Of course, because of the fact that 0% probability does not mean “the event does not happen”, myths about Focus Blast hitting (because they do sometimes) abound.
Gamefreak's split opinion on balance like "No, we can't make better physical electric moves, special fighting moves, and accurate rock moves, the balance will get out of hand!" and then make moves like Astral Barrage, abilities like pre-nerf Intrepid Sword, and entire Pokemon like Flutter Mane.
The difference is likely this Adding new non-signature moves, “we can’t do that, we might accidentally make an unknown Pokemon stronger than we want them to be” Adding an OP Pokemon, “yes, this is the type of Pokemon we want to see players using”
Reminds me of that one player who missed like four Will-o-Wisps in a row during a high-stakes tournament, which led to the move being buffed to its current accuracy.
It reminds to how in a VGC World championship someone lost because they failed Will o wisp 4 times in a row, and in the next gen they buff its accurancy😂 Someone pls ask wolfey to take Focus Blast to worlds just so that they take notice
Focus Blast is like that one job you hate but gives you good money but once you leave, you find that other jobs don’t pay you that well and so you go back to that job you hated.
I remember a Ditto vs Hydrygon battle, with Ditto trying to revenge kill Hydrygon. Both clicked Focus Blast. It went as follows: Ditto Misses Hydrygon misses Ditto Misses again Hydrygon hits Revenge kill failed.
@@shadeslayer2297 coverage in fairy metas. Many drei sets drop dragon stab in order to get that extra coverage move. While Draco Meteor is really strong, it doesn't hit much that dark pulse doesn't already hit, and sometimes you need to hit stuff with super effective coverage more than you need a big neutral hit.
The crazy thing about Focus Blast is if its accuracy was good it would have been one of the most broken moves in the game when it was released. Special fighting coverage is so powerful for so many mons and I think gamefreak was afraid of giving them something super consistent. I think in todays era of Pokemon and power creep they could afford to buff it and it wouldn't be super oppressive.
Especially since fighting has so much coverage offensively, and covers most of psychic's weaknesses. alakazam and reunicles would be practically uncounterable with ghost and fire coverage.
Honestly, Stone Edge has hit much less than Focus Blast for me...Then again, maybe it's because I was so scared of Focus Blast missing that I used it less. Skewing the data.
@jaretco6423 They are two turn moves Great against lobotomised NPCs who don't switch Pokémon and take the hit, horrendous against actual functioning humans who can switch out Pokémon for that express purpose
Not Focus Blast, but one time i was using specs noivern against a +3 sp.def gastrodon in gen 6. I locked into Hurricane and hit once, confused gastro, gastro hits itself, i hit second hurricane, gastro hits itself, i hit a third hurricane, critical hit, gastro goes down. I could not believe my luck and neither could my opponent, they were both our last pokemon and his gastro had ice beam, one hit and i lose, i beat literally all odds to win.
Funny how you mentioned possessing a lucky Noivern: I had one named Bassface that was squared up against my opponent's Mega Blastoise. Bassface survived it's iceberg (with no focus sash), but *then it got frozen*. It thawed out the next turn and boombursted a dub against the Blastoise and our opponent because we were both using our last pokemon.
As a Pokemon Stadium 1 GLC speedrunner, we live and breathe 70% accuracy on our main move (Thunder) and feel the pain often. To make it feel worse, whenever you miss a Focus Blast, you hit a OHKO move in another reality.
0:15 "Wanna tell me where the focus went?" Tbh, random anime trainer woman (aka Betty), your quote should be more iconic😂 Tbh I had never used Focus Blast for that exact reason, and also why I jumped from joy that Tera Blast exists
Even with access to Aura Sphere, Magearna usually still uses Focus Blast, because Aura Sphere is just too weak to get it the numbers on Heatran, Ferrothorn, Melmetal, etc that it needs. Something to consider.
Yeah I feel like the idea of competitive optimization should have been covered. Most mons that get Stone edge also get rock slide and yet edge is almost always preferred because the extra damage is just too much to pass up. A mon that hits 100% of its Focus Blasts will be objectively superior to the same mon running aura sphere, and if you're trying to play to win you're gonna play those odds and pray.
@@skeetermania3202 Nope he's using it correctly. If you want to OHKO Tyranitar, you would rather take the chance of 70% hitting Tyranitar with that OHKO rather than a 2HKO and then get KO'd back by Earthquake.
There's a video where Pimpnite uses a Simisage with Focus Blast to sweep an opponent with six hacked Slakings with Huge Power by hitting all six times.
To think that most of the problems everyone has with Focus Blast wouldn't happen if Aura Sphere was just more well distributed Honestly my favorite part about Focus Blast is the animation they made for it on Showdown, love how they gave it that extra tension by making it stay still for a bit before you can tell if it hit
Yeah but going from 120/70 to 80 but guaranteed is a HUGE shift for a lot of mons. What they needed to do is make NEW special fighting-type moves and give them good distribution but like physical electric moves, Gamefreak has this weird fear that it would ruin the game or something.... Yet for some reason, we're getting more Special Fairy moves and Physical Fire moves as though most things aren't running Flare Blitz or Moonblast/Dazzling Gleam.
@@shujinkoMKnot really, Aura as an ability can be learned, that's what an Aura Guardian is, last I checked, so other pokemon being able to learn it via TM, makes sense, Lucario and Legendary Pokemon that can live for, or have lived for, centuries, if not millennia, learning it naturally, makes sense. It being limited to only the pokemon with a natural affinity for it, is just stupid
@@aghadlarhen9397tbf those moves they're making are either signature or gimmicky, and gimmicky moves need to benefit from it rather than suffer, and outrage clones are no good and no other fairy moves even approach the base power of moonblast. Moves like these aren't intended for just mons of its type after all, and very few mons learn flare blitz or moonblast outside of the type
Add 10, most other moves of similar power are at least at 80%, and anything else that shares a low 70%, usually have conditions that can override accuracy checks
@@brendanboomhour7606technically this does have an effect though but I agree, 80 accuracy would put it alongside Hydro Pump and make a near special counterpart of Cross Chop
@@Breakaway-ic5gj one issue there, Game Freak doesn't tend to completely change the effects of a move, they may alter the power, accuracy, or chance of a secondary effect, but they've yet to completely change a move
They buffed Gunk Shot from 70 to 80 accuracy. So Focus Blast should get the same treatment or a gimmick for example when you hit first the moves accuracy is increased by 20% .
