To balance this out the defending pokemon attacks slower than the attacker can do.
I've seen some numbers floating arund, but for the purpos of this post I'll go with the one suggested by gamepress, 1.5 - 2.5 seconds. Let's say 2 seconds flat. This is the GCD, or Global Cooldown.
Let's have a look at that tyranitar. For primary attack you'll eithe get Bite or Iron Tail. Most players look to the bottom and see that Bite has a DPS (damage per second) of 15.0 (STAB included) while Iron Tail runs at 13.6. That would make Bite better.
Look at those numbers again. All the numbers. Bite has a 0.5 second CD (cooldown) and does 6 damage. That's how the DPS is calculated. 6 / 0.5 = 12. Add the 25% STAB bonus and 12 + 3 is indeed 15.
Iron Tail's 15 damage every 1.1 seconds leaves us with a DPS of 13.6.
It's also only half the truth.
When you're stabbing that screen like there was no tomorrow you will indeed fire off a Bite attack every half second.
Now we put that tyranitar in a gym.
DDPS
Remember that GCD? 2 seconds. It's added to the CD of all attacks for a defending pokemon.
Let's define DDPS (Defensive Damage Per Second) as Power / (GCD + CD).
Where does that leave Bite? Well, 6 / 2.5 = 2.4.
What? Yes. 6 damage per attack. GCD is 2 seconds and add the 0.5 second CD of bite to that and the defending tyranitar will fire off an attack for 6 damage every 2.5 seconds.
Bite has a DDPS of 2.4 including the STAB bonus for tyranitar.
Iron Tail?
DDPS = 15 / 3.1 because GCD + CD in this case is 2 + 1.1. So every 3.1 seconds Iron Tail goes off for 15 damage.
That's 4.8 (rounded down) damage per second.
Iron Tail has a DDPS of 4.8 including the lack of STAB for tyranitar.
Double damage per second compared to Bite.
This is why we recommend you to pick pokemon with slow primary attacks that yields a lot of damage per attack when using them for defence.
DDPS charge attacks
When it comes to charge attacks it gets a little trickier.
While DDPS works the same way an attacking player is more likely to dodge an attack that takes 6 seconds to go off than one that hits in 4.
Let's have a look at that tyranitar again.
Fireblast has a DDPS of 22.6. 140 divided by the sum of 4.2 and 2.0.
Stone Edge ha a DDPS of 23.3. (100 / (2 + 2.3))
So, kind of similar.
Opportunity cost
There's something called opportunity cost. In this case the opportunity cost is all the primary attacks that never go off while the defending pokemon pumps up the charge.
Assuming that the defending tyranitar has Iron Tail as a primary attack we can see that two full attacks are lost when attacking with Fire Blast. 3.1 seconds for every Iron Tail versus the full 6.2 seconds for Fire Blast. That's a loss of 30 damage.
In the case of Stone Edge we'll have to look at average loss. Basically by multiplying 4.3 (the total cooldown for Stone Edge) by 4.8 (the DDPS for Iron Tail). Aproximately 21 damage not done to the player.
Opportunity cost included, the DDPS of Fire Blast is 110 / 6.2 rather than 140 / 6.2. Likewise the DDPS os Stone Edge is 79 / 4.3.
18 DDPS versus 18.
I'd still pick Stone Edge though, because I don't believe in the premises that a 4.3 second long attack will be dodged as often as a 6.2 second long one.
Multi bar charge attacks
So why do we go on about the multi bar charge attacks for defenders?
Look at Crunch for example.
70 damage and a 3.2 + 2.0 second long coldown. 70 divided by 5.2 leaves us with an abysmal 13.5 DDPS.
Add in the factor of opportunity cost. 5.2 times 4.8 is 25. 70 - 25 = 45. 45 divided by 5.2 is a laughable 8.7 DDPS.
And we still recommend it? Are we all nuts?
Pumping up the charge attacks
A one bar attack needs 100 energy before it can be fired off. In our example we have Iron Tail going off every 3.1 seconds for a 7 point energy gain.
So after 15 Iron Tail the tyranitar fires off a Stone Edge?
No.
