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What is the Worst HM Move?

What do you think is the worst HM move?

  • Cut

    Votes: 34 34.3%
  • Fly

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Surf

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Strength

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Flash

    Votes: 26 26.3%
  • Whirlpool

    Votes: 6 6.1%
  • Waterfall

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Rock Smash

    Votes: 6 6.1%
  • Dive

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Defog

    Votes: 25 25.3%
  • Rock Climb

    Votes: 2 2.0%

  • Total voters
    99
Whirlpool, considering how much I hate post-Gen I trapping moves. Second place is Cut for somehow being worse than Tackle, third is Flash for doing pretty much the same thing as Sand Attack, and after that it all gets kinda hazy. Surf is a fantastic move, as is Fly. Waterfall and Dive aren't too bad for physical Water-types, and Strength much the same for physical normies Normal-types. Rock Climb is inaccurate, but it can confuse and I've always liked it for that. As for Rock Smash... at least it gets STAB. Finally, Defog does have competitive use, but you'd be much better off using a Rapid Spinner, as that does the same thing but with some chip damage.
 
Flash, I hated it so much that I've barely even used it. I rather navigated through nightmare inducing caves like the Rock Tunnel in the dark than give one of my Pokemon a completely useless move.
 
Defog is pretty much the only HM you can adventure without, being that fog is a weather condition and can be replaced by any other (more favourable) weather. I do think Defog should come back, but as a TM like Flash did, but even if it will be a HM again I wouldn't mind because I can easily choose to not use it. Cut is by far the most annoying because it is necessary to obtain items hidden behind trees, and yet you get stuck with some poor pokemon with a crappy low-power move that can't ever be super effective. And furthermore it's stuck like that for a good portion of the adventure before you reach the Move deleter (somewhere after the 6th gym usually).
 
Definitely Flash
Doesn't do shit in battle and is not necessary to advance in the story
Rock Tunnel etc. will take relatively long, yes, but not so long that I am willing to offer up a move slot for Flash

Defog isn't super useful as a HM either, but at least it's not useless in battle
 
Cut - It's one saving grace is that it does damage.

Fly - It's a fairly strong flying-type move that pretty much any flyer can learn.

Surf - I'd call it the water-type equivalent to Thunderbolt, Flamethrower and Ice Beam.

Strength - It's a fairly strong normal-type move for when you get it but it gets outclassed later on.

Flash - Doesn't do damage; wastes a move slot and not even needed to progress? Why the fuck does this even exist!?

Whirlpool - Ehh, it's a weak water-type trapping move. It does damage so it's not totally useless.

Waterfall - Possibly one of the best water-type physical moves around.

Rock Smash - It's a fighting-type move...that is stupidly weak. At least you can get STAB and hit for super-effective damage with it.

Dive - It's a decent physical water-type attack but it's not as good as Waterfall.

Defog - Removes entry hazards and decreases accuracy...at least Rapid Spin does damage.

Rock Climb - It's a decent physical attack with a chance of causing confusion. It's good but nowhere near the best.
 
Flash and Defog, although Cut is awful, too. Whirlpool would be, but it was scarcely ever necessary aside from accessing the Whirl Islands.
But those three, I always felt angry and frustrated having to teach them to my Pokemon in order to progress. So when I play Platinum, I just run through the foggy areas as fast as possible, with liberal use of Super Repel. And I ignore areas you have to Cut to get to until later when I bring out a Pokemon to be my Cut slave and backtrack to get everything I missed. However, early on Cut is a decent Normal type attack. It's in the mid-section prior to the Move Deleter where it becomes super-painful, taking up a slot all uselessly. This is particularly bad in GS/HGSS where the Deleter is in BLACKTHORN CITY, uuuuuuugh.
And then Flash is just horrible bullshit, and making it not an HM anymore was a really good call on Game Freak's part.
 
I would say Flash, simply because of the fact that it's a gimmick that isn't required. The Pokedex/PokeGear/PokeWhateverDeviceOtherThanTheDexYouReceiveInGame could've just had a torch feature or something (especially in the newer games where you get a very modern smartphone-like device, surely someone came up with a torch app for it!), and you will get rid of the need to have Flash as an HM. I know it is no longer an HM in a lot of games, but that still doesn't excuse it.

