Warrior General Games

i posted the same thread in the CB club but is anyone using zone specialist?

i am building a team from scratch and was thinking about playing a lot of zone, then having all my DBs and maybe LBs max out zone spec. that seems like it would be a huge boost to a D.

i'm floating the idea around now because currently i'm focusing on building the stadium and wont be fielding a real team till season 8. please give me some input on this idea.

if anyone is interested in being a part of this D let me know. we'll need CBs and S in the 30s or higher. thanks.

Very very good for safeties in my opinion- I have 10 points of zone specialist for my safety and plan on getting 5 more soon. I saw an immediate impact on my play when I got this ability. Safeties play A LOT of zone coverage....

ya, i think it should be a must for FS's, and depending on the team/system SS's and the rest of the secondary may find it useful if theyre playin zone coverages all around.

Originally posted by grandpa
i posted the same thread in the CB club but is anyone using zone specialist?

i am building a team from scratch and was thinking about playing a lot of zone, then having all my DBs and maybe LBs max out zone spec. that seems like it would be a huge boost to a D.

i'm floating the idea around now because currently i'm focusing on building the stadium and wont be fielding a real team till season 8. please give me some input on this idea.

if anyone is interested in being a part of this D let me know. we'll need CBs and S in the 30s or higher. thanks.

its a good plan. Now that zone coverage is fixed,i use it a lot with my team and it works very good. have your CB pump super vision and first step alot. When we play cover 3 our CB still cover the flats because of how fast he recognizes the play and then they break on it very fast

you saw some impact? thats intriguing, from what I read on the zone specialist is that its used rarely. when a team runs and once a pass is complete you lose all bonus' so if you consider that a team runs half the time and if the ball goes the other way half the time, you only use the zone specialist bonus about 25% of the time for the most part, seems like a little bit of a waste to me.

I went with track star, football genius and clutch (though I know the same holds true for clutch, i like the idea of coming up big in key situations)

i personally think people are seeing things that they want to see, and much of the improvement they think they see is changes in the zoning mechanics .... but then again they could be right ... *shrug*

Originally posted by Stone Mason
i personally think people are seeing things that they want to see, and much of the improvement they think they see is changes in the zoning mechanics .... but then again they could be right ... *shrug*

Well, unlike Clutch, there are no mysteries about Zone Spec, just some areas of imprecision. It gives a plus 1% to Spd Agi and Vis when you are playing zone. That's pretty clear cut.

Originally posted by Capaneus
Originally posted by Stone Mason

i personally think people are seeing things that they want to see, and much of the improvement they think they see is changes in the zoning mechanics .... but then again they could be right ... *shrug*
Well, unlike Clutch, there are no mysteries about Zone Spec, just some areas of imprecision. It gives a plus 1% to Spd Agi and Vis when you are playing zone. That's pretty clear cut.
The problem is that on run plays, the defender isnt in a "Zone coverage". I think Zone Specialist needs to be more define on if you start OFF in the zone coverage, will the bonus still affect you on non-passing plays.

I just put my VA (15) into Zone Sp. and the 1st game I got 2 picks. So far I like it, lol.

Zone Specialist is overrated in my mind. If there are ~80 plays in a game when the defense is on the field and your safety plays ~70 due to substitutions and of those ~70 plays about half of those (35/70) are pass plays and if all of those are in zone coverage, than you are gaining skill points in 44% of the games plays. While those 44% of the plays are useful, it is more beneficial, in my mind, to gain skill points in a higher percentage of plays... say 100% of plays. If you throw your VA points into skill points such as Quick, Football Genius, stamina boost, confidence boost, or what ever other hard points you can get... you gain 100% of the plays in a game. That enhances your player more than Zone Specialist.

Also, some teams may plan against using zone coverage by running the ball more or going with 4/5 wide receivers more, in which case you are/should be in Man rather than Zone. Pound for pound, dollar for dollar, the VA points in hard skills is better in my mind. Also, unless you do not boost, by the time your player is about to retire, you should have had ~45-55 VA points that you would have been able to use. Do you want those to be put to use for 44% of the plays you play in or 100% of the plays you play in?

Originally posted by Challenge Everything
Also, some teams may plan against using zone coverage by running the ball more or going with 4/5 wide receivers more, in which case you are/should be in Man rather than Zone. Pound for pound, dollar for dollar, the VA points in hard skills is better in my mind. Also, unless you do not boost, by the time your player is about to retire, you should have had ~45-55 VA points that you would have been able to use. Do you want those to be put to use for 44% of the plays you play in or 100% of the plays you play in?

No GM says "Damn, I'm not going to pass the ball because of Zone Specialist" any more than they say "Damn, I'm not going to run the ball because of Wall or whatever" which is to say never.

45-55 VA lets you put 15 points into 3 areas easily: ZS, Quick & Track Star. What else is there apart from maybe Long Reach?

Originally posted by Arya Stark

45-55 VA lets you put 15 points into 3 areas easily: ZS, Quick & Track Star. What else is there apart from maybe Long Reach?


This is a good point. Also, Bort has explicitly stated that ZS helps on 100% of plays where you're assigned to play Zone. On those plays that turn out to be a Run, you still a +x% bonus to Vision, which helps you read the play and react more quickly. Prioritizing other VA's is fine, but any FS that doesn't eventually put points into ZS is just being contrary.