For every two damage the attacking player inflicts on the defending pokemon energy goes up by one. (The same goes for the attacker, but as we have seen DDPS is substantially lower than DPS, so this benefit is of lower value for the attacker)
Let's assume someone is attacking a tyranitar with another tyranitar. Let's further assume the attacking tyranitar has Bite as a primary attack. Since dark is strong against dark the STAB bonus is cancelled out and we have an effective DPS of 12. During the 3.1 seconds the defender needs to fire off one Iron Tail the attacker inflicts an average of 36 damage, for an extra 18 energy.
In reality the defending tyranitar will receive 25 energy between every Iron Tail.
That's four Iron Tail before Stone Edge goes off.
Now look at those numbers again. 25 energy.
That's just a little less than the 33 needed to fire off one Crunch.
Even worse. During the time needed to fire off that Crunch, 5.2 seconds, the attacker inflicts 60 damage if not dodging. That's 30 energy. Just shy of what's needed to fire off another Crunch.
Ever felt it just keeps coming over and over and over again? That's because it does.
Unless the attacker is dodging. And doing zero damage.
But most attackers just shrug off the damage from multi-bar attacks, because the DPS is so low that it can be disregarded.
At least that's what most of the websites say.
They're wrong.
A tyranitar with Crunch will either keep you dodging or receiving consecutive Crunch atacks for almost 90 points of damage each throughout the fight.
You'll attempt to dodge, and you'll be fairly successful, and the fight will take substantially longer time.
If the defending pokemon had only been equipped with a one-bar charge attack you could have gone all in until it finally started to fire it off. In the best of worlds zero times, but usually once, before that defender is knocked out.
That's why we normally recommend multibar attacks. Especially fast multibar attacks that attackers fail to dodge.
In the specific case of tyranitar 3.2 seconds is an absurdly slow three bar charge attack, and yet it's good for defence.
Clarification and correction of the above numbers
Pokemon have a defence stat. The damage received is lower than the DPS and DDPS given above due to that stat.
Still, the extra energy gained due to damage taken serves to explain why defending pokemon tend to suddenly unleash a barrage of multi-bar attacks.
Energy storage
One last piece of bad news.
Defenders cheat. They can store 200 points of energy.
That makes HP-monsters even stronger. They always survive your first one-bar attack. Remember the part about one energy per two damage taken? The defender suddenly sits on well over 100 points of energy.
That's why a defender sometimes go nuts even with two bar attacks. With more than 100 energy two such attacks can be fired off in sequence.
That's why it sucks to have mega defence and low HP. High defence means less damage taken, and that means less energy gained.
Stamina hugely outperforms defence, even offensively.
I'll use gamepress as the main source, and I'll totally disregard wether the data given there is correct or not. It's good enough to be used for explaining why there's a huge difference between attacking and defending a gym.
When explaining damage done I'll use tyranitar as an example.
First off: yes you benefit from having company when you're attacking a gym. But only if you're currently fighting the same defender. I you join the fight after your friend has already defeated the first defender you'll fight two separate battles.
If you catch up, for one reason or another, you're likely to take a huge chunk of damage. This is the game attempting to deal out the damage already taken by the player being caught up with.
As an added bonus the xp awarded isn't split between the attackers. Each attacker gets a full 10% of the prestige carved away from the gym.
Second: no you can't team up on defenders when you're adding prestige to a gym. You're on your own.
Now for the combat mechanics.
When you place a pokemon in a gym it doubles its HP for the purpose of defending the gym. To balance this out the defending pokemon attacks slower than the attacker can do.
I've seen some numbers floating arund, but for the purpos of this post I'll go with the one suggested by gamepress, 1.5 - 2.5 seconds. Let's say 2 seconds flat. This is the GCD, or Global Cooldown.
Let's have a look at that tyranitar. For primary attack you'll eithe get Bite or Iron Tail. Most players look to the bottom and see that Bite has a DPS (damage per second) of 15.0 (STAB included) while Iron Tail runs at 13.6. That would make Bite better.
Look at those numbers again. All the numbers. Bite has a 0.5 second CD (cooldown) and does 6 damage. That's how the DPS is calculated. 6 / 0.5 = 12. Add the 25% STAB bonus and 12 + 3 is indeed 15.
Iron Tail's 15 damage every 1.1 seconds leaves us with a DPS of 13.6.
It's also only half the truth.
