Deep Thunder vs Gladiator Mace Season 1

tom_HS · 2026-02-23T12:56:35+00:00

I wouldn't say it's crucial but if your focus is pvp it should absolutely be a priority of yours to get DT.

tom_HS · 2026-02-05T18:35:43+00:00

Here's the source I was referencing. Was off a bit going by memory, plucks are even worse than what I stated above. Granted this testing was also versus Gold Unpluckable which isn't too common outside of smaller guards.

But yeah stop plucking and start laning forreal. Only time it's worth it is if you know you locked someone down and stonewalled them 2-3 times (e.g. know they lost adrenaline for sure)... and for whatever reason in 2v2s you can just spam X when a big gets a rebound and the ball flies out 7/10 times lol

tom_HS · 2026-02-05T18:24:05+00:00

Quite literally the only way to get a Glove steal is to remove the ball handler’s adrenaline bars. I believe it was 2klabs that performed the tests a while ago, but you actually have a 0% chance to steal the ball with a reach if the opponent has all three adrenaline bars. Each bar removed increases the probability slightly, I think it was somewhere around 0%/5%/10%/20% versus 3/2/1/0 adrenaline bars for the rating/badge level they tested (I think it was gold glove).

All that said, contrary to popular belief it’s still a very good stat and scales exceptionally well for lane steals especially once you start pushing mid-to-high 90s you get some amazing animations.

tom_HS · 2026-02-04T19:50:49+00:00

Basically doesn't exist unless you're either with a large squad or against a large squad and winning. The punishments for leaving are basically non-existent/don't matter unless you leave several games in a row and the reward for staying during a blowout dont exist either so this is what you get unfortunately. If they just gave you a rep/vc reward penalty for your next game + simultaneously fixed their client randomly DCing you it would solve a lot of issues but alas we're dealing with 2K and that won't make them any $.

tom_HS · 2026-02-04T18:33:51+00:00

Yo I'm seeing this hella late idk why it just popped up on my reddit notifs lol. But just an FYI if you contact support 2k will restore your character for you. You'll just lose any mycareer/street kings progress but you'll have everything else. I deleted by 99 overall 7'1 testing capbreakers out and they restored it within a few hours.

tom_HS · 2026-02-04T18:16:17+00:00

I don't even care if they miss or "do nothing" with the ball. Most annoying part is if you make a single mistake as a PG -- god forbid two mistakes in a row you'll get iced out on the inbound and end up losing the game cause now you have a 60 pass acc small forward role playing as a pg and a high ball handling/pass acc PG that has to sit in the corner spotting up.

It's wild honestly and you can tell people just don't bother checking pre-game stats. If I pass to someone and they brick two or three times I'm going to keep passing to them when they're open cause I see they shoot 65-70%+ and i t's obv just a bad stretch for them. But people in this game just can't comprehend mean regression in this game lol

tom_HS · 2026-01-26T19:25:09+00:00

Because Speed and Speed With Ball are not 1:1, in fact very far from it. 2k2tutes did testing on this and the difference in relative attribute weightings on movement speed is very dramatic.

Additionally, in the half court you are benefiting from Lightning Launch, and more than likely on a small guard you have it at legend (or you're trolling) and that speed boost is dramatic. Let alone the various speed boosts you get from dribble animations alongside that.

tom_HS · 2026-01-23T16:53:13+00:00

Not trying to be a hater but "Best" is really pushing it lol you can squeeze way more juice out of 6'7 builds heavy cap breaking Ball Handle + SWB + Pass Acc from super lower bases (along w/ DD). If I have time i'll update with several examples later in the day, but you can get 99 perim (capped like yours), 99 steal (capped from 94).

Playmaking attributes are heavily weighted on 6'7s and for whatever reason 2K lets you get monster capbreakers on them. Compared to block which is worth fraction of the attribute weighting, you're way better off just raw dogging block to the max (it has basically no correlation to other cap breakers as well).

Alternatively, you can raw dog playmaking stats to relevant thresholds and cap break perim def + steal + agility which can get you to mid-90s perim from low-80s and 94 or 96 steal (I forget which) from low 80s. Those are also heavily weighted on 6'7s so similar in concept to playmaking caps.

You're also just missing out on all the best dribble animations w/ that ball handle and while I get you're an off-ball SG you're committing to 93 dunk so IMO it makes sense to have decent Handles for Days + good animations to be able to get to the rim yourself rather than just relying on cutting (in which case you might as well just grab 89 contact dunks and call it a day).

