Player Ability Bans - ECL '25 Season Discussion

[pakjiz]

1 minuutti sitten, Edgard_gcn kirjoitti:

For me ban 100% Truculence and Big Tipper. The rest no problem 

Yes. You wrote it earlier in this same topic already. I think people understood it.

[Edgard_gcn]

Il y a 1 heure, pakjiz a dit :

Oui. Vous l'avez déjà écrit plus tôt dans ce même sujet. Je pense que les gens l'ont compris.

Really !? 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

[localhefe]

Yes yes, lets ban all the perks so janikka can play his slow playbook hockey without right analog 👍👍👍👍

[pakjiz]

12 minuuttia sitten, localhefe kirjoitti:

Yes yes, lets ban all the perks so janikka can play his slow playbook hockey without right analog 👍👍👍👍

Wouldn’t banning Wheels encourage players to use the right stick more, not less?

[localhefe]

9 minuuttia sitten, pakjiz kirjoitti:

Wouldn’t banning Wheels encourage players to use the right stick more, not less?

Idk if u remember but u suggested like 5 bans, so we have even smaller pool to choose what perks to use.

[pakjiz]

12 minuuttia sitten, localhefe kirjoitti:

Idk if u remember but u suggested like 5 bans, so we have even smaller pool to choose what perks to use.

Well last tournament was played with no abilities.

EA chose to make too many abilities broken one way or another. What can we do.

I don’t know if you read my whole post but I think my arguments for each one were decent.

Edited September 9 by pakjiz

[Janikka]

41 minuuttia sitten, localhefe kirjoitti:

Yes yes, lets ban all the perks so janikka can play his slow playbook hockey without right analog 👍👍👍👍

I don't play slow because of the perks. I play slow because of my brain. And I don't use the right stick because NHL didn't have it when I wasn't old.

[l-Furyan-l]

Repeating my main (recurring) opinion on this topic for a third time, just in case:

Citat

All I ask is that, whichever way this goes, there is a definitive, non-reversible decision from League Administration (on bans/no bans) at least a few weeks out from when the first official tournament is set to begin.

Give us a fair chance to practice for a reasonable amount of time under game-like conditions.

Also, on that note, when can we expect the ECL schedule for the NHL 26 'calendar year'? ☺️

[fisu123]

No need to ban anything else than trucu and that tipper perk. Game is boring without perks.

[SadaPoika]

Just ban everything. So many OP traits this year that make the game too unrealistic.

I can also kinda agree with allowing elite edges and nothing else.

[Loghi89]

Players wanted new things and then start complaining when it happens  😑 I get the idea yea but skillcap will be seen with or without x factors imo 🤷 Trubulence and hipster? or what it was and unstoppable force or truck are annoying to play against but as a D the wheels are poison..It just means you need to be lower as a D and can't play so reckless all the time. I get it ppl don't like same things 🤷I don't care if we ban all or nothing or just few because you still need good team and nice guys to play with and it's just a videogame, nothing serious. Have fun and good luck yall 👍

Edited September 10 by Loghi89

[saaggssy]

Biggest problems is not perks, its skaters gameplan. always look for glitch goals, exploit it, and play the same hockey every season. the same way crash net try to hit goalie, glitch in some five hole shit, go for wierd angles to snipe shortsides, do some random moves to make goalies flop or whatever game is allowing you to do. Maybe if you start to respect hockey as game not only broken arcade, all will be fine. Till then nothing realy matters. Learn one thing what goalie never catch, then lets repeat it 10 times in row, its so fun. 

If we talk from goalie perspective now, there is nothing so op what we could not catch, if not some broken animations, and sometimes goalie just do random shit, but perks op like in 25 i dont feel. We get freedom on movement what i realy like, so if shot is good it goes in because you beated goalie, not because he was freezed. everything is pretty good with goalies and catching shots for now. 

Edited September 10 by saaggssy

[Oliverigood]

Truculence and Wheels are pond hockey xfactors and should not have place in competitive games. Rest are negotiable. maybe make a poll or survey to get the bigger picture.

Then it is up to EA to tune up pokechecking/stick defending before there is only masochist left to play as defenders.

[iSvamp]

95% of this community won’t even read this.
But 9 out of 10 teams we faced tonight had players running Truc – even in PRO and below.

Let’s be clear: that ability is garbage.
It ruins every single game from the moment the puck drops.

It doesn’t matter if it’s Friday, Thursday, or a random night in the middle of the week – stop ruining the gameplay for everyone else.

Spread this within your teams. A gentleman’s agreement, so to speak.

[Karlzzzon]

Or. Leave everything besides Truculence, wheels and tipper available, but only get to choose one ability, not three.

[Yoloberg]

11 hours ago, iSvamp said:

95% of this community won’t even read this.
But 9 out of 10 teams we faced tonight had players running Truc – even in PRO and below.

Let’s be clear: that ability is garbage.
It ruins every single game from the moment the puck drops.

It doesn’t matter if it’s Friday, Thursday, or a random night in the middle of the week – stop ruining the gameplay for everyone else.

Spread this within your teams. A gentleman’s agreement, so to speak.

After like 50 games of NHL26 clubs:

I'll +1 this and don't use it on 6's anymore. Well mostly because it's going to get banned if the trait itself isn't nerfed. (using the trait itself is likely the funniest thing we've seen in clubs for years)

And for ECL I'd say trubulence is too much rng to have anyways because of the sticks dropping.

