Warrior General Games

http://goallineblitz.com/game/player.pl?player_id=784564

i was originally going for a pure blocking build but am leaning towards more of a balance but either way my first player i made the mistake of putting a bunch of points into sa's early on and my stats suffered i know i shouldnt stack them up but i was wondering when would be a good time to put some points into my sa's and which ones

I made the same mistake when I started my FB (my first player). Although now that I've got my stats up to a reasonable level, my build seems to be doing pretty good. I started to ignore SAs around level 8 or so and started to notice them working around level 20. FBs are a position that is pretty much defined by SAs IMHO. Since we have so many stats to work on, we're all very much a like in stat builds (some deviation, but not a ton usually). SAs are where we really start to define our roles. Which is unlike most other positions from my experiences.

So I guess that means, start spending on SAs around level 18 or so. As for what to spend on, it depends on what you're looking to do. I went more for the blocking tree but have some rushing tree ones. I focused primarily on "lead block", "strong arm" and "pancake" for blocking. "Power thru" for rushing.

I picked up a few SAs early, but fortunately not too many before reading that they don't kick in early. It's okay to have a few once you get into your teens in the levels (which seems to be around the earliest they'll start to kick in), but don't put too much focus on them.

I'd agree with Warlock. Pick the few that you'll need to define your player and focus on those. In particular if you plan to buy custom equipment, make sure you know which tree you want to augment. My FB is more balanced, but I bought equipment for my blocking tree because I figured it would help my team more.

A rushing FB will want as much Power Through as possible, and for an inside runner I believe Dive For Yardage is important as well (Based on two almost identical HBs on my old team, where the only real difference was 4vs1 in Dive 4 yds. The one with 1 in the skill even had higher speed, strength, agility and vision. Resulted in a .5 ypc difference over 180+ carries each, in favour of the back who was worse in every aspect except that SA)

However for me as a blocking fullback (In fact I have three. Although the first one is balanced but focused on blocking) I really don't know how effective the SAs are. I have roughly 3-3-3-3-2 for my lvl 27 and 22 FBs, and I've had so for a long time as I don't know whether it's worth it to get more. I mean most of the time he's blocking LBs, Safeties or double teaming D-linemen. For that you don't need a great deal of blocking. The 65+ strength and 45+ blocking is enough for that. Pancake would, obviously, increase the # of pancakes, but looking at replays it doesn't seem like that would do a great deal to help the HB.

Strong Arm and Lead Block, based on their description, essentially work the same way as more strength would: helping you push defenders backwards. But if you're already doing that, why get them? Lastly, Spot Blitz. I'd put points in there if I knew whether it helped SPOTTING the Blitz in addition to what the skill says for sure, that it's a +blocking bonus.

If anyone has experience with these skills at a high level, I'd really appreciate some advice. As I'm at the stage where my physical attributes are enough for blocking (Strength and blocking can always be increased of course, but I'm past the soft cap), so it's a choice between going for blocking SAs or focusing more on running. And I'm only going down the rushing route if the blocking SAs really are useless, as my FB doesn't carry the ball.

Good post Lathund, I will be looking for a good reply.