When you're stabbing that screen like there was no tomorrow you will indeed fire off a Bite attack every half second.
Now we put that tyranitar in a gym.
DDPS
Remember that GCD? 2 seconds. It's added to the CD of all attacks for a defending pokemon.
Let's define DDPS (Defensive Damage Per Second) as Power / (GCD + CD).
Where does that leave Bite? Well, 6 / 2.5 = 2.4.
What? Yes. 6 damage per attack. GCD is 2 seconds and add the 0.5 second CD of bite to that and the defending tyranitar will fire off an attack for 6 damage every 2.5 seconds.
Bite has a DDPS of 2.4 including the STAB bonus for tyranitar.
Iron Tail?
DDPS = 15 / 3.1 because GCD + CD in this case is 2 + 1.1. So every 3.1 seconds Iron Tail goes off for 15 damage.
That's 4.8 (rounded down) damage per second.
Iron Tail has a DDPS of 4.8 including the lack of STAB for tyranitar.
Double damage per second compared to Bite.
This is why we recommend you to pick pokemon with slow primary attacks that yields a lot of damage per attack when using them for defence.
DDPS charge attacks
When it comes to charge attacks it gets a little trickier.
While DDPS works the same way an attacking player is more likely to dodge an attack that takes 6 seconds to go off than one that hits in 4.
Let's have a look at that tyranitar again.
Fireblast has a DDPS of 22.6. 140 divided by the sum of 4.2 and 2.0.
Stone Edge ha a DDPS of 23.3. (100 / (2 + 2.3))
So, kind of similar.
Opportunity cost
There's something called opportunity cost. In this case the opportunity cost is all the primary attacks that never go off while the defending pokemon pumps up the charge.
Assuming that the defending tyranitar has Iron Tail as a primary attack we can see that two full attacks are lost when attacking with Fire Blast. 3.1 seconds for every Iron Tail versus the full 6.2 seconds for Fire Blast. That's a loss of 30 damage.
In the case of Stone Edge we'll have to look at average loss. Basically by multiplying 4.3 (the total cooldown for Stone Edge) by 4.8 (the DDPS for Iron Tail). Aproximately 21 damage not done to the player.
Opportunity cost included, the DDPS of Fire Blast is 110 / 6.2 rather than 140 / 6.2. Likewise the DDPS os Stone Edge is 79 / 4.3.
18 DDPS versus 18.
I'd still pick Stone Edge though, because I don't believe in the premises that a 4.3 second long attack will be dodged as often as a 6.2 second long one.
Multi bar charge attacks
So why do we go on about the multi bar charge attacks for defenders?
Look at Crunch for example.
70 damage and a 3.2 + 2.0 second long coldown. 70 divided by 5.2 leaves us with an abysmal 13.5 DDPS.
Add in the factor of opportunity cost. 5.2 times 4.8 is 25. 70 - 25 = 45. 45 divided by 5.2 is a laughable 8.7 DDPS.
And we still recommend it? Are we all nuts?
Pumping up the charge attacks
A one bar attack needs 100 energy before it can be fired off. In our example we have Iron Tail going off every 3.1 seconds for a 7 point energy gain.
So after 15 Iron Tail the tyranitar fires off a Stone Edge?
No.
For every two damage the attacking player inflicts on the defending pokemon energy goes up by one. (The same goes for the attacker, but as we have seen DDPS is substantially lower than DPS, so this benefit is of lower value for the attacker)
Let's assume someone is attacking a tyranitar with another tyranitar. Let's further assume the attacking tyranitar has Bite as a primary attack. Since dark is strong against dark the STAB bonus is cancelled out and we have an effective DPS of 12. During the 3.1 seconds the defender needs to fire off one Iron Tail the attacker inflicts an average of 36 damage, for an extra 18 energy.
In reality the defending tyranitar will receive 25 energy between every Iron Tail.
That's four Iron Tail before Stone Edge goes off.
Now look at those numbers again. 25 energy.
That's just a little less than the 33 needed to fire off one Crunch.
Even worse. During the time needed to fire off that Crunch, 5.2 seconds, the attacker inflicts 60 damage if not dodging. That's 30 energy. Just shy of what's needed to fire off another Crunch.
