NHL17 Team/Line Strategy Tips
I received a PM asking for strategy advice and after I typed it all out I thought it could help other people here too. I hope it does because I know how confusing this part of the game was for me when I first started.
Team/Line strategies are very important because they help you guide your AI teammate’s decisions. They are even more important while using the simulation engine because your strategies are influencing every decision made by your players in the game. These tips may help you out in HUT but this is written based on my BAGM experiences.
Team Strategies - I feel these are pretty straight forward and EA actually does a decent job in their descriptions. However nhlguides.net is a good reference if you want a little extra insight on these. First look over your starting roster and try and cater your strategies to your players’ strengths. Don't attempt to force strategies that worked for one lineup onto a different one. I start from scratch every season unless my lineup is exactly the same and the team completely dominated. It is very rare for both of those to occur and the more you do this the more you will learn and it will get much quicker and easier.
Let's look at the Trap/Forecheck setting as an example. If my lineup is full of great skaters with above average defensive abilities then I would set the slider to 4 or 5(this slider goes from 0-6 while most sliders are 0-10). Meaning my players would setup in the Forececk more often. As a tip I do not recommend maxing sliders one way or another. We want our strategies to be efficient in all situations and by maxing a slider your players will only make that choice and never consider the alternative(which is sometimes the proper play and their off/def awareness will determine if they made the correct decision). Don't take this example literally because there is a whole lot more to think about when building your strategies.
As a counter example let's say I do choose that strategy for my Trap/Forecheck setting. However I didn't take into account that my goalie will face more breakaways while using this strategy. Is my goalie elite enough to handle these situations or is his breakaway rating a mere 82(I consider an 85 rating average on most things for NHL'ers and 90+ to be elite)? I also didn't take my actual Forecheck into account as it will now be utilized more often. Perhaps my Forecheck is an extremely aggressive 2-3 setup, which will lead to even more breakaways. The point here is that there are several things to consider while developing your strategies. So don't feel bad if it takes you almost an entire season to get your strategies right. It happens and it's not an easy thing to do. I've been playing around with these for a long time and I consider myself very very good at it. There are seasons where it takes me to the Trade Deadline before I have things where I like them. I generally evaluate every 5-8 games for most things. The PP and the PK are the absolute hardest things to do and I'm not giving away my secrets for those
.
Line Strategies
Offense:
Crash the Net - The key attributes I look at while considering this strategy are: strength, balance, and hand-eye. It's also a bonus if your skaters are big in stature. This strategy relies on goalie screens and deflections. Having offensive oriented defensemen with the appropriate strategies enhances this setup.
Overload - The key attributes I look at while considering this setup are: offensive awareness, passing, and puck control. I also look at the skating attributes because having 2 guys with 90+ acceleration and one guy with 82 acceleration isn't ideal for breakouts which are this strategies bread and butter. As such defensemen do not get in on the offense as much with this setup. The Carry strategy compliments this one.
Behind the Net - I like to use this setup for lines that are skilled but not quite skilled enough for Overload. This setup also goes well with a Dump style game if you have speedy skaters on the line. Aggressive and pinching defensemen also synergize well with this strategy.
Carry/Dump - Puck control is the most important attribute while considering a Carry strategy. However skating ability is also important because having 99 puck control is useless for breaking into the opposing zone if you have paltry 78/75 acceleration/speed ratings. Passing also comes into play but not as much as I would like. The AI tries to skate the puck through neutral most of the time while using Carry. A Dump strategy also plays well with speedy skaters and doesn't require puck control. I use a max or near max(9) Dump strategy a lot on my lower skill lines to minimize their turnovers, because they will face the opposing forecheck. The CPU AI adjusts their strategies during the simulation while you are stuck with what you decided on. So if you leave a glaring vulnerability somewhere the CPU will exploit it with the appropriate counter strategies.
Cycle/Shoot – Obviously the passing attribute is important for the Cycle but offensive awareness is even more important. It’s awesome to have the ability to make a highlight reel pass however you also have to know when to make that pass. Cycle synergizes well with Overload and Behind the Net. Shooting on the other hand synergizes well with Crash the Net.
