Is the Powerforward class "overpowered"? (The role of balance amongst EASHL player types)

[l-Furyan-l]

This is something I've been mulling over for quite some time, ever since EA introduced "locked" player classes where you couldn't change attributes.

For those of you who've been around for the entirety of NHL 16 EASHL, odds are you've seen the player type "Powerforward" being used in EASHL (and ECL) games. In fact, you might have wondered why 90% of forwards out there use this player type. I know I have. Then you play against the PWF and it becomes quite obvious. They seemingly have the best puck control, the best hitting, the size and strength combined with a curious case of good dangles, passing and shooting. 

Now, I know the people playing the PWF are usually highly skilled individuals who take the physical attributes of the PWF and combine that with their individual skill so it's not "ALL EA's FAULT" (as some would say  ) and I'm not trying to take anything away from the numerous of insanely skilled players who use this class to their advantage.

However, my topics for discussion are these;

- Is the PWF overpowered in terms of it being the only class you can remain competitive with in the EASHL/ECL-community?
- What player type do you use, and why?
- When was the last time you saw a Sniper/Playmaker/Dangler at the ECL level? And if you haven't seen any, why do you think that is?
- Do you feel the different types are balanced as they are? If not, should EA strive towards improving the classes to create more balance and encourage players to play different types? 

Maybe my bias is shining through a bit here so as you may have guessed, I feel the PWF is ever so slightly overpowered compared to other classes. 

I'm curious to hear your thoughts!

[eBasstian]

I'm just here for the comments.

[l-Furyan-l]

7 minutes ago, Basstian23 said:

I'm just here for the comments.

I'll be happy if I even get some comments   Hopefully, they won't all be that I'm a no-skill loser who isn't good enough to defend the powerforwards (even though that might be the truth, haha!)  

[vSilenttio]

It's true. Damn true. I started to play NHL16 daily on March, and since then pretty much every top teams have been Team PWF's. I played some nights during winter and then I saw some other types as well but still, even then the new PWF was most used. Compared to NHL14, the difference between player types is huge! Old PWF was slower atleast and it got tired much faster. Then again there's this new PWF with ultimate package of everything compared to PLY, TWF, GRD or SNP. If I had to choose from all types which to play with, that would be PWF as it's all-around good forward. Then if I had opportunity to choose who to play against, PWF would be last to pick. I guess they wanted to do player you get when you add Lucic, Benn and Voracek all together... Good job, EA. Not players fault so it's not a problem when people use it as the PWF is choosable type just like any other class. Would be cool on NHL17 if PWF wouldnt be good in every zone, so it really would have atleast one weekness. Slow, or not that good with playmaking or something. 

On other types, yes there are players who are using PLY or TWF for example, but tbh they would not be the most greatest or toughest guys to play against. Some guys want to be faster but with this engine we're playing on this & next game, on top level, all-around ability of type and whole team is the shit. 

I play with two-way D-man, as it's always solid, was the connection good or bad. Defensive is great build as well but sometimes the DFD seems to be way too slow against faster types. And IMO it's stupid to play with OFD in this game because of size of the build. I dont like it when you cant pick whether to play with big, regular or even small sized DFD/TWD and hate the fact that EA thinks that every OFD is mickey mouse (small, not that good with checking). It would be nice if there were like 2-3 different sizes where to pick from as you cant make your own guy anymore. Now it's all the same.

Edited July 15, 2016 by vSilenttio

[l-Furyan-l]

14 minutes ago, vSilenttio said:

And IMO it's stupid to play with OFD in this game because of size of the build. I dont like it when you cant pick whether to play with big, regular or even small sized DFD/TWD and hate the fact that EA thinks that every OFD is mickey mouse (small, not that good with checking). It would be nice if there were like 2-3 different sizes where to pick from as you cant make your own guy anymore. Now it's all the same.

Some of us make it work!  

Haha, all kidding aside - I agree with you in regards to the size building (that we should be able to atleast pick the size of our player even though we can't change skill attributes) but I think EA's explanation was something along the lines of the locked size being one of the factors contributing to the balance between player types...

Curious to hear from some PWFs in here! What are your feelings towards the PWF player type?

[vSilenttio]

Yeah I've played with OFD as well but against bigger and stronger PWF's, it's not the most suitable build. 

[Daigle_]

I think i read somewhere it will be some new classes in nhl17? One bigger sniper with no playmaking skills but big hits and a bigger playmaker that would remind off Joe Thornton.

Not sure though.

Muddymosquito plays sniper and sniper only. He just play like 5 games every other month tho.

