CP or IV's: What Matters More?

[Sirindu]

I've seen this debate played out a few different places and I'm looking to hash out some concrete answers...

So far, what I understand is that in Pokemon Go, IV's account for about a 10% difference in power (if you had the worst possible IVs vs. the best possible IVs for a pokemon of the same type, you would see that much of a stat increase).

If that is true, how does CP and CP potential play into the picture?

If I have two Eevees and one has significantly better IVs but the other has significantly better CP, which do I focus on lvling?

 

[BigBobby2016]

I'm just starting to learn about the IV (and there seems to be some disagreement about it on the Internet), but it seems this is how it goes:

1. If you're trying to evolve a pokemon just to have a another body for gyms, evolve the highest CP one so that you save your stardust for the pokemons you really care about.

2. If you're trying to evolve a pokemon that you want to sink all your stardust into so that you can max it out, pick your highest IV one.

 

[iOption]

I've actually found IV's to play end game statistics. I've come to understand that this feature (IV's) are more important than CP. Why is that? Well when you enter into end game with a legendary sword but in reality its not so legendary after all as common swords still defeat your epic-ness, you'll have to farm a grip load of stardust and begin trying to capture a grip load of Pokemon in search for the best one. However, if you searched for the perfect Pokemon's as you are leveling to your end game, your end game pokemon would be much stronger and more valuable when the time approaches.

My suggestion is to pay attention to the IV's and continue to catch um all. Don't let the CP confuse you. :)

 

[Sirindu]

I'm just starting to learn about the IV (and there seems to be some disagreement about it on the Internet), but it seems this is how it goes:

1. If you're trying to evolve a pokemon just to have a another body for gyms, evolve the highest CP one so that you save your stardust for the pokemons you really care about.

2. If you're trying to evolve a pokemon that you want to sink all your stardust into so that you can max it out, pick your highest IV one.

That sort of common-sense approach makes the most sense to me in the short term, while most players (including myself) are nowhere near the end game yet.

But.

With eyes to the end game, if you get a 90+ IV Pokemon, wouldn't it be worth evolving that one REGARDLESS of how low its CP is? Because in the long run, that's going to be one of your go-to's.

 

[Mister Coffee]

Alright so based on the information that I have learned from watching this incredibly smart Youtuber:

My understanding is...
There are three sets of IV's: Attack, Defense, and Stamina. Attack and Defense are both calculated together to determine the CP of a pokemon, however Stamina is determined through HP. A pokemon with 0's has no IV's, above that the IV's increase to the stats ranges between a 10% increase to a maximum of 15% increase among the varying stats.
Why you would follow the IV's is mostly a matter of opinion more so than making a pokemon completely unstoppable. Perfect IV's are useful in both battling gyms and posting up in gyms. So it doesn't really matter what your preference in using them for. Pokemon with perfect IV's might help you build the most smooth running team for gyms. A perfect IV pokemon would also have a much more powerful attack, defense and (most important for holding Gyms) HP, so there's no argument against finding the best pokemon suited for holding a gym and getting perfect IV's to hold a gym for as long as possible.

Yes, you can just evolve your highest CP pokemon to try and get a bigger body to throw into a gym, it is simply that easy, but if you're catching a ton of pokemon that are common in your area, it seriously is a lot easier to find really good IV pokemon than you would think. Plus your level is regularly affecting the power of pokemon you're finding, plus eggs have been proven to have a higher liklihood of hatching pokemon with much higher IV's.
All in all, it's probably just a better plan overall to invest your time and effort into getting good IV pokemon, save your candy and dust for them. Trust me, finding them is much easier than most people think! (Wait until you hit level 20, almost everything is nice, I swear!)

Edit: In order to give you a sense of what to look out for, I have some screen shots of great IV pokemon standing next to bad IV pokemon.

Spoiler:

A secret to keeping track of IV's on a simple scale is to know that the little white semi-circle line overrides the actual CP number of the pokemon. Any calculation outside of that is going to require some computer skill.

