Warrior General Games

http://goallineblitz.com/game/player.pl?player_id=1394511

I have taken strength to 77 first, now sitting at 82 raw. I have 16 SP saved and will be getting blocking to 61 tomorrow after training (blocking at 81%). Next, I am training agility/stamina, agility/speed, trying to keep speed and stamina close. I will be training these until i can get blocking to the cap I want. I have been reading some opinions on blocking and I wonder if it is worth taking to 77 also? All EQ will be going into strength, but how important is blocking?

My original plan:

st to 77
blocking to 77
agility to 68 (training vis/con)
con 48
vis 48
con 60

Maybe SAs, but I think only a few are useful at C, namely run block and get low.

OR

vis 60
con 68

training speed/stamina for the rest of career.

Pick up 2 pieces of LG AEQ, and never spend points on passing tree (is this smart or do I need foundation at higher levels?)

I also have boosts left this season and that will bring me to the 68 cap on blocking at level 19.

Thoughts?

Basically, how high should I take blocking? I know I can pick up great blocker to add 6-8 points in it when I max it out.

st to 77
blocking to 77
agility to 68 (training vis/con)
con 48
vis 48
con 60

You can do all this by lvl 40 or so. Push BLK to 77. Might as well take advantage of the +1 lvl ups.

Foundation, Cut Block and Get Low are the best SA's besides the obviously great LG.

If all gear will go into strength, taking blocking to 78 early is a must i.m.h.o.

Originally posted by joeflex73

Foundation, Cut Block and Get Low are the best SA's besides the obviously great LG.

Really? I know foundation is a favourite for peeps in this forum, but cut block? I guess maybe lining up against the NTs with high Str and Agi, I had thought that the str/blk/agility numbers that a C can get to would make cut block kind of useless though. As I said previous, I don't put a lot of faith into the o-line SAs, maybe I am crazy though. At higher levels I was also thinking of taking agility to 74 cap or may 68 and con to 68 cap. I would like to see what a high con build might be able to do. That's another topic all together though.

Originally posted by RAPB
If all gear will go into strength, taking blocking to 78 early is a must i.m.h.o.

Do you suggest splitting the EQ up?

Really? I'm not so sure blocking to 77 is a good investment. I'd rather do SAs, speed, or agility to 73 before blocking from 73->77.

Originally posted by Octowned
Really? I'm not so sure blocking to 77 is a good investment. I'd rather do SAs, speed, or agility to 73 before blocking from 73->77.

Well, if I only took it to 74, that would be the last I would spend on it, it would auto level to 77 before too long. Let me do the math to see where I would be at level 40.

At 16 = 61
19 = 68 (3 SP remain)
21 = 73 (would stop here due to upon hitting level 22, auto leveling would take it over the 4:1)

Would have 1 SP remaining. At level 40 would have 84.74 (91.01 with Great Blocker maxed) at level 60, 93.14 (100.13)

OR

Going to 5:1 cap

at 21 = 73

train to roll over to 74

22= 75.75
23= 77.5

At level 40 blocking would be 87.74.

Basically I didn't figure in the training rollover into the first scenario either, but would roll it over after I hit the cap anyway. So, if I stop at 73 I gain 2 levels (10 SP) towards getting agility to cap that much faster and still can have 100 blocking with VA by the time I hit 60.

My conclusion is that I have to agree with Octowned, with this specific build and how I was able to take advantage of the natural gains, stopping at 73 should be fine. Thanks for all the feedback guys, it is appreciated.

Originally posted by Octowned
Really? I'm not so sure blocking to 77 is a good investment. I'd rather do SAs, speed, or agility to 73 before blocking from 73->77.

You'll only get a very short time period to raise blocking (due to high automatic level gains). Since blocking is THE attribute for holding blocks, it's a good investment i.m.h.o.

I took both strength and blocking to 77 on my center and he's at 110/100/69 (STR/BLO/AGI - including gear; 96/87/69 natural) right now. Still 6 seasons to go, so lots of time to raise SAs, speed, vision and confidence. I'm working on agility right now, but gave him 4 (natural) Line General before taking agility further on.

