Tuesday Tips: Gym Training

[inkstone]

All right, it's been about a week since Niantic changed the way we train at gyms. How do we feel about it? Have any advice for your fellow trainers?

For me, it's a mixed bag. I don't like that it takes longer to get started since we have to select 6 trainers versus one. It's not a huge thing, but it slows down my rhythm. On the other hand, having 6 trainers makes the process more forgiving since you won't necessarily be sunk if you mess up dodging that charge attack.

Because we can bring 6 trainers, I do advise trying to maximize your prestige gains as much as possible. By which I mean, use mon with half the CP of the defenders. I've been doing this and gaining roughly 1000 prestige points per defender. Keep in mind that prestige gains are calculated using the mon with the highest CP in your training team.

Mind you, this only works if there are defenders that are close to each other in CP. It doesn't work as well if the CPs are spread out. It also doesn't work as well if there's something like a lapras or snorlax near the bottom. But if the defenders are mon like vaporeon, exeggcutor, arcanine, flareon, or gyarados, try using mon with half the CP (taking into account type advantages).

Overall, my advice is to maximize prestige gains and when you see something like a sudden leap in CP or a wall in the form of snorlax or lapras, run away.

Comments

[kaberett]

My experience is that it's not the CP of the highest Pokemon in your training team -- it's if at any point you use a Pokemon with a CP higher than the Pokemon you are currently training against everything drops down to ~100 prestige per Pokemon defeated; if you make sure that you never use something of higher CP, you keep getting the ~500XP bonuses throughout.

Which is REALLY AWKWARD but seems to be what's happening.

(I thought for a while that it was getting penalised if Pokemon fainted, but no, I'm pretty sure it's just -- if that means that something of too-high-a-CP gets automatically rotated out you wipe out all the >500 prestige wossnames you'd previously accrued.)

ALSO I think that as of this evening the fonts have changed some -- "VICTORY!" is now allcaps, where I think previously it was "Victory!"; also it's now "MATCH 1" where I think previously it was "Battle 1", but I might be misremembering that?)

[inkstone]

Ah really? IME, the formulas were basically that if you train using a pokemon with lower CP than the defender, the prestige gain is calculated off 500 points. (e.g. 500 x Defender CP/Trainer CP) whereas if you train using a pokemon with higher CP, the prestige gain is calculated off 250 points. (250 x Defender CP/Trainer CP).

I'll check Trainer Nick's YT channel because he ran through different iterations of the new mechanic.

[inkstone]

Wait. Can you run through your example with more specifics? I watched the Trainer Tips vid running through the new training mechanic and it looked like the prestige gain was based on the highest CP pokemon in his team when he ran through that scenario. He fought a 1800 CP arcanine with a 800 CP slowbro, but his prestige gain was only 179 because there was 2400 CP snorlax on his team (that he didn't fight with as he ran away after defeating the arcanine).

Nick's vid: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77CnbfcWkaE

[kaberett]

I am pretty sure that was not my experience on my way home this evening but I will investigate again more thoroughly come Thursday, because I am quite tired and might well just not have been tracking well! (Tomorrow is a... long lab day, & I do not expect to actually manage any significant Pokemon time alas.)

[healingmirth]

My understanding is also that prestige is based on the highest on your team of 6 (whether it enters the battle or not) vs. each defeated target.

I can't personally confirm that, though, because all the fighting I've done since the change has been, for a variety of reasons, with my whole team lower CP than the lowest defender.

https://www.reddit.com/r/TheSilphRoad/comments/56xd8r/psa_prestige_gain_is_calculated_based_on_the/

[healingmirth]

The gym team balance in town here has totally changed this week. I don't know how much is the training change, or if it's because the two level 28 valor kids got grounded or what, but since the gyms aren't constantly flipping, it's making it worthwhile for some lower trainers on my team to prestige a couple different gyms per day.

The newly filled gyms are all still total (hilarious, but...) train wrecks though. I ended up training a gym from level 9 to 10 by throwing a garbage wigglytuff and a small army of pidgeys at a 736 jolteon rather than match up types, or bother with the blastoise and whatever was past him.

I assume most of the gyms will still turn over on the weekends, but I'll be curious to see, when that happens, if they also rocket to high level on those teams, or if the actual team balance has shifted.

[storme]

My wife and I held a gym for two whole days. I don't... I just don't know how? Two arcanines and someone else's blastoise should not have been undefeated around here...

[owl]

Has anyone else found that they can't see their own charge move animations and messages any more? Also hard to see when to dodge now.

[ephemera]

Having the team-of-six works pretty well with my new tactic of using low-ranked Pokemon as cannon fodder to conserve revives. I don't know for sure that it's cause and effect, but I have seen a lot more 8-9-10 gyms this past week, and round here, Team Yellow is just *dominating*

I'm having periodic issues with one of the battling pokemon vanishing from the video, which is a bit weird, but could just be my phone.