How badly does Charizard's 4x Stealth Rock weakness hold it back from being viable in competitive play?

Question

Charizard seems like it could be viable, but Stealth Rock majorly holds it back. Would it significantly improve if nothing changed except for Stealth Rock now dealing neutral damage (1/8 instead of 1/2)? Is there any generation between Gens 4-9 in which it would perform especially well? Or are there other flaws or threats which prevent Charizard from being a strong contender in the competitive scene?

Comments

I don't think we allow speculation questions anymore.

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I'm gonna allow it for a bit to see what sort of answer it gets, but yeah I don't think you can answer these questions intelligently.
The issue is it's not just a question about Charizard. Removing rocks has massive implications for the meta generally. It's hard to predict how that will affect a single tier let alone "Gen 4 - Gen 9".

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I tried rephrasing the question to cut out the bigger implications and make it more straightforward to theorize about. I don't think OP is wanting an entire reimagining of competitive Pokemon anyway, the point of the question seems to be about wondering whether a 4x weakness to Stealth Rock is the only obstacle stopping Charizard from being good. Someone who's familiar with at least one generation's metagame could give a meaningful assessment of its strengths and remaining weaknesses in the normal competitive context.

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Would still say the part in bold is no good but that's a lot better.

Answer 1

In competitive Pokemon, Charizard isn’t really used anyway. But for other Pokemon like Volcarona, they don’t really suffer too much because of the item Heavy-Duty Boots, which denies entry hazards. So it does take up the item slot, but it doesn’t really hold you back too much. For Charizard, either put Heavy-Duty Boots on it or have a Rapid Spinner. Personally, I don’t think it’s held back too much.

For Charizard, no item slot is a huge loss though, because its stats can’t really deal too much damage compared to other meta Pokemon. I’d say for Charizard, the weakness does make it a bit worse, but it’s already not the best to begin with.

Comments

- Please use punctuation, added it for you this time
- How about about the megas? Those are definitely used in major formats like OU.