Tl;dr
Use a pair of Blissey to tank and either Gigalith, Omastar, or Gmax Inteleon as your Max attacker. Lobbies with three trainers using appropriate counters look like fairly easy wins.
Usefulness
Ho-Oh will be in Max Battles January 31st and February 1st. Ho-Oh has good defensive stats, especially the 244 defense stat. The Attack stat isn’t high enough to compete with preexisting attackers. Unfortunately, Ho-Oh lacks a 0.5s fast move, which, like Lugia, severely hampers its ability to tank while filling the Max Meter. Despite the fast attack issue, Ho-Oh has enough bulk and resistances to possibly play a role as a catch tank or a singleton Max Guard user on teams.
Difficulty
Due to the similar stats Ho-Oh has to Latias I’m using the CPM and HP Latias had when it was in Max Battles. The CPM likely won’t be any higher, historically only a few legendary Dmax Boss have had a CPM above 0.75. It is possible that the HP for Ho-Oh could be higher, given the double weakness Ho-Oh has it might be warranted, but 23,000 HP is already above average for a legendary Dmax boss. If the HP does end up being higher, the stats shown for the tanks here are still accurate. You’ll just need more Max Moves from your attack to win, the tanks still survive just the same, unless the CPM is also different.
As if typical with tier-5 Legendary Dynamax Battles, a team of four trainers should have an extremely easy time. In the case of Ho-Oh Trios look quite easy with level 40 pokemon, even some level 30 teams will have an easy battle. Duos are where things get difficult against Ho-Oh.
Ho-Oh has many slow moves, filling the Max Meter without taking a single hit is possible for a few of Ho-Oh’s moves under the right conditions.
Attackers
The week before Ho-Oh debuts, Roggenrola will be in Max Battles. If you’re able to get a Gigalith built before the weekend, it will be the best attacker by a considerable margin. Our other reasonable Rock attacker is Omastar, which will require an Elite Fast TM to learn Rock Throw. Rock Throw is also a 1.0s move, so you can’t have that Omastar pull double duty and tank as effectively. Gmax Inteleon is practically identical to Omastar in damage output, if you have one.
As a reminder if you’re trying to calculate if you can barely win a duo or trio and not all of your teammates have the same attacker at the same level, you can average the values of everyone’s attackers to get an estimate of how much aTMM (Adjusted Total Max Moves) your tanks need to pull off a win.
Tanks
Simulations now properly count fast move damage and apply a percentage adjustment to the total max moves a team deployed to get the Adjusted Total Max Move (aTMM) values seen on the tanks tables.
Making sure your team of tanks has an aTMM greater than the attackers Max Moves to Win (MMW) value means you’ll likely win the battle. Simulations use a team of two identical tanks for each player. The rows for Lugia/Blissey, Ho-Oh/Blissey, and Eternatus/Blissey are comprised of a team of three trainers with one trainer using two Lugia and the other two trainers each using two copies of Blissey. These 1.0s fast move users need other 0.5s fast move users to fill the meter fast enough to avoid extra boss attacks, and to avoid being punished by the desperate/enraged timer too harshly. The simulations do NOT use Max Guard. If you’re using Lugia or Ho-Oh it might be advisable to either catch tank with it, or have one trainer use Max Guard to lure targeted attacks that are more favorable for the Max Guard user.
Just like with the scores on the attackers table, you can average the aTMM of every different pokemon present in the lobby to get an estimate of the parties aTMM.
Duos
The table for trios is a sea of green, assuming everyone has reasonably powered up pokemon it should be smooth sailing. Trying to accomplish a Duo is where Ho-Oh actually becomes a challenge. I’ve including the rare few pokemon that seem to be capable of successfully winning a duo without Max Mushrooms or Dynamax Cannon adventure effect.
If you’re using any pokemon other than Blissey expect to reroll a lot for the right moves. Alternatively pick two tanks for your team that cover different boss moves and swap to the tank that handles the incoming attack. A duo where each player uses one Corviknight and one Omastar or Suicune provides good coverage against all of Ho-Oh’s moves. In a duo you’re going to be cutting it close to being hit by a second boss attack each cycle, avoid making multiple tank swaps or side swipes each cycle. Trying to combine targeted move dodges with collecting orbs helps save the few precious seconds that might help avoid that second boss attack.
by TrueNourishment