ECL ’26: Winter - Ability & Build Bans Update

If you are going to listen to the community feedback, then why not ban everything? Most people have said for a whole year that everything should be banned.
And if you are not going all the way, why not remove Stick Em Up? Right now every Elite player is running Stick Em Up Elite. When there is no speed boost to get past defenders, and you face the poke aimbot on every player, the game is turning into trench warfare where everyone only plays defense and waves their stick.

So why not go all the way and remove everything? Like someone wrote earlier in the thread. X Factors are simply boosts for star players in HUT. And now there is not much left to use at all, so why not just remove everything?

Why dont ban quick release and one timer abilities? 

Those are not that good in this version, and when goalies are still able to use sponge now those perks are well balanced

Sponge is just helping with rebounds and doing it bad and useless as every game. Because rbc is so random im using 78 and 90 rbc and no big difference. I dont understand this hype around sponge. Anyway its not even near to counter quick release or onetimer perk.

Edited October 29 by saaggssy

Ban all red abilities... 

 

Ban all abilities 

 

6s aint designed to be played with abilities, only hut is 

Everything is going to get banned before the season this is just teasing. EA didn't really do great job with the game if everything is this unbalanced you say. There's literally like maybe 4 solid perks left so people are going to run pretty much the same build now.

Also

 

We have banned like 70% of skater abilites, still the goalie abilities are untouched

 

Goalies are apparently more protected than the president of the united states i guess

Okay… so whose great idea was it to ban almost everything for skaters but nothing for goalies? I’ve only played the game for one night, and I’ve already seen countless desperation saves from goalies whose positioning was clearly off. It feels like they just stand in the middle and still manage to stop most one-timers, even when half the net is wide open. Maybe I haven’t played enough yet, but this has happened in every game so far.

 

Also, Elite Stick ‘Em Up seems a bit questionable… and you even get a speed boost from Send It (Receiver). Before any goalie or defender starts whining I’m only sharing my personal opinions here. I just think the banned abilities should be equal for everyone, also Goalies.
It feels really unfair that goalie traits are completely untouched at the moment, and I’d love to hear an explanation why?

 

At the very least, ban all the elite abilities. In their current state, these abilities are ruining any sense of “competitive” gameplay and make the game feel more arcade-like with all the speed boosts and other nonsense. It’s like Super Mario grabbing a star suddenly you’re immortal and super fast :D.

Can someone give me at least one good reason why you still allow X-factors at this point, when you’ve already banned eleven (?) of them and restricted builds by position?

These days I don’t really care what SG does, I just play, but I’m genuinely wondering.

Back in the day, I voted to either ban all of them, ban none or ban only a couple of the most overpowered ones. But this current approach of banning around 75% of them and letting the rest stay just doesn’t make sense. Yes, some of them are more useful than others, but the main idea behind all of these traits is the same: they’re basically stupid superpowers breaking the game mechanics. If you ban traits like hit boost, better balance and ones that generate extra pressure from spamming shots, then why on earth do you allow auto-saucers, speed boosts on pass reception, 2x endurance and whatever else is left? Yes, you can probably answer that by saying the community hasn’t complained enough about those perks being overpowered, but now we’ve reached that point and this is exactly what we knew would happen once you started banning traits one by one. You’re basically leaving breadcrumbs on the table.

No hate, it just feels like there’s no logic behind it anymore.

Edited Monday at 12:51 PM by FlyerKungen

The bans are pretty much fine right now. There's some traits every forward uses and different traits for defenders but there's still some versatility with the builds and traits - thats great.

Edited yesterday at 11:16 AM by Yoloberg

On 3.11.2025 at 13.45, imosi kirjoitti:

It feels really unfair that goalie traits are completely untouched at the moment, and I’d love to hear an explanation why?

I think that’s the case because no shooting abilities have been banned.

