Warrior General Games

The only drawback I have for adding Head Hunter to my FS, with 8 points into Big Hit, and 7 into Monster hit, is it says when he is traveling at or near full speed... What is full speed considered?

If I add Monster hit as his SA (I have it now through buying advanced EQ) will I be able to add points into it starting at 1, or will it cost 4 or more SP since I have it already?

If I add Jackhammer, and keep my current VA into Jackhammer, will it give it an extra bonus to it? (For this season, given that Jackhammer VA might be gone as a VA next season)

And I am going with Hard Hitter for his Archetype, would it be best to maybe add Zone Focus so he will be a little better in coverage, or keep focusing on the hard hitting, force fumbles way of play?

Depends on your SPD and AGI attribute points. Basically the closer your AGI is to your SPD the more chance you have at going "At or near full speed."

Any SA gained through equipment have no bearing on the amount of SP it will cost to advance an SA, to my knowledge.

I read somewhere that these abilities won't stack. So no.

That is up to you... Zone Focus would be good if you're playing a lot of zone on your team (Cover 2+). In Cover 1-0 you're usually man'd up as a Strong Safety, yet the FS generally zones (custom Cover 1 plays can have them swap places, I've seen it done and have done so myself). I'd aim for abilities that don't depend on the defense you're in so they are triggered every snap you get, instead of half or less depending on the DAI play calling.

If Full Speed literally means you have to be going full speed, than near worthless anywhere but kick/punt coverage. How often does your dot make tackles going full speed? Not so often.

His FS might hit top speed more often than a Hard Hitting SS, which this SA seems perfect for. The HH will have a tougher time reaching top speed on tackles because Change Direction is penalized. I suppose this is even more reason to keep agility and speed close to each other, to maximize acceleration to "top speed" as often as possible.

Originally posted by Shroud
His FS might hit top speed more often than a Hard Hitting SS, which this SA seems perfect for. The HH will have a tougher time reaching top speed on tackles because Change Direction is penalized. I suppose this is even more reason to keep agility and speed close to each other, to maximize acceleration to "top speed" as often as possible.

The types of tackles a safety will get, and from where:
Placed close to the line, tackles runner as he passes the line or as a TFL.
Placed close to the line, tackles the QB as a sack or safety.
Placed away from the line, tackles the runner as he gets past other tackles via brk tkl or juke rays.
Placed in some cover zone downfield from the receivers, tackles a WR/TE/HB/FB who broke a CB/LB's tackle or had too much separation from the CB/LB.
Placed in coverage on a WR/TE/HB/FB, tackles that player after they catch the ball.
Placed in coverage on a WR/TE/HB/FB, tackles the runner when they realize it's a run play, likely after those close to the line have failed.


These are those from the above list, on which Head Hunter ever has a chance of occurring:
Placed away from the line, tackles the runner as he gets past other tackles via brk tkl or juke rays.
Fairly likely, as you have some distance to the runner to accelerate into them.
Placed in some cover zone downfield from the receivers, tackles a WR/TE/HB/FB who broke a CB/LB's tackle or had too much separation from the CB/LB.
Also pretty likely, as many teams play cover 1 and 2, you'll find yourself down field from the tackler, able to accelerate into them from a distance.
Placed in coverage on a WR/TE/HB/FB, tackles the runner when they realize it's a run play, likely after those close to the line have failed.
Probably also pretty likely, assuming you can get around/away from the player you were covering. Since you followed them on their route you've created some distance between yourself and them in order to accelerate into them.

Bort has said that the SA activates when your player closes a gap (traveling over a certain distance) and accelerates into a full speed hit.
You won't do this almost ever when you're covering somebody. Or when you're right next to the line tackling them. Or probably when you're blitzing, though I may be wrong there.

I don't think it's an SA you'll see firing once a game or even once every two games until your build is very well rounded and assuming your player gets a good amount of tackles per game and is used appropriately by the DC to trigger the SA.
But considering it adds to your monster hit, big hit and your chance to cause a fumble, the bonus seems to be very considerable and would probably be a tremendous hit to the ball carrier's morale and energy, and they might even fumble if they're already a bit fatigued.

