I'm very pleased that your video thumbnails and titles describe what your videos are actually about. When you say your videos are about how good a pokemon is (or isn't), that's the focus of your video. If you say you're on a rant, we can expect NOT to get any team building advice.
The raid issue is huge, but after moving to Japan I have come to understand why Niantic is unwilling to do anything. In cities like Tokyo, you have a huge base of VERY passionate players that are willing to pump half of their salary into the game, and they have a gym at almost every street corner where raids fill up immediately. I actually had issues doing raids in Shinjuku because the lobbies fillled up instantly. You have the exact same pattern in cities like Singspore and Taipei. Niantic gets their pockets filled everyday by these players and see no problem with the current system, which basically screws everyone not living in an East Asian metropolis
Yes I can see that. A good example was the gift exchange. Before the new feature in routes. It was hard to add a friend from there. But now routes are inputed a gift from Japan pretty common. At least 1 out of 3 gift exchange lol
Hearing your Palkia situation where you invested in the OG version only to find out a better version with a special move is being released makes my heart ache for you man.
I wouldn't have invested in any mon before it's special move is released. That's just good foresight. I have a functional hundo dialga that I already best buddied and I still haven't powered it up or spent money on Dialga raids because I knew Roar of time was coming. And Im glad that I didn't because they made Roar of Time exclusive to the Origin form so now I don't know if I will ever ppwer that Dialga up.
I was one of those people that did dozens of raids, a lot of people did raids with me. We're talking probably close to 100 raids in two days for dialga and palkia. A lot of people either got no good IVs for the league, or just didn't get the moves. I got a hundo regular Dialga that I haven't built because I also got a 98 Dialgo, but it doesn't have the move. I'm now in a situation where I don't wanna build either. It's crazy to me that even people doing exactly what Niantic wants aren't rewarded. Not only do you have to spend time and money to get the XLs, you also have to be lucky to get the IVs (and now to get moves ugh). That's honestly so dirty by Niantic. After that raid deluge, I reflected how people must have done that for Groudon last year and how now barely anyone uses Groudon when Lando is around. I just don't feel this is sustainable.
I also don't play Master League. I have like 7 or 8 Legendaries built and that's pretty decent for me considering I rarely buy coins. Most of these I was able to make during the golden days of remote raiding, but after that it became harder for me to build legendaries because I couldn't host my in-person raids online the way I used to. And even the legendaries I have built, most have gone out of the meta. It feels like I am constantly behind because I take my time with building these things because I don't want to just throw all my money at the game and have a legendary ready instantly. Instead I gotta wait for it to come back a couple times before I finally get enough XLs or get one that is worth powering up, and even by then, I am lucky if the Pokémon is still meta.
Another issue with raids that you didnt mention is the RNG of it even being up enough. 46+ raids in a week. Most people wouldnt even see that many raids, let alone actually have the time to do them. It cracks me up that Niantic found a way to make a game that is a bigger time sink than any MMO ever dreamed up. I also got my hundo Lugia to level 50 the week they nerfed sky attack.
Feel your pain mate. I'm 39 and I'm a very similar position to you. Got 2 kids, work full time. I try and go out in the small city I work in, 4 lunchtimes a week and try and raid legendaries. Despite lighting flares and posting on local discord I often need to hope some remote raiders will join in. I also go out after the kids are in bed 2 evenings a week, but there's only 1 hour until raids stop, so sometimes there's no legendaries spawning.
Dope vid, i respect your perspective Dan, as someone who was extremely invested in remote raiding before they cancelled the remote raid community, that nerf hurt more ppl than Nerfantic intended
Not sure if you get to this in the video (my watch time is limited by parenting duties), but I’m also hating the local-raid-only’s, which work great in high population areas, but in small towns or outskirts, it’s not only insanely difficult to coordinate other players (even with Campfire or Discord), you all have to show up loaded to bear with those stupid crystals to calm down the big shadows. I know a few people in LA who have a lot of the shadows because when the legendary shadows show up, TWENTY PLAYERS nearby login guaranteed. I’m lucky if I can find 3 or 4. I can’t even solo most three star shadows once they get enraged, so what’s the point? Of course, this is all geared to get us to pay real money for coins to make up in the shop everything we need to stay competitive.
This video deserved a lot more attention than it got. Raiding has plenty of problems, including: -reliance on other players to defeat one, which you may or may not have access to -small amount of gyms for them to spawn in -you have to physically move to that specific place to battle it -raid bosses appear for a limited period, usually like 1 week or 2, some cases only for a day or a weekend, in other cases like Elite Raids, only on specific hours and gyms -raids only occurr on a limited timeframe each day. If you are not available in that timeframe, then you can't raid at all -each raid only lasts for 45 minutes (or even less for certain raids), which limits your chances of finding amd doing one in the specific timeframe you are available -to defeat a raid boss, you have a timer, so if you are lower level and/or don't have enough players, chances are you will lose That's right, this games has 4 time constraints with raiding! 4!!! Remote raiding solved some of these issues, but not all. Plus, with the cost increase of remote raid passes, it's not worth it for the most part, except for some very specific raid bosses, like the Primals, regionals, etc. More needs to be done.
I remember when enamorous was out as an in person raid, I walked 20 mins and was there 10 minutes early. I sat there waiting for an hour on the off chance someone else came. It started raining, no one else was out and I walked 20 mins back in the rain like a loser 🤣
One thing I've noticed that helps with coins .. is send in weak pokemon. Because I've had days where I don't get any coins because my pokemon are still in there.. so if you leave more weaker pokemon... You'll at least get something back everyday. Idk if it helps anyone but it helps me... And you make such a good point dude .. I just started this game a year ago ... And it's .... Way expensive...... I've cut down a lot.... And notice such a difference. And yeah the boxes..... Not happening.
Feel you on being a father with a full time job and going wild being food, (insert musical instrument for golf) and video games. I just don’t know how my game that I play now ended up being Pokemon go PvP. So confusing
And it's like HomeSlice Henry said, in reference to frame drops during PVP matches: "Niantic, fix your game, man." The company cannot even do PVP properly.
I love these 'rants.' Calm, thoughtful and analytical. They can at least make a sandbox mode where you can pick any mon with any stats/moves and battle without affecting ELO. The raid days are awesome they should do one per month. Agree they excluded alot of the base with ML, yr either mega harcore or spoofer.
My biggest issue with master league is the RNG needed to make your team... i grinded enough xl candy for origin palkia, origin dialga, florges and hissuian avalugg but i dont have one with good enough stats to spend that candy on.. i wish they'd give us items to boost iv's like they have in every other pokemon game
I was thinking about something like this too. Rather than boost I was thinking just re-roll them all. This would allow you to also have a chance to get great league IV’s as well.
I think they've been doing better with making some form of great league always available. But I would still like to see more variety/different cups at that level; just because great league is the most accessible. A healthy and well participated in league is indicative of a healthy playerbase.
They should make Bottle Caps from the main games a thing in POGO (Bottle Caps in the main games are an item used to maximize an IV of the Pokemon once they reach a certain level, the much rarer Gold Bottle Caps do the same thing but with all IVs) They make the competitive side of the games much MUCH more accessible and convenient letting people focus more on team building.