Need to ban superb reverse (or backhand shot)! I don’t’ know the word in english but….!it’s just a big joke really 

All locked traits should be banned (e.g. red sponge), because they are not available for everyone.

I think maybe we ban everything else besides Enforcer builds and then we play like real men

Quick release need to ban.

1 tunti sitten, saaggssy kirjoitti:

Quick release need to ban.

What has changed your mind?

2 tuntia sitten, saaggssy kirjoitti:

Quick release need to ban.

Honestly, the more I’ve played the game, the more I’m leaning toward “ban them all.” For skaters and goalies.

I agree ban them all and there gonna be no problems, someone wwnt to ban this someone dont. What changed? Skaters again learned glitch goals and this quick.release is beating goalies like nothing. Its realy close to close quarter bs.

Il y a 58 minutes, saaggssy a dit :

Je suis d'accord pour les interdire tous et il n'y aura pas de problèmes, quelqu'un veut interdire cela, quelqu'un ne le fera pas. Qu'est-ce qui a changé ? Les patineurs ont de nouveau appris des objectifs de glitch et cette libération rapide bat les gardiens de but comme rien. C'est vraiment proche du quartier proche bs.

Okay, well, at least make an effort to catch the puck.

I've definitely joined the ban them all camp recently. I don't think the abilities are well-designed or balanced at all. They are sort of tacked on top of the core mechanics, which they override and overpower a lot of the time, creating the sort of chaos and unpredictability that a competitive game should minimize. Look at games like Counter-Strike or Rocket League and how pure of a competitive experience they are. By introducing the abilities, the NHL series has moved further from that than ever. And in NHL 26, it's worse than it's ever been.

Can someone tell what skaters abilties are overpower and breaking game? Imo biggest issue is goalies abilities but im not goalie and dont know exactly what abilities are making goalies make unreal saves every game multiple times. I think everyone who played last year FCL and other tournaments without abilites realize how bad the gameplay was. Ofc game and abilities are different from last years but it would be same bs if all abilities would be banned. Like I said last year its impossible to find perfect solution for this topic but I feel banning some most op goalies abilities would be best for competitive game. 

I can say you that goalies abilities even not near power of skater abilities. it doesnt matter what you take its not countering nothing.

About goalies making unbelievable saves, its just because you cant aim, and make goalies move out of position, or not quick enough on decision making or passing around puck, so goalie have all time in the world to square up. But its how it should be. if you are on the puck you save it thats how goalies work.  When you put quick releases, onetimer perks, some kinda golden rockets and who knows what else, its gives superpower to skater abiltiies, boosting their abilities and making goalie get errors in save and late saves.

its what breaks game and its not interesting when 2 pro teams plays together, and its like 5:5 goals in one game. too many, and why? because goalies getting to many errors, doesnt matter your position. But when you play like core teams and lites, you can stop 20 shots, and be even shutout, why? because guys are less effective on glitch using and their decision making is slower.

Why i want quick release be banned, because its makes our goalies not save puck, because this shot is comming so fast that even if you trigger save its to late. and its not normal, if you are in front of me , i should save that, not always making my glove go late on save.

Also you need to understand that, you as skater decide when shoot and where to shoot, we as goalie just wait for animation trigger, we dont have button - i want save now glove shot high or low or fivehole or what, and i will trigger it in time when he shoots. We need to wait for animation to trigger on the shot, and all this abilities onetimer, quick release, rockets and all other kinda shooting abilties, are making our animation trigger delay or getting less effective, so is it fair to make our animation delay so you should score, not because you beated goalie, but because you use cheats to make us go blind or stucked, or just late. Thats why i think it will be fair just to ban all ablities, and use game as it is and then skill will decide not abilities.

