I’m so tired of casuals.
Just now there was a Giratina raid going on, and it was only me and a guy with 2 L40 accounts, and they were best friends. I tried to tell him a Giratina trio was possible (even better there was a L28 guy nearby that we couldn’t see so it made a 4 man) but he just wouldn’t listen and left.
I just want to express that casuals dominate the game now and every raid we do just depends on how they think, not how we think. Niantic should really make all raids soloable (or at least duoable) so the casuals will be forced to know how to really play the game.
Answers
Ya, I hear ya.. I remember on Moltres day, it was me, my bro and my dad going around trio'ing them. We got to this one raid, and saw a girl standing there, trying to do it. She came to us and asked if we were doing it.. We said yes, then when she saw that it was just us 3, then walked away.. At first I was like, "huh?", then i asked if she wanted to, she said yes, but "4 isn't enough".. then she informed me that the previous group there couldn't down it with 8 :O (no joke)..
So I said, we can do it with 3 people, we've been trio'ing Moltres all day.. and omg the look on her face when she found out it could've been done with 3 people lmaoo..
I mean, I later explained to her about counters, etc, and recommended a team for her to use, so I tried to help her out a little, but idk.. It's just shocking how people don't try to get better at the game play?
Casual player here. I’m so confused by the comments. The OP told a story about a casual not wanting to participate in a raid and then comments are saying casuals shouldn’t join in raids because they aren’t helpful enough.
I’m in the 20s and recognize I’m not much help in higher tier raids. I’ve successfully gone solo in the easier raids.
I don’t have time or resources to gain experience quickly and I don’t have any friends that play and live close by. I still love playing the game and have picked up my own strategy of slow grinding. I have only powered up a handful of Pokémon that I use in gym battles, as I don’t want to waste stardust on inefficient Pokémon.
Last week I was at the park with my kids, casually spinning pokestops and catching what showed up. I did see a group pull out their electronics, obviously about to join a raid and I jumped in.
The raid was easily won, but after reading these comments I’m feeling like I violated some kind of unspoken rule. Should I not participate in the bigger raids until I can solo it? Should I have asked the group first?
I feel like it would be stupid of me to Miss out on a chance to gain xp and a strong Pokémon, but I also don’t want to ruin the experience for others. I’m totally fine going the solo route, I just understood raids to be a group activity.
Take what some of the people on here say with a lamp-sized crystal of salt. Particularly the "All Raids Should Be Soloable!" crowd, and the "Casuals Suck" crowd. They have their opinions, and we all know what opinions are. (the abovementioned groups are merely less adept at wiping their opinions after using them.)
In your situation, judge based on your area. In my area, I honestly don't know a single person who would exclude Casuals. And most of us are quite willing to do raids with Casuals because it means more raids will get done. So if the people in your area are going to accept you joining in with them, even if your counters are lower level, that's all that matters.
And the people who don't understand this are complete and utter fools. I carry casuals everyday but I still win raids and have enough resources to keep becoming stronger. If anything, I am using them as much as they are using me, so if we all benefit from these interactions what's the problem? Any person with a couple of neural synapses would realize this but I guess that's asking too much from some people here...
I would consider myself being an "informed casual". Meaning I know about proper counters, I have decent pokémon above lvl 30 for any situation, but no pokémon maxed, not even a single one over lvl 35 and certainly not teams of multiple legendaries of the same species (about 1/2 of each relevant one is powered up). I know what I'm doing, but I don't grind. Cause, well, griding is boring. I play the game for fun, not to be bored. Ok I grind on specific occasions like community days and raid days when I don't have better things to do, but that's it. I'm lvl 36, don't need to go further anyway.
So I guess my playstyle is closer to yours than the "CaSuLaS SuCk AnD ShOuLd GtFo OuR gAmE!!!!!!!!". But to be fair, OP's original complaint is about people *refusing* to try a raid when they think it's undoable, not knowing it was actually possible. If they knew more, they would have tried and probably succeeded. You comment on this site so you probably have some decent knowledge about proper counters. And you're willing to fight, obviously. So you're not the main target anyway.
Well, after that comments went haywire with shit but as was already said, as long as you have fun and you're not forfeiting a raid you said you were participating in, no problem here.
No, you are fine to join, i am glad when a level 20's ask to join a raid, i even encourage him/her to do 5 men legendary with me and the other strong trainer or trio a T4 with me and my alt account so he/her can see that it can be done.
What i dont like is a level 40 trainer insist that we dont split group atleast by colour because they think we can't win
Don't worry about that. I did same for months until someone someday explained me a bit more. Then I started to think a bit more strategic and got into it, read more and more stuff to understand further the mecanism of the game. And anyway you need the xp and the mons from those raids to improve your teams and get more competitive, so go for it!