Very good discussion and valid points Dan! It’s refreshing to see this kind of debate because I feel like it’s increasingly more apparent as time goes by. I used to really enjoy ML, it would be my favourite league and while that it still is one of my favourites, I absolutely HATED how they handled the last rotation overall. They made it such an Origin-heavy meta. People that didn’t do LA only had TWO days to get a good one. The very tight window was very annoying since I’ve heard of people getting nothing good after 50-100+ raids over the weekend. You are either lucky or you aren’t. It’s very cool seeing some new anti-meta picks have a lot more play such as H. Avalugg. I’m perfectly fine with a meta shakeup. That’s not the issue here, I’m just disappointed with how they handled this whole situation, it’s not fair to those who want to play ML. At the very least, a raid day for the origins would be fantastic so that way, it gives people another chance.
As a new player who’s only played for 8 months I couldn’t agree more! I spent a lot of money raiding! And time! And I still don’t have a maxed out legendary to compete🙄 Edit: on weekends like ho-oh and mewtwo I’ve done 30+ raids in a weekend (they were both only out for two day) it’s not even physically possibly to spend more money or do more raids and I still didn’t max one of either. And that’s spending entire weekends raiding. I spent 8hours two days straight driving and raiding…twice.
I'm around for around 6 months and am completly F2P. It didn't take me long to come to the conclusion that i'd simply never play master league. I doubt there is any chance for the likes of us to catch up to the big fishes that are many years ahead of us without becoming whales ourself. You do you, but i personally get the feeling that chasing after the veterans isn't worth the investments (even if i coud lol), if we might as well fight them eye to eye in leagues that don't give them a clear advantage. Also who knows how long the game will even keep running? It certainly seems past its prime.
I do TH-cam content for Master League. I took advantage of the cheap remote raids during covid and now I don't raid much anymore. Your videos have inspired me to grind for great and ultra league so don't feel so bad about Master League I think this video will make Niantic consider making Master accessible for everyone because of this video it may take time but hang in there
I’m a hardcore Master league player here & I fully understand & sympathise with your view on the current state of ML. My solution is unfortunately that the GBL leagues are not made for newer players especially now with the XL system. If you’d still look to cover the league, I would love for you to showcase my gameplay.
I started playing in 2016, stopped playing in like 2019 and only came back recently. My break meant i missed out on when raids first came out and they were unlimited, where remote raids were cheaper etc. And i agree, coming back now means i am behind and actually have no pokemoj at level 50. Its jarring because the general consensus from other players is that period where i wasnt playing was the best period to play to get the resources required for masters
I feel this, myself, I’m nowhere near close to being in a position where I feel I can affectively compete in the master league either. I myself even get out every nearly every raid hour… during palkia and Dialga event, I got a little over 40 of each one of the two maxed out master league. Pokémon I have is a palKia with crummy IVs because I chose one that had low attack Ivy not realizing that I should have leveled up the one that was closest to being perfect. But outside of that, it is just so expensive in terms of Stardust to get a usable arsenal. But that is also exactly why I am always watching your videos Dan, because I have lots of fun personally, and the great league. I have not moved Evan into the ultra league yet.
I have a hundo Zygarde just for it to remind me constantly how inaccessible Master League is. Walked all the cells during the winter just for the Ultra, though. It feels like some sort of consolation prize at least.
I'm so glad I got the badge for ML wins prior to the XL change. Was absurd that immediately after L50 became a thing, ML was overrun with L50 legendaries. Haven't done ML since.
You are absolutely right that xl candy is super inaccessible. Normally I wouldn't bother with trying for the 296 xls because I had no interest in playing master league. That changed last season when we had two weeks of the evolution cup. Because of these horrible limited metas that are available for way too long, I made the jump into master league team prep. Niantic definitely has turned a blind eye to the accessibility issues in this game.
The time commitment is definitely a real issue. As a f2p player that came back 6 months ago I just save premium passes for ML relevant raids and bank on being able to lvl 50 them the second time they come around outside of special event cases. The current bonus free pass has also been very helpful. Without resources like pokegenie it would be much more difficult. Seems like the hundo argument is being overstated for many pokemon though… a 15/15/13 lando is basically identical to the hundo. Even a 10/10/10 zygarde would function almost the same as a 15/15/15, but I can see the hesitation with how many resources go into it
The best way to grind is to find someone you trust, who likes to play, and let them grind on your acct a few times. Raid hour, trading for xls, that kind of thing
Daniel son! I feel your pain.. I work 7-4pm and have an 8 y.o. daughter. Ive only been playing for 2&1/2 years, so i have a problem with raiding enough to get xls, dedicating time to the game, and getting ML Ivs.. All that said I have came to the realization that it is what it is and that maybe some day we'll get there. Cause the game isn't intended for players like you and I anymore...
U need to do 37-50 raids which isn't bad but u need a group. I haven't been able to do legendary raids in awhile since a lot of my friends quit or don't care for legendary b/c they got the shiny of it. I got only have 5 legendys to 50(Rayquaza, Lugia, Mewtwo, 98% shiny Landorus (Therian), and 98% Dialga). Working on some others but slowly.
Master is for a very limited group of people. You need to pay for coins, fairly regularly, and play/walk/catch for 4+ hours/day, usually 5-6 hours. That's above pvp and general daily stuff. This entire league is for those ppl. I'm not against having a separate league for hardcore players. But, having this meta be 1/3rd of options available is disproportionate. I treat Master league as the professional-play portion of the game, that I'm not a part of. When we hit Master, coupled with limited or silly metas, I take a couple weeks off the game. Not for me. If it's for you, that's cool, but it's clearly for players that have PokeGo as a top priority. I've got more than a few hundo-legendary Pokemon, 15-20. I'm not even close to competing in Master League. Very far off. I spent weeks, maybe months, playing more than I enjoyed, to get my Lickitung to GBL. Cannot imagine getting legendaries (25km/chance at XL candy) to Master League.
I am a pay to play player and sorry but I disagree with some of your points here. The most obvious one is that legendaries are only around for 1 week. Legendaries that get their signature moveset are typically around for 2 weeks, which changes the amount of raids you need to do per day down to 3, not 6 or 7. Yes some legendaries are only around for a week, and my suggestion there is just do your 2 or 3 raids a day because they always come back around. Second is this idea that pay to play players spend "hundreds of dollars" every time a legendary comes out. This could not be further from the truth. Doing 2 raids a day plus one extra for 2 weeks means you can power up a legendary from scratch for essentially $14. Just this season I have been able to power up both Tapu Koko and Tapu Bulu doing this method. Third, you don't even need legendaries to play master league. I am sitting above 3000 ELO and see a TON of primarinas, avaluggs, tyranitars, etc. You don't "need" legendaries to be good at Master League.
Maybe someone else mentioned this but in my experience raiding is virtually impossible. I live 45 miles from the big city in a rural area and the closest gym is 3 miles away. I can go another half mile in same direction and find a 2nd gym. If I were to go 180 degrees in the opposite direction from home I could find 3 gyms within a half mile of each other but this is a little farther than 3 miles. Distance is an issue but so is available raids. Now we have to find players to help which is a minimum of 2 remote players because there is a 99% chance the local players won't be there when I am. Since there are so few players available it means the counters have to be at least level 30 in order to beat the legendary raids. So there go resources you would use for upgrading the Master League Pokemon. Forget shadow Legendary raids. It is impossible to organize any group to battle one if it ever spawned. I am also a f2p player who has paid no more than $10 in the nearly 3 years of playing. I did manage to put together a team and battle with them, but they are far from the top ranked Pokemon. I seem to have a similar problem with Ultra League. Many Pokemon are valid in the league above or below and creates a situation where resources have to be used in 1 or the other when you need them in both. Annihilape and Feraligatr are 2 I am having trouble getting up to power. Registeel is another but legendary Pokemon are always difficult. So in a nutshell, you aren't alone and when you made the video about possibly giving up on the game, I was thinking it at that time as well. I am still here but this game is incredibly difficult to enjoy these days.
