a throw to the near corner in CHEL

I've thought about this before. I'm watching the Bruins/Panthers game right now. Just a few minutes left in the game and the shots are 35 to 16 with 36 missed shots in the game. That's around 40% of the attempted shots being missed.

In NHL 25, that's completely unheard of. There are fewer shots in a typical 6s game, but virtually every shot is on net.

And the thing is, a lot of these players aren't running 99 in their shot power/accuracy for their builds. Top players will run builds with low-mid 80s because they know that you don't need anything more than that, and you're much better off using those points on speed/agility/acceleration. I play two-way defenseman with high 70s for power/accuracy and have ZERO problems getting the puck on net. It's virtually impossible to miss. Thus, I nerf those attributes as much as possible and use those points on speed-related attributes.

One way to make this game less of a track meet would be to make the accuracy/power stats REALLY matter. Like, wanna be super fast and agile? Ok, fine, but you're gonna miss a LOT. This would force players to move away from the meta of dumping their points into speed/agility/acceleration and make them put points in power/accuracy if they wanna score.

Yes, indeed, this game is better than the previous ones. However, there are several aspects that I believe can be further improved. Speed is important, and it is more realistic; however, many things in the game happen at speeds that you wouldn't see in real life. 

Take receiving the puck, for example. Abilities like MAGNETIC would be cool, but it often feels like everyone can accept passes on the move with such ease. In reality, a player often has to chip the puck forward and then fight for it. 

The ANCLE BREAKER ability would be truly impressive if it weren't so easy for other players to maneuver at high speeds. Most players give passes after slowing down and taking control of the puck; only the top players can accurately pass while on the move. This leads to many inaccurate passes, passes into traffic, and rebounds. 

Having the ability to receive and pass at speed would be crucial. Playing at a mid-range speed would be necessary. There's an opportunity here to create balance and different player build types. 

No more inaccurate shots or rebounds would increase the likelihood of battles along the boards and in the corners, emphasizing the importance of big and strong players, as well as skill development. 

There has definitely been progress (this year, not all shots fly into the net, and one-timers aren't always accurate). Now, I want to see further development and the ability to build a player that isn’t solely focused on speed. Once again, I want to emphasize that this year, the builds are much more interesting. Thank you.

I just ran a couple tests to see how well I could score/get the puck on net with the lowest accuracy/power attributes possible on two of the most common forward builds in WoC (sniper/playmaker) while also using no abilities or boosts.

Sniper (85/83 accuracy, 85/85 power, 95 speed, 96 agility, 95 acceleration):

https://www.xbox.com/play/media/rSdzEPKHpv

https://www.xbox.com/play/media/aqkW5xaJcg

https://www.xbox.com/play/media/XtidrDGjZT

Playmaker (81/81 accuracy, 80/81 power, 95 speed, 95 agility, 95 acceleration):

https://www.xbox.com/play/media/9zkpMeTiW3

https://www.xbox.com/play/media/3feLmZSLeD

https://www.xbox.com/play/media/ErGxfy22nJ 

https://www.xbox.com/play/media/BZdgwUhLtb 

My main takeaway from these tests is just how little the accuracy/power attributes matter in WoC, and just how unbalanced the builds are in general. With these builds, you can have an absurdly good scoring ability while also having speed and quickness that outclasses every defenseman build except for puck-moving defenseman. 

If I make a two-way defenseman as small as possible (5'8" 175 lbs), I can get a solid 94 speed/agility/acceleration, but it's still not as quick as puck-moving defenseman, and is still outclassed by the offensive builds. Being that small as a defenseman also tanks your physicality and even shortens your stick length which changes how far away you can be on pokechecks. Don't even think about running a defensive defenseman because the best you can get is 92 speed/agility/acceleration. Not tenable when playing against small, speedy players.

In short, there's zero drawbacks to having low accuracy/power. You'll still get the vast majority of your shots on net and you can still snipe the goalies with ease, all the while being as fast and agile as possible.

EA_Aljo  this game is in desperate need of balancing.

Hey there. Thanks for gathering these clips. Appreciate you spending the time on this.

No problem. 

Just did another test in free skate with a created player with the lowest possible power/accuracy stats in the game (36) and 90 dekeing.

https://www.xbox.com/play/media/zStWgvCEui

https://www.xbox.com/play/media/uLwbAY9U5i 

https://www.xbox.com/play/media/WpD5ncsc2n 

I found that stickhandling before putting the puck on net is pretty reliable in terms of scoring in close and also seems to produce a better shot. But, just skating around and throwing the puck on net as you would in a 5-on-5 / non-breakaway scenario produces more realistic results.

My player could still pick the corner on occasion, but most of the shots were either right into the goalie's chest or well wide of the net. It didn't feel like every attempt was a guaranteed SOG that could pick the corner. I also noticed that there weren't nearly as many 'EA goals' where the puck would hit the goalie and bounce around his pads forever until going in the net.

Another thing I noticed was that slapshot power/accuracy seems to be less of an issue. I could take slapshots with power/accuracy in the 80s and they would have a good chance of going wide. It wasn't a guaranteed SOG the way wrist shots are, so the issue seems to mainly be with non-slapshots.

I think what the dev team tried to do with slowing the game down at launch was the right idea, but the execution was flawed. When they slowed the overall game down, yes, they made it slower, but they weren't able to create variance in speed because even though the top speed felt slower, there wasn't a reason to allocate attribute points elsewhere because there really wasn't a need to have power/accuracy boosted, nor was there a need to have a higher balance because hitting was such a risky move when players could use their high speed/agility to evade bodychecks. So, the speed meta remained. 

I think if the power/accuracy attributes worked more like in the clips I posted, then that would create an incentive for players to allocate points away from the speed stats in order to score/get SOG reliably. This would then make bigger, more physical builds more tenable, thus creating more diversity of builds and move the game away from the current meta.

Thanks again. I'll pass this on for you.