Does Hydropump Gyarados has any utility?
Personally I never use my DT/ HP Gyarados to attack, if I want to defeat Rhydons or any rock or Fire type in Gyms I use my 2 Vaporeon, the main reason is worldwide known, Gyarados doesn't have water type as a fast move, that means that with Gyarados takes longer to defeat water weak mons (even with its superior attack stat). Time ago I changed its move Bite to DT because I have never used it to attack so I thought with that move at least it would work as a possible defender whenever I lack Blissey and Snorlax, but still I don't find a good use to it, I have seriously considered use a Charge TM in order to get either Crunch, which will be nice and better that HP against Mewtwo (Plus is a better defensive move, I don't have to worry about Fast TM since I got plenty of them) or Outrage who will be good against Steel Wing Raid Boss Dragonite (if ever comes) plus is better on defense, and have a niche against D'Nite in Gyms, so what do you think about it? ?
Answers
Another example is against Mewtwo: Gyarados HP outperforms Vaporeon HP and is not an unreasonable choice overall.
As GamePress notes on the Gyarados page, Gyarados has the highest-DPS Hydropump of all due to its great base Attack stat on top of STAB.
Regarding the possibility of Ttar Stone Edge: I generally check the attack set of raid bosses before I pick my team.
Crunch is definitely better, but as long as the question is about the value of Gyar HP vs. Vaporeon HP, this is another example (and Gyar HP vs Mewtwo is not bad at all, could certainly be a B team member). Also unless one has plenty of charge TMs lying around, people more likely have high-level HP Gyaradoses at hand than Crunch Gyars.
I had a similar question a while back (I have a powered-up Bite/HP Gyarados that I used in gyms for the high CP before the gym revamp). Someone pointed out that HP Gyarados may be a good counter for Solar Beam Ho-Oh whenever it comes out, since so many of the strongest attackers against Ho-Oh will get demolished by Solar Beam. Gave me something to think about at least.