I’m in the same boat, not a single legendary pokemon at level 50, when they come back to raids I’m only able to do a couple due to work and lack of people doing raids. I do try to run non legendary teams in master league, but it’s very difficult to have consistent results if you don’t have the meta Pokémon available
For anyone who is having issues with candy, whenever you catch something, if you have fewer than 500 candies for it, hold on to it until a double transfer candy event. Whenever something new is released, hold on to all of them until a transfer candy event. Legendaries are trickier. Probably are going to have to play GBL for rare candies and walk your Pokémon.
This still plays into Niantic pockets. You very quickly run out of pokemon storage. And it's very annoying to hang onto hundreds of legendaries waiting for those spotlight transfer bonus hours. Not to mention if you miss it for whatever reason...
Intended audience? I am a 61-year-old single woman who started in July 2016. I have played daily. Collecting. This game saved my life during COVID. I made lifeling friends, overseas, in chat groups, doing remote raids, meeting some in person but interactin with others only online. I am watching your channel because I finally have enough mons to learn battle league. It saddens me that the game itself is excluding players who have played since the beginning and dripping content so slowly that i am seriously thinking about adding login information in my will just in case any of my grandkids take an interest after I am dead. All I have seen recently is the avatar update of shrunken heads, and the inability to get any better because of the need for candy. Im sorry that it has to be this way!
Thanks for speaking out on this issue. Ive been playing aince July of 2016 and like you cant really participate in master league. The XL candy and lack of hundos is the problem. I have plenty of level 40 master league pokemon
I don't mind the IV situation. I don't want to see everyone with a hundo in master league on every member of their team. Also want to feel like I might have a little advantage with my 100 shiny rayquaza. I know the top end players will have a triple hundo team but I see it just like the IV's for the other leagues - It's good to have the best IV's (though you can debate what the "best IV's are in many pokemon...) but not everyone is going to have that (I'd argue that hundo's are actually easier to get that GL rank 1 IV's). I don't mind the dust cost either. It's expensive but it's maxed out 'mon; it should take some effort and cost for that and I think you should not have a master league stable of the same size as your great league or little cup team. As well the average player should need to work up to having that kind of dust available. I've been playing pretty hard core for four years, I have almost 8 million dust stocked up and maybe 10 maxed out 'mon. The issue is the XL candy for all the reasons you cover very well. It's too expensive in time and money to do enough raids for 296 XL. Walking is a joke to reach that many candy. This is where Niantic needs to change things. We need more, easier and better (dare I say more fun....) ways to acquire rare XL. Or heck even modify the best buddy walking system to "level up" your buddy status beyond 'best'. Spend 100 active hours and the distance walked for candy on that mon decreases. Do "X" number of raids with that buddy and the distance to walk goes down and odds of getting XL increase. PERMANENTLY for only that singular 'mon. There are ALLLLL kinds of rank ups that could be implemented which would be amazing. Niandick are too stupid to do that however. They are too busy making avatar updates which everyone hates. *sigh* the potential for this game is so great and the leadership of this company is so bad. (the whole dialga/palkia situation is a complete catastrophe. Not even going to talk about how terrible THAT is...)
Tough to hear Dan. Honestly, I'd help you do raids with remotes to assist in getting the XL candy you need. Been here a long time and love your content so would be happy to help if I can. While I'm also in my 30s with a wife and 1 kid, I have a bit more flexibility since I mainly work from home.
I actively recommend people DON'T try to max out Legendary Pokemon. I ignore ML and the extra raid attack damage from lvl 50 Pokémon isn't worth it. I'm in a similar boat as you - 2 year old daughter, in my late 30s. I started playing only last year though, so there's just no way without spending a ton of money that I'll catch up. Even GL and UL are hard to build teams for because I can't get out and hunt as much as someone with more free time. That's just how it is though... Some games demand your time - live service games, especially. It keeps that feeling of sunk-cost high in the player base.
the other issue is you can't raid the legendary.... if it's not in raids. This season of double free passes we got... 1/2 of the season is tapus, 1/4 regis and then the rest are ultra beasts or something? None of them are top meta for master league. So it's mainly raiding for small chance of a rare candy xl. My tips: * don't power up a mon until you're close to maxing it. there's not much point powering it up midway. things change. like palkia. * I work on mons that are the closest to maxing. I walk them, poffin when close to 20km walked, and put my rare candy and rare candy xl into them. you have 153 rare candy xl. You can use them to have some usable mons. All my mythicals are crap ivs so I'm using them. * You can get a mon to level 49 with only 256 rare xl candy instead of 296 and then best buddy it to be level 50. Finish it off later when it comes back to raids or you have the rare candy xls. * lucky trades to try to get a hundo - or 98 with 15 attack... if you have friends you can meet up to trade
If you want a couple of Master League matches to throw into the algorithm I'm currently in the process of submitting a Mewtwo, Dialgia, and Swampert. Not all of them are maxed but that also gives opportunity to play in different situations. Hopefully it makes for a good video!
this is so true, i’ve been playing the game since 2016, but i made my current account in 2019. i have zero viable master league pokémon, i dont have the resources or time to do raids and grind for XL candies
I wonder why there's no rental leagues for gbl. Like you just get to play with the pokemon you want to consider building. And just limit it in some ways like number of times you can play or have it not affect ranking if people want to just play casually.
Love your work Dan, not meaning any disrespect just thought I’d put my situation here. So I’m free to play, have been playing since start of 2021. I’m the same as you with the gyms getting coins. I however still notice I get good boxes, there’s 3 boxes under 1025 coins that have great prices for green passes which I buy when I see them. So I can get the green passes no worries. I understand I have more time than you, but for any Pokémon that I really want to lvl 50, I’ve found on the most part, a week or 2 of free passes combined with about one solid weekend of raiding hard has seemed to get me nearly enough candy to get something to lvl 48 or higher. I think in the current ML meta, you can build a theoretical team, and when they come out, raid them hard on the one weekend they are out, or whenever your free time allows and then there’s your team to compete with. I did that with dialga, landorus and yveltal, plus now a few more, and have gotten enough to be able to compete well enough. Again I totally get you have less time than a lot of us but I think for an average player, I would say that with enough passion, you’d probably have been able to get at least 1 team to compete. I started 2021 and only really learnt PvP and raids say 6 months later or so. I have I think 5 legendaries 96% and up at above lvl 48 and I can compete just fine.
I have another problem that I can rarely put my pokemons in a gym. When I do, it gets beaten out very quickly. As a result, I don't have many coins to buy raid passes.
I swear its gonna happen soon. Once Poplio comday comes and once I get a good iv Annihilape I’m jumping into ML and never looking back at GL. Plus it looks like I might be able to finish my Zygarde cells this summer and I think even a barely XLed Zygarde can still put in work on certain teams.
Tow things that I want Niantic would do: 1. Bring back master Leauge lv 40 or have a format that only requires one legendary or something. 2. A new remote raid pass that you can play If all are at a raid but it could be different raids. So all can be by them self but all still have to walk to a gym where its a raid.
On a side note for passes, I was spoiled and got the box during sinnoh which had 50 green passes (and 20 silver pinaps I think but who cares) for 2785! Now I’m so spoiled by that price I don’t even look at anything higher than that ratio
Before Covid i would do in person raids with other people at least once a week near my office. Since March 2020 I have done maybe 3 or 4 total in person raids where another person was physically with me. It's just not the same game now. And with a FT job, school, 3 kids, and being FTP, i basically have no chance now anyways.