Efficiency/Energy – This setting depends entirely on your 4 lines. Is your top line star studded while your other 3 lines are lackluster? If so then I would suggest they play more efficiently and thus will receive more ice time throughout the game. My goal however is to always roll all 4 lines with max Energy. Sometimes the roster just doesn’t allow for that. So this one is ok to max out although I have never done max Efficiency before.
Don't Block/Block – This is the only strategy you should max out all the time and it should always be max Block. Any shot your players block is a shot your goalie doesn’t have to. This is also great for player development because it makes them always attempt to block shots. They will end up blocking some even if they suck at it and their shot blocking and defensive awareness will improve.
Defense:
Hold Line/Pinch – Ok this one is pretty interesting and there are basically only 2 settings you want to use. Set the slider on 2(Hold Line) and your defensemen will play just inside the blue line in the offensive zone. Set the slider to 8(Pinch) and your defenders will setup at the point and be in optimal offensive position. Puck control and offensive awareness are important when choosing Pinch. I use Hold Line for defensive pairings that lack offensive skill. You can play around with it but I try and make my defensive partners pretty even when it comes to offensive attributes.
Cycle/Shoot – The key attributes for determining what to choose here are: passing, puck control, offensive awareness, and slap shot accuracy/power. Once again the defensive pairings are important to me while deciding on this one. Puck control is probably the biggest factor for me here because if they are lacking there I will almost always choose to move the slider towards Shoot. Having your defensemen fumble a point pass usually results in a breakaway so this setting and the Hold Line/Pinch strategy need to synergize. Sometimes its best just to have them get rid of it and a shot is the easiest and most productive way. I do occasionally play max Shoot on very unskilled defensive pairings. I also will favor Shoot when I have 2 players with great shots on the same pairing, ignoring their puck control and passing attributes.
Now it's up to you to apply these tips and continue to learn their proper applications through experience(trial and error).
I received a PM asking for strategy advice and after I typed it all out I thought it could help other people here too. I hope it does because I know how confusing this part of the game was for me when I first started.
Team/Line strategies are very important because they help you guide your AI teammate’s decisions. They are even more important while using the simulation engine because your strategies are influencing every decision made by your players in the game. These tips may help you out in HUT but this is written based on my BAGM experiences.
Team Strategies - I feel these are pretty straight forward and EA actually does a decent job in their descriptions. However nhlguides.net is a good reference if you want a little extra insight on these. First look over your starting roster and try and cater your strategies to your players’ strengths. Don't attempt to force strategies that worked for one lineup onto a different one. I start from scratch every season unless my lineup is exactly the same and the team completely dominated. It is very rare for both of those to occur and the more you do this the more you will learn and it will get much quicker and easier.
Let's look at the Trap/Forecheck setting as an example. If my lineup is full of great skaters with above average defensive abilities then I would set the slider to 4 or 5(this slider goes from 0-6 while most sliders are 0-10). Meaning my players would setup in the Forececk more often. As a tip I do not recommend maxing sliders one way or another. We want our strategies to be efficient in all situations and by maxing a slider your players will only make that choice and never consider the alternative(which is sometimes the proper play and their off/def awareness will determine if they made the correct decision). Don't take this example literally because there is a whole lot more to think about when building your strategies.
As a counter example let's say I do choose that strategy for my Trap/Forecheck setting. However I didn't take into account that my goalie will face more breakaways while using this strategy. Is my goalie elite enough to handle these situations or is his breakaway rating a mere 82(I consider an 85 rating average on most things for NHL'ers and 90+ to be elite)? I also didn't take my actual Forecheck into account as it will now be utilized more often. Perhaps my Forecheck is an extremely aggressive 2-3 setup, which will lead to even more breakaways. The point here is that there are several things to consider while developing your strategies. So don't feel bad if it takes you almost an entire season to get your strategies right. It happens and it's not an easy thing to do. I've been playing around with these for a long time and I consider myself very very good at it. There are seasons where it takes me to the Trade Deadline before I have things where I like them. I generally evaluate every 5-8 games for most things. The PP and the PK are the absolute hardest things to do and I'm not giving away my secrets for those
.Line Strategies
Offense:
Crash the Net - The key attributes I look at while considering this strategy are: strength, balance, and hand-eye. It's also a bonus if your skaters are big in stature. This strategy relies on goalie screens and deflections. Having offensive oriented defensemen with the appropriate strategies enhances this setup.
