WOC Defense

On paper I agree with you but butterfly is one of the worst mechanics in this game for goalies. Your movement is delayed, being able to skate around the goalie while hes in butterfly is one of the easiest things to exploit, as well as hitting a 1t is almost a guarantee while a user goalie is in butterfly. So back to my other point is that if a mechanic like this doesnt have enough precision to equal or better that of the opposing offense then it needs to be balanced to create a solid experience. This puck shouldnt go in because we can not effectively be in butterfly. And anyone who plays goalie will tell you this.

Good sir, are some of those clips from HUT?

A few things here. In competitive 3's, 5's, 6's in WoC, no one with the puck is going to skate down the boards like you do and gently curl right into a stick. That puck is either going to be ripped with speed back to the point or around the boards to the other point. Or, in most cases, that forward is going to dance in the corner with elite edges and see if you get impatient, chase, and rip it short side over the goalie's shoulder when he beats you if you bite too hard. 

Also, there's no way you're running anything close to Wheels here. The speed looks wrong. There's no way a D-man is matching a player with Wheels holding DDS out. I run a PMD with Stick Em Up, Wheels, and 96 Speed / Accel not to get blown by. And if you feel like getting blown by, you use DSS skating down the ice like that.

I play goalie and that is how I play. If someone is in tight, then I go butterfly. That is how you should be playing goalie. Yes you are vulnerable to other situations but that's the whole point of a team game. It is not your job to cover the close in shot and the one timer at the same time and it's what makes a good goalie great are those that can read or predict what the skater will do whether it be shooting or passing for a one timer. If you could save everything in the game then goalie would be too easy. The reason people don't go butterfly personally irks me to my core because these are the same goalies that complained when they got scored on by a slapshot 5 hole saying it was a glitch. The same goalies that blame the game for a puck trickling into the net because they refused to go butterfly on the shot. The puck then bounces off them in a weird way as they try to stand back up because they still aren't pressing butterfly when the shot comes in and the puck falls into the net. I see so many goalies say that was them being "EA'd". No it was the result of poor positioning. You either go butterfly to prevent that skater from the backhand spin shot or you stay standing and protect against the possible pass for a one timer. You can't save both. 

EA_Aljo​ I genuinely respect you (FYI im also on Xbox) and if ever available would love to talk through some things. Yet, I think it is consensus that 1. Defense is an issue vs. the potency of offense. Truculence isnt defense but it is overpowered. I know the dev team are all "looking into" it. Still, we always end up in this back and forth about how underwhelming defense is almost every beginning of a new game. We add new features (surely on a call from marketing) that do not need to be implemented that ruin the "simulation" without proper genuine pre-balancing. 

I get it, the title is yearly, and something had to be NEW, but d**mn. I don't get why we reintroduced elite edges when the board physics vs. the puck and stick aren't respected in collision. So, you get defenders trying to d up when a guy is tap dancing on the boards with the puck and stick phasing into them BUT not boost how quickly you can pin them up for example. You technically alluded that speed and wheels are a bit of an issue too obviously because yes, an experience defender can deal (not majority) but a casual (majority of players) is going to be frustrated at playing D who doesn't know wheels is meta. 

you are just a voice for the voiceless (for us who cant talk to the devs directly) and employed by the same system who technically created said problems. So, I get it a tough situation. I just want the team to consider that yes we like new stuff but 60% boost, 100% accuracy etc. to offensive things is just over kill.

Jammalammalam wrote:

Good sir, are some of those clips from HUT?

No, I despise hut.

Jammalammalam wrote:

In competitive 3's, 5's, 6's in WoC, no one with the puck is going to skate down the boards like you do and gently curl right into a stick.

We do play competitive 3's and 6's.

Jammalammalam wrote:

Also, there's no way you're running anything close to Wheels here. The speed looks wrong. There's no way a D-man is matching a player with Wheels holding DDS out.

