History Main / PowerfulButInaccurate

** Clan Heavy Lasers deal double the damage of an Inner Sphere laser of the same type, but it has a +1 to hit modifier and much more heat.
** Medium-range missiles can deal up to 40 damage [[MacrossMissileMassacre by firing 40 missiles]] (the single most powerful 'Mech-scale weapon in the game), but they also have a +1 penalty to-hit and are very large, heavy, and ammo intensive. Also, the largest models require two perfect missile hit rolls to deal their stated maximum damage.

** Focus Blast is usually the best Fighting-type coverage for special attackers, bearing a powerful 120 BP. It also has an accuracy of just 70%, and the move has gained the FanNickname "Focus Miss" as a result, only seeing use because the other options are either weak (Hidden Power Fighting, [[ActionInitiative Vacuum Wave]]) or nowhere near as widely distributed ([[AlwaysAccurateAttack Aura Sphere]]. ''Anime/PokemonTheSeriesBlackAndWhite'' even makes it a RunningGag for Ash's Scraggy to fail using the move:

** Focus Blast is usually the best Fighting-type coverage for special attackers, bearing a powerful 120 BP. It also has an accuracy of just 70%, and the move has gained the FanNickname "Focus Miss" as a result, only seeing use because the other options are either weak (Hidden Power Fighting, [[ActionInitiative Vacuum Wave]]) or nowhere near as widely distributed ([[AlwaysAccurateAttack Aura Sphere]][[note]]which is still relatively rare despite it no longer being Lucario's SignatureMove[[/note]]). ''Anime/PokemonTheSeriesBlackAndWhite'' even makes it a RunningGag for Ash's Scraggy to fail using the move:

* Aerial bombing. Gather enough bombers, and you could flatten just about anything with impunity - if you could hit it. WWII bombing was sufficiently inaccurate to miss ''cities'', and as late as Vietnam it took an entire carrier air wing (80+ aircraft lugging bombs and rockets) just to take out a bridge... maybe. Guided bombs have now thoroughly [[AvertedTrope averted]] this. An old joke is, "Airforce bombs are very accurate: [[DamnedByFaintPraise they are absolutely guaranteed to hit the ground]]."

* ''Literature/TheWarOfTheWorlds'': The British Army of the mid-1890s has artillery capable of knocking out a Martian "fighting machine", since the [[TripodTerror three-legged walkers]] are not particularly durable or well-armored. The problem is that the machines move pretty fast and present only a narrow target. This is a problem that land-based artillery never really had to deal with before in the era before tanks and airplanes, since shrapnel shells can kill infantry within a wide radius without needing a direct hit; land fortifications don't move around while you're trying to shoot them; and even a moving ship is a big target that can't change direction very suddenly. Since the guns aren't designed for rapid traverse and precise direct fire, and the crews aren't used to fighting such an opponent, their shots often miss. An even bigger problem is that the Martians have a directed energy weapon called the "[[DisintegratorRay heat-ray]]" which is far superior in both accuracy and destructive power, meaning that the Brits can barely get a shot off before being vaporized in retaliation.

* British artillery in ''Literature/TheWarOfTheWorlds''. A cannonball ''can'' knock out a Fighting Machine, but cannons have massive recoil, which requires experienced artillerymen to compensate. They quickly learn that Martian Heat-Rays have no such limitations.

* Mortars in ''VideoGame/RimWorld'' are powerful enough to down, if not outright kill, most anything they hit and can fire several types of shell including EMP and [[KillItWithFire incendiary]]. Unfortunately they scatter a random number of degrees on firing, which means that the further away the target the more likely they are to miss entirely and there is no way to increase their accuracy. About the only way they are considered useful is in large numbers (much like real artillery) or loaded with the aforementioned incendiary shells to set fire to vegetation to distract attackers. Annoyingly, enemy [[NonPlayerCharacter NPCs]] can bring them when they attack your base, although thankfully they arn't any more accurate then your own.

* ''VideoGame/DragonQuestVIII'' has the Hero's Spear skills Thunder/Lightning Thrust and Yangus' Axe skills Hatchet Man and Executioner, which have a higher miss rate, but also a higher CriticalHit rate, than their standard attacks. These are very useful when fighting {{Metal Slime}}s, since {{Critical Hit}}s [[ArmorPiercingAttack ignore Defense]] and will always OneHitKill them. Angelo also has the Bow skills Needle Shot/Rain, which either deal 1 damage (functionally equivalent to a miss) or a OneHitKill (if he "hits a vital area"), but their low hit rate plus ContractualBossImmunity to instant death makes them {{Useless Useful Spell}}s. These skills returned in Dragon Quest IX under the respective weapon mastery skill lines.

* ''VideoGame/{{Persona 5}}'': The Lucky Punch skill has a very high chance to land a CriticalHit, which knocks down the target and gets a One More! extra turn, but it has relatively low accuracy. The upgraded version, Miracle Punch, has an even higher chance of landing a critical hit (almost guaranteeing a One More!), ''and'' has a much smaller accuracy penalty. It quickly becomes the best way to get One More! turns when fighting enemies with resistance to all elements and guns.

* The Powered Buster from VideoGame/MegamanLegends is this. It's essentially a bazooka. It has excellent range and power but can only fire in straight lines and you have to stop completely in order to fire it, also it's rate of fire is fairly slow making it easily outclassed by other, more rapid firing weapons later on.

* ''[=Turnip28=]'': Artillery pieces can cause tremendous damage, but with a 6+ Inaccuracy, the ability to actually land the shot reliably is rare. Part of what makes the Grand Bombard so dangerous, apart from the guaranteed six wounds that [[ChunkySalsaRule can't be saved]], is that you can reduce its Inaccuracy by taking objectives; if you hold two objectives, it goes from a 1 in 6 chance to erase that inconvenient unit of Grogs to a 50/50.