Dominion Needs Some Love

Erdman·May 21, 2015·10 votes·1,192 views

Well were to begin dominion feels like it is getting slowly phased out of the game. First off dominion (we know doesn't have the largest player base) so either blind or the draft variant of the game mode should be removed to keep the player base from being split to speed up Que times. This should be voted on by the players which game mode to keep that best suits how dominion should be played. Dominion has been neglected to be updated and players push it off because it no longer feels like you guys want it to have a place in the game. Recently loading screens on all maps have gotten a custom background to replace the standard black load screen. Why not crystal scar? Is it really that had for the art team to put something like this Dope.jpg into the load screen.

I just feels like dominion is not getting the care it deserves. That makes me pretty sad. I would love to here back from you Riot and the community about how you feel.............

Open your eyes and find the beauty in Dominion and its wonderful map Crystal Scar!!!!

12 Comments

CindikleMay 21, 20158 votes

Things it needs:

Replace both queue's with the system we saw in URF. Where there was a ban phase and then blind pick. This was asked about on the old forums. Riot replayed that it would be looked into, but that's all the info we got.
It's own rank system. Obviously it doesn't have the player base to support a normal and ranked mode. But the lack of ability to get end of season rewards is a disappointment and another thing that keeps people away.
Removal of the point system. It's horrible and shows nothing. Does nothing but make the guy defending top while the rest of us are playing a 4v5 on the rest of the map losing think he's actually helping.
Champion mastery. Same goes for other modes as well. I play like trash with Syndra on SR. But I'm great on other maps for some reason. My issue is SR, not Syndra. SR already has a mastery system. It's called Ranked.

This would fix a lot of the problems it has an bring it a lot more players to possibly open up a true ranked while having a normal mode.

Kholdstare13May 21, 20151 votes

{quoted}

Things it needs:

Replace both queue's with the system we saw in URF. Where there was a ban phase and then blind pick. This was asked about on the old forums. Riot replayed that it would be looked into, but that's all the info we got.

It's own rank system. Obviously it doesn't have the player base to support a normal and ranked mode. But the lack of ability to get end of season rewards is a disappointment and another thing that keeps people away.

Removal of the point system. It's horrible and shows nothing. Does nothing but make the guy defending top while the rest of us are playing a 4v5 on the rest of the map losing think he's actually helping.

Champion mastery. Same goes for other modes as well. I play like trash with Syndra on SR. But I'm great on other maps for some reason. My issue is SR, not Syndra. SR already has a mastery system. It's called Ranked.

This would fix a lot of the problems it has an bring it a lot more players to possibly open up a true ranked while having a normal mode.

Other suggestions:

_Invert nexus health. _ A lot of players who never got into Dominion complain about the feeling of "losing slower." In a VU, that could be reworked so points generate an energy charge to YOUR nexus, increasing from 0 to 500, and at full charge it unleashes a blast to destroy the enemy base. No change to mechanics, purely visual.

Rework quest system / add neutral objectives. The quest system is rather lopsided as it stands with the random spawning. The one place it does work is when it spawns along bot, forcing attention down there and starting a 5v5 teamfight. Restricting the "cap this point" quest to only spawn there would b a good move. Stormshield is a rather lame objective, and the fact that each team has their own makes it less interesting. Replace it. Other forms of "quest" could spawn in its place. A neutral capture objective, a boss monster with a dual health bar (one for each team) to prevent sniping, an unkillable boss/artifact that you have to damage more than the enemy team does over a limited time, etc. New objectives for a new quest system that would pull the action into more directly contested struggles.

CindikleMay 21, 20151 votes

I don't really see a need to invert the nexus HP. It keeps the goal the same as all modes. Kill the enemy nexus.

I agree quests and stormshield need a rework.

Instead of two pillars, add a monster. Killing this mosnter allows a member of your team to pick up the shield. So not only do you have to fight to get it. But you also have to fight to activate it. Just being the team to last hit wont be enough.

During this time the monster is up, things change randomly change on the map.

One side will cap faster
No capping can happen
Speed shrines disabled
Minions will take odd paths(mainly this will light up the jungle giving vision, changing the strategy you have to play).
Walls no longer block vision(brush still will).

Not all of these things, maybe two. But probably just one.

This boss will spawn every 5 minutes. The buff crystal respawns every 2 minutes(you can get up to 3 before the next boss). If the enemy charges the crystal, every second they charge, the respawn timer is reduced by 1s(so twice as fast, making it possible for him to respawn in 2.5 minutes.) Just cutting off 1 minute will remove the 3rd buff. Team that defeats the boss will cause all of their points waves to spawn an extra wave. This is so the enemy team has a reason to leave instead of just camping the crystal.

Next will be quests. Again having a random effect

Makes a node uncapturable(allowing someone to roam if defending).
Doubles a node capture points(this will stay after capped, team who has it at the end of the quest timer gets the points).
Reduces defenses of those defending points(encouraging aggressive plays).
Minion spawn rate between two points doubled, minion capture rate doubled for all points.

Dominion is known for being "fast and fun". That's exactly what it is. It's fast paced. Adding randomness is a good thing for the mode as it makes each team required to adjust their strategy on the fly to keep up with this pace.

Kholdstare13May 22, 20151 votes

{quoted}

I don't really see a need to invert the nexus HP. It keeps the goal the same as all modes. Kill the enemy nexus.