People seem to be confusing the term "casual" with lack of experience/awareness at some points, while someone mentioned that the OP scenario can be justified as "maybe these people didn't trust that you would use your best Pokemon for that raid even tho you're 40" and that's a fine assumption.
About your situation, you seem to know what you're doing in the game (and there's nothing wrong if you didn't know what to do), so it's nice that you're aware of your capabilities and I hope you understand you have the potential to be a great raider at your own pace, so I really hope you enjoy the game and keep playing it. Also, to me, there's nothing wrong with you joining that raid, as you have all your right to join other people's raid groups. I mean, you shouldn't have to ask if it's an open lobby, the idea of it being open means they don't mind more people joining without asking, but if they were in a private group and you realized that, you could've simply asked to join them and hopefully they wouldn't be hostile even if their final answer was a no.
It's always important to remember that as long as harder raids can't be soloed, we'll always depend on other people somehow, so people will still help each other defeat bosses. The only way I'd like to have soloable level 4/5 raids is if it required you to play really well in order to solo, that's a viable way I see that people would be forced to improve their gameplay, not just because some people acted as elitists saying you were not good enough to play with them and even so, some players could still judge others who were not able to solo everything or particularly harder bosses, so I don't think it would really mean getting rid of that problem for good.
A good advice (I think) that I have for anyone is: keep playing the game the way you want/like to play while trying to listen to what others have to say... and if you think you should change the way you play, there's nothing wrong with that, as long as you don't act like a douchebag towards others.
And a week after Legendary Raids are made Soloable, you'll be back here whining that you can't Solo a Legendary Raid anymore because you aren't getting enough Revives to bring back your best Pokémon and it's so frustrating now because it's 30 minutes per raid because your Sentrets just aren't doing enough damage before they're 1-shot by the Legendary. And you're developing Carpal Tunnel syndrome because you're just frantically tapping the screen for 30min at a time, trying to have your Weedles dodge the Quick Moves long enough to get a single Charge Move off... so Niantic should change it so that it's SAFER to do raids for your health!
All this anger at the "Casuals" not playing the game the way you do is just idiotic. There is no "right" way to "really play" this game. There's no great reason to even do Raids - it's just an additional part of the game that is optional. About the only things that you need to do in the game are Spin Pokestops and Catch Pokémon - everything else is optional. (If they aren't catching Pokémon, they don't need to spin Pokestops, but at that point they aren't playing the game - they're loading it for some other reason. Maybe to study the area - what parts of the area do Players consider worthy of being included in Pokémon Go? Why is Mural A a Pokekestop, while Mural B is not? Why are there so few Pokestops in Area A, while Area B is so full that you can't add any new ones? Etc.) Raids, Gym Battles, Hatching Eggs, Defending Gyms, Friends, Traiding, Gifting - all Optional. All additions to the main point of the game which is Catching Pokémon.
Go find people who play the way you want to. And if they aren't out there where you are, then maybe it's time you changed how you play. Or stopped playing altogether.
That is not casuals, that is what i call a mass raid fans. They used to raid in a large number of people so they are not worry to much about what to use as a counter, and being lazy in building the team. To some extent, i can see their point, but i am not very fond of this kind of play as i see they event not confidence enough to raid T5 with 7-8 trainers unless there is a strong trainer acting as a big gun carrying them
Now i mostly play with my small raid group near my house than play in a big group. I told them when we make this group that we dont have the luxury to depend on many trainer or hope that a strong trainers can carrying the raid all the time, prepare your squad while i am giving some of my meta pokemon as their base.
It pay off now as when i met them they failed to raid absol with 5 trainers. Now 5 trainers in level 20-30ish can take Giratina, almost win with 4 trainers. I can ask one to trio it, the other doing it with 5 trainers. And no drama, which is good.
There's a difference between "casual" and "doesn't know what they're doing". I would consider myself a "casual" player - I don't raid frequently, basically look for a three-star every day on my way to work and if I don't see one, welp - maybe I'll get two tomorrow. But I probably only do 4 raids per week outside of the events. But I really enjoy the matchup making and dps crunching and optimizing my team to hit relevant breakpoints and figuring out what % damage I'm going to be doing so I can short-man 4- and 5-star raids when I do get out for a while. I'm only at level 35, but I know the game fairly well. On the flip side, on Gengar day I was raiding with a level 40 guy who caught a 98% Gengar and was powering it up and was asking others what Gengar's best charge move would be...
I'm 40. My kids just recently hit 31. They don't play daily. Their account was just shy of a consistent Gengar duo on Saturday (trio was easy peasy).BUT by being prepared and ready to work and learn, they have carried higher level accounts in raids, Regirock in particular. You don't have to be 40 to carry people. Just better prepared.
