Originally posted by risico
First, 77 natural strength at lvl 33 isn't that much. A lot of DTs and NTs will easily match that, so I can see where you're coming from with the "not that much of an advantage" idea. Heck, I had DTs (built as agility DTs) that had 77 strength at lvl 33.
My contention is that if you pump strength high enough early, no DT is going to match it. I haven't seen many DTs with 90+ natural strength at lvl 33. That's what I would consider a sizeable strength advantage. With a sizeable strength advantage, the pancake SA is going to make a difference. It has for my C - most pancakes of any C in his league and he was playing underleveled for p much the entire season.
I don't know if I'd waste SP in the Pancake SA. I'm not one to use the SAs much, let alone one at the end of the tree which requires a ton of SP investment. I'd agree that those SP are likely better invested in something else. That said, if you get a piece of AEQ with the pancake SA, it's definitely worth buying.
Your point was that the Pancake SA is very limited. That's just not true IMO. There's a difference between being limited and being inefficient. I would say pancake is p inefficient, but if you have the right build and get a piece of AEQ that has Pancake on it, I would use it.
77 natural strength is in-fact pretty good... in relation to how most agents build. I know this because I had 40-50 teams try and recruit me for S10. That doesn't mean that it's incredible either, it just means that pancakes aren't important to me... my 77 natural blocking and 68 natural agility (on top of my 77 natural strength) is what makes my level 33 OG so coveted.
Centers gain a considerable amount more to strength each level (~33% more in-fact)... it's relatively easy for a center to reach 90+ natural strength by level 33. My OG will be, at most, 15 strength points behind a well built center at their peaks. You can build a OG who has a slightly higher strength (maybe 5 more), sure, but he'll be a relatively immobile pile of shit... I on the other hand, refuse to spend those 30+ SP to gain ~5 more strength... they could give a much greater return elsewhere (like taking speed from the 60 cap to the 68 cap or taking agility from the 68 cap to the 73 cap). All it means is that I'll get a few less pancakes each season.
The pancake SA is inefficient, we both agree right? So WTF would you put on an inefficient piece of AEQ? There's better shit to choose from, far better shit... wasted SP is wasted SP, be it from building, leveling or EQ/AEQ/etc...
The inefficiency makes it limited. As in, the return you get is limited, so it in turn makes the SA limited. How good is a piece of +13% break tackle AEQ on a player with 35 strength and 25 carrying? Now take that same piece of AEQ and put it on a 110 strength and 75 carrying player... that +13% break tackle chance is roughly like +0.015% boost to break tackles on the first player and roughly like +1.3% boost to break tackles on the latter player. Tell me, which player is limiting himself by AEQ choice?