DPPt/HGSS Help really really wanted with Gengar moveset!

[baratron]

OK, I am completely stuck with Mr Gengar. The problem is kinda the opposite one I normally have - usually I can find 3 decent moves and am struggling to find a 4th. This time, I can find 5 decent moves without even trying, and don't know which to pick.

The options are:
1. Night Shade (Ghost)
2. Seismic Toss (Fighting) - Move Tutor
3. Shadow Punch (Ghost)
4. Shadow Ball (Ghost)
5. Psychic (Psychic) - TM
6. Dream Eater (Psychic)
7. Confuse Ray (Ghost)
8. Spite (Ghost)

I definitely want to keep Night Shade, because it's useful having one attack that guarantees a certain amount of damage. Although I could replace it with Seismic Toss (Fighting) from the Move Tutor, so as to make Gengar more flexible? STAB is pointless with a fixed HP attack.

I'm having great trouble deciding between Shadow Punch and Shadow Ball. Shadow Punch has power of 60 (90 with STAB) and is guaranteed to hit. Shadow Ball has power of 80 (120 with STAB) and has a 20% chance of lowering the opponent's Sp Def, but is only "100%" accurate. Is it better to go with the weaker attack which guarantees hitting (even if the opponent has stupidly high evasiveness), or the stronger attack which doesn't?

Psychic vs Dream Eater. I really don't know out of these two. I want to make the most of Gengar's high Sp Atk stat by using a Sp Atk move, and Psychic moves go well with Ghost pokemon. Dream Eater is a bit more powerful (100 compared to 90) and also heals the user 50% of the damage, but it requires the opponent to be asleep - which basically means the 4th attack has to be Hypnosis. Which seems like a bit of a waste. Nightmare has the same problem, and I think it'd be less powerful because it only takes 1/4 of the HP, so I'm not even considering it.

Then the 4th move. Umm... I considered something Poison-ous, but figured I have lots of Grass/Poison pokemon already, as well as a high level Nidoqueen. Having basically 3 good attacks already (whichever of the combinations I choose), I'm thinking about going for a stat boosting or annoying attack. Gengar doesn't seem to be able to learn any stat boosting attacks, apart from Double Team (whoopie do). So I'm looking at annoyers. Confuse Ray and Spite are both good, and I can't really decide between them. Except confusion often doesn't bother pkmn much (they must have a hidden "intelligence" stat or something), whereas Spite is particularly effective on the very powerful irritating moves like Giga Drain or Hydro Pump which only have 5 PP to start with.

Well, in writing all this out I've actually made a few decisions, but I'd still be interested to know what other people think - before I commit myself .

 

[Linkachu]

First off, what nature is your Gengar? Or, if you haven't caught it yet, which nature are you aiming for?

I'm currently training a Haunter/Gengar myself, and the moveset I was gonna try (by suggestion of Mr. Oak) was T-Bolt, Shadow Ball, Hypnosis, and Dream Eater. Whether this is actually good or not is yet to be seen...

I can help you narrow your choices down, though. If you want a fixed HP attack, go with Seismic toss. Nightshade can't hit Normal-types, which, considering their common-ness, is a pretty bad thing. Seismic Toss on the other hand will hit them as well as pretty much anything else. It can't hurt Ghosts, but why use that when you could use Shadow Ball instead?

As for the next choices, I'd got with Shadow Ball. Personally, if I can't boost my damage in any way (ie. Sword Dance for Swift) I'd rather a powerful 100% accurate attack verses less powerful yet guaranteed (ie. T-bolt over Shockwave). That's just my preference, though, and it really depends on you.

Dream Eater, if pulled off, is better than Psychic for power and added effects, but like you said it means you're losing a space to Hypnosis (which is only 60% accurate...). I'm gonna try this out myself, but if you're skeptic about Hypnosis' accuracy just scratch the whole idea for Psychic. With Gengar's oober Sp. Attack the extra bonus of Dream Eater probably won't make a big difference. Have you considered T-Bolt in anyway, tho?

As for the annoying move, Confuse Ray is a fave of mine (100% accurate? Heck yeah!) but Spite can be useful in the cases you mentioned. I guess it depends on if you actually see yourself using Confuse Ray. Would you rather bash your opponents silly from the get go or mess 'em up a little first?

I personally think Gengar will be better once Emerald rolls around because it allows it to learn all three elemental punches from the move tutor. Ice Punch or Fire Punch matched with its high Sp. Att stat... I can't wait It'll totally turn my Gengar into a Special sweeper ^__^

Edit: Holy typos! If you read through that before I finished editing it, read through the last few paragraphs again ^^;