League of Legends Dominion is on the way

Genevieve Johnson 11 Sep, 2011 at 8:49pm ET Article published in Gaming

It’s almost here—Dominion, the eagerly anticipated next evolution of League of Legends, is getting closer and closer to release.

In this newest iteration of the popular free-to-play MOBA style game, Riot Games is setting out to create a new type of game play experience. Rather than simply creating a new map skin, players will have to adapt and master a whole new play style.

On the Crystal Scar, players will battle for control of five capture points arranged in a circle. Holding these points will slowly damage the enemy nexus. Hold the points long enough, and the enemy nexus will be destroyed.

Dominion is designed for overall faster game play—faster accumulation of items, faster game phase progression, and more frequent 1v1 battles. The map is designed to last for approximately twenty minutes, and rarely hits thirty.

Riot has been intentionally vague regarding the drop date of Dominion. When pressed, they have only stated it will become available, “Shortly after PAX.” Rumors, however, have been flying that it’ll go public with the next scheduled update on September 14th. Adding credence to this is an official announcement made Friday on the League of Legend forums stating, “Ladder Season One will officially come to a close in the next update with the release of Riven, the Shattered Exile.” All in all, I call our odds of playing on the Crystal Scar on September 14 pretty darned good.

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Comments

11 Sep 2011 ~ 9:03pm Thrax LOL DUMBINION
11 Sep 2011 ~ 10:22pm Tushon Been ready.
12 Sep 2011 ~ 2:18am SpencerForHire Different heroes are going to be better here... This is important.
12 Sep 2011 ~ 8:57am MiracleManS

SpencerForHire wrote:

Different heroes are going to be better here... This is important.

My fear with this emphasis on 1v1 battles is that the gank heroes are going to be much more prevalent to the public at large.
12 Sep 2011 ~ 9:37am SpencerForHire That doesn't mean that'll be the best strategy... Just gotta play smart.
12 Sep 2011 ~ 9:41am Tushon I don't know if I can trust that avatar, but I agree that gank heroes (and therefore, gank hero defense items) will be chosen more frequently. You may also have an increase in pocket healers.
12 Sep 2011 ~ 11:13am cola I can see the Oracle's Extract (the equivalent of Oracle's Elixir) being quite useful as stealth characters are going to be dicks in 1v1 situations.
12 Sep 2011 ~ 12:38pm SpencerForHire Mobile Ultimate/heroes and trap/ward heroes will be much more valuable than gank hereos... The best strategy will still be small groups not solos.
12 Sep 2011 ~ 12:41pm Tushon Can you give an example of "mobile ultimate" (Shen?) or trap/ward (not sure what that means)?
12 Sep 2011 ~ 2:25pm cola People with traps such as Teemo and Shako will be quite valueable, as will people with universal/long range ultis such as Gangplank, Shen, and Soraka.
12 Sep 2011 ~ 2:56pm UPSLynx I can't wait for this. It'll be nice to have a way to mix up games when you play for long stretches.

Does DotA 2 or HoN have any differentiators in gameplay like this?
12 Sep 2011 ~ 7:09pm Tushon
From my extremely limited experience playing HoN: the map is larger, though it is very similar in play style as LoL (3 lanes, towers, creeps) with three major exceptions (lots of minor differences, but who cares about the ability to buy something from far away and put it in your locker).
- There are no summoner spells in HoN (unless I missed something)
- You can last hit your own creeps to deny the enemy gold/experience
- When you die, you lose gold in addition to the time you are dead being a 0 xp / 0 gold time (there is not a continual drip of gold coming in like in LoL)
12 Sep 2011 ~ 8:23pm SpencerForHire HoN does not have dominion, nor does Dota2. That being said I believe 2 things...

1. Dominion is LoL's answer to Dota to try and keep a fan base when it comes out.

2. I have no indication to believe Dota won't create other modes to remain competitive.
14 Sep 2011 ~ 12:19am JudahTC I'm going to be sad if this doesn't actually release tomorrow.
14 Sep 2011 ~ 9:30am SpencerForHire And failure...

Another duration we must wait... This will probably release right before Diablo 3 and the next episode of Half-life.
14 Sep 2011 ~ 2:19pm UPSLynx So we get an Orianna nerf and nothing new to play? EFF.
14 Sep 2011 ~ 3:05pm Tushon Lots of updates down there (Shen, Sion, Mord) and a new character (Riven). Seems typical. I'd hope they were pulling a "when it's ready" release, so they won't drop it now in order to make sure everything is golden for release.
29 Sep 2011 ~ 12:10pm primesuspect Dominion has arrived