Heatran used Fire Blast!
Heatran's attack missed!
I am sure many of you are familiar with this situation. I know I have been "lucky" many times before where the opponent's Fire Blast or Stone Edge has missed, often changing the game completely and putting me firmly back in contention.
Now, it's not like these "inaccurate" moves are uncommon. According to X-Act's statistics, there was a 5.92% chance Fire Blast could be found on a "typical" moveset of a Pokemon. Oppositely, Flamethrower sat at 5.69%. Stone Edge was at 10.52%, compared to the much lower Rock Slide (0.68%). Admittedly, Rock Slide still has only 90% accuracy.
I'm not saying this is always the case. Surf was much, much more popular than Hydro Pump (9.61% in comparison to 1.82%). But it sometimes doesn't make sense to me that people feel the need to use Fire Blast over Flamethrower on their Heatran, especially when you commonly see Heatran being used as an answer to Scizor. If Heatran is cleaning up late-game, do I want to take the risk of a Fire Blast missing Scizor I want to kill, and potentially costing me a Pokemon which is often so vital for my team late-game, and potentially allowing the opponent back into the game? No, not really.
I fully understand the need for certain moves on specific Pokemon. Take Focus Blast on Life Orb Gengar. Gengar pretty much has an ultimatum: use Focus Blast on its moveset, or faint to Choice Band Tyranitar's Pursuit every time, as opposed to the 30% chance of it fainting if Focus Blast misses (unless you want to be even more risky and use Hypnosis). It's not like Gengar has an alternative which is as useful - Hidden Power Fighting is much weaker and lowers Gengar's Speed IV (and fails to OHKO the same 252 HP / 0 SpD Tyranitar). But when people are using inaccurate moves as a "surefire" way to deal with specific threats, surely they could opt for a weaker option if it does the same damage to the Pokemon you are mainly damaging?
59.4% of people ran Fire Blast on their Heatran in July, only 28% used Flamethrower. Personally, I don't want to take the risk of Fire Blast missing in an important situation (which Heatran is often in!). Take into account that Heatran can often "clean up" late game, and the accuracy problem looks even more annoying as a single miss can put you in a poor situation. But then, Flamethrower might be too weak to pull of that sweep, I'm not denying that.
I'm not saying "let's all use Flamethrower, Surf, Rock Slide", and so on. Arguably Fire Blast is much better, and it obviously gets extra KOes on weakened threats that Flamethrower simply cannot get. But I just don't like the use of inaccurate moves when I need them to hit.
It's arguably even worse early / mid game. Everybody knows that keeping the pace of the game to your team's liking is important. If you miss, the momentum may switch to the opponent, meaning that not only do you not do damage, you may also get hit and lose the aforementioned valuable momentum. If you predict perfectly, but the attack misses, the opponent can gain momentum, as well as information on your play style, while you gain absolutely nothing, and possibly wish you had the more-accurate move to get "some" damage on the opponent.
Again, the additional power is obviously the selling point, and gets many more KOes against little things you may not have considered when building your team. But in the long run will it work out? Sometimes you hear people say "Hydro Pump essentially has 96 base power (120*0.8), and therefore it is better than Surf". I still hate that example, and it doesn't take into account that Surf will always hit when it is most important, whereas Hydro Pump is risky. Arguably sometimes it doesn't matter, sometimes Hydro Pump misses don't make a huge impact on the game (Starmie hitting full HP Blissey, for example).
What about moves like Sleep Powder? Is lead Roserade really reliable against those slower Pokemon that it can sleep when it is relying on a 75% accurate move?
Anyway, I question the use of moves like Fire Blast when there are lesser alternatives that are 100% accurate that hit the major threats still. Why do people like relying on such moves when vital Pokemon (like Heatran), tend to end up in important situations? Do you take the risk for the extra power, and do you find it pays off, or do you use the less powerful yet more accurate option? Sometimes I cannot help feel people use the more powerful moves just because of the bigger number, not fully thinking about what the Pokemon is doing. Just some opinions would be nice. :)
/edit: Just to say, the net damage view of looking at inaccurate yet powerful moves kind of sucks. Firstly, it doesn't take into account when the misses happen. I could hit all game and miss when it's most important. The average damage might still be higher, but I will have failed to KO what I need to KO. On top of this, sometimes the extra damage is irrelevant, like in a Heatran vs Scizor / Heatran vs Blissey situation. It beats Scizor with the weaker move still..and loses to Blissey with the stronger move still. What matters is the situations you want / expect that Pokemon to be in.
