Mega Heracross Raid Day
Raid days are fun, and it’s nice to have a chance to get a shiny for a Pokemon that’s normally a regional, but I feel kinda ripped off about this one. It was a pretty standard raid day, and we did get 8 free raids (5 additional passes, plus the previous day’s pass, plus this month’s bonus of two free passes a day) and I did a few extra raids with premium passes. Most of the raids, we did as a duo, me and my brother, because he really wanted the shiny, and Heracross is one of his favourite Pokemon.
Luckily, the raid wasn’t too hard. Brother and I just threw Mega Rayquaza and Moltres at Mega Heracross, and we also used Party Play. Party Play is fucking strong. Dragon Ascent, a flying type move that is already pretty broken, is even more broken when you double it. It was very satisfying seeing Mega Heracross’s health get chunked by an assault of Dragon Ascent. We did invite some people to join us remotely, but the most we got in a raid was 6 people. Unlike the Primals and despite being a regional Pokemon, Mega Heracross didn’t draw that much attention, and brother and I were the only people physically at our local spot, doing the raids.
Unfortunately, after 21 raids (10 each, plus one I did solo), we got one shiny. Which I caught. Of course, I’m a fucking idiot. I traded my only shiny Heracross to my brother. Yeah, sure, I got a lucky 93% shiny Houndoom for it, but I didn’t realize he ALREADY HAD A SHINY ONE. He’d gotten one in a lucky trade the year prior when it first came out. We did get two normal lucky Heracrosses each too, but none of them were particularly good, the best having 13 attack. Brother already had a Hundo Heracross anyway. The best I got was a 96%, with 15 attack, 13 defense and 15 HP. I kinda hoped I’d get a second shiny, I normally do a lot better on raid days.
The raid I did on my own, I admit I did underestimate it a bit. Megahorn hits HARD even if you resist it, and I don’t have any Shadow Moltres powered up, which is recommended after Mega Rayquaza. I did complete the raid with 25 seconds left but I was cutting it close. Really, my biggest mistake was using Xerneas. Fairy is super effective against Bug and Fighting, as is Flying. But Xerneas, even with Geomancy, is just far, far too slow. Moonblast also sucks as an attack. Mega Rayquaza is just too damn good, and even normal Moltres is much better because Sky Attack charges up so quickly. My level 49 Noivern felt more useful than Xerneas did.
There was also supposed to be an added bonus, that more bug types would spawn around gyms after you beat a raid. But this was utter bullshit. I know my local area and spawns pretty well, and I didn’t see any extra Pokemon at all.
As for Heracross itself, its mega is actually genuinely really good. While it doesn’t quite do as much damage as fellow Fighting Megas Blaziken and Lucario (which will probably come out soon), Mega Heracross actually has some bulk to it, meaning it can last for longer and give its 10% general/30% fighting-and-bug-type boost to more Pokemon. Even with Close Combat, a rather slow, mediocre fighting move, Mega Heracross is the best fighting type until Mega Lucario comes out. Although Mega Mewtwo X will be pretty damn scary, since it has Focus Blast. It’s also technically one of the best bug types (although mega Scizor has slightly better typing) but bug types in general kinda suck, and bug in general is mostly beaten out by Dark and Ghost, which most people already have powered up.
Overall, not that bad, but the shiny luck fucking sucked and very few people were actually interested in this one.