its a trade off. T-bolt is imo is an inferior attacking type against water, and thats where power whip comes into play. unless you run hp grass, a special set will be walled by bulky ground waters.
and they would be very common being that they can operate in both sand and rain.
sure, with a physical set, you wont be able to hit grass types for SE, but at least you get stab off a return.
licky doesnt need total coverage, it just needs to hit weather users.
I was thinking about this, and I completely agree. Electric is a dangerous type for the user now, especially in Rain teams. You don't want to try to hit Starmie with Tbolt, just for Zapdos to switch in and get a special attack boost. Azumarill and Zeburaika can abuse Herbivore in rain teams, but they aren't nearly as potent as Zapdos is. Also, with Power whip you can SE on Wash Machine Rotom and 4x SE on Swampert, Omastar, and Kabutops which are scary if they go unchecked. Gyrados does counter a completely Phys Licki quite well, especially with Intimidate, where as Tbolt could do wonders against Gyra and Intimidate would do nothing on a Spec Licki.