In Pokemon Go, will aiming for the highest IV give the highest CP as well?

It seems at first to me that, if a Dratini only has a CP of 10, but has the semi-circle bar possible going to a possible maximum of 500, then it will be better than a Dratini that has a CP of 390 but is already near the max.

But it seems that many people go for the highest IV. When I looked at some gyms, people have CP values of 3000 or so.

So, does that mean I should go for the highest IV or CP? Or since most people aim for the highest IV, it seems, will that result in a highest possible CP as well?

Solution 1:

Maximum CP is determined by both IV and trainer level.

Since trainer level is the same for all of a given trainer's Pokemon, a trainer can choose to look at only IVs instead when determining which of their pokemon have the highest potential.

Solution 2:

To give you a quick guide/answer, if you want to start battling now and don't plan on powering up any of the pokemon you're going to use, prioritize:

• CP
• Moveset
• IVs

If you're going to power up a pokemon and stick with it, prioritize:

• Moveset
• IVs
• CP

and you can even argue that CP is irrelevant on a pokemon you plan on powering up since that will increase.

Some movesets are better than others depending on whether or not you're attacking/defending and what the purpose of your pokemon in the lineup is. That's beyond the scope of this answer.

Explanation on why:

IV determines the max possible CP but doesn't necessarily mean a pokemon will do more damage at a certain level. In fact, you could have two pokemon with equal CPs and the one with lower IVs could possibly do more damage because of the way damage is calculated (it's affected by pokemon level, which means the higher IV pokemon will be a lower level because it doesn't require as many levels to reach the same CP as the lower IV pokemon).

There are some complicated mechanics involved...but to actually answer your question usefully:

Aim for the highest CP while you're not powering up any of your pokemon. IV doesn't matter (or, doesn't matter in any significant way) if you're not powering them up. If you decide to stick with a pokemon, then you can consider its IVs. Its current CP won't matter because you're just going to level it up anyway.

Oft overlooked by some people who just hear that perfect IVs are king is the fact that moveset is significantly more important than IV%. Some poor movesets do as low as 60-70% of the damage an optimal moveset does. Since IVs only account for 10% of total possible CP at max level, an optimal moveset is often far more important than the IV%.