Becoming a dad makes me resonate with your channel just a tad bit more than other channels. My daughter is turning 2 this summer and Pokémon go isn’t worth obsessing over like my old self. I have a new obsession. Dad life🫶🏽.(I still gbl great league and catch Pokémon from time to time. Not really raiding as much.)
Your best bet is just investing in remote passes and eating the extra cost especially for events where they raise the cap. No point in spending coins on green passes and having a stockpile if you're never going to get to use the stock.
casual player here, spent 0€ on raid passes in 6 years of playing. i reached ACE multiple seasons playing ONLY Master with combo of gyarados, garchomp, metagross, florges, togekiss, sylveon, dragonite. yes they are community days pokemon, all lvl 50 BB and 4*. Yes i am happy with ACE, i dont have time for playing 5 sets GBL every day of OGL or even worst - OUL if i play every day all sets i would burn out years ago. Master have smallest meta of all open leagues
The way I see it is that master league has always been unreachable for most players from the beginning… it might sound easy to get 240-250 candy to power up a raid legendary Mon but back then it was crazy! The players who participated in master league spent thousands of dollars a month in raids getting rare candies! Also a very popular Mon Mewtwo was only at EX raids that was bad! Am yet we are forgetting that Great/Ultra League do have similar problems easier to work with but still since season one questions like “What can I used instead of____!?” Or “I hate that Mon ( I do t have one) I keep losing to it!” Not to mention that it got worse with the introduction of XL candies! I still remember a comment made on one of Dan’s videos in which Sableye was the main focus as the best safe switch… someone commented that he finally finish powering his Sableye very happy… so how do I get Return… that was bad! Lol The system of how we get the resources to power up/ add moves mons is oldsolited… we need to change that!
They should introduce a master league Jr that caps Pokémon at max regular candy, or like CP3000 idk. That way people who can’t afford getting candy XL can still play master
I was a crazy remote raid grinder so have an arsenal (at a cost) of level 50 ML mons. However after the removal Of RR, any new meta introduced…I don’t even bother anymore
I've played for a little over a year now. I still can't solo a three star unless maybe it has a 4x weakness. I raid in person since I'm virtually free to play. I actually only beat one 3 star raid by myself. I don't even play ultra league. My stardust gets invested in mons for great league. So 1500 cp is my cut off.
It is even worse if you aren't in a major metropolitan area. I see raids come and go at gyms with zero players available. Niantic has always been shit about supporting any of the player's needs outside of high population density areas. I've got tons of free raid passes from past tasks just sitting in my storage.
Im in the same boat as you, and whats even sadder, im trying to get my kids involved. Realizing that each of them would take a coupke hundred dollars just to get their bag/storage to the point where they can play. Yet alone to get everyone hundos and level everything up
Damn I saw today that master take place of hyper…now that I finally found a team that works well for me and brought me back to 2400+… now that remix cup is all I can try, but , as always, I lead annihilape, I run into gligar…swap feraligatr, face a galvantula…that’s a stupid thing
I need 30 master league wins to get to level 44 and its a real struggle. Thinking I'll just spam master league after the ranking reset and wait until I level up on rank 1-10 players before actually trying in any other leagues
You can just cheese it by battling a friend that’s using 10cp mons.. it still counts toward the badge you need and won’t make you waste your gbl battles on the master league
I don't think master league is entirely unplayable with level 40 pokemon, but as soon as you question if you can get high elo with them it's an immediate nope even with level 45s it's hard to do well
I would love to play Ultra and Master, but the grind required for that is way too much. I don’t have the time or money so I am forever stuck in great league.
Have you tried Master League teams with Tyranitar? I’m curious about how much of a difference you think Brutal Swing made for Tyranitar’s viability in Msster League. I see a lot more of them in Master League than I feel like I should. I know part of that is that they had a Community Day Classic, but still.
Can we also talk about how impossible it was to get the special move of the opposite coin you choose for Sinnoh. I did about 20 remote and 40 in person and couldn’t get the other special move
"I don't see what the problem is, Dan. Just spend less time with your kids, drop half of your salary on premium and remote raid passes, and you'll be all set with XL candies!" - Niantic (probably) 🤦♂️
Ive got 56 legendaries built for master league and lots of others with anywhere from 800-1200 extra xl candy. Its unfortunate the best league is so accessible to so many people.
Yup, these new boxes are hot trash. I do a lot of local raids, but I dont remote raid due to cost. I have a few friends i do raid hours. I wish they would fix Master League so more of us could play it
I’ve got almost 150 double-moved / built-up great league Pokémon, about 80 for ultra, but less than 20 for master league - and only one is a legendary :( I’ve got 2 kids and a full time job too. I’d love to be able to play Master League, but it’s just not a realistic option.
I started in 2016 when game was first released. Quickly dropped it as it was very clearly a gacha money drain. My Family got me to pick it back up in September 2023. I've dumped over a grand since rejoining and STILL can not play master league well. I have admittedly been somewhat wasteful and mostly focused on GL. But still... ML feels completely impossible to get into. Even after 2024 sinnoh tour. Even with doing as many events that i can get to. I've been doing as much as a can, yet UL and ML both feel inaccessible.
Honestly even ultra league is kinda inaccessible with how many top pokemon on there need elite TMs. I’ve been playing everyday since October and I just barely am starting to have decent pokemon for ultra league. And I’m not ftp
I'm very pleased that your video thumbnails and titles describe what your videos are actually about. When you say your videos are about how good a pokemon is (or isn't), that's the focus of your video. If you say you're on a rant, we can expect NOT to get any team building advice.
The raid issue is huge, but after moving to Japan I have come to understand why Niantic is unwilling to do anything. In cities like Tokyo, you have a huge base of VERY passionate players that are willing to pump half of their salary into the game, and they have a gym at almost every street corner where raids fill up immediately. I actually had issues doing raids in Shinjuku because the lobbies fillled up instantly. You have the exact same pattern in cities like Singspore and Taipei. Niantic gets their pockets filled everyday by these players and see no problem with the current system, which basically screws everyone not living in an East Asian metropolis
great insight that most of us never know about. Thanks!
That’s not only in that part of the world! There many places that play this game like a religion one must play all the time!
Yes I can see that. A good example was the gift exchange. Before the new feature in routes. It was hard to add a friend from there. But now routes are inputed a gift from Japan pretty common. At least 1 out of 3 gift exchange lol
I host a lot of raids and 90% of people who add me to do remote raids are from japan, us, uk or germany
'By wild, i mean eat a lot of steak and chicken wings.' Hell yeah brother
Can’t forget the Shadow raids where remote raid passes aren’t even allowed
Hearing your Palkia situation where you invested in the OG version only to find out a better version with a special move is being released makes my heart ache for you man.
I wouldn't have invested in any mon before it's special move is released. That's just good foresight. I have a functional hundo dialga that I already best buddied and I still haven't powered it up or spent money on Dialga raids because I knew Roar of time was coming. And Im glad that I didn't because they made Roar of Time exclusive to the Origin form so now I don't know if I will ever ppwer that Dialga up.
I see this too with shadow pokemon. You grind good attackers only to see them outclassed by their shadows
I was one of those people that did dozens of raids, a lot of people did raids with me. We're talking probably close to 100 raids in two days for dialga and palkia. A lot of people either got no good IVs for the league, or just didn't get the moves. I got a hundo regular Dialga that I haven't built because I also got a 98 Dialgo, but it doesn't have the move. I'm now in a situation where I don't wanna build either.