There is another special fighting move that also has limited distribution: Vacuum Wave. The Scyther line, Mew and Kartana were the only non-fighting types to get it before Gen9, where it was expanded a bit, but not to those that would've appreciated the coverage. It isn't much of an option, but it is there.
@raysay1818 yes, because they decided that a tanky, high SpA, slow pokemon that could hit ghosts with normal and fighting moves and ignore accuracy, with one of the best signature moves in the game needed a priority fighting move.
I'll never forget the end of my ultra moon nuzlocke where on turn one, Hau's alolan Raichu OH-KO'd my Krookadile with a critical hit focus blast. I then proceeded to bring out my bulkiest Pokémon and give it 6 roto boosts before sweeping his team. I was done playing fair after that.
My most hated move in all of pokemon is Dragon Rush because of my PTSD from Cynthia. Her Garchomp’s Dragon Rush hit me without fail, I use it on her and it misses each time.
wild pokemons hit zap cannon or inferno all the time, but you face a lot of wild pokemons meanwhile i occasionally die cause i used high jump kick, but i only have 6 pokemons
Hypnosis is one of those moves that makes me irrationally angry at times but I still use it frequently anyway. Fun fact: The move was buffed to 70% accuracy in DP and then immediately dropped back to 60% in Platinum. I think that's the fastest buff to nerf between games ever.
Sad thing is that most Pokemon that learn focus blast should be able to learn aura sphere. Psychic and ghost types should have auras. Couldn't we have a special fighting move that's somewhere between the accuracy and power of aura sphere and focus blast
75 power, 95 accuracy, special Probably named something like “fighting punch”, “flying punch”, or “throw punch” The idea is the Pokemon is throwing punches like how Shadow Punch is sometimes depicted
@@genarorios5055 Kiai would be an interesting name, having it be a sound based move It would probably be renamed in localisation as something like “Fighting Burst” or “Battle Scream” or “Brawl Voice”
One thing I realized: Mega Pidgeot would've been one of the best users of Focus Blast due to No Guard, especially since it lacked good coverage against Rocks and Steels. Everything else gets either blown away by Hurricane, or blasted apart by the rarer Hyper Beam.
thought this would be a Rock Slide video, imperfect accuracy, extremely common coverage move, flinch lucksacking and as an added bonus for doubles where it's the most popular, the RNG layers increase exponentially
New Theorem idea: Pokémon who have middling speed stats (between 50-70) are either too slow to use a Choice Scarf, or too fast to use under Trick Room. Even if they have decent attacking/defensive stats, their middling speed hinders them from high-level success. Title it: Why Middling Speed is Detrimental: The Decidueye Theorem
Your point about Scald still doing _something_ even when it fails to burn is a good one. IMO, a good change to Focus Blast (and maybe most lower accuracy moves) would be to make them still do a bit of chip damage or something even when they "miss"
The issue Focus Blast presents to a competitive game is that if you ever wish to perform exceptionally, like in a tournament setting, not only would you have to account for the possibility that Focus Blast can misd whenever you'd want to use it, you'll also have to account for the fact that any Pokemon that's wrecked by special fighting moves cannot reliably deal with a large amount of Pokemon they would otherwise deal with easily. So a move like Focus Blast is not used the most effectively when it's spammed, it's at its best when you're aware of your opponent's fears of the move, how its mere existense shapes their lines of play. This is a lot easier said than done, of course, and a lot of times, a player might be backed into a corner where they'll have to rely on focus blast hitting/missing one way or another. But it's an important thing to bear in mind the implications of its existence and the consequences of clicking it. If you ever find yourself in a situation where your Zam is up against a Conkeldurr and they have a Pursuit TTar in the back. You may have more options on hand than Psychic and Focus Blast, even if you have to look to the rest of your team.
0:25 "... your roommate who has to watch videos at 1.5 speed, otherwise they can't concentrate" As someone who watches things at 1.5 speed, I feel called out.
@@AwesomeHairoare we thinking of the same falseswipegaming? Cuz this man talks pretty fast already. I'd think that if someone was speeding him up they have a negative attention span
@@tripleaaabattery8480 If I had a short attention span, I wouldn't be speeding up the video. I swear he talks slow, and this is coming from an American English talker with a moderate speaking pace.
0:16 This is such an underrated burn from the anime. You can use this on anyone who misses focus blast at a crucial moment before their glass cannon gets wiped off the map.
People look at 70% accuracy and think it's not much different from 85% But you have to think of those percentage in reverse: you have one move with 30% chance to miss and another with 15% chance, the first one can miss twice as much as the other.
i think the only reason focus blast is so hated is that most mons that need it for coverage lack aura sphere, which is also 2/3 of the power. And unlike hurricane it doesnt have a synergistic way to make it more accurate
focus blast is hated because it makes already powerful pokemon nearly impossible to counter reliably. just let gallade learn aura sphere (and maybe ralts as an egg move) and delete focus blast entirely.
For synergy, Gravity exists - but it's a niche option that's very hard to justify for Focus Blast alone, and I don't think it gets any use outside of very specific doubles comps (trickroom Groudon teams etc).
Focus Blast feels so bad because its the only fighting type coverage for psychic types during the generations with dark type Pursuit users. God I'm glad Pursuit is axed forever now; but gamefreak please give psychic types a better coverage move 😥😥😥😥
If only there were some other special fighting move with less power but reliable accuracy. It could be a tm and spread to mons dependant on focus miss ... game freak.
yeah there is a good reason why fan's like to call Focus Blast "Focus Miss" plus tbh they always tend to balance out high power moves with some kind of drawback be it lower accuracy or some kind of negative effect on the user after it's use
This video couldn't have came at a batter time. Literally watched my friend miss 3 Focus Blasts in a row last night while playing Gen 4 random battles. He's gonna be so pissed when he sees this video.