Skål

[l-Furyan-l]

9 minutes ago, pnordetun said:

I think i read somewhere it will be some new classes in nhl17? One bigger sniper with no playmaking skills but big hits and a bigger playmaker that would remind off Joe Thornton.

Not sure though.

Muddymosquito plays sniper and sniper only. He just play like 5 games every other month tho.

Skål

I like the sound of that, hopefully new classes or atleast like 2-3 variations of the same class is something they introduce in 17! 

Yeah, we have a guy on the Coal Miners who used to play sniper and sniper only (PatzyDrake), he was crazy good at it too. He eventually got fed up with being so easy to knock off the puck and switched to.... you guessed it, powerforward  

(Skål! Såg vass ut igår på vänstervingen!) 

[MovaaN]

Main problem with PWF is his shooting ability, it should be closer to DFD for balance sake. Lot of power but also lot of shots ending up in boards. I haven't had that big problems playing against PWFs with 2-Way-D but yeah, they seem a tad OP, or better to say OP compared to other forward classes. Lets see what they come up with NHL17 but I hope that more variety is welcomed. "Tactical" aspect of class selection in offence is pretty dead atm, and defense is either D or 2W. You see some OFD's but usually that is also the side to come into zone ^^

[FINSeRe]

There is no OP-class besides butterfly goalie 

[l-Furyan-l]

39 minutes ago, FINSeRe said:

There is no OP-class besides butterfly goalie 

Interesting to get a goalies perspective on the matter! Is there a "better" goalie class and if so, why are the other ones weaker?

[FINSeRe]

Well it was pretty much a joke but but..

I've used previously hybrid goalie (besides NHL 12) but in this version I always felt that it's not strong enough, since butterfly goalie tends to feel more agile and faster regarding the reflexes. Butterfly is also the strongest class when it comes to rebounds which tends to be pain in the ass (at least for me). It's just my opinion, but since hybrid is only ''good'' in pretty much every category, butterfly is ''great'' in some categories and pretty weak on some other categories. The point here is that the categories where butterfly is weak are pretty much irrelevant so it's not worth to use hybrid eventhough you will get job done with that class also. For example butterfly lacks vision, which actually is pretty important stat in this game but since I myself play quite aggressively in net, it doesn't matter if my goalie has no vision when I can just push out from the net and close the angle. Some other goalies like to just stand on the goal-line so butterfly might not be for them since without vision deflections and shots behind the screen are pretty hard to save.

Standing goalie has always been weakest in my opinion in pretty much every NHL, but it also depends what is your style as a goalie. Standing goalie has always been so weak against low shots no matter if you are standing in the net or in a butterfly. In the other hand butterfly should be weak against high shots, but when played aggressively enough you can close the angle pretty easily. Standing goalies strengths are just crap, so when choosing between hybrid and butterfly, it all comes to how you play in net. For me butterfly is just outstanding (in my opinion NHL 16 butterfly is the best class ever in NHL games).

But yeah those are only my thoughts and opinions, everyone might not agree with those but since I have something like 5000 games in goal overall I think I might have a small clue

[gzell60]

Nothing is sweeter than playing a Playmaker while all of your opponent's forwards chose a PWF, so I disagree  

[Dominointi]

I used twf or ply mainly in both tournaments. Pwf is nice but endurance is bad thats why i dont want to use it that much as a center. Of course it depends how you like to play, but I usually pick my build depending on who im playing against.

Imo pwf works better for wingers, especially for those who carry the puck alot. Passing and puck control are fine.

Defence is all about hitting, because its pretty much all you can do properly with it besides sticklifting which is really random in this game.

 

Edited July 16, 2016 by Dominointi

[kApollo]

It´s overpowered, at least when you compare to other classes. I still use it quite often though, especially when playing winger and feeling like throwing my body around. I mean you can do pretty much everything with it. I would even go as far as saying powerforward has a better shot than the Sniper class.  Although I have not played nearly as many games as Sniper, but for some reason for example the one timers fail to hit the net with Sniper more often than with PF. (That might be just me though :p) 

TWF is what I use the most still, more agile and the stick checking is just the best, great for my playing style.

Powerforward is pretty solid defensively as well, you can hit more and the stick checking is not that much worse than with TWF.

Playmaker/sniper is  terrible when it comes down to stick checking, even if you do everything ´correctly´ you might still end up hitting the face or tripping the guy over. With TWF, you don´t get nearly as many penalty mins from tripping/highsticking. 

Powerforward is a somewhat easy choice  when you compare the builds between each other. Hopefully the classes will be different in nhl 17, so we could see more variety in ECL and in eashl games in general.