It's crazy to me that even people doing exactly what Niantic wants aren't rewarded. Not only do you have to spend time and money to get the XLs, you also have to be lucky to get the IVs (and now to get moves ugh). That's honestly so dirty by Niantic.
After that raid deluge, I reflected how people must have done that for Groudon last year and how now barely anyone uses Groudon when Lando is around. I just don't feel this is sustainable.
Yes, exactly! I grinded my ass off for Rayquaza and Groudon XLs during Hoenn Tour only for both mons to become obsolete in the current meta 😡
I also don't play Master League. I have like 7 or 8 Legendaries built and that's pretty decent for me considering I rarely buy coins. Most of these I was able to make during the golden days of remote raiding, but after that it became harder for me to build legendaries because I couldn't host my in-person raids online the way I used to. And even the legendaries I have built, most have gone out of the meta. It feels like I am constantly behind because I take my time with building these things because I don't want to just throw all my money at the game and have a legendary ready instantly. Instead I gotta wait for it to come back a couple times before I finally get enough XLs or get one that is worth powering up, and even by then, I am lucky if the Pokémon is still meta.
Another issue with raids that you didnt mention is the RNG of it even being up enough. 46+ raids in a week. Most people wouldnt even see that many raids, let alone actually have the time to do them. It cracks me up that Niantic found a way to make a game that is a bigger time sink than any MMO ever dreamed up. I also got my hundo Lugia to level 50 the week they nerfed sky attack.
Same here but with Rayquaza + BS nerf
Remember that raids are equal to gambling! Like putting money on a slot machine am hit it see if you get lucky!
I've only got two hundo legendaries and they aren't even meta relevant. Shadow zapdos and one of the Lati twins.
@@mrundy9351 I only got one Rayqz! I was so happy! But I don’t play master so oh well
On your point about moves Groudon is a good one, because not only is precipice blades ETM, but so is fire punch.
And not only that, but it's also now outclassed by the more versatile Lando-T.
Feel your pain mate. I'm 39 and I'm a very similar position to you. Got 2 kids, work full time.
I try and go out in the small city I work in, 4 lunchtimes a week and try and raid legendaries. Despite lighting flares and posting on local discord I often need to hope some remote raiders will join in.
I also go out after the kids are in bed 2 evenings a week, but there's only 1 hour until raids stop, so sometimes there's no legendaries spawning.
Dope vid, i respect your perspective Dan, as someone who was extremely invested in remote raiding before they cancelled the remote raid community, that nerf hurt more ppl than Nerfantic intended
Not sure if you get to this in the video (my watch time is limited by parenting duties), but I’m also hating the local-raid-only’s, which work great in high population areas, but in small towns or outskirts, it’s not only insanely difficult to coordinate other players (even with Campfire or Discord), you all have to show up loaded to bear with those stupid crystals to calm down the big shadows. I know a few people in LA who have a lot of the shadows because when the legendary shadows show up, TWENTY PLAYERS nearby login guaranteed. I’m lucky if I can find 3 or 4. I can’t even solo most three star shadows once they get enraged, so what’s the point? Of course, this is all geared to get us to pay real money for coins to make up in the shop everything we need to stay competitive.
This video deserved a lot more attention than it got.
Raiding has plenty of problems, including:
-reliance on other players to defeat one, which you may or may not have access to
-small amount of gyms for them to spawn in
-you have to physically move to that specific place to battle it
-raid bosses appear for a limited period, usually like 1 week or 2, some cases only for a day or a weekend, in other cases like Elite Raids, only on specific hours and gyms
-raids only occurr on a limited timeframe each day. If you are not available in that timeframe, then you can't raid at all
-each raid only lasts for 45 minutes (or even less for certain raids), which limits your chances of finding amd doing one in the specific timeframe you are available
-to defeat a raid boss, you have a timer, so if you are lower level and/or don't have enough players, chances are you will lose
That's right, this games has 4 time constraints with raiding! 4!!!
Remote raiding solved some of these issues, but not all. Plus, with the cost increase of remote raid passes, it's not worth it for the most part, except for some very specific raid bosses, like the Primals, regionals, etc.
More needs to be done.
I remember when enamorous was out as an in person raid, I walked 20 mins and was there 10 minutes early. I sat there waiting for an hour on the off chance someone else came. It started raining, no one else was out and I walked 20 mins back in the rain like a loser 🤣
I think the guaranteed 3 rare candy reward in BL should be rare candy xls. It’s so hard getting XL candy for legendaries
One thing I've noticed that helps with coins .. is send in weak pokemon. Because I've had days where I don't get any coins because my pokemon are still in there.. so if you leave more weaker pokemon... You'll at least get something back everyday. Idk if it helps anyone but it helps me... And you make such a good point dude .. I just started this game a year ago ... And it's .... Way expensive...... I've cut down a lot.... And notice such a difference. And yeah the boxes..... Not happening.
We have also to consider that raiding without a community is impossible. Even if you want to go out all they and play
Feel you on being a father with a full time job and going wild being food, (insert musical instrument for golf) and video games. I just don’t know how my game that I play now ended up being Pokemon go PvP. So confusing
And it's like HomeSlice Henry said, in reference to frame drops during PVP matches: "Niantic, fix your game, man." The company cannot even do PVP properly.
I love these 'rants.' Calm, thoughtful and analytical. They can at least make a sandbox mode where you can pick any mon with any stats/moves and battle without affecting ELO. The raid days are awesome they should do one per month. Agree they excluded alot of the base with ML, yr either mega harcore or spoofer.
My biggest issue with master league is the RNG needed to make your team... i grinded enough xl candy for origin palkia, origin dialga, florges and hissuian avalugg but i dont have one with good enough stats to spend that candy on.. i wish they'd give us items to boost iv's like they have in every other pokemon game
I was thinking about something like this too. Rather than boost I was thinking just re-roll them all. This would allow you to also have a chance to get great league IV’s as well.
I think they've been doing better with making some form of great league always available. But I would still like to see more variety/different cups at that level; just because great league is the most accessible.
A healthy and well participated in league is indicative of a healthy playerbase.
That’s what Silph Road had going until it got cancel by you know who!
They should make Bottle Caps from the main games a thing in POGO (Bottle Caps in the main games are an item used to maximize an IV of the Pokemon once they reach a certain level, the much rarer Gold Bottle Caps do the same thing but with all IVs)
They make the competitive side of the games much MUCH more accessible and convenient letting people focus more on team building.
or have a mode that forces lvl 40 and anything higher gets converted to lvl 40+best buddy boost.
@@AdventVFX maybe
Very good discussion and valid points Dan! It’s refreshing to see this kind of debate because I feel like it’s increasingly more apparent as time goes by.
I used to really enjoy ML, it would be my favourite league and while that it still is one of my favourites, I absolutely HATED how they handled the last rotation overall. They made it such an Origin-heavy meta. People that didn’t do LA only had TWO days to get a good one. The very tight window was very annoying since I’ve heard of people getting nothing good after 50-100+ raids over the weekend. You are either lucky or you aren’t.
It’s very cool seeing some new anti-meta picks have a lot more play such as H. Avalugg. I’m perfectly fine with a meta shakeup. That’s not the issue here, I’m just disappointed with how they handled this whole situation, it’s not fair to those who want to play ML. At the very least, a raid day for the origins would be fantastic so that way, it gives people another chance.
