Power or Accuracy? What matters more?

[Mystical Jackal]

This is what I mean, do you usually prefer:

Hydro Pump or Surf?

Thunder or Thunderbolt?

Fire Blast or Flamethrower?

Blizzard or Ice Beam?

I personally go on Accuracy, it pisses me off when one of my moves miss, I think "if I had taught that other move it would have hit".

[Zachmac]

This is what I mean, do you usually prefer:

Hydro Pump or Surf?

Thunder or Thunderbolt?

Fire Blast or Flamethrower?

Blizzard or Ice Beam?

I personally prefer nice power and good accuracy (Surf, Thunderbolt, Flamethrower and Ice Beam.

Depends. If I feel that the accuracy is too unreliable, I'll go for a more accurate option. And, at least competitively, offensive pokemon are more willing to go for the less accurate options, while defensive want more reliable ones.

[Mystical Jackal]

Depends. If I feel that the accuracy is too unreliable, I'll go for a more accurate option. And, at least competitively, offensive pokemon are more willing to go for the less accurate options, while defensive want more reliable ones.

The only 120 power base I would pick is Fire Blast, all the others I would stay because of accuracy, then second option is more like me.

[flyinggurtboy]

probably accuracy. i've lost so many battles due to missing.

[Nar_]

playing casually, i will typically pick the more accurate move.

besides, they're generally 90-95, so i mean really now

[Pikafleg]

I usually try to have both the 120 power/less accurate move and the weaker more accurate move. I much more often use the weaker move (not only because of accuracy, but to save pp of the stronger moves too), and just try the stronger move when I really need it...but if I literally have one turn, I'll try the weaker move, unless I know it wont work....and that of course is why there are both types of moves! It adds to both the strategy and luck of the games, I guess.

[Lucario95]

I always go for the moves that have good accuracy(having 90+)and have good power(70+), as well I consider the PP, they are important also.

[Excitable Boy]

I'd rather have the accuracy and finish something off with a faster 'mon or priority the next turn if it comes to that, rather than go for power and risk doing nothing.

[ZombifiedHorror1031]

I have generally always preferred to use the more accurate moves. However, if I have something on one of my teams to set up rain or hail, I'll throw Thunder or Blizzard in a move slot due to the accuracy boost they receive.

[Dragontail]

Accuracy over power! Better safe than sorry.

[Sealotic]

I really have to become strategic, I really want to use other than offensive moves...
I would say Power, bacause that's what I use, Hydropump, FireBlast...

However, I definitely hate Blizzard and love Ice Beam, so it depends.

[gliscor&yanmega]

This is what I mean, do you usually prefer:

Hydro Pump or Surf?

Thunder or Thunderbolt?

Fire Blast or Flamethrower?

Blizzard or Ice Beam?

I personally go on Accuracy, it pisses me off when one of my moves miss, I think "if I had taught that other move it would have hit".

Well there's also PP for me to factor in as well, at least when it comes to in-game battling, I don't really want to use Hydro Pump as it's only 5, whereas Surf is 15, giving me more use out of the move without having to go back to a Pokemon center or use items that I never use(Elixirs and the like, also don't really use PP Ups so I don't really bother increasing the PP, although 8 isn't that big of a difference to me anyways, especially when Surf would end up with 24).

In general, I'd go with the more accurate moves that have a decent enough PP, at least when it comes to in-game battling. I take more chances for Battle Facilities type things, PP isn't as big of deal either in those cases as it restores after every battle. I still would usually prefer the more accurate moves though, however, I'd use Thunder and Blizzard over Thunderbolt and Ice Beam if I would be using Rain or Hail for the battle.

Also, there are cases where I'd go with less accurate moves due to a lack of another option, such as with Focus Blast where there isn't much other options for another Special Fighting type attack for most Pokemon.

But in general, I go with more Accuracy over more Power.

[SimH8]

Accuracy for me. The power increase to me isn't worth the risk of missing. And they have significantly lower PP.

[Plus side down side]

Accuracy. The extra power is hardly worth it if you're down to 1 PP and you happen to miss.

[Earth Wolf-Howl]

Accuracy. The only time I have gone for power was Blizzard in FireRed, and that was only a desperate measure after forgetting to save AFTER getting enough coins for Ice Beam.

[ECM]

Definitely accuracy. I feel like using moves with lower accuracy is too risky for the way I like to play the game.

[Rakurai]

It really depends in my case.

For instance, I found that a lot of Pokemon were able to barely survive super effective hits from my Hydreigon's Flamethrower, which lead to me using Fire Blast instead to deal with that issue.

I'm one of those people obsessive enough to mess around with a damage calculator to determine whether or not I need the extra power on my Pokemon to deal with common threats.

[Aquarelle]

I'll use the more powerful moves occasionally, but the vast majority of the time I go with the more accurate moves.
It can be frustrating dealing with moves that miss often, especially since the inaccurate moves generally have very low PP.

[Atratus]

Usually I go for accuracy, but it can be situational.
For example, if I have to choose between Rock Slide and Stone Edge, I will choose according to the pokemon's speed (because of flinching). I also prefer Fire Blast to Flamethrower, since 85% is not as bad as most choices for power.

[Lucina Archaelis]

Accuracy. Simply because I have seen how well it works for an NPC to make my Pokemon blind and miss the target. >.> Silly Sand-Attacks everywhere >~> so I try to implement Accuracy lowering moves on my Pokemon most of the time naow <.>

[Crimson101]

I'd go both because sometimes you gotta take the chance and go for more power haha

[Cerabi]

I LOVE good power and that when I use it, thatit will hit.
Like Heat Crash. I LOVE HEAT CRASH.

[Zorocario]

Accuracy for me all the way across the sky.

[Masterofknees]

RNG hates me, I can never hit with Blizzard or Thunder (Fire Blast rocks for some reason though), so I always go with Ice Beam, Thunderbolt and Flamethrower. My opponents never miss with Blizzard though, which can make me pretty pissy at times.

[Arlo]

It's situational, but generally I prefer accuracy over power. If I have a choice, I generally don't bother with anything that's less than about 85% accurate, but there are some times when I don't have a choice - sleep moves or Will o' Wisp, for instance. If the pokemon could benefit from those moves, it gets them and I just deal with it. But with things like Fire Blast and Hydro Cannon, to me it's just not worth it. I'll always go with the more accurate versions like Flamethrower and Surf. The way I see it, with the more powerful but less accurate moves, I might get a 120 base power hit, but I might get 0. 95 base power is indeed less than 120, but it's a helluva lot more than 0, so it's worth it.

Beyond that though, other factors generally come into play and it really comes down to the individual move and the individual pokemon. If they need the coverage that badly and no other move will work, I might saddle something with a readily available move like Rock Tomb. Or if it's a terribly powerful move that can't be handled any other way, I'll use it - for instance, Heracross gets Megahorn, but only because it can't learn X Scissor. Scolipede can learn X Scissor, so that's what it gets, even though it can also learn Megahorn. And there are even times that I'll go with both - Scrafty, for instance, gets both High Jump Kick and Drain Punch, since HJK hits so hard, but is not only inaccurate, but has consequences. So Drain Punch is there for when it doesn't need the extra oomph of HJK, and with the bonus that it's a drain move, so it can help to patch it up after an HJK miss.