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Ho-oh's hidden power

Niantic finally gives ho-oh 2/15 chance to get a stab fast move. I bet Fire HP + FB could make it a viable fire attacker, while Flying HP + BB would make it a terrible/ok Flying attacker (raid based). What makes me curious is that as I don't have that luck to get a stab HP for all my Ho-ohs, which of them could be potentially useful. Right now I have Poison, Dark, Electric and Psychic HP.

Asked by ghao895 years 1 month ago
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Some HP types, if they overlap in effectiveness with charge moves, could be goot for some match ups. I dont know how HP psychic compares with extrasensory, but HP psy mich be good against pokemon like machamp when paired with brave bird, or for poison type grass and bug types when paired with fireblast. Presently, Ho-oh's a very tanky pokemon, and while its stats are absolutely fantastic, its charge moves are...less than, though that is due to main series limited movepools and niantic giving it not the best moves it can get. It can get overheat and sky attack, but instead niantic gave it bravebird and fireblast (though fireblast isnt a terrible move, its just not as good as overheat)

HP Ice, water, grass could be good as a tanky groudon counter when paired with solar beam for PvP, and possible poison, or bug with fireblast against non-poison type grass types in raids/gyms, but those seem scarce.

The problem Ho-oh has is even if it does get a benefitial STAB HP, its charge moves arent the best. Realistically, I can see niantic doing a kind of ho-oh raid day in the future, either adding will-o-wisp as a fast move or making all ho-oh on the day get HP fire If they do a sacred fire raid day, or HP flying if they give it a better flying charge move like sky attack or add something like skydrop or fly

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Generally HP has a neutral DPS of 10, while Extrasensory sits at 10.91... and it's easier to dodge with, if that matters. Steel Wing has an outstanding DPS of 13.75, the highest of all fast moves in PvE, but lack of STAB and type coverage makes it quite an underwhelming move for Ho-Oh anyway.

As I state in a comment to this thread, Ho-Oh is a very good anchor for cases when re-lobbying kills the clock (some Tier 3 solo challenges), and that's pretty much all about it. Therefore, I would consider powering up Ho-Oh only for specific Flying/Fire HP breakpoints that you need to reach for a given boss if at all to make the challenge viable, anything else is a waste of resources.

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Ho-Oh with HP: Fire and Fire Blast makes a fair fire-type attacker with lower end DPS but fairly high TDO.

That said, it still ends up outclassed in DPS by quite a few fire-types (Moltres, Charizard, Entei, Flareon, Heatran, etc). Fire Spin is strictly better than HP: Fire, and Fire Blast is considered a pretty mediocre charge move, as Overheat and Blast Burn are just so much better. In the case of Heatran, it ends up beating Ho-Oh in both DPS and TDO against targets weak to fire.

I'll be honest with you: I have a maxed out 98% Ho-Oh from when it first came out (I always liked it in the main series, so I figured why not). It ended up getting HP: Fire, which was cool, but I still don't end up using it much. In both PvE and PvP, it just isn't really all that special.

So if you're looking for a tanky fire Mon and have dust/candies to burn, I would strongly recommend Heatran over Ho-Oh.

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Unfortunately it's only barely viable as a fire attacker. It ranks 12th in fire DPS even with HP:Fire, losing even to Houndoom and Infernape. The TDO is monstrous though, so if that's what you're looking for, Ho-Oh isn't bad. But like BlameScott pointed out, Heatran is strictly superior if you want TDO.

Similar story for HP:Flying, it doesn't rank too high in DPS. Flying is generally not a great type anyway because most flying attackers are outclassed by other types that do the job better.

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Just a note about your statement: I believe Flying HP Ho-Oh is better with Fire Blast than with Brave Bird. The 1-bar 90 damage is really horrible, and most of the time you would use Ho-Oh tankiness is against a Bug or Grass because of double resistance. That includes some Tier 3 solos where you would want an anchor to avoid re-lobbying (Pinsir, Tangela), and in such scenarios, both Fire and Flying HP are better paired with Fire Blast, just like Moltres is with Sky Attack (in a reversed and worse way, let's say). Sure, not against Fighting types, but why the heck would you use Ho-Oh to anchor when you can use superior Lugia for double resistance?

As for your actual question, for a non-STAB HP I would say Steel Wing and to some extend Extrasensory are better neutral choices (at least DPS-wise), but it really doesn't pair very well with anything. Anyway, a quick analysis of your HP options:

Poison HP: Perhaps against pure Grass... not sure it's really useful.
Psychic HP: Worse DPS than Extrasensory (for a thin hair of margin, but still worse).
Electric HP: hmm... coverage in PvP with Solar Beam? Very niche.
Dark HP: I cannot come up with any scenario where it can be minimally useful in combination with any of its Charged Moves.

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I got dark on my powered up ho-oh. I used to use it for beating down blissies in gyms, but now mm metagross is better at that. However, the dark fast move on ho-oh absolutely wrecks metagross when I find one in a gym.

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