Which of Liquidation and Waterfall should I use on Choice Band Swampert?

Question

I’m very undecided, both two attacks are great
Format: Gen 8 UU

Comments

Liquidation. Waterfall's flinch chance may seem nice, but Swampert is too slow for that to be useful.

---

Thanks!

---

Swampert's best water attack is flip turn. If you want a physically offensive water you should use Gyarados or Crawdaunt.

---

I agree with TheMasterApe as moves that flinches are based on speed and Swampert having low speed would only be able to outspeed a small minority of pokemon in UU.

---

You'll probably get a better answer if you ask here: https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/simple-questions-simple-answers-uu-edition.3657320/

Answer 1

Adding this answer because I felt obligated to correct a few things the other answers say.

Both moves are bad because offensive Swampert is bad.

I wouldn't call offensive Swampert bad. Choice Band Swampert actually has a niche in UU. I asked on Smogon what CB Swampert does over physically offensive Water-types like Gyarados, and this was the response:

CB Swampert has a few things going for it;
- secondary stab that 2HKOes Amoonguss & Slowking / OHKOes (or comes close to it) some other Water resists (Keldeo, some Primarina, Tentacruel) which makes its switchin pool limited and kinda weird
- Ice Punch lets it nuke Salamence which is pretty notable among physical Water types
- Ground typing lets it block Volt Switch and means it's not scared out by some things other Water breakers would be forced to switch by (Raikou, Rotom-H for instance)
- flip turn hits pretty hard
the tier just doesn't have a whole lot of water types that can go physical so pert is unique in that sense, it's just generally very prediction heavy and the reward often isn't great if you run into something like a rotom or tangrowth. fun af to use if you really wanna try it though

Source

As for whether Liquidation or Waterfall is better, Liquidation is better, but not because of the Defense drop. Liquidation is used since it has more power than Waterfall, albeit by a 5 BP difference. Liquidation is mainly for the 2HKO on Hippowdon. Also, Swampert's Analysis Page lists Liquidation as the powerful Water STAB for a Choice Band Swampert set.

TL;DR Liquidation is better on Choice Band Swampert as it has more power, is used mainly to 2HKO Hippowdon, and offensive Swampert has a niche over physically offensive Water-types like Gyarados due to its Ground typing and being able to pivot with Flip Turn.

Comments

Today I learned Crawdaunt doesn't learn ice punch.

Answer 2

Liquidation is the better option, here's why

Swampert has mediocre speed meaning it wont be able to flinch most opponents with Waterfall due to flinches being based on speed however Liquidation has that 20% of lowering the opponent defence and can be useful when weakening the opponent to deal more damage.

Hopefully, this helps :)

Comments

Thanks

---

no problem

---

Swampert won't be able to deal much damage regardless of which water attack it uses. Defense drops are useless when opponents are switching often.

---

110 base attack is solid for a psychical water type but Liquidation is better for the defense drop.

---

Why would you use 110 physical attack when other options have higher physical attack stats?

---

that is true but Swampert has a great typing and coverage so making it purely offensive isnt that bad of an idea but I guess Swampert is better off being support running Stealth Rock or a Sub+Toxic set.

Answer 3

Both moves are bad because offensive Swampert is bad.

Swampert has neither high speed nor aqua jet. Its physical attack boosting moves boost it by only one stage, and they don't also boost speed (technically except ancient power, but that's unreliable). Swampert's damage boosting ability is risky and difficult to activate. Use Gyarados or Crawdaunt if you want a physically offensive water.
source
source
source