ECL ’26: Winter - Ability & Build Bans

1 tunti sitten, sopulii_ kirjoitti:

I guess this is more of a bug fix than a nerf, the ability still gives a considerable stamina boost (even if it is only a one time thing now)

I think it can be directly compared to wheels tbh - when it activates, you get a boost in stamina which equals a boost in speed in practice.

It's also a very odd game mechanic, where you're incentivised to actually use all your energy when you're already low on energy? So to gain energy you can just use more energy lol. It's just not realistic in the slightest.

(And ankle breaker imo is just stupid, because it makes defenders fall over for no reason)

All of these are valid points, yes.

I don’t know anything about playing goalie but every time a goalie saves a shot (usually a onetimer) on a wide open net that ”should” be going in, red sponge activates. 

15 hours ago, tbnantti said:

I don’t know anything about playing goalie but every time a goalie saves a shot (usually a onetimer) on a wide open net that ”should” be going in, red sponge activates. 

Moderator note: The below has been translated with ChatGPT to make it available to more readers. You can find the original text in Finnish in the Spoiler section below.
 

It’s too complicated to explain properly in English, so I’ll just explain it in Finnish terms. But here’s how I’ve understood goalie perks, and what’s been tested in the “Between the Pipes” server (the world’s largest goalie server with about 2,250 members): there are 3 out of 5 perks that activate on every save — Sponge, Dialed In, and Recharge.

Since only one perk can visually appear on the screen at a time, what you see is the goalie’s highest currently active perk. In practice, that’s usually either the red Sponge or Dialed In, since most goalies have one of those unlocked. If a goalie has both active, Sponge has priority to be displayed on screen, but Dialed In also activates in the background. The same goes for blue and gold goalie perks — they activate in the background even if they don’t show on screen, especially Recharge.

Because there are so few red perks available for goalies, practically every goalie uses either red Dialed In or Sponge. But that’s just because there aren’t many options — not because those perks are necessarily overpowered. Most players haven’t grinded the season pass far enough to unlock red Post to Post, which is considered meta in North America and gives a significant boost to lateral saves.

So even though those perks activate on every save, it doesn’t mean the save happened because of that perk. When Sponge activates, it just indicates that the save was a “controlled” one — meaning the goalie covered the puck quickly or handled the rebound well. When Dialed In activates, it simply means the game has temporarily boosted the goalie’s save ability by 6%.

The same logic applies to skaters: even if you score with a wrist shot and Quick Release activates, that doesn’t mean the perk caused the goal — it just means it triggered. You could shoot into an empty net and Quick Release would still activate, but the goal obviously wasn’t because of it.

In other words, banning Sponge alone wouldn’t eliminate those “undeserved” saves — it would just lead to more of EA’s nonsense goals. Sponge isn’t even close to the best goalie perk in HUT, in my opinion. The current Sponge is the same as in NHL 24 and 25, just slightly stronger.

And as I calculated earlier, NHL 26 is nothing compared to NHL 24, where goalies were making completely undeserved saves left and right — which is clearly reflected in the goals-per-game average. Even though there were fewer of those undeserved saves in NHL 25, they still happened all the time, and it’s never been about perks — it’s the game engine. If there really were a magic fix for it, believe me, I’d be all in. But I think people will be disappointed if they expect that banning red Sponge will suddenly stop those undeserved saves.

Spoiler

Menee liian vaikeaksi selittää englanniksi niin selitän suomeksi, mutta se miten mä olen käsittänyt veskareiden perkit ja mitä tuolla Between the Pipes -serverillä (maailman isoin veskaserveri 2 250 jäsentä) on testattu, niin niitä perkkejä on 3/5, jotka aktivoituu jokaisessa torjunnassa: Sponge, Dialed In ja Recharge. Koska ruudulla voi näkyä vain yksi aktivoituva perkki kerrallaan niin siinä näkyy maalivahdin ”korkein” senhetkinen perkki. Eli käytännössä joko punainen Sponge tai Dialed In, kun ne on ne jotka suurimmalla osalla on auki. Jos veskarilla on molemmat noista käytössä, niin Spongella on prioriteetti näkyä ruudulla, mutta myös Dialed In aktivoituu taustalla. Ja sitten tietenkin veskarin siniset ja kultaiset perkit aktivoituu taustalla, vaikka ne ei näy ruudulla erityisesti tuo Recharge.

