Build burnout

[Andrew]

How often do you guys change or feel inclined to change your MyCAREER builds? I have two builds so far in 2K21: a max height/weight Paint Beast and a stretch 4. With the stretch 4 people hardly pass the ball to me while with my paint beast I am dominant and the best player on the court almost every game. Now I'm left thinking how dominant my paint beast could be if I maybe took some attributes away from something else and made him a decent shooter... it never ends. I'm just curious if anyone else is crazy like this.

I think at moments like this it's a good time for me to put 2K away and try some of these other games I've wanted to.

[Andrew]

For many years, I only ran with one build: a Playmaker of some kind, depending on the build system and what kind of hybrids it produced (if any). Since I'd built up a stack of VC in NBA 2K20, I ended up creating a Glass-Cleaning Lockdown as well, and really developing a taste for playing as a big after several years of being a point guard.

Generally speaking, I've only run with one build at a time, and in most years, only ever created the one (aside from messing around with test builds, or creating a second build to skip the story so that I can access The Neighborhood earlier). I'm not about to pay for VC, or spend the time grinding it to create multiple builds or re-spec, so there's no temptation for me to do that.

Well, for the most part. I will say that playing online in The Rec and seeing how so many gamers do such a poor job of running the point and hitting the open man, it does make me wish that I was still a point guard at times. Then again, I've also found that ball dominant players will freeze out pass-first playmakers anyway, so at least as a Lob Threat big, I can block, rebound, outlet, inbound, and get some dunks.

[cavs4872]

Yeah, I think a key influence in me making a paint beast was the thought "What build can I make that can be effective without touching the ball?", cause with all the morons running amok you're never guaranteed the ball. Like you said, even with a big I will be wide open under the rim multiple times and the guard will just ignore me.

On an unrelated tangent, it seems like the love and art of basketball is missed on so many people nowadays; the last thing I did was play Hawks @ Nets (Live 19) and the dude was just zig-zag cheese and shooting everything with Durant and Kyrie... but then again it's a tough call cause there's so many kids out there with undeveloped brains... I know that's a really strange way of looking at it, but that's a legit thing.

[Andrew]

Part of the problem is that the games don't necessarily reward actual basketball strategy during online play, but there's a younger generation of players that are definitely just about the highlights and stats. It results in terrible shot selection, selfish play, no ball movement, and losses. It's frustrating when the first few plays of the game are pretty good, then half the team decides they're going to play selfishly, squandering the lead and eventually losing the game. I mean, clearly team ball was working; why go away from it?

On the plus side, if you can at least get teamed up with people who can Green their releases frequently and have some semblance of basketball IQ, you'll at least be a part of some wins.

[cavs4872]

I've done some testing with other builds and at the end of the day I still think I'm satisfied with my Paint Beast... I found that shooting and sitting out on the perimeter made me less effective than well, being in the paint (who'd've thought ). I guess we all can't be LeBron and have to choose our specialties.

[Andrew]

The way shooting is this year - at least on Current Gen - I feel more comfortable inside anyway, at least online. Of course, there you have to deal with overpowered Intimidator Badges and clipping/elbow blocks, but it's not quite as bad once you've got a few upgrades inside scoring Badges of your own.

[cavs4872]

I've already upgraded my Worm badge to silver... it's been great.

[Andrew]

Here are the Badges I'm currently running with for my Lob Threat.

[cavs4872]

I was actually just working on mine and wasn't sure to upgrade Dropstepper or Post Spin Technician... I opted for Dropstepper as I'm more lumbering and on the block but am not really even sure the difference between these two badges tbh.

[Andrew]

I'd say favouring the drop step over the spin and drive is the right call if your build isn't that fleet of foot.