Now to specifically answer the OP

Originally posted by adamsmom
If I add Monster hit as his SA (I have it now through buying advanced EQ) will I be able to add points into it starting at 1, or will it cost 4 or more SP since I have it already?
Just as an SA you possess, the cost starts at the beginning and graduates from there regardless of EQ.
I happen to think monster hit is the perfect choice for a hard hitting FS considering the SA normally costs 2/2/4/4 etc instead of 1/1/2/2 as it does as a bonus SA. It's like buying on sale.

Originally posted by adamsmom
If I add Jackhammer, and keep my current VA into Jackhammer, will it give it an extra bonus to it? (For this season, given that Jackhammer VA might be gone as a VA next season)
They will not stack together. However, when jackhammer phases out in a couple seasons you will no longer have it as a VA, and if you want to keep the bonus to KL specifically you'll need to replace it with the SA. I don't advise this because jackhammer is a crap VA so it's probably a crap SA. Just my opinion though.

Originally posted by adamsmom
And I am going with Hard Hitter for his Archetype, would it be best to maybe add Zone Focus so he will be a little better in coverage, or keep focusing on the hard hitting, force fumbles way of play?

Zone focus isn't a bad idea for any player playing zone. It's all up to whether you want a bonus to reaction time/movement capabilities or a bonus to tackling well/forcing fumbles/knocking the ball loose.
I think it depends on your other attributes. If you're already really fast, agile, and have good reaction time (high vision, super vision) then you don't much need the zone focus, though it can still help obviously. Or if you already have plenty of make tackle/force fumble modifiers maybe you don't need a tackle/fumble oriented SA, though it too can still help obviously. It's up to you and what you think will grant you the most sizable bonus or which can be corrected for the easiest.

Though it's worth noting that if Zone focus is like jackhammer in that its counterpart Zone Specialist (the VA) is being phased out and if you have the VA now and want to retain a similar bonus you need to pick Zone Focus.

We're more than 1/2 way through the season now. Has anyone seen Head Hunter make an impact thus far? I'm considering building it up for my 60's SS and wondering if it's going to be worth the effort.

Originally posted by Buckeyed
We're more than 1/2 way through the season now. Has anyone seen Head Hunter make an impact thus far? I'm considering building it up for my 60's SS and wondering if it's going to be worth the effort.

Yeah, anyone see it? I put it on my stupid fast SS, but he's not rounded out enough with TKL and STR yet to see the effects.

I put six pts into it on a lvl 10 guy I'm going to retire. His speed agility is like 50/50. Obiviously low str/tkl and no big hit monster hit, so it won't be pretty but I'll see what happens.

Originally posted by retskcuhc
I put six pts into it on a lvl 10 guy I'm going to retire. His speed agility is like 50/50. Obiviously low str/tkl and no big hit monster hit, so it won't be pretty but I'll see what happens.

If you don't have anything in BH or MH, what do you think you're going to find out?

yeah lol, and with no STR/TKL how are you going to see any effects?
All you'll really find out is if it pops up in the replays when it fires, which it shouldn't.

I was really excited about this head hunter as well. I made a strong hitter safety to put it on. It's still plenty early to expect to see results but I am getting a sinking feeling more and more about it. I figure a safety needs a lot of speed. so need to get that cap up to 74 first? then need to travel at around full speed, so need tons of agi too. Maybe only to next lowest cap than what speed is at. And then to fire off the skill. need lots of str and tackle. Not really sure how long it would take to get a guy up to finally see some kind of results off this thing. I get bored quickly, might end up retiring him before I get there.

Originally posted by azrolator
I was really excited about this head hunter as well. I made a strong hitter safety to put it on. It's still plenty early to expect to see results but I am getting a sinking feeling more and more about it. I figure a safety needs a lot of speed. so need to get that cap up to 74 first? then need to travel at around full speed, so need tons of agi too. Maybe only to next lowest cap than what speed is at. And then to fire off the skill. need lots of str and tackle. Not really sure how long it would take to get a guy up to finally see some kind of results off this thing. I get bored quickly, might end up retiring him before I get there.

Welcome to general player creation. They all take forever.

i haven't performed many experiments, but i have 2 HH, 7 BH, 7 MH, power archetype

dropped my speed to 102, agi is 83

i've been getting big hits and monster hits like bananas... with 15 in helmet crash i imagine it's very effective

I have the opportunity to get a closing speed piece of gear. I was wondering how that would affect his ability to get to max or nearly max speed if I got it to 5 ( to make HH more worth it). What is the distance required for it to activate? What is 'far away'? Or would that be a waste of gear?