Heracross is a solid scarfer and late-game sweeper with flame orb, but it's checked by any fast scarfer with a super effective attack, or certain physical walls such as gligar. You don't need to go a long way to add a heracross check to any team, it's not like you *have* to chuck in something suboptimal like a scarf aero for it.
It's also not really affecting team diversity. It's not the only good setup fighting type, due to Kommo-o, and it competes with Pangoro as a late-game cleaner (although it's probably better in 90% of teams.) It's also not the only scarf user worth running, with Hoopa, Salazzle, Bruxish, etc.
The only real reason one might want to ban it is that it dominates on the physical scarf side, but as the suspect reasoning seems to take exception to his wallbreaking power at 85 speed, I'll be voting do not ban if I end up getting reqs.
The only set which really poses a problem imo is the flame orb guts one, scarf is easily checked by gligar, doublade, florges and the likes, players can even switch around creatively into resists predicting close combat or megahorn or whatever, Sure, moxie can get a sweep going around but if you play smart and keep checks healthy, it shouldn't pose much of a problem.
Sd guts is arguably the best wallbreaker, a problem to all defensive and offence based teams and has minimal defensive counter play, but is outsped by a lot of common offensive mons, take salazzle, swellow, and literally every scarfer, and heracross doesn't really have great defenses, and is pressured by residual rocks and the racking burn damage , and is in that way dealt with.
The Correct way to play would be to quickly ascertain what type of heracross it is, which is obviously visible in one turn as seen from the flame orb burn, and then proceed accordingly.
Just because a mon is strong doesn't mean it's broken and should be banned.
And if people are talking about lack of defensive counterplay, you would much sooner ban freaking linoone while you're at it.
Don't ban. Let the bug stay.
These posts miss the point of why Heracross is being suspected. Nobody has said that SD + Guts Heracross has an overly great matchup against more offensive teams. While Heracross is very hard to switch into for these sorts of teams, they can easily force it out once it gets a kill with Pokemon such as Salazzle, Swellow, and the like. It's the set's matchup against fatter teams that is the issue. When the most splashable checks to Heracross on these sorts of teams, such as Doublade and Gligar, cannot stomach a Knock Off (with the latter then having issues taking Guts-boosted Facades that may or may not have a Swords Dance behind them) then there is a problem. Heracross "not being the only good setup Fighting-type" is not relevant to whether or not it is broken, as that does not focus on the effect Heracross itself is having on the metagame. At the risk of being excessively tangential, Suicine was not the only good bulky Water-type in RU Alpha, but it had such a centralising effect on the metagame that it was banned without hesitation at the genesis of RU Beta. For the record, Choice Scarf is still a good set, but it's much weaker and easier to play around for defensive teams. Plus, offensive teams can still deal with it fairly adequately as they are, more often than not, going to have something that either outspeeds this variant of Heracross (say, Choice Scarf Moltres) or can easily shut it down (say, Comfey).
SilentVerse really nails on the head the problems Heracross creates in the teambuilding phase. In this metagame where the myriad of powerful offensive threats necessitates most teams to have a strong defensive backbone, Pokemon such as Umbreon and Registeel become appealing. However, by placing either of these Pokemon - premier utility Pokemon, at that - on my team, I encounter a problem: I now have a Pokemon that is hopefully vulnerable to being set up on by Heracross. Let's continue teambuilding with Umbreon. Umbreon's unfortunate weakness to Fighting-type moves combined with an inability to do anything substantial to Fighting-types means that Doublade seems a great fit. Now, though, I encounter another problem: Heracross still easily pressures this core. Doublade's total lack of recovery and role as a blanket check to most physical attackers in RU means it can be overloaded easily, and having to take Knock Offs makes this even worse. Umbreon can barely afford to pass a Wish to Doublade because this gives the Heracross you are more than likely to have in the back a free switch-in, and giving this thing a free turn is not an optimal situation. Then I might chuck AcroGligar onto my team; Defog support is always nice for fat teams anyway, and Acrobatics Gligar is a seemingly reliable answer. Yet this, too, can't take a Knock Off to save its life. What am I supposed to do in this situation when my team's defensive backbone can't adequately deal with this one Pokemon? I could run an Unaware Pokemon, like Pyukumuku, but Pyukumuku's passivity leaves it easily pressured by other teammates, which might force other Pokemon that are Heracross-weak to switch in to deal with them... but then, a well-timed Heracross double switch into play can be problematic for me. Pyukumuku and Quagsire barely qualify as checks if they try eating a Close Combat, which is pretty comedic. Of course, Heracross can be dealt with through passive damage; Flame Orb damage adds up despite the burn nerf (or buff?) and switching into Stealth Rock is never desirable. However, flagging this as an infallible method of playing Heracross is viewing things in a vacuum and simply does not take things into account such as opportunities for teammates to Defog and the like.
Heracross has other great qualities that combine with this difficulty to adequately cover while teambuilding to create a Pokemon that is very difficult to deal with overall. A good Speed tier, which is specified in the OP as a means for Heracross to differentiate itself from other powerful wallbreakers, serviceable bulk, and actually half-decent defensive typing even make removing it from play a challenge for balances that rely on Stealth Rock setters such as Rhyperior and Gigalith or other passive, defensive Pokemon, such as bulky Water-types that can't deal with it because it doesn't care about Scald. Even a select few offensive Pokemon that lack a super effective move to hit it with, such as Zoroark, will lose handily. Comparing it to Pangoro, it is more difficult to pressure with passive damage and status due to Flame Orb essentially giving it an immunity to poison / sleep etc., it is more difficult to revenge kill due to its reasonable Speed stat, and it has much more immediate power that becomes even more absurd after a Swords Dance, which really isn't that difficult to set up.
The way Heracross suffocates more defensive teams and makes covering it both in teambuilding and during play extremely difficult is what makes it broken in my eyes. It should be banned.
