Ho-Oh
Attack
Defense
Stamina
Best Movesets
Analysis
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.
Offense
- 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.
Ho-Oh can only join the Great League if obtained as a research breakthrough reward and traded afterwards to reroll its IVs. This makes Ho-Oh very costly and unlikely to have a shot at Great League, but nonetheless it has its niches. Being more slightly more bulky than Charizard is attractive as a Fire/Flying type, but access to slow charge moves often causes Ho-Oh to lose matchups if the opponent commits 2 shields. Overall Ho-Oh is mostly a one-trick-pony that has a lot of potential when shields are down, but otherwise can struggle compared to other meta picks. Ho-Oh also faces stiff competition from Talonflame, who possesses similar stats and moves, but can pressure shields more effectively with Flame Charge.
