Warrior General Games

I went Get Low on my FB and choose the combo format not because I want him to rush but because I liked not having penalties and getting a Vision major gain.

Originally posted by Sklz711
First Step is pretty elite if you're going for a Pancake Build

Perhaps, but how many pancakes does a FB get in games that aren't blow out wins? Probably not very many, maybe between 0 and 4. Keep in mind First Step is chance based, it doesn't activate 100% of the time so it is probably not going to work after every pancake.

My level 52 FB has 98 strength, 76 blocking, 81 agility, 77 speed, 9 in Lead Block, 15 in Outside Blocker and 15 in Downfield Blocker. In the 6 games that our team either won by less than 30 points or lost by any margin, he had 14 total pancakes. In the 2 biggest losses of the season he had 0 pancakes and in the remaining 4 close games he had 3 or 4 in each. In those same 6 games, we ran the ball well over 300 times, or 50+ times per game (though admittedly some of those carries were out of single back without a FB).

So my FB got pancakes on about 5% of the time when we ran the ball against a good team. If he had a lot of ranks in it and First Step fired on 75% of those, and if 75% of the time First Step fired after a Pancake it was useful in getting to another man and successfully blocking him before the RB is tackled (either by your defender or by one someone else failed to pick up), then you have an SA that works the way you described above on about 2.8% of run plays in meaningful games. If you ran the ball 50 times, it might happen once or twice if you were lucky, more likely 0 if facing a top-notch team.

Edit - Get Low works on pretty much 100% of rushing plays, as long as your FB engages in a block.

Almost forgot, Get Low also helps get more pancakes by improving your blocking rolls.

Right now at level 44 my FB has natural 84 STR/80AGI/74BLK, so our builds aren't too far off. Basically by going first step you can theoretically take SPD to 68 nat, and just put AEQ into SPD, with possible one more piece in SPD depending on what SPD your RB, but with a high ranked first step + outside blocker + the improved lead blocking logic that has been put in you should be able to get by with 74 SPD for most RB. Putting your STR somewhere around 108-112 which does make a noticeable difference when it comes to cakes.

Also Get Low doesn't help with Pancakes, the move roll and the Pancake roll are completely different as far as the sim is concerned, see QA about Strong Base.

Just to clarify, I'm not saying Get Low is bad, infact if you're going for a mobile blocker that sustains blocks, Get Low is definitely the way to go, and neither are really "bad" for the other build, but First Step is better IMO for pancake builds while Get Low is better for the sustain/mobility builds.

Originally posted by rsb014
Perhaps, but how many pancakes does a FB get in games that aren't blow out wins? Probably not very many, maybe between 0 and 4. Keep in mind First Step is chance based, it doesn't activate 100% of the time so it is probably not going to work after every pancake.

My level 52 FB has 98 strength, 76 blocking, 81 agility, 77 speed, 9 in Lead Block, 15 in Outside Blocker and 15 in Downfield Blocker. In the 6 games that our team either won by less than 30 points or lost by any margin, he had 14 total pancakes. In the 2 biggest losses of the season he had 0 pancakes and in the remaining 4 close games he had 3 or 4 in each. In those same 6 games, we ran the ball well over 300 times, or 50+ times per game (though admittedly some of those carries were out of single back without a FB).

So my FB got pancakes on about 5% of the time when we ran the ball against a good team. If he had a lot of ranks in it and First Step fired on 75% of those, and if 75% of the time First Step fired after a Pancake it was useful in getting to another man and successfully blocking him before the RB is tackled (either by your defender or by one someone else failed to pick up), then you have an SA that works the way you described above on about 2.8% of run plays in meaningful games. If you ran the ball 50 times, it might happen once or twice if you were lucky, more likely 0 if facing a top-notch team.

Edit - Get Low works on pretty much 100% of rushing plays, as long as your FB engages in a block.

Fair enough, I always assumed Get Low affected Pancakes because it is the only SA I work on with most of my blockers and they tend to put up pretty impressive pancake totals despite all but one of them only having the standard 1 point of Pancake from custom EQ. My RG is the one exception, I took a chance on a piece of +Pancake SA AEQ last season to get him up to 5. If the Get Low isn't doing it and the blockers don't have much (or any in the case of my LT) Pancake SA, I don't know what is doing it.

I went with Get Low...I really like using him up the middle to block as well as the outside. Get Low should really help on the blocking up the middle.

A smart team wouldn't have to choose between Get Low and FS. Use FS with your outside blocking FB and GL with your interior blocking FB. Problem solved.

Any change of direction is going to have a chance to trigger a FS (according to vector acceleration which is what GLB apparently uses). So FS is the ideal FB blocking SA. Just my opinion. It'll help them get to the line faster and also let them move from one defender to the next very quickly.

Nobody mentioning Balance (...fairly obviously, because we haven't really seen it in action yet).

I'm thinking, if the FB's job is simply to occupy the defender (in competitive games against even competition), wouldn't Balance do wonders in theory to keep him upright against those monster D-linemen that happen to break loose...?

Wondering your guys' thoughts...

Depends on how it works exactly, but my understanding is you still get caked, you just get a much better chance of standing back up, and if that's the case they are still going to hit your RB or QB.

Originally posted by Homage
Any change of direction is going to have a chance to trigger a FS (according to vector acceleration which is what GLB apparently uses). So FS is the ideal FB blocking SA. Just my opinion. It'll help them get to the line faster and also let them move from one defender to the next very quickly.

Not true. Bort has stated that FS only triggers when the player is at a complete (or almost nearly complete) stop. It won't fire multiple times like you suggest.

Ive had Get Low on one of my FBs for a while (via AEQ) ... very happy with it ... and now I can take it to 9 easy ... happy days

Originally posted by oaklandraider
Ive had Get Low on one of my FBs for a while (via AEQ) ... very happy with it ... and now I can take it to 9 easy ... happy days


choose get Low for the same reason... its a really good Blocking piece

Originally posted by Magilla1973

Nobody mentioning Balance (...fairly obviously, because we haven't really seen it in action yet).

I'm thinking, if the FB's job is simply to occupy the defender (in competitive games against even competition), wouldn't Balance do wonders in theory to keep him upright against those monster D-linemen that happen to break loose...?

Wondering your guys' thoughts...

I thought about that, but I am hoping that most of the time when the FB gets reverse pancaked, he will have at least bought a couple of ticks for the RB. With any luck, the D-linemen that are strong enough to knock my FB over quickly are going to be relatively slow and that extra couple of ticks will make the difference. That's just my hope, I still wouldn't knock Balance until we've seen it in action because it sounds like one of the better choices for a bonus SA.

My FB hits the dirt a lot when trying to block CBs. I guess it is an agility thing or some last ditch attempt at a cut block. So balance or even cut block have been on my mind as possible choices.