Ever felt it just keeps coming over and over and over again? That's because it does.
Unless the attacker is dodging. And doing zero damage.
But most attackers just shrug off the damage from multi-bar attacks, because the DPS is so low that it can be disregarded.
At least that's what most of the websites say.
They're wrong.
A tyranitar with Crunch will either keep you dodging or receiving consecutive Crunch atacks for almost 90 points of damage each throughout the fight.
You'll attempt to dodge, and you'll be fairly successful, and the fight will take substantially longer time.
If the defending pokemon had only been equipped with a one-bar charge attack you could have gone all in until it finally started to fire it off. In the best of worlds zero times, but usually once, before that defender is knocked out.
That's why we normally recommend multibar attacks. Especially fast multibar attacks that attackers fail to dodge.
In the specific case of tyranitar 3.2 seconds is an absurdly slow three bar charge attack, and yet it's good for defence.
Clarification and correction of the above numbers
Pokemon have a defence stat. The damage received is lower than the DPS and DDPS given above due to that stat.
Still, the extra energy gained due to damage taken serves to explain why defending pokemon tend to suddenly unleash a barrage of multi-bar attacks.
Energy storage
One last piece of bad news.
Defenders cheat. They can store 200 points of energy.
That makes HP-monsters even stronger. They always survive your first one-bar attack. Remember the part about one energy per two damage taken? The defender suddenly sits on well over 100 points of energy.
That's why a defender sometimes go nuts even with two bar attacks. With more than 100 energy two such attacks can be fired off in sequence.
That's why it sucks to have mega defence and low HP. High defence means less damage taken, and that means less energy gained.
Stamina hugely outperforms defence, even offensively.
Wednesday, March 08, 2017
Violating the ToS
I'm following, and participating in, a genuinely interesting conversation about cheating.
So why not use the word 'cheating' in the topic header? Well, violating ToS is easier to define. By violating the ToS you're usually cheating, but not always. In order to cheat you need to be playing the game in the first place and not all violations of the ToS automatically mean the perpetrator is playing Pokemon Go at all.
First of all I'll pretend that 100% of the ToS is valid everywhere. That is almost certainly not true. Different parts of it may be in direct violation of national or local legislation in an area that Niantic has publicly declared as part of their market. In those cases parts of or all of the ToS are invalid depending on local law.
Personally I'm of the opinion that different types of violations are of different severity, but that is my own personal opinion and nothing else.
There are, however, clear indications that Niantic themselves, rank different types of violations. Some offences result in, at most, 'please don't continue doing this', and others result in the immediate removal of the acount.
I'll start with the more obvious ones and descend into ToS violations most players won't even understand as such.
I won't include beating the crap out of players you don't like, even though it's explicitly included as a violation of the ToS. Basically I won't go into the social aspects of the game that are in violation of the ToS.
Reverse engineering
Downloading the game and using digital tools to extract information that wasn't mean to be seen by the player.
Using said tools to find out how the underlying code works.
GPS spoofing
Inserting location data into the game in order to have your avatar stationed at a geographical area different than the one where your phone is.
Frequently used to catch pokemon, access pokestops and participating in gym battles from your home instead of being outdoors.
Multiaccing
Playing with more than one account.
Mostly used for gym battles. The three account setup is probably standard. The account you play on. One account where you collect easy to prestige on pokemon. One rival account to kick out those easy to prestige on pokemon.
Sometimes used for fully populating a gym to level 10.
Account sharing
Playing with an account other than your own. Similar to, but not the same as multiaccing.
Mostly used to catch rare pokemon for friends or relatives.
Often used to help family members, usually your children.
Sometimes used for gym battling.
Trackers
Any solution that allows you to locate a pokemon in a place that you cannot reach in-game from where you are currently located.
Usually in the form of webservices. Basically maps where you see the the location of one or more pokemon.
Includes any kind of semiautomatic information network, ie chats, twitterfeeds or similar where people manually report sightings.
In extreme cases would include receiving a phonecall from a friend telling you to move your arse to somewhere else.
IV calculators
Used to find out the stats of your pokemon.
There are apps doing it automatically.
Websites where you can input the data you see in-game can be used.
A simple spreadsheet with datamined information is another form.
Using pen and paper together with datamined information also counts.