As a new player who’s only played for 8 months I couldn’t agree more! I spent a lot of money raiding! And time! And I still don’t have a maxed out legendary to compete🙄
Edit: on weekends like ho-oh and mewtwo I’ve done 30+ raids in a weekend (they were both only out for two day) it’s not even physically possibly to spend more money or do more raids and I still didn’t max one of either. And that’s spending entire weekends raiding. I spent 8hours two days straight driving and raiding…twice.
I'm around for around 6 months and am completly F2P. It didn't take me long to come to the conclusion that i'd simply never play master league. I doubt there is any chance for the likes of us to catch up to the big fishes that are many years ahead of us without becoming whales ourself. You do you, but i personally get the feeling that chasing after the veterans isn't worth the investments (even if i coud lol), if we might as well fight them eye to eye in leagues that don't give them a clear advantage. Also who knows how long the game will even keep running? It certainly seems past its prime.
RIP master league classic
I do TH-cam content for Master League. I took advantage of the cheap remote raids during covid and now I don't raid much anymore. Your videos have inspired me to grind for great and ultra league so don't feel so bad about Master League I think this video will make Niantic consider making Master accessible for everyone because of this video it may take time but hang in there
I’m a hardcore Master league player here & I fully understand & sympathise with your view on the current state of ML.
My solution is unfortunately that the GBL leagues are not made for newer players especially now with the XL system.
If you’d still look to cover the league, I would love for you to showcase my gameplay.
I started playing in 2016, stopped playing in like 2019 and only came back recently. My break meant i missed out on when raids first came out and they were unlimited, where remote raids were cheaper etc. And i agree, coming back now means i am behind and actually have no pokemoj at level 50. Its jarring because the general consensus from other players is that period where i wasnt playing was the best period to play to get the resources required for masters
I feel this, myself, I’m nowhere near close to being in a position where I feel I can affectively compete in the master league either. I myself even get out every nearly every raid hour… during palkia and Dialga event, I got a little over 40 of each one of the two maxed out master league. Pokémon I have is a palKia with crummy IVs because I chose one that had low attack Ivy not realizing that I should have leveled up the one that was closest to being perfect. But outside of that, it is just so expensive in terms of Stardust to get a usable arsenal. But that is also exactly why I am always watching your videos Dan, because I have lots of fun personally, and the great league. I have not moved Evan into the ultra league yet.
I have a hundo Zygarde just for it to remind me constantly how inaccessible Master League is. Walked all the cells during the winter just for the Ultra, though. It feels like some sort of consolation prize at least.
I'm so glad I got the badge for ML wins prior to the XL change. Was absurd that immediately after L50 became a thing, ML was overrun with L50 legendaries. Haven't done ML since.
You are absolutely right that xl candy is super inaccessible. Normally I wouldn't bother with trying for the 296 xls because I had no interest in playing master league. That changed last season when we had two weeks of the evolution cup. Because of these horrible limited metas that are available for way too long, I made the jump into master league team prep. Niantic definitely has turned a blind eye to the accessibility issues in this game.
The time commitment is definitely a real issue. As a f2p player that came back 6 months ago I just save premium passes for ML relevant raids and bank on being able to lvl 50 them the second time they come around outside of special event cases. The current bonus free pass has also been very helpful. Without resources like pokegenie it would be much more difficult.
Seems like the hundo argument is being overstated for many pokemon though… a 15/15/13 lando is basically identical to the hundo. Even a 10/10/10 zygarde would function almost the same as a 15/15/15, but I can see the hesitation with how many resources go into it
Love that you actually did it. More rants please. Would watch one everyday
The best way to grind is to find someone you trust, who likes to play, and let them grind on your acct a few times. Raid hour, trading for xls, that kind of thing
Video Idea: Which pokemon would massively bennefit from having a shadow variant that don't right now?
Daniel son! I feel your pain.. I work 7-4pm and have an 8 y.o. daughter. Ive only been playing for 2&1/2 years, so i have a problem with raiding enough to get xls, dedicating time to the game, and getting ML Ivs.. All that said I have came to the realization that it is what it is and that maybe some day we'll get there. Cause the game isn't intended for players like you and I anymore...
U need to do 37-50 raids which isn't bad but u need a group. I haven't been able to do legendary raids in awhile since a lot of my friends quit or don't care for legendary b/c they got the shiny of it. I got only have 5 legendys to 50(Rayquaza, Lugia, Mewtwo, 98% shiny Landorus (Therian), and 98% Dialga). Working on some others but slowly.
I love how descriptive you are. Stay solid mate.
Master is for a very limited group of people. You need to pay for coins, fairly regularly, and play/walk/catch for 4+ hours/day, usually 5-6 hours. That's above pvp and general daily stuff.
This entire league is for those ppl.
I'm not against having a separate league for hardcore players. But, having this meta be 1/3rd of options available is disproportionate.
I treat Master league as the professional-play portion of the game, that I'm not a part of.
When we hit Master, coupled with limited or silly metas, I take a couple weeks off the game. Not for me.
If it's for you, that's cool, but it's clearly for players that have PokeGo as a top priority.
I've got more than a few hundo-legendary Pokemon, 15-20.
I'm not even close to competing in Master League. Very far off.
I spent weeks, maybe months, playing more than I enjoyed, to get my Lickitung to GBL. Cannot imagine getting legendaries (25km/chance at XL candy) to Master League.
I am a pay to play player and sorry but I disagree with some of your points here.
The most obvious one is that legendaries are only around for 1 week. Legendaries that get their signature moveset are typically around for 2 weeks, which changes the amount of raids you need to do per day down to 3, not 6 or 7. Yes some legendaries are only around for a week, and my suggestion there is just do your 2 or 3 raids a day because they always come back around.
Second is this idea that pay to play players spend "hundreds of dollars" every time a legendary comes out. This could not be further from the truth. Doing 2 raids a day plus one extra for 2 weeks means you can power up a legendary from scratch for essentially $14. Just this season I have been able to power up both Tapu Koko and Tapu Bulu doing this method.
Third, you don't even need legendaries to play master league. I am sitting above 3000 ELO and see a TON of primarinas, avaluggs, tyranitars, etc. You don't "need" legendaries to be good at Master League.
Maybe someone else mentioned this but in my experience raiding is virtually impossible. I live 45 miles from the big city in a rural area and the closest gym is 3 miles away. I can go another half mile in same direction and find a 2nd gym. If I were to go 180 degrees in the opposite direction from home I could find 3 gyms within a half mile of each other but this is a little farther than 3 miles. Distance is an issue but so is available raids. Now we have to find players to help which is a minimum of 2 remote players because there is a 99% chance the local players won't be there when I am. Since there are so few players available it means the counters have to be at least level 30 in order to beat the legendary raids. So there go resources you would use for upgrading the Master League Pokemon. Forget shadow Legendary raids. It is impossible to organize any group to battle one if it ever spawned.
I am also a f2p player who has paid no more than $10 in the nearly 3 years of playing. I did manage to put together a team and battle with them, but they are far from the top ranked Pokemon. I seem to have a similar problem with Ultra League. Many Pokemon are valid in the league above or below and creates a situation where resources have to be used in 1 or the other when you need them in both. Annihilape and Feraligatr are 2 I am having trouble getting up to power. Registeel is another but legendary Pokemon are always difficult. So in a nutshell, you aren't alone and when you made the video about possibly giving up on the game, I was thinking it at that time as well. I am still here but this game is incredibly difficult to enjoy these days.