Edited 40 minutes ago by saaggssy

Skill issue

1 timme sedan, txmbo999 säger:

Can someone tell what skaters abilties are overpower and breaking game? Imo biggest issue is goalies abilities but im not goalie and dont know exactly what abilities are making goalies make unreal saves every game multiple times. I think everyone who played last year FCL and other tournaments without abilites realize how bad the gameplay was. Ofc game and abilities are different from last years but it would be same bs if all abilities would be banned. Like I said last year its impossible to find perfect solution for this topic but I feel banning some most op goalies abilities would be best for competitive game. 

You are serving an open net here. I really cannot stay quiet when you come with a weird statement like this again.

What exactly made the gameplay worse? Skill issue? I seem to remember that your team claimed it was a skill issue to not be able to defend against Golden Onetee before it got banned.

Because when you actually look at the numbers, it was only your team (Parasite) that scored fewer goals per game after you lost Nikkedangles and when Golden Onetee was gone.

If Nikkedangles is the best player in the world or if you were simply too dependent on him and Golden Onetee, I will leave that unsaid.
But nothing you are arguing here is supported by the statistics, other than the fact that you lost the throne in both FCL and ECL to teams that were simply better.

So before we start talking about that a world without abilities ruined the gameplay, are you sure it was not just your team who got worse?

Edited 2 hours ago by iSvamp

5 minuuttia sitten, iSvamp kirjoitti:

You are serving an open net here. I really cannot stay quiet when you come with a weird statement like this again.

What exactly made the gameplay worse? Skill issue? I seem to remember that your team claimed it was a skill issue to not be able to defend against Golden Onetee before it got banned.

Because when you actually look at the numbers, it was only your team (Parasite) that scored fewer goals per game after you lost Nikkedangles and when Golden Onetee was gone.

If Nikkedangles is the best player in the world or if you were simply too dependent on him and Golden Onetee, I will leave that unsaid.
But nothing you are arguing here is supported by the statistics, other than the fact that you lost the throne in both FCL and ECL to teams that were simply better.

So before we start talking about that a world without abilities ruined the gameplay, are you sure it was not just your team who got worse?

This is from NHL 25 discussion but if u dont understand after this Akunkku post why banning all abilities is bad idea then I dont know... But good ragebaits again.

34 minuter sedan, txmbo999 säger:

This is from NHL 25 discussion but if u dont understand after this Akunkku post why banning all abilities is bad idea then I dont know... But good ragebaits again.

You are deflecting again.

It is not me who does not understand.
We literally had over 100 messages from the community showing they want it like it was in FCL and SCL last year. That is not my personal opinion, that is the majority speaking.

If you refuse to understand that, then that is your weakness

-------
(your picture) 

 

Point by point:

Close Quarters goals do not “just happen anyway”. CQ modifies release priority and aim assist inside close radius. Without CQ many of these shots do not trigger the high speed priority release animation. Frame comparison testing shows completely different outcome from the same shot simply because CQ unlocks a different animation branch.

“One timers are easy to defend if you play actively” is also incorrect. Certain one timer styles combined with traits bypass normal defensive stick collision validation inside ICE Q. This is the exact reason Golden One Tee was banned in multiple competitive formats. It is not just about positioning. It is animation override.

“Goalies make weird saves anyway so traits do not matter” is wrong. Traits modify which animation state the goalie gets access to. Animation state is outcome determinism in NHL. Without that trait the goalie is not given the same animation choices. That is not subjective.

“Auto poke is broken no matter what” is only partially true. Auto poke is only unbalanced because certain traits buff recovery acceleration and turn sync after poke. Base poke without those trait modifiers is significantly more fair. Removing trait buff gives real risk reward again.

“Truculence simply makes physical play more viable” is incorrect. Truculence automates force and knockdown threshold. You do not need correct angle timing or weight advantage because the trait applies force anyway. This removes skill expression.

“Counter attacks score anyway” ignores the problem. Abilities artificially push low probability chances into mid or high probability outcomes by triggering faster and higher priority animation states. That does not strengthen structured defense. It increases chaos.

 

Edited 1 hour ago by iSvamp