Which is better, Energy Ball or Grass Knot? The official answer!
 

Energy Ball's base power is a constant 80. What is Grass Knot's base average power?

Taking into account May's statistics and type coverage, Grass Knot's average base power is 79.9.

I decided to also calculate what would be Low Kick's average base power. It is actually even higher: 80.8. Unfortunately, most Pokemon that learn Low Kick also learn a Fighting move of higher base power.

So basically, on average, both deal practically the same amount of damage.

Now I know not to use energy ball on my specs Roserade.
Thanks, X-act! :D

For pokemon that use it for coverage and not stab, could you post the average base power counting only pokemon weak to grass?

Uhm, honestly I expected a longer article than just these numbers (even though you probably did put a lot of work into this).

Anyway, the average is not what counts, it's the specific threats you want to hit with your move. Even though you may hit, say, snorlax harder with grass knot, you don't want to hit snorlax harder, but you want to hit, ie, vaporeon, in which case you should use Energy Ball.

Why does low kick have a higher BP than grass knot? i thought both used the same formula for power.

It would be good to know for which pokemon you calculated the average damage :O
I am guessing it are all OU pokemon from May :pimp:

Whoops, sorry, I made a mistake. Grass Knot and Energy Ball's average are basically identical.

Low Kick does slightly more damage than Grass Knot because Physical Fighting moves have better type coverage, on average, then Special Grass moves.

If type coverage is not taken into account and only Pokemon usages are, both Low Kick and Grass Knot's average base power would be 79.7.

Regarding Pokemon usages, I took all final evolutions forms, with Pikachu, Scyther, Phione and Vigoroth, into account.

This makes Low Kick more appealing to me than Cross Chop on Electivire. 4.4 lower base power, but 20% more accurate.

Its interesting to know, but I agree that a chart or something would be nice to know exactly how it averages out. If all the the pokemon it hits strong are high OU and all the pokemon it hits weak are low OU then Grass Knot would be the better choice. However you can't see that off numbers so Energy Ball looks better off numbers.

Is the base power of grass knot determined by an actual formula with the opponent's weight as a variable? or just different weight classes and base powers associated with those classes (i.e. snorlax, tyranitar, mamoswine would be one). And if so, I'd like to know what the classes are in and which pokemon are in them, please.

Grass Knot can only hit for 20, 40, 60, 80, 100 or 120 base power, depending on the opponent's Pokemon's weight in kilograms.

These are the (final stage) Pokemon, in order of usage, that are dealt a Grass Knot of 120 base power:

100 base power:

80 base power:

60 base power:

40 base power:

20 base power:

Thanks. That really helps a lot when determining which you need.

edit: somewhat surprised glalie takes more then slaking...

I've been using Low Kick on Evire all along and it works pretty well. Sucks when Blissey/Umbreon/Porygon2/Z pop out though =/ but the 20% accuracy bonus helps. Most of the things you want to Cross-Chop as a non-stab move are heavy. Low kick has PP too, for what it's worth.
Steelix
TTar
RegiALL
Mamoswine
Lapras
Rhyperior

Other things like Weavile die no matter how light they are.


Good job on the Comparison X-act.

I'd forgotten how light Celebi, Weezing, and Jirachi all were. Not that you'd want to hit them with Grass Knot anyway, but still...

Anyway, this is great, X-Act. Thanks.

Thank you. I'm going with Energy Ball on pretty much everything that has a choice (my Sceptile I'm breeding soon).

And how does Dewgong weigh more than Garchomp?

I have a pokemon weight book...

Dewgong: 264.6 lbs
Glalie: 565.6 lbs
Garchomp: 209.4 lbs

I was thinking the same thing lol. I guess it's because Dewgong has Thick Fat.

Cookies, I'm not sure to consider that a bad joke or an honest answer =/

Anyway, when you say "may's statistics", what number of pokemon does this include? all of them?

If you would, could you see the average base power of grass knot on OU pokemon? I'm sure it would be higher.

In OU Grass knot is still the superior choice Gyarados, Tyranitar, Hippowdon, Milotic, Donphan and Suicune are hit for 100-120bp

Energy Ball is probably better as an overall STAB attack so that you don't get randomly walled by crap like Azelf. However, Grass Knot's higher BP comes in useful against specific threats where it hits harder (Ttar,Hippo etc.) Most Pokemon without Grass STAB get Grass Knot, not Energy Ball, anyway so its sort of moot.

When I say 'May's statistics', it automatically means that OU Pokemon are taken into account much more than non-OU ones. So what makes you so sure that it would be higher if I took into account OU Pokemon? I did take into account mostly OU Pokemon, since I took usages into account!

You're saying that I'm wrong, then? I said that I took May's statistics into account.

I think he means that in ladder matches we're unlikely to find pokemon in the 20BP group, like Unknown, Wormadam, Plusle, Luvdisc, where if you took pokemon like them away it might make it closer to 80BP. I still think I would choose Grass Knot on an OU pokemon because even if Energy Ball is superior, it's only by .1, which isn't much.

Articanus: Well, I thought it was a good joke. I mean, it makes sense. Dewgong is apparently fat so it must weigh more than Garchomp x_x

Also, if you're trying to decide Energy Ball or Grass Knot on a Pokemon like Celebi, even though by your statistics Energy Ball is better, Grass Knot is superior because you have to take into account who Celebi is trying to beat. A pokemon like Gyarados or Hiipowdon, who Celebi faces a lot more than Azelf, take Grass Knot at really high Base Power, making Grass Knot a superior choice.

By my statistics Energy Ball is not better. By my statistics they're both equally good.

I weigh more than Garchomp. Low Kick would have 80 base power against me :/

Well, it depends. If you're running a Grass move on your Jirachi, as I am, for the specific purpose of taking out Tyranitar, Swampert, and Rhyperior, among other threats, then Grass Knot is the better option. If you're running a Grass move on Celebi (who just happens to be your Gyarados counter), Grass Knot is again the better option. If you just need a somewhat reliable STAB sweeping move, Energy Ball might be the more reliable choice. The fact that they come out to have almost exactly the same base power just means that you need to look at other factors when you're trying to choose which move to use.