NHL 12: Build of the Week -- Two Way Forward

Sunday is technically the start of the new week so here is your build of the week a bit early.

Here is a link to the build. 

2 Way Forward, Legend 2 (LW)

6'0"

195 lbs.

11" blades

Regular Stick Flex

Second Lowest Curve

Deking: 90 (+5)

Hand Eye: 85

Off Awareness: 81

Passing: 90 (+5)

Puck Control: 87 (+8)

SS Accuracy: 61

SS Power: 60

WS Accuracy: 78 (+5)

WS Power: 70

Aggression: 60

Body Check: 83

Def Awareness: 94 (+5)

Discipline: 99

Faceoffs: 65

Fighting: 50

Shot Blocking: 80

Stick Check: 94 (+5)

Acceleration: 82 (+5)

Agility: 82 (+8)

Balance: 75

Durability: 61

Endurance: 90 (+5)

Speed: 84 (+5)

Strength: 71

I saw the overall basis for this build here. I gave it a shot and really really like it. Offensively you can keep control of the puck and it has a reasonable shot and good passing. Defensively it is amazing. You take away the puck like crazy with the 99 defensive awareness and stick check. Pucks just don't get by you when you are in position. Athletically you see it has more acceleration than I normally use but I am coming around on acceleration. I may put up a separate post on how hustle seems to work differently this year than last but I like the higher acceleration at least on this build. Otherwise athletically it is similar to other builds of mine. Not a lot of strength and balance but doesn't seem to suffer from it much.

Some other quick notes on the two way forward. It doesn't seem to have the puck control issues it had last year. In NHL 11 you would lose the puck if someone looked at you funny when you ran a two way forward even with 99 puck control. I am not seeing that this year.

Also, I have a new look going here, might change it again but I welcome comments about how it looks.

NHL 12: Build of the Week -- Two Way Defender

It is that time again and this time we have a two way defender. I have run this build or something very close before and it felt good:

2 Way Defender, Legend 2

6'0"
195 lbs.
9" skates
Regular Stick Flex
Lowest Curve

Deking: 61
Hand Eye: 85 (+5)
Off Awareness: 70
Passing: 85 (+5)
Puck Control: 80 (+5)
SS Accuracy: 87 (+5)
SS Power: 80 (+5)
WS Accuracy: 65
WS Power: 70

Aggression: 52
Body Check: 68 (+5)
Def Awareness: 99
Discipline: 99
Faceoffs: 50
Fighting: 40
Shot Blocking: 70
Stick Check: 94 (+5)

Acceleration: 71
Agility: 80 (+8)
Balance: 80
Durability: 60
Endurance: 90 (+5)
Speed: 83 (+5)
Strength: 83 (+5)


This is a solid build defensively plus brings a measure of offense as well. Offensively you should have solid outlet passing and good enough hand eye to get away one time slappers from the point. Defensively you are really going be a more positional defender than a big hitter but given the way body checking works this year you may still be able to lay a few people out with the checking and strength at those levels. The high defensive awareness and stick checking are going to make you hard to get pucks by. I set the athletics up how I like them. Lower acceleration high agility, speed, endurance, and strength. Should be able to pivot on a dime with this setup and be able to skate laterally with attackers.

NHL 12: Goalie Boost Pack Guide

Since goalie progression is on a different track this year from skater I think boost packs will be more important than in years past for people just wanting to dabble as a goalie. I grabbed a couple of the boost packs myself and someone on the EASHL boards was kind enough to list the other. Here they are:


Patrick Roy Butterfly Goalie Boost Pack (84 Overall)

80 Angles
80 Breakaway
88 Five Hole
85 Glove High
88 Glove Low
80 Stick High
88 Stick Low

82 Passing
86 Poke Check
92 Rebound Control
85 Shot Recovery

86 Aggressiveness
90 Agility
80 Durability
80 Endurance
82 Speed
78 Vision

Stand Up Boost Pack (85 Overall)


85 Angles
82 Breakaway
84 Five Hole
88 Glove High
84 Glove Low
88 Stick High
84 Stick Low

88 Passing
85 Poke Check
88 Rebound Control
85 Shot Recovery

85 Aggressiveness
88 Agility
84 Durability
86 Endurance
80 Speed
92 Vision


Hybrid Goalie Boost Pack (83 Overall)


84 Angles
88 Breakaway
84 Five Hole
82 Glove High
84 Glove Low
84 Stick High
82 Stick Low

86 Passing
82 Poke Check
90 Rebound Control
85 Shot Recovery

86 Aggressiveness
90 Agility
80 Durability
82 Endurance
78 Speed
80 Vision


For my money the stand up one looks strongest with the highest high stick and glove values and a monster 92 vision. Since everyone in the game pretty much shoots high it seems like the logical choice. However, I have played exactly one game in goal and have a 5.00 GAA after it though so you may just want to make your own decision.

NHL 12: Build of the Week -- Playmaker Winger

This is going to be (hopefully) a regular feature where once a week I put up a build and explain the thought process behind it. It may be one of my actual builds or just something I am thinking about. I may eventually ask for submissions for builds other people run but let's see if I can get a couple of these up in a row before we get too crazy.

The build for this week is what I am running currently:

Link to the player creator for this build

Playmaker (LW) (Legend 2)

5'9"

164 lbs.

11" skates

Regular stick flex

Second stick curve from the bottom

Deking: 99

Hand Eye: 94 (+5)

Off Awareness: 94 (+5)

Passing: 95

Puck Control: 94 (+5)

SS Accuracy: 70 (+5)

SS Power: 52

WS Accuracy: 85 (+5)

WS Power: 70

Aggression: 40

Body Check: 40

Def Awareness: 84

Discipline: 99

Faceoffs: 60

Fighting: 40

Shot Blocking: 60

Stick Check: 90 (+5)

Acceleration: 71

Agility: 83 (+5)

Balance: 69 (+5)

Durability: 60

Endurance: 94 (+5)

Speed: 80 (+8)

Strength: 65 (+5)

I think playing small this year for forwards is a lot more viable than last year so this forward is pretty tiny and very quick. I do throw in a bit of strength to be able to take a hit effectively. I also bumped up acceleration a bit from base. Defensively this build is all about the poke check and as high a defensive awareness as I can get. The first 5 offensive categories are mostly 99s but I run 95 passing because 99 just feels off to me. The shots are a 70/90 wrister and a slap shot with a 75 accuracy. I can hit the corners a lot with the wrister and the slapshot seems just accurate enough. More points are probably going there once I get that last card.

If you use this build you want to use your speed to back off defenders and pass the puck quite a bit. Try to avoid getting run over. This build is sturdier than playmaker last year but not able to absorb huge hits. When you don't have the puck get to open space. This build is also not bad at creating solo chances and scoring off the rush.

NHL 12: Accuracy is Everything

So last week I described how high power low accuracy wasn't working. I suggested at the time that going even power and accuracy might be better. I think I have a new conclusion: Accuracy is everything in NHL 12. I have been running 70 power and 90 accuracy on my wrist shot and my shooting percentage went up half a percent in one night and nearly a percent over two nights. Obviously this isn't a scientific setup and I am not factoring in opponent skill level but lower power and higher accuracy definitely feel better. I am able to pick corners now and rarely completely miss the net. That is one of the keys to me if shots aren't getting on net they have no chance of going in regardless of how fast they are going.

What is somewhat odd is I thought I was running 75 power and 90 accuracy but I had a boost misplaced for a couple of days. Only when I hit legend two and went to distribute the extra points did I realize I only had a 70 power. I may try the 75 power to see how it affects my shot but I may just throw the extra boost somewhere else.