Yes there is. If you read the play properly, you can absolutely match speed with a Wheels user. You need to make them move laterally as that kills their speed. Allowing them to skate in a straight line, unimpeded, will allow them to reach top speed and faster. Getting in their lane, forcing them to move laterally and using DSS to discourage movement really freezes Wheels users. 

Only thing that works is keep player in front of you.  Don't fall for Dekes  etc..    and hope you don't make 1 mistake.   Because EA rewards the Video Game players.  Not the hockey players. 

Defense is an absolute joke. It could very easily be good and this game could be more balanced with some tweaks, but they very clearly do not want that. They want this arcadey offensive bull**bleep** where if your goalie has a 50% save percentage then you got lucky.

Here I am perfectly in the passing lane with blue quick pick. No steal and he somehow gets the shot off. 

Here I am perfectly in the passing lane with blue quick pick. No steal and he somehow gets the shot off and scores.

Heres my teammate in the passing lane perfectly, no dice, we give up a goal. The winger and I didnt cover that great but it shouldnt have mattered.

Hey look at me in the passing lane with blue quick pick again, Im not allowed the puck and the guy scores again.

This time the situation called for some stick checking, I poke through the puck and the guys stick. I also had some other stick checking clips but for some reason they got shortened when I uploaded them to youtube. Peep that score at the top, sick goalies.

Heres my favorite clip of the night, did I mention that all this clips were from the 90 minutes we played last night? This dude just decided to turn around and lay me out despite the puck being gone for 2-3 seconds and me taking 3-4 strides without the puck.

This game is a disaster. And before someone says it, yes 3's sucks, unfortunately since theyve run this game into the ground for a decade+, I only have two other friends that buy it, and something tells me this will be the last year for all of us anyway. Also 3's doesnt have to suck, you could add back in NHL rules that for some reasoned you removed from the mode. You could figure out how to properly code powerplays and stop giving everyone penalty shots. 

I dont know a single sports game out that hasnt made itself worse by adding x-factors, or quirks, or whatever each game wants to call them. They are never properly balanced, everyone prioritizes and runs the same handful of them. But for some reason suits have decided you need to market dumb crap like this to sell your game instead of just making the game actually play well. I guess thats too wild of an idea. 

Anyways, please make stick checking work, and intercepting passes work so I can at least casually play this game for a hockey fix. Oh and if a goalie wants to make a save or two, that would be a real treat.  Otherwise this game is dead in a few weeks when Battlefield and I guess even COD come out. 

As a Dman who has had the pleasure of playing on a very good 6s club, against the top clubs in the world... and had success..... I can 100% stand by this point that the stick lifting and poke checking are MISERABLE and need a significant buff.  This is very sad considering they finally had stick lift in a good place!

Those vs clips mean absolutely nothing. I could post videos all day of me making great defensive plays against top 10 club 6s teams but that does not mean it's working well. 

Give us our tools back. Defense already has it pretty rough in this game! We need tools that work as intended.

2-3 seconds is tame. I played a game earlier where I started a four-pass play, it got picked off at the end, they were skating up ice and their Shark RW caught me coming out of the zone and just thugged me for an injury and no call. Fully 10 seconds, without exaggeration. I'd tie up for the faceoff win, never touch the puck, our winger would be heading up ice and this guy would just come flatten me behind the play for no call. I spent the whole game low energy with Elite Warrior on. 

I'm hesitant to even refer to it as an exploit, as when it's abused to the fullest it's essentially cheating. The interference timer should be one second, max. 

Pokes and lifts were great last year, especially in the end life of 25. I just don't understand how that didn't translate over to the new game.

Also, thanks for calling out the clips. I look at those clips posted here and there's no way any player in the upper echelon of competition in this game is going to skate and/or defend like that. Period! The skaters I see right now are the ones with wheels, elite edges and can LT glide-turn-twirl. 

How can people's defensive play be criticized when this game is as broken as something like this?

 https://www.tiktok.com/@ebsforpres/video/7552265467763641618?_r=1&_t=ZP-8zyJbej7IMh