I’m in the same boat, not a single legendary pokemon at level 50, when they come back to raids I’m only able to do a couple due to work and lack of people doing raids. I do try to run non legendary teams in master league, but it’s very difficult to have consistent results if you don’t have the meta Pokémon available
For anyone who is having issues with candy, whenever you catch something, if you have fewer than 500 candies for it, hold on to it until a double transfer candy event. Whenever something new is released, hold on to all of them until a transfer candy event. Legendaries are trickier. Probably are going to have to play GBL for rare candies and walk your Pokémon.
This still plays into Niantic pockets. You very quickly run out of pokemon storage. And it's very annoying to hang onto hundreds of legendaries waiting for those spotlight transfer bonus hours. Not to mention if you miss it for whatever reason...
@@cocoachrispies And the 100 -1 xl conversion is a joke. WAYYYYYYY too high of a rate.
It sounds to me as though you have your priorities in good order, Dan. I respect it.
Intended audience?
I am a 61-year-old single woman who started in July 2016. I have played daily. Collecting. This game saved my life during COVID. I made lifeling friends, overseas, in chat groups, doing remote raids, meeting some in person but interactin with others only online. I am watching your channel because I finally have enough mons to learn battle league.
It saddens me that the game itself is excluding players who have played since the beginning and dripping content so slowly that i am seriously thinking about adding login information in my will just in case any of my grandkids take an interest after I am dead.
All I have seen recently is the avatar update of shrunken heads, and the inability to get any better because of the need for candy.
Im sorry that it has to be this way!
Thanks for speaking out on this issue. Ive been playing aince July of 2016 and like you cant really participate in master league. The XL candy and lack of hundos is the problem. I have plenty of level 40 master league pokemon
I don't mind the IV situation. I don't want to see everyone with a hundo in master league on every member of their team. Also want to feel like I might have a little advantage with my 100 shiny rayquaza. I know the top end players will have a triple hundo team but I see it just like the IV's for the other leagues - It's good to have the best IV's (though you can debate what the "best IV's are in many pokemon...) but not everyone is going to have that (I'd argue that hundo's are actually easier to get that GL rank 1 IV's).
I don't mind the dust cost either. It's expensive but it's maxed out 'mon; it should take some effort and cost for that and I think you should not have a master league stable of the same size as your great league or little cup team. As well the average player should need to work up to having that kind of dust available. I've been playing pretty hard core for four years, I have almost 8 million dust stocked up and maybe 10 maxed out 'mon.
The issue is the XL candy for all the reasons you cover very well. It's too expensive in time and money to do enough raids for 296 XL. Walking is a joke to reach that many candy. This is where Niantic needs to change things. We need more, easier and better (dare I say more fun....) ways to acquire rare XL. Or heck even modify the best buddy walking system to "level up" your buddy status beyond 'best'. Spend 100 active hours and the distance walked for candy on that mon decreases. Do "X" number of raids with that buddy and the distance to walk goes down and odds of getting XL increase. PERMANENTLY for only that singular 'mon. There are ALLLLL kinds of rank ups that could be implemented which would be amazing. Niandick are too stupid to do that however. They are too busy making avatar updates which everyone hates.
*sigh* the potential for this game is so great and the leadership of this company is so bad.
(the whole dialga/palkia situation is a complete catastrophe. Not even going to talk about how terrible THAT is...)
I feel you on this one. I have three children of my own and I can't play like I would like to. So Master League is out of my range
Tough to hear Dan. Honestly, I'd help you do raids with remotes to assist in getting the XL candy you need. Been here a long time and love your content so would be happy to help if I can. While I'm also in my 30s with a wife and 1 kid, I have a bit more flexibility since I mainly work from home.
I actively recommend people DON'T try to max out Legendary Pokemon. I ignore ML and the extra raid attack damage from lvl 50 Pokémon isn't worth it. I'm in a similar boat as you - 2 year old daughter, in my late 30s. I started playing only last year though, so there's just no way without spending a ton of money that I'll catch up. Even GL and UL are hard to build teams for because I can't get out and hunt as much as someone with more free time. That's just how it is though... Some games demand your time - live service games, especially. It keeps that feeling of sunk-cost high in the player base.
the other issue is you can't raid the legendary.... if it's not in raids. This season of double free passes we got... 1/2 of the season is tapus, 1/4 regis and then the rest are ultra beasts or something? None of them are top meta for master league. So it's mainly raiding for small chance of a rare candy xl.
My tips: * don't power up a mon until you're close to maxing it. there's not much point powering it up midway. things change. like palkia.
* I work on mons that are the closest to maxing. I walk them, poffin when close to 20km walked, and put my rare candy and rare candy xl into them. you have 153 rare candy xl. You can use them to have some usable mons. All my mythicals are crap ivs so I'm using them.
* You can get a mon to level 49 with only 256 rare xl candy instead of 296 and then best buddy it to be level 50. Finish it off later when it comes back to raids or you have the rare candy xls.
* lucky trades to try to get a hundo - or 98 with 15 attack... if you have friends you can meet up to trade
Master League id...... sike! I just psyched you out!!
Lots of Love Dan
If you want a couple of Master League matches to throw into the algorithm I'm currently in the process of submitting a Mewtwo, Dialgia, and Swampert. Not all of them are maxed but that also gives opportunity to play in different situations. Hopefully it makes for a good video!
this is so true, i’ve been playing the game since 2016, but i made my current account in 2019. i have zero viable master league pokémon, i dont have the resources or time to do raids and grind for XL candies
I wonder why there's no rental leagues for gbl. Like you just get to play with the pokemon you want to consider building. And just limit it in some ways like number of times you can play or have it not affect ranking if people want to just play casually.
Love your work Dan, not meaning any disrespect just thought I’d put my situation here. So I’m free to play, have been playing since start of 2021. I’m the same as you with the gyms getting coins. I however still notice I get good boxes, there’s 3 boxes under 1025 coins that have great prices for green passes which I buy when I see them. So I can get the green passes no worries. I understand I have more time than you, but for any Pokémon that I really want to lvl 50, I’ve found on the most part, a week or 2 of free passes combined with about one solid weekend of raiding hard has seemed to get me nearly enough candy to get something to lvl 48 or higher. I think in the current ML meta, you can build a theoretical team, and when they come out, raid them hard on the one weekend they are out, or whenever your free time allows and then there’s your team to compete with. I did that with dialga, landorus and yveltal, plus now a few more, and have gotten enough to be able to compete well enough. Again I totally get you have less time than a lot of us but I think for an average player, I would say that with enough passion, you’d probably have been able to get at least 1 team to compete. I started 2021 and only really learnt PvP and raids say 6 months later or so. I have I think 5 legendaries 96% and up at above lvl 48 and I can compete just fine.
I have another problem that I can rarely put my pokemons in a gym. When I do, it gets beaten out very quickly. As a result, I don't have many coins to buy raid passes.
Should they make the transfer less like 50candy to make 1xl or even less would be nice but a 1000 to get 10 bad rate
I swear its gonna happen soon. Once Poplio comday comes and once I get a good iv Annihilape I’m jumping into ML and never looking back at GL. Plus it looks like I might be able to finish my Zygarde cells this summer and I think even a barely XLed Zygarde can still put in work on certain teams.
Tow things that I want Niantic would do:
1. Bring back master Leauge lv 40 or have a format that only requires one legendary or something.
2. A new remote raid pass that you can play If all are at a raid but it could be different raids. So all can be by them self but all still have to walk to a gym where its a raid.
