Why does no one use water pulse on Lucario?

Question

I have been scrolling through Lucario/mega Lucario move set all days and couldn’t find a SINGLE move set that included water pulse, it literally covers two of Lucario’s biggest weakness, it has decent powers and could hit primal groudon in Uber HARD, so someone please give me an explanation.

Comments

Water Pulse does not have decent power.

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It doesnt have enough power, neutral moves can do more damage

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Also it doesn't hit Primal Groudon because it's harsh sunlight evaporates Water-Type moves

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252 SpA Lucario-Mega Water Pulse vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Arceus-Ground: 120-142 (31.4 - 37.2%) -- 81.1% chance to 3HKO
252 Atk Adaptability Lucario-Mega Close Combat vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Arceus-Ground: 242-286 (63.5 - 75%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
Also Lucario is so frail that it's effectively weak to almost everything. It doesn't need to cover fire or ground any more than it needs to cover anything else.

Answer 1

This answer assumes that the harsh sunlight is gone or overwritten by Primoridial Sea. Which is another reason to not use Water Pulse because it's hard to get rid of harsh sunlight since everyone doesn't carry (primal) Kyogre. But honestly if you get Primordial Sea off then Water Pulse will basically be the same as STAB.

You are right, it does cover ground and fire but, at 60 base power without STAB then I don’t even know if it will be able to OHKO a (primal) Groudon because if it doesn’t then it will OHKO Lucario also, (mega) Lucario has higher attack than special attack. If you still want to use Water Pulse in your moveset the I guess that you gotta make your own moveset.

In conclusion, Earthquake is is a better cover for Lucario’s weaknesses or even Ice Punch for Ground.

Comments

252 Atk Adaptability Lucario-Mega Close Combat vs. 144 HP / 0 Def Groudon-Primal: 190-224 (50.3 - 59.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 Atk Lucario-Mega Earthquake vs. 144 HP / 0 Def Groudon-Primal: 158-186 (41.9 - 49.3%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
Even earthquake is weak. Just use close combat.

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Okay, you are right, Groudon is very bulky but still earthquake can cover other fire types that ain’t that bulky. Close Conbat also has the SpDef and Def drop which will get Lucaeio killed if it’s used too often

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For Earthquake to be useful, it needs to hit something with a double Ground weakness, because Close Combat has higher base power than Earthquake, and is always 2x effective due to Adaptability. Most Mega Lucario movesets simply don't use coverage moves for this reason -- there aren't enough 4x weak Pokemon to justify their use.

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I'm pretty sure the only other fire type is Ho-Oh, which isn't weak to earthquake.