Overload - The key attributes I look at while considering this setup are: offensive awareness, passing, and puck control. I also look at the skating attributes because having 2 guys with 90+ acceleration and one guy with 82 acceleration isn't ideal for breakouts which are this strategies bread and butter. As such defensemen do not get in on the offense as much with this setup. The Carry strategy compliments this one.
Behind the Net - I like to use this setup for lines that are skilled but not quite skilled enough for Overload. This setup also goes well with a Dump style game if you have speedy skaters on the line. Aggressive and pinching defensemen also synergize well with this strategy.
Carry/Dump - Puck control is the most important attribute while considering a Carry strategy. However skating ability is also important because having 99 puck control is useless for breaking into the opposing zone if you have paltry 78/75 acceleration/speed ratings. Passing also comes into play but not as much as I would like. The AI tries to skate the puck through neutral most of the time while using Carry. A Dump strategy also plays well with speedy skaters and doesn't require puck control. I use a max or near max(9) Dump strategy a lot on my lower skill lines to minimize their turnovers, because they will face the opposing forecheck. The CPU AI adjusts their strategies during the simulation while you are stuck with what you decided on. So if you leave a glaring vulnerability somewhere the CPU will exploit it with the appropriate counter strategies.
Cycle/Shoot – Obviously the passing attribute is important for the Cycle but offensive awareness is even more important. It’s awesome to have the ability to make a highlight reel pass however you also have to know when to make that pass. Cycle synergizes well with Overload and Behind the Net. Shooting on the other hand synergizes well with Crash the Net.
Efficiency/Energy – This setting depends entirely on your 4 lines. Is your top line star studded while your other 3 lines are lackluster? If so then I would suggest they play more efficiently and thus will receive more ice time throughout the game. My goal however is to always roll all 4 lines with max Energy. Sometimes the roster just doesn’t allow for that. So this one is ok to max out although I have never done max Efficiency before.
Don't Block/Block – This is the only strategy you should max out all the time and it should always be max Block. Any shot your players block is a shot your goalie doesn’t have to. This is also great for player development because it makes them always attempt to block shots. They will end up blocking some even if they suck at it and their shot blocking and defensive awareness will improve.
Defense:
Hold Line/Pinch – Ok this one is pretty interesting and there are basically only 2 settings you want to use. Set the slider on 2(Hold Line) and your defensemen will play just inside the blue line in the offensive zone. Set the slider to 8(Pinch) and your defenders will setup at the point and be in optimal offensive position. Puck control and offensive awareness are important when choosing Pinch. I use Hold Line for defensive pairings that lack offensive skill. You can play around with it but I try and make my defensive partners pretty even when it comes to offensive attributes.
Cycle/Shoot – The key attributes for determining what to choose here are: passing, puck control, offensive awareness, and slap shot accuracy/power. Once again the defensive pairings are important to me while deciding on this one. Puck control is probably the biggest factor for me here because if they are lacking there I will almost always choose to move the slider towards Shoot. Having your defensemen fumble a point pass usually results in a breakaway so this setting and the Hold Line/Pinch strategy need to synergize. Sometimes its best just to have them get rid of it and a shot is the easiest and most productive way. I do occasionally play max Shoot on very unskilled defensive pairings. I also will favor Shoot when I have 2 players with great shots on the same pairing, ignoring their puck control and passing attributes.
Now it's up to you to apply these tips and continue to learn their proper applications through experience(trial and error).
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I *ucking love you
. The setting is under Gameplay Sliders->AI->AI Learning. Don't be discourage though, if you have the optimal line strategies in place your team will overcome the slump quickly. If you don't, well this is the games way of telling you that you need to fix something. Remember this is still a program made by humans. It's not organic or capable of self interpretation 
. Sometimes it does seem that way 
.
I'm honored and thank you for asking 
. I must apologize for my neglect of this thread. I've had 2 children since I wrote the OP and I've been busy to say the least 
. 
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