Tyranitar with Bite/Stone Edge is a beast against Dragonite, Snorlax, Blissey, and Gyarados without HP. Aside from Rhydon, he crushes all the most common gym defenders, so he is arguably the best generalist attacker in the game right now. Slightly less attack than Dragonite, but more bulk so it's a tradeoff.
Tyranitar question
Like everyone else I'm doing all I can to try and get one (which in my area is egg only). So what will I do with him when I do get him? I get that he has super high CP. So if I get a ton of candies from eggs eventually I'll have a high CP defender that anyone can piss on with a Vaporeon or other super easy to obtain mons. To level him up would take months. I could evolve a level 20 Dragonite and gave a decent attacker without more candy. What good defender that currently gets placed can I aim for with Tyranitar?
Answers
Hydro Pump is suboptimal on defense for Gyarados, but that's beside the point. I specifically mentioned that hes great against Gyarados without HP ...
As for Dragonite with Steel Wing, it's not really a big deal if you dodge - which is accomplished easily with Bite. You can use Bite 4x then dodge, Bite 4x then dodge, rinse repeat until a Stone Edge is charged up. Plus, Dragon Tail is going to be the new Dragonite defensive move, which shouldn't be a problem for Tyranitar, you should be able to squeeze 4-5 Bites in between each and then dodge.
As for Vaporeon, it's obvious that you can't use Tyranitar effectively attacking into Vapes. But c'mon now ... if he was the optimal choice against every common defender, that would just be cheesy.
Great answer. But in regards to Dragonite I could just use an ice mon and just melt the dragon or opt for Tyranitar and dodge like hell? That doesn't seem like a great selling point. Plus doesn't Gyrados water typing also make him resistant to several of Tyranitars attacks? Not really seeing how he is a great counter to Gyrados. A good one maybe. Seems that everything Tyranitar doesDragonite does better with less weaknesses and better type coverage against his weaknesses on defense.
There is no way that his limitations make him a better generalist attacker than a dragon move Dragonite. Apparently Dragonite is cheesy as hell since Lapras is rarely in gyms now and he shreds all current high CP guys that are in these gyms at least until Tyranitar becomes more prevalent.
Dragonite is cheesy as hell, that's why he was nerfed in Gen2 update by making his quick moves much slower, i.e. Dragon Tail. He can't just melt through several pokemon without taking much damage with DB-DC or related movesets anymore.
But Tyranitar with Bite is much more agile than a DT Dragonite, and his extra bulk is also a major selling point. So ultimately, Tyranitar can dodge more effectively and take less damage (in addition to his larger DEF and STA base stats).
I still prefer a DB-DC Dragonite to anything that's currently available, but Bite Tyranitar is pretty amazing.
Which is exactly why Dragonite was nerfed. I still use my DB-DC Dragonites for basically everything, and it's definitely the best pokemon in the current meta; however, Tyranitar with Bite is definitely better than the currently obtainable versions of Dragonite for most common gym defenders. That's an important caveat.
Good talk. Glad we put this one to bed once and for all. There has been a lot of scuttlebutt on these forums about DT vs. DB Dragonites in the past week or so, and I've made it my personal mission to let people know that there's more to gym attacking than just raw DPS rankings.
I mean, seriously, would anyone argue with a straight face that Shadow Claw Gengar is the best attacker in the game? Or Confusion Alakazam? I understand it's a much more nuanced debate between DT and DB, but it's the same basic principle.
gyarados does not resist stone edge. he takes 1.25 damage from it. his flying typing hurts him against rock attacks. same problem for dragonite. tyrantiars biggest problems would probably be against the obvious vaporeon and machamp. dragonite with steel wing can obviously give it problems and even with dragon breathe/ tail, tyranitar needs stone edge to beat dragonite.