Yeah, I lost a small showdown tournament due to me missing 5 crucial focus blasts in a row in the game after I won the first one and the tie breaker. Lovely stuff
It's so weird. I almost always land Hypnosis, even though it's only **60%** accurate. But I have never ever managed to land Focus Blast in all the time I've been a Pokemon fan.
I think that the problem is not only Focus Blast, I think pokemon has a problem with their move variety. You have a million of different moves, but a lot of them are uselesss, ember for example (I got that is an early game move and bla bla bla). However, you can have good physical electric moves, even an accurate “standard” move for flying (physical and special) and so on. It’s funny how a lot of pokemons can’t even use their stabs (gyarados, landorus…).
Speaking of Aura Sphere, I think you'd be happy to find that some of the pokes you've spoken of do get access to it via TM/TR (if unavailable as a tutor move anywhere) from Gen 8 & 9 along with Togekiss being able to learn it in some form from its start
Make Focus Blast do partial damage when it misses? Like a reverse High Jump Kick. Actually focus on the target, even if they're quick and evasive, they aren't getting out unscathed. That could be neat. 50% damage is probably fine. Worst case, you just clicked HP Fighting.
Bro, it's as easy as having good luck. 🙄 Jokes aside, I've always wanted a special-focused pokemon with the likes of inferno, zap cannon and focus blast (maybe not all of them) to get No Guard as an ability, it would be interesting.
I remember switching to HP Fighting after missing all 8 Focus Blasts in a row. I figured that hitting two HP Fightings was more damage because I was never going to hit one Focus Blast
Makes me think of the old Red and Blue days where it was annoying when the 95% accurate Tackle always seemed to miss at the worst times. I know there were less accurate moves but that's always been a memory of the old days going through the game proper.
We also need wider distribution of currently existing fighting moves. Vacuum Wave is a great special priority move that a lot of special mons could stand to use, and Aura Sphere should exist on psychic types at the least.
And physical electric moves that don’t have terrible drawbacks or low distribution. Supercell Slam was soooo close but they just had to make ground immunity cause crash damage to rub salt in the wound
The accuracy broken thing is actually very interesting. I think Focus Miss wouldn't be the laughing stock that it is if it got a Fire Blast or Hydro Pump accuracy. Is anyone really going to argue that the 10 extra BP requires 15% less accuracy. Then again, we could just give Aura Sphere to more damn Pokemon but oh no, it's Lucario's move so it has to still be a little special even though freaking Mienshao gets it. Mienshao most likely isn't even going to *be* a special attacker.
I remember back in Gen 6 OU the standard set for Mega Zard Y was Roost, Fire Blast, Solar Beam, and Focus Blast. I swapped Focus Blast out for HP Ice and never looked back.
That bit about landing 2 Focus Blasts in a row reminds me of a Wi-Fi battle I had back in Gen 6. I had a mixed up team going up against someone's mono-Ice team. Their Lapras KO'd my Staraptor that was low on health so it was down to their Lapras and my Hydreigon. My Hydreigon landed a Focus Blast on their Lapras and got them it to the high yellow. They used Blizzard and got my Hydreigon to low yellow. They used Ice Shard the next turn but thanks to my Staraptor's Intimidate, my Hydreigon managed to barely survive the Ice Shard. And it came down to whether or not that second Focus Blast connected. My Hydreigon then clutched the win by landing a second Focus Blast in a row.
Fun fact: Tornadus-Therian learns both Hurricane and Focus Miss, and uses both somewhat regularly (hurricane more, obviously.) So its not uncommon to just...lose to torn-t rng. I played SS OU for most of the time it was current gen, and I almost never used Tornadus-Therian despite it being arguably busted because hurricane miss
At least Hurricane can have its accuracy worked around by having rain setup [of course, by a similar consequence, it can be made _worse_ with the sun] Meanwhile there's very little that can be done about ol' Focus Miss
The frequency in which I miss 2-3 times in a row with tackle has scared me so much that the next time I used a not 100% move was hydro pump on ash greninja, a full decade later.
Ah yes, the special fighting move Game Freak couldn't help but slap on to fully evolve pokemon, as their only fighting move, even when aura sphere exists.
having focus blast in your arsenal is like being in a shitty relationship. Its 90 percent of the time unreliable but that 10 percent of the time its the best thing you can't imagine not having.
So basically, Focus Blast wouldn't be so hated if there was a more accurate but less strong alternative; or maybe give some of them access to Aura Sphere
Honestly to me I just want it to have a conditional sure-hit like blizzard, hurricane, and thunder. Like if it promises a hit after using Focus Energy (or if a team-mate uses a similar move boosting your crit odds). Or could be interesting if it has 100% hit rate if you missed any move in the previous turn.
99% of focus blast users stop using focus blast right before it lands
100% of focus blast users that stop using focus blast right before it lands stopped because the pokemon with focus blast fainted
@@Psychomaniac14XD
Of course, because of the fact that 0% probability does not mean “the event does not happen”, myths about Focus Blast hitting (because they do sometimes) abound.
We rather pray to flinch and status then trust focusmiss.
Most of the time, best you can get it 30%.
Have you been going to the game corner again?
Fire Blast's 85% accuracy feels like the minimum I can tolerate without closing my eyes and praying whenever I have to click the button.
cries in stone edge misses
Cries in Heatwave missing the sash Pokémon in doubles
Dude I won't even click 95% accurate moves comfortably
Cries in missing high horsepower 2/3 of the time despite its 95% accuracy
@@jacobmorris6357 High horsepower is supposed to be 5% inaccurate. I ALMOST ALWAYS miss it
In spanish, the move was AWFULLY translated as "Onda Certera", which means..... "Accurate Blast"....
