WOC Player attributes explained

These questions have been asked numerous times over the last few years. At first we would get little to no response. Now it's mostly just what the in game paragraph tells us. Hand eye to ME has been deflections and ability to 1 time it w/o sending it wide off a less than ideal pass or a saucer pass. I actually never considered it may be for intercepting as well.

Strength is super hard.. I've done some tests and it doesn't seem to effect hitting at all. I've heard it can assist your offensive awareness trait in getting loose pucks when battling with someone. That seems to be the case.. or taller players just have a longer stick and win more often? Not sure.. does it effect your balance? Idk.. it almost suggests that in the paragraph but balance is a trait.. no matter how many times strength is explained to us we are all just as confused. We almost need a few of us players to come together and run some tests haha! 

Of these attributes I think defensive awareness is the most cut and dry. It intercepts passes better and seems to help getting loose pucks. 

I'd like to add shot blocking to this though I almost never see my guy go into a shot blocking animation. I typically hit the button to block it myself so this seems like a pointless trait..

Even with the explanations they've given us I think we all have our own beliefs what these attributes actually do. If you ever wanna try to test some stuff you can add me. I'm on PS and have the same name I use on the forums. I've mostly just tested strength some and some shooting stuff and hitting. 

I've gotten confirmation from the community manager that hand-eye does in fact help with batting down pucks in the air. So, there's that. 

Offensive awareness has to do with how well you react to passes from teammates, like if you're trying to take a one-timer. It also affects your ability to pickup loose pucks. So, say you're driving the net and your opponent knocks the puck away. Having a high offensive awareness will help you pick the puck back up immediately.

Defensive awareness is pretty straight forward. Helps you intercept passes, disrupt plays, etc.

Strength is an interesting one. If you just go by the stat description, strength supposedly just helps you stay on your feet when you collide with another player and helps you control your opponent during net battles and boardplay. But, go look at the zone/superstar abilities and read the requirements for them. Most of the abilities' required stats are related to what that ability specializes in. Tape to tape? Passing and offensive awareness. Shutdown? Stick checking and body checking. One tee? Hand-eye and slap shot power.

So, take a look at abilities like Bouncer and Total Eclipse. Both of those abilities are supposed to help you in the gritty situations, i.e going to the front of the net to screen the goalie (Total Eclipse) and defending your own net front (Bouncer.) It seems to me like the strength stat helps you with not getting bullied, and also your ability to physically overpower other players. 

Now, there is another ability that requires strength, Thunderclap, but I'm not exactly sure how strength ties into slapshots, which is what Thunderclap helps. The Bouncer description does mention stick tension and limb strength, so my guess is that the strength stat aids those things and is thus related to things like slapshots.

To be clear, this is just my own particular guesstimation and fan fiction, so I can't guarantee I'm correct about strength. I can only infer based on EA's descriptions.

I found Hand Eye to be most beneficial for deflections -- Your teammate's passing stat will be what determines what gets to you, one timer or otherwise.

Offensive Awareness makes no sense to me - I keep it high just because I use an offensive-minded meta sniper, but I personally noticed next to zero difference at 85+. Close Quarters basically negates the need for any high offensive stat anyway so you do you haha.

Defensive Awareness plays a huge role for my Sniper getting interceptions on cross crease cheese. I still wonder how a player can be so good at seeing the puck in the offensive zone yet horrendous at seeing it in their own defensive zone - It's as if the puck literally turns invisible to them. A strong hockey IQ should more than make up for lower stats, especially in open ice.

This stat is supposed to allow for faster puck pickup but there are way too many variables with random bounces for me to say if the stat absolutely NEEDS to be high ( If it is the same this year, it's on of the only stats that can naturally get to 99).

I believe DA might affect how often you're able to block a shot that's close to you, like it sucks it slightly towards you like a vacuum -- I'll need confirmation.

Strength has a % based affect on shots (I don't see us ever getting an exact number) on top of dedicated shot stats, it allows you to shrug off hits with more ease, it lessens the affect someone has on you when getting into a net battle (and vice versa), adds a little gusto to all your hits, allows you to keep people pinned on the boards longer (and allows you to escape better), and I believe it might play a factor in fights but my group has moved on to 3v3 where that doesn't happen so I unno.

It might give you a tiny boost to stick tension but I'd need confirmation on that as well.

Thanks for taking the time. I just think its weird that the is no official explanation. Its should be explained in details, I mean they program the game right? They probably knows exactly what a given perks does or not. Anyways I understand and i'm sorry if this question has already been asked. I dont come here much (on forums). I used to though. Playing the series on WOC or OTP since 2009. 

About the block shot, some guy told me it was also the ability to stand up quickly after sliding/diving (Not sure I have the correct english expression)  on the ice. 

Thanks for the input man

I also guessestimate and I came to a similar conclusion about the strenght.  I kinda wanted the official response from EA to see if i'm missing something because sometime I would put more attribute points into a particular attribute and I dont feel any difference. 

Thanks to you too ! :)