Thunder...bolt?

[Squirrel]

There's a fair few moves at 95 power with 100% accuracy and a 10% chance to inflict a status such as Thunderbolt, Flamethrower, Sludge Wave, etc, but these moves all have stronger equivalents such as Thunder, Fire Blast and Gunk Shot respectively. These stronger versions sacrifice 30% accuracy for a stab at having an extra 35 base power and a 20% higher chance of inflicting the the status ailment. You have a choice between safe but average moves, or risky yet powerful moves - which do you tend to use and why? (Also duos like Outrage/Dragon Claw can apply too!)

 

[Sirfetch’d]

Well for me it depends on the situation really.

Thunderbolt >>>>>Thunder under normal circumstances because that accuracy is just too unreliable to risk for the extra power, however luckily Thunder is 100% accuracy in rain and with the increase in rain teams it has actually become a more viable move. I just don't personally use the move unless I am using a rain team or using a Pokemon such as Galvantula with Compound Eyes as an ability.

As for Fire Blast, I almost always use it over Flamethrower because it actually has 85% accuracy and is definitely worth the risk for the extra power. Sure when it misses it can be really frustrating and might even cost you the match, however Flamethrower often isn't strong enough to take down the opposing Pokemon and you HAVE to have that extra power that Fire Blast will provide.

When looking at the water moves in this scenario, you really have 3. Scald, Surf, and Hydro Pump, with the latter being the stronger of the three, but with shaky accuracy. I often find myself using Hydro Pump over the others if I am running a choice set because that pure power is amazing and is worth the accuracy drop, however in all other cases I generally run Scald because the burn chance and still decent power trumps the 120 bp of Hydro Pump and it has perfect accuracy.

Ice Beam >>>>>>> Blizzard in all scenarios except on Hail teams where it has perfect accuracy. 70% is just not worth the risk for 25% more BP and Ice Beam is generally strong enough to get the job done.

 

[Meaii]

Thunderbolt, 95 Power & 100 Accuracy > Thunder, 120 Power & 70 Accuracy - I choose Thunderbolt over Thunder as long as I don't have Rain pounding to the ground, since Thunder is far too unreliable for me, and even though it usually ends up making me lose the battle (that's probably my nooby fault anyway c:), I feel that safe is far better then unsafe. Having a 30% chance of missing isn't worth it for an extra 25 power, and Thunderbolt usually does the job. If I'm acting really strange, I would use a Galvantula with Compound Eyes for 100% accuracy as well, but Galvantula is ugly and is horrible, in my opinion.

Flamethrower, 95 Power & 100 Accuracy < Fire Blast, 120 Power & 85 Accuracy - Even though I'm now kind of contradicting myself, I always use Fire Blast over Flamethrower for it's extra power. Anything under 80 Accuracy, I shall always choose the other option. If it's between 80 Accuracy and 100 Accuracy, I usually pick said move as long as it has more OOMPH! Flamethrower is usually far too weak if it is against a type that it is neither weak or strong against, such as Normal, but Fire Blast is the one that packs the punch and could win the match for you. I also use it because at the server, Fire Blast HAX obviously loves me and I have recorded only 3 misses in lots of matches against others.

Since I can't actually do the '<' evaluation with 3 different moves, I'll just type them out and make my option bold.

Scald, 80 Power & 100 Accuracy - Surf, 95 Power & 100 Accuracy - Hydro Pump, 120 Power & 80 Accuracy - Oh poop, I'm contradicting myself again ... Scald is quite choice that is usually hidden away in a dark, locked room, but I like it. It's got lower power and the same amount of accuracy as Surf, but the effect of burn does truly make up for it. Even though I did say that I would always choose the move with 80 Accuracy to 100 Accuracy over the weaker move with 100 accuracy, in my opinion Scald is a lot better as Hydro Pump and a 20% chance that it may miss and the 30% chance of burn stays with the opponent until the Pokémon is down.