Lmao
oh the iron E
I think they were sarcastic
This pains me
oh my god
It's not Accurate Blast, it's CERTAIN BLAST
i always like the quote “focus blast is so rare to hit that you probably didn’t even know it has a chance to lower spDef”
I had to look it up
I was completely certain you were lying
it can WHAT
I've been playing pokemon since I was 7 and I didn't know this. This sounds so fake
I was about to say, i was surprised this wasn't mentioned in the video lmao
It really puts things into perspective when you realize that the odds of Focus Blast missing are the same as the odds of Scald burning.
Yes, and Scald always Burn :(
And focus miss always miss the focus
Focus Blast always misses and Scald always burns.
So 100%, got it
And poison sting poisoning. Looking at you all the early game Weedles and Wurmples constantly poisoning me
Gamefreak's split opinion on balance like "No, we can't make better physical electric moves, special fighting moves, and accurate rock moves, the balance will get out of hand!" and then make moves like Astral Barrage, abilities like pre-nerf Intrepid Sword, and entire Pokemon like Flutter Mane.
The difference is likely this
Adding new non-signature moves, “we can’t do that, we might accidentally make an unknown Pokemon stronger than we want them to be”
Adding an OP Pokemon, “yes, this is the type of Pokemon we want to see players using”
i laugh every time someone talks about gamefreak and balancing their games, lol
To be fair, do you really want to see Flutter Mane rocking a fully accurate special fighting move?😅
@@mysticpumpkin8520Absolutely, I see no problems with giving it Aura Sphere 🙂
(This is a joke)
@@mysticpumpkin8520 As someone who only plays singles you can give Flutter Mane every move you want. Just please release Aura Sphere
Missing 8/8 blasts sounds crazy, what competitive pokemon does to a man
Unfortunate doesn’t begin to describe…
Reminds me of that one player who missed like four Will-o-Wisps in a row during a high-stakes tournament, which led to the move being buffed to its current accuracy.
It was on showdown, which is coded wrong
@@generalsynnacle23and got hit in confusion multiple times, and got 2x full paralyzed, Aaron zheng I believe.
It reminds to how in a VGC World championship someone lost because they failed Will o wisp 4 times in a row, and in the next gen they buff its accurancy😂
Someone pls ask wolfey to take Focus Blast to worlds just so that they take notice
Focus Blast is like that one job you hate but gives you good money but once you leave, you find that other jobs don’t pay you that well and so you go back to that job you hated.
Love-hate relationship
if a move has 60 power and hits every turn, it has 60 power
if a move has 120 power but hits once every 3 turns, it effectively has 40 power
@@gramfero More like twice every 3 turns, so it would be 80 power. Which is exactly Aura Sphere's power, funnily enough.
@gramfero yeah but turns matter. The chance of being able to make a 3hko a 1hko can def be worth the risk
@@thedude-nf1ufThat's an excellent point and something that got a bit glossed over in the video
I remember a Ditto vs Hydrygon battle, with Ditto trying to revenge kill Hydrygon. Both clicked Focus Blast. It went as follows:
Ditto Misses
Hydrygon misses
Ditto Misses again
Hydrygon hits
Revenge kill failed.
The real question is why hydreigon isn't running dragon stab in either pulse or draco..
Was prolly specs
@@shadeslayer2297 coverage in fairy metas. Many drei sets drop dragon stab in order to get that extra coverage move. While Draco Meteor is really strong, it doesn't hit much that dark pulse doesn't already hit, and sometimes you need to hit stuff with super effective coverage more than you need a big neutral hit.
The chance to miss Focus Blast twice is 9%.
@@doodlesyoru2108 the chance to fail the revenge kill was 23.197% though, since the opponent's focus blast could hit, and ditto could run out of PP
Someone missed all 8 focus blasts in a tournament? Unfortunate doesn't begin to describe his series...
I guess we could call that a Focus blast Fumble
pretty sure they still won
Thats 0.006561% chance of happening.
A shiny is 0.024%
I understand that reference
If it’s not 100 percent accurate it’s 50 percent accurate
50 percent is too high for focus blast
MandJTV gang
If it's not focus Blast it's 60x more accurate than focus blast
The squad
Literally hit or miss
The crazy thing about Focus Blast is if its accuracy was good it would have been one of the most broken moves in the game when it was released.
Special fighting coverage is so powerful for so many mons and I think gamefreak was afraid of giving them something super consistent. I think in todays era of Pokemon and power creep they could afford to buff it and it wouldn't be super oppressive.
Especially since fighting has so much coverage offensively, and covers most of psychic's weaknesses. alakazam and reunicles would be practically uncounterable with ghost and fire coverage.
@@lukebytes5366Sucker Punch:
@@generalsynnacle23tera fight kazam 😂
Or just give a flamethrower equivalent to the fighting type
@@generalsynnacle23 yeah, and weavile is a garchomp counter in gen 4. you need to actually switch in to threaten them.
The fact that this video came out after Joji lost the Stockholm Regionals because his Chi-Yu's Overheat missed Zamazenta is kinda funny.
Hey 90% aint bad for a strong move like Overheat, it's just the other 10% can slip you up when you least expect it
He also lost due to a Heatwave miss earlier that same game, his Chi-Yu needs an appointment with the optomologist
@@arrownibent5980 that or his opponent’s pokemon just dodged it like in the anime
@@arrownibent5980Turns out beads don't make for good eyeballs.
Honestly, Stone Edge has hit much less than Focus Blast for me...Then again, maybe it's because I was so scared of Focus Blast missing that I used it less. Skewing the data.
@@jaretco6423Why would you use fly or dig 💀
@@jaretco6423no one uses those trash moves
@jaretco6423 They are two turn moves
Great against lobotomised NPCs who don't switch Pokémon and take the hit, horrendous against actual functioning humans who can switch out Pokémon for that express purpose
Focus blast: I am the most inaccurate fighting type move
Dynamic Miss (Punch): Amateur.
