I was wondering to which extent the tier lists are applicable to pokemon with suboptimal movesets. For instance, is it fair to say that a Dragonite with a defensive C rank moveset can be compared to defenders in tier 3.5?
Dragonite's rank is due almost exclusivelly for his high CP. Notice that every other mon on his same tier share the same characteristics... mediocre defenders (double weaknesses), but high CP.
Movesets doesn't matter that much. He's a mediocre defender that only benefits from the CP system in the current gym meta.
During Gen1 I would tend to agree with this, but with the new G2 movesets Dragonite is a bonafide legit defender. If you've got Dragon Tail it's one of the best defensive quick moves in the game (and attack, too). Further, an attack like Outrage has ridiculous damage output compared to basically every other 2-bar charge move, it's on par with a lot of 1-bar charge moves in terms of damage per use, as well.
DT-OR Dragonite puts out a large chunk of damage, even in its worst matchups.