I can't wait for KG's reply...
Heatran's attack missed!
I am sure many of you are familiar with this situation. I know I have been "lucky" many times before where the opponent's Fire Blast or Stone Edge has missed, often changing the game completely and putting me firmly back in contention.
Now, it's not like these "inaccurate" moves are uncommon. According to X-Act's statistics, there was a 5.92% chance Fire Blast could be found on a "typical" moveset of a Pokemon. Oppositely, Flamethrower sat at 5.69%. Stone Edge was at 10.52%, compared to the much lower Rock Slide (0.68%). Admittedly, Rock Slide still has only 90% accuracy.
I'm not saying this is always the case. Surf was much, much more popular than Hydro Pump (9.61% in comparison to 1.82%). But it sometimes doesn't make sense to me that people feel the need to use Fire Blast over Flamethrower on their Heatran, especially when you commonly see Heatran being used as an answer to Scizor. If Heatran is cleaning up late-game, do I want to take the risk of a Fire Blast missing Scizor I want to kill, and potentially costing me a Pokemon which is often so vital for my team late-game, and potentially allowing the opponent back into the game? No, not really.
I fully understand the need for certain moves on specific Pokemon. Take Focus Blast on Life Orb Gengar. Gengar pretty much has an ultimatum: use Focus Blast on its moveset, or faint to Choice Band Tyranitar's Pursuit every time, as opposed to the 30% chance of it fainting if Focus Blast misses (unless you want to be even more risky and use Hypnosis). It's not like Gengar has an alternative which is as useful - Hidden Power Fighting is much weaker and lowers Gengar's Speed IV (and fails to OHKO the same 252 HP / 0 SpD Tyranitar). But when people are using inaccurate moves as a "surefire" way to deal with specific threats, surely they could opt for a weaker option if it does the same damage to the Pokemon you are mainly damaging?
59.4% of people ran Fire Blast on their Heatran in July, only 28% used Flamethrower. Personally, I don't want to take the risk of Fire Blast missing in an important situation (which Heatran is often in!). Take into account that Heatran can often "clean up" late game, and the accuracy problem looks even more annoying as a single miss can put you in a poor situation. But then, Flamethrower might be too weak to pull of that sweep, I'm not denying that.
I'm not saying "let's all use Flamethrower, Surf, Rock Slide", and so on. Arguably Fire Blast is much better, and it obviously gets extra KOes on weakened threats that Flamethrower simply cannot get. But I just don't like the use of inaccurate moves when I need them to hit.
It's arguably even worse early / mid game. Everybody knows that keeping the pace of the game to your team's liking is important. If you miss, the momentum may switch to the opponent, meaning that not only do you not do damage, you may also get hit and lose the aforementioned valuable momentum. If you predict perfectly, but the attack misses, the opponent can gain momentum, as well as information on your play style, while you gain absolutely nothing, and possibly wish you had the more-accurate move to get "some" damage on the opponent.
Again, the additional power is obviously the selling point, and gets many more KOes against little things you may not have considered when building your team. But in the long run will it work out? Sometimes you hear people say "Hydro Pump essentially has 96 base power (120*0.8), and therefore it is better than Surf". I still hate that example, and it doesn't take into account that Surf will always hit when it is most important, whereas Hydro Pump is risky. Arguably sometimes it doesn't matter, sometimes Hydro Pump misses don't make a huge impact on the game (Starmie hitting full HP Blissey, for example).
What about moves like Sleep Powder? Is lead Roserade really reliable against those slower Pokemon that it can sleep when it is relying on a 75% accurate move?
Anyway, I question the use of moves like Fire Blast when there are lesser alternatives that are 100% accurate that hit the major threats still. Why do people like relying on such moves when vital Pokemon (like Heatran), tend to end up in important situations? Do you take the risk for the extra power, and do you find it pays off, or do you use the less powerful yet more accurate option? Sometimes I cannot help feel people use the more powerful moves just because of the bigger number, not fully thinking about what the Pokemon is doing. Just some opinions would be nice. :)
/edit: Just to say, the net damage view of looking at inaccurate yet powerful moves kind of sucks. Firstly, it doesn't take into account when the misses happen. I could hit all game and miss when it's most important. The average damage might still be higher, but I will have failed to KO what I need to KO. On top of this, sometimes the extra damage is irrelevant, like in a Heatran vs Scizor / Heatran vs Blissey situation. It beats Scizor with the weaker move still..and loses to Blissey with the stronger move still. What matters is the situations you want / expect that Pokemon to be in.
I can't wait for KG's reply...