Ice Beam, 95 Power & 100 Accuracy > Blizzard, 120 Power & 70 Accuracy - This one is another Thunderbolt/Thunder, I'll always choose Ice Beam over Blizzard unless there is hailstorm crashing down with the wind whooshing in your ears. As I have already previously said, having a 30% chance of missing just isn't worth it for an extra 25 power, and Ice Beam usually does the job anyway.

I swear I won't contradict myself again this time!

...

Okay, I will. n~n

Sludge Wave, 95 Power & 100 Accuracy < Gunk Shot, 120 Power & 70 Accuracy - Gah, curse me! >-< Before I go shred myself to pieces with my stapler, this is why I have contradicted myself once more. Even though Gunk Shot has below 80 Accuracy, it has a 30% chance of poisoning the opponent, 20% more then Sludge Wave. In my opinion, that extra 20% makes up for that fail of an accuracy, making it between 80 Accuracy and 100 Accuracy.


Okay, now my fingers are bleeding. n~n That's my opinions on some of the moves that are slightly hard to choose from, and I shall now shred myself with my stapler. >->

~ Meaii

 

[PlatinumDude]

On Rain teams, I use Thunder over Thunderbolt; I use Thunderbolt otherwise. I also use Thunder if I'm using CompoundEyes Galvantula.

I use Fire Blast over Flamethrower because Fire Blast's accuracy is more reliable than Blizzard or Thunder.

I use Ice Beam over Blizzard.

I also use Hydro Pump over Surf, despite the Stone Edge-level accuracy; sure, the misses are annoying, but the extra power are may be what I need.

 

[antemortem]

I typically use Thunderbolt over Thunder outside of Rain teams because the waive in Thunder's accuracy is unreliable. Thunderbolt also hits solid as it will often be supported by a stat heightening attack or a choice item of some sort, depending on the Pokemon. Fire Blast's accuracy, as some others have said, is actually somewhat reliable given the attack power it provides, so it's often times a better choice than Flamethrower. Sludge Wave/Scald/Ice Beam are a big 'absolutely' considering their reliability and I much prefer reliability to power regardless of the set.

 

[.:batto:.]

I prefer having higher accuracy. Always have, Most of my Pokemon are EV trained, So normally it isn't that big of a problem. As I've never went into WiFi battles.
HOWEVER i did not know that thunder has 100% accuracy in rain. Thanks for the info guys. ;)

 

[Hikamaru]

When possible, I do use stuff like Thunderbolt and Ice Beam over their stronger counterparts mainly due to reliability and good coverage. I don't use Thunder often unless if I'm using rain teams or Compoundeyes Galvantula. Fire Blast is slightly better than Flamethrower because unlike Thunder and Blizzard, it doesn't have Stone Edge-level accuracy but can still miss a bit. As far as Water attacks go, Hydro Pump's 70% accuracy may look bad but it can be useful if you need a push of damage, however Surf and Scald often see use due to their reliable accuracy as well as Scald's chance of burning the target.

 

[shamus24]

you generally want to use the 95 damage/100% accurate moves, but there are some cases where using the more powerful ones can be important. i can't think of specific examples off the top of my head, but if thunderbolt is only going to do 85-90% damage to a pokemon, while thunder will do 100% damage every time (if it hits), a far stronger case can be made for it.

 

[Aslan]

Depends on the situation, really. I'm not the one who takes fancy in using hard-hitting moves with a risky cost. I prefer accuracy over power to be completely honest but there are times when you'll need a move like Fire Blast to pull off, if you even want a chance of winning a match. Overall, let's just take an example of a risky move. Let's just use Thunder. Thunder is one of the most hard-hitting moves in the game, comes with a huge 120 base power and has 30% chance of paralysis (if I'm not mistaken). So you're probably going: Great! 120 base power and paralysis, how the hell can Thunderbolt even be compared to that? Well there's kind of a downfall. 70% accuracy. That means 30% of the time, the move will miss which kind of sucks.

