Exeggutor movesets
I've read a few questions about optimal Exeggutor movesets so I ran a few simulations of Exeggutor (ZH or C + SB) vs Vaporeon (WG + WP).
Without dodging, Vap wins against both ZH and C, but with much less HP remaining against C. With dodging, Exeggutor ZH and C perform equivalently (same HP remaining in both cases).
So from this, it would appear that Confusion generally outperforms ZH when paired with SB against the most relevant defender with it's best defensive moveset.
C and ZH perform basically equivalently for other Vape movesets as well. So when Exeggutor has SB as a charge move against Vapes, ZH only seems to significantly outperform C when the Vape has Aqua Tail AND when Exeggutor does not dodge. C otherwise does better, or they do more or less the same.
I didn't test it as extensively, but this same trend seems to apply for Psychic charge move as well, with C generally outperforming ZH except in rare situations.
Answers
What simulation cannot show are dodging errors. If i do not concentrate very well, i sometimes miss a dodge. If i do not pay attention and just tap on the screen suddenly reading "water gun incoming", my chance to dodge successfully is bigger with a fast quick move. Therefore i like ZH more than C.
How does the simulation take into account a
1:1(C - dodge - C - dodge) or
1:2 (2 ZH - dodge - 2ZH - dodge) - rythm?
Yes this is exactly what I was just thinking. These simulations assume perfect dodging (when dodging). I think it is safe to assume that you'll miss more dodges using C.
That said, there are still more examples than not when spamming with C/SB is more effective than ZH/SB. I guess I would conclude that C/SB isn't quite as bad as I (and apparently others) thought.
I think the simulation crams as many fast moves into the attack window as possible, which still allows the attacker to dodge. I believe the charge move is used as soon as it is charged. Here is the link to the simulator I use: https://pokeassistant.com/battlesimulator?locale=en
Gamepress should develop a battle simulator too!
Very interresting. Since you're already in the numbers point of view, how does Confusion fare compared to ZH if the attacker dodges charge moves only?
As a side note - Am I the only one who has started to enjoy Seed Bomb on attack? I know its DPS is inferior to Exeggutors other charge moves, but I've found it to be extremely comfortable to prestige against Water pulse and Aqua tail Vaporeons with a Co/SeB Exeggutor. Unlike Solar Beam you don't risk being hit by a charge move, since you'll always be able to get off a Seed bomb between two chained charge moves from the Vaporeon.
Confusion/psychic is the obvious best defensive move. But I recent'y fought Exxegutor with confusion and seedbomb. At the beggining of the match Exxegutor manage to use confusion twice and seed bomb as the 3rd attack. I now think Con/seed could be even better than con/psy
I think the reason why they can do this is because of confusion long cooldown and the short bars and seebomb. Slowbro can also do it with confusion & water pulse.
I rank zh/seed & zh/psy as the 4th/3rd best defensive moveset
Anything with solar is the worst moveset for defense.
I have a crapton of Exeggutors, and have my preferences.
If you are dong a "perfect dodge" scenario, then confusion is gonna win. That's because typically you can only pull off one quick move safely (ZH or C) before waiting to dodge the opponents attack.
However, I can't play like that... I go crazy.
Water gun is such a weak defensive move, when combined with a resistances to water, I will take the damage.
So I spam attack ZH, and dodge the charges. It builds energy fast, which makes pulling off the special that much faster. While confusion hits hard, that little extra cool down does make it slightly more difficult to do a last minute dodge in case you get a little trigger happy.
I'm also a fan of seed bomb over solar beam, even though I have a maxed out exe of each. I seed bomb is quick enough that I can often dodge waterpulse about half the time.
Usually I will spam zh until my second charge bar is full, then I will alternate seed bomb-zh-seedbomb-zh etc... using the animation time of zh to charge my next seed bomb, it times out very well and shaves off damage very fast.
