The Best Attack in Gen IV

[Camara]

Spore is brutal. Only imagine that it is more spread out. Spore Gyarados? Spore Salamence? Spore Lucario? Spore Scizor? They would have always a turn to set up. And thank god for Sleep Clause or Dragon Dancers would just TROLOLOL everything. It would break the metagame much more than Stealth Rock.

As you can see I chose Spore and Dragon Dance as the two best moves. Without Dragon Dance everything would be easily revenge killed by outspeed, otherwise they could lack the power to kill you first.

Outrage is very powerful, but c'mon, Dragon Dance+Dragon Claw is pretty destructive too. Earthquake is also amazing but there are many things imune to it. Close Combat is also amazing. But that can be worked around if they aren't boosted.

Draco Meteor isn't broken, the Dragons that use it are, as they are almost all have godly stats.The same applies for Outrage. Normal is almost as good offensively as Dragon, what you don't see is pokemons of that type with pseudo-legendary base stats.

 

[San_Pellegrino]

I believe it's Draco Meteor, however, no choice for it, so SR.

 

[bludhoundz]

It's between Stealth Rock, Substitute and Spore in my opinion, with Draco Meteor, Dragon Dance and U-Turn being the next best ones.

 

[lordkira]

I'm going to say stealth rock
I see it as the single-most influential move of the entire generation
unless nintendo drastically changes their game's mechanics, in the singles i don't see stealth rock being any less effective.

however i do have a questionfor you guys.
how do you think about judgement? to those that have played the meta with arceus, do you feel like it's been hyped too much for what it truly deserves or do you think it's actually a broken move in general?

 

[Enygma]

I think Judgement would also be something overlooked as well. Now imagine a Magnezone with BOTH HP Grass and Judgement Fire. It would absolutely change the game and how it would be such a great steel killer. Judgement would practically be a second HP.

Of course, Judgment might not be so great as SR or Sub, but it deserves some mention with Draco Meteor and the other top-notch moves.

 

[manav95]

It's probably Stealth Rock. SR forces Yanmega down to obscurity when otherwise it would be pushing itself to Ubers. SR has forced many Fire types out of usage and the 2 left have a type that resists it. Combine that with Spikes and you can have an annoying Skarmory that just roars and Roosts away while your Pokemon die.

 

[Chateau]

The best move is one that does the most to insure a win in it's one-turn slot as a move.

Or, in other words, Stealth Rock.

 

[San_Pellegrino]

Despite SR being so common/game-changing, I must add, the presence of Rapid spinners in many OU teams is nil.

 

[kd24]

that has to do with only a select few usable mons having rapid spin, not to mention it takes up 1 of your 24 moveslots. the fact that some pokemon do actually use it just show how powerful stealth rock is (starmie would love to rather use 3 atks/recover, forry wants to spikes/toxic spikes/payback/explosion, etc)

 

[6A9 Ace Matador]

no doubt DD. without it we wouldn't have witnessed the biggest choke in mons history: justinawe vs Gouki

 

[Moo]

U-turn, coz Stealth Rocks is overpowered.

 

[EpicTurtle]

Stealth Rock. It makes it possible to KO certain pokemon with certain moves after SR. Not only that but 50% to something 4X weak is amazing. In fact 25% is still good. SR is my vote for the best attack in 4th gen.

 

[undisputed]

Theres no move that's on 95% teams besides Stealth Rock. Its that good. Substitute, Draco Meteor, and Spore are all close 2nds. When you get a Substitute its close to being the best move, but its not totally reliable. Draco Meteor is hands down the best attacking move and is really the main reason Latias and Salamence got banned. Then, Spore is fantastic but only 2 pokemon get it, so I don't think it can be considered the best move.

 

[Eggbert]

Like most people are saying, stealth rock is the best. Every successful team has stealth rock. Stealth rock impacts one of the most important things in the game: switching. Things like rest talk gyara are far more difficult to KO, and things like moltres and yanmega might actually be used more. Abusing entry hazards wouldn't work as well, as most pokes who avoid spikes are hit by SR. 3HKOs are turned into 2HKOs (ie LOtrans fire blast on gyarados). U-turn, sub, and taunt are close. U-turn is excellent for scouting, and breaking lead's focus sashes. (u-turn to scarfgon/CBzor, u-turn out). Taunt works well against stall, ect...