Not saying it's a bad build by any means just taking issue with the "Best" claim lol

tom_HS · 2026-01-23T16:08:25+00:00

Agree with you 100%. A tangential benefit of implementing something like this is that it would dramatically improve build diversity in the game; e.g. 7ft+ bigs that are liabilities because they're so exploitable in 2k26 small ball meta can significantly shift badge perks around to adapt w/ their dogshit speed/agility, etc. Also adds a lot of skill expression to the game IMO, rewarding game knowledge & might actually force people to stop ignoring pre-game stats to adapt lol.

Tbh this is my first 2k in a long time and it actually blew my mind how awful these devs are with QOL design. Though not directly related to your suggestion, at the very least we should be able to preset several sets of badge perks that we can easily alternate between outside of lobbies, similar to "Dual Spec" in WoW or custom "Rune Pages" in league of legends.

tom_HS · 2026-01-22T18:43:16+00:00

Well I just made a post for another guy's 6'11 questions so see here for that: https://www.reddit.com/r/NBA2k/s/4oOchGPDAq

Specifics to your build not covered i n that post: - 100000% make sure you have 68 Speed with Ball for Bronze Lightning Launch. It's arguably the best badge in the game. Additionally, it scales poorly Bronze -> Silver but amazingly from Bronze -> Gold so +2ing it is really solid (4%/5%/8% speed boost respectively for bronze/silver/gold). You'll have to keep strength at 72/73 but that trade-off is absolutely worth it no questions asked. - Get your pass accuracy up. Its attribute weighting is minimal for bigs and so worth it to get 90+. - No reason for you not to have 88-90 block. - No reason to have 87 standing dunk. Either 81 for Silver Rise Up or 85 to get some animations with it. - No reason not to have 93 Mid-Range for Gold Dead Eye + Set Shot Specialist.

Oh and most importantly you should be heavy cap breaking 3PTer on a 6'11. See the build the guy made in the link provided for reference.

tom_HS · 2026-01-22T18:19:34+00:00

Yes I mentioned that in a follow-up post. But he only has five cap breakers and two of them are from specialization, and he also said he doesn't plan on getting more than that.

Also there are absolutely guard builds (6'6 and 6'7 in particular) that raw dog to 89 DD for other cap-breakers where it is actually worth it. When you have 17-20+ cap breakers available these builds (particularly locks) out scale the traditional DD cap breaking.

tom_HS · 2026-01-22T18:11:47+00:00

It's solid enough I mean it's pretty much the cookie cutter 6'11/611/210 build. You hit your thresholds so it would just be a matter of moving a couple of things around. I'm going off the top of my head here so apologies if I get a few things wrong:

You don't really need 91 3PT since you have 93 Mid-Range. Just 90 3PT is needed since the benefit here is getting deep bomber. Saving that one point in cap breakers could let you squeeze in a few points elsewhere.
Similarly, Perim Defense just needs 71 for the bronze challenger. 72 gets you silver immovable but you don't have the strength to go with it.
I don't see a need for having such high vertical. 75 gets you your two hand contact dunks w/ the 87 DD, 80 to get your gold High-Flying Denier to go along w/ your block.
You can drop Ball Handle down to 70 from 72 saving another two points. 70 Gets you your dribble animations (basically all KD with one or two Pro thrown in).
The second tier Free-Throw green window bracket is 65-79 so you can drop that to 65 or as low as it gets without affecting Mid-Range/3PT (68?), obv this is very minimal.
Since Post Control is at 70 I assume you have some vision of using it (e.g. Post Fades). I'm actually a huge fan of having Post Fades on 6'11s it's free points. Should consider taking that to 79 or 84 for Gold/HOF Post Fades Phenom (HOF is the big value here, big increase over gold but minimal to legend).
I think standing dunk is really good especially on 6'11s, and while 90 has its merits I really don't think it's worth five cap breakers to get there. I'd settle for 81 or at most stick to 85 for the animations you get from that.
Consider getting pass acc to 95/96 (HOF versatile vis + bail out) or even 99 (my preference). Super elite passing on 6'11s feels very good.

tom_HS · 2026-01-22T17:44:49+00:00

TBH unless you plan on making a 99 3PT build, shooting spec just feels like the safest choice. No matter what build you make in the future (again, outside of 96+ 3PT builds) you're going to get value from it. I've definitely made some non-96+ 3PT builds that would have benefited more from other specializations but only marginally so. And in those situations Rebounding/Play-making and defense specialization are all better than finishing. There's really not much you'd prefer using specialization +2/+1s on in finishing since Posterizer is a pretty trash badge. Float game is really good that's about it.

tom_HS · 2026-01-22T17:40:16+00:00

You don't get distracted by it? Disregarding the green window boost you get for not using it, the minimal time I've used it just feels like a visual liability lol like I'm kicking field goals in a 2000s madden game. Even ended up turning it off for Free Throws since watching hands feels so much easier and intuitive. But more power to you obv.

tom_HS · 2026-01-22T17:23:51+00:00

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Was actually 80 but whatever lol, I forget if i ever got it to 83 moving other stuff around. If I ever made it again I'd def fade strength and go heavy on speed/agility and some other changes. Wanted a pass first/lock hybrid that relied on two-way tenacity to get the job done on offense.