I never missed a dynamic punch 🤭
Nobody bothers using dynamic punch unless its no guard machamp
Dynamic punch doesn't miss. If you use it and it misses, you're an idiot.
Dynamix Punch is actually used in gen 2, one of the few things that OHKO snorlax - with a crit and STAB
@@maximuscesar You can't miss if you don't use it.
Not Focus Blast, but one time i was using specs noivern against a +3 sp.def gastrodon in gen 6. I locked into Hurricane and hit once, confused gastro, gastro hits itself, i hit second hurricane, gastro hits itself, i hit a third hurricane, critical hit, gastro goes down. I could not believe my luck and neither could my opponent, they were both our last pokemon and his gastro had ice beam, one hit and i lose, i beat literally all odds to win.
Funny how you mentioned possessing a lucky Noivern:
I had one named Bassface that was squared up against my opponent's Mega Blastoise. Bassface survived it's iceberg (with no focus sash), but *then it got frozen*. It thawed out the next turn and boombursted a dub against the Blastoise and our opponent because we were both using our last pokemon.
Your Noivern just said Nah I'd win
Man I wanna see more comments like these about how people getting extremely lucky (or their opponent getting extremely unlucky) won them a game.
You probably used up all your luck for the next year
Im surprised with the insane number of focus blasts you hit during the making of this video
That's the magic of editing.
Probably took about 15 hours of footage to get those after editing
Actually, if you really pay attention through the entire video, it shows exactly 70% of the 'Focus Blast' attacks hitting!
@@trystanclemenceau2071that has to be an understatement. I didn't hit one until 2 months
As a Pokemon Stadium 1 GLC speedrunner, we live and breathe 70% accuracy on our main move (Thunder) and feel the pain often. To make it feel worse, whenever you miss a Focus Blast, you hit a OHKO move in another reality.
Werster can attest to that.
0:15 "Wanna tell me where the focus went?" Tbh, random anime trainer woman (aka Betty), your quote should be more iconic😂
Tbh I had never used Focus Blast for that exact reason, and also why I jumped from joy that Tera Blast exists
Funny thing that’s Dawn voice actress
I remember when I was a kid watching this episode on cartoon network. Focus Blast girl was probably my first cartoon crush because of thay one line.
@@Bingus743tbh yeah. I am a bit to gay for that, but she is certainly very pretty
Also she is spitting fire in her only anime appearance😂
Her name is Betty
Even with access to Aura Sphere, Magearna usually still uses Focus Blast, because Aura Sphere is just too weak to get it the numbers on Heatran, Ferrothorn, Melmetal, etc that it needs. Something to consider.
Personally I will take the attack that always hits any day.
Yeah I feel like the idea of competitive optimization should have been covered. Most mons that get Stone edge also get rock slide and yet edge is almost always preferred because the extra damage is just too much to pass up. A mon that hits 100% of its Focus Blasts will be objectively superior to the same mon running aura sphere, and if you're trying to play to win you're gonna play those odds and pray.
@@nojetplane Needless (mis)use of objectively like far too many people here.
@@skeetermania3202 Nope he's using it correctly. If you want to OHKO Tyranitar, you would rather take the chance of 70% hitting Tyranitar with that OHKO rather than a 2HKO and then get KO'd back by Earthquake.
@@AyuNico Objectively isn’t a word to use if referring to judgments of value.
“That’s a Focus BlAst?!”
The monotone voice acting and the voice crack made me nearly wake up my family
There's a video where Pimpnite uses a Simisage with Focus Blast to sweep an opponent with six hacked Slakings with Huge Power by hitting all six times.
It would've been Joever if One of those Slackings had Sucker Punch💀
gadzooks! pimpnite also hacker confirmed??!?!
pimpnite videos are stagged
To think that most of the problems everyone has with Focus Blast wouldn't happen if Aura Sphere was just more well distributed
Honestly my favorite part about Focus Blast is the animation they made for it on Showdown, love how they gave it that extra tension by making it stay still for a bit before you can tell if it hit
Yeah but going from 120/70 to 80 but guaranteed is a HUGE shift for a lot of mons. What they needed to do is make NEW special fighting-type moves and give them good distribution but like physical electric moves, Gamefreak has this weird fear that it would ruin the game or something....
Yet for some reason, we're getting more Special Fairy moves and Physical Fire moves as though most things aren't running Flare Blitz or Moonblast/Dazzling Gleam.
Honestly I think aura sphere should be lucario exclusive. It’s gimmick is aura and nobody else uses that
@@shujinkoMKnot really, Aura as an ability can be learned, that's what an Aura Guardian is, last I checked, so other pokemon being able to learn it via TM, makes sense, Lucario and Legendary Pokemon that can live for, or have lived for, centuries, if not millennia, learning it naturally, makes sense. It being limited to only the pokemon with a natural affinity for it, is just stupid
@@shujinkoMK just make a new move for lucario and distribute aura sphere, or make a new move similar to aura sphere with wide distribution
Or both
@@aghadlarhen9397tbf those moves they're making are either signature or gimmicky, and gimmicky moves need to benefit from it rather than suffer, and outrage clones are no good and no other fairy moves even approach the base power of moonblast. Moves like these aren't intended for just mons of its type after all, and very few mons learn flare blitz or moonblast outside of the type
That move really needs, at _bare minimum,_ 5 extra points in its Accuracy.
Add 10, most other moves of similar power are at least at 80%, and anything else that shares a low 70%, usually have conditions that can override accuracy checks
@@brendanboomhour7606technically this does have an effect though but I agree, 80 accuracy would put it alongside Hydro Pump and make a near special counterpart of Cross Chop
Make it 100% accurate and just make it special close combat
@@Breakaway-ic5gjfr
@@Breakaway-ic5gj one issue there, Game Freak doesn't tend to completely change the effects of a move, they may alter the power, accuracy, or chance of a secondary effect, but they've yet to completely change a move
95 accuracy is already a toss up. Anything below that is basically self inflicted damage when missing
@CorveganTaking self inflicted a little too seriously 10% or 5% of the time
@Corvegan those both also have the downside of damaging you by half your max health if you miss or attack into protect
@@HappyIsaac0420 Yeah I knew that
Getting the play rough 10% miss three times in a row makes me want to tear my hair out.
