Element Advantage vs STAB

Sooooo I have a Ghost monster and wondering; is the STAB bonus the same as the element advantage bonus (50%?). If so, is there any good reason to use, say, a water skill on a Fire monster over a Ghost skill?

STAB means same type attack bonus. If the move and the monster are of the same element the move does 50% more damage. So unless u have a really strong move just go with the same type

That doesnt really answer my question.

Ill go into more detail.

Say I have a Lupa Poison Petals (60 power magical attack) and Spirit Channel (60 power magical attack) and I am fighting a Crabby. What provides the bigger damage boost, STAB with Spirit Channel or the 'Severe' damage from Poison Petals, or do they both provide the same damage boost.

That doesnt really answer my question.

Ill go into more detail.

Say I have a Lupa Poison Petals (60 power magical attack) and Spirit Channel (60 power magical attack) and I am fighting a Crabby. What provides the bigger damage boost, STAB with Spirit Channel or the 'Severe' damage from Poison Petals, or do they both provide the same damage boost.

I believe in this case Poison Petals will deal more damage. From what I observed, element advantage allows moves to hit twice as hard, so I'm assuming that Poison Petals in this scenario gets boosted to 120 power, while the STAB bonus (which apparently is 50%) only boosts your Spirit Channel to 90 power.

Please correct me if I'm wrong on this, thanks.

That doesnt really answer my question.

Ill go into more detail.

Say I have a Lupa Poison Petals (60 power magical attack) and Spirit Channel (60 power magical attack) and I am fighting a Crabby. What provides the bigger damage boost, STAB with Spirit Channel or the 'Severe' damage from Poison Petals, or do they both provide the same damage boost.

I believe in this case Poison Petals will deal more damage. From what I observed, element advantage allows moves to hit twice as hard, so I'm assuming that Poison Petals in this scenario gets boosted to 120 power, while the STAB bonus (which apparently is 50%) only boosts your Spirit Channel to 90 power.

Please correct me if I'm wrong on this, thanks.

you're correct.

STAB = +50% attack bonus if the attack is the same type as your monster.
elemental weakness = +100% attack bonus. e.g. fire against grass, water against fire, ghost against psychic etc.

so for lupa

posion petal will be 60 x 2 = 120 power against water
spirit channel 60 x 1.5 = 90 power against water

Ahhh ok perfect, that's what I wanted to hear.

I'd still love it if some harvested some numbers in PvP with a friend for me for this thread so I can try to figure out the basic damage formula (excluding offensive/defensive talents and buff/debuffs).

I disagree with Rathalos' conclusion that a Lupa using poison petals against a water type will deal 60 x 2 damage of 120. Because Lupa is not a plant type using a plant type move, the power of poison petals will be lessened. I am not sure about the actual percentage drop, but I can tell you from experience that it is not the same as say a Smiter using poison petals. Lupa's attack using posion petals is noticeably lower than Smiter's use of poison petals.

I disagree with Rathalos' conclusion that a Lupa using poison petals against a water type will deal 60 x 2 damage of 120. Because Lupa is not a plant type using a plant type move, the power of poison petals will be lessened. I am not sure about the actual percentage drop, but I can tell you from experience that it is not the same as say a Smiter using poison petals. Lupa's attack using posion petals is noticeably lower than Smiter's use of poison petals.

You are right about the move power difference. A Lupa using Poison Petals against a water/earth type will have the move's power boosted to 120 (60 Move Power x 2 Elemental Advantage), while a plant type (for example, a Smiter) fighting against a water/earth type will have its Poison Petals boosted to 180 power (60 Move Power x 2 Elemental Advantage x 1.5 STAB).

What Rathalos and myself were trying to explain previously was the question of whether a Lupa (a non-plant type) will be better off using Poison Petals (which has element advantage against Crabby) or Spirit Channel (which gets STAB from Lupa). Hope that clears things up!

p.s. The exact figures for move power are unknown. They were just used for comparison purposes. Cheers.

Now if only there more (any?) 90 power elemental magic moves

Now if only there more (any?) 90 power elemental magic moves

At the moment I only know of Fire Bomb...