So here's the rundown. I'm currently in the process of rebuilding my Pokemon team. One of them is an Electivire. I run him as a mixed sweeper in OU, and he's won me many a match. Here's his current moveset.

Bruce (Black Belt)

Jolly w. EVs maxing speed, and the rest split between special and physical.

- Thunderbolt

- Flamethrower

- Earthquake

- Ice Punch

Now if you're a competitive battler, this set probably looks weird to you, but I swear it works. Anyway, that's not what this is about.

Thunderbolt now only does 90 BP damage, and I'm starting to feel it. It was never a powerhouse move because of Bruce's base special, but it was always useful now its less so. It's made me consider an alternative. But let me clarify two things. First, I'm not giving him a physical electric move. Thunder Punch is two weak, and I have a thing against using moves with recoil, so Volt Tackle-for-babies is out of the question as well. Second, Along similar lines, I don't like using moves with less than 100% accuracy moves. Reliability > raw power in a heart beat, so Thunder is also out of the question.

So, as per the thread title, I'm considering Electro Ball.

If anyone is curious, the damage formula for Electra Ball is:

Now Electivire's base speed is 95, which, when maxed out in EVs and a beneficial nature at level 100, will typically hover around 300 points depending on the IVs. Now here's the thing - I don't care if I never reach A, and I think Electivire is fast enough that it will rarely ever reach D. What I really care about are B and C. If I can, fairly regularly, pull off a 120BP Electroball that would be awesome and would clearly outclass Thunderbolt. On the other hand, if it hits C, even regularly, I'm only losing 10 bp to thunderbolt.

Another two things to consider is that, first, I have at least two other Pokemon on my current team with Thunderwave and I spam that shit, and second, Bruce obviously has Motordrive. Both up the usability of Electroball, so that may sway things more in Electroball's favor.

So my question to you all is this, to you think the trade off would be worth it, or should I stick with Thunderbolt?

stick to thunderbolt, you would end up in a D scenario more times than you think, currently the metagame revolves around 110 base speed pokémon since it's a really common base speed among megas meaning that they would not only outspeed you but you would also hit not that hard. if you think your TB doesn't hit hard enough just invest a few more EVs in sp.atk/change your nature, in the end it's your only STAB move...

Yes, rereading the way it works, I'm unfortunately reaching the same conclusion. I honestly use Tbolt less than all my other moves on the set, but I was just hoping to maybe get something stronger.

Yeah I agree with Luke. Just look at the pokémon that's higher speed in ou. And you got landarous T with choice scarf :o.

If you have a sticky Web carrier on your team though...... Nah. Keep t bolt

Short answer, considering this is Smogon's OU format, is that the current metagame is far too fast for Electro Ball from a Pokémon with a base 95 speed. Outside of Slowbro and a few Azumarill sets, I can't think of much to warrant the use.

OU metagame is full of pokemon with high base speed so stick with thunderbolt

95 is not very fast. Plus you're giving up the paralysis effect too. Honestly, I'd go thunder if you're in OU. I get why you don't want to, but if you want to use a pokemon that's honestly kind of outclassed, you need a high risk high reward strategy.

Thunderbolt probably would be better because it's not as selective