 

Koska veskareilla on niin vähän punasia perkkejä, niin jokaisella on käytännössä joko punainen Dialed In tai Sponge perkki käytössä, mutta se johtuu vain vaihtoehtojen vähyydestä, ei siitä että ne välttämättä olisi itsessään OP. Suurin osa ihmisistä ei ole grindannu season passia loppuun, että olisi saanut punaisen Post 2 Postin auki, joka on ainakin Jenkeissä meta ja antaa huomattavan buustin sivuttaisliiketorjuntoihin.

 

Eli vaikka noi perkit aktivoituu jokaisessa torjunnassa, se ei tarkoita että se torjunta johtuisi siitä perkistä itsessään. Kun Sponge aktivoituu, niin se aktivoituu näyttääkseen, että se kyseinen torjunta on ”hallittu” torjunta tai että veska peitti kiekon nopeammin. Jos Dialed In aktivoituu niin se tarkoittaa, että peli on laskenut sen myötä 6 % lisää torjuntataitoa lisää veskalle.

 

Sama pätee kenttäpelaajiin, vaikka sä teet maalin ranteella ja Quick Release aktivoituu, ei se silti tarkoita itsessään että sä teit sen maalin sen perkin ansiosta, se vaan kertoo että se sun perkki aktivoituu. Eli menet vaikka käytännössä laukomaan tyhjään maaliin, niin Quick Release aktivoituu ihan samalla tapaa edelleen, mutta ei se maali sen ansiosta tullut.

 

Käytännössä siis jos Sponge yksistään bannattaisiin niin se ei poistaisi noita epäansaittuja torjuntoja, se vaan lisäisi EA ripulimaaleja. Ei Sponge ole edes HUTissa läheskään paras veskaperkki IMO. Tää nykyinen Sponge on sama Sponge mikä oli 24 ja 25, ainoastaan tehokkaampana.

 

Ja kuten mä tossa aiemmin laskin, niin tää 26 ei ole mitään verrattuna 24 missä veskat otti epäansaittuja torjuntoja milloin mistäkin ja se myös näkyy aika selvästi tossa maalikeskiarvossa. Ja vaikka niitä epäansaittuja torjuntoja tuli vähemmän 25, niin kyllä niitä silti koko ajan tuli eikä se ole koskaan liittynyt perkkeihin vaan tähän EA:n pelimoottoriin. Jos tässä olisi joku poppakeino saada ne pois niin usko pois olisin täysillä mukana, mutta musta tuntuu että pettymys on suuri, jos oletus on että punainen Sponge banaaniin ja niitä epäansaittuja seivejä ei enää tulis.

 

Edited 2 hours ago by Kenu
Added translation to English

11 tuntia sitten, ItzPoro kirjoitti:

where is goalie ability bans? 🤔

Being goalie is hard enough with x-factors on so no need to remove those. Now with these banned x-factors most forwards will use quick release and 1T perk so it should make scoring easier

6 timmar sedan, sopulii_ säger:

I guess this is more of a bug fix than a nerf, the ability still gives a considerable stamina boost (even if it is only a one time thing now)

I think it can be directly compared to wheels tbh - when it activates, you get a boost in stamina which equals a boost in speed in practice.

It's also a very odd game mechanic, where you're incentivised to actually use all your energy when you're already low on energy? So to gain energy you can just use more energy lol. It's just not realistic in the slightest.

(And ankle breaker imo is just stupid, because it makes defenders fall over for no reason)

^ Yes.

As my colleague wrote above.
This is not HUT where it works completely differently and it has a logic like that. Here everyone has the opportunity to play for themselves, their own thoughts, their own fingers, their own decisions in situations. Team game. If you want advantages, you have to play other games. "Advantages" have nothing to look for in CHEL and a lot of people prefer the game without them because they want to play hockey. And with Advantages, it's definitely not hockey

 

Ban them all, make a shitty game even a little bit better.

 

- Variety on making builds (or at least they wont look the same as they have for the past 4 years).  -->  cant rock with 70ish wrist shot and quick release if you want to score

 

- Eliminates some of the most ridiculous types of animations that help you retrieve the puck or get in a better position caused by traits, which cant be expected by the opposition --> game becomes less "rng" (more competitive), more realistic 

 

- there aint 6 superhumans running around the ice playing their own game --> team game, playing together matters, again more realistic

 

For sure, this will result in a few "ea goals" as you have to find new ways to score instead of trusting the old traits which names have just been changed. Well they are bound to happen each year, as so many things before even getting to a scoring opportunity are caused by some random code (puck pickups, pass receptions...). 