Cut comes a close second. At least it does damage and is quite useful early game, when you actually received it for the first time. However, my only pet peeve with it is, why can't it have a special effect to be super-effective against Grass-types or something? It's a move specifically used to cut down trees for crying out loud! That would at least increase its usefulness due to the abundance of Grass-types you encounter in one game, and it's a move you pretty much need to have all the time to get around.
 
Flash, but Whirlpool and Rock Smash are annoying too.
 
Cut - It's one saving grace is that it does damage.
Flash - Doesn't do damage; wastes a move slot and not even needed to progress? Why the fuck does this even exist!?
Whirlpool - Ehh, it's a weak water-type trapping move. It does damage so it's not totally useless.
Defog - Removes entry hazards and decreases accuracy...at least Rapid Spin does damage.

are you one of those people that has an irrational hatred of status moves

not every battle needs to be over in 46 seconds

Finally, Defog does have competitive use, but you'd be much better off using a Rapid Spinner, as that does the same thing but with some chip damage.

> ghost-types
 
I would say Flash, simply because of the fact that it's a gimmick that isn't required. The Pokedex/PokeGear/PokeWhateverDeviceOtherThanTheDexYouReceiveInGame could've just had a torch feature or something (especially in the newer games where you get a very modern smartphone-like device, surely someone came up with a torch app for it!), and you will get rid of the need to have Flash as an HM. I know it is no longer an HM in a lot of games, but that still doesn't excuse it.
That reminded me of the torch you get given for Fantina's gym. Shame you can't take that into caves. I suppose the addition of the torch was because Flash was demoted to TM status (and at the time in gen IV, not reusable), so there had to be a way to guarantee the player would be able to light up the inside of the gym.
 
Defenitely Cut. It's pretty much a weak version of Strenght... and it can miss!! Yes, that 5% chance will get to you when you need it (if you'll ever use this move to finish anything). There's absolutely no use for it! It doesn't even has a High Crit Ratio as it's expected from cutting moves like Slash.
And following at close second is Flash. Like anything that reduces the opponent's accuracy, it's outclassed by Double Team and Minimize. But at least this one almost always forces a switch, since no one likes to play with hax, and it was better in Gen 1.

There's always lots of dishonorable mentions about Defog because it gets rid of our own hazards, but it has a niche as an alternative to Rapid Spin that cannot be stopped by ghost and gets rid of screens aswell, and will help you hit that 75% acc. move, since most people forget about that secondary effect and don't switch the pokemon after being hit by it.
 
It would have to be Flash, Defog, Rock Smash and Cut.

I don't mind Flash too much since it's not mandatory but the last three, very weak moves and sadly mandatory to move the plot along.
 
Oh, this one's pretty hard. Probably Flash, since it has practically no use in battle.

Second worst is Cut, because Strength exists, and third is Whirlpool because Surf exists (though trapping shenanigans with Mega Latias is fun).
 
I would say Flash, simply because of the fact that it's a gimmick that isn't required. The Pokedex/PokeGear/PokeWhateverDeviceOtherThanTheDexYouReceiveInGame could've just had a torch feature or something (especially in the newer games where you get a very modern smartphone-like device, surely someone came up with a torch app for it!), and you will get rid of the need to have Flash as an HM. I know it is no longer an HM in a lot of games, but that still doesn't excuse it.

Cut comes a close second. At least it does damage and is quite useful early game, when you actually received it for the first time. However, my only pet peeve with it is, why can't it have a special effect to be super-effective against Grass-types or something? It's a move specifically used to cut down trees for crying out loud! That would at least increase its usefulness due to the abundance of Grass-types you encounter in one game, and it's a move you pretty much need to have all the time to get around.
That is so true! Question: how would you feel if cut could at least be a bug-type move? Do you think that maybe it wouldn't be as bad as say rock smash?
 
Whirlpool is my least favourite. At least it is only used in the overworld in Johto games.
By the way, I really dislike Poke Ride replacing HMs in Sun/Moon.
 
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