NHL 19 World of Chel and EASHL Player Class Loadout Guide

NHL 19 adds several more levels to the EASHL player creation experience. Instead of just static player classes that can’t be changed in any meaningful way(only cosmetic), now you can add Traits, Specialties, and adjust the weight/height to tweak your players overall attributes.

What is the best part of all?!? You can SEE the complete attribute breakdown and how each adjustment affects them.

Now, you might be asking well that is sweet but what is the “World of Chel” exactly? I’ll do a more detailed post on the World of Chel soon, but for the sake of this player build guide just know that you can use your created player in every mode inside the World of Chel which includes EASHL(6v6 and 3v3), Ones, and NHL Threes.

Loadouts

If you played the NHL 19 Beta or any Call of Duty game then you probably already know what a loadout is.

NHL 19 World of Chel loadouts allow you to save your player build setup(including traits, specialty, weight, and height) so you can quickly select it for your next game. You start out with only 1 loadout available but you earn more as you level up in World of Chel and can get up to 5, so you can set up your favourite classes for any game mode or situation.

Player Types/Classes

In this section I’m just introducing the different player classes. You will likely be familiar with them all if you’ve played NHL 18 or 17. The descriptions I’m using are directly from the game. If you are already familiar with the classes, then you can jump ahead to the player attribute descriptions section.

Forwards

Sniper

Snipers have the best shot in the game. They score from prime scoring locations when others feed them the puck. Don’t expect them to play physical or play defense.

Two-Way Forward

Two-Way Forwards are balanced offensively and defensively and are players that win puck battles to create turnovers which help their team transition from defense to offense. Don’t expect them to play physical.

Playmaker

Playmakers create plays by looking to pass the puck to their teammates to create scoring chances. Don’t expect them to play physical as their strengths are in their passing skill.

Grinder

Grinders are physical players that are often found in front of the opposing goalie causing screens, deflecting pucks, and jamming in rebounds. Don’t expect them to make finesse plays as they are best keeping things simple.

Dangler

Danglers are the most shifty and creative players on the ice. They can deke around defending players to create space for themselves and teammates. Don’t expect them to play physical or play defense.

Enforcer

Enforcers are physical players that use their strength to throw body checks which create space for teammates. They are known to drop the gloves to help energize the team. Don’t expect them to contribute offensively.

Power Forward

Power Forwards are physical players that use their strength to crash the net and make it difficult for the opposing defensemen and goalie. Don’t expect them to play defense.

Defense

Puck-Moving Defenseman

Puck moving defensemen are shifty players that are great at deking and can deliver tape to tape stretch passes up the ice. They have great playmaking ability as a defenseman. Don’t expect them to play physical.

Offensive Defenseman

Offensive defenseman have a great shot and are often set up for one-timers from the blue line. They are relied upon to generate offense from the point. Don’t expect them to play physical.

Defensive Defenseman

Defensive Defenseman are physical players that use their strength and defensive skill set to throw big hits and shut down the opponent. Don’t expect them to contribute offensively.

Two-Way Defenseman

Two-Way Defensemen are balanced offensively and defensively which helps them in the transition game causing turnovers and getting a solid first pass out of the defensive zone. They are well-rounded defensemen.

Enforcer Defenseman

Enforcer Defenseman are physical players that use their strength to throw body checks which allow teammates to take the loose puck. They are known to drop the gloves to help energize the team. Don’t expect them to contribute offensively.

Goalies

So… here’s the thing… I forgot to screencap goalie classes and attributes during the beta… oops ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ sorry goalies.

I’ll update all the goalie sections after the game is released.

Player Attribute Descriptions

There isn’t a lot of officially sourced information out there on exactly what each attribute in EA Sports NHL affects; however, I’ll share what I’ve learnt over the years. I also used some of the info from this old NHLGuides.net NHL 15 Player Attribute post as it aligned with a lot of my own info and experience. I’m not sure where they sourced their information from but I’m assuming a good portion of it is from back when the game use to have descriptions for the attributes, I think the last iteration with in-game descriptions was NHL 14. I’ll see if I can get some officially sourced info from EA Sports, if I do then I’ll update the post.

Disclaimer: The below descriptions are based on my own experience and learnings from past iterations of NHL. If you have officially sourced information that is missing or conflicts with anything below then please share it in the comments or on twitter with me, and I’ll update the post 🙂

Offense

Attribute	Description
Wrist Shot Accuracy	Accuracy of your wrist shots
Wrist Shot Power	Power of your wrist shots
Slap Shot Accuracy	Accuracy of your slap shots
Slap Shot Power	Power of your slap shots
Hand-Eye	Affects the player's delfections, hitting pucks out of the air, and one-timers
Passing	Accuracy of your passes, increases liklihood of getting passes through traffic, if high enough your regular passes may become saucer passes. I believe in NHL 18 that saucer pass threshold was 85+
Puck Control	The better this attribute the harder it will be to knock the puck off your stick via body or stick checks
Deking	Increases success rate of loose puck dekes and may increase accuracy of shots immediately following a deke
Offensive Awareness	For human controlled players I can only assume this acts as more of a modifier on other attributes, ie. increases chance of shots going in