I agree quests and stormshield need a rework.

Instead of two pillars, add a monster. Killing this mosnter allows a member of your team to pick up the shield. So not only do you have to fight to get it. But you also have to fight to activate it. Just being the team to last hit wont be enough.

During this time the monster is up, things change randomly change on the map.

One side will cap faster

No capping can happen

Speed shrines disabled

Minions will take odd paths(mainly this will light up the jungle giving vision, changing the strategy you have to play).

Walls no longer block vision(brush still will).

Not all of these things, maybe two. But probably just one.

This boss will spawn every 5 minutes. The buff crystal respawns every 2 minutes(you can get up to 3 before the next boss). If the enemy charges the crystal, every second they charge, the respawn timer is reduced by 1s(so twice as fast, making it possible for him to respawn in 2.5 minutes.) Just cutting off 1 minute will remove the 3rd buff. Team that defeats the boss will cause all of their points waves to spawn an extra wave. This is so the enemy team has a reason to leave instead of just camping the crystal.

Next will be quests. Again having a random effect

Makes a node uncapturable(allowing someone to roam if defending).

Doubles a node capture points(this will stay after capped, team who has it at the end of the quest timer gets the points).

Reduces defenses of those defending points(encouraging aggressive plays).

Minion spawn rate between two points doubled, minion capture rate doubled for all points.

Dominion is known for being "fast and fun". That's exactly what it is. It's fast paced. Adding randomness is a good thing for the mode as it makes each team required to adjust their strategy on the fly to keep up with this pace.

Dominion is still meant to be competitive. Adding better objectives is good, and a bit of randomness in which one will appear is fine when it's neutral, but what you're doing is adding chaos and far too time-consuming distractions that will take away any hope of serious ranked play. We want to improve the mode, not reduce it to a freak sideshow.

CindikleMay 22, 20151 votes

These quests wouldn't be running all game. A quest probably every 6-7 minutes. Maybe 3 in total in a 20 minute game. Depending when the first one starts.

The boss in the middle I can understand. Changing it to 10 minutes, 3min shield respawn, would help if it's too much. Then increase the reset speed when the enemy channels. Or make it a 5s channel, 1s reduced each second channeled with a bonus 5 at the end.

ErdmanMay 21, 20151 votes

May god bless League of Legends summoner 21

MinardeMay 21, 20151 votes

Riot's asked the playerbase before for ideas on how to update/improve Dominion, including the blind vs. draft queue issue. A bunch of suggestions were provided, but nothing's come out of it.

As a side note, I thought there were loading screens for TT and Dom leaked on the PBE recently. The team working on TT/Dom map updates said that stuff had been pushed prematurely and quickly removed them.

TEEMOcalypseMay 21, 20151 votes

I think we need to TEMPORARILY remove it so we can deal with issues. Like the damn bots. Also, i think the gamemode needs some freshening up

0115D8CFMay 23, 20151 votes

I fear "temporary" would end up with us never seeing dominion again

ErdmanMay 21, 20151 votes

Love these ideas

RebonackMay 23, 20151 votes

The absolute minimum that Riot should have done months ago is replace Blind and Draft with a single Blind Draft queue.

They should bring back the IP/XP rewards for custom games, too. That wouldn't get rid of the bots, but at least it would banish them back to the shadows where they aren't ruining Normal games anymore.

To more substantive changes:

Inverting the Nexus HP would help. That was one of the most common complaints I ran into when I asked non-Dominion players what they didn't like about the map. It would be a simple 'feel' thing that would be easy to add, but it could make a big impact. Another would be to make capturing feel a little more visceral. As the point's health drops make the tower model crumble and break like they do in Rift. Then once neutralized you start building up a new one for your team. Again, this would be a purely visual thing, but a lot of players would find it way more satisfying.

Bigger changes would be things like restricting Quests to bottom lane or swapping the middle capture point to the Market (where the storm shields are) and placing some kind of new neutral objective up top. A HUGE improvement to the map would be simply removing the minion spawns that head toward Windmill (or market if the point was moved to there). This would be the sledge-hammer method of making it clear to players that pushing toward Windmill with minions is a pretty terrible strat.

We need stuff to make it clear that jungle control is the single most important aspect of the map. Add some minor neutral objectives in the jungle to get players fighting over them. Something akin to the capture relics from Ascension or the Scuttlecrab from Rift would both be nice.

Basically, there's tons of stuff Riot could do to improve the map.

NorthernDruidMay 27, 20151 votes

Replacing both queues with Blind Draft (the champion select mode used in all the featured game modes I've played except Nemesis Draft) is something they really should've done a while ago.

I'd love to see a sort of relaunch of the mode, with the map kept mostly intact but with a couple of minor neutral buffs placed around the Market to give the game greater objective variety.

The mode has too few objectives, and the capture mechanic means that it's not rewarding enough to push the lanes to get minions to help you (this because of how long time it can actually take to bring them with you, because it usually means clearing three whole waves if they're stalled in the mid point between to capture points).

Contestable buffs which could help with captures or give other benefits outside of direct combat power would be really great.

I'm just scared they'll wreck the map and transform it into something else entirely to go with the new AU they're building outside of the game after they stopped doing lore.

I really love Kalamanda, so while I'd love to see the mode be remade with more objectives, I kinda wish they don't because I'm afraid they'll take away my favourite map in the game and location in the lore.