Less motivated to play? Rant

The Gen 4 legendaries I have seen: 170 in my Pokedex, I have "caught" 148 of them. Yes some were traded for, but 87%...yeah, it is still fun getting/being ahead of most I raid with...especially when many are stressing about coordinating lucky eggs and gifts!?! I only raid on the weekdays during the 5pm hour and several raids on Sat/Sun.***my buddy/free account is 135/153—88%

I do agree with the last three legendaries have less than stellar moves but they all can fill a specialized niche at the moment. Palkia is coming back with a shiny release. Anything Palkia powered up w DT/DM will be a great counter to itself. I would have loved to have had a powered up Dialga with the dragon resistance against Palkia with DM instead of filling a slot with Granbull. I do kind of cringe getting a high IV Dialga knowing it’s current move is probably going to be comparable to preMM Metagross if it gets a signature move in the future. But legendaries Groudon Kyogre and Ray have been released over a year without their signature moves and frankly I have gotten a lot of mileage out of Groudon and Kyogre. Ray isn’t as significant as what I read is more of a flying move. I do enjoy the raids and rewards but take it as it is.

Complete opposite... Going out and getting the newest best thing is what keeps the game exciting and fresh... Sure I’ll be sad to see my Machamp army become obsolete someday... But instead of being angry and bitter about it... I’ll look at all those big blue smiling faces and think back to all those gyms flipped just before a legendary eggs hatched and smile... I’ll fondly remember all the Absol, Aggron, Snorlax, and Tyranitar duo’s we did together... All the extra damage balls and drops we earned doing the Regis in cloudy and the complete smack down we are currently dishing out Dialga.... It will be exactly like when I look at my Hex - Shadow Ball Gengar team... I sure do miss those toothy purple people eaters.... But I simply can’t wait to see the chaos my Lick Shadow - Ball Gengar’s are capable of....

Hardly obsolete. The CD move for Articuno is garbage (although it's obsolete because Mamoswine is around) and the CD move for Moltres doesn't really outmode Overheat because it has a slightly different coverage. The only real pure trade-up was Zapdos, although CB Zapdos isn't quite obsolete.

As for Gengar, if you had SC, you were already ahead of the curve.

More importantly, most of this stuff doesn't matter much anyway because until something gets a better move, if it's top-tier you're still going to be using it until it gets that move.

Just because one of your Pokemon is surpassed does not mean the old one is suddenly not good. If you feel like you're supposed to have the best thing forever and just sit on it then it may be better for you if you played a different game.

Agree and disagree.

The only CD moves that do invalidate previously evolved pokemon are MM metagross and possible Feragligatr, but if it has water gun, that's a better move in PvP. The kanto starters never were to stand out (and even with HC, blastoise only does in ultra and great league, not in raids) because other options were better. Ampharos, Eevee line and Surf Pikachu's events were collectors pieces, and DM dragonite, while still very good, Outrage is the better move. Meganium feraligatr and typhlosion werent as good as good as other options prior so beyond a dex there wasnt much need for them. And with Tyranitar, its CD move is a different effectiveness profile.

As for raid day moves even with TS, Zapdos is still bested by raikou, electivire and eventually magnazone. SA moltes, whole doe shave overlap with OH, the two do have differing effectiveness profiles (you wouldn't use sky attack for things like registeel, or overheat for machamp for instance). Huricane Articuno is just a collectors item. And Lick gengar, while better than hex, even with hex Gengar's still the best ghost type. GK breloom wasnt as good as people ive it credit for, its DPs is high, but its still glassy, much like how it is with machamp, other grass types with lower DPS but better bulk actually did better than it in practice.

Meteor mash metagross is really the only pokemon that before was useful for what it did (but others were much better), but supremely outclassed it and many others with same effectiveness profile that wasnt already outclasses at what it did.

But all of that is assuming one thing, those pokemon have those match ups. Look at rampardos right now, its widely considered the best rock attacter right now, but compare that to all the work out SD tyranitar put in. It got us from the bird raid days, all the way up till the Lugia/Ho-oh raid returns as the best rock attacker, but rampardos hasn't had any match ups since we got it. Those older investments have been better simply because we actually used them. MM metagross, despite how good it is, hasnt had any match ups where its been essential aside from t4 togetic and is mostly just a tanky gym sweeper.

