This series has finally died to us...
Just gonna start off by saying that my 2 friends and i have played every single year of EASHL since 2010. We're all in our 30s and work full time jobs and have very few chances to all play together o...
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I like how the Community Manager response here is "politely...skill issue." Like come on man, WoC is broken. Every team plays tiny guys with 97/97 speed/acceleration with wheels and/or edges and truculence. I understand trying to buff checking to counterbalance the speed/agility, but it's so out of whack now. Beefing up your player with additional size/strength against these tiny guys with truculence also makes no difference b/c the checking is so broken a 5'8" 160lb max speed sniper can also just flatten everybody.
No variety to builds, and no chance to even try out any of the new zone abilities, b/c you simply have to have wheels/edges to have a chance. The unintended consequence of allowing every build to have every perk is that now basically everyone plays the same builds, you only see like 2-3 types of builds all night. Between that and last year's introduction of pre-builds that are just...better than any build you can make (what kind of game design is that?), it's killed what made the game fun, which was playing with, and playing against, a variety of different builds game to game.
"Just stick with it you'll get better" is not a helpful response when the complaint is that every team plays the same way, every game plays the same way, and it's not fun. Logging on to play breakaway simulator for 4 hours is not fun. My team all maxed out our speed/acceleration and now our games ARE competitive, but it's not fun! Get rid of wheels and edges (if everyone has them, then what's the point?), re-balance the hidden stats (we know they're in there!) to penalize players that max out their speed/accel - they should not be able the fastest/most agile guys on the ice and simultaneously be able to take/dish out huge hits. The dynamism was what made the game fun, and this year it's been completely flattened. Shame b/c the last couple years of chel were a lot of fun, last year in particular was awesome (before it was overrun with pre-builds).
EA_Aljo
Community Manager
Community ManagerI like how the Community Manager response here is "politely...skill issue." Like come on man, WoC is broken. Every team plays tiny guys with 97/97 speed/acceleration with wheels and/or edges and truculence. I understand trying to buff checking to counterbalance the speed/agility, but it's so out of whack now. Beefing up your player with additional size/strength against these tiny guys with truculence also makes no difference b/c the checking is so broken a 5'8" 160lb max speed sniper can also just flatten everybody.
My defender is 6'1", 150lbs. I use All-Star Stick 'em up, Wheels and Elite Edges. There are definitely times I get beat due to going up against speedy players. Most of the time, I'm paying attention to the positioning of the other team so I can put myself in better position to stop them. I fully agree that the focus on speed needs to come down. I'm not a fan of being able to have 97 speed/accel. Hopefully, we'll see that tuned better. Regardless, you significantly raise your chances of defending them by playing more conservative defense. It's also a team effort. In many cases, my teammates have a strong forecheck so they stop the other team's breakout before it happens. If I see one developing though, I'm dropping back to defend it.
I also have had no problem with the pre-builds. At the end of the day, the attributes don't mean anything unless the player using them has the skill to do so. The chances of someone unskilled suddenly becoming unstoppable is probably not going to happen. So, someone with that skill can most likely take almost any build and still be competitive.
I also agree that you're required to use Wheels and Elite Edges to keep up. I'd love to see this changed so I can use other abilities. The current meta pretty much requires me to use these. This is why it's not breakaway after breakaway for me. I also typically have a good D partner to help out. I know some of you are playing 2s and 3s with AI defenders.
I know people hate to be called out on skill. I'm most definitely not saying this is entirely a skill issue. Speed is too high. Truculence is ridiculous. I'd love to see changes be made. However, skill still plays a part. Teams aren't losing solely due to pre-builds and OP abilities. Have you tried running the same builds to see if you start getting more wins? You also have to consider team chemistry. People put so much reliance on individual abilities when this is a team sport. If you're not supporting each other, your opponents are going to find it a lot easier to breakout, intercept passes, anticipate your moves, etc. So, yes, skill definitely plays a role because no matter how strong your abilities are, without knowing how to use them and if a team isn't working together well, you're not going to be as successful.
While I fully agree skill is important and that a skill gap in online gaming is really mandatory (otherwise there's not much dynamic gameplay happening), I don't know that I agree that teams aren't losing solely due to OP abilities. I would argue that a skilled, experienced team can absolutely lose games to average to bad players being juiced up with Wheels, EE, Truculence and an absolutely absurd window for late hits. Pretty frequently I make my breakout pass, see the hit coming, take steps to avoid it, and as a result I get thugged a full two to three seconds later than the guy initially tried to hit me, and there's still no call. Even if I give up an X-factor slot for a negatory one (by that I mean something like Warrior which has no active effect but simply lessens the harmful effects of another X-factor), being chased for an extra three seconds and then having to get up from a late hit for another three to five seconds is way, way more than enough time for a mid team to force/get a turnover and score a 2-on-1 goal they earned through exploiting. When you give those tools to a team that KNOWS they're exploiting, yikes. You're going to have a bad time.
- EA_Aljo
I think if a highly skilled team is losing to a team they perceive to be lower skilled, but all have OP abilities, they're probably having an off game. Which we all have. If this happens regularly though, they might be overestimating their own or their opponent's skill. Late hits are awful. I hate them as much as anyone. They do leave the team throwing late hits at a disadvantage though. That's taking a player out of the play. So is the guy on the ice of course so it goes both ways, but one less defender in your way because they're off in the NZ after laying someone out puts them behind the play and scrambling to get back in the action. We usually beat teams that are headhunting because they're constantly out of position from focusing on hitting.
I'm far from an elite player, but I know how to play with my club well. As do the other guys on it. They're all pretty decent. We'd get wiped, and we have, by true elite level clubs. Teams relying on OP abilities and hitting though, those are easier wins since they aren't really playing a team game. We know the exploits so we know how to stop them. Sure, they squeak through sometimes, but the majority of them get stopped.
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- EA_Aljo6 months ago