 

One would most likely state that banning all traits will cause all teams to collapse in front of the net, well what changes? Teams are already doing that. 

 

As much of I hope ban them all which actually made those domestic leagues the most enjoyable part of the year, at least ban the warrior trait. Game loses all meaning when you hit skater having it, and they actually recover from the ground faster than you do from that animation -> breaks the game

 

 

 

15 tuntia sitten, xDekko-_- kirjoitti:

How do you fight against a red Warrior on defense? 😆 This is the attacker meta, red abilities should all be banned, many can unlock Quick Release/Second wind/1T, before the season.. 

Agree, after these bans which are totally fine to me, bigger builds are maybe going to be new meta because of higher speed and balance + power so why there needs to be perk which help avoiding bigger "normal" hits. And if the meaning after these bans was make people to use different style of builds, now its going to be like everyone is using elite warrior. That should be banned including gold, blue and elite versions. 

Just want to highlight that I ran @FINSeRe's post through AI to give it an English translation. A great post about the goalie perks and how the perks might be given false credit for saves. Check it out if you previously skipped it due to the language barrier.

 

13 hours ago, FINSeRe said:

Moderator note: The below has been translated with ChatGPT to make it available to more readers. You can find the original text in Finnish in the Spoiler section below.
 

It’s too complicated to explain properly in English, so I’ll just explain it in Finnish terms. But here’s how I’ve understood goalie perks, and what’s been tested in the “Between the Pipes” server (the world’s largest goalie server with about 2,250 members): there are 3 out of 5 perks that activate on every save — Sponge, Dialed In, and Recharge.

Since only one perk can visually appear on the screen at a time, what you see is the goalie’s highest currently active perk. In practice, that’s usually either the red Sponge or Dialed In, since most goalies have one of those unlocked. If a goalie has both active, Sponge has priority to be displayed on screen, but Dialed In also activates in the background. The same goes for blue and gold goalie perks — they activate in the background even if they don’t show on screen, especially Recharge.

Because there are so few red perks available for goalies, practically every goalie uses either red Dialed In or Sponge. But that’s just because there aren’t many options — not because those perks are necessarily overpowered. Most players haven’t grinded the season pass far enough to unlock red Post to Post, which is considered meta in North America and gives a significant boost to lateral saves.

So even though those perks activate on every save, it doesn’t mean the save happened because of that perk. When Sponge activates, it just indicates that the save was a “controlled” one — meaning the goalie covered the puck quickly or handled the rebound well. When Dialed In activates, it simply means the game has temporarily boosted the goalie’s save ability by 6%.

The same logic applies to skaters: even if you score with a wrist shot and Quick Release activates, that doesn’t mean the perk caused the goal — it just means it triggered. You could shoot into an empty net and Quick Release would still activate, but the goal obviously wasn’t because of it.

In other words, banning Sponge alone wouldn’t eliminate those “undeserved” saves — it would just lead to more of EA’s nonsense goals. Sponge isn’t even close to the best goalie perk in HUT, in my opinion. The current Sponge is the same as in NHL 24 and 25, just slightly stronger.

And as I calculated earlier, NHL 26 is nothing compared to NHL 24, where goalies were making completely undeserved saves left and right — which is clearly reflected in the goals-per-game average. Even though there were fewer of those undeserved saves in NHL 25, they still happened all the time, and it’s never been about perks — it’s the game engine. If there really were a magic fix for it, believe me, I’d be all in. But I think people will be disappointed if they expect that banning red Sponge will suddenly stop those undeserved saves.

