"Why the GBL Charge TM nerf is unhealthy for the game"

#PokemonGO: First off, my intention with this thread is not to vent or complain. I genuinely think that this change is a step in an unhealthy direction for the game, and I'm writing this to explain why I believe so.Now, with that out of the way...As many people are aware, it seems that Niantic has decreased the drop rate of charge TMs from the GBL random item reward (the 2 wins reward for the free and premium track). While Niantic has not made any official confirmation (I haven't noticed one at least), several trainers have indicated they are receiving significantly fewer CTMs. Personally, I'm currently 0/18 for charge TMs from my season 3 set rewards. In season 2, I would have probably gotten 5-10 so far.I believe this is an issue for several reasons:Again, to my knowledge Niantic did not mention this in the season 3 GBL announcement, nor have they even acknowledged the change since then. This wouldn't be too big of an issue, but it leads into my second point:Go-Fest incentivized players to use their CTMs to get rid of frustration on shadows. If I would have known that the GBL CTM drop rate was going to be heavily nerfed, I wouldn't have used up my stash of 30+ TMs.Building new Pokemon and using trying new movesets is a huge part of GBL. Maybe this is more of a personal opinion, but using the game teams / movesets over and over again gets stale. Having a reliable way cycle though movesets and build new 'mons keep things fresh.The game has changed since the original introduction of TMs. When TMs were first released, they were almost exclusively used to get the optimal PVE moveset for raid squads. Unlike maintaining GBL teams, this was a one-time investment. Additionally, almost every meta-relevant pokemon back then only had 3 charge moves, so only a few CTMs were required per 'mon (unless you got unlucky). Now it takes 5-15 TMs to build something like a Rhyperior with the desired moveset (don't even get me started on Hypno).There is no other reliable way to get TMs. As is stands, the best way to get CTMs now is raiding. But this is hardly reliable - sometimes you get lucky with CTM drops, and sometimes you don't. During Go-Fest, I did 13 tier 5 raids, and I only got 2 CTMs. The only other way to get CTMs is going 5-0 in the premium GBL track, which is obviously unrealistic to expect.I can't speak for other people, but my I'm finding much less enjoyment in the game because of this. During early season 1 and 2 I had a lot of fun trying out new Pokemon and movesets, but that's simply not possible for me this season. I was excited to invest stardust into new Pokemon for the upcoming ultra league premier cup, but again, it just doesn't seem possible anymore.What are people's thoughts on this? via /r/TheSilphRoad https://ift.tt/2PfaPOX