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Impulses for a Rework and Re-Release of Dominion

SaltyToplaneGoat·5/8/2015, 10:21:30 PM·1 votes·717 views

We all know of the current fate this mode currently suffers: zero attention from Riot, a few tiny balance things after ages of doing nothing, in terms of graphics it completly pales next to HA and SR - and it completly wastes it's potential it could have had as a Capturing-gamemode.

First of all, I'm not proposing a total scrapping of the map, but some changes that could help to make Dominion more unique and give it more popularity.

Things that should stay the same: five objective points, arranged in the circle that can be hold, holding objectives grants points, health-packs and speed-shrines.

Things that should change:

1.) change the "entrance points" of the map. At first this sounds strange, but it will make sense with the other stuff I'd like to propose. Right now you have 2 Close to spawn points + 1 point actually worth fighting over. So, how do we get this to "5 points actually worth fighting over"? You guys remember ascension-mode? When you couldn't "walk" into the map, but had to "warp in"? Place the Map-entrance in the middle of the map, add some security that the two teams cannot fight each other in that small area (map limitation/wall) and suddenly all points are important - and you can start working on making the points more unique since suddenly symmetry is not as important... which lead me to the next point:

2.) Give the capture-objectives special meaning. Right now we have five identical points that act as a tiny tower at some point. Make those points special!

Make one spawn an Super-Creep (or something more impressive) that charges towards the next point, helping your team capturing it! It can be a super tanky Npc, a group of healing/supporting NPCs, or simply a shitton of creeps that comes out on capture.

Make one influence the lane to the next point with an AoE-Speed-Buff! If you think about it there's tons of stuff you can do.

Or simply make them live up to their names! One of the points is called "boneyard"... hmm what could happen when you capture that? RIGHT! Undead NPCs (tiny skeletons or some big ass dragon beast... whatever rolls best with the theme). We got a point called "Quarry"? Hmmm sounds like stone-golems to me! A "Drill"? Hmm my first impulse would be "drilling a hole to somewhere in the map" (like a bard-portal). Or how about: "Causes an earthquake that causes the earth along the next lane to break open. Rifts in the earth cannot be walked over, making it harder to get flanked on your way to the next point.

(These are all just random ideas I just made up, don't flame me on these please. Also they are intended to be one time-things that are granted on capture, encouraging players to keep on with their offensive.)

On the other hand I can see some points easly being remodeled and renamed since their current name, theme and location holds actually zero significance to gameplay.

3.) Point Capture > Point Holding

This is pretty much the essence of what I have in mind for Dominion: fighting over points and capturing them is fun. Simply sitting at your point and just blocking the enemy off? Nah, not so much. I mean, isn't it SO MUCH FUN to play against a heimerdinger turteling under his tower? -.- There should be a system that rewards offensive playstyle more than devensive. Dominion is supposed to be more fast-paced than Summoner's Rift anyways, so I see no problem with this.

4.) Increase the map on the side ring. Just a little, so you can effectively "flank" someone, giving the whole thing a bit more strategical depth. (not really necessary but it seems like an interesting idea.

5.) Map-VU pls. Goes without saying.

So, what do you guys think about this? I for my part would love seeing dominion getting some love...

4 Comments

SaltyToplaneGoat5/9/2015, 5:10:54 PM1 votes

Not a single comment? Yo man I knew Dominion was unpopular, but I never thought that it was that bad...

0115D8CF5/9/2015, 9:35:55 PM1 votes

teleporting to points sounds like it might work, I was actually thinking about that the other day while playing. but that might make it too snowball-y unless there's like a cooldown to points or something. you could recall heal and tp right back, never giving the other team a chance to take it

special things per point wouldn't make them all worth fighting over unless they're perfectly balanced (won't happen unless they all give the same thing). people will find the best one to have, and unless that's the middle point (top, middle of the two teams I mean), it will give unfair map advantage. unless you can tp to points, but then that goes back to what I said, but even worse since there's some buff too now.

for more point capturing, I think they should add the small relics that ascension had. this would keep people off of capture points all the time, encourage jungle control, and lead to more fights

I'm not sure what you mean by your 4th point tbh. I think you mean increasing the overall map size but not changing the size of the ring so there's more space on the outside. that could work as part of a map update. I'm not sure it would be as important as some other changes, but it could be something for more skilled players than me to talk about.

I'd like to see a map update for sure, even on a smaller scale than the recent SR one (SR took long enough, I imagine a CS one would take even longer because less resources going into it). the current map is really ugly compared to all the others imo