Overthinking Gym Defense and Legendary Raids

Not all of us live in an area with large raid groups. I lost a 4-man Kyogre raid earlier this month, then successfully beat one later. Every person mattered

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.

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.

Why use anything other than Snorlax or Blissey on defence?

Because if the gym already has a Snorlax or Blissey, you have to use something else.

1
Chansey is better for long-term gym defense.

2
4 Mewtwos? Are you serious?

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

There is no meta with this combat system.

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!

On gym defence, there is something very very wrong with a system where u must defeat a 10 cp mon 3 times. Encourages people sticking rubbish in there & makes the whole gym system a joke. Surely they can come up with something better than that?

I think the solo guide for tier 3 raids is very valuable on this website. It was for me the only challange in the game.