[Move] Hyper Beam

So this topic is being created since it seems there are people who actually want to discuss the viability of this move. As a competitive topic has not been created for a move I did not know what format to use for the title and thus used as edited version of the pokemon title.

Hyper Beam Stats:

• Special Attack
  
• 150 Base Power
  
• 90% Accuracy

Here is my argument against using Hyper Beam as a move in competitive play.

Hyper Beam from the outside seems like a strong move. However, anyone who has competitive experience knows that this is not the case. Hyper Beam deals a lot of base damage at the expense of being Normal, and having a recharge turn afterwards.

Why is being a Normal move a bad thing? Simple. Hyper Beam relies on OHKOing whatever pokemon you hit with it. Many pokemon will not get STAB with this move, making its job of OHKOing much harder. It is also nearly impossibly to OHKO Rock and Steel pokemon, and Ghost pokemon are unaffected by Hyper Beam.

Hyper Beam is a recharge move, meaning that you are not allowed to act the turn after using it, if the opposing pokemon survives. This gives the opposing pokemon a turn to setup. Giving some pokemon a turn to setup can mean that you have just lost that entire battle. A Swords Dance on some pokemon will mean they will always go first, and chances are will OHKO every time.

Substitute completely negates the damage from Hyper Beam, leaving your pokemon to the mercy of whatever pokemon you attempted to hit with it. This can mean a clean switch, a setup turn, or any number of possibilities to the opponent. The enemy could even answer with an uncontested Focus Punch.

Hyper Beam has too many drawbacks for the very few strengths that it has. Every pokemon has a move that could take its spot and do better. Post your own opinions below.

Yeah true, but if you want to do a suicide attack it can be helpful

The only case I would make for Hyper Beam is as a finishing move on somebody like Nucleon, who would turn it into a Nuclear type move with its Atomizate.

Woah 225 base power, (does atomize give it a 30% boost as well or no? - if so, 292.5) and 2-4x damage on any non-steels :O

Atomize does give it a 30% bonus. Running Nucleon with Life Orb and Hyper Beam is the only viable strat i see with this move, But you still have to keep in mind that if you dont switch Nucleon out after that turn then it will have to recharge.

Maybe as a Revenge Killer tactic, but overall probably not the best option even in the Nucleon case.

And the Hyper Beam + Switch tactic is invalid in the competitive meta, seeing as it defaults instead to 'set'.

Yeah I really didnt even think about that. Revenge killer, or if you absolutely needed a pokemon to take down a wall. Only reasons i can see it working well

Hyper Beam could potentially work on Seikamater as well, since she's got STAB. However, in my opinion Tri Attack is better on her, since it allows her to attack every turn instead of every other turn and has a secondary chance to Burn, Freeze or Paralyze. In terms of raw power, though, it's hard to beat.

Of course, you can always take away that recharge turn with a Power Herb to fire off a second Hyper Beam right off the bat, but there are often better items out there. Still, I would argue for Power Herb over Life Orb on Nucleon, because you really don't need the extra power on the 150 pwr + STAB + 4x effective on almost everything; it will OHKO practically anything in the game, except for Hazma and maybe Gararewl. Hyper Beam Power Herb Nucleon could be pretty powerful, taking out 2 enemy Pokemon in 2 turns and then switching out.

Involuntary Twitch wrote:Hyper Beam Power Herb Nucleon could be pretty powerful, taking out 2 enemy Pokemon in 2 turns and then switching out.

Power Herb doesn't actually negate Hyper Beam's after-damage recharge turn. Just affects moves that need a charge before dealing damage, like Fly, Geomancy or Sky Attack.

Involuntary Twitch wrote:Hyper Beam could potentially work on Seikamater as well, since she's got STAB. However, in my opinion Tri Attack is better on her, since it allows her to attack every turn instead of every other turn and has a secondary chance to Burn, Freeze or Paralyze. In terms of raw power, though, it's hard to beat.

Seikamater shouldn't run Normal-type moves at all, she has 4 other STABs to care about (with Elementalist) which grant almost perfect coverage against all pokémon type combinations (except Dragon/Ghost and Dragon/Poison).

So Giratina and Dragalge are pains in the arse? Daruuuude