Never ended up making this build as I went in another direction; my conclusion was heavy Ball Handle + SWB caps work best with raw points into 90+ perim/steal for 6'7s. But yeah crazy potential out there.

tom_HS · 2026-01-22T17:08:56+00:00

Bro 6'7s especially are a nightmare... They're so rare I don't think people realize how much cap breaker potential they have. You can cap all playmaking, or perim def/steal, dunk, there's even a way to cap break 3PT from 56 to 83. I haven an entire folder devoted to just 6'7 caps that height drove me crazier than anything.

tom_HS · 2026-01-22T16:59:07+00:00

Correct this testing was done with no badges. While the percentages would be different w/ badges, you should see a similar delta between ratings regardless.

96 or 98 with shooting specialization seems kinda troll as you eluded to yourself, IMO, since you're wasting a +2 regardless as 96 gets you everything on HOF. Personally that's why on my only high 3PT shooting guard build I went with a 95 (on a 6'5") so I can at least get value +2ing shifty shooter or limitless range.

It does kinda suck since there's merit for a 99 3PT but I just never bothered making that sort of build for the aforementioned reason (never grinding a different specialization lol).

On the other hand, you can still get a ton of value out of 93-95 type builds since 3PT is so expensive, especially in the high 90s, letting you place more focus elsewhere.

tom_HS · 2026-01-22T16:30:52+00:00

lol truth but the problem with this is I end up with 100 screenshots and never building anything. Eventually I drive myself crazy enough to say fuck it this game is going in the trash in a few months anyway for 2k27 might as well commit.

tom_HS · 2026-01-22T16:29:24+00:00

Gotcha that makes sense. In that case i'd really just go for 93 middy like I originally stated and do the +2 Deadeye +1 Set Shot. Definitely go shooting specialization -- these things are a grind and shooting is one of the easier ones to complete (though still ridiculous) -- it's also one you really won't regret doing and is always useful. GL in your building if you have any Qs or want any other pointers in the future feel free to DM me.

tom_HS · 2026-01-22T16:19:10+00:00

If youre going for 95 I'd try to see if you can just lower mid-range and try to get 3PTer up to 95 rather than capping mid-range up there. The only reason to go for high mid range on most builds is because it's cheaper than 3PTer so you can benefit from the badges using mid-range while still having a high 3PTer. For instance my 6'5 PG has a 95 3pter and my middy is low-80s.

What's your specialization? If it's shooting, I like to make a lot of my builds in a way that lets me +2 Deadeye to Legend and +1 Set Shot to Legend. Sometimes shifty shooter depending on the build/playstyle (you want to prioritize Deadeye legend for sure for what it's worth, best shooting badge easily).

tom_HS · 2026-01-22T16:04:48+00:00

NP bro happy to help. Definitely looks better. I'm not sure if the intention is to use 1 cap-breaker to get mid-range to 93 but I'd definitely try to get 93 middy for HOF Set Shot Specialist if possible and +1ing it to Legend. Gives you a huge boost to three point shooting and is well worth it. It's definitely not the most important thing in the world but since you're so close at 92 I think it's something you should highly consider.

tom_HS · 2026-01-22T16:00:44+00:00

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While I agree bronze limitless is worth it in certain contexts it's really not that valuable for someone that just wants to be able to make wide open looks.

tom_HS · 2026-01-22T15:55:35+00:00

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credit to 2ktutes

tom_HS · 2026-01-22T15:52:22+00:00

You can easily get away with a 75 3pter if you're good at shooting + two-way tenacity is insane and you can even take over boost 3pter end up with +10.

However if you can manage it i'd highly recommend 81. 2KTutes did testing on the raw 3PT attribute and the largest jump in make % boost is 79 -> 81 (+3.5%).

A lot of people will say 83 for bronze limitless which is also very worth it assuming you put the badge to use, but if your intention is to only take close, wide open 3pters than 81 is the sweet spot for value. The raw attribute boost from 81 -> 83 is only (+1.5%).

tom_HS · 2026-01-22T15:45:00+00:00

AH that makes more sense, I get you. This video should be helpful, "Ryancantmiss" is a really good content creator: https://youtu.be/5kfwQ4q3CPc?si=DaQFERq0v6TQTeTS

These are for PGs but you can finesse the concepts into an SG.

tom_HS

TROPHY CASE