Ho-Oh

Even after years since its release, and with Sacred Fire being introduced into the game, Ho-Oh remains just disappointingly adequate in raid viability. Its strong stats and resistances allow it to be used in many raids, but it is often outclassed by many other Fire-type options. Sacred Fire's parameters are nothing to write home about, being not much better than the existing Fire Blast. Ho-Oh is best used against Grass- and Bug- type raid bosses, as they are weak to both Incinerate and Brave Bird, its best attacks. Additionally, if you are lucky with the Hidden Power roulette, Ho-Oh is actually a fairly competent Flying-type attacker. However, bosses where Flying is optimal is rather scarce.

For those who bought the GO Tour: Johto ticket, Apex Shadow Ho-Oh is available as one of the rewards in the Masterwork Research. It comes with the exclusive move Sacred Fire+, and said move becomes Sacred Fire++ when Ho-Oh is purified. With this move, Apex Purified Ho-Oh becomes a competent Fire-type attacker, with a performance surpassing Moltres. However, purifying Apex Shadow Ho-Oh results in a significant decrease in DPS despite the move's upgrade. As Apex Shadow Ho-Oh is one of the best Fire-type attackers in the game, and players will only receive one, purifying it is not recommended.

Best PvE Offensive Moveset

• Incinerate is the best fast move available due to STAB. 

• Extrasensory is better for effectiveness vs. Fighting-types specifically.

• Hidden Power is only viable if it is Flying type. Otherwise, Incinerate or even Extrasensory are better options.

• Steel Wing is mostly useless.

• Sacred Fire++ is exclusive to Apex Purified Ho-Oh, and makes Ho-Oh a competent Fire-type attacker. However, Ho-Oh's performance drops when it is purified.

• For all other Ho-Oh, Sacred Fire remains the best Fire-type charge move at its disposal. However, its performance is rather lacking.

• Brave Bird is the best charge move available, and benefits from STAB. 

• Fire Blast is much slower and doesn't perform as well, except against Ice or Steel-types. It is also outclassed by Sacred Fire.

• Solar Beam is the charged move of choice against Water, Ground, and Rock-type Pokemon, but lacks STAB. 

• Earthquake is a bit of an awkward move on attack for Ho-oh and doesn't do much for it.

Incinerate is Ho-Oh's only viable fast move option due to its high STAB damage and energy generation, though it is quite cumbersome being a 5 turn fast move. Extrasensory and Steel Wing are both inferior choices by a considerable margin, though they don't suffer nearly as much from the slow animation that Incinerate has. Hidden Power is not a great attack in PVP, but it can have some niche utility on Ho-Oh if given the proper typing.

Brave Bird demands quite a bit of energy, but is the cheapest charge move available to Ho-Oh. While its self-debuff makes it somewhat risky, its high STAB damage makes it considerably threatening if unshielded. Sacred Fire is a very powerful STAB move with a 50% Attack debuff chance, and burns down Steel-type targets. Earthquake provides coverage against Rock types and certain targets such as Zekrom. Solar Beam and Fire Blast are among the most expensive charge moves in the game energy-wise, but the former provides coverage against Water and Rock Pokemon that Ho-Oh can struggle against, while the latter is best avoided because it is completely outclassed by Sacred Fire.