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Moveset Recommendations Seem Broken

I've been confused about something for a while and I haven't seen a good explanation for it yet. There are several moveset that this site recommends as the best that do not have the highest DPS. Now, I can understand some deviation when it comes to different attack types and the coverage they provide, but when the attack types are the same, that doesn't make any sense to me. A perfect example is with Raikou. You have Thunder listed as the worst possible Charge attack in your graded ratings and Wild Charge as the best. Yet on both your own site and on Silph Road, Thunder is clearly listed with a superior DPS. Both moves are the same electric type. Thunder even has a shorter cooldown and a quicker attack window. With all that info, why do you list Thunder as the worst charge attack and why is Wild Charge listed as better?

Asked by Godlike7 years 10 months ago

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Sign....how many times do we need to explain that DPS means almost nothing for charge move.
If you want Thunder on Raikou, go ahead. No one will stop you. No one will stop me from laughing either.

I swear this question is asked daily. Please look up detailed answers in other threads. You should be focused on cycle damage as charge move DPS is meaningless. Damage per energy is more important than charge move DPS as well (with time factoring in somewhat).

Short answer - DPS listings for charged moves are broken. Damage per second a charged move takes is meaningless without considering how long it takes to charge it.

thank you

Thunder costs 100 energy. Wild Charge costs only 50 energy.

For the same amount of energy, Thunder deals 100 damage in 2.4 seconds and Wild Charge deals 180 damage in 5.2 seconds.

Since it takes more time to fill energy than to use the charge moves, the difference in time is less important.

http://www.pogomoves.com
This website has the spreadsheet data calculating the theoretical differences in the cycle damage of movesets.

https://www.pokebattler.com
This website takes it further and allows you run simulations with different pokemon, movesets, IVs, etc.

Thanks pipjay. I guess I assumed the DPS values took into account the damage that can be done over a given period of time, including how long it takes to build energy. I understand that not all fast moves build energy at the same rate, but couldn't somebody come up with a baseline and apply that to all charge moves so we could attempt to compare apples to apples with the whole DPS thing? As it is now, it does seem meaningless... and if it is meaningless, then why include it? The letter grades, if accurate, are very helpful.
Also, it wasn't clear to me that a multi-hit charge move deals full damage per hit vs full damage upon the use of 100 energy. Your response clears that up for me and makes the DPS calculation much simpler than I assumed it was (which is why it is apparently meaningless).
Thanks again for the response and for including links that are meaningful and helpful. I'll check them out.

As far as thunder goes, it's not quite as good as the other moves, but it is not as horrible as people will have you believe. It's similar to hurricane on Dragonite, or close combat on Machamp.