Some thoughts on VHLM builds after 50 something games. (Can we multi-claim .coms yet?)

[Shindigs 1,771]

Going into this season we really didn't know what to expect from builds in the VHLM, how high does your SC need to be? What about your DF? Is SK/PH worth it or should you sacrifice it for more SC/DF? Will players be able to afford Faceoff and Checking alongside their Key/Core attributes? How big a SC>PA gap do you need to be "good"?

 

At this point we at least have some tentative answers to a lot of these questions, let's start with the most meta question: How big does your SC>PA gap need to be? The answer appears to be 0. Yes, 0. James Kagelberg @MatiasMa is currently tied 1st in the VHLM with 29 goals. He's got 66 SC and 66 PA from just going hard on that OV button in the off-season (89 OV). Because as it turns out, when the gap is as small as it is at the VHLM level (4-5 is basically the max you can get while still having 60+ SC and a "reasonable" build). That doesn't actually really make much difference, James is 3rd in Shots in the league and it's all just from getting a boatload of SC without caring about the gap.

 

The gap not mattering and just getting the most attributes possible at the M level was actually my original hypothesis in the off-season, but I still made a lot of SC>PA builds, because I realized the meta idea of SC=PA = useless wasn't something people would be willing to give up on anytime soon. I think it still applies at the VHL level for sure, partially because with the hybrid system it's nearly impossible to make a SC=PA player without it being prohibitively expensive.

 

That brings us to DF, it's still the best attribute in the game, right? Turns out, not really. If we turned the clock back to S81 we had players on Miami that had 70 SC, 40 PA like a good little meta player, but they still didn't do *anything* offensively. Why? you may ask. Well with 70+ DF on everyone and their mom, if you didn't have at the very least 50+ DF you would just never get to touch the puck, as everyone with 70+ just acted like a black hole absorbing every puck in the universe. But guess what, even if you go pretty hard on DF in the M now, you'll still likely be in the mid 60s. The difference between 40s and 60s is the same as the difference between 50s and 70s was prior. Which means even players with little to no DF are still being elite offensive forwards in the M now. That was never a thing prior to the Hybrid change, and it really changes how you can approach building in the M.

 

Just as an aside I now realize I went full @Spartan and will end up with a MS in my .com, but fuck it.

 

This brings us to PH/SK, is it needed? I honestly can't tell you. James has little to no SK/PH and he's doing WORK. Velociraptor Greg @samx has quite a lot of SK/PH and is also doing work. So really it's too early to tell. What I can say is that players who have over-invested in Skating at the cost of SC/DF are not doing very well, Sam's build is a lot more balanced and works very well. But others have gone HARD on Skating, and it just doesn't seem to do much of anything in the M.

 

Okay, almost done now: Faceoffs! We have some guys with A LOT invested in it, and yeah. Most of them are at the top of the charts. So it does work, but we also have players like @dogwoodmaplewith a very modest 19 points in Faceoffs, that still puts him Top 10 in the league for FO% while also being elite in just about every other aspect of the game at the same time. It seems like a very fair and reasonable amount to invest into it, but we also have faceoff specialists like @Futch who despite his relatively low TPE is sitting around 3rd for FO% in the league at almost all times due to his higher investment. And because of just how many faceoffs happen in STHS, it's a very powerful possession tool and a huge PK asset.

 

Finally we have Checking, I used to think it was basically a useless attribute. Because the number of hits STHS tells you someone threw isn't the SUCCESSFUL Hits, it's just how many hits in some way, shape or form actually made contact. But it doesn't mean they were actually hit off the puck. And even when hit off the puck, more than 50% of the time their team still keeps possession. Making it basically just a way to farm PIMs without really doing anything. However, with how low the average SK/ST/PH is forced to be in the VHLM now, it's very possible to get your Hitting to 60+ combined with at least mid 50s DF and be an absolute possession monster. Juan Ceson @dylanjj37 is just a hair over 120 TPE in a pure "goon" BC/GR/PC build for just as much checking/fighting/strength as possible while still having some defense, and guess what? He's putting up possession numbers that massively eclipse what Bo did with 80 DF in the M in S81. We also have Jimmy MacElroy @Xflexz doing a Checking/DF build and he's also up there in possession numbers that I would have considered impossible prior to this season.

 

Now the possession numbers in STHS are messed up, but they are *consistent* in how they are messed up, so they still work for relative comparisons. Brian Payne @Scurvy was our Checking/Defensive Dman on Bratislava in S82 and had a very impressive ~11 positive possession per 20 minutes (I told you the numbers were messed up) and Bo with 95 DF was just a hair behind in the high 10s. Both Juan and Jimmy are above 15 possession/20 in the VHLM this season as checking Dmen. It's actually insane. Checking Dmen went from being something that I'd avoid if given the chance, to actually being cracked. We currently have more or less 3 Checking Defensive Defensemen on Vegas this season, and just look at the VHLM +/- leaderboards if you want to see how effective it is. Yes, +/- is a garbage stat that doesn't really tell you anything. But when 8/10 players in the top 10 are from the same team, it still tells you that something they are doing defensively is working. And what we're doing defensively is hitting everything that moves.