Most useless moves? (besides Splash)

Sopheria

Sopheria

響け〜　響け！
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    Barring the obvious Splash, what in your opinion are the most useless moves?

    In no particular order, I would say:

    Synchronoise: For the life of me I can't find any use for this move. The majority of Pokemon that can learn it are psychic type, so the only time it hits, it does "not very effective" damage. I guess it has some merit on Kecleon, but even then it's not that strong so you'd be better off just using another move.

    Constrict: The weakest damage dealing move in the game, and all it does is occasionally lower the target's speed. It's not even useful early in the game.

    Poison Gas: It's outclassed by Toxic, which is more accurate, does bad poison instead of regular poison, and every Pokemon that learns Poison Gas learns Toxic by TM.

    Any One-Hit KO move: Against a Pokemon with the same level, it has 30% accuracy. Even the fact that it KO's the opponent in one hit doesn't justify how inaccurate it is. It's more accurate against a target with a lower level than the user, but in the case that the target's level is low enough for the accuracy to be reliable, most any attack would probably OHKO it. I still haven't found any use for these moves (except maybe Sheer Cold in double battles, since it hits two targets instead of one so the payoff is higher).
     
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    Probably Explosion/Self-Destruct. They instantly eliminate you from battle as well as (sometimes) the other opponent. It's kinda pointless don't ya think? xD
     
    Here are two I feel like mentioning that if you've watched Aquablade11's videos, you'll know how much he hates these two moves.

    Odor Sleuth and Foresight: Allows the user to hit Ghost-types with Normal and Fighting-type moves. He says the thing with that is that many of the Pokémon that learn them learn moves that can hit Ghost-types for super-effective damage, like Crunch, or just hit them hard with other attacks. The only benefit it has is dealing with evasion losers.

    Feint (Generation IV): And the thing with this one is, in Generation IV it only works if the foe is using Protect or Detect, otherwise it fails. And if you knew the foe was gonna do that, you'd be much better off either switching out or using a set-up move like Swords Dance or Dragon Dance instead of using something so weak. In Generation V it doesn't require the usage of those two moves, but it's still not worth much at all.

    He said on stream that he thinks Synchronoise is worse in Generation V, but prior to then these two are pretty pointless.
     
    Axeliira said:
    Probably Explosion/Self-Destruct. They instantly eliminate you from battle as well as (sometimes) the other opponent. It's kinda pointless don't ya think? xD
    Click to expand...

    Explosion/Self-Destruct is useful to inflict severe damage to an opponent, if not KO them, once you feel that the Pokemon has already done its job.

    Hitmontop and Blastoise use Foresight to ensure that they get a Rapid Spin off against Ghosts.

    Anyway, in my opinion, I think that Astonish is useless. It's just a weaker Bite.
     
    Water Sport is pretty useless, in my opinion. It slightly reduces power of fire-type attacks (whether they be yours or opponent's), but the effect wears off as soon as the user's gets called back into their Poké Ball. Same goes for Mud Sport, which does basically the same but only for electric moves. d:
     
    Flatter & Swagger: It's really useful, but can be really dangerous if player's pokemon doesn't have clear smog or haze.

    Trapping move because their attack power relatively low.
    and yes Synchronoise, it doesn't do much if I use it on psychic-psychic type.
     
    Without going into the attacks that are just weaker levels of viable moves:

    Future Sight...Yeah, I can think of very obscure situations where it'd be useful...

    Sonic Boom (Dragon Rage, not so much unless we're strictly talking competitive)...

    Flatter: At least Swagger makes their self-harm hurt more...Is there anything that gets Flatter that doesn't get Confuse Ray?...I understand it's a role playing move, and competitively, it'd be used against physical attackers, but it's still useless...

    Torment: Requires sacrifice to take out one move...Can only take out a direct attack, easy to play around...

    Fury Cutter: Takes too long to build up power...Probably died 6 times by the time you hit knock off an Alakazam...

    I tried staying away from the ones that exist solely for the purpose of role-playing...PoisonPowder is one I'd add to the list, though...
     
    Wow, Splash is automatically removed.
    How dare you mock Splash!
    Just kidding.

    Mud Sport, Water Sport, Synchronoise, and etc.
    They're all useless in my opinion, and I think I don't need to explain why.
     
    Helping Hand is totally useless you're in a double battle.

    Identify/ foresight: Useless for me to use personally. The only thing they really due is insure a hit and I don't really want to waste a move to insure a move.
     
    Mud sport, especially when most users of it are ground type. Congrats, you're taking less damage from a move you were already immune to. I know there's a couple of non ground types that get it and some pure water types which benefit from it but they're in the minority. I guess the same goes to water sport to a lesser extent since water types already resist Fire.
     
    Link119 said:
    Flatter: At least Swagger makes their self-harm hurt more...Is there anything that gets Flatter that doesn't get Confuse Ray?...I understand it's a role playing move, and competitively, it'd be used against physical attackers, but it's still useless...
    Click to expand...

    It can be useful in double battles when your teammate has Own Tempo.

    Axeliira said:
    Probably Explosion/Self-Destruct. They instantly eliminate you from battle as well as (sometimes) the other opponent. It's kinda pointless don't ya think? xD
    Click to expand...

    I've found some use of Explosion with my Sturdy Forretress. I just use it to set up some entry hazards, then when it takes a hit, it only has one HP left. Since it's only down to 1 HP, might as well go out with a bang, right? (see what I did there?)

    Talli said:
    I would like to add perish song as you can easily just switch a pokemon in.
    Click to expand...

    Perish Song is actually pretty useful for forcing an opponent to switch out. It can be really frustrating for your opponent when they've set up a sweep, and then they've got to make the painful choice: switch out or die! It's also saved my butt in a lot of battles where my opponent has a really powerful tank as their final Pokemon. At that point they can't switch out, so all you have to do is survive until the perish count drops to 0.
     
    How in the world does Heal Pulse even work? Can you heal your partner in a double/triple battle? And if you can, it's still situational and gimmicky as all hell. You're better off using something else rather than wasting a precious move slot for it.
     
    I always use Synchronoise. Its pretty decent if you know how to use it and can help out if the Pokemon isn't Dark Type.

    Most useless move.

    Celebrate- Your Pokemon wishes you a Happy Birthday.
     
    Present - Need I say more.

    I would also say Metronome, but it's kind of fun in it's randomness. I eventually want to try to work that into a set of some kind.
     
    Aside from Celebrate which Khrysta already brought up, I'd say Memento would be right up there as one of the most useless moves. Sure, I guess it lowers the attack and special attack of your opponent after causing your Pokemon to faint, but that's quickly countered by switching their Pokemon.
     
    Water Sport and Mud Sport are both useless. If a water type pokémon uses Water Sport, how would that help them in any way whatsoever? If it is a fire type, it won't affect them much anyway. And if they used it for their other teammates for when it faints, that won't work either.

    It's not so helpful even in double battles.
     
    Quash. Why does it even exist. Why does it take up a TM slot. I mean it has strategic use once in a blue moon, if that, and you're lucky if you ever even end up using it.

    Honorable mention for Mud Sport on Ground-types. Why would you even.
     
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