Dominion Relaunch, now with a mockup!
Hello hello! It's time for another Dominion topic!
Okay, so here's the problem. The Dominion player base is super-small and that's just sad. So the goal of this relaunch is to help address some of the anti-intuitive aspects of the map so that players can jump right in without stumbling into the many newb-traps that plague Dominion. With the addition of new relics to collect, minions restricted only to areas where killing them is already a good idea, a streamlined quest system, and a scary new neutral objective to contest, the map should prove farm more exciting for everyone involved!
Oh, and one other thing.
With this relaunch Dominion would become League's permanent 6v6 map. Due to having more objectives to contest, having another pair of boots on the ground for your team becomes pretty important. This would also help alleviate the issue of Assassins and Duelists being a bit overbearing since champions would be less likely to be wandering around by themselves. It's dangerous to go alone!
So let's get down to the points, shall we?
First off, instead of losing Nexus Health you instead gain points by completing objectives. This seemingly simple change is to address the feeling among some Non-Dominion players that you don't really win games of Dominion, you just lose them more slowly than the enemy team did. This is nothing more than a 'feel' change, but feel of play can be as vital as it is nebulous.
Purple circles on the map: The capture node at Windmill has been replaced by a platform where the map's neutral objective spawns. The middle node is instead found at The Market right in the middle of the map. This encourages players to control the Jungle rather than faffing about in the lanes molesting minions. Controlling more nodes beyond three doesn't gain you points any faster, but it does give your team a small movespeed buff if you control 4 or 5. So controlling more nodes is still a good idea, it gives your team more map control. And map control is the name of the game on Dominion. Also worth noting, capturing and/or neutralizing a node no longer nets your team two points. You're supposed to capture and hold nodes, remember?
Green circles on the map: Each Speed Shrine now also houses a capture relic. Think Ascension here, you click on a Relic to capture it and if you finish the job without being interrupted your team gains some points. Capture relics spawn at 2:00, giving your team time to reach and contest any relic on the map with time to spare. Where nodes are mostly concentrated toward the bottom half of the map, relics are mostly at the top, forcing the player to balance the importance of holding nodes with contesting relics. To preserve awesome comebacks, you can't win Dominion via a relic capture unless you currently hold more nodes than the enemy team. I have no idea what the point value or the respawn rate on relics would be, that's a fine-tuning thing that would require work on Riot's part. Also worth noting, champion kills no longer net your team 2 points. Champ kills are a means to an end, not an objective in and of themselves.
Red/black X's, blue/purple lines, and gold circles: This is bottom lane stuff! The red X's are where minion spawners have been removed from the map while the blue and purple lines show where minions will still spawn if there are two adjacent nodes held by the opposite teams. The black X's represent fog of war where previously there was open vision. As you can see, minions won't march toward Market nor toward Windmill, keeping the minion action mostly down between the Quarry and the Boneyard where farming them is actually a good idea. Due to the proximity of The Market, champions down in bottom lane will be able to more easily join the action with their team for some potential HEXAKILL shenanigans. Quests now only spawn at the two nodes with gold circles, eg bottom lane. This is to help reminding players that ganking bottom lane is always a good idea.
The scary Neutral Objective: I have no idea what this guy would be, but the basic idea is to have something to kill with your team hanging out on that Windmill platform. I think Ascension handled the Neutral Objective really well! Whether we get a repeat of that or something new (giant crystal golem kthx) would be up to Riot. The point of the Neutral Objective is to draw attention toward the top of the map and send both teams scrambling. Contest Windmill or go grab a bunch of relics or steal some points? WHAT DO!?
BRUSH! The dark green lines on the map represent new areas of Brush to hide in, mostly added around the new Jungle area up top, though also a bit added to the lower Market entrance to give players another ambush area to jump approaching foes. It would also probably be a good idea to clean up the wall-collision on the lower left Market wall since the unpathable area is WAY bigger than it appears to be. Some additional Brush was added near The Drill and The Refinery to give each side of the map three stealthy Jungle entrances rather than just two. This should make it harder to box a team into their base. Feel free to ignore the first image and click the second one, that's the updated one because I forgot the side-brush D=
Finally some non-map related fiddling.
- Personal score system is removed. It's a newb trap.
- Blind Pick and Draft Pick are both removed and replaced with Blind Draft. Don't feel like dealing with back-capping Shaco? Ban that clown!
So there you go!
I would love some feedback on this, especially from players who do NOT enjoy playing Dominion. If you wanted to tell me why you don't enjoy the map and whether or not some of these changes would make things more enjoyable for you (or what kind of changes WOULD make the map more enjoyable for you) feel free to speak up! Your input is valued.
And finally?
ManWolf, we need some dialog with you. Please come talk to us!
