No point at defending gyms!

[bob7greeklover]

It's a pity that currently in the game, you are not awarded so much for defending your gyms. I mean, you can just blietzkrieg and quickly take over about 10 gyms, earn the maximum daily coins of 100 and 5000 stardust and for the next 21 hours , you don't care about the gyms you just taken over or deposited pokemon because you can start over the next day and re-take them for another 100 coins. I mean, attacking an enemy gym is more awarding than defending.

 

[Sirindu]

Yeah, I feel that's a very valid critique. Honestly, I feel like it's too easy to take over gyms. Especially if you have someone with you, helping you.

If gyms were more difficult to take then the incentive would be there to shore it up so you could get into the next 21 hour period.

 

[Hiidoran]

Maybe it's because I don't have much time here lately to play, or perhaps because I'm typically playing by myself on most days, but I tend to have the opposite problem in my area.

I think it's too hard to take down gyms, as the people defending them are waaaay overpowered and have spent every minute of every day leveling-up. There really isn't too much of an incentive to sit there and guard the gyms you take after you cash in for the day, you're right... yet people camp out at gyms around me. All. Day.

My poor Dragonair just can't take down their overpowered Pokémon. ;;

 

[UltimateFrosty08]

Defending gyms isn't just for the awards but its more of a turf war to see which team is the better team they do this by taking gyms and seeing which team has more gyms. If you just captured gyms for the awards this game would be a lot less exciting and there would be no need for teams or gyms.

 

[CotillionSpawn]

I think part of the interest in catching gyms is like the above said for bragging rights, also when a gym successfully repels an attack it tracks and gives you a number for how many battles you have won, ego boosting for the win

 

[Khrysamere]

Pokemon Go is just something to hold you over till Sun and Moon come out, Don't get too attached to it :P

 

[VisualJae]

I think part of the interest in catching gyms is like the above said for bragging rights, also when a gym successfully repels an attack it tracks and gives you a number for how many battles you have won, ego boosting for the win

It's basically turf wars. Never ending tug-of-war.

But like every team-based activity, coordination will trump over randomly doing things solo.

Every gym quest should follow as such:

1. Group of preferably 3-4 individuals minimum should tackle the target gym with their strongest Pokémon
2. As soon as the team notes the gym prestige is about to hit zero, one team member needs to stay on alert to ninja insert a somewhat weak Pokémon as the initial "training dummy"
3. As soon as the first Pokémon is inserted into the team, all members are to battle nonstop to raise the gym's prestige with one or two members inserting a mid-tier Pokémon as a stopgap for enemy teams, but also as an advanced training dummy to speed up prestige leveling
4. The remaining members of the team should insert one of their strongest Pokémon as anchors for the gym; of course, bearing in mind type diversity to make it more difficult for opposing teams to straight counter

The highest level gym I was part of was seven layers deep, with the first three Pokémon in mid-tier level (around ~CP1000), two Pokémon in the middle in the 1300-1400s (I had a CP1490 Exeggutor stationed here), and two high level anchors (1600+; this one in particular was anchored by a CP1800 Gyarados).

A Clefable or Snorlax up in the front lines tend to work well in my experience.

But regardless of how potent your gym is, eventually it's going to go down, especially if it's in a densely populated area where it's going to be numerous teams going against you simultaneously. It's just a matter of how tryhard you want to be and make that gym last as long as possible. And yes, that gym I was part of only lasted about 30 minutes, which in that area of NYC is actually an incredibly long time. Most gyms in NYC hotspots go down in a matter of minutes or even seconds as soon as they're claimed.

Gym leaders are gym leaders because they have the strongest Pokémon in the team. If you don't want to get stuck being a defense grunt, then get higher level Pokémon.

What I do think they need to improve is the method of resource collection (specifically coins). They probably didn't foresee how ridiculously fast people will try to claim and take down gyms, thereby not allowing many people to be able to set up any sustainable "income."

 

[Sirindu]

How anyone is even at the point of having all the things you just talked about, Jae, is beyond me.

Maybe NYC has that many more pokemon in it "per capita" because of the population? I dunno, but like when you went on your crazy outing a while back it seemed insane to me then how much stuff you got... and now hearing how high lvl'd people are in that area. Makes me wonder what gives.

You're right, though, about the current system/popularity not allowing for a sustainable income.

 

[VisualJae]

How anyone is even at the point of having all the things you just talked about, Jae, is beyond me.

Maybe NYC has that many more pokemon in it "per capita" because of the population? I dunno, but like when you went on your crazy outing a while back it seemed insane to me then how much stuff you got... and now hearing how high lvl'd people are in that area. Makes me wonder what gives.

You're right, though, about the current system/popularity not allowing for a sustainable income.

I'm level 22 and halfway to level 23. While most people I see in NYC are in the mid to high teens, I've seen many people equal or higher level than me, with the highest I've seen so far was 25 and that was three days ago.

Highest level Pokémon I've seen anchoring a gym was a CP2200+ Dragonite. Countless Lapras and Snorlax in the 1600-1900 range. Some Gyarados and Aerodactyl. I see a lot of Starmie, too, as mid-tier gym selections. I personally have four Starmie around CP1200 (around their cap). I'm more of a collector right now, not a battler, so I haven't spent much Stardust at all. I can't wait to evolve my Ivysaur. If I'm estimating correctly, it should be a CP2000-ish Venusaur when the time comes.

I wouldn't say it's more Pokémon per capita, but rather the sheer number of PokéStops splattered across miles of real estate. Considering how many people have disposable income here, there are always clusters of lures active at all times (not exaggerating, there are always active lures within a short walking distance if you're not in one already). If you stay longer than 10 minutes in any one spot with multiple lures active, you actually risk getting "overwhelmed" by the number of Pokémon that appear. 90% of the time they'll be Pidgeys, Rattatas, Spearows, Zubats, and Weedles, but mixed in with some footprint tracking, a lot of surprises show up.

But as always, it's location location location. I'm still in the process of tracking down the Pokémon I'm missing.

 

[Sirindu]

Makes a lot of sense, Jae. Thanks for explaining that. Sounds like a really neat place to be experiencing the game. Don't get me wrong, I'm in a U.S. Top-20 urban center, too, so I've seen what I thought was a large response to the game but as we all know--nothing compares to NYC. ;)

 

[Chuck Palahniuk]

I see it as more of a team loyalty thing, really. It's really satisfying to see all the gyms in my area being Team Mystic, even if I didn't contribute.

 

[XxBlakexX]

I got a few gyms around me but haven't made it to level 5 yet to start using them. Bet it's cool though. I'm at level 4 currently.