Friday, September 14, 2012

NHL 13: Build of the Week -- Sniper

I should probably call these something else since I can't seem to get them out every week but it sounds catchy so there you have it.

I am doing this from memory so it may not be perfect and there aren't any NHL 13 player builders out there that I know of. These values are the total with boosts and the boosts are in brackets.

Sniper (LW) Superstar 2
5'10"
180lbs
11" skates
Regular Flex
2nd Curve from the top


Deking: 74
Hand Eye: 93 (+8)
Off Awareness: 70
Passing: 75 (+5)
Puck Control: 84 (+5)
SS Accuracy: base
SS Power: base
WS Accuracy: 91 (+8)
WS Power: 91 (+8)

Aggression: 75
Body Check: 65
Def Awareness: 78 (max)
Discipline: 80 (max)
Faceoffs: base
Fighting: base
Shot Blocking: base
Stick Check: 78 (max)

Acceleration: 87 (+5)
Agility: 88 (+8)
Balance: base
Durability: base
Endurance: 80 (max)
Speed: 83 (+5)
Strength: base

This year the sniper is a great build.You need shot power and accuracy to beat cpu goalies this year. The lowest power/accuracy I have beaten a cpu goalie with clean from any distance is 84/84. The next closest was 88/83. With 91 in each you can blow it by the cpu goalie from time to time. It is still not easy to score but this makes it easier. The hand eye is for catching passes and one timers and it has moderate puck control. I am still debating if I want more puck control in exchange for lower hand eye. The passing is passable. I find in this game you can't get passes through players easily so having a really high passing doesn't seem to be worth it. Most of the passes you make are obvious passes to guys who are wide open. That being said I will still probably bump it a bit more (to maybe 80-85) down the road. The way you play this build is catch and shoot or if people let you walk to the top of the circles you can rip wristers on net all day.

Defensively this build is just jam everything into stick check, discipline, and defensive awareness. They max pretty quick. You don't really need any boosts on defense since the stick check even at 78 is deadly. Might want some more defensive awareness since this build doesn't knock down pucks so well but it isn't terrible if you are in good position. Throw everything else in aggressiveness for better puck retrievals.

Athletics I prefer to go with more acceleration and agility for the ability to turn quickly and accelerate quickly. That is just my preferred style. I may try throwing more speed in the mix with the high agility to see if that is better or not maybe sacrificing some acceleration or agility. I am maxing endurance because it is pretty cheap to do it and you want all you can get.

Overall though this is a pretty fun build and the only one I have found to consistently beat goalies, both cpu and human, with. Get to open spots, get the puck, shoot, or move in backing off defenders and rip one top corner. This isn't a great breakaway build due to the low deking but you can always shoot off the rush on breakaways if you want. Enjoy and I will try to keep these going if only to update builds as I get more points and figure out better setups.

19 comments:

  1. Thanks for that. I will be using that from now on.

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  2. Does having no balance make your player more prone to hits? The last thing I want is for my player to be knocked off the puck every time he gets it.

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    1. This is just kind of a carryover from last year, not sure if balance is important or not. I tend to get killed a lot so my answer would be maybe. This setup is also just a numbers game of not having enough points to take away from skating to put into strength or balance. I am sitting at superstar 3 and have acc and speed maxed along with balance so at some point I am going to have to start dumping points into other things and at that point I can let you know if strength and balance matter.

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    2. That would be great man. The thing is that I'm only at Veteran 2 and balance tends to eat up a lot of points on the sniper build. Usually I find around 75 balance to be pretty good for avoiding big hits. I've only been put on my back about 3 times through nearly 40 games. Is height and weight a factor this year? That might add to the fact my player is harder to knock off the puck.

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  3. I am sure height and weight figure into it. I play a smaller player for better speed, agility, and acceleration. If I go any larger I start to feel slow. Have you tried higher strength instead of balance? Also, what height/weight do you play at?

