Longtime players of Riot Games' massively popular competitive multiplayer game League of Legends may have heard of a little in-development map called Magma Chamber. The map was meant to be an alternative to the standard five-on-five Summoner's Rift map, offering a much larger map that put the emphasis on the laning portion of the game, where players try to prevent each other from getting gold or experience through clever tactics. Magma Chamber was announced a long time ago, and may never see the light of day.
Which is fine, because Dominion, an entirely new game type for League of Legends, is more exciting than a rollercoaster built on top of a giant rollercoaster car that is actively moving on another rollercoaster. On fire. Dominion is another five-on-five battle, but whereas the standard LoL