by Doc – Owner, Founder, Vrooooooooooooooooooom
In most of my experiences with fellow Tera Raid obsessives they instructed non-obsessives not to worry about Speed, with the reasoning being that unlike in competitive Pokémon where Speed plays a crucial role, the Speed in Tera Raids is practically irrelevant because both of you will move each turn anyway. There is merit to that line of thinking. After all, the only purpose that Speed actually has in raids is deciding whether you or the Tera Raid opponent moves first, and they’re going to have so many scripted attacks anyway that your Speed often won’t play a role. Further, it’s a real-time raid, so what really matters is whether you’re able to average enough damage per second across that raid, right?
Yeah, that makes sense. I’m not saying their reasoning is wrong. But consider this…
Tauntin’
Taunt is the kind of move where you either need it, or you don’t. Some Tera Raids don’t require a Taunt at all because the opponent doesn’t use status afflicting moves, stat raising or nerfing moves, or anything else that would necessitate using Taunt. However, some do! And in those situations it’s vital that you put that Taunt on them before they can put up whatever it is they’re trying to put up. That first turn Taunt can be the deciding factor between whether your build gets to set up or whether it gets hit by shenanigans.
The simplest example of this is something like weather. The Armarouge raid is sometimes quite difficult because he can set Sunny Day, resulting in a game long boost to his Fire attacks that hit hard enough you might struggle to take the time to set up. If Armarouge is allowed to get that weather up you’re in for a bad time. But a well-placed Taunt can put a stop to that, and only if you outspeed him.
Self-Healin’
Okay, let’s say you don’t need to worry about Taunt. Well, you still need to heal! Most real-time strategy in Tera Raids consists of keeping track of about how many hits you can take given how hard they’ve already hit you. You generally want to understand that, if you’re a four-hit KO Pokémon against this opponent, and you’ve been hit twice, you have basically one or two more actionable turns where you need to self-heal and avert dying. Here’s where Speed comes in. Let’s say you move first, then that gives you one hit from you that gets you some self-healing, then you’re hit by the opponent. On the next turn, it’s one hit from you, you self-heal again, and then that second opponent hit comes in. You’ve managed to squeeze off two turns’ worth of hits and get the self-healing you need. Whereas if you’re slower and move after the opponent, then they’ll hit you once, you’ll hit them once, and they’ll get their second hit in. You’ve only self-healed once, and maybe once isn’t enough so you get KOed.
I realize this is kind of abstract, but the point I’m trying to make here is that you’ll get that second hit in and the self-healing from that second hit may enable you to survive. That’s why Speed matters.
Also, your Speed stat doesn’t seem to affect your teammates’ moves. NPC teammates move when you select your turn, so their attack animations occur in real-time. This doesn’t come into play often unless you’re trying to get a hit in before or after the Tera Shield goes up, so don’t sweat it too much.
Stat Boostin’
In a similar vein, consider your defenses. You’re about to use Bulk Up. He’s about to use Earthquake. Would you prefer to have the Defense boost applied before you get hit by the attack, or after? Pretty standard reasoning here.
So I’d say Speed actually is very helpful in Tera Raids. It’s not going to matter every game, but it does make a difference – particularly that impact on healing – for raid builds that might be close to the line of survivability. I’m not worried about Kyogre being slower than the opponent because he’ll tank three more hits. I am worried about, say, Volcarona being slower because he might not.
So Should You Invest in Speed?
Honestly… still no. Tera raiders generally should be built to maximize effectiveness in damage output, and then bulkiness second. EV investment is something we’ve already discussed at length on this website, but basically it ought to be fully invested into whatever attack type you plan to hit with, and the remainder should shore up your defenses. While it’s nice to have the Speed advantage in a raid, and it actually does matter whether you have one, it’s not as worthwhile of an investment as the other areas you could put it in.
Amiibo Doctor 