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  4. I play at 6'2 205lbs and he turns really quick and accelerates well. That might be due to the use of 9 inch skates. I can beat out smaller guys to the pucks and I can take the body. I've never used strength on my forwards and I can still lay out the hits. I think this year the momentum of your player factors into the hit. I've noticed that the faster I'm skating, the bigger hit I can lay on the opposition.

    I do use strength on my d-man, he lays out the big hits. It is his job anyways so I keep higher stick checking on my forwards.

    I've been following your blog since last year and I like the builds you post. Keep it up man.

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    1. Yeah, I use 11s for the balanced quality. I can be skating top speed and still not knock down hardly anyone. I tried a 6' 195lb setup and felt sluggish but I have more cards now. In 09 up through maybe 11 I ran 6'3" 205 and really liked it.

      Thanks for the kind words I will keep trying to get these out there. Need to try some other builds though. I got locked into this build and the shot is just intoxicating.

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    2. I'm about to try this build out at the height and weight I usually play at. The 9 inch skates are worth try, especially because you have high acceleration and speed. The ability to turn quickly really helps.

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  5. Hey, have you played around the balance stat? I'm still trying to decide whether or not I need it. Also, what size d-man do you think would do pretty well?

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    1. I have a little but at 5'10" and 170lbs I get rocked no matter what my balance stat is (even as high as 75). I feel too sluggish at larger sizes and don't like to play bigger so it may be more helpful there. On D I am torn between quickness and pokecheck range. I think around 6'1" is as big as I would go and maybe 195lbs. My current offensive D I use in OTP is still 5'10" though. Gives me pretty amazing recovery speed and agility. Maybe I will throw together that build and post it at some point.

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  6. The build looks good, but with base balance, this ends up being pretty terrible. balance is very important. You can't score goals if you can't stay on your feet. This not only helps when being bumped off the puck, but it also effects your skating ability. all the speed, acceleration and agility in the world is shit if you can't keep yourself up! I would definitely rework this build and improve that balance. Otherwise, this is not a very effective build.

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    1. I hang onto the puck fine and have an average of over a goal a game including the first 50 games we played where we were averaging a goal a game as a TEAM. So I would say it is pretty effective. It may not suit everyone but it can be very effective when used properly. Other builds are definitely better if you don't want to get knocked down but I really like the speed and shot of this setup.

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  7. Lately I have been using the two way builds on both offense and defense. The build has everything from shooting to checking. The athleticism is quite cheap too. I can get my forwards acc to 86, agi to 86, balance to 75, endurance to 84, spd to 87, strength to 75. These are estimates, I will double check when I get home. Also, I'm on my superstar 2 card.

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  8. In addition to my previous comment, my forward has 89 wsa and 85 pwr with the mid open curve (second from the top). He misses the net a lot more than he did when I gave him 80 wsa. Any reason for that?

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    1. I am promoting high shot power and accuracy this year unlike last year where it was high accuracy and much lower power. It is entirely possible I don't have it right yet and we are back to two years ago where 90 shot power and 80 accuracy was the way to go. I also think they have messed with accuracy in some of the tuners. It seemed like I had problems scoring goals and even hitting the net this weekend more than usual, then again I was also playing my center rather than wing (worse shot) and our normal center (one of our best players) was missing so that may have had something to do with it as well.

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  9. I might tone down the accuracy to 82 since I am using a curve that provides a wsa boost anyway. Bump up the power a bit more.

    It seems like speed ratings sometimes don't matter this year. I have 86 acc and 86 spd on my d-man. I raced my friend in practice a few times and he has 80 acc and 77 spd. Same radius skates, it just blew my mind.

    I see a lot of times that I can't keep up with wingers even though I do have a higher speed and acceleration rating. Any tips or input?

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    1. I definitely notice a difference. I can outrun people a lot of the time (see the new post) with a 90 speed. Also were you two the same height and weight? That can have an effect. One final thought is that practice may not accurately be portraying what game conditions are like. I wouldn't put it past EA to have the practice code screwed up.

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    2. I'm going to start making my players 6'1 195lbs. I think having my d-man at 6'3 230lbs wouldn't really support his speed. I'll check out your new post too.

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