Even during prime league time, it still takes around 2 minutes to start a dominion match. If no one really wants to play it why is it still a permanent option? So many other players want URF or other custom matches (Ascension was my personal favorite) why can't we make dominion a seasonal game and one with more of a following permanent? Ascension will keep the crystal scar as a permanent map but may actually have a reasonable queue time.
Minarde3 votesFor one thing, Dominion was promised as a permanent mode when it was released, and reneging on that promise reflects poorly on Riot. More importantly, replacing Dominion doesn't actually do much. Whatever game mode replaces Dominion will almost certainly have the same level of Riot support as Dom currently does (read: nearly non-existent). As such, said game mode would most likely suffer the same problems of neglect and meta stagnation that Dom does. In the end, Riot would have angered a segment of the playerbase by removing their preferred game mode in return for pleasing a segment of the playerbase that's probably roughly the same size as the one they drove away. The benefits of replacing Dominion don't really outweigh the costs of doing so.
On a side note, replacing Dominion with Ascension is an intriguing suggestion. Given that Ascension is a vastly simplified Dominion, suggesting it as a replacement is interesting. Why do you prefer Ascension over Dominion?
Rast332 votesThanks for the answer, that makes a lot more sense now. I agree that ascension is a simpler version because the objectives are simpler but I also think it is a lot more difficult to decide how ascension effects each champion, team comps and is more fun! Updates would include changes to champions ascending, new champion spotlights would include a snippet of "mega" new champion and I think the design teams would have more fun with it. I also think it is simpler for new summoners to learn how to play their champion one on one and in a team fight (outside of waiting for Aram to give them to you). And finally I just hate how hard it is to turn a game of dominion around. When you start losing you keep losing. I think ascension offers a better way to flip the odds.
Sorry for the long reply ha but thanks for replying back!
SKOBODO4 votesAnd finally I just hate how hard it is to turn a game of dominion around. When you start losing you keep losing. I think ascension offers a better way to flip the odds.
Interesting. I think the opposite is true, Dominion is perhaps the least permanent game mode around (except maybe ARAM). Gold values will often be similar, so you'll have chances to outplay and gank even when your team is losing. On SR and TT the enemy team will get a massive gold lead if they're doing well.
I personally prefer regular Dominion over Ascension, for a few reasons. For one thing, I think Dominion offers more depth; Ascension seemed fairly shallow. Dominion offers more champion variety (Ascension was more about hyper-scaling assassins, mages, and bruisers) and generally puts larger emphasis on team play. Oh, not to mention that Ascension gave you waaaay too much gold too quickly, although Riot could easily adjust the gold generation rate.
Ascension queues started getting semi-long for me fairly quickly. Would that game mode really be fun after thousands of games? Would Ascension tournaments be interesting? I think replacing Dominion with Ascension would give it a short term boost, but after a few months or a year or so it'd be fairly dead. Granted, you're from NA, and from what I've gathered the NA Dominion player base is a bit smaller than EUW, so our perspectives on what "dead" is might be different.
Rast332 votesThank you for your input and your honesty. I understand what you mean and your points make a lot of sense. I guess I just wish we had a second map and game mode that had a reasonable queue time. I was just trying to think of a possibility and maybe you're right that ascension isn't the answer.
3lue1 votesMeanwhile in OCE, we never get dominion.