Is Pyroar any good in Pokemon GO?

In the pursuit of a Fire-type Pokemon to use in Pokemon GO's Battle League, players are starting to look more towards the underused side of the roster. Pyroar, the Royal Pokemon, is often overlooked by many players looking to add a Fire-type Pokemon to their team.

Debuting in Pokemon X and Y, the sixth generation of the franchise, Litleo, Pyroar's pre-evolved form, was the first Fire-type Pokemon players could encounter given that the player did not choose Fennekin. Pyroar also had a spot on the teams of Team Flare Boss Lysandre as well as Malva of the Kalos Elite Four.

For players looking to add Pyroar to their team, there are various factors the player must take into account before deciding how to use it. Like every other Pokemon, Pyroar has strengths and weaknesses. Having game knowledge on Pyroar can help players maximize Pyroar's strengths while mitigating its weaknesses.

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Analyzing Pyroar in Pokemon GO

Pyroar's unique trait of having vastly different gender differences makes it stand out among the majority of the other Pokemon in the franchise (Image via The Pokemon Company)

First, let's look at Pyroar's typing. Pyroar and its pre-evolved form, Litleo, are the only Fire and Normal-type Pokemon in the franchise as of writing. The Fire typing on its own is a great defensive typing with a lot of resistances.

This is only further amplified by the Normal typing which does not double up on any of the Fire typing's weaknesses and adds a massive resist to Ghost-type attacks. In exchange, Pyroar is weak to Fighting-type attacks as well as the standard Fire weaknesses of Ground, Rock, and Water.

Pyroar's stats in Pokemon GO are where it starts to trip up. With an above average attack stat of 221 and a stamina stat of 200, it does not look like there is anything truly wrong with Pyroar.

Where Pyroar tends to lack is when it is compared to other Fire-types. While it has great capabilities as a Normal-type, Pyroar simply lacks in terms of damage output compared to Ultra and Great League's meta-defining Fire-type Pokemon.

Looking at Pyroar's direct performance in Pokemon GO's Battle League, it tends to perform better in Ultra League rather than Great League due to Ghost-type Pokemon being more common.

Great League has too many bulky Fighting-types for Pyroar to truly carve a niche for itself. Looking at Pyroar's lackluster defense of 149, it is not hard to catch a Pyroar user unprepared and knock down their only Fire-type user with a single supercharged Fighting-type attack.

While it is unfortunate that Pyroar is not as useful as it looks, this is simply due to the current state of Pokemon GO's metagame. The meta may shift when Pokemon from the Alola region are finally added to the game.

As far as the current state of Pokemon GO goes, looking at the abundance of powerful Ground-types and bulky Fighting-types, Pyroar currently stands no chance in the Battle League.