Data aggregation
Any information repository displaying information about Pokemon Go you can't access in-game (not made public by Niantic or official associates to Niantic).
Any website where you can read about potential future changes to the game, based on data extracted by means of reverse engineering the code.
Any website where you can read about what movesets a given pokemon potentially can have, its base stats or maximum CP.
Any ranking list of pokemon attacks based on the behaviour of the attacks. Not to speak about writing out the behaviour of the attacks.
Any list of pokedex entries listing exactly which pokemon goes into what slot.
This blog (and any similar information outlet).
And last, what's not a violation of the ToS:
Systematically walking around with a friend belonging to a rival team and booting out the lowest CP pokemon in level ten gyms in order to make place for your own. Both players will gain immensely from this for the lowest possible effort.
So why not use the word 'cheating' in the topic header? Well, violating ToS is easier to define. By violating the ToS you're usually cheating, but not always. In order to cheat you need to be playing the game in the first place and not all violations of the ToS automatically mean the perpetrator is playing Pokemon Go at all.
First of all I'll pretend that 100% of the ToS is valid everywhere. That is almost certainly not true. Different parts of it may be in direct violation of national or local legislation in an area that Niantic has publicly declared as part of their market. In those cases parts of or all of the ToS are invalid depending on local law.
Personally I'm of the opinion that different types of violations are of different severity, but that is my own personal opinion and nothing else.
There are, however, clear indications that Niantic themselves, rank different types of violations. Some offences result in, at most, 'please don't continue doing this', and others result in the immediate removal of the acount.
I'll start with the more obvious ones and descend into ToS violations most players won't even understand as such.
I won't include beating the crap out of players you don't like, even though it's explicitly included as a violation of the ToS. Basically I won't go into the social aspects of the game that are in violation of the ToS.
Reverse engineering
Downloading the game and using digital tools to extract information that wasn't mean to be seen by the player.
Using said tools to find out how the underlying code works.
GPS spoofing
Inserting location data into the game in order to have your avatar stationed at a geographical area different than the one where your phone is.
Frequently used to catch pokemon, access pokestops and participating in gym battles from your home instead of being outdoors.
Multiaccing
Playing with more than one account.
Mostly used for gym battles. The three account setup is probably standard. The account you play on. One account where you collect easy to prestige on pokemon. One rival account to kick out those easy to prestige on pokemon.
Sometimes used for fully populating a gym to level 10.
Account sharing
Playing with an account other than your own. Similar to, but not the same as multiaccing.
Mostly used to catch rare pokemon for friends or relatives.
Often used to help family members, usually your children.
Sometimes used for gym battling.
Trackers
Any solution that allows you to locate a pokemon in a place that you cannot reach in-game from where you are currently located.
Usually in the form of webservices. Basically maps where you see the the location of one or more pokemon.
Includes any kind of semiautomatic information network, ie chats, twitterfeeds or similar where people manually report sightings.
In extreme cases would include receiving a phonecall from a friend telling you to move your arse to somewhere else.
IV calculators
Used to find out the stats of your pokemon.
There are apps doing it automatically.
Websites where you can input the data you see in-game can be used.
A simple spreadsheet with datamined information is another form.
Using pen and paper together with datamined information also counts.
Data aggregation
Any information repository displaying information about Pokemon Go you can't access in-game (not made public by Niantic or official associates to Niantic).
Any website where you can read about potential future changes to the game, based on data extracted by means of reverse engineering the code.
Any website where you can read about what movesets a given pokemon potentially can have, its base stats or maximum CP.
Any ranking list of pokemon attacks based on the behaviour of the attacks. Not to speak about writing out the behaviour of the attacks.
Any list of pokedex entries listing exactly which pokemon goes into what slot.
This blog (and any similar information outlet).
And last, what's not a violation of the ToS:
Systematically walking around with a friend belonging to a rival team and booting out the lowest CP pokemon in level ten gyms in order to make place for your own. Both players will gain immensely from this for the lowest possible effort.
Monday, January 09, 2017
Gym degradation
So you and your friends built that level ten gym a week ago, and it hasn't been the target of a rival raid yet.
It's still level ten, or occasionally nine. Five of the original pokemons are still inside.