It just depends. If I'm not using a rain team, a hail team, a sun team, a whatever sort of weather team that helps make these moves perfectly accurate, I'm reluctant on using them. I mean I even used to be picky on using Tackle before Gen V. I'm just so nervous about accuracy, you can either get 35 more base power or the move completely missing and dealing nil damage. Is it worth it? I really don't know, but I just don't like using them unless they're made perfectly accurate under the condition of weather. That's why I'm also kind of reluctant on using Hustle as well. I like accuracy over attack if you can't tell. The only hard-hitting low-accuracy move I'll take a risk using is Fire Blast. I trust 15% but 30 is far too risky to be honest. But accuracy > power, a smart player can pull off a match with Thunderbolts and Flamethrowers and do perfectly fine. Those low-accuracy moves aren't worth the risk sometimes, to be honest, no matter how powerful they are. But I'll take a risk with Hydro Pump, just not those 70% accurate moves. ):

 

[Arlo]

I never use inaccurate moves if I can avoid it. Yes - 120 is greater than 95, but 95 is MUCH greater than 0. I'm not willing to run the risk of missing completely just to gain 25 base power. So pretty much the only time that I use the less accurate moves is with guaranteed weather or with an accuracy boosting ability (though about the only good example of that that pertains to the topic is Thunder on Compound Eyes Galvantula - a better example is Dynamic Punch on No Guard Machamp).

 

[KorpiklaaniVodka]

Thunder > Thunderbolt in Uberz. Kyogre is everywhere and I'd use Thunder even on a sun team, especially on something like Palkia to beat Kyogre.
In RU, Galvantula makes nice use of Thunder - thanks to its Compoundeyes ability. Thunder off 97 Special Attack actually hits quite hard.
In OU, UU and NU, Thunderbolt is more common, but Thunder can still be used if you're feeling lucky or if you're using rain.

Another example: Hurricane vs Air Slash. I'd rather use Hurricane even in a non-rain team because Air Slash is just too weak and I'm not relying on a 30% chance of flinching.

 

[Ace.]

Hmm, Personally I prefer using moves that have higher accuracy than higher power. But if you have Pokemon like Machamp with the ability No Guard then I'd go with higher power. If theres a specific weather which a which a move needs in order to have 100% accuracy like Rain for Thunder & Hurricane then I'd go with that.

 

[Sheep]

I highly prefer the accuracy so I always go with Thunderbolt, Flamethrower, Ice Beam, and etc. The power might not be as great but risking a miss will certainly come back to bite me in the behind.

 

[BlueEspeon]

I prefer High accuracy. I have a Luxray in my Pokemon White, and it seems like it misses almost all the time...

 

[JordanD]

I only use thunder in rain or if its on Galventua(Compound eyes is great!),also on a side note,specs Galventua is a great late game sweeper!

 

[Satoshi Ookami]

I almost always prefer the 95 power trio.
But if I have access to rain, I immediately go for Thunder.
Thunder is probably the only 120 power move I use.

 

[LolPizzaLol]

When there's rain or hail, I'll go for Thunder and Blizzard, respectively. But if there's no rain or hail, I almost always go for the 100% accuracy moves. Very rarely, when I need to do a lot of damage, I take the risk and use the 120 power moves.

 

[Aeroblast]

I usually have a rain team so I prefer Thunder over Thunderbolt (TM25 is usually also easier to get). However for others thunderbolt is the more preferred move and that's perfectly understandable.

Fire Blast's power and Flamethrower's accuracy I think complement each other's weakness but I have to go with Flamethrower because of Fire Blast's pitiful PP.

Hail is an unpopular weather, Blizzard is hilariously inaccurate, therefore my vote has to go to Ice Beam.

I have to vote for Scald out of the three, because chance to burn is very important as it cripples many Pokemon.

Poison moves? Nobody uses them because they're crap, though if Fairy types make their use more prominent I could judge on this easier.

 

[Boilurn]

I'm a bit of a gambler and like the idea of wallbreaking, so I tend to like Thunder more than the reliable Thunderbolt. However, if I need to beat the Elite Four, then I would stick with Thunderbolt as it has 24PP Max and 100% accuracy.

 

[Perriechu]

I always go for accuracy over power. I like to play it safe. The only time I use Thunder, Fire Blast, Blizzard and Hydro Pump is under special circumstances.