PvP Charged Attack Technique

Some time ago, there was a major change in how Charged Attacks in Pokémon Go are executed in PvP battles, after charging them in order to use them. Previously, Charged Attacks required tapping a single button to generate power; now, their power is generated by swiping icons that appear on the screen. It's a neat change with some profound implications, one of which is that executing them may be considered to necessitate some "technique".

The icons appear either from the edge or the middle of the screen. Sometimes they come in "streams", while other times they come as "lines" or as "clusters". What is clear, however, is that each type of Charged Attack always appears in the same way: for example, Water-type attacks have a stream of icons from the right side of the screen, while Poison-type attacks appear in small bunches on the lower end of the screen, and Steel-type attacks require swiping lines that overall look like slashing in the shape of the letter "X" in the middle of the screen. Whatever the case, the technique therefore involves how one swipes these icons. As well, this description is rather simple, but the technique may not be.

Compared to tapping a button, now the Charged Attacks appear more intuitive, and they can be "gauged" in a way, as the power of the attacks are rated with the Nice-Great-Excellent qualifiers, like throwing a Poké Ball. In fact, the technique that this necessitates seems to be almost on par with that; I seem to always have trouble with the stream of icons for Flying-type attacks and the lines of Rock-type attacks, while I can mostly handle the bunching of Fire-type attacks and the streams for attacks of the Grass and Bug types. Even after having gotten used to them with all the PvP battles I've fought in, it seems that I can stand to always improve my technique with them, which may require some effort. It seems that this takes some time for mastery.

Meanwhile, the "technique" aspect seems to also be apparent in certain usage cases. In PvP with the Team GO Rocket leaders and boss, they will always deploy Protect Shields the first two times Charged Attacks are executed, so it becomes futile to follow through to generate power; this is something that one of my fellow Trainers demonstrated while fighting a team leader. Another one also posited that it may be possible to "read" or "detect" what type of Charged Attack an opponent may be performing in live battles and thus it may be important to try to do this in those circumstances as well as to make a "bluff" to prevent the opponent from being able to do the same. These are subtle aspects to the new Charged Attack technique, and it seems important to not count them out.

It's not hard to see that the new way of Charged Attack execution has become something quite technical. The process itself indicates that this is quite the case, as something that one needs to know how to do. The actual execution of the technique depends on that as well as the circumstances. As much as it is technical, it remains a neat change nevertheless due to the intuitive aspect of the method, and that same intuition seems to play back neatly into the technique.

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