This shouldn't take 2 years to fix!

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@EA_Aljo wrote:

@hiperay 

Personally, I don't think poke spam is that difficult to deal with. I do a lot of one touch passing and I try to keep the puck moving and out of reach so I'm not dealing with poke spam that much. There's also usually a decent amount of penalties from it. While I get your example, I'm not seeing this happen all game long. It's also not terribly unreasonable that a real world player would know the carrier is right behind them. Regardless, I get the point you're making. Thanks for the feedback.

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It does happen all game long. EA said in their release trailer that players would be penalized for poke checking too much and it would make poke check less effective the more you poke check. 

All I see is me protecting the puck. Their stick literally hitting my skates and getting stuck in my player's legs about 20+ times a game. The player doesn't lose any speed and the poke check is still automatically aiming for the puck on the stick. 

I've provided multiple examples. First it was that you couldn't see it properly. Then I posted a video close up. You said that the players have to be moving their skates as it won't trip them if they glide. I proved that they can still be tripped by gliding. Then you say that maybe the poke check wasn't strong enough to trip my player. 

The player has zero control over where the poke check goes or how strong it is. They only press one button, and it rewards them no matter their position, as long as their close enough to the player with the puck. 

They can be facing away from the play and still land a perfectly aimed poke check. They can be clearly behind a player and their poke check works. I can protect the puck on the opposite side of their stick side and still no tripping call. 

It's insanity at this point. Bring back more tripping penalties. Make it more consistent with the game play. If you're positioned poorly, you shouldn't be rewarded. 

You don't get rewarded for a poorly positioned stick lift. You don't get rewarded for a poorly aimed body check. 

You don't get rewarded for holding a player against the boards after they've played the puck. 

So why is it that players are being rewarded for simply pressing one button and it automatically aim assists? It wasn't like that from NHL 19 to NHL 21 because players BEGGED to have poke check spam removed. 

It's not what your personal opinion is when it absolutely exists. Even if you pass the puck. The aim assisted poke check can pick off passes and even sauce passes. A player can poke check 4 times in a row and not lose any speed. I pass back to my defense and dump and chase. I grab the puck and immediately my opponent starts spamming poke check. I pass constantly, only for the puck to be picked off from some cheesy poke check my opponent wasn't even facing. 

I don't even care if the poke check ends in a penalty. It needs to be reworked so that players have to be positioned correctly. EA added puck tracking via player's vision but they clearly still have eyes in the back of their heads and can pull of perfect poke checks. That's just not realistic or ideal when we are playing a competitive game. 

@NihilistWolfe 

Players that are moving very slowly while gliding or standing still will most likely not be tripped. They need to be moving at a decent amount of speed. I didn't mean to say that anytime a player was in a glide it meant they were immune to trips. There are times I see several tripping penalties in a game. While the stick is aimed at where the puck is, you still have to use a good angle and have an open lane to the puck. If you are constantly losing the puck to poke checks, you're letting it get too close to opposing players. Protecting the puck better as well as passing more will help keep it out of reach.

Thanks for all the feedback.

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@EA_Aljo wrote:

@NihilistWolfe 

Players that are moving very slowly while gliding or standing still will most likely not be tripped. They need to be moving at a decent amount of speed. I didn't mean to say that anytime a player was in a glide it meant they were immune to trips. There are times I see several tripping penalties in a game. While the stick is aimed at where the puck is, you still have to use a good angle and have an open lane to the puck. If you are constantly losing the puck to poke checks, you're letting it get too close to opposing players. Protecting the puck better as well as passing more will help keep it out of reach.

Thanks for all the feedback.

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To me, pokes are fine except that too often, no matter how you poke, or sweep check, or from what angle, the puck seems to magnetize towards the opposing teams players.  I'll poke the puck or sweep it towards an open spot on the ice but Instead, it goes right to one of their guys.   Heck I've seen pokes go right to MY teammate but somehow the other teams guy BEHIND my guy gets it as if the puck isn't a solid object again until it's passed my guy.  

Same with hits.  I can lay a guy out then go to get the puck but somehow, he puts his skates I just knocked him out of back on, ties them in triple knots, sharpens his blades, and somehow stands up and recovers the puck while my guy who's standing over the loose pucks won't touch it.   This had been a problem for years now.

@EA_Aljo - "I didn't mean to say that anytime a player was in a glide it meant they were immune to trips."

It's funny that you say that because this just says otherwise...a 2on1 so naturally I am moving with speed here...

And then I have a lesser obvious one but one that I do think still applies here as he has his stick across both my skates as well. Trip should have happened before the poke from the goalie to unsettle the puck from my player.

So again I say that the poke check is way too ridiculous and takes away a skill gap that should be there. This is coming from a Primary EASHL Defenseman mind you so I am asking for things to be tougher on us here. I just find it crazy that I have to make all these movements with the right and left thumbstick to keep the puck away and all the dman has to do is close his eyes practically and hit RB to let the auto tracking do the work for them and the fact that these two aren't penalties above I think proves why people just use poke checks at the high level. All of the reward with very little risk.

@hiperay 

In both of those clips, the stick is out and the carrier is skating in to it. You have to actually hit the skates on the outgoing poke to cause a trip and the carrier can't be standing still or moving very slowly. Had the skates been directly hit with the poke, chances are excellent tripping would have been called. You're claiming pokes are overpowered, but these 2 videos are showing otherwise. They're too far away and missing. Had they been closer, the odds of a successful poke are higher of course. You can't just blindly poke away and constantly knock the puck away. Sure, it's bound to happen sometimes, but poking still takes skill to consistently separate the carrier from the puck.