Reason why High Jump Kick has such low accuracy
God focus blast needs a buff or aura sphere needs more distribution
and give Aura Sphere a buff to at least 90 BP
@@IncineRand Aura Sphere used to be 90 BP
Or a new special fighting move.
Can join the physical electric move, physical fairy and physical ghost ones that are needed
@@soaringraven0 i think Fairy's best move is Play Rough... at 90% accurate, cant tell you how often that 10% miss chance has killed me lol
@@soaringraven0 Dont forget the special flying type moves. 95% 75 bsp is stupid and hurricane is just a weaker focus blast
They buffed Gunk Shot from 70 to 80 accuracy. So Focus Blast should get the same treatment or a gimmick for example when you hit first the moves accuracy is increased by 20% .
that would be awful.
how often would people use it more than one hit though
There is another special fighting move that also has limited distribution: Vacuum Wave. The Scyther line, Mew and Kartana were the only non-fighting types to get it before Gen9, where it was expanded a bit, but not to those that would've appreciated the coverage.
It isn't much of an option, but it is there.
Kinda ironic how Ursaluna blood moon is the only mon who actually use vacuum wave
@@jambon2730IT GETS VACUUM WAVE?
@raysay1818 yes, because they decided that a tanky, high SpA, slow pokemon that could hit ghosts with normal and fighting moves and ignore accuracy, with one of the best signature moves in the game needed a priority fighting move.
I'll never forget the end of my ultra moon nuzlocke where on turn one, Hau's alolan Raichu OH-KO'd my Krookadile with a critical hit focus blast. I then proceeded to bring out my bulkiest Pokémon and give it 6 roto boosts before sweeping his team. I was done playing fair after that.
My most hated move in all of pokemon is Dragon Rush because of my PTSD from Cynthia. Her Garchomp’s Dragon Rush hit me without fail, I use it on her and it misses each time.
And when it doesn't one-shot you, it flinches you 😓
She used bright powder and tinted lens on her garchomp. Skill issue
Good old AI privilege
wild pokemons hit zap cannon or inferno all the time, but you face a lot of wild pokemons
meanwhile i occasionally die cause i used high jump kick, but i only have 6 pokemons
Hypnosis is one of those moves that makes me irrationally angry at times but I still use it frequently anyway.
Fun fact: The move was buffed to 70% accuracy in DP and then immediately dropped back to 60% in Platinum. I think that's the fastest buff to nerf between games ever.
They don't call it "Focus Miss" for nothing!
Sad thing is that most Pokemon that learn focus blast should be able to learn aura sphere. Psychic and ghost types should have auras. Couldn't we have a special fighting move that's somewhere between the accuracy and power of aura sphere and focus blast
75 power, 95 accuracy, special
Probably named something like “fighting punch”, “flying punch”, or “throw punch”
The idea is the Pokemon is throwing punches like how Shadow Punch is sometimes depicted
@@typemasters2871 named Kiai maybe? and with and extra effect : flinch chance
@@genarorios5055 Kiai would be an interesting name, having it be a sound based move
It would probably be renamed in localisation as something like “Fighting Burst” or “Battle Scream” or “Brawl Voice”
Psychic and a lot of ghost types also learn fairy moves so it's not as big of a deal
Focus Blast's accuracy itself isn't that bad, it's the accuracy along with it being the only decent special Fighting coverage
This would be a hydro pump video if surf and scald didn't exist.
One thing I realized: Mega Pidgeot would've been one of the best users of Focus Blast due to No Guard, especially since it lacked good coverage against Rocks and Steels. Everything else gets either blown away by Hurricane, or blasted apart by the rarer Hyper Beam.
If I missed eight focus blasts in one game I think I'd turn into Lavos.
thought this would be a Rock Slide video, imperfect accuracy, extremely common coverage move, flinch lucksacking and as an added bonus for doubles where it's the most popular, the RNG layers increase exponentially
Rock slide or stone edge. Rock types are stuck with BS RNG no matter what.
New Theorem idea: Pokémon who have middling speed stats (between 50-70) are either too slow to use a Choice Scarf, or too fast to use under Trick Room. Even if they have decent attacking/defensive stats, their middling speed hinders them from high-level success. Title it:
Why Middling Speed is Detrimental: The Decidueye Theorem
I'd LOVE to see this!!!
How BAD is middling speed ACTUALLY?
Tailwind tends to help them out in doubles, so I’m not entirely sure if there is such a thing as a “bad” speed tier in a vacuum.
50 is actually really good in vgc, because depending on EVs, IVs and natures, you can use a base 50 speed Mon either in trick room or in tailwind
I feel like it's a "jack of all trades, master of none" type deal, but versatility is nice so I can see that working potentially
Your point about Scald still doing _something_ even when it fails to burn is a good one. IMO, a good change to Focus Blast (and maybe most lower accuracy moves) would be to make them still do a bit of chip damage or something even when they "miss"
That could be interesting. Make it 100% accurate, but it has a 30% chance to have 60 base power instead of 120.
The issue Focus Blast presents to a competitive game is that if you ever wish to perform exceptionally, like in a tournament setting, not only would you have to account for the possibility that Focus Blast can misd whenever you'd want to use it, you'll also have to account for the fact that any Pokemon that's wrecked by special fighting moves cannot reliably deal with a large amount of Pokemon they would otherwise deal with easily.
So a move like Focus Blast is not used the most effectively when it's spammed, it's at its best when you're aware of your opponent's fears of the move, how its mere existense shapes their lines of play. This is a lot easier said than done, of course, and a lot of times, a player might be backed into a corner where they'll have to rely on focus blast hitting/missing one way or another. But it's an important thing to bear in mind the implications of its existence and the consequences of clicking it. If you ever find yourself in a situation where your Zam is up against a Conkeldurr and they have a Pursuit TTar in the back. You may have more options on hand than Psychic and Focus Blast, even if you have to look to the rest of your team.