Defense

Attribute	Description
Faceoffs	One of the several factors that determines winning a faceoff or not - find out more in our NHL Faceoff Guide
Body Checking	The power of your hits and ability to deliver hits
Stick Checking	Affects both poke checks and stick lifts - the ability to take the puck successfully and to avoid penalties while doing so
Shot Blocking	Improves the recovery speed from a shot block animation and may affect what type of shot block animations you can do
Defensive Awareness	For human controlled players I think this is more of a modifier - improving the chance of defensive actions like intercepting passes
Discipline	Decreases the liklihood of you getting a penalty, especially for penalties such as elbowing, double-minors, or 5-minute majors

Athleticism

Attribute	Description
Speed	Your top end speed - reaching and maintaining your top end speed is heavily affected by player fatigue(Endurance). If your Endurance is terrible then don't expect to fully utilize your top end speed
Acceleration	How quickly you get to your top end speed
Agility	Increases the quickness and smooth feel of your turning, pivoting, etc. you won't lose as much speed while turning
Endurance	improves stamina recovery speed to reduce player fatigue. Fatigue affects your player in many ways, most noticeably with skating but in NHL 19 a player with no or very low stamina will lose their trait and specialty bonuses until stamina is recovered
Balance	How easily you are physically knocked off the puck or down to the ice
Strength	A modifier(multiplier for other attributes) that affects wrist shot/slap shot power, fighting, body checking, and balance. This also affects boardplay, the ability to pin players against the boards and conversly the ability to slip out of a pin.
Durability	How likely you are to get injured - in World of Chel you will lose trait and specialty bonuses while injured
Fighting Skill	Increases the power of your punches and may affect how much health you start with

Player Class Base Attributes

Below is a table of each World of Chel player classes base attributes. Without any trait, active specialty, or height/weight adjustments. The next two sections after this one will deal with how the loadout customization options can affect the below base attribute values.

UPDATED: Sept 11th, 2018

Weight and Height

Weight and height can have a significant effect on the feel of each player, especially if you go to the extremes of any class.

Most player classes have different base weight and height, which means they also have different minimum and maximums – the below table compares all of that for each skater class.

Trait Values

Traits are brand new to the EA Sports NHL series for NHL 19. If you’ve played Call of Duty before then, you can think of them as “perks” except each NHL trait has a negative effect associated with it as well. So, you have to decide whether the downside of the trait is worth still using it for the upside.

You have two trait slots per loadout, primary and secondary.

Differentiating between primary and secondary might not seem important at first, but in fact it is! Your primary trait slot is worth more than the secondary slot because it gives a more significant attribute boost; however, the primary slot also gives an equally bigger negative for the downside of the trait too.

View the below tables for a breakdown of the positive and negative of each trait for both Primary and Secondary slots.

Primary Traits

Yeah the trait tables are a bit ugly, I plan to work on improving them later on.

Also, I know the level 1 traits weren’t unlocked during the beta but you could still hover over them to see what their affect would be on your attributes, that is what the values below for both primary and secondary tables are based on.

Secondary Traits

Specialties

Another new addition to the NHL series for NHL 19, Specialties!

Your Specialty slot for your World of Chel player loadout is sort of similar to the Trait slot, but Specialties don’t have any negative side effect and usually only apply the bonus in specific game situations.

See the table below for what each Specialty does, EA Sports hasn’t released how big of a difference the specialties actually make attribute wise but I’d guess somewhere around +3 to +5 for whichever attribute(s) is specified.

Offense

Specialists	Description
Loose Puck Dekes	Slight increase to deking and puck control while performing a loose puck deke
Quick Release	Slight increase to wrist shot power while performing a snap shot
Stride Dekes	Increase to deking and puck control while performing a stride deke
Backhand Master	Increase to shooting accuracy from backhand shots
Toe Drag Dekes	Increase to deking and puck control while performing a toe drag deke
Breakaway Magician	Slight increase to shooting and deking while on a breakaway or penalty shot
Windmill Dekes	Increase to deking and puck control while performing a windmill deke
Rebound	Slight increase to shooting from a rebound
Deflection Master	Increase to hand-eye for better deflection shots
Drive The Net	Slight increase to puck control and balance when cutting in towards the net
Hot Saucer	Increase to pass accuracy while performing a saucer pass
Spinster	Significant increase to puck control while performing a spin-o-rama deke
Marathon Man	Slight increase to endurance to maintain a higher level of energy
One Time Wonder	Slight increase to shot accuracy while performing one timers
Powerplay Quarterback	Increase to pass accuracy when on the powerplay

Defense

Specialist	Description
Back Skating	Slight increase to back skating speed while skating backwards
Rubber Man	Decrease to energy lost while being hit
Stretch Passer	Increase to passing power and accuracy for stretch passes
Medic	Decrease to chance of being injured and faster recovery speed when injured
Penalty Kill Specialist	Increase to stick checking, defensive awareness, and shot blocking while on the penalty kill
Quick Defensive Stick	Slight increase to stick checking while in the defensive zone

Recommendations

I haven’t tried out all the different classes in-depth yet, so don’t feel confident enough to give build recommendations. I’ll come back and update this section in the future once I’ve tested the classes thoroughly.

In the meantime, you can follow me on Instagram @ChelTips for updates and regular NHL 19 tips!