When to not take block

[BoomFrog]

Block's a great skill, a must on linemen and blitzes, and good defensive measure on catchers, but I feel like there are more important things to take on Throwers. On my human team my skill plans are:

Offensive Thrower: (Sure hands, Pass) Accurate, Nerves of Steel, Dump Off, Safe Throw, Block, Pro [Strong arm on doubles]

Defensive Thrower: (Sure hands, Pass) Leader, Hail Marry Pass, Block, Accurate, Nerves of Steel, Dump Off[Dodge on doubles]

Am I making a mistake by taking block so late on their progression? If they have the ball I don't want to be throwing blocks and dump off seems a better defense then taking a block. And most teams have a wrestler to go after the ball carrier anyway.

[Greyhound]

Like all builds, it is a choice and you will have a much better passer without taking Block.

However there are several factors you should take into account:
1) the opposition, if you face fast and agile teams, you will suffer from the following:
- deep kicks
- Blitz events
- failed pick-up.
2) there may be a wrestle player in the opposition ready to take you down, but there will more often be a legion of block-ready players who become ideal choices to take your thrower. By the time you reach level 2 or 3 there will be an army of blockers who are dying to get a block at your thrower.
3) without block nor dodge, you fall to the ground half the time on a one die block, rolling on your low armour.

At the end of the day if you were talking about a res tourney where thrower will keep coming back, sure go ahead, but in the reality of the league games you will have horrible games where things go wrong and your lack of block will make it a lot worse.

To summarise my long answer, yes dump off keeps the ball going and helps you retain the lead in the drive, but block keeps the player alive and retain him on your roster.

[Coach]

First of, Block isn't a must have on Linemen any more, please read http://bbtactics.com/wrestle/

You may also find http://bbtactics.com/strategy/players/human-players/ useful.

Throwers can get away without taking Block early if you build them into a an out and out deep thrower. Typically though that is better suited to an Elf player as they can dodge out of trouble a lot easier than an AG3 one. On my Human teams, the first skill advance the starting Thrower gets is Block. Just cause he is a Thrower doesn't mean you should be looking to throw it all the time, running with the ball and having Block + Sure Hands is often far more effective and safer.

Good Luck!

[BoomFrog]

Thanks Coach, I've already read your guides I just wanted to see comments on my alternative idea. And yeah, I am planing to take wrestle on my linemen, I forgot to distinguish block and wrestle.

The three situations I usually find myself in are 1) everything's fine 2) against bashy my cage collapses and I am forced to make a passing play to score. 3) against flashy my BC gets marked by a sidestepping blodger and I don't want to risk a dodge so I have to pass or hand-off.

Accurate is desperately needed in both 2 and 3, and nerves helps a lot in case 3. Block seems to only come up to save my ass if I've already really screwed up. Although helping to keep him alive is a really strong argument. If he passes the ball but stays in a TZ then he's going to get hit the next turn, probably with vigor.

I meant for this topic to be about what positionals do you take block late on, but I guess it's just turned out to be about how to develop a human thrower. Oh well, thanks for all the advice.

[Ullis]

I think one issue is that you're likely to never to get to Block with your plan there. Even three skills on human throwers is quite a lot, especially if they don't have any blocking skills (Dodge, Block or Wrestle) to help them live. And with just three skills the TV of the player is quite a lot, let alone with 4 or 5. In my mind Accurate and Block should suffice for a human offensive thrower (Strong Arm and Accurate are a lot of fun though as a long passing game is great). Accurate is really nice as it makes quick passes so much more reliable.

[Grumbledook]

with block he can just blitz away

or you position catchers next to them to hand off (where accurate makes no diff) and blitz one of them free first instead

they can't mark everyone unless you are massively outnumbered