What is a good coverage move other than Focus Blast for Reuniclus?

Question

I often see Focus Blast on Reuniclus movesets, but I feel uneasy using Focus Blast because it misses so often. Are there any good alternatives for it or is Focus Blast the only option?

Comments

What tier do you want to use this in, or is this in-game

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Unfotunately, it doesnt have access to aura sphere. Which means its stuck with focus blast. All of its other fighting moves are physical: rock smash, superpower, focus punch, drain punch, power-up punch.

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What tier?

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How about using an item that increases accuracy?

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^ that sucks
You are losing damage output or gradual healing for lorb or lefties, as well as they don't even boost much. Wide lens is only 77% accuracy with the boost, and zoom lens, which you must move last to use(which is most of the time tho) bumps it up to a 84% accuracy.

As for general coverage, not assuming any tier, most use thunder/shadow ball/focus blast, and most others are not very useful or otherwise only for extremely niche pokemon.

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Why's this flagged?

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I'm not sure this would be a good answer, but I really feel like it depends on the format and what set your using. In RU, it runs a Defensive Calm Mind Set and an Assault Vest set. On the Defensive Calm Mind Set, Focus Blast is used to hit dark and steel types. You can use Shadow Ball Over Focus Blast to hit psychic and ghost types, but it will miss out on hitting dark and steel types, On Assault Vest sets, it runs Focus Blast alongside Shadow Ball to deal with psychic, steel, ghost and dark types. Knock Off is an alternative to cripple switch-ins if your team can deal with Focus Blast targets. In National Dex, Reuniclus runs a Calm Mind set with Focus Blast. However, it uses Fightinium Z so you essentially have a fighting move that won't miss once. Focus Blast can be replaced with Thunder and Electrium Z to deal with bulky waters like Toxapex. However, it misses out on dealing with dark types, which can cause you to become Pursuit trapped easily.

tl;dr It comes down to what format and what set you use. Focus Blast is the better option usually if running a Calm Mind set. On Assault Vest sets, you use Focus Blast alongside Shadow Ball. There are a few coverage options, but it depends on what format you play.

Answer 1

I'm going to put what I said as a comment as an answer.

The answer really depends on what set and format you're playing. I'll be talking about two formats, RU and National Dex. In RU, Reuniclus has two sets in can use: Defensive Calm Mind and Assault Vest. Here are the two sets for reference:

Reuniclus @ Leftovers
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Bold Nature
- Calm Mind
- Psyshock
- Focus Blast
- Recover

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Reuniclus @ Assault Vest
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 248 HP / 24 SpA / 236 SpD
Modest Nature
- Psyshock
- Future Sight
- Focus Blast / Knock Off
- Shadow Ball / Knock Off

On the Defensive Calm Mind set, you can use Shadow Ball to deal super effective to opposing psychic and ghost types, but then Reuniclus misses out on hitting dark and steel types. On the Assault Vest set, Reuniclus runs Focus Blast alongside Shadow Ball so you can be able to hit psychic, ghost, dark and steel types. Focus Blast can be replaced with Knock Off which is used as a utility move that cripples Pokemon switching if you have teammates that can sufficiently defeat Focus Blast targets.

In National Dex, this is the set Reuniclus uses:

Reuniclus @ Fightinium Z / Electrium Z
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 HP / 212 Def / 44 Spe
Bold Nature
- Calm Mind
- Psyshock / Stored Power
- Focus Blast / Thunder
- Recover

Usually, Reuniclus uses Focus Blast as the coverage move for this set because with Fightinium Z, you have a one-time fighting move that will not miss. Thunder with Electrium Z can be used alongside Stored Power, with Electrium Z Thunder being able to be a good general nuke and being able to hit Toxapex hard. However, by using Electrium Z + Thunder, Reuniclus won't really be able to deal with dark types, which can cause you to become Pursuit trapped more easily.

tl;dr It comes down to what format and what set you use. Focus Blast is the better option usually if running a Calm Mind set, as it allows you to hit dark and steel types. Shadow Ball is an option to use on Calm Mind sets, but you miss out on dealing super effective damage to dark and steel types. On Assault Vest sets, you use Focus Blast alongside Shadow Ball. There are a few coverage options, but it depends on what format you play.

Answer 2

Alright, before we decide on a good coverage move, we should probably review why Focus Blast is used, which is to deal with Psychic types dark resistance, and to use for Steel types due to those types resisting Psychic type moves

The main options we have are Energy Ball, Shadow Ball, and Flash Cannon, Reuniclus also has access to Thunder, but that move is also very inaccurate. Personally think that Shadow Ball is a good coverage move, it hits Ghost types super effectively, and it also hits Psychic types hard, which I brought up due to Psychic types resisting Psychic moves. Though Dark types don't take any damage from Psychic moves, and resist Ghost type moves, so you may want to also run one of the other coverage moves. This is all opinion based though, so you may run any coverage move you think is best.

Answer 3

Shadow Ball is the best because it covers Ghost and Dark. It is more reliable than Focus Blast because of high accuracy of 100 and is overall powerful with 80 Base Power. Since Dark is immune to Psychic this is the best coverage move other than the unreliable Focus Blast.

If you compare this move to other options for Reuniclus, such as energy ball and flash cannon, shadow ball covers it’s major weakness, Dark but energy ball and flash cannon don’t give that coverage. Overall, the best option would be Shadow Ball with its ideal power and coverage.

Comments

Wrong. Reuniclus is a psychic type not Ghost

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Are you getting mixed up with Runerigus?

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Aaaaaah shoot yes I thought it was Runerigus, they've got so similar names!

Removed my flag and hid my previous comment.
Also, I'm not the one who has downvoted your answer, I rarely downvote stuff...

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The answer is pretty short and lacks a firm foundation. If you expand on why Shadow Ball is better than Focus Blast, the answer would surely get better and the person *might* remove the downvote.

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Uh, Ghost moves are weak against Dark types, not strong.

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The whole point of that move was to cover its dark weakness. Dark already resists shadow ball, so your damage would be pretty low.