"First Thoughts on Legendary Raids"

#PokemonGO: ImagesI was lucky enough to be able to participate in 4 legendary raids tonight. The first two raids (out of 3 available in my city that I know of) were both Articuno. Lugia wasn't at any of the raids in my city so I travelled about a half hour to do 2 Lugia Raids.For these raids you use normal raid passes (not Legendary) and use Premier balls (not Master)Background: For 3/4 raids I did I used 6 Tyranitars, all non-powered up at lvl 20 from raids, with a mishmash of movesets. I raided with the same core of ~10 players plus randoms at each location. 5/10 players were level 35+ with 1 level 40.1/4 First Articuno RaidObservations - While Golem was anticipated to be an optimal attacker, Articuno was able to shred through them pretty fast. I used 2 golems, 4 tyranitars and I was on my 2nd to last Pokemon by the time we beat the boss with no dodging .Raid group had about 16 people. It was everyone's first legendary raid and most of the people did not use optimal attackers. We managed to beat Articuno with 65-70% of the time left.2/4 Second Articuno RaidObservations - Made the change to using 6 tyranitars. Only went through 3 of them with no dodging.This raid used the max 20/20 raid capacity but with mostly randoms using non optimal attackers (Blisseys). This was much easier and we beat it with 75% of the time left.Catching ArticunoArticuno, personally, was much more difficult for me to catch than previous raid bosses. I normally go to Snorlax and Tyranitar raids with dotted Machamps and Magikarp. Articuno's movements are in the vertical axis and luckily aren't very fast like Zubats. Like many suspended Pokemon, You have to hit the body area, not the wings. My groups best results came from being patient and throwing right as the attacks were about to finish. I had 9 balls for the first Articuno and failed to catch it. I had 7 balls for the second Articuno and caught it with the 3rd ball. Would highly recommend using the golden razz as the base catch rate is 2% (EDIT: With golden razz, catch rate is 5% + etc bonuses such as curveball, thanks u/Glumduk).3/4 First Lugia RaidThis raid was very obviously much harder. We increased our core group to 15 with all 30+ and made a private raiding group so other people wouldn't have to wait for our stragglers. Stayed with the team of 6 tyranitars and Lugia SHREDDED through them (Hydro Pump). Only had 1 Tyranitar left at the end. We had about 60% of the time left.4/4 Second Lugia RaidRaided with the same group using the same Pokemon. Had 2 Tyranitars left at the end from dodging the charge attacks. This Lugia had Sky Attack and was pretty difficult for me to dodge as it charged very quickly. We had about 60% of the time left.Catching LugiaLugia is much larger than Articuno and its target areas were much easier to hit. Warning, Lugia's attack is long. I would suggest watching a couple of them before throwing at first to get used to the timing. I got incredibly lucky with my throws and got the 1st Lugia in the first of 6 balls and the 2nd Lugia with the second of 7 balls. Would highly recommend using the golden razz as the base catch rate is 2%(EDIT: With golden razz, catch rate is 5% + etc bonuses such as curveball, thanks u/Glumduk).(this is my first Silph Road post, let me know if I need to include more details in the future, formatting, etc) via /r/TheSilphRoad http://ift.tt/2tQDpZE