"Happy Birthday to the Death-Loop Glitch | Its Origin and How to Avoid it"

#PokemonGO: When elaborating on how to avoid this glitch in my analysis post of Ho-Oh counters, u/Zyxwgh brought it to my attention that this glitch would be meeting its 1 year anniversary on December 19th. That's correct Trainers, it has been 1 year ago today that the Death-Loop Glitch (DLG) first emerged in Pokemon GO through the 0.51 update. Since then, it has gone unresolved and has arguably gotten worse with raids.To celebrate, I made a video going over it. It's just me talking about the glitch, giving examples, and how to avoid it. It unfortunately isn't a reel of "The best deathloop moments" put to dubstep music. For anyone who has the resources or time for such a project, be the hero we need.The GlitchWe've all been there. You're fighting a raid boss, having a good time. Oh it's charging up a Solar Beam? Time to dodge, right? Oh.... This same glitch has been present for a year now (earliest post I can find on the matter, from 12/20, after 0.51 update). For many, it didn't exist until the forced 0.51 update. Since damage from gym defenders is low, this glitch hadn't become as widespread known until raids. It also hasn't been as hot of an issue until Ho-Oh, the first Tier 5 raid boss with an easily dodged charge move (Solar Beam) without highly resistant counters putting most of its best counters (Raikou, Tyranitar, Vaporeon, Golem) into the OHKO, death-loop range.It's thought to be caused by a lag in the communication of the game with the server. The game momentarily thinks you havn't dodged the move and once it catches up (~1s later) it refunds your hit points. However, if it KO'd you, then it gets all sorts of confused putting you into a non-death/death limbo where you Pokemon is rendered useless until it ultimately faints.Avoiding the GlitchHere are some solutions for avoiding the glitch:Solo Play: I find that the glitch occurs far less frequently when playing alone. Unfortunately, this doesn't help us in tier 4 and 5 raids.Swapping Out: When afflicted, you can just swap the Pokemon rather than waiting for it to faint. However, there have been instances where that caused the swapped in Pokemon to take phantom damage, faint, bring in the Death-Loop'd Pokemon and have it faint.Only dodging when it wouldn't KO you undodged: Paying attention to the % of HP drop when hit or using Pokebattler to pre-preemptively know how much the hit will take can help you avoid this glitch while still giving you the freedom to dodge at least 1 charge move.Just not dodging: It may give players a more enjoyable experience to just not dodge to begin with in raids.Going ForwardIn celebration of the Death-Loop Glitch's Birthday, send Niantic support a message about the glitch, report the bug and give it a nudge up on their priority list. As it stands, this glitch that has been plaguing the game for a year now undermines one of the last pillars of strategic value and intrigue in the game, dodging. Checking the Niantic Support Page, it appears to be a "known issue" that's "in the works" but I feel it could use a bump up on their priority list. While this glitch isn't nearly as important as the EX-raid situation, it's not definitely not Candela replacing Spark tier. They solved that in a month, the Death Loop Glitch has been in full force for a year.I'm not trying to breed negative feelings in the sub. Just celebrating DLG's special day, informing players on how to avoid the glitch, and offering possible solutions.Another shout out to u/Zyxwgh for bringing this special day to my attention. via /r/TheSilphRoad http://ift.tt/2kN84Vj