I have noticed that even if I spin the ball and throw it with an elliptical trajectory it does not register it as curveball a significant number of times. I am afraid that this is happening also in the raid boss catching sequence and that is why I suck on Zapdos (3 out of 11). Have you noticed similarly regarding your wild catches?
I have indeed. I am registering way fewer curveballs despite throwing in exactly the same way as before. Thankfully I'm still catching Zapdos (13/14) but on a number of those, the curve hasn't registered. My Lugia rate is 5/22 so I think that might be to blame.
I've tried spinning the ball in a larger pattern before I throw, as I was told that helped and it maybe has a little but they still don't always register.
Is there a foolproof way to throw curves every time?
I agree, but with me it is Moltres where I am 5/19, I can only explain this by curveballs not registering. With Zapdos I do much better, 19/22.
Another tricky aspect is the toss is 3D, yet the screen is only 2D. I often have trouble getting the toss to the correct "depth". I was having trouble with Lugia last night because I kept tossing beyond it.
When I use the trick where I freeze the circle and then throw during the attack, I can hit over 90% of the time. The problem for me is getting the hit at the right "depth", when it registers as at least Great! and registering the curveball. Problem is you never know if a curveball was registered when you don't catch it.
It seemed like it changed a couple months ago for me. I used to get successful curveballs every time, then suddenly almost none of them were counting anymore. I had to completely change the way I threw before it finally started to acknowledge the curve again with any consistency. Instead of curving out then back in, following a parentheses-shaped path, now I move my finger along the edge of the screen, at a more upward angle, which makes it rather difficult to not over-curve against some pokemon that are far away.
