Is electroball a viable move for electrode ?

Question

This is what I was thinking:
Electrode
Ability: Aftermath
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Electro Ball
- Signal Beam
- Thunderbolt
- Toxic/Thunder wave

Since Electrode is ,if I am not wrong, the fastest non legendary I think it will deal some damage with electro-ball and because there are sweepers that can come close to my speed I thought that thunderbolt will be nice for damage.
Signal beam is there to deal with grass types and some dark types.

Answer 1

Well it is certainly one of the fastest non legendary Pokemon, that's for sure. Ninjask takes top spot though if I'm not mistaken :)

Now the problem with electro ball is that its power is determined by the opponents speed.
Target Speed > 50% of User 60
Target Speed > 33% of User 80
Target Speed > 25% of User 120
Target Speed < 25% of User 150

That means that given your set (max speed electrode), for it to be doing 120 or more damage, the opponent must have less than a third of your speed 138.7 (or 138 as an int, rounds down typically in Pokemon). Anything above that and you will be dealing 80 damage. Any Pokemon over 208 speed will be taking 60 damage which is pretty pathetic.

Very few Pokemon are slower than 138 and most are faster than 208 meaning you will be hitting for less damage than a 95 base power thunderbolt like 90% of the time. Its not worth having.

Comments

Fingers, why do you type so slow?

Jk. Nice answer.

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Gotta go fast :P

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^SANICBALL

Answer 2

Electro Ball is almost always outclassed, even on faster Pokémon.

While Electrode is one heckuva speedster, and so are other Pokémon like Mega Manectric and Galvantula, they all typically run Thunderbolt, Volt Switch and Thunder, respectively. Why is Elctro Ball near the bottom of the barrel of Electric attacks? It's because it has a fluctuating damage ratio. Here is the formula for Electro Ball's base power:

r = UserSpeed ÷ TargetSpeed

Now, while Electrode is one of the fastest Pokémon, there are other fast Pokémon out there. There are more competitively viable fast Pokémon than competitively viable slow Pokémon. Let's find the base power of Electro Ball versus some of the metagame's speedier 'Mons. (using their max Speed stat, 31 IVs, 252 EVs, positive nature)

Electrode vs. Talonflame

r = 416 ÷ 386 = 1.07720207…

According to the Pokémon DB's page for Electro Ball, the damage ratio for Electrode versus Talonflame is 1≤ r < 2, making Electro Ball's base power 60. That is the same as the Electric Hidden Power. Thunderbolt has a base power of 90, making it the superior option.

Electrode vs. Mega Metagross

r = 416 ÷ 350 = 1.18857…

Damage ratio is 1≤ r < 2, making Electro Ball's base power 60 once again.

Electrode vs. Hydreigon

r = 416 ÷ 324 = 1.28395…

Damage ratio is, again, 1≤ r < 2, and the base power is again 60. This is an important benchmark, though, because Hydreigon, at 98 Speed, underspeeds the crowded 100 speed tier. This means that Electrode won't be able to hit any Pokémon with 100 speed or above, which is a good chunk of the metagame, for more that 60 base power, making Electro Ball inferior to Thunderbolt. This includes Mega Charizard Y, Thundurus, Volcarona, and more.

Electrode vs. Bisharp

r = 416 ÷ 262 = 1.587786:

The ratio is 1≤ r <2 for a base 70 Pokémon. This is starting to get low in the Speed tiers. And granted, while most Bisharp run Adamant over a speed-boosting nature, there are many base 70s that do (Breloom, for example).

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TL;DR Electro Ball is almost always inferior to Thunderbolt or Volt Switch unless you specifically want to target really slow Pokémon like Mega Sableye or Mega Slowbro.

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EDIT: I just wanted to say this to clear up a possible contradiction to my argument, the move Gyro Ball functions exactly opposite of Electro Ball, running off of how slow you are compared to your opponent. Gyro Ball, while viable only on a few Pokémon like Ferrothorn, is easier to justify using since a) most Pokémon that get it are really slow and b) since the majority of the metagame is really fast, Gyro Ball can benefit from what hinders Electro Ball.