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A little bit ago I held a poll on move ordering! 949 people responded. Let's go into those numbers and poll questions! (i am not a statistician)
Almost everyone played VGC, and about 20% of the respondents played singles. Move ordering matters to a LOT of the respondents: (1/13)
Almost everyone played VGC, and about 20% of the respondents played singles. Move ordering matters to a LOT of the respondents: (1/13)
This is the most cut-and-dry (heh) example of move ordering, where there's four attacking moves, two STAB and one stronger (Leaf Blade vs. Smart Strike). Looks like a preference for strongest STAB move first. The consensus on the 4th move was probably due to its low usefulness
It looks like there is a strong preference to put a damaging move first and Trick Room last, as seen in this Dusclops example
More evidence in favor of Trick Room last. There is also a contingent of people who prefer to have a spread move in the first slot, rather than the strongest attacking move, as evidenced by the Dazzling Gleam bump for the first move
Protect is the most dividing factor in the rest of these polls. There is a strong preference for Protect last(the majority) or Protect first, about a 3:1 ratio.
Note that the strong single target/spread damage first move scenario is reversed here
Note that the strong single target/spread damage first move scenario is reversed here
Icy Wind is much weaker and non-STAB here, so Hurricane > Icy Wind > Tailwind > Protect makes sense as the frontrunner given the preferences we've given so far, but Tailwind first move is new here-- beginning to get into some of the supportive moves
A bit of an effect here between Bullet Punch (weak, priority) and Bug Bite (stronger, nonpriority) for Scizor. Swords Dance maintains the 3rd spot that Tailwind had
When all of the moves are supportive, there's still a preference for Protect last. Again we see the 3:1 ratio of protect last:first. Follow me is the most preferred first move-- maybe due to people seeing that as Clefairy's "job", but that wasn't the case for Tailwind Tornadus
Slight preference for Sludge Bomb first
Some people prefer Fake Out first, about equal to the number of people who prefer the strongest STAB first.
Lastly, there are all sorts of confounding preferences here: Fake Out, Priority, Protect, and Strongest STAB all compete for that first move slot. Note the 3:1 Protect last:first ratio still holds. This one is my favorite
Lots of people self-reported their internal decision making process when assigning these judgments. I didn't go through most of these, but they're really interesting. The next poll would definitely be asking people to explain these in more depth haha
Anyway to conclude there's no right or wrong way to order your moves in my opinion, just a lot of the people have something that feels really right to them and that shakes out in interesting ways. Thanks for taking the survey! (13/13)
