Wednesday, October 12, 2011

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.

11 comments:

  1. Hey Xaroc! I tried this build out yesterday and it felt good so far. I'm a little sceptic about discipline though. What do you reckon it affects in game? I'm having trouble advancing from superstar to legend due to my overall skill. Any tips for a beginner d-man? :)

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  2. I find that when I run discipline lower than 99 I seem to take more penalties even stick fouls. I encourage you to play around with it and see what your experience is.

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  3. I'll try it out at around 90, and see how it affects. I rarely take any penalties as it is. Mostly it's due to clearing over the sides in our own area, which is a stupid penalty to take, I know. :P It just happens sometimes.

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  4. Yeah, those kinds of penalties aren't affected by discipline unfortunately. :)

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  5. I played around with the stats again and decreased Discipline to 90, and spread the remaining points to Aggression and Body Checking.

    Also, I realised I had been playing with a slightly overweight player, making him a bit too bulky for agile movement in the defensive zone and the point. I went with what the build recommended and noticed I somehow managed to have better puck control in the defensive zone against forecheckers.

    My body checking also improved with increased body checking and better agility. Before, I found that I often missed body checks. This might have been caused by having a too big player too.

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  6. Me and a few of my friends at work were wondering what kind of an effect does Endurance have to the player. Does it have anything to do with the player coping through the three periods without wearing out? Does the player ever get tired during the game?

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  7. Having a proper weight proportional to height is pretty important. The bigger you are the less agile you are for sure.

    As for endurance it matters in three ways. One if you have a high speed attribute and don't have the endurance to match it you will get gassed skating up and down the ice. Endurance also affects the amount you can use the hustle button. Finally, endurance affects how gassed you are at the end of a game.

    Defense can probably get away with less endurance than forwards because you do more gliding playing defense. You shouldn't have to be hammering the hustle button a lot to get into position if you are playing well.

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  8. Ah, thanks for the very helpful tips! I would hope to see you ingame in the future but I'm afraid we are in a totally different timezone. This saddens me. :P

    Perhaps you could describe the Endurance attribute in greater detail in your next blog? :) I'm sure people will find it helpful.

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  9. I will see what I can do, work has me pretty busy right now. There is a lot to endurance and even skate length.

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  10. Honestly I don't know off the top of my head.

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