6th Gen 20 pokeballs later and Mesprit is finally mine.

[Lymphy]

So it took me about 20 pokeballs to catch a paralyzed 'my-health-is-so-low-you-can-barely-see-the-red' Mesprit.

I am rather happy with my catch, but it begs the question:

Surely there's an easier way to catch legendaries, right. Right?

 

[Nah]

There's not a whole lot more you can do really. Dusk balls are nice when it's night-time, and Net Balls work well on Water type legends, but everything else, it's kind just the ol' lower the HP as much as possible, inflict status effect, throw balls like there's no tomorrow shtick.

 

[Gardevoir the Dragon Slayer]

Yeah a masterball ;)

Try throwing a quick ball first sometimes it will work. unfortunately legendaries are hard to catch (although I think they made them easier to catch in gen VI?)
So what you did to get Mespirt is effectively the easy way to get legendaries.

 

[Lymphy]

Dang it :( I was hoping there was an easier way.

I almost had Terrakion as well, until the fool used some recoil attack and KOed himself T_T

 

[ChikoritaCheezits]

If you have quick balls, you can open up the fight by throwing one at it to see if it works. After you use up a lot of balls, if you have a timer ball that might work. Other than that, use Ultra Balls.

 

[Pendraflare]

Regular Poké Balls? Goodness...

Anyway, i've found myself catching Ho-Oh relatively quickly within a few balls I have (which I really need to since all its moves have 5 PP before it uses Struggle), so I am wondering if they've made catch rates of certain legendaries easier to catch (like they did Rayquaza).

 

[Lymphy]

Regular Poké Balls? Goodness...

Anyway, i've found myself catching Ho-Oh relatively quickly within a few balls I have (which I really need to since all its moves have 5 PP before it uses Struggle), so I am wondering if they've made catch rates of certain legendaries easier to catch (like they did Rayquaza).

Oh! Sorry, I used Ultra Balls!

 

[GhostTrainer]

It took me about 40 pokeballs to capture Uxie, never had that much issue with catching a legendary until that pokemon

 

[Lymphy]

It took me about 40 pokeballs to capture Uxie, never had that much issue with catching a legendary until that pokemon

;-; 40 pokeballs? I need to stock up. Those 20 I used cleared me out.

 

[Bounsweet]

It's all luck, unfortunately. Your best bet is to get a Pokémon with False Swipe to bring it to 1 HP and a move like Sleep Powder or Sing to put it to sleep. The types of PokéBalls you use can help a lot too, I know Ultra Balls and Timer Balls are really popular when it comes to catching legendaries, and in some cases Dusk Balls.

 

[GhostTrainer]

;-; 40 pokeballs? I need to stock up. Those 20 I used cleared me out.

Well a mixture of regular pokeballs, great balls, ultra balls, and misc balls. But it took forever with it. I usually caught a legendary in about 5 throws of a regular pokeball or great ball.

I typically keep a stock of 50 of each purchasable pokeball. That way I can go after multiple legendaries and have more than enough chances to capture it.

 

[Wolvie56X]

Hardest for me to catch was: Groudon, nearly 40 Ultra Balls, also had him asleep and false swiped down to nothing, but it took me over 50 minutes to catch him because he kept using Rest and healing up, and Delcatty was getting destroyed by Lava Plume every time

Easiest Catch: Palkia, 3 Ultra Balls lol

Reshiram was pretty quick for me also, same with the Swords of Justice, Uxie and Mesprit were quick, Azelf was just kicking my butt

raikou was a pain in the butt because he kept paralyzing my team, the other 2 Legendary Beasts were fast, Tornadus was pretty quick and Ho-Oh was not bad to catch

my secret was using false swipe then either stun spore from Venusaur, Sing from Delcatty or Raikou's Thunder Wave, either way it was bring their health down and then some kind of sleep or stun

 

[Z25]

Yeah a masterball ;)

Try throwing a quick ball first sometimes it will work. unfortunately legendaries are hard to catch (although I think they made them easier to catch in gen VI?)
So what you did to get Mespirt is effectively the easy way to get legendaries.

Unless your really unlucky and it fails, which yes it can happen. It's a low chance but a capture rate glitch in every game can cause it to fail. But it's unlikely.

Anyway, using type or element specific pokeballs are best.