Wild Cubone Appeared. Wild Cubone used Leer.

[Ranorak]

While I just started a new game of Pokemon Black, I of course had the ample choice of Tackle or Leer with most of my new pokemons.
And I started thinking, Who actually uses those moves like Tail Whip, Leer, Growl and Harden?

I started reading Bulbapedia for some info and found this

Meaning that moves like Bulk-Up and Harden actually raise their stats to 4 times the basics if used 6 times.

That's impressive, but then again...
In six turn I usually beat the crap out of 90% of the trainers anyway.

So, who here actually uses these moves?




...Wild Cubone used Headbutt, It was Super Effective.

 

[Ordinaryundone]

A couple of the stronger ones are actually pretty effective. In particular, moves that sharply decrease accuracy combined with moves that raise evasion can troll the hell out of inexperienced players. Also, defensive/counter moves are ridiculous in some generations (its why Wobuffet was considered god tier).

That said, at the top levels of the game most battles are decided within the first three moves of the mons coming out, sometimes even before the next one can come out. So overall, it's not really worth it.

 

[Lilani]

The ones that lower the stat "harshly" can be really useful, like Screech and whatnot. But those are upper level and usually come from TMs. Otherwise those four you listed are pretty much the first moves I eliminate.

 

[Lizardon]

I agree that they can be pointless. Using a turn to raise your attack to 1.5 and then attacking next turn, when you could have attacked twice and done double damage is silly.

It's the one's that sharply raise or harshly drop stats and raise/lower two stats that are useful. Sometimes you will not be able to survive two turns against a certain Pokemon so using something like Sword Dance or Agility while battling a Pokemon you can easily destroy can win you the battle latter on.

Like all moves in Pokemon, their usefulness depends entirely on the circumstances.

... Also Headbutt is a normal type attack so can not be super-effective against anything =P

 

[TsunamiWombat]

Headbutt is super effective against drunks and chavs, Lizardon. Read the Manual.

 

[Ranorak]

They're Super Effective against me

 

[C F]

If I'm out grinding a freshly caught Pokémon, I'll usually use leer/tackle instead of tackle/tackle to save on PP, but those moves only have a temporary place on my roster. Defense raising moves can come in handy for longer battles in which you only plan on using one 'mon, but situations where that's a viable strategy aren't frequent enough. I find Growl to be a complete waste of time.

Accuracy and Evasion affecting moves can be sweet, as can dual-stat raising moves like Dragon Dance and Calm Mind. Even the dedicated versions, like Swords Dance and Screech can seriously wreck your opponent's crap, but the basic versions are little more than party favors in comparison.

 

[Waaghpowa]

I can't speak for the current pokemon games, but red was where I used stat increasing abilities.

I would always use Amnesia once or twice with a psychic pokemon, that way Psychic attack would always one shot whatever I'm up against.

 

[Smeggs]

While I just started a new game of Pokemon Black, I of course had the ample choice of Tackle or Leer with most of my new pokemons.
And I started thinking, Who actually uses those moves like Tail Whip, Leer, Growl and Harden?

I started reading Bulbapedia for some info and found this

Meaning that moves like Bulk-Up and Harden actually raise their stats to 4 times the basics if used 6 times.

That's impressive, but then again...
In six turn I usually beat the crap out of 90% of the trainers anyway.

So, who here actually uses these moves?




...Wild Cubone used Headbutt, It was Super Effective.

Well, in Gen3 I spam stuff like Fake Tears, because for some reason they made all Dark type attack in Gen3 Sp. Attacks (WTF, how is Bite not physical? What were they thinking?)
It makes the move Crunch extremely powerful after one or two hits.

And it's not so much the "I can beat this one pokemon in two turns less than it takes me to build up my attack," it's "I spammed Swords Dance after putting N's Archeops to sleep, and now I can 1-hit the rest of his pokemon afterward rather than having to sake 4 turns."

You only ever really use the moves in prolonged battles, usually with 4-6 pokemon.

But I am mostly guilty of the "faster killing is better than build-killing" mentality. I usually stick the strongest damaging moves on most of my Pokemon, save for maybe one with Toxic, Thunder Wave, or Hypnosis.

 

[Terminate421]

Well I only used stat altering moves when I needed to train my pokemon at lower levels. Of course for online I have some swords dancers......

 

[JochemHippie]

Depends entirely on the pokemon you're using, ofcourse.

