Reassessment of Ho-Oh's future value - post Gen 3 released
In the article [Ho-Oh and its place in the meta](https://pokemongo.gamepress.gg/ho-oh-and-its-place-meta), it is concluded that Ho-Oh "does have a decent niche as a (Heavy Slam) Machamp counter". Agreeing with it, I was also expecting a move rebalance and/or move pool update when Gen 3 dropped. This could have made Ho-Oh great again, such as getting Gust as a Flying-type fast move and Brave Bird becoming two-bar. It would have made Ho-Oh the greatest Flying-type attacker in the game, which we lack for so long.
BUT, it did NOT happen.
What happened instead was Rayquaza, the OP dragon lord, getting Air Slash and Aerial Ace, a double flying move set (not the best flying move combo, but not bad as well).
Now. There is NO way that Ho-Oh's potential moves (Gust + Brave Bird) become so much better than Rayquaza's AS+AA such that Ho-Oh has higher DPS. Rayquaza just has waaaay higher ATK stat.
Also the typing - what do you need a Fire-and-Flying-typed Flying specialist for? Grass and bug, and maybe Fighting, right? Rayquaza doubly resists Grass and singly resists Fighting just as Ho-Oh does. He also resists bug. Ho-Oh's typing advantage is just gone.
If you want to make Ho-Oh a fire attacker - first of, there are Moltres and Entei playing ahead. Not only that, Ho-Oh cannot learn Fire Spin or any other Fire Fast Move in the game - only shot of getting a Fire fast move is Will-O-Wisp. Even then, you would need Will-O-Wisp to be much better than Fire Spin to make Ho-Oh has compatible DPS with Moltres unless the stats of Ho-Oh are buffed to the original. All of these need to happen together, and the chance of that is smaller than me getting an EX pass ;(
TL;DR: The no-rebalance, no-move-pool-change, and Rayquaza-gets-double-flying-moves really hurt Ho-Oh's potential/future value. Ho-Oh is what it is now, and will probably always be.
Thanks for reading. Any comment is welcomed.
Cheers,
biowp
Answers
Very well said. I couldn't agree more. I think what hurt Ho-oh the most was the 9% stat reduction. Many people thought that Ho-oh would "break the game" if its max CP remained at 4650 CP before it got nerfed (or just having a Pokémon above 4000 CP for that matter). That claim is flawed now, because everyone thought Slaking would shake the "current meta" with his stats alone, but he can still over 4000 CP, and isn't even anything to sneeze about. Ho-oh's movesets don't even complement it that well to begin with, but even then, Ho-oh would have still had amazing stats to balance out his poor moveset and still be useful in many situations as an attacker. And, for like the millionth time, legendaries can't defend gyms, so what was Ho-oh going to break?? The nerf to Ho-oh's stats was uncalled for, and should have remain untouched.
I'm going with the other comment in that article, "A reasonably powered up Ho-oh, with steel wing and solar beam is the only mon that can take down a level 35, fully motivated, zh/dg blissey without dodging." This makes him a candidate for my "clear gym" squad, and fills a need I currently have. I often want to take down healthy gyms solo, and having one mon that can take out the blissey that is inevitably there, without fainting, makes it easier and more potion efficient.
Ho-oh isn't the best specialist for anything, but he can plough through pretty much anything you might find in a gym.
You may think I should use a machamp and dance like a butterfly, but that is not always possible. I often miss dodges for various reasons, not all of them lack of skill.
