How to Score Goals: TPE Guide on Offensive Production

[Grape 680]

Before these new (I guess they aren’t that new now) hybrid attributes, everything was pretty much clear cut. Scoring boosted scoring, defense boosted defense, skating boosted, well, I guess that one still does just boost skating. The point is, each stat directly boosted their attribute and nothing else, which would work well on paper. However, there was a slight issue within STHS itself. A meta was found in which players would basically pour TPE into scoring and that would generate oodles of offense. Now, while this meta wasn’t completely unknown, it wasn’t massively abused. That was until Vancouver went on a little run in which they won three straight championships, season 80, 81, and 82. That playoff run was pretty much the nail in the coffin for the past system, and in came the hybrid. Now, while the attributes have changed, STHS still hasn’t. The meta showed how offense is generated, and the hybrid attributes have somewhat neutered that offensive generation, although that was the design. See, the meta made it so that a player focused purely on one offensive stat, that being scoring, and STHS looks at offense in two different ways:

 

1. STHS decides what your player does based on your passing and scoring attributes. Higher pass stat = your player passes. Higher scoring stat = your player shoots. 

 

2. How STHS decides on what your player does is based on the separation of your scoring and passing attributes. To see a noticeable difference in offensive production, there needs to be a 5 level difference between the attributes. If you want to pass more, your passing attribute needs to be 5 levels greater than your scoring attribute for STHS to sim your player that way. The same is true for scoring.

 

See, that separation dictates what your player does; however, when there isn’t a separation, your player does neither. It doesn’t matter if you have 99 scoring and 99 passing, your player will still struggle offensively. So, you’ll pour TPE into slap shot and wrist shot to boost your scoring, right? Well, the issue is is that those stats, at the start, don’t boost as much as the big beautiful desirable stat staring right at you: Offensive Vision. Put 3 levels into Offensive Vision and your attribute goes up a level, compared to having to put 10 levels in either Slap Shot or Wrist Shot to match that. 7 more TPE for each level up till level 70 to increase your scoring level. The ratio remains awful. It only becomes TPE efficient when Slap Shot or Wrist Shot is still under level 70 and Offensive Vision is in the 75-80 range. Early on, especially in the VHLM, it is really hard to put that TPE into something that just is not efficient. 

 

So, you want to generate offense in the VHLM. How are you gonna do it? Well, you have two options: passing or scoring. Passing is a bit easier since there are only two attributes that go into passing, and the actual passing stat is better than Offensive Vision, albeit slightly. With that being said, it is viable to bypass Offensive Vision completely to become a pure playmaker. Now you would want to put some points into Offensive Vision because you want to boost your passing stat the most efficient way possible. Once you gain a strong lead in that attribute, Offensive Vision will only improve your offense, not hinder it. Level 70 is when the first drop-off starts for every stat, and that is where you should start to consider teching into other attributes. Sprinkle in some of the secondary attributes (puck handling, skating, defense), and you have yourself an elite playmaking M player. Just upscale everything for the higher leagues and you will become a top playmaker for every team you’re on. 

 

Scoring is a bit harder to do, since you have to balance both slap shot and wrist shot. In the M, you should put more focus on slap shot than wrist shot, as the secondary attribute in strength is more important than wrist shot’s secondary attribute in penalty shot. Like I mentioned previously, the drop-off for stats is usually at level 70. When it comes to the scoring stat, that changes slightly. Slap shot and wrist shot only become better than Offensive Vision after Offensive Vision reaches level 75. So, you push Offensive Vision to level 75, then focus on Slap Shot. There needs to be roughly a 5 level difference between passing and scoring for STHS to favor one attribute for offensive production, and to reach that, after bringing OV to level 75, is to boost Slap Shot to exactly level 42. That costs you 122 TPE and therefore, in the M, you have 78 more TPE to spend. I would say putting 40-50 of that into Defensive Coverage is wise as that improves both your skating and defense, and defense in STHS helps with your player positioning, both in the offensive and defensive zones, meaning you do offense better. The remaining can go into improving puck handling and skating, and, if you really wanna put up some points, bring slap shot up to 70 and start putting TPE into Wrist Shot. In the higher leagues, just keep scaling up and you’ll do alright. The one thing to look out for, however, is TPE efficiency. You’ll need to put points into OV at some point after to be efficient in growing your scoring attribute. Basically, the order would go:

Level 75 OV -> Level 70 SS and WS -> Level 90 OV -> Level 80 SS and WS -> Level 99 OV -> Level 99 SS and WS.

 

There is one area in which OV, SS, and WS share the same efficiency and with that you can go to any and boost your scoring at the same rate, being OV in the 80-90 level range and SS and WS in the 70-75 level range. A maxed scoring stat will have a 23.76 level difference from passing and will definitely generate a ton of offense. 

 

The hybrid attributes have done an amazing job erasing the old meta and making it so players have to balance attributes in order to create a good player. Make no mistake, though, the meta still does exist. It is just infinitely harder to obtain and many players simply cannot dedicate that much TPE into making it happen. To fully max out your scoring stat will cost you 675 TPE. Firstly, some players don’t even get that much TPE in their career. Secondly, that completely ignores the relevant stats that helped make the build so good in the first place. You still need to pour TPE into defense and skating and puck handling to the point where even 1000+ TPE players would have a somewhat hard time to have a maxed out scoring stat. Thirdly, and lastly, it really just isn’t as good. With the old system, you could boost scoring independently from your passing. The highest you can get scoring without increasing passing is 63.76. That really isn’t much to write home about. Try to emulate the meta all you want, you’ll be good, but not as good. It’s better to just get the separation on the attributes, and focus on making your player you, and not some cookie cutter template.

(1218 words)

[AJW 2,157]

It’s crazy to think how 500-600 TPE players were winning back to back to back cups not even 10 seasons ago. 99 SK,PH,DF, and SC only. Felt like it was the biggest bullshit ever and then I saw myself with only like 5 attributes upgraded too LOL

[Grape 680]

claiming again