Just what is "the spread nerf"?

Question

I have been hearing about this a lot in my research for VGC 2015. It's this thing called "the spread nerf".

Drill Run is also more powerful than Earthquake when you factor the spread nerf

I took this off of a Smogon forum. What is this spread nerf? Is it a decrease in accuracy (I've been getting suspicious of Steven's Aerodactyl's Rock Slide missing a lot in the Battle Maison) or a decrease in power? Is it neither?

Answer 1

Spread nerf is basically where moves that hit multiple targets do less damage to a each Pokemon. These moves do 25% less total damage on a each Pokemon. That is why drill run ends up being more powerful than earthquake, because its BP is dropped 25% to 75 BP, while drill run still has 80 BP. Overall, even though earthquake is weaker, it is generally the better option still due to the fact that it hits multiple Pokemon.
Hope I helped :)

Comments

Thanks for the clarification.

---

no problem :)