Very glad you tapped into the Aura Sphere "alternative" point. I've long, LONG since thought Alakazam, Gengar, and many others ought to get the move.
0:25 "... your roommate who has to watch videos at 1.5 speed, otherwise they can't concentrate"
As someone who watches things at 1.5 speed, I feel called out.
It’s not about attention span, it’s a matter of saving time.
It's both. Some don't have time, some don't have the attention span.@@minicritman999
He literally talks too slow. I HAVE to put it at 1.5 or higher.
@@AwesomeHairoare we thinking of the same falseswipegaming? Cuz this man talks pretty fast already. I'd think that if someone was speeding him up they have a negative attention span
@@tripleaaabattery8480 If I had a short attention span, I wouldn't be speeding up the video. I swear he talks slow, and this is coming from an American English talker with a moderate speaking pace.
0:16 This is such an underrated burn from the anime. You can use this on anyone who misses focus blast at a crucial moment before their glass cannon gets wiped off the map.
"If it aint 100% accurayc, its 50% accuracy"
-MandJtv
People look at 70% accuracy and think it's not much different from 85%
But you have to think of those percentage in reverse: you have one move with 30% chance to miss and another with 15% chance, the first one can miss twice as much as the other.
Missing all 8 focus blasts would've sent me to my death bed.
More pokemon should have aura sphere, especially psychic types like espeon and alakazam, to have a way to deal with dark and steel types
i think the only reason focus blast is so hated is that most mons that need it for coverage lack aura sphere, which is also 2/3 of the power. And unlike hurricane it doesnt have a synergistic way to make it more accurate
Thank you for summarizing the video we all just watched.
focus blast is hated because it makes already powerful pokemon nearly impossible to counter reliably.
just let gallade learn aura sphere (and maybe ralts as an egg move) and delete focus blast entirely.
For synergy, Gravity exists - but it's a niche option that's very hard to justify for Focus Blast alone, and I don't think it gets any use outside of very specific doubles comps (trickroom Groudon teams etc).
Focus Blast feels so bad because its the only fighting type coverage for psychic types during the generations with dark type Pursuit users. God I'm glad Pursuit is axed forever now; but gamefreak please give psychic types a better coverage move 😥😥😥😥
When you want it to hit, it doesn't
When you dont want it to hit, it does
When would you not want it to hit??
@@ItsYuhBoyyyy when your opponent is using it or maybe
When you're making a video and need footage of it missing
Oh yea I’m dumb😂😂😂
If only there were some other special fighting move with less power but reliable accuracy. It could be a tm and spread to mons dependant on focus miss ... game freak.
Man, i really cant imagine how long must have taken to land all those focus blasts so you could have footage for the video
yeah there is a good reason why fan's like to call Focus Blast "Focus Miss"
plus tbh they always tend to balance out high power moves with some kind of drawback be it lower accuracy or some kind of negative effect on the user after it's use
This video couldn't have came at a batter time. Literally watched my friend miss 3 Focus Blasts in a row last night while playing Gen 4 random battles. He's gonna be so pissed when he sees this video.
Yeah, I lost a small showdown tournament due to me missing 5 crucial focus blasts in a row in the game after I won the first one and the tie breaker.
Lovely stuff
80-95 accurate moves: good, miss about as much as you'd expect
70 and lower accurate moves: might as well be 1 accuracy.
Fun fact: the original name for the move is "Kiaidama", which roughly means "Fighting Spirit Bullet".
It's so weird. I almost always land Hypnosis, even though it's only **60%** accurate. But I have never ever managed to land Focus Blast in all the time I've been a Pokemon fan.
Hypnosis has 60% accuracy.
@@justinnzamora5366 Fixed! Thanks for clarifying! Could have sworn it was 55. Can't believe I've spent over 20 years thinking that lol
@@arthropod-doctor A sleep move with 55% accuracy does exist. It's called Sing.
And Grasswhistle. Not that it matters much since it got deleted in Gen 8
Dynamic Punch, Zap Cannon, & Inferno all get onto the same Pokemon...
I find it hilarious that fighting has 2 special attacks: one that never missed and one that always misses lol
It's got 3 actually. Vacuum Wave which is the Special equivalent of Mach Punch. And 4 if you count the exclusive Secret Sword.
The fact he got footage of Focus Blast hitting is nothing short of a miracle.
I always prefer 100% accurate moves that are weaker than stronger moves with lower accuracy. Because even 95% accurate moves can still miss.
You know you’re wrong when even a Character of the Day (Or Arc) calls out the accuracy of the move.
Anything below 90% of accuracy, pokemon abilities combined I never use.
I think that the problem is not only Focus Blast, I think pokemon has a problem with their move variety. You have a million of different moves, but a lot of them are uselesss, ember for example (I got that is an early game move and bla bla bla). However, you can have good physical electric moves, even an accurate “standard” move for flying (physical and special) and so on. It’s funny how a lot of pokemons can’t even use their stabs (gyarados, landorus…).
Speaking of Aura Sphere, I think you'd be happy to find that some of the pokes you've spoken of do get access to it via TM/TR (if unavailable as a tutor move anywhere) from Gen 8 & 9 along with Togekiss being able to learn it in some form from its start
Last week I played a game where I missed three focus blasts in a row, each one would have been a guaranteed OHKO on the opponent's mon, I was pissed.
Make Focus Blast do partial damage when it misses? Like a reverse High Jump Kick. Actually focus on the target, even if they're quick and evasive, they aren't getting out unscathed. That could be neat. 50% damage is probably fine. Worst case, you just clicked HP Fighting.
Bro, it's as easy as having good luck. 🙄
Jokes aside, I've always wanted a special-focused pokemon with the likes of inferno, zap cannon and focus blast (maybe not all of them) to get No Guard as an ability, it would be interesting.
