Infernape
Attack
Defense
Stamina
Best Movesets
Analysis
Without a high ATK stat, Infernape is outclassed by a lot of Fire-type Pokemon that we already have. While the addition of its Community Day move, Blast Burn, is an improvement, it's not enough to make up for its lack of stats.
Offense
- Fire Spin is the better fast move with STAB and should be paired with Blast Burn.
- Flamethrower is a downgrade, but at least it's not a legacy move.
- Rock Smash + Close Combat makes Infernape a Fighting attacker - a poor one.
- Solar Beam and Close Combat are decent moves and are occasionally useful.
Defense
- Rock Smash is as damaging as Fire Spin in defense but has better counter coverage.
- Flamethrower is 2-bar and has an early damage window, therefore is more likely to hit.
- Blast Burn is somewhat easy to dodge, but being a 2-bar move lets it be used more often.
- Close Combat hits very early and is quite hard to dodge, if it gets used at all.
- Solar Beam, despite being a good coverage move, has 1 bar and is easy to dodge.
Fire Spin is preferred for its considerably better energy gains compared to Rock Smash, though both moves offer the same STAB damage output.
Blast Burn is a legacy move obtained during Chimchar's Community Day, and is a direct upgrade over Flamethrower in both damage output and energy cost. If you don't have the former, then the latter is still okay for providing Fire-type coverage. Close Combat is Infernape's cheapest option; it has tremendous DPE, but it must be used carefully due to its self-debuff.
Generally speaking, if you are looking for a Fire/Fighting Pokemon, Blaziken is superior as its damage output is far more consistent.
