Yet More Complaining About Mega Pokemon
I wasn’t going to complain any more about Mega Pokemon in Pokemon GO. It felt rather fruitless, especially since it’s so easily ignored. But, on a whim, I decided to Mega-Evolve a Gengar for a Lugia raid. My Gengar, with a CP of 3336, lasted all of 10 seconds. Lugia’s Dragon Tail kicked the shit out of it, then nuked Gengar with a Hydro Pump. I might as well have just used a Darkrai or a Giratina, both of which lasted far longer than my Mega Gengar did. This is despite me trying to dodge. Because dodging only seems to work like 30% of the time.
This whole experience was completely worthless. And has starkly reminded me why Mega Pokemon in Pokemon GO are all-round bad.
The damage boost only matters if you are alive and have the right Pokemon.
I’m now down 200 Mega Candy and have one dead Mega Gengar on my hands, with 7 hours until it turns back to normal. I got a grand total of 10 seconds of action from it before Gengar was basically vaporized. In hindsight, I should have evolved a Mega Houndoom. But I don’t have enough candy for it. Then again, the Lugia had Hydro Pump, so it would have instantly died anyway. Either way, my fellow raiders have no idea until it’s too late whether use Ghost or Dark types. You can only see WHAT Mega Pokemon someone has when it’s announced in the raid itself.
I can’t use it for anything else though. My free raid pass has already been used and I used my remote passes the day before. Sure, I could have used Mega Gengar yesterday, but we had 15 players in the Raid Hour raids, so there wasn’t really a need for him. Now my Mega Gengar is just running around as my buddy. There’s no other Lugia raids around anyway.
At the same time, I now only have a limited number of evolves left. I’ll have to wait though until someone like Mewtwo comes back though, because Lugia has gone away and we’ve got different Legendaries. If I want more Mega Candy, I’ll have to do more Mega Raids.
The changes don’t fix the problem.
Now, admittedly, we have had some changes. Mega Pokemon now last for 8 hours instead of 4. And the costs to evolve and re-evolve existing one have been reduced. We’re also due to get some other changes as well, like being able to get Mega Candy from walking with your buddy. You’ll also be able to get Mega Candy by catching Pokemon who are the same type as your Mega Evolved buddy. These do require you to have enough Mega Candy in the first place though, which means you HAVE to do Mega Raids or wait for specific events.
But it still feels like we have no control over these Mega Evolutions, and no real use for them. We just borrow a Mega Pokemon for a bit and then it turns back to normal. And once these Pokemon leave Mega Raids, unless you did enough to evolve one (and even if you did), you’re sod outta luck if you need more candy.
I actually only ever managed to do one Mega Venusaur raid. I never managed to get 200 candy to Mega Evolve one. Heck, I might not be able to for a long, long time, because there’s no way to get candy. And don’t say “oh just get the power up a pokemon research task” because that’s bollocks. That task pops up in maybe 1 of every 25 Pokestops, and not everyone has 25 Pokestops they can check right now. And now with MOST of the Mega Evolutions going away (except Gengar and one of the Charizards, because obvious favoritism), you’re doubly screwed!
No one here wants to do Mega Raids!
This is the bigger problem. I can’t actually get people around here to do Mega Raids. And why would they want to do Mega Raids? The rewards are mediocre! You get less rewards than you would for Legendary Raids and the Pokemon in them are evolved versions of common spawns! Sure, there’s a chance for shiny Pokemon, but the chances are less than they are for Legendary Raids AND you’re also missing out on exclusive moves! Even if you do bag a shiny Charizard or Blastoise in these raids, you need an Elite TM to give them their best moves.
For the amount of work required, you might as well just use a team of Legendaries and high CP Pokemon. Because that’s what you’re doing anyway, once your Mega Pokemon is dead.
Seriously, my Mega Gengar could have been replaced with a Shadow Tyranitar. And the Tyranitar would have lasted longer.