So long as you got a meaningful reward out of the use of an already evolved nonevent pokemon, i'd say its worth it. We all know down the line almost everything we have will be outclassed by something, but right now, and f they have a match they are the best for, and using those pokemon lets you get something good, i'd say its worth it. My FP venusaur, and old CB zapdos helped me get my 93% kyogre maxed, and while both arent the best for what they do, I wouldnt have gotten the kyogre without them, and this is the same for several other pokemon I have that are 'outclassed' these days. I look at it like this, if I didnt have those outclassed pokemon and I wouldn't have been able to get this other better pokemon, those older pokemon being outclassed doesnt make what those pokemon did worthless. I dont loose my 93% kyogre, 87% SA moltes, and two shiny kyogre because my FB venusaur's been replaced by GK roserade.

The game these days does make players more cautious about what to use these days, but we all know powercreep is an inevitability, it may come two days from now like it was for GK breloom getting passed by roserade, or it might never come at all. Thats why I, and many others only power up what we need at the time

Also just because a pokemon gets passed doesnt make that pokemon no longer good. Garchomp's going to pass up dragonite when it comes out, it doesnt make dragonite any less of an attacker, its still going to be one of the highest neutral DPS onlegendary pokemon in the game. If they give machamp a better fighting set, does it make current C/DP machamp any worse of a fighting type? No, it just means theres something better, not the old stuff got worse, they are still just as usable as before.

It's really kinda stupid to think that just because a Pokemon gets a better move (or a new Pokemon with a better move is released) that the old Pokemon/move suddenly becomes useless.

Agreed to an extent. It's not exactly fun knowing Pokemon are being released with inferior moves (Gen 4 legendaries) or that Pokemon that are released will eventually be made better (any of the starters). On the other hand, very few things remain top dog forever - FP Venusaur and GK Breloom are no longer the fastest grass types, BB Charizard will see less use when BB Blaziken eventually comes around.

And ultimately, if you get use out of something before its better version comes around can you truly say you "wasted" resources? Rhyperior and Groudon both stand to receive better, potentially exclusive moves but the two of each I spent dust and candy on helped carry me through Heatran duos on several occasions. Golem I used against the birds were a godsend at the time before SD Tyranitar entered the picture.

The biggest problem I have with all these Exclusive Moves is that they become Exclusive Moves, and aren't simply added to the potential move pool. I sort of get why they do that - gives players a sense of Rarity and makes Trading for these Pokémon the only way to get them - but it doesn't make that any less annoying.

As for "not participate in Raids" due to this, that, frankly, is dumb. Very, very dumb - in particular for Legendary's. Every Legendary caught is 3 Candies for that type. Every Legendary caught is 60km less you have to walk. Every Raid gives the possibility of up to 15 Rare Candies (Which I've gotten a few times in the last couple of weeks... ironically during a stretch where I was doing raids to get Potions because I wasn't getting them outside of opening Gifts, and I didn't want to get any 7km eggs) which can be put toward powering up Legendary's. Every raid gives you the chance to get a TM or three, which can be used to change the moveset of future Legendary when you get a non-exclusive move you don't want.

Even if you think that the Legendary's are going to get a better moveset in the future, there are awesome reasons to do raids right now. Holding off on raiding for now so that you can get a better moveset in the future is a very dumb idea. MAYBE if it was "Don't buy extra raid passes for now", that could have some justification, but if it's a Pokémon that you know you're going to want in the future, how do you know that you're going to be able to raid it when it comes back? What if it comes back on a "Raid Day" and you're not going to be able to participate for some reason? Or what if you can only do 1 or 2 raids that day? You won't have the Candy to power up a Perfecto With Perfect Moveset Perfectarooney Poifect Purrrfect Pokémon.

No, avoiding raiding a Pokémon you want to power up in the future due to a potential better moveset because the current moveset sucks is a dumb idea.

I admit I'm a bit less motivated with Dialga because its moves are so terribly underwhelming. I felt a bit that way with Palkia, too. But the thing with Palkia is that the DT/DM combo, while not the best, is at least serviceable, even with potential wasted energy. With Dialga, however, I'm finding that DB and DM do not pair well at all, either in PvE or PvP.

Other legendaries like Groudon and Kyogre will probably outclass themselves eventually, but they are still best in class with their current moves. So we're able to get quite a lot of use out of them for the forseeable future. Dialga with its current movesets is not even close. It's a shame, too. Because I have managed so far to catch a 98% and two 96% that I will never do anything with.