Which Grass type vs. Vaporeon?
Before I ask my question, I do want to ask a sub question: Who fares better against Vaporeon? A good Jolteon, or a good Grass type?
Onto the main question, I've recently gotten lucky with evolves and evolved 3 major candidates for being my go-to Vaporeon counter (barring Dragonite). With the Stardust boost, I now have the ability to invest in one of them. So who should it be?
Zen Headbutt+Solar Beam Exeggutor Razor Leaf+Solar Beam Victreebell Confusion+Solar Beam ExeggutorNow I'm assuming a lot of people will say #1 is the way to go, but hear out my logic here first. As far as I know, at least BEFORE the update, Victreebell had the highest Grass DPS in the game. If that still holds true, wouldn't that make it a faster Vaporeon killer?
As for Confusion, a lot of evidence points to Zen Headbutt outdamaging Confusion normally. However, this doesn't take a dodge heavy playstyle into account. I like to dodge everything I can. You can NOT fit 2 Zen Headbutts in between 2 Water Guns. Since you can only fit 1 attack in between Water Guns, wouldn't Confusion be the better choice?
So with those things taken into account, who shall it be?
Answers
Solar Beam is like a nuclear warhead, more so from Exeggutor than Victreebell (even more so after the update). Zen charges fast, and Water Gun is near the equivalent of throwing rocks against the side of a tank of a strong Exeggutor. If they happened to throw a Hydro Pump in as a defender, you really don't have to worry, Zen gives you time to recover, you also don't have to worry about Razor Leaf super effective animation to override the Hydro Pump notification, and even if you see it coming, it's still easier to be caught in a Razor Leaf.
I personally would power up the ZH/SB Eggy because I don't dodge everything with eggy because both quick moves are slow. That being said, I think it's more important for eggy to charge up its secondary move as quickly as possible to give the most damage in the shortest time AND be potion effiecient. ZH charges up faster. I do dodge everything with quick mons such as DB/DC Dnites because it's the most time/potion efficient. Hope that makes sense. I just don't thing eggy is that type of mon - it's more of spam charge, dodge charges move, attack with charge move
Answering your sub question, a Jolteon will do the job much quicker, but you need to dodge if you're going to take out more than one. With fairly poor dodging skills I took down two vapes of a similar cp to my Jolteon and still had some health remaining, but these were hydropumps. Against waterpulse I got one higher level vape dusted, but only just...
Yes, many users think Zen Headbutt is better than Confusion, just because the stats say so.
But, on real life, if you like to Dodge, Confusion is WAY better since it FITS perfectly in between every dodge. While Zen Headbutt doesn't.
Now, if you like spam attacking -no dodging-, then yeah, Zen Headbutt is a bit better.
As for Victreebel. It used to be my favorite 'mon to melt Vaporeons. Since the nerfed I haven't used it yet, but I guess it will still do a good job despite the nerf (with razor leaf/beam, of course).
Edit: Btw, many said ZH charges faster, that's wrong. Confusion charges a bit faster than ZH (9.27 vs 8.57).
I have a Victrabeel with the same moveset that I used to use as my water counter. If you like confusion, then razor leaf is very similar (powerful but can only get one in between dodges). I completely agree with your observation about zen headbut. It isn't good if you dodge everything.
Since the update, I powered up a good Jolteon with Thunder and have been using that. It seems to do the job well and has the bonus of being a great gyarados counter.