Lol Chien pao might be less obviously broken than chi yu. Comparing the most problematic sets: choiced item - this is due to the immediate threat and lack ochoice specs chi yu to choice band chien pao:
- overheat is 52.9% stronger than icicle crash for immediate power
- overheat over 2 turns is 14.7% stronger than icicle crash over 2 turns
- chi yu could use fire as its dominant offensive STAB, this is due to the fire resists being 2hkoed and/or resisting dark pulse regardless. It was enough power to force recovery moves on specially defensive Pokémon like blissey and SpD roaring moon.
- chien pao relies on dark as its dominant stab, this then makes it a more predictable Tera dark user due to the 80BP not quite cutting the mustard against the 252/252 bold regenerator + 2nd resist strategy, where’s chi yu could easily not Tera over a game and still be 100% effective. If anything specs chi yu only needed to Tera “defensively” (more in later point).
- dark pulse is the same power as crunch, however the flinch is arguably more effective than the defense drop. Dark pulse also doesn’t make contact so it’s harder to wear down.
- Defensively, chien pao has the main perk of being able to survive extreme speed from dragonite, earthquakes from Garchomp, sucker punch from kingambit, etc. meanwhile chi yu could matchup into gholdengo/Volcarona/corviknight/sdirge and many many more Pokémon very easily.
- Tera fire, when used, often made chi yu better in key matchups, such as against standard iron valiant or when being used to switch into Volcarona. +2 252/0 Volcarona was still 2hkod by specs flamethrower, whilst it had difficulty 2hkoing back with its four most common moves.
- Tera dark is only good on chien pao in niche matchups, such as against body press. It also makes it less hazard removal support reliant, as it takes reduced damage from SR.
- possibly the biggest difference.. is that band chien pao can actually be checked/dealt with the classic 252/252 bold toxapex + any sturdy dark resist. Although that falls flat on its face against SD+ life orb chien pao, which will break past that. Nasty plot chi yu was less effective than SD chien pao, but it really didn’t need it when it’s specs set was so intense and dominant. SD chien pao can use Tera ghost/fairy/fighting/poison effectively to “guarantee” the +2 in critical matchups, it gets away with it due to the improved speed over chi yu, so it will actually threaten a sweep.
I think the thing is that Chien pao has the same effect, if less noticeable, of chi yu, I think we will see that a lot more. Even urshifu wasn’t as problematic.