Jolteon with thunder
I use my Jolteons quite a lot since they are the most relevant electric types ( strong, good moves, easy to obtain) and therefore the most important Gyarados counter. After their buff, along with the nerf of most grasses, they also became relevant water counters.
Now, I have 3 of them and the only one with really good IVs(>90%) has thunder. I know it's Jolteon's best offensive moveset but I actually prefer shorter duration charge moves - especially on Jolteon, since dodging is absolutely crucial with it.
How much better is thunder really on offense compared to the other 2 charge moves? I mean I have the other 2 but on higher CP Jolteons so it's difficult to compare.
According to the numbers (from movesets for Pokémon Go) thunderbolt is only 2% weaker than thunder. That is easily compensated with efficient dodging.
I don't have any good grasses, unfortunately, so I would love to power up a Jolteon so I can take down a Vap or 2 with it. My current Jolts (1000CP - 1400CP) are having a hard tim.
to state the question again: Is thunder superior to thunder and to discharge(which I like using the most)? This is assuming I dodge every attack.
PS: My discharge Jolteon is 80% perfect and I'm considering powering it up.
My thunder Jolteon is below 70% and not worth powering up. It also has the highest CP of the 3 to begin with.
Answers
I wouldn't transfer it. I'm getting 1 candy for it. Ridiculous. Plus, I really think it's good, especially against water pulse Vaps and twister Gyarados.
I know that grasses are superior against water but I just wasn't lucky: Victreebel with poison moveset(bummer), vileploom with poison quick attack and Petal blizzard(kind of OK), exeggutor with confusion and seed bomb (meh). Also they are not high CP. Exeggutor has the highest with about 1650.
My next shot is probably going to be a Venusaur. I'm really hoping for wv/sb.
But until then a 2000ish Jolteon would be the best 've got against waters.
I only bother dodging charge moves and tend to use Thunder against single bar defenders (e.g. Vapes with Hydro-pump and a Thunderbolt against Aqua tails). Both work well - With Thunder you often only need one charge attack to finish off/almost finish off a defender, with Thunderbolt you'll generally need at least three.
In practice I find I can kill off defenders much more quickly with Thunder and probably prefer it, but both work well.
For reference My Thunder Jolt currently sits at 2418 cp, my Thunderbolt at 2298.
Thunder does more DPS assuming you just spam attacks ad infinitum. Thunderbolt is better for those that dodge because you'll take less damage from being able to dodge moves sooner after using your charge move that will result in more overall damage being done before your Pokemon faints.
Discharge sucks though. The difference of 4 IV points is not worth the requirement of needing to power up that Discharge Jolteon up more - you said the Thunder one had higher original CP so it's level was higher. Stop listening to the IV circlejerk. Moveset is more important.
Personally I like thunder on jolteon, most will have multiple anyway and he has such low hp potion use isn't really an issue if you miss dodge.
I only use jolteon for gyarados anyway and if players rolled WP they usually use it for offense. So there's a good chance the defender will have twister anyways. So a quicker move wouldn't really help dodging. Just my opinion.
Your ivs aren't going to matter, especially that close together.
Regarding the longer duration, none of Jolteon's charge moves are fast enough to use cleanly in between dodges without taking damage. You are always going to get hit by at least one fast move. Discharge just isn't enough damage compared to the other two. Thunderbolt charges faster and can be used more often, but then I am getting hit more without dodging. Thunder can often be timed carefully and only get hit by one or two fast moves in between.
