Is Parabolic Charge good in Pokémon Go?

You’ll have to pick from a handful of attacks to teach your Pokémon in Pokémon Go. Only a tiny number of Electric-type Pokémon can learn how to use parabolic charge, an Electric-type move, those being Heliolisk, Helioptile, and Dedenne. This move varies significantly from the original one used in the traditional Pokémon games, which healed the user half of the health they dealt against an opponent. Unfortunately, parabolic charge does not heal in Pokémon Go. Despite this, is parabolic charge good in Pokémon Go?

Before parabolic charge was released and had been datamined, it would do 25 damage and required 55 energy and had the same numbers ford PvE encounters. The overall damage for this attack was extremely lacking, especially for a charged move. However, following the Power Plant event for the Season of Heritage, the damage was increased to 65 for PvP and PvE iterations of the charged move.

As a result of these changes, parabolic is much better than previously. However, it’s still lacking when it comes to Electric-type charged moves. There are several better choices to this attack. For example, the handful of Pokémon that can learn it, Heliolisk, can also learn thunderbolt. Thunderbolt is an Electric-type charged move that requires 55 energy and does 90 damage. Thunderbolt will do 25 more damage than parabolic charge and requires five less energy. It’s substantially better than parabolic charge, making it a lackluster attack.

One way to make parabolic charge a far better move is to find some way to work in the attack’s healing properties. In Pokémon Go, there are currently no attacks that provide a way for Pokémon to heal itself, so it’s unlikely parabolic will receive changes like this in the future. Before this happens, a massive shift in Pokémon Go’s PvP and PvE system would have to happen to make this a balanced practice.

In parabolic charge’s current state, we do not recommend it as a charged move, even following the damage changes. Parabolic charge is a last resort move that, if you have nothing available to your Pokémon, you’ll want to pick it. But for now, there are better Electric-type moves available.