Psychic or psyshock?

The classic question. What do you generally go for, psychic or psyshock? About the same power, same distribution with both accessible as TM's, but one does special damage, while the other does physical. How do you go about choosing which to teach your Pokemon for competitive play?

I usually go for the one that gives my Pokemon better coverage. So if it already knows a move that inflicts special damage, I go for psyshock, and if it already knows a move that inflicts physical damage, I go for psychic.

Psyshock always works better for me in competitive play.

I prefer Psyshock; it deals damage to the target's Defense stat, as we all know, so we should have no problem taking down special walls with it. Compared to Psychic, though, not many Pokémon could learn this move. Psychic has higher base power, too, but could give you a lot of trouble when facing Chansey, Blissey, and other Pokémon of the like. :P

Usually Psyshock, since the Pokemon I tend to teach Psychic/Psyshock to are all special attackers (so they have enough special attacks already), and I like to make my pokes be able to handle walls if they can.

I'm going for both moves, because for a Psychic-type they sometimes might need an option that can hit through special walls without having to resort to physical moves that don't go well with their weak Attack stat. That's where Psyshock comes in handy, allowing them to use their high Sp. Attack but still be able to hit for physical damage, and Psychic can be used as their main STAB move to deal with everything else (barring Dark-types that is).

I'm kind of a novice battler, and I base things off my team. If it's a Pokemon built around Special Attack, I go with Special moves. If it's a Physical attacker, I go with Physical moves. I really need to start interpreting my moves with the other Pokemon in the Tiers rather than just mine, though.

Puddle said:

I'm kind of a novice battler, and I base things off my team. If it's a Pokemon built around Special Attack, I go with Special moves. If it's a Physical attacker, I go with Physical moves. I really need to start interpreting my moves with the other Pokemon in the Tiers rather than just mine, though.

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Thing is though, the damage Psyshock does is calculated from the user's Special Attack stat, so I think Psyshock is actually better on Special Attackers because it allows them to use their Special Attack to hit through special walls.

Psyshock because it does Physical coming off your high Special. I prefer Special Attackers and anything that were going to use Psychic should probably be using Psyshock as you have other coverage moves to hit your opponents Special Defense.

Both moves are good in their own way, but it has to be Psychic for me. Right from the off it has remained as one of my all-time favourite moves, right up there with the likes of Thunderbolt, Ice Beam, Energy Ball etc.

I generally use Psyshock, as it's very useful if the opponent's Special Defense blocks you from doing much damage. Psychic isn't a great attacking type overall, so Psyshock is better for coverage.

Well for me it depends on the Pokemon I am using. Here is a Scenerio

Magic Bounce Espeon-Psyshock
Magician Delphox-Psychic

reason for Espeon is because espeon really doesn't have that good of a Special attack so i go for the defensive attack Psyshock.

reason for Delphox is because it does really good with a stab attack on a Salamance and also i can gain an item from it. It does a 2HKO on a salamace without a calm mind.

I usually go for Psyshock because most people don't give a darn about Defense so you can just bomb 'em with it and they'll faint right off.

Psyshock.

There are a lot more special walls than there are physical these days. Good examples include those diabolical pink blobs known as Chansey and Blissey, Dragalge and Goodra. They're a tad weaker on the Physical side, so what better than to hit them on the side they least expect? Or the side they keep less well protected?