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Menee liian vaikeaksi selittää englanniksi niin selitän suomeksi, mutta se miten mä olen käsittänyt veskareiden perkit ja mitä tuolla Between the Pipes -serverillä (maailman isoin veskaserveri 2 250 jäsentä) on testattu, niin niitä perkkejä on 3/5, jotka aktivoituu jokaisessa torjunnassa: Sponge, Dialed In ja Recharge. Koska ruudulla voi näkyä vain yksi aktivoituva perkki kerrallaan niin siinä näkyy maalivahdin ”korkein” senhetkinen perkki. Eli käytännössä joko punainen Sponge tai Dialed In, kun ne on ne jotka suurimmalla osalla on auki. Jos veskarilla on molemmat noista käytössä, niin Spongella on prioriteetti näkyä ruudulla, mutta myös Dialed In aktivoituu taustalla. Ja sitten tietenkin veskarin siniset ja kultaiset perkit aktivoituu taustalla, vaikka ne ei näy ruudulla erityisesti tuo Recharge.

 

Koska veskareilla on niin vähän punasia perkkejä, niin jokaisella on käytännössä joko punainen Dialed In tai Sponge perkki käytössä, mutta se johtuu vain vaihtoehtojen vähyydestä, ei siitä että ne välttämättä olisi itsessään OP. Suurin osa ihmisistä ei ole grindannu season passia loppuun, että olisi saanut punaisen Post 2 Postin auki, joka on ainakin Jenkeissä meta ja antaa huomattavan buustin sivuttaisliiketorjuntoihin.

 

Eli vaikka noi perkit aktivoituu jokaisessa torjunnassa, se ei tarkoita että se torjunta johtuisi siitä perkistä itsessään. Kun Sponge aktivoituu, niin se aktivoituu näyttääkseen, että se kyseinen torjunta on ”hallittu” torjunta tai että veska peitti kiekon nopeammin. Jos Dialed In aktivoituu niin se tarkoittaa, että peli on laskenut sen myötä 6 % lisää torjuntataitoa lisää veskalle.

 

Sama pätee kenttäpelaajiin, vaikka sä teet maalin ranteella ja Quick Release aktivoituu, ei se silti tarkoita itsessään että sä teit sen maalin sen perkin ansiosta, se vaan kertoo että se sun perkki aktivoituu. Eli menet vaikka käytännössä laukomaan tyhjään maaliin, niin Quick Release aktivoituu ihan samalla tapaa edelleen, mutta ei se maali sen ansiosta tullut.

 

Käytännössä siis jos Sponge yksistään bannattaisiin niin se ei poistaisi noita epäansaittuja torjuntoja, se vaan lisäisi EA ripulimaaleja. Ei Sponge ole edes HUTissa läheskään paras veskaperkki IMO. Tää nykyinen Sponge on sama Sponge mikä oli 24 ja 25, ainoastaan tehokkaampana.

 

Ja kuten mä tossa aiemmin laskin, niin tää 26 ei ole mitään verrattuna 24 missä veskat otti epäansaittuja torjuntoja milloin mistäkin ja se myös näkyy aika selvästi tossa maalikeskiarvossa. Ja vaikka niitä epäansaittuja torjuntoja tuli vähemmän 25, niin kyllä niitä silti koko ajan tuli eikä se ole koskaan liittynyt perkkeihin vaan tähän EA:n pelimoottoriin. Jos tässä olisi joku poppakeino saada ne pois niin usko pois olisin täysillä mukana, mutta musta tuntuu että pettymys on suuri, jos oletus on että punainen Sponge banaaniin ja niitä epäansaittuja seivejä ei enää tulis.

 

 

8 timmar sedan, Miguli36 säger:

Ban them all, make a shitty game even a little bit better.

 

- Variety on making builds (or at least they wont look the same as they have for the past 4 years).  -->  cant rock with 70ish wrist shot and quick release if you want to score

 

- Eliminates some of the most ridiculous types of animations that help you retrieve the puck or get in a better position caused by traits, which cant be expected by the opposition --> game becomes less "rng" (more competitive), more realistic 

 

- there aint 6 superhumans running around the ice playing their own game --> team game, playing together matters, again more realistic

 

For sure, this will result in a few "ea goals" as you have to find new ways to score instead of trusting the old traits which names have just been changed. Well they are bound to happen each year, as so many things before even getting to a scoring opportunity are caused by some random code (puck pickups, pass receptions...). 

 

One would most likely state that banning all traits will cause all teams to collapse in front of the net, well what changes? Teams are already doing that. 

 

As much of I hope ban them all which actually made those domestic leagues the most enjoyable part of the year, at least ban the warrior trait. Game loses all meaning when you hit skater having it, and they actually recover from the ground faster than you do from that animation -> breaks the game

 

 

 

^ Excellent post.