"The reason people use Aggron in raids isn't because they don't know better. It's because they don't care."

#PokemonGO: We've had several threads in the last couple of days with infographics to try to explain to people why they shouldn't be using Pokemon like Aggron in raids. But it won't change many people's behavior, because the reason people use Aggron (and Lugia and Ho-oh and Blissey and Snorlax) in raids isn't because they don't know these Pokemon are suboptimal. It's because they don't care. And the game gives them no reason to care.In order to get rewards from a raid, you must first beat the boss. In places where it is difficult to get a large enough group of people together, players learn very quickly not to use low DPS Pokemon in raids, because their bad lineups will cause their groups to fail. In places where you can reliably get at least 8 people to show up, however, this stops being an issue, particularly if at least one other regular local raider has a well-optimized lineup to carry players who contribute very little to the group.If a player's Aggron lineup doesn't prevent their group from beating the raid, the difference in rewards between a team of 6 level 20 Aggrons and an optimized, max level team that does triple the DPS is often pretty small.The game awards:6 balls automatically for completionUp to 3 balls for individual contribution: 1 at 5% of total boss health, 1 at 15% and 1 at 20%.Up to 3 balls for team contribution: 1 at 20%, 1 at 33% and 1 at 50%.2 balls for team gym controlUp to 4 balls for friendship: 1 for great friends, 2 for ultra friends and 4 for best friends.If there are 20 people in the raid, everyone must do exactly 5% for everyone to get a single ball for damage contribution. More likely, some people will do a little bit more, so there won't be enough boss health for everyone to get to 5%. That means that in this scenario, a very bad lineup can cost you one ball.15% is 1/6 of total boss health, and 20% is 1/5. So if everyone contributes roughly equally, you should get two balls if you raid with fewer than 6 people and 3 balls if you raid with fewer than 5. In practice, playing in New York and running a team of level 40 SB Mewtwos and Tyranitars against Mewtwo, I've earned 3 balls in groups as large as 11 players and 2 balls in groups as large as 13, when the other players were particularly bad. In many cases, however, the boss lives long enough for a team of Aggrons to deal 5% of boss health, but dies before my optimized team can deal 15% of its health, so the I will get the same 1 ball for doing 12-14% damage that our Aggron friend gets for doing 5%.Best case scenario, in a 7-8 player group, I might earn 3 balls while he earns 1. In a 9-11 player group, I might earn 2 balls while he earns 1. In a 17-20 player group I might earn 1 ball while he earns zero.Occasionally a high individual damage contribution might raise your team damage to a higher threshold, or a low individual damage contribution will hold your team back. But in many cases, the fact that one team is is better represented in the raid group matters much more than anyone's individual contribution. A player using level 20 Aggrons who happens to be on the same team as 60% of local players is going to get more team contribution balls than a player who uses an optimized lineup, but who is on a team with only 25% of local players.In short, the difference between using level 20 Aggrons and using level 40 B/C Tyranitars against Mewtwo is, in terms of reward expectation, equal to or less than the difference between raiding with an ultra friend and raiding without a friend, the difference between controlling the gym and not, or the difference between being on the dominant team and not.And as long as being good at the game is only worth 1-2 balls per raid, plenty of people just won't bother to collect the candy and dust to bring meta Pokemon to high levels, farm high IV specimens, and get TMs to optimize movesets. They'll let you do it for them, and then let your effort carry them to raid victory and slightly inferior rewards.​​​​​ via /r/TheSilphRoad https://ift.tt/2NX8slG