 

[DanielBrown]

Never bothered with those. Only spammed harden when I was leveling a Metapod(right name? Been a while) so I could get that attack they do when they're all out of attacks.

 

[LilithSlave]

When I was young and impatient, I never used stat moves.

Today, I try to keep something at least mildly strategic in, but it's hard when your Pokemon can only learn 4 moves.

I know it would be hard with backwards compatibility and the like, but they really should do away with the 4 moves thing.

And as one user mentioned, the early ones are only really good for saving on PP.

 

[archvile93]

I'd like to learn to use them, since they can be devestating when used effectively, or at least really annoying. Have you ever fought an Amoongus that knows flash, double team, take root, and giga drain while carrying leftovers? It's a nightmare, it just goes on and on and on.

 

[Prof. Monkeypox]

The lower-tier stats moves are not very useful, but I do often use a few of the upper-tier stats moves later game.

They aren't useful by themselves, but can be pretty devastating in the right circumstances. For example, I picked Charmander at the start of my red version, and with a type disadvantage against Brock, I caught a Pidgey and spammed Sand-Attack until the rock types literally could not hit me any longer.

 

[Aurora Firestorm]

Well, in Gen3 I spam stuff like Fake Tears, because for some reason they made all Dark type attack in Gen3 Sp. Attacks (WTF, how is Bite not physical? What were they thinking?)
It makes the move Crunch extremely powerful after one or two hits.

And it's not so much the "I can beat this one pokemon in two turns less than it takes me to build up my attack," it's "I spammed Swords Dance after putting N's Archeops to sleep, and now I can 1-hit the rest of his pokemon afterward rather than having to sake 4 turns."

You only ever really use the moves in prolonged battles, usually with 4-6 pokemon.

But I am mostly guilty of the "faster killing is better than build-killing" mentality. I usually stick the strongest damaging moves on most of my Pokemon, save for maybe one with Toxic, Thunder Wave, or Hypnosis.

So many moves in the latest generation have a chance of status effect that if I want to paralyze, I just electric-attack the thing until something happens. As for Bite being Dark, it's amazingly ridiculous, but it does give otherwise lame Pokemon a nice advantage early in the game. Bite and Crunch are pretty darn strong, especially if you run into the types that are weak to Dark. I love splashing them even later.

I find moves like Double Team to just be trolling. If you win because your Emolga used Double Team until the other Pokemon were missing all the time, you're not a winner, you're an asshole. Cynthia does it with her Spiritomb, and it's like, is this because you're not strong enough to beat me straightforwardly like a real person? Frustrating the hell out of other players (or, in the NPC's case, the single player) is kind of like a kick in the balls. Sure, it will win you the fight, but it's a dirty trick and no one comes out of it feeling like you fought fair.

In summary, this:

http://awkwardzombie.com/index.php?page=0&comic=011810

"Maybe I'm just a bad Pokemon trainer but I can't stand attacks that don't do damage and
they are without exception the first things I get rid of. Growl is just a synonym for
TERRIBLE."

 

[SuperSuperSuperGuy]

Moves like Swords Dance, Nasty Plot, Quiver Dance, Dragon Dance, etc. are actually quite good. Lower-level buffs like Harden and debuff moves, like Leer or Screech, in general are pretty useless.

I use powerful buffs all the time. With the not-so-powerful ones, I don't even bother.

 

[NinjaCatStudios]

They should make some kind of other combat system for pokemon, I can't think of what would fit with the idea of catching pokemon.

I always eliminate leer and such quickly, but if a once basicly considered dead pidgey uses sand attack effectively, it becomes an instant pain in the arse.

 

[Berenzen]

There's a couple abilities that can be out right broken, particularly if you plan on not swapping out your pokemon.. Swords Dance is a good example of this.

Say attack does 100 damage, just as a easy number to use.

SD- raises attack 2 stages- 200% raise-> 0 damage done
Attack-> 200 damage done-> On par
Attack-> 200 damage done-> 400 damage total-> Above the 300 damage done

The ones that lower skills, or only raise 1 stat 1 stage, are pretty poor however. But nobody likes taking a swords dance followed by a STAB Earthquake. 300 power before your pokemon's weakness is attributed is nothing to scoff at. It's possible to get up to 900 with type effectiveness and a critical hit.

 

[LevROLL]

I use stat boosts all the time. With pokemon like Gyarados and Volcarona, some moves boosts stats to astronomical heights.
In short, DD Ttar 4 life.