@EA_Aljo@NihilistWolfeYou cannot be serious right now? I've been trying to be calm and rational here with these arguments but I can't believe you are actually telling me that this is a legitimately good play he made? The first one I am skating away from the net and defender with the puck to the side and behind my player. He makes a desperate attempt to poke out of position and the stick goes THROUGH my player into the puck causing the puck to be unsettled without tripping my guy. I urge you to rewatch that first one in full screen, his poke doesn't even make contact with my stick until after it "warps" through my players legs.

The second one you cannot just hold your stick out and the player is forced to go around. He has no position on that ice. Meanwhile I have position and I am protecting the puck away from the oncoming defender on my backhand. He has to have stick discipline and withdraw his stick or face taking a penalty. At least this is how it is in normal hockey rules as far as I know.

If you want to argue the second one than fine, I can discredit that one and say its "my fault" for not giving him that ice for just having his stick out. But to say the first one is not insane? Like please go look and rethink your thoughts on this one.

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@hiperay wrote:

please go look and rethink your thoughts on this one.

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I LOL'd hard at reading that

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@EA_Aljo wrote:

Had the skates been directly hit with the poke, chances are excellent tripping would have been called.

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It appears as though incidental contact causes the puck to become dislodged, as there's a slight 'stumble' animation being shown by the puck carrier:

I don't disagree with your penalty logic regarding the initial poke animation needing to interact with a moving-player's feet in order to trigger the trip, however, something needs to be looked at in terms of incidental contact and Defensive Skill Stick / Poke checking. 

This may be why OP is stating that poke checks are overpowered. Chances are (and I've seen this a lot in online versus as well) that incidental contact during a poke check animation is causing a loss of puck possession when in reality, some type of penalty should be called. 

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@hiperay wrote:

The second one you cannot just hold your stick out and the player is forced to go around. He has no position on that ice. Meanwhile I have position and I am protecting the puck away from the oncoming defender on my backhand. He has to have stick discipline and withdraw his stick or face taking a penalty. At least this is how it is in normal hockey rules as far as I know.

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in my opinion, there's nothing wrong with this play at all:

This is exactly one of the changes made to stick physics in '23 which adds much more realism. Rather than calling an arbitrary penalty just because the user threw an errant input (in this case, poke check) - the game is letting the play progress without any impedance to the puck carrier. This is especially crucial in this situation because the initial poke check (that has more force behind it) is aimed right at the puck , albeit far away, and doesn't cross the plane of the skates at all. The subsequent movement from the puck carrier is then allow to proceed rather than exeucting a trip animation, which would've negated the scoring chance.

@hiperay 

The way the mechanics of the game work is that you will only take a tripping call on the outgoing thrust of the stick when it contacts the skates. In the first video, the stick is out already and the carrier skates in to it. This causes them to stumble and lose possession. It's a similar situation in the second video.

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@EA_Aljo wrote:

@hiperay 

The way the mechanics of the game work is that you will only take a tripping call on the outgoing thrust of the stick when it contacts the skates. In the first video, the stick is out already and the carrier skates in to it. This causes them to stumble and lose possession. It's a similar situation in the second video.

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In the 2nd video, it looks as though the skater's leg movement is causing the defenders stick to interact and dislodge the puck

Get rid of the Auto poke check 

@hiperay 

I think you are still responsible though. If you just go haphazardly poking, your chances of a tripping call are a lot higher. We get a lot of complaints about defense already being challenging so I think making poke checks more difficult wouldn't really be an improvement. That's just my own personal opinion. I'd much rather see less of a slow down since that already forces you to sparingly use the poke. The auto-aim doesn't guarantee you'll hit the puck, but it will cause a big reduction in speed which will leave defenders in the dust if they're spamming pokes.

@NihilistWolfe 

Thanks for your feedback on this. It's appreciated. If changes are made, we'll make an announcement.

@EA_AljoRemoving the slow down I'd say you would have to revert if you DID go to Full Manual Poke Checking. I think adding slow down is not how it should have been nerfed. It looks dumb to just see a player hold his stick out and that slows themselves down drastically. I would say if you wanted to do something like that than it should be when they are making "large movements" with the stick such as trying to swing it to push the puck away. Then you could have a very minor slowdown mechanic incorporated where now they lose a step on the player.

Defense is challenging yes I would agree but that's because of the other mechanics in the game that are of an issue. Defense is challenging because pucks are forced across the crease and defenders cannot pick it up. It goes through their legs, off their skates and somehow gets to the One Timer on the other side. I see numerous times my player facing the passer and watch as they slide the puck between my legs, with quick pick and 90 awareness to the other guy with gold OneTee.

Defense is challenging because there is something (thanks season 3) called Big Tipper that you could be right on top of the guy and yet somehow he can still get his stick out to tip the puck in the back of the net.

Defense is challenging because you can't tie up said player in front of the net or along the boards because he is moving just a little bit but enough that you hold the button down to perform the tie up and nothing happens. Only to let go of it and your guy sometimes stick lifting in open ice and slashing someone because things cannot be cancelled except passes in this game.

I understand that defense is challenging and you want to make the game more offense minded. But, turning up the Hot water (poke check power) to compensate for the Cold (defense in general) is not the way to do it. Again this is my opinion based on many hours of this game. It should be a nice even balance. Yin and Yang.

EDIT: By the way I personally am all for making defense the hardest, most punishing and skill-based thing in the game. Then only the elite will be able to show themselves out there. But watching a puck go through my legs when I am in position to a guy with OneTee on the other side is not skill, its RNG.

I uninstalled the game. I am no longer supporting this franchise until they figure out the balancing. I'm done. Ciao.