But if you are going to get to 100 anyway, do you really need to spend 5:1 when you could just have 97? Sure it is only 3 levels and there is only so much you can do, I'd just rather do 7 speed, almost 4 agility at 4:1, etc.

Originally posted by Octowned
But if you are going to get to 100 anyway, do you really need to spend 5:1 when you could just have 97? Sure it is only 3 levels and there is only so much you can do, I'd just rather do 7 speed, almost 4 agility at 4:1, etc.

So the question is: "Why to spent 10 SPs for that extra +2?"

I'd say:
- because those little +2 here and there add up - and opponents optimize their builds too (#1 reason)
- there's not much to work at for a center (#2 reason)

Let me explain #2:
There's still time to go 74 agility later on (personally, I aim for 78); right now, it would take my guy just next seasons boost to reach the fourth cap. So that's still 5.5 seasons left to do the rest, that's acceptable, isn't it?

Another aspect: while speed, stamina, vision and confidence are still low, they give some better training gains. When I'm done with agility, speed + stam will probably be trained up into the upper 30s - if not 40s (32/35 right now). That's only 5 levels to softcap both then - while vision and confidence are "leftover" for training to mid 30s too.


So let's do the math:

current situation:
Agility at 74 by season 5 boosts, speed 32, stam 35, vision and confidence low 20s, trees 1-1-1-2-4 and 0-0-0-0-0

remaining SPs:
- 5 level ups each 2 seasons for remaining 6 seasons = 15 x 5 SPs
- 5x3 season boosts = 15 x 5 SPs
- each season, due to off-season and pre-season you'll get an extra 4 bonus tokens for a token boost (besides the regular 16 BTs to upgrade 2 AEQ pieces) = 6 SPs
total 156 SPs

25 SPs to softcap speed and stamina after some more training
25 SPs to softcap vision and confidence after training it to upper 30s

remaining training should get all of the 4 in the low 50s area; now if you want to second cap one (i.e. vision)
20 SPs to double-cap vision after training it up to 51

...leaves 86 SPs for SAs, so let's see the trees. I'd like them like

8-3-4-6-6 (1-1-1-2-4 already, see above) = 19+3+5+12+8
8-8-2-3-6 = 20+20+2+4+16

That's 109 SP, but with a bit luck, a center can find 2 AEQ pieces giving one of the good SAs (finally giving +5 SA by lv. 56). So each piece saves 14 SPs, for I'd take that SA to 4 natural only. That cuts down the trees to 81 SPs.

Has anyone ever tried very high blocking for an interior lineman?

Although it's only a little clearer than mud, apparent.y, there are two rolls, one for the shed block/ hold block, and one to determine what the winner of that roll gets to do. Blocking plays a big part in the hold block roll so it could be that a high blocking player, maybe with some EQ in a % Hold Block piece, might be able to win that first roll much more often.

Originally posted by ewallguy
Has anyone ever tried very high blocking for an interior lineman?

Although it's only a little clearer than mud, apparent.y, there are two rolls, one for the shed block/ hold block, and one to determine what the winner of that roll gets to do. Blocking plays a big part in the hold block roll so it could be that a high blocking player, maybe with some EQ in a % Hold Block piece, might be able to win that first roll much more often.

80 blocking w/o eq

http://goallineblitz.com/game/player.pl?player_id=977719

we don't know for sure what kind of role blocking plays in the hold block roll.

Originally posted by Darren McFadden
we don't know for sure what kind of role blocking plays in the hold block roll.

I'm pretty sure it improves your hold block roll.

Originally posted by RAPB
Originally posted by Octowned

Really? I'm not so sure blocking to 77 is a good investment. I'd rather do SAs, speed, or agility to 73 before blocking from 73->77.

You'll only get a very short time period to raise blocking (due to high automatic level gains). Since blocking is THE attribute for holding blocks, it's a good investment i.m.h.o.

My philosophy is I only need to hold the block long enough to get a pancake roll

I kinda agree with both of you...it's a tough balance to achieve with only 10 seasons worth of points.