Why is Rhydon getting so much hate?
I know he has a double weakness to water which dominates the game meta. And because of his typing that really cripples him as a defender. But why do people still hate him as an attacker? We know he is not the most efficient at attacking certain type of pokemon but still he is fun to use. And you can't deny that he has a pretty solid base stats. You don't need to trash him just because people are using him over Dragonites and Vaporeons. I also have the same feeling as you guys whenever I see Rhydon in a gym. This is a piece of cake. But I also get the same feeling whenever I see Dragonite. Because I have a beast Cloyster and Lapras to beat it with. In my city, gyms do not last long. So it doesn't really matter which pokemon you put it eventually it will be taken down. The reason people put him in gyms is simple he has a high cp therefore higher placement in gyms. Unless, Niantic do something about how pokemon in gyms are arranged, we will always see the highest cp pokemon in gyms.
Answers
That argument doesn't hold up when Eevees are dead common in a lot of (maybe most?) areas, and the meta-defining Vaporeon can be had for 25 candies. Rhyhorn is most definitely rare in my area, and I had to grind long and hard to finally get one with MS and power it up. I love using mine as an attacker.
Eeveelutions don't deserve their high CP maxes either. This game isn't like the original games in any way shape or form and they need to stop trying to be. They changed the whole formula just to make Alakazam the best attacker, but they had to keep the original formula for Lapras, so people wouldn't have felt cheated. The spawn rates are also a mess. Porygon and Grimer are incredibly rare for no reason at all, and Eevees spawn like Pidgeys when they have the value of Dratinis. Rare Pokemon deserve to have higher CP maxes.
I agree that eevee should either take twice the candy or be half as common. I ignore as many as I catch and still have plenty of candy for when I get a good one.
Rhydon is also relatively rare here and my first one was worthless(RS/MH). It does fill a niche as an attacker. I'm not sure that I would call him tier 1 though, since he doesn't have a lot of good match ups against top defenders (Lax, wigglytuf, Clefairy is all).
Don't forget double weakness to grass also.
Look at it this way: Gyarados gets a ton of crap for having 1 double weakness.....Rhydon has 2....and both are way more common than Electric.
That's not saying I don't like him. He's certainly useful, especially on offense. But when people are throwing 2-3 of him in every gym it's massive overkill.
As a defender, as you mentioned, Rhydon just doesn't fit the job. I'll say his situation is even worse than that of Gyarados.
As an attacker, Rhydon doesn't have good, if not elite, quick move. Besides, his high CP largely attributes to his 200+ Defense and Stamina, not his <230 Attack. Neither Stone Edge nor Earthquake can save him.
Even if you use him as a Rock Specialist attacker, sadly, when Tyranitar is released, he will be the Blastoise today.
He does, however, have a use after all: prestiging. What's easy to take down is also easy to prestige. One may put a Rhydon in the gym when it becomes too hard to train.
