[alkinesthetase]

i accept that charmander's movement speed of 4 gives it a notable advantage over darumaka for mobility, since their moves have the same area of effect (barring darumaka's run-up space). but as it evolves that goes down to 3 and then 2. meanwhile darumaka hits harder than charmeleon AND charmander, noticeably so. the fact that flame wheel moves you forward a space is also annoying, but it opens up new tactical opportunities of its own - i can stand back with darumaka and charge in for an attack, and then move in charmander (or a mon with similar range) to attack second, standing behind darumaka. just as charmander's move has disadvantages of having to step back to hit enemies in your face, it has the tactical advantage of hitting stuff while standing behind someone else. darumaka's move has different advantages and disadvantages, but they're still there, and darumaka's move also happens to hit way harder.

charmeleon on the other hand is in a bad position to be compared to darumaka. their moves have the same power but darumaka can hit at least as hard, sometimes even harder if you can abuse run up. darumaka technically has more "range" than charmeleon as well, since they have the same movement speed but darumaka's attack hits an enemy from one square further than charmeleon's. (again though you do have to put up with the disadvantage of that run-through square).

as for charizard, i haven't used it yet so i can't say for sure. the combination of ranged attack flamethrower and the flying movement might be enough to compensate for having only 2 movement speed. but that's still pretty damn slow. i intend to keep using darumaka when i resume play and i might keep using charmander as well, we'll have to see.

also, i see some issues with combining movement speed and attack range/area to describe the "range" of a mon. if other mons on my team are moving faster, the enemy will get caught up trying to attack them and won't keep advancing into the range of my slower mons. in terms of where you can hit stuff, it's true that movement speed and attack range can generally be added up, but the movement speed is more useful than the attack range since it also aids my mon in positioning. as bmb mentioned, having ranged moves also brings in the disadvantage of being unable to hit stuff at close range, meaning that if you can't retreat to get some breathing room, you're screwed. ofc your tactics should be planning for that, but (generalizing here) why retreat if you can use a mon with melee area-of-attack and stay in the fray?

when we were discussing leaf storm, i was referring to serperior's attack stat (ie 2), not the power of leaf storm (5). and besides, if you use leaf storm the way you claim (hit once and then gtfo), then how exactly do you plan on getting multiple kills with it, especially considering that many many mons resist grass? the attack cuts will cripple you if you keep attacking. if you can't score multiple kills in a battle, what exactly justifies the tier boost? a strong mon (cough darmanitan) can wipe the field if its attack hits neutrally against most of its opponents and has a good attack area. that's what is expected of a top tier mon. if you're getting one kill per game with leaf storm, you're definitely underperforming when compared to a higher tier mon. scoring one kill per game is AVERAGE at best. that's why those mons remain low tier.

i don't see the comparison between draco meteor and leaf storm either, because draco meteor has fabulous neutral coverage where as leaf storm's coverage is pathetic, and because draco meteor is being used by dragons (classically they have some of the strongest mons in the game) where as leaf storm is being used by grass types (of which many suck).

and finally, if for some reason my staraptor makes a massive advance into the enemy position and starts getting surrounded/beat up. firstly, i have intimidate, so it'll at least take a bit longer before it gets destroyed altogether. secondly, the rest of my team should have high movement speed as well so they can keep up; otherwise that's a failure on my part to form the team, not on staraptor's part being unable to destroy everything on its own. seeing as i'm not going to settle for the slowasses with 2 movement speed, staraptor is not going to be the only mon in the fray. certainly if you're making a psychotic one-man charge and all your other mons are standing back to watch, bad things are gonna happen. but one man charging is generally bad tactics. it's wise to move slowly and attack as a group... if your team is slow. and if your team is fast, then you can do the same thing - attack as a group - except you can do so faster.