Bite or Dark Pulse for Crobat?

Question

Should I teach my crobat dark pulse, or stay with bite.
His attack stat is 87
And his sp.attack is 73
But also dark pulse is 80 power and bite is 60

Answer 1

Looking at the damage from a perspective of equal Defense and Special Defense stats on the opposing Pokemon, Dark Pulse would have a higher damage output than Bite. I would stick with Dark Pulse for now on Crobat, since it still keeps a 20% chance to flinch, which is a huge advantage for in-game teams. It doesn't change much since Bite had a 30% chance to flinch, which isn't a huge difference in my opinion.

Later on, you might be able to give it Super Fang from a move tutor (ORAS) or U-turn from a TM, both solid options for crobat in game. Although, I think the move tutor is closer to the end of the game, so you may be outta luck there.

Good luck! :)

Answer 2

If you have no other special moves, then take Dark Pulse so that you don't die against a Tank.
But, I would go with Bite, personally, because of its better flinching chance (30% as compared to Dark Pulse's 20%)

Answer 3

Taking into account the different Attack and Special Attack stats you have listed, Dark Pulse will be doing a little more damage than Bite, despite the lower Special Attack. With that being said, it not that much stronger, only beating it by a little bit.

Here is a quick calculation to show you the difference. I manually changed Crobat's stats to match what you gave above, but the Glalie is level 50. I am using Glalie because its Defence and Special Defence are the same, eliminating that from affecting the outcome.

0 Atk Crobat Bite vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Glalie: 38-45 (24.5 - 29%) -- 99.6% chance to 4HKO

0 SpA Crobat Dark Pulse vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Glalie: 43-51 (27.7 - 32.9%) -- guaranteed 4HKO

So, as you can see Dark Pulse does a little bit more damage.

Comments

I like the detail.