Stick lift guaranteed penalty.
The pokecheck is alot better than it was. You still have players who just hold the pokecheck button down and skate around the ice like that. Thought that was supposed to be fixed. The stick lift is...
Forum Discussion
What I don't understand is the logic by which you lose the puck to the stick clipping through players. Sometimes that knocks the puck off and sometimes it doesn't. I'm trying to find the consistency in this mechanic and I've failed so far. When I'm defending, I try to clip through the opponent's stick and it works a lot of the time, except when it doesn't, and reviewing various instances of this has left me confused.
The only logical conclusion I can come to is that clipping through a player's stick greatly increases the likelihood of knocking the puck off that player's stick, but whether that does occur is ultimately determined by the attributes. So it's a combination of clipping through the stick and both players' attributes that determine whether the puck gets knocked off the stick. Can a developer confirm this?
Some may disagree, but I honestly think EA has stick checking as good as it’s been in years as far as punishment for the spammers, and reward for the actual skilled Dmen, there’s finally a nice skill gap.
There is such a noticeable difference now between D that know what they are doing, and ones who have been carried by the fact they could poke spam with no penalty in previous years. That being said, I honestly think penalties need to be bumped up a bit when poking from the side or behind players, because tripping penalties have been almost non existent so far, and I’ve even found myself in situations where I should have taken a tripping penalty but didn’t.
Stick lifts are another skill gap thing, I have had pretty good success with them without taking penalties, but I usually mainly use them in situations where I’m in a foot race and stick lift them last second before they get the puck, as opposed to stick lifting when they already have possession.
I think some people who don’t like it, need to realize that this is a big skill level change to playing D, and one that was actually needed and it’s going to take time for people to readjust to it. 2-3 months down the road, I think people will appreciate it more and will be better for the overall gameplay.
The main thing that’s concerning to me is that most players haven’t unlocked truculence yet, and when they do, it will be in full force because it’s far easier to just use truculence rather than play a stick checking style that requires more skill now, when you can just get full hit assistance from truculence and not worry about it. I really think truculence was the worst addition that’s ever been made into the NHL series and the fact it’s still brokenly OP after all the complaints last year, and instead of nerfing it, they nerf stick checking instead??? It’s mind blowing the people running the show making the decisions for this franchise
- @TITAN_NHL I kind of agree based on what I've seen so far, but your message seems a little one-sided. You care about OP traits yet make no mention of Close Quarters which sometimes results in successful shots on net despite good defense. You care about poke spamming which they've now fixed to some extent, yet the L2 spam and the hustling through sticks and bodies aren't a problem.
Don't get me wrong, I'm glad the skill gap on defense is now apparently greater and you have to be smarter, more patient, and time your defensive moves properly. I'm glad I'm getting burned by good forwards whenever I fall back on NHL 22 style defense. The balance doesn't seem right though. The game should always reward you for outplaying a defenseman, and conversely for outplaying a forward.Honestly close quarters is so far from the OP trait now it’s not even close. I used close quarters on nearly every build in 22, and have taken it off completely in 23. Unstoppable force is OP beyond belief now, Truculence still remains brokenly strong in 3v3. Elite edges is even better than last year now as well. Close quarters isn’t needed what so ever being that breakaways and penalty shots have the easiest guaranteed glitch goal now that goes in every time without it anyways.
I’ve been complaining about L2 spam for years as well, admittedly I use it and can use it extremely well, but I think it’s bad for the game overall. Them removing the great vision control we used to have and replacing it with backwards skating was a huge blow to the series. I also think that it’s beyond annoying when you poke the puck off a forward and they immediately pick it up and keep trucking like nothing happened. There needs to be more benefit given to the defender when making a play that gives them more of the advantage to gain possession of the puck rather than the forward. Look at the ability “Yoink”, it says when you stick lift a player, it causes them to take longer to regain possession or something along those lines… that’s the way it should be all the time… this would give a benefit to the Dman that just made the play by giving them the higher RNG chance of gaining possession before the forward regains it
@TITAN_NHL I only play 6s so I can't speak to those traits in 3s especially against an AI goalie. Also I haven't unlocked Truculence yet but if it's similar to 22, I believe you that it's totally OP. What Close Quarters though still seems to do, just like in 22, is that it breaks the consistency where the forward will sometimes manage a shot on net at the back post even if you pretty much do everything right as a defenseman. So you could get both body and stick contact on them and it doesn't always matter just because Close Quarters boosts the shooting animation so much. It's a case of rewarding a bad play (a forced pass to a player who's clearly covered) and failing to reward the defenseman who covered his opponent very well.
I agree with you overall, though. And like I said, I'm glad 23 requires defensemen to be smarter and punishes bad positioning more strictly. That's how it should be.