When you built it you put in five snorlax, two vaporeon and three lapras, ranging from 2600 to 3100 cp.
Now there's one 2800 lapras left, and one vaporeon at 2900 cp. Three snorlax, all above 3000 cp are also still inside.
The other five slots are: one gyarados at 3000 cp, one rhydon at 3100 cp and three dragonites at 3000, 3100 and 3200 cp respectively.
While the aggregated combat power of the gym increased it became a house of cards. In another day there will be an addition of two more dragonites and after that the gym will come crashing down.
This is gym degradation. Out of the five top cp pokemons in the game three are poor defenders. In that top five list the good defenders, snorlax and vaporeon, come in at place two and five respectively. Dragonite tops the list, and slot three and four belong to rhydon and gyarados respectively.
To make things worse, a high cp rhydon is even easier to come by than a high cp vaporeon. In reality the same goes for gyarados, because even though it takes an absurd number of magikarps to evolve one, by the time you do you're more or less bound to have a really high IV magikarp to evolve.
While dratinis aren't found left and right, it's still a lot easier to get yourself a high quality dragonite than the snorlax counterpart.
And high cp slots in above low cp in a gym. So solo players drop by a level nine gym, prestige it back to ten and insert the highest cp pokemon they have available -- most certainly not a lapras.
And the gym degrades.
The absurd version of gym degradation occurs when a lonely snorlax protects nine squishy dragonites just before the gym comes crashing down.
It's still level ten, or occasionally nine. Five of the original pokemons are still inside.
When you built it you put in five snorlax, two vaporeon and three lapras, ranging from 2600 to 3100 cp.
Now there's one 2800 lapras left, and one vaporeon at 2900 cp. Three snorlax, all above 3000 cp are also still inside.
The other five slots are: one gyarados at 3000 cp, one rhydon at 3100 cp and three dragonites at 3000, 3100 and 3200 cp respectively.
While the aggregated combat power of the gym increased it became a house of cards. In another day there will be an addition of two more dragonites and after that the gym will come crashing down.
This is gym degradation. Out of the five top cp pokemons in the game three are poor defenders. In that top five list the good defenders, snorlax and vaporeon, come in at place two and five respectively. Dragonite tops the list, and slot three and four belong to rhydon and gyarados respectively.
To make things worse, a high cp rhydon is even easier to come by than a high cp vaporeon. In reality the same goes for gyarados, because even though it takes an absurd number of magikarps to evolve one, by the time you do you're more or less bound to have a really high IV magikarp to evolve.
While dratinis aren't found left and right, it's still a lot easier to get yourself a high quality dragonite than the snorlax counterpart.
And high cp slots in above low cp in a gym. So solo players drop by a level nine gym, prestige it back to ten and insert the highest cp pokemon they have available -- most certainly not a lapras.
And the gym degrades.
The absurd version of gym degradation occurs when a lonely snorlax protects nine squishy dragonites just before the gym comes crashing down.
Tuesday, December 27, 2016
High level, what the heck?
So let's start by setting up a few definitions.
Pokemon Go is basically played at three levels:
- Starting game
- Intermediate game
- End game
High level would indicate the end game.
Starting game
From trainer level 1 through level 19.
This is where you learn the ropes, make all them stupid mistakes and make the next level before you can blink.
Intermediate game
From trainer level 20 through level 29.
Beginning with level 20 one important aspect of the game changes. Every hatched egg is equal. From here on you will hatch a pokemon at pokemon level 20. Implicitly this means this is where you start collecting pokemon for gym battles.
In reality you'll have your first decent combatant somewhere between trainer level 23 and 26. From level 25 you should aim at maxing out one new gym pokemon each level, giving you maybe half a dozen really good pokemons when you hit 30.
During the intermediate game levelling up slows down, but you still collect less stardust per level than needed to build a good line-up for gym battling.
The intermediate game is also where you get the best output from power-levelling with lucky eggs.
End game
The end game is what this blog is about. It starts at trainer level 30.
Three important things change in the game beginning at level 30:
- You get access to max revives. These cut the bag-space cost for reviving kicked out pokemons in half.
- No pokemon you catch will ever be of higher level than 30
- Every time you catch a specific pokemon in a group of players, that pokemon will have exactly the same specs for every player at trainer level 30 or higher.
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