How Attributes Work in NHL 26

Hey bud. Not to be rude but its ridiculous at this point. This game is horrible and every year gets worse. Whats going on over there at EA? This game is brutal. At the very least if the gameplay stinks offer adequate graphics. The in game colours are washed out and much degraded than last year. This game is an absolute mess between that and the endless bugs after release. To say you can do better is an understatement  of epic proportions. Another $100 down the drain. This game is not fun. Been playing EA NHL for 20 years 

It would be great to get some constructive, detailed feedback instead of these kinds of statements. There's really nothing we can take from this.

We haven't been getting complaints about the colors being washed out so if you have some screenshots/video, go ahead and post them on the tech support/bugs board here.

you know EA_Aljo​ when they are doing deep dives and such this is something that is probably very important. example people complaining about not being able to intercept pucks but were putting most in Def Awareness as that was the main stat last year but now Puck Control: influences how well a player can receive or intercept passes, maintain possession, and recover the puck after a turnover. 

in WCHEL in NHL26 tooltip reads: Puck Control: helps with receiving the puck and getting into a settled state faster for more accuracy in shots and passes"



so this is where some of the frustration comes. You all used to show a model of deviation for accuracy for example, showing how a player with wrist shot 80 acc vs 85, 90 and so on you all should probably bring those back in shorts videos by the dev team maybe in the game akin to how 2K does their weekly video for NBA. educate your player base better. Yes, leave some more detailed (high skill) things for discovery, but the general stuff engages with the community in showing them via shorts in game.

Appreciate all the feedback here. I agree it would be good to have these noted better in game and highlighting the differences between various levels. Thank you!

I definitely agree about leaving a little mystery, it starts to drag when you can see the numbers behind the gameplay like you're in the Matrix. 

I mostly just want to know that everything works. I remember as far back as NHL '13, I think it was, when they were selling +3/5/7 boosts for attributes and it came out that Acceleration was tuned so low that it essentially did nothing. Maybe it was '14, the year of 99 Strength on every build. Right now, for instance, I can play a whole (effective) game with all available points drained out of durability, shot blocking, deking, fighting skill, one shot or the other, etc etc. 80-85 power and accuracy are more than enough, so there's no incentive for me to ever be slow or sacrifice agility. The overarching point is the same as it was back then: experienced players find out what works and what doesn't, and new players have a tremendous disadvantage that they likely won't ever overcome. They'll just stop playing. 

And hey, while I'm on my attributes soapbox: everyone should just have 90 faceoffs, it's never made sense to me that I have to sacrifice attribute points to play center, even though that category (save deking) is pretty negligible. 

Timba101 as an amazing point here. This page is inconsistent and just makes things less clear. On this page, it states "Puck Control: influences how well a player can receive or intercept passes" then later on the same page says  "Defensive Awareness: crucial for intercepting passes, positioning, and smarter reactions." but also on the same page "Defensive Awareness: helps you break up plays, react to developing threats, and intercept passes in the defensive zone."

So, altogether, we are told that puck control influences how well a player can intercept passes, but also defensive awareness is "crucial" for intercepting passes but maybe only "in the defensive zone"? Were  developers involved in writing this, or was it AI? If we are going to rely on this, it needs to be precise in what attribute does what. Not this writeup where two attributes matter, but one is "Crucial", and oh maybe, only works in one zone. 

The game is a puzzle meant to be tried and proven, its not an answer book. Too many people are used to the old way of games, where you picked it up and new A did this, B did that. Games are so much more complicated these days, if you weren't intercepting passes with maxed out defensive awareness, you should be trying other things. That is the fun in trial and error, creating multiple builds, figuring out all the little intricacies that are built into a game like this. These things were solvable to those willing to put in the work, or ask the right questions. ​ EA_Aljo​ knows how many questions I've asked 😂. Even the best games of all time were puzzles, Zelda for one. Keep expanding your horizons and never stop questioning everything. Its worth it.

FourZeroVI​ sports games are mostly simulation unless fully said they are arcade. thus they are also a teaching tool. so for player creation for new players the mystery should be finding out strategy to beat the traps, 1-2-2, breaking into Ozone, breakouts, not the general understanding of how their player works. that is counter intuitive and painful for any new player. if you say using the same example PUCK CONTROL is to control the puck but then the stat doesn't control it, but defensive awareness does. I agree there should always be mystery in progression but not at the detriment of making broken player builds for any game mode BAP, ONLINE or selecting players for your franchise. again this is a simulation game not a roguelike or souls like RPG where the intent is 1 v 1 or 1 v many. sports always come with explanations of concepts and how they should be applied. 

See that's not how I understood defensive awareness, defensive awareness to me was being aware while the other team has possession, so this included who has the puck, how fast your reaction was to those people and what they did, which then included being ready faster to intercept a pass. I also had always hypothesized that hand eye came into play when looking to intercept saucer passes which based on the release today is true. Puck control always by definition felt like it would affect all types of puck control so when I ran high puck control and high defensive awareness and high hand eye and was picking off passes left and right, I knew I was onto something. None of this was really hidden in my mind, just never stated definitively. Maybe I'm a little proud of myself that I was correct on a lot of things, but I also enjoy puzzles of this type where I get to see my trial and error pay off. In addition, people are blind to any advice that isnt their own, as a goalie who had information like this, I spent countless days trying to convince my own team to trust my research only to be basically laughed at so I'm enjoying the release of information I have known for about 2 years now.  

Feel free to check out the report I made on CPU players, maybe youll find something useful there as well. I put some work into it. :)

CPU Players & how they interact with In-Game Strategies | EA Forums - 12589343

EA_Aljo​ is there a typo under the Tips for prioritizing attributes by player position LW RW section. The offensive awareness description reads like agility. Or does OA really influence how quickly you turn, stop, and cut, and is useful for shaking off defenders or moving through tight spaces?