On a side note for passes, I was spoiled and got the box during sinnoh which had 50 green passes (and 20 silver pinaps I think but who cares) for 2785! Now I’m so spoiled by that price I don’t even look at anything higher than that ratio
I have the same 14/15/15 O-Palkia and it’s definitely painful missing the 15 atk
I haven’t raided since the last global event. That’s the only time I do them. I thought shadow raids were cool but only did it two weekends.
You are the man Dan! Straight up
You should have done the math out for how long it would take to walk these Pokemon as buddies. Thats always a fun number to see lol
Before Covid i would do in person raids with other people at least once a week near my office. Since March 2020 I have done maybe 3 or 4 total in person raids where another person was physically with me. It's just not the same game now. And with a FT job, school, 3 kids, and being FTP, i basically have no chance now anyways.
Becoming a dad makes me resonate with your channel just a tad bit more than other channels. My daughter is turning 2 this summer and Pokémon go isn’t worth obsessing over like my old self. I have a new obsession. Dad life🫶🏽.(I still gbl great league and catch Pokémon from time to time. Not really raiding as much.)
Your best bet is just investing in remote passes and eating the extra cost especially for events where they raise the cap.
No point in spending coins on green passes and having a stockpile if you're never going to get to use the stock.
casual player here, spent 0€ on raid passes in 6 years of playing. i reached ACE multiple seasons playing ONLY Master with combo of gyarados, garchomp, metagross, florges, togekiss, sylveon, dragonite. yes they are community days pokemon, all lvl 50 BB and 4*. Yes i am happy with ACE, i dont have time for playing 5 sets GBL every day of OGL or even worst - OUL if i play every day all sets i would burn out years ago. Master have smallest meta of all open leagues
Highest rank I ever got as a newbie was 14 in Master League and that was with hundo Mamoswine, hundo Vikavolt/98 Thunderus Therian, and Dragonite
The way I see it is that master league has always been unreachable for most players from the beginning… it might sound easy to get 240-250 candy to power up a raid legendary Mon but back then it was crazy! The players who participated in master league spent thousands of dollars a month in raids getting rare candies! Also a very popular Mon Mewtwo was only at EX raids that was bad!
Am yet we are forgetting that Great/Ultra League do have similar problems easier to work with but still since season one questions like “What can I used instead of____!?” Or “I hate that Mon ( I do t have one) I keep losing to it!” Not to mention that it got worse with the introduction of XL candies!
I still remember a comment made on one of Dan’s videos in which Sableye was the main focus as the best safe switch… someone commented that he finally finish powering his Sableye very happy… so how do I get Return… that was bad! Lol
The system of how we get the resources to power up/ add moves mons is oldsolited… we need to change that!
They should introduce a master league Jr that caps Pokémon at max regular candy, or like CP3000 idk. That way people who can’t afford getting candy XL can still play master
I hear you totally agree thank you for posting!
I was a crazy remote raid grinder so have an arsenal (at a cost) of level 50 ML mons. However after the removal Of RR, any new meta introduced…I don’t even bother anymore
Dan! You sound like a very good dad! I like your videos very much too
I've played for a little over a year now. I still can't solo a three star unless maybe it has a 4x weakness. I raid in person since I'm virtually free to play. I actually only beat one 3 star raid by myself. I don't even play ultra league. My stardust gets invested in mons for great league. So 1500 cp is my cut off.
Don't forget, its also not a guaranteed catch!! Verizion was an absolute nightmare to raid for!!
It is even worse if you aren't in a major metropolitan area. I see raids come and go at gyms with zero players available. Niantic has always been shit about supporting any of the player's needs outside of high population density areas. I've got tons of free raid passes from past tasks just sitting in my storage.
I need Pokemon STATIONARY for when I work lol
Im in the same boat as you, and whats even sadder, im trying to get my kids involved. Realizing that each of them would take a coupke hundred dollars just to get their bag/storage to the point where they can play. Yet alone to get everyone hundos and level everything up
Damn I saw today that master take place of hyper…now that I finally found a team that works well for me and brought me back to 2400+… now that remix cup is all I can try, but , as always, I lead annihilape, I run into gligar…swap feraligatr, face a galvantula…that’s a stupid thing
No one near me pvp's so i have no way to practice effectively... i wish there was a non ranked mode, or sandbox mode to practice with
I understand that so much, im a player that has spent 5 dollars on this game, so for me it's nearly impossible to get xls for legendaries
I need 30 master league wins to get to level 44 and its a real struggle. Thinking I'll just spam master league after the ranking reset and wait until I level up on rank 1-10 players before actually trying in any other leagues
You can just cheese it by battling a friend that’s using 10cp mons.. it still counts toward the badge you need and won’t make you waste your gbl battles on the master league
@@doritofan1002 thanks so much! That saves me a ton of time
I don't think master league is entirely unplayable with level 40 pokemon, but as soon as you question if you can get high elo with them it's an immediate nope even with level 45s it's hard to do well
I would love to play Ultra and Master, but the grind required for that is way too much. I don’t have the time or money so I am forever stuck in great league.
Have you tried Master League teams with Tyranitar? I’m curious about how much of a difference you think Brutal Swing made for Tyranitar’s viability in Msster League.
I see a lot more of them in Master League than I feel like I should. I know part of that is that they had a Community Day Classic, but still.
Can we also talk about how impossible it was to get the special move of the opposite coin you choose for Sinnoh. I did about 20 remote and 40 in person and couldn’t get the other special move
According to my pokedex ive caught:
297 Mewtwo *
168 Lugia *
158 ho oh
152 kyogre *
208 groudon
224 Rayquaza *
242 dialga * (not origin)
158 palkia * (not origin)
88 heatran
207 giratina **
80 reshiram *
123 zekrom
174 landorus *
91 kyurem
104 Xerneas *
105 yveltal
95 tapu bulu
I have good or good enough versions of the ones with asterisks *
"I don't see what the problem is, Dan. Just spend less time with your kids, drop half of your salary on premium and remote raid passes, and you'll be all set with XL candies!" - Niantic (probably) 🤦♂️
Ive got 56 legendaries built for master league and lots of others with anywhere from 800-1200 extra xl candy. Its unfortunate the best league is so accessible to so many people.
Yup, these new boxes are hot trash. I do a lot of local raids, but I dont remote raid due to cost. I have a few friends i do raid hours.
I wish they would fix Master League so more of us could play it
I’ve got almost 150 double-moved / built-up great league Pokémon, about 80 for ultra, but less than 20 for master league - and only one is a legendary :(
I’ve got 2 kids and a full time job too. I’d love to be able to play Master League, but it’s just not a realistic option.
When the game started losing people their answer was making the game harder and i cant even do raids anymore because no one does raids
I started in 2016 when game was first released. Quickly dropped it as it was very clearly a gacha money drain. My Family got me to pick it back up in September 2023.
I've dumped over a grand since rejoining and STILL can not play master league well. I have admittedly been somewhat wasteful and mostly focused on GL. But still... ML feels completely impossible to get into. Even after 2024 sinnoh tour. Even with doing as many events that i can get to. I've been doing as much as a can, yet UL and ML both feel inaccessible.
I had to start hosting on pokigenie cause not enough help on raids when it comes to shadow legendary raids im outta luck
I only have 6 maxed Pokémon lickitung took 3 months of walking at work 100km a week gallade dragonite mammoswine gyrados & Pidgeot
Honestly even ultra league is kinda inaccessible with how many top pokemon on there need elite TMs. I’ve been playing everyday since October and I just barely am starting to have decent pokemon for ultra league. And I’m not ftp
Wings and golf sound fun