And I'm so tired of people using forums to complain about things which they can't change, but here we are.
Casuals make up a way larger portion of the player base than hardcore players, which means Niantic DOES actually care more about what the casual wants than what the tryhard wants. Don't get me wrong, Niantic panders to tryhards too, as they are the individuals who are most likely to actively grow the player base and find issues with the game which can reasonably be improved, but casuals will always have a massive degree of priority owing to the fact that they outnumber the tryhards 10:1 (and that's using a very generous definition of tryhard).
Wanting Niantic to alter gameplay in a way which makes the game harder for casuals to play is like asking a Taco Bell to have the customer behind you pay for your meal if your wait time is over 10 minutes. Other than single mothers and large families, who the heck would risk going to Taco Bell under THAT stipulation? Certainly none of the working class individuals who grab a quick lunch in the drive thru. Sure, the big families -or in this case the tryhard players- are "higher paying, loyal customers" but that doesn't give you any sort of priority over the casual player base. Niantic needs them too.
If you don't like them, stop playing with them. If you need to be able to play with them, look for facebook/discord/groupme groups and network with players so you can know ahead of time when a raid will have enough competent players to succeed and when it won't. Just walking around and complaining that you don't have enough people with you to do this raid won't get you anywhere.
If you live somewhere where there aren't enough other good players to make T4/5 raids a reasonable prospect, that truly is too bad, and you have my sympathies. Maybe it's time to find a game that isn't so geographically restrictive. That or move somewhere with a more active pogo community.
Large scale moral here about how not just Pogo, but THE WORLD works in general: If you want to be the best, you will have to do it despite whatever circumstances inhibit you. Circumstances will make it easier for some to be the best than it will be for others. You can either succeed in spite of the hardships, or give up. But you can't remove obstacles by complaining that they're in your way. Get over them, walk away, or put in a shit-ton of work to actually remove them. In this case, removing the obstacle would look something like learning to program, getting a job at niantic, working your way up the company chain, and then making those changes you want to see. If that sounds too hard, you're gonna have to learn to accept the game in whatever state it's given to you, or quit playing it. Best of luck on whichever decision you make.
The OP doesn't get how much investment it takes to build and keep two level 40 accounts "current" (with daily Giratina raids?).
IMO someone that plays everyday COULD have them there playing cheaply (or one of them free). However, constantly putting up a mobile hotspot to raid/catch/walk drains data and a mobile phone's battery(s)---right now both would be better used running some star pieces and catching bc double max power ups can be very daunting (plus always needing to renew the player's insider trading fodder)
Honestly this. I occasionally have to run my account and my fiancee's using an old backup phone and let me tell you, double fisting gets taxing pretty quick. Setting up a hotspot for my backup phone turns my main phone into a thermonuclear brick with performance that slugs along. My backup phone has a borked charge port so keeping it connected to my battery is a chore in of itself. There's double the effort in shiny checking, catching, spinning stops, dealing with failing GPS and connectivity issues on the backup phone, it's a lot of effort. I have no idea how people manage multiple devices on the regular without losing their minds.
Nice complaint about people complaining about things that they can’t change.... which oddly enough is something you can’t change .... what are you twelve? Mmmm your solution of getting a programming job and working your way up the corporate ladder a Niantic across makes me think you are more likely around Five or even more likely just a Millennial douche bag
So... you caught the hypocrisy of my statement, but failed to recognize the quite intentional irony of it. I'll spell it out for you.
With the way the game currently works, casuals ruining your 8 man raid group are not going to cease being a thing, ever. The second they do it will be because PoGo died and the game no longer has any new players. Similarly, online forums always have complainers. The difference here is my open recognition of the fact that this will never change, despite my not liking it. OP does not recognize that new/bad players are a constant when playing a healthy, growing game.
As for the career hyperbole... the point of that segment is to prove just how ridiculous a notion it is to pursue actively changing the game, unless you care so incredibly much that this option actually sounds appealing. I'm already a career programmer and I'd still never switch to trying to work for Niantic. The game isn't worth that much effort.
Am I five? No.
Am I a millennial douhcebag? Well... I was born in the 90's so I am a millennial, and being a douchebag is really a matter of opinion... so guilty as charged?
Honestly the person with two accounts sounds like a pretty hardcore player, that simply wanted to walk away when the in game weather turned out not to be windy... Giratina is a useless Pokémon and only worth raiding for the challenge of two manning it and the extra drops that come from short manning it..... I read the comments on this thread and see people bragging about 3 manning things I think of as an easy Duo... I know there are things that I can’t do with out weather boost that are easy raids for some without the weather .... My point being is be careful who you are calling casual because you might be the casual.....
