Route10

I hope everyone had a great Lunar New Year event! Trying to get back into swing of things now that the event gauntlet is over. A few changes to the shop! Logos are now available in my art shop! I've done custom orders of this before but I want to officiate it and try to do more of these. More examples of art commissions have been added. I hope to add more pose examples in the coming month or so! I also have been trying to put in a lot of practice trying to do some more upscaled trainer portraits. I'm not confident enough to offer it officially in my shop but there are some examples I have done! Feel free to reach out if you're interested! Just note it make take longer than usual and the pricing will be much higher than what I usually offer ^^

I know this isn't entirely the point of the current discussion but I kinda want put my thoughts on why the overall crowd of raiders may be struggling more this time vs the last 2 events. For me who has a box full of mostly raid oriented pokemon and have successfully completed all of the Halloween and Xmas 2024 raids, I did not struggle very much as long as I had 1 or 2 people in the link who are experienced raiders who I have rapport with. The Shaymin raid took like maybe 1~2 hours to complete and that was before anyone actually cleared it, probably could've cleared it much faster if my group waited for strats to come out. However, my friends who tried to get the raids done even after a day after the Shaymin raid reveal struggled even on the 3* raids. I do not necessarily think the bosses are harder, but the overall pool of experienced players willing to do the raids have considerably diminished: 1. OT clause: This prevents people who are running alts to run the raids again with more groups of people who may need help. People who are using alts will tend to have more resources and higher quality pokemon to do this type of content well. Yes, some alt users may only run the raid with themselves and not bother doing it with other players anyways or that there are easy workaround for the OT clause, but I know quite some number of people with alts who got tired of working around the new restrictions and gave up on bothering to breed for OT (for example, it was only 1 for the 3* raids but the uncertainty of what it would be for the 4* raids made ppl give up and not look back) 2. Repeat rewards vs last year's LNY: People are starting to feel the burnout from the last 2 events. With the shrine being a massive source of pokeyen income with 0 costs, veteran players who already did the LNY event last year were far less compelled to participate in the raids this year since it was the same alphas and legendary. I think the lower pool of experienced raiders have exacerbated these issues: 1. Not good enough pokemon: Players with "okay" raid mons who may have been successful during Halloween and Xmas are now struggling much more because the carries are no longer there. Before, you probably could've been okay if all of your DPS weren't 2x31iv. Now, they are a considerable liability because you are more likely to queue up with ppl who don't have the proper nature and IV/EVs either. 2. Hotfixes: Changing how Miracle Eye works and fixing Wonder Room are obvious productive fixes I don't have qualms about. But changing things to its "fixed" state such as the Slaking Amnesia and Shaymin's sky form typing and stats threw a wrench into the community effort of helping each other out on raids. In a group, it is important for everyone involved to be on the same page on what needs to be done, and the strategies chalked out by experienced players getting outdated had made the problem solving process much harder (remember, not everyone is good at pokemon the video game). I think there's a discussion to be had on whether to not fix something if it doesn't make the raid objectively easier. 3. The runaway effect: The pool of experienced raiders are too good at dealing damage that the strategies they write do not translate well to players who theoretically can clear it but are far less experienced or have a lot less to work with. One sort-of example that comes to mind is the Ampharos raid with players recommending using a Sun Team. This went disastrously for a group I was trying to help. Spamming Earthquake with ground mons ended up being better even if it did less damage from the cotton spore because pokemon would survive and it would've been far more work to detangle why the dmg checks weren't being met with their fire dps instead. I'm not saying these are issues that devs need to do something about because in the end, raids are not for everyone and it needs to reward the people who put in the proper time and resources. Also economy this economy that blah blah blah. But I think the context is helpful for why some things may be different for LNY vs Ween or Xmas.

Yes! It shouldn't if you joined the team in the middle of the event. Good luck!

The eel is finally here! I was expecting to be here for months so I am very glad I got my 2 spooders and it was done!

The ice babies are here to help Santa as his helpers... With the help of a big, shiny, legendary friend! ign: RouteX Art Progression + Behind the Scenes: Thank you for your consideration!

Shout out to everyone who requested a padoru for this holiday season. And also a huge thanks to all of my benefactors who have supported my 1st year of starting my art shop. I am proud of how much I've improved and I look forward to providing higher and higher quality artwork! Merry Christmas! Feliz Navidad!

Arrrrrgh another phase! That's it, the hunt for the eel is fr fr this time! Even changed my get-up to lure this green eel out like my depends on it! (ok it wasn't too bad since I evolved 1 of the joltik to galvantula but still)

Thank you for your interest! I'll reach out to you on discord when i get the chance!

Great to see you! Here’s your padoru and I hope you have a nice rest of your day!

I'll get back to you on this via dms when I get the chance!

Some pose examples have been added for those who may be interested but have no clue what kind of art they would like. Of course no need to choose from this list!

Just wanted to share my newest catch this holiday season. The colors kinda work i think!

An L taken in L forest but super stoked to get Scoliopede for my next shiny! Its stats are an affront to god but happy to have a Swarm pokemon for future shunts!

Here is your padoru. Cheers!

Magic done! Hope you have a good rest of the holiday season!