 

Edited July 16, 2016 by kApollo

[Totalii]

PWF tuu ouphee, mast nerf!!!!

Edited July 16, 2016 by Totalii

[l-Furyan-l]

On 2016-07-15 at 1:19 PM, pnordetun said:

I think i read somewhere it will be some new classes in nhl17? One bigger sniper with no playmaking skills but big hits and a bigger playmaker that would remind off Joe Thornton.

 

Solid scoop!

[vSilenttio]

As it's not here yet.

NHL 17 Gameplay Series: EASHL

If im right, it seems like that TWD-build is like 183cm in NHL17. Interesting when most of the forwards are big sized (+188cm). Anyways, puck moving DFD sounds cool! Well okay, dangler is like 180cm but isn't @Basstian23the only guy who plays with that kind of builds? Jumbo Playmaker and Hitting Sniper (what a dork name) are great adds to the game on the paper. Finally stronger and bigger skilled guys. Or if PWF is still perfect all-arounder, then those new builds are pretty much nothing...

Smaller guys for cherry picking, bigger guys for team playing. Now just lets hope that D-men are not weak compared to basic forward builds (jumbo etc.)

Edited July 24, 2016 by vSilenttio

[l-Furyan-l]

3 hours ago, vSilenttio said:

As it's not here yet.

NHL 17 Gameplay Series: EASHL

If im right, it seems like that TWD-build is like 183cm in NHL17. Interesting when most of the forwards are big sized (+188cm). Anyways, puck moving DFD sounds cool! Well okay, dangler is like 180cm but isn't @Basstian23the only guy who plays with that kind of builds? Jumbo Playmaker and Hitting Sniper (what a dork name) are great adds to the game on the paper. Finally stronger and bigger skilled guys. Or if PWF is still perfect all-arounder, then those new builds are pretty much nothing...

Smaller guys for cherry picking, bigger guys for team playing. Now just lets hope that D-men are not weak compared to basic forward builds (jumbo etc.)

Holy shit, very cool!

I have no idea if I'm going to stay with the Offensive Defenseman or give Puck Moving Defenseman a shot! I wonder what the differences are.... passing might be better for PMD while skating/shooting is better for OFD? Either way, will surely try out both of them.

[Janikka]

I guess the power forward thing still applies in most players' opinion? That's still the most popular choice of build by far.

(Apologies if resurrecting such old threads is frowned upon here. I didn't want to start a new thread.)

[l-Furyan-l]

1 hour ago, Janikka said:

I guess the power forward thing still applies in most players' opinion? That's still the most popular choice of build by far.

(Apologies if resurrecting such old threads is frowned upon here. I didn't want to start a new thread.)

While I agree, I feel like we are starting to see a bit more variation. A few jumbo playmakers, hitting snipers and grinders out there. Nothing resembling pure playmakers, danglers or snipers though, haha.

[tbnantti]

I don’t think it’s as clear cut as merely taking a look at what others use would make it out to be, for example SJK successfully utilizes other player classes amongst their forwards. I think people use PWF now because they have always done so + if your opponent uses PWF’s, at least you’re not ”giving your opponent any leash” by using a possibly inferior build. Everyone should use whatever feels most natural. I switched from playmaker to PWF in NHL 17, and while at first it definitely felt very clunky, I feel like it is the best build at the moment. Jumbo isn’t bad either, though. 

[Floor17]

1 hour ago, Janikka said:

I guess the power forward thing still applies in most players' opinion? That's still the most popular choice of build by far.

(Apologies if resurrecting such old threads is frowned upon here. I didn't want to start a new thread.)

Ever since EA added the player classes I have stayed away from the Power Forward like it's the plague. So clunky skating wise. Though, when you have to deal with the fat man-lag on most evenings you tend to shy away from the bigger player classes. No need to feel heavier than what you already do. 

[l-Furyan-l]

6 minutes ago, Floor17 said:

Ever since EA added the player classes I have stayed away from the Power Forward like it's the plague. So clunky skating wise. Though, when you have to deal with the fat man-lag on most evenings you tend to shy away from the bigger player classes. No need to feel heavier than what you already do. 

Can relate. First game ever with player classes I accidentally picked Defensive D. Not sure I have recovered properly since.

[miisolegend]

1 hour ago, Janikka said:

I guess the power forward thing still applies in most players' opinion? That's still the most popular choice of build by far.

(Apologies if resurrecting such old threads is frowned upon here. I didn't want to start a new thread.)

Powerforward is very OP. You dont need to tackle with it, just skate against the opp and bounce lol
Sadly the smaller builds are to weak in this NJD traphockey style of game