Optimal Charge Moves for Attack vs. Defense
I have a question regarding the optimal movesets for attack and defense recommended on here, specifically the charge move. For an example, the optimal charge move for Charizard on attack is Fire Blast but on defense it is Flamethrower. This pattern is repeated for many other pokes as well; i.e. a max-DPS 100 energy move on attack and a 50 energy move on defense.
I'd like to understand why this is because as far as I can see it hasn't been explained (only that defenders deal less damage but can tank more). As I understand it a move such as Fire Blast has significantly more DPS so why swap it out for Flamethrower? Is there an AI mechanic that I am missing here?
I'm sure there's a reason for it I'm just trying to understand why. Thanks for any info :)
Answers
As I understand it, you do more o less the same damage with both moves (100e and 50e x2), but with the 50e-move you release a great blow with half the energy, so twice sooner. This could just defeat the attacker.
DPS is not that important to charge moves, only to compare them to quick moves, e.g. charge moves that make less damage (dps) than the quick one so they are not even worth it.
If you click on the move itself it will bring you to its own stats page. There you'll find the important statistic "Defensive damage per second". Moves have a different dps on defense.
Fire blast = 16.39 over 4.1 seconds
Flamethrower = 11.22 but since the ai can do twice as many it's over 5.8 (2.9x2) seconds
The damage totals are almost equal when you account for the longer time of 2 flamethrowers but flamethrower wins in the end because it's more likely to trigger an extra time over fireblast, and since they're both so much higher dps than charizards normal attacks (3.3 defensive dps), that extra dps from an extra flamethrower might really help. Also Fireblast has 2.9 seconds after text shows before the dodge window giving attackers plenty of time to dodge. Flamethrower is a more reasonable 1 second.