 

[OMGITZAXEW]

Alright so based on the information that I have learned from watching this incredibly smart Youtuber: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Z_dPbWgyMQ

My understanding is...
There are three sets of IV's: Attack, Defense, and Stamina. Attack and Defense are both calculated together to determine the CP of a pokemon, however Stamina is determined through HP. A pokemon with 0's has no IV's, above that the IV's increase to the stats ranges between a 10% increase to a maximum of 15% increase among the varying stats.
Why you would follow the IV's is mostly a matter of opinion more so than making a pokemon completely unstoppable. Perfect IV's are useful in both battling gyms and posting up in gyms. So it doesn't really matter what your preference in using them for. Pokemon with perfect IV's might help you build the most smooth running team for gyms. A perfect IV pokemon would also have a much more powerful attack, defense and (most important for holding Gyms) HP, so there's no argument against finding the best pokemon suited for holding a gym and getting perfect IV's to hold a gym for as long as possible.

Yes, you can just evolve your highest CP pokemon to try and get a bigger body to throw into a gym, it is simply that easy, but if you're catching a ton of pokemon that are common in your area, it seriously is a lot easier to find really good IV pokemon than you would think. Plus your level is regularly affecting the power of pokemon you're finding, plus eggs have been proven to have a higher liklihood of hatching pokemon with much higher IV's.
All in all, it's probably just a better plan overall to invest your time and effort into getting good IV pokemon, save your candy and dust for them. Trust me, finding them is much easier than most people think! (Wait until you hit level 20, almost everything is nice, I swear!)

I just got to 20 and I'm just now starting to make a team.. Only pokemon I have with good Iv's is a 1700cp vaporeon!! {XD}

 

[Mister Coffee]

I just got to 20 and I'm just now starting to make a team.. Only pokemon I have with good Iv's is a 1700cp vaporeon!! {XD}

That's a humongous Vaporeon! lol

 

[OMGITZAXEW]

That's a humongous Vaporeon! lol

I saved all the stardust I was collecting since level 17 and was gonna use it to make a nice team but the only pokemon I had with good IV's was a 450 something eevee so I just used it all on him

 

[Sirindu]

Alright so based on the information that I have learned from watching this incredibly smart Youtuber:

My understanding is...
There are three sets of IV's: Attack, Defense, and Stamina. Attack and Defense are both calculated together to determine the CP of a pokemon, however Stamina is determined through HP. A pokemon with 0's has no IV's, above that the IV's increase to the stats ranges between a 10% increase to a maximum of 15% increase among the varying stats.
Why you would follow the IV's is mostly a matter of opinion more so than making a pokemon completely unstoppable. Perfect IV's are useful in both battling gyms and posting up in gyms. So it doesn't really matter what your preference in using them for. Pokemon with perfect IV's might help you build the most smooth running team for gyms. A perfect IV pokemon would also have a much more powerful attack, defense and (most important for holding Gyms) HP, so there's no argument against finding the best pokemon suited for holding a gym and getting perfect IV's to hold a gym for as long as possible.

Yes, you can just evolve your highest CP pokemon to try and get a bigger body to throw into a gym, it is simply that easy, but if you're catching a ton of pokemon that are common in your area, it seriously is a lot easier to find really good IV pokemon than you would think. Plus your level is regularly affecting the power of pokemon you're finding, plus eggs have been proven to have a higher liklihood of hatching pokemon with much higher IV's.
All in all, it's probably just a better plan overall to invest your time and effort into getting good IV pokemon, save your candy and dust for them. Trust me, finding them is much easier than most people think! (Wait until you hit level 20, almost everything is nice, I swear!)

See, this makes sense to me in the long run. If I'm not planning to use a particular pokemon heavily then I will probably just focus on its CP to evolve and get myself another Pokedex entry or a body for a gym or whatever, but anything that shows real potential--I'm thinking it's gotta be the IV all the way.

Had never heard anyone correlate IV with the on-screen curve, though. So when we've been talking about getting high curve Pokemon all this time that's really just high IV?