Once had my Hydreigon miss 5 Draco Meteors in a row (no evasion boosts/accuracy drops involved). Pure pain
Me: c’mon baby escalators escalators escalators
Focus Blast: _EELSSS_
I remember switching to HP Fighting after missing all 8 Focus Blasts in a row. I figured that hitting two HP Fightings was more damage because I was never going to hit one Focus Blast
That thumbnail is peak
Makes me think of the old Red and Blue days where it was annoying when the 95% accurate Tackle always seemed to miss at the worst times. I know there were less accurate moves but that's always been a memory of the old days going through the game proper.
We need more special fighting moves. Focus miss being the only option for many is ridiculous
We also need wider distribution of currently existing fighting moves. Vacuum Wave is a great special priority move that a lot of special mons could stand to use, and Aura Sphere should exist on psychic types at the least.
No we don't, they shouldn't have fighting moves.
@@ThisIsntATH-camrWe just got a vacume wave tm, and that was a mistake.
And physical electric moves that don’t have terrible drawbacks or low distribution. Supercell Slam was soooo close but they just had to make ground immunity cause crash damage to rub salt in the wound
@@gregorymirabella1423 Can you explain why?
Icicle Crash is 90% and still sends me to the shadow realm when it doesn't hit. 70% is enough to kill me on the inside
The accuracy broken thing is actually very interesting. I think Focus Miss wouldn't be the laughing stock that it is if it got a Fire Blast or Hydro Pump accuracy. Is anyone really going to argue that the 10 extra BP requires 15% less accuracy. Then again, we could just give Aura Sphere to more damn Pokemon but oh no, it's Lucario's move so it has to still be a little special even though freaking Mienshao gets it. Mienshao most likely isn't even going to *be* a special attacker.
I remember back in Gen 6 OU the standard set for Mega Zard Y was Roost, Fire Blast, Solar Beam, and Focus Blast. I swapped Focus Blast out for HP Ice and never looked back.
In spanish is Even worse. Its called onda certera (precise Wave) SO we call it onda sarcástica (sarcástic Wave)
I was impressed when JoeyAim made a vid "If Focus Blast misses, this video ends" and it lasted ~6 minutes
the funny part is that there is probably only two fighting types that use focus blast...
10:16 this clip got me so confused until I remembered clefa le used to be normal xD
It has 100% hit accuracy for hitting the left side of the enemy pokemon on Showdown.
That bit about landing 2 Focus Blasts in a row reminds me of a Wi-Fi battle I had back in Gen 6. I had a mixed up team going up against someone's mono-Ice team. Their Lapras KO'd my Staraptor that was low on health so it was down to their Lapras and my Hydreigon. My Hydreigon landed a Focus Blast on their Lapras and got them it to the high yellow. They used Blizzard and got my Hydreigon to low yellow. They used Ice Shard the next turn but thanks to my Staraptor's Intimidate, my Hydreigon managed to barely survive the Ice Shard. And it came down to whether or not that second Focus Blast connected. My Hydreigon then clutched the win by landing a second Focus Blast in a row.
Fun fact: Tornadus-Therian learns both Hurricane and Focus Miss, and uses both somewhat regularly (hurricane more, obviously.) So its not uncommon to just...lose to torn-t rng.
I played SS OU for most of the time it was current gen, and I almost never used Tornadus-Therian despite it being arguably busted because hurricane miss
At least Hurricane can have its accuracy worked around by having rain setup [of course, by a similar consequence, it can be made _worse_ with the sun]
Meanwhile there's very little that can be done about ol' Focus Miss
And the funny thing is focus blast also has a 10% chance to land a sp.def drop by one stage. So more luck
I feel in love with a Raichu in that has 100% success ratio, in my playthrough I was like, "you miss, I box you".
The frequency in which I miss 2-3 times in a row with tackle has scared me so much that the next time I used a not 100% move was hydro pump on ash greninja, a full decade later.
Can you believe freaking Tackle had 95% accuracy before Gen 5?
That Feeling When Black and White of all seasons is the one to portray focus miss 100% accurately.
Only when Scraggy was still new to using the move. Once Scraggy mastered it, or when anyone else used it, it never missed unless it was dodged.
Cant believe pidgeot didn't get focus blast with its mega form tbh
0:27 hey don't call me out
that's why I'd love to see a good special attacker with no guard
4:16 Excuse me, what. Co-pay set ick?
A mispronunciation of the word “copacetic”, pronounced “coh-puh-SEH-tick” and meaning “all right” or “satisfactory”.
Ah yes, the special fighting move Game Freak couldn't help but slap on to fully evolve pokemon, as their only fighting move, even when aura sphere exists.
Before I even clicked on the video I already knew it was Focus Miss lol
having focus blast in your arsenal is like being in a shitty relationship. Its 90 percent of the time unreliable but that 10 percent of the time its the best thing you can't imagine not having.
In your hands Focus Blast is about as useless as it gets
However in the opponents hands its always an undodgeable nuke of a move
You can tell when a person is a true opp if they hit their Focus Blasts.
So basically, Focus Blast wouldn't be so hated if there was a more accurate but less strong alternative; or maybe give some of them access to Aura Sphere
Accuracy in Pokemon:
100% = 100%
90% = 90-95%
85% = 85%
80% = 75%
70% = 50-55%
That's how I interpret accuracy in Pokemon.
The exceptions are HJK where 90% = 75%
and Scald where 70% (not burning) = 30%
Honestly to me I just want it to have a conditional sure-hit like blizzard, hurricane, and thunder. Like if it promises a hit after using Focus Energy (or if a team-mate uses a similar move boosting your crit odds). Or could be interesting if it has 100% hit rate if you missed any move in the previous turn.
0:28-0:33 You didn't have to call me out like that as I watch this at 1.5x speed.
people actually do that? Tf
@@cashnelson2306 Yes.
I had a game where I landed 4 Focus Blasts in a row once. Haven't logged in to showdown since, I wanted to end things on a high note lmao