"How Raid Battle bugs/lag can make or break your solo raid attempts and how you can best work around them"

#PokemonGO: Hello TSR! Following my recent post explaining the ins and outs of soloing tier 3 raid bosses, I forgot to mention one crucial aspect that has killed many of my personal solo attempts: the numerous bugs that can reduce your total damage potential against a raid boss.This was especially apparent today during my solo attempt at Confusion / Focus Blast Alakazam, a moveset heavily dependent on dodging and efficient DPS when using a subpar team. It took me 7 rounds total to take him down, each one having different flavors of bugs I ran into.Here is a list of potential factors (due to lag/bugs) that may hinder your total damage output: Starting the Raid Earlier Than 180 SecondsThis is a classic symptom of many phones, each model of phone differing in severity from each other. You may witness this when doing large group raids; the number of people shown in the battle slowly trickles upwards within the first 10 seconds of the fight. For solo raids, this equates to lost time and lost DPS that might be crucial to your victory.Raid Times Out Sooner Than 0 Seconds RemainingThis one is the one that frustrates me the most. The battle will freeze as if you won the battle, but it will transition to the 'Timed Out' screen. This usually happens between 0-5 seconds remaining. It is even possible to reduce the boss's health to zero and still time out (which happened to me twice today during the Alakazam raid).Your Pokemon Randomly Takes a Chunk of Unexplained DamageSometimes, your Pokemon will randomly be damaged by the raid boss with no explanation. I've found this happens more frequently about 2-5 seconds after a successful dodge, and after one of your Pokemon has recently fainted. This damage can occasionally hit your incoming switch without you even knowing (i.e. Alakazam's Focus Blast took out the last sliver of my TTar's health AND my next-in-slot TTar, automatically switching into my third-in-slot Pokemon). If this happens to me, I usually restart the raid immediately to save potions on an otherwise failed raid boss attempt. When this happens, it's usually paired with another bug...Raid Boss's Health 'Rubberbands' Back to a Healthier StateUsually paired with the unexplained damage, the raid boss will randomly gain health back, nullifying some recently dealt damage from your team. Signs that 'rubberbanding' may have occurred:The raid boss health bar reverts from red to yellow or from yellow to greenYour Pokemon takes unexplained damageYour Pokemon takes damage that should have been dodged (i.e. delayed damage)This is probably the number one run killer for me since you're effectively killing your team while doing no DPS for a small amount of time.Energy Bar Not Reflective of Actual Energy Available to YouThis usually manifests itself in one of two ways:You recently used a charge move, and the energy you expended takes a bit of time to be removed from the barYour charge bar usually shows about 1 fast attack more energy than you actually have availableThis leads to inefficient use of time either inadvertently using your charge move without enough energy or you trying to overcompensate energy gains trying to work around the charge bar inaccuracy. Now that we're aware of all of these bugs trying their hardest to ruin our day, how can we combat them?List of Raid Battle Bugs/Lag WorkaroundsRestart your phone or app before each raid boss attempt. This can help to reduce overall lag.Make sure your phone's internal clock is set to 'Automatic' rather than 'Manual'.There are apps that can tinker with your phone's clock and allow you to start raids earlier. Here is one post that has an example of this. However, as an iPhone user, I have not found a reliable way to do this.Avoid dodging damage that would kill you even if you dodged the attack. This might require some familiarity with the boss's damage along with some trial and error. I've noticed that a lot of these bugs increase in frequency the more you dodge during the fight, so try and cut down on any needless dodging.Use multi-bar charge moves where possible/still efficient. This makes it easier to not lose energy when overfilling your charge bar to compensate for the energy bar inaccuracies.Parallel to the previous tip, try to perform 1-2 quick moves more than what the charge bar signifies you need to perform a charge move. This cuts down on any possibility of trying to perform a charge move and you actually not having enough energy.For your Pokemon expected to be the final-in-slot, use charge moves that apply their damage early. Since the clock can expire before zero seconds, it is possible for the clock to run out mid-animation of your charge attacks. For example, I use Scizor with Fury Cutter/X-Scissor in the final slot rather than a Shadow Ball Gengar against Alakazam.If rubberbanding or inexplicable damage happens, immediately leave the battle if you think it may cause you to lose the battle. It saves time and healing resources.Try doing solo attempts outside of areas with lots of Pokestops, spawns, or other gyms. For example, I try to save 'close' solo attempts for when I'm back at home in the suburbs rather than at work in an urban area. I've noticed more lag/bugs happen in busier areas than others.If you're worried about your cell service at the gym, I advise not using your pass to solo.If possible, bring a friend to help you out if you cannot make the solo attempt. Start the match over and have both of you deal damage to the raid boss throughout the entire time; that way, you can both cash in on a max damage bonus/team contribution. If there are any other observable bugs/lag or tips that help you to combat these atrocities, let me know. If other players agree, I can add it up above for reference. I hope this guide helps you along your journey to becoming a solo battler!Thanks for reading and reflecting! via /r/TheSilphRoad http://ift.tt/2yb04XQ