Besides trubulence I'd keep all of the traits. Something like wheels is pretty op and will be overused so removing it would make the builds maybe more versatile. 

[Janikka]

Any thoughts now that we have had some more time using the various abilities?

Before I share mine, I will emphasize: I am not calling for any specific bans. I'm OK with either banning certain abilities or banning nothing. Any bans or lack thereof should be based on an established consensus, and (as Furyan said) the most important thing is clarity from SportsGamer around this topic ahead of the ECL.

So first of all, banning Truculence seems like a popular move. I get that, for sure. The games get pretty crazy with everyone running around destroying each other with this ability. There's a possible counterargument though that if not for boosted hitting, defensemen have few tools against forwards right now. Also, certain other abilities like Big Rig get very powerful if they are not met with Truculence. I've seen some games where the defense has basically nothing left to do besides getting in the forward's lane, and even then they may get knocked down by reverse hits.

That brings us to Unstoppable. You could make the case that this is another broken or at least poorly balanced ability this year. The game is very lenient on when you're allowed to reverse hit. Reverse hitting doesn't require your opponent to attempt a hit. In fact, it doesn't seem to require much of anything. I constantly see players get laid out by reverse hits simply by being too close to the puck carrier. I can't imagine this is by design.

Conversely, the skating abilities seem just fine so far. I thought Wheels was going to be a problem, but it really isn't. All it does is provide a speed boost once you get to full speed. The result is that you only get beaten by Wheels on defense if you're late anyway or mismanage your stamina.

Elite Edges is now more situational than before. As far as I've noticed, it only seems to activate on L2 pivots. It's by no means mandatory to use even if your opponents are using it. EE doesn't even need to be a part of this discussion in my opinion. Not that anyone's even talking about it.

[r4mme]

On 9/20/2025 at 11:43 AM, Janikka said:

Any thoughts now that we have had some more time using the various abilities?

Before I share mine, I will emphasize: I am not calling for any specific bans. I'm OK with either banning certain abilities or banning nothing. Any bans or lack thereof should be based on an established consensus, and (as Furyan said) the most important thing is clarity from SportsGamer around this topic ahead of the ECL.

So first of all, banning Truculence seems like a popular move. I get that, for sure. The games get pretty crazy with everyone running around destroying each other with this ability. There's a possible counterargument though that if not for boosted hitting, defensemen have few tools against forwards right now. Also, certain other abilities like Big Rig get very powerful if they are not met with Truculence. I've seen some games where the defense has basically nothing left to do besides getting in the forward's lane, and even then they may get knocked down by reverse hits.

That brings us to Unstoppable. You could make the case that this is another broken or at least poorly balanced ability this year. The game is very lenient on when you're allowed to reverse hit. Reverse hitting doesn't require your opponent to attempt a hit. In fact, it doesn't seem to require much of anything. I constantly see players get laid out by reverse hits simply by being too close to the puck carrier. I can't imagine this is by design.

Conversely, the skating abilities seem just fine so far. I thought Wheels was going to be a problem, but it really isn't. All it does is provide a speed boost once you get to full speed. The result is that you only get beaten by Wheels on defense if you're late anyway or mismanage your stamina.

Elite Edges is now more situational than before. As far as I've noticed, it only seems to activate on L2 pivots. It's by no means mandatory to use even if your opponents are using it. EE doesn't even need to be a part of this discussion in my opinion. Not that anyone's even talking about it.

I completely agree with the points about the tools available for defensemen—it’s really tough to be effective on defense right now. If you get too close, you risk getting reverse-hit and leaving open space behind you, or the forward can quickly flick and burn you on the other side. On the other hand, if your player is too big, they’re usually too slow and can easily get walked around by a forward with Wheels. All situational ofcourse.

If you don’t have Wheels as a defenseman, you’ll get burned almost every time by a forward with Wheels and full stamina on the counterattack—unless you position yourself very early, and even then it’s tough. Playing as a defenseman is extremely punishing, while playing as a forward doesn’t seem nearly as costly.

Even if you manage to steer the forward to the outside and into the corner, you’ll still have trouble blocking passing lanes. A forward with 85 passing can force a pass through you, even if you have 90+ defensive awareness and position yourself face forward towards the puck carrier.

Stick lifting has been nerfed into the ground and even removed as a trait this year. Stick checking has also been nerfed; even if you get your stick on the puck, a speedy forward will almost always recover it. You have to swing your stick to poke the puck away, but that’s also very difficult. I found that Elite No Contest is pretty strong, atleast it gives you a chance to win the puck. Still, a forward with Big Rig or Unstoppable makes life even harder. 

I haven’t tried the Quick Pick trait enough to give a solid opinion.

 

[Jomppe78]

On 13.9.2025 at 13.32, Yoloberg kirjoitti:

After like 50 games of NHL26 clubs:

I'll +1 this and don't use it on 6's anymore. Well mostly because it's going to get banned if the trait itself isn't nerfed. (using the trait itself is likely the funniest thing we've seen in clubs for years)

And for ECL I'd say trubulence is too much rng to have anyways because of the sticks dropping.

Besides trubulence I'd keep all of the traits. Something like wheels is pretty op and will be overused so removing it would make the builds maybe more versatile. 

Exactly my thoughts. At least truculence needs to be banned, you don't even need to anything to totally crush your opponents with this perk and you won't get any penalties. And if wheels is allowed, basically everyone needs to have it so banning it would be good for the versatile perspective.