Why are Pokemon GO trainers complaining about raid boss energy regen?
Following the recent wave of updates made to Pokemon GO for its Max Out season, many players have noticed a stark increase in difficulty when taking on Raid Bosses. This has to do with the recent changes made to the Raid Boss AI, in addition to the energy generation rate for these bosses increasing.
This has been an issue for the game's raiding community since datamines pointed to this update taking effect long before the changes went live. Many players are understandably upset about this situation, so here is everything to know about these controversial changes to Pokemon GO's Raid Battles.
The current issue with Raid Battles in Pokemon GO
As mentioned above, the biggest issues with the new Raid Bosses are the changes made to the AI and the rate at which these bosses generate their charged attack energy upon taking damage. For those unaware, Raid Bosses generate energy for their charged attacks whenever they deal or take damage.
Before, Raid Bosses would only generate energy equal to 2% of the damage they took from an attack, or 0.02. This has been drastically altered to 50% of the damage taken from an attack. This change in generation rate also activates the other issue many players are having with Raid Battles, the overabundance of charged attacks used by Raid Bosses.
For some time after these changes went live, the new AI would force Raid Bosses to use their charged attack as soon as they had the required energy to use it. This caused many issues for a while but was luckily hotfixed, resulting in the Raid Boss now having a 50% chance to use their charged attack if it has the required energy and the boss used a fast attack.
While these changes may not sound like a big deal for One or Three-Star Raid Bosses that can easily be overpowered by a high-leveled trainer, Five-Star and Mega Raids become exponentially harder with these changes. With Max Battles set to come to the game in just hours as of writing, many trainers are worried about what is to come.
Tips for taking on Pokemon GO's new Raid Boss AI
Given the changes to Raid Boss AI being primarily focused on charged attacks and burst damage, glass cannons are more viable in Pokemon GO's raids than ever. Since these Raid Bosses will have a much easier time taking down bulky defenders through spamming their charged attacks, the game plan will most likely switch to dealing as much damage to a boss as quickly as possible.
Solo-defeating these Five-Star Raid Bosses might be impossible now, which could be the main reason for these raids receiving such a massive spike in difficulty. Teaming up for these fights is now more important than ever, so trainers may want to gather a group of friends before an event or familiarize themselves with Niantic's Campfire app.
For more information on Pokemon GO, check out our other articles:
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