Hi, Right now it's impossible for me to deke without triggering the protect puck animation and it makes this game feels TERRIBLE.I can't score 20% of my breakaways or my attacks in the crease against a ROOKIE AI!!!Every time I deke I am in the infuriating protect puck animation! At this point I'll rather play without any protect puck button, it's that bad. And I see no use for the reverse hit button that I don't see anyone use anyway because it's hard enough as it is to hit so nobody uses it.Or give us the NHL 23 controls as they were, this is a deal breaker for me, not only I can't use L2 to protect the puck by turning my back to the AI (on offline modes) but I can't even pull a deke anymore when I was scoring on about 90% of my breakaways in NHL23 against a superstar AI.No wonder why, I'm always doing half dekes because the protect puck is triggered every time I move my player left and right as I use my skill stick to deke or cut in front of the net!!!

@EA_AljoYou say "if it was used as intended." That is YOUR GUYS responsibility to make sure it can be used as intended. Nerf it. Don't just break the ability to turn your body. Why can you tune everything else in this game EXCEPT for that? You just left it as-is for several years and just broke it instead? Like cmon man. No one is defending exploiters. Why wasn't an effort made to nerf the people who exploit it instead of just turning off the ability to turn your body. It's such a core part of controlling a player. It's easy enough to nerf LT+A. You guys just broke the button map and called it a day. I'll upload a 40-minute highlight video of the times I used LT+A and you tell me which ones are cheap.For reference, look at literally ANY powerplay breakout in the NHL that uses the sling shot. They all skate up the ice to push the defense back, turn their back to face their own defense, and drop the puck. It literally happens 50 times a night just on a powerplay breakout.

I can't believe this was removed. It's so game breaking.

@143mg wrote: I can't believe this was removed. It's so game breaking. This was heavily exploited and easily one of the areas of the game we had the most feedback about. It's gone and there are no plans to return it. I'm sure it could have stuck around if it was used as intended, but that simply wasn't the case when combined with LT/L2.

@KidShowtime1867 Dude, "being able to turn your body" is not an exploit. The problem is they just let people spam skate backwards when they had their body turned. That's the actual exploit. In no circumstance should I not be able to turn my body in a certain direction. It only becomes a problem if you play the whole game with your back turned to someone, which they should absolutely address and nerf 10000%.The problem is they threw the baby out with the bath water. "Turning your body" is not an exploit.

Put back the protect button to X/A

29 Replies

KidShowtime1867
Hero
2 years ago
Adapt.
Billy_bSLAYER
New Traveler
2 years ago
IN NHL 25 to Protect the Puck you must click LS down and then Push Left or Right with the Right Analog Stick. The Xbox Elite control and the Dualsense Edge makes this super easy.
75fd980e1b183900
Seasoned Veteran
2 years ago
@Billy_bSLAYER The problem is that many of us have been playing for years with the turbo button assigned to a paddle under the controller. This gives us easy and quick access to turbo, which we can hold down at all times if we wish (at our expense, since we are then draining more stam).

Now, if we hold turbo on our paddles, stick handling is disengaged. This makes no sense and is an overlap and oversight of 2 separate mechanics. It is like saying you can't stick lift if you are skating.

To add to this issue, many of us also use the LT to stick handle quickly, which not many people know about, but it provides a boost to stick handling speed. So, now, there is a massive combination of buttons we are holding simultaneously (L stick, LT, Turbo, and R stick) while stick handling through traffic - and they're demanding we release one of them, without reason or justification, to do something ingrained over the years.

What is the reasoning for protect puck overriding stick handling? Can you or anyone else provide a rationale for this? What is EA's stand on this, and can they give any explanation for these 2 arbitrary controls to suddenly be intertwined?
143mg
2 years ago
I can't believe this was removed. It's so game breaking.
KlariskraysNHL
Hero
2 years ago
@143mg Not even close to game breaking. Takes like 10-20 games and it's out of your system.
EA_Aljo
Community Manager
2 years ago
@143mg wrote:

I can't believe this was removed. It's so game breaking.

This was heavily exploited and easily one of the areas of the game we had the most feedback about. It's gone and there are no plans to return it. I'm sure it could have stuck around if it was used as intended, but that simply wasn't the case when combined with LT/L2.
KidShowtime1867
Hero
2 years ago
@EA_Aljo wrote:
@143mg wrote:
I can't believe this was removed. It's so game breaking.
This was heavily exploited and easily one of the areas of the game we had the most feedback about. It's gone and there are no plans to return it. I'm sure it could have stuck around if it was used as intended, but that simply wasn't the case when combined with LT/L2.
I am ecstatic that the team is appearing more empathetic to the plight of the average player. The experience in this game can be ruined by the elite-sweats who abuse outdated mechanics and it's awesome that EA is putting their foot down.
ScottMallon1
2 years ago
@EA_Aljo
You say "if it was used as intended." That is YOUR GUYS responsibility to make sure it can be used as intended. Nerf it. Don't just break the ability to turn your body. Why can you tune everything else in this game EXCEPT for that? You just left it as-is for several years and just broke it instead? Like cmon man.
No one is defending exploiters. Why wasn't an effort made to nerf the people who exploit it instead of just turning off the ability to turn your body. It's such a core part of controlling a player. It's easy enough to nerf LT+A. You guys just broke the button map and called it a day. I'll upload a 40-minute highlight video of the times I used LT+A and you tell me which ones are cheap.

For reference, look at literally ANY powerplay breakout in the NHL that uses the sling shot. They all skate up the ice to push the defense back, turn their back to face their own defense, and drop the puck. It literally happens 50 times a night just on a powerplay breakout.
ScottMallon1
2 years ago
@KidShowtime1867 I'm right here saying the same thing. It should be heavily nerfed. People shouldn't be able to skate backwards and play the entire game that way.

That said, not being able to turn your body is ridiculous. It happens so many times in an NHL game. There were a million ways to nerf this (just don't let them be superstar backskaters. That stuff is ridiculous), and instead they just broke a button map and dusted their hands and called it a day.
143mg
2 years ago
Agreed! Then fix the exploit, by doing it correctly! Dump agility or balance when players are exploiting that mechanic. Don't just remove a basic hockey play of protecting the puck as well as being able to turn your back to a player in two directions. These two mechanics happen in CORE hockey all of the time, now you can't do them anymore.