 

[PallyHeroRush52]

Draco Meteor is the worst since it pushed Latios, Latias, and Salamence over the edge.

 

[Delko]

Stealth Rock, it is just so goddamn important, it's the most used move for a reason.

 

[greg3064]

It has to be Stealth Rock. On the majority of teams, 1-turn set up, checks common threats for the entirety of the game assuming your opponent doesn't have Rapid Spin or can't use it. As stated, lots of Pokemon are relegated to lower tiers due to Stealth Rock like Yanmega, Scyther, Charizard.

After that, I would say Substitute, Taunt, and U-turn. Substitute has a ton of uses, really... no point listing them all. Taunt's usage has a lot to do with Stealth Rock's, although it does a lot more as well. U-turn is quite effective for scouting, and a lot of teams have stuff like Scarf Flygon and Banded Scizor to scout and keep damaging their opponent. Those three moves mostly because they have potential to gain momentum.

Spore just isn't widely distributed enough to be "the best," especially with Sleep Clause. I don't find any directly damaging attacks to be quite as defining, probably due to the variety there is.

 

[Artix]

Spore. Breloom would undoubtedly be Uber if it wasn't for the Sleep Clause. The fact that a move requires a clause to prevent viable pokemon with it from being Uber, is more than enough evidence that Spore is the best move in Gen 4.

Hell, without Sleep Clause, Parasect would even probobly rise to at least UU, especially with his Water-Immunity.

It's not just Spore that did it, actually. Just sleep as a whole is overpowered. Even 75% from sleep powder is a slot.

 

[Vaz]

It has to be Stealth Rocks. It did so much to make such a difference from 3rd Gen to 4th Gen. It has the power to eliminate even the strongest 3rd Gen threats in hust two switch ins. It is the most significant move that has done so much to just an entire metagame.

 

[eric the espeon]

If not for sleep clause Spore would be quite simply broken. However, Stealth Rock is by far the most threatening move because it punishes you every time you switch. Switching is arguably the best move of all in Pokemon, and it is easy enough to build a team which forces a lot of switches. Taking a significant chunk off each Pokemon every single time they come in is massive.

 

[Coldcut]

It seems like this thread should have two polls: best support/set up move and best attacking/damaging move.

For support/set up move, my vote is Substitute, since practically everything can learn it and it protects the user from just about everything, eases prediction, and is the catalyst for several powerful strategies, such as SubPunching, Sub/Pain Split, etc. The only thing that can beat it is Encore, my runner up. Encore is severely underrated, partially because of the lack of viable users in OU, but in UU it really shines. Clefable, the most annoying UU pokemon, would be much more manageable without Encore. Alakazam no longer fears Sucker Punch, a move that would otherwise utterly ruin it, allowing it to be borderline broken with unmatched Special Attack and nearly unmatched speed, however it needs Substitute to really make the strategy work.

For attacking/damaging move, I would say Earthquake. It has a high base power with 100% accuracy and no drawbacks. As a bonus, it hits Steel, the best defensive type in the game, for super effective damage. Fear of this move forces nearly all teams to run a flying type that is necessarily weak to Stealth Rock, or a pokemon with Levitate, an otherwise useless ability. For most physical attackers, STAB plus Earthquake makes for a pretty potent set.

 

[Battery Ram]

Iron head. Jirachi with it can sweep through anything (not really). Also, TWave and Iron Head on a Registeel can stall like heck. Stealth Rock is awesome too.

 

[Omnipresent]

Stealth rock hands down no competition. So hard to work around, makes people use pokemon that resist it, blow it away with moves you'd never think of like rapid spin, the residual damage it does it astonishing.

Definately shaped the metagame.

 

[BoyBoy]

I voted for SR. However I think if there were no sleep clause, Spore may be the best attack.

 

[panamaxis]

How often do you see a team without SR...