I Hate Elite TMs

Elite TMs suck. They are rare and hideously expensive, and you have separate Elite TMs for fast attacks and charge attacks. The only way to reliably get Elite TMs are by buying them in a bundle for Community Days, or reaching rank 20 in PvP. And even then, it still alternates every season, between fast and charge TMs. On top of that, seasons are pretty long, generally 90 days long, so once you reach rank 20, you’re still waiting for three months to claim your reward. Sure, Elite TMs allow you to give a Pokemon any of its move, especially legacy or community day moves, but damn, there just aren’t enough of them.

Currently, I have 6 Elite Charge TMs and 2 Elite Fast TMs. Out of those, I’ve only recently used one, and I used it on my 100% Groudon, to give it Precipice Blades. But here’s the problem: most of my Groudons don’t have Precipice Blades, which is a stupidly powerful move. I have a team of them powered up and ready to go. But I don’t have enough Elite TMs to give them all Precipice Blades. That team is now kinda useless, and, for maximum damage, I kinda have to use the Groudons I caught in the Hoenn Tour.

The same applies to my multiple Kyogres, Metagrosses, Mewtwos and other powerful Pokemon. Even if I had bought the community day bundles or reached rank 20 in every season, that’s still not really enough to cover every Pokemon that needs a legacy move.

The only way around this problem is that you have to play every event that comes up, and constantly checking each event to see if there is a new legacy move. I missed out on the Regi family getting special moves because I wasn’t keeping up to date. But on the flip side, before the Hoenn Tour, I evolved a Mudkip only to find that it didn’t get a legacy move. The Hoenn Tour only had new moves for Kyogre and Groudon. None of the other Pokemon who had legacy moves got a chance to gain them.

So we either wait for an event that brings back legacy moves or we use Elite TMs, which are so damn rare. And half the time, you need Elite TMs anyway because already-evolved Pokemon can’t get the moves they want during that event.

Really though, I don’t hate Elite TMs. I hate the fact that they should be how TMs should be in the first place. Well, aside from the rarity. Elite TMs need to be massively more available. But using an Elite TM is really good. You lose the randomness of normal TMs and can choose the exact move that you want. Being able to choose what move you’re trying to learn is so much better. Any seasoned player knows just how bad normal TMs are, especially on Pokemon with a lot of moves. If normal TMs worked like Elite TMs, everyone would be much happier.

But frankly, Elite TMs shouldn’t even exist. If you give a Pokemon a new move, then that move should be a permanent move that said Pokemon can learn any time they want. But no, Niantic has this messed up system which eats up your time and money. And as long as people keep on buying those community day bundles, the TM system won’t ever change…