Dribbling is more balanced, but Defensive AI is OP

Dribbling

The dribbling is more balanced and rewarding now after the Controlled Sprint nerf, R1/RB is still in the game and usable, it’s just no longer OP. That means you actually have to use other aspects of dribbling: feints, traps, first touches, left-stick, short bursts of acceleration and skill moves. That can only be good for the game and the skill gap. Dribbling should be a skill. For the past 3–4 years, it hasn’t been. Although I do think left stick is probably a bit too strong right now.

I get why some people may like Controlled Sprint (R1/RB), it was strong and felt responsive, but that was the issue. It let you escape good defensive positioning for free at almost max sprint speed, with the ball glued to your feet, lowering the skill gap for dribbling.

Defending

The defending buff was too extreme. Players win the ball, lunging from 5 yards with unreal precision, and there seems to be more auto-tackle animations now, which makes both manual and AI defending feel over-tuned. The result is a game that’s too defensive and can feel “sluggish” to take players on.

It looks like they were scared to touch left stick directly, so they buffed defending too much to match how strong left stick was. That was the wrong decision.

Solutions

Revert some of the defensive buffs, reducing the magnetism of lunging tackles and dialing down the frequency and assistance on auto tackles.

Keeping Controlled sprint as is will preserve dribbling balance. If they do change it, make it only a very small buff so it doesn’t become OP again like pre-patch. Also, maybe a small nerf to left stick for more realism.

I only want the best for the gameplay and for everyone. I get that not everyone is great at dribbling or skilling. So, I can accept controlled sprint as an aid. But we shouldn’t let the mechanic become OP again, or it will ruin the balance of dribbling.