Charizard

As one of the most iconic Pokemon of all time, does Charizard live up to the hype? With Power Creep over the years, Charizard has steadily dropped in terms of viability and absolute power, and has become a bit of an obsolete Fire Type attacker overall in the face of powerful Legendaries, Mega Evolutions, and Shadows. That said, it's still near the top of the non-legendary/non-shadow Fire Type list, and it's definitely worth raising one with Blast Burn Mega Charizard Y, and/or one with Dragon Breath for Mega Charizard X.

Max Battles

Best PvE Offensive Moveset

• Fire Spin is Charizard’s best fast move and strictly superior to Ember.

• Wing Attack* is preferable to Air Slash, and should be paired with Air Cutter if you want Flying damage.

• Blast Burn makes Charizard a great Fire Type attacker.

• Overheat is Charizard's best non-exclusive charged move and beats Fire Blast soundly.

• Flamethrower has less cycle DPS than Overheat and is just a worse Blast Burn, but has advantages due to multiple charge bars.

• Dragon Breath and Dragon Claw can work as a pseudo-dragon attacker, and are only useful for preparing a Mega Charizard X.
• Return has no purposes on offensive Charizard.

Best PvE Defensive Moveset

• Attackers may be inclined to throw Water-types at Charizard, in which case Air Slash edges out Fire Spin. 

• Ember and Wing Attack are worse versions of Fire Spin and Air Slash, respectively.

• Dragon Claw is the preferred charge move due its early damage window, wide neutral coverage, neutral damage to Rock Types, and 3 bars, while Air Cutter also has value as a 2-bar Flying attack.

• Return is inferior in terms of damage, but is much harder to dodge. 

• Flamethrower is a decent alternative, but Blast Burn is decisively better.

• Fire Blast and Overheat are poor due to their late damage windows and charge time.
• Dragon Breath is inferior on defense.

Charizard's best Fast Attacks are both Elite moves. Ember provides the highest energy gains, while Dragon Breath sacrifices a small amount of energy gain for more damage and coverage. Both are excellent options. Fire Spin, Wing Attack, and Air Slash all pale in comparison.

Blast Burn is what makes Charizard so devastating - its tremendous DPE makes great use of the high energy generation of its Fast Attacks. Air Cutter's cheap energy cost provides Charizard with a bait move, which can make its opponents's shielding decision difficult when paired with the lethal damage of Blast Burn. Dragon Claw is a little too expensive since its rework. Overheat is strong, but the Attack debuff makes it not worth using, especially since Charizard is more than powerful enough with Blast Burn. Flamethrower is strictly worse than Blast Burn, and Fire Blast is plain horrendous due to its immense cost.