"How to hold your own in legendary raids"

#PokemonGO: Are you concerned you might be the reason your local group is unable to 4 man legendary raids? Do you only get one ball for damage contribution in groups of six or smaller? Does the elite clique in your local Discord not invite you to their raids or wait for you to show up?​It could be that your damage is too low. If you'd like to do better, here are some tips on how to contribute more and get more rewards from legendary raids.​Use the best pokemon, or at least one of the best Pokemon​If you're using the game's recommended Pokemon or if you just use what you consider to be your strongest Pokemon for everything, you are probably dealing about half the damage you could be if you optimized your lineup for each raid.​Super effective attacks, which hit a boss's type weakness, deal sixty percent bonus damage, so a decent counter dealing super effective damage will dramatically outperform even the best neutral attacker. If you want to optimize your damage, you almost never want to hit a raid boss for neutral damage or damage that it will resist.​You don't need to memorize a complex type chart to figure out what Pokemon to use against a boss. Every month people post infographics to this subreddit identifying the best counters to the monthly boss, and Gamepress has an article every month laying out the best counters for the current legendary boss. And you don't have to remember what the graphic says, because you can set a battle party with the optimized counters.​You also want to make sure that your lineup has the correct moveset for the boss you're fighting. For example, Tyranitar is a top attacker with a rock moveset and a dark moveset, but those movesets are for different bosses. Bite/Crunch Tyranitar is not a particularly good attacker into Ho-oh who is weak to rock, and Smack Down/Stone Edge Tyranitar is not particularly good against Deoxys, who is weak to dark.​Collect and power up the most useful Pokemon​Many of the best Pokemon are legendary, and you will want to use your premium passes on these top performers. There are also solid non-legendary choices for most relevant damage types. Here's what you need, and anything that is not dicussed here isn't worth your dust:​Dragons: Dragons have extremely high attack stats, but dragon-type moves are only super-effective against dragons. That means that dragons' niche in raids is often that they're the best attackers into other dragons. But there are a lot of dragon-type legendaries in Pokemon. You will want Dragon attackers against Latios, Latias, Giratina-A, Giratina-O, Palkia, Reshiram and Zekrom. The best Dragon attacker is Rayquaza with Dragon Tail/Outrage. Salamence with Outrage, which was a community day move, is right behind Rayquaza, and Palkia with Dragon Tail/Draco Meteor is neck and neck with Mence. Dialga with Dragon Breath/Draco Meteor lags a little behind Palkia, but it is very tanky. Dragonite with Dragon Tail/Outrage is serviceable, as is Garchomp with the same set. Latios with Dragon Breath/Dragon Claw lags behind. You should try to put together a team of six reasonably high-level dragons, since there are so many dragon bosses. Community Day Salamences are very good for this purpose​Kyogre: Due to its very high stats, this is a top attacker into anything it hits for SE damage with its Waterfall/Hydro Pump moveset, which is Fire, Ground and Rock. Specifically, it's a top attacker into Groudon and Entei. Budget substitutes are Gyarados with Waterfall/Hydro Pump and Feraligatr or the upcoming Swampert with Hydro Cannon.​Groudon: With stats identical to Kyogre, Groudon is also good against anything he can hit for super-effective damage with his ground set, which is electic, fire, poison, rock and steel. Unfortunately, Earthquake isn't the most efficient move, so, for example his performance lags top water and rock-types against Entei, though due to his very high stats, his damage is still high enough to comfortably trio the fire dog. He is the best counter against Raikou and Heatran. Garchomp with his ground set performs similarly but a little worse than Groudon due to his lower attack stat, and Mamoswine and Rhyperior with ground moves are competent but also worse. Groudon and Garchomp can comfortably trio Raikou, while Rhyperior and Mamoswine will be cutting things very close.​Raikou: Electric damage is super-effective against water and flying types, so Raikou, with his extremely efficient moveset, is good against the legendary birds, Lugia, Kyogre and Suicune. Raikou outperforms Zapdos because his moves are better. If you don't have access to Raikou or don't want to invest rare candy, Electivire and Magnezone are solid alternatives.​Dark or Ghost: Psychic types are vulnerable to Dark and Ghost, and there are a lot of psychic legendaries: Mewtwo, Cresselia, Deoxys, Lugia and the lake trio are all vulnerable to this type of damage. The best performer right now is Giratina-O with its extremely efficient Shadow Claw/Shadow Ball set. Mewtwo with his legacy Shadow Ball charge move is also effective in this role, and Tyranitar with Bite/Crunch is a more easily-available alternative.​Rock: Rock is good against fire, flying, bug and Ice. Ho-Oh and Moltres are Fire/Flying, Articuno is Ice/Flying, and all the Forces of Nature are some kind of flying, so Rock is a very relevant attack type. Rampardos has higher attack stats than Rayquaza, but is quite glassy and also pretty rare. Tyranitar with Smack Down/Stone Edge is also good, but is a community day exclusive. Rhyperior with Smack Down/Stone Edge is not as good, but is easier to get.​Machamp: Fighting is super-effective against Dark, Ice, Normal, Rock and Steel, so the Champ is a top contender against Dialga, Regirock, and Regigigas, and if Darkrai is added to raids he'll be good against that. He's also the best Pokemon for attacking gyms, since normal types are the best and therefore the most common defenders.​Mamoswine: With an ice set, Swine is the best ice type, and with a ground set he's a decent ground type. Rayquaza, Zygarde and Landorus are double-weak to Ice and this is the best attacker into those raids. He's also decent against other flying-type raids, though he'll put out less DPS than Rampardos or Raikou.​Grass types: Good against water and ground, grass types can fill in your lineups for both Kyogre and Groudon. Community day Sceptile and Venusaur, Exeggutor in either form and Roserade are all good.​Meteor Mash Metagross: Steel is super effective against Ice, Rock and Fairy, and the Bullet Punch/Meteor Mash set is extremely powerful, which means Meteor Mash Metagross is a top attacker into Regirock and Regice, and will eventually be a top attacker into Kyurem, Xerneas and the four Gen 7 Island Tapus. Without this community day exclusive move, however, Metagross is underwhelming. If you get a good Beldum, save it in hopes Niantic gives you another chance at Meteor Mash.​Mewtwo: Psychic type damage is only super effective against Fighting and Poison, so it is not a relevant attack type in any T5 raids right now. Generalists have also been reduced in utility due to recent super-effective damage changes. As a result, Mewtwo has a limited niche at this point. If you have the legacy shadow ball move, he is a top attacker into other psychic types. Otherwise, his strength is his versatility. Due to his very high atk, he's a good electric attacker, a good ice attacker and a good fire attacker, but not as good as Raikou, Mamoswine or the best fire types. via /r/TheSilphRoad http://bit.ly/2M6fbc7