Espeon Zen headbutt or Confusion?
Which quick move do you prefer on espeon for machamp raids or in general and why?
I feel like zen headbutt has a bigger dodge window but even in that situation I prefer the dps from Confusion even with the longer cool down time and the energy gain is slightly better.
Answers
I agree with devshaw. Points to add:
1. Zen Headbutt is strictly worse than Confusion in terms of Cycle DPS. Confusion features both higher DPS and EPS. EPS might be more important as with Confusion, I can sometimes get two Future Sight off before Espeon faints in raids like Victreebel, Poliwrath, and Machamp.
2. Confusion is notorious for being unfriendly to dodging. This is true. But keep in mind that Zen Headbutt is not much better. I've tried both and found that if you can dodge with Zen Headbutt, you can pretty much dodge with Confusion; vice versa.
3. Espeon's relatively low ATK (compared to its Psychic Glass Cannon peers, aka Alakazam and Mewtwo) should be compensated by some powerful fast moves in order to win back DPS and overall performance. By the way, it's the opposite case for Alakazam - having the least bulk forces it to equip Psycho Cut and dodging to compete with its peers.
I personally like ZH more because, while it's not impossible to dodge using confusion, it's notably less successful. And even though espy is a bit tankier than Zam, it still won't survive more than a couple of any of machamps charge moves if undodged, and I consider my psychic types a bit wasted if they don't get at least 2-3 charge moves off before fainting.
Of course, all of this is bearing in mind that my solo machamp team only has one espy with ZH (and psychic, since I don't have excess CTMs to spend on it) 2 espys with C/FS, 2 zams with PC/FS, and a single DT/H dragonite that almost never gets used. My ZH/P espy almost always lives long enough to fire 3 charge moves and my other two tend to only get 2 if they're/I'm lucky.
Zams both lvl 34 90+% IVs. One C/FS Espy lvl 37.5 90+% IVs. One C/FS Espy 30.5 80+% IVs. ZH/P Espy lvl 33 90+% IVs. Dragonite lvl 29.5 80+% IVs. Dragon only ever gets used if I miss dodging more than a few charge attacks with my psychic types.
I was still able to solo most machamps when the zams were several levels lower (at or just below 30), but occasionally lag would make me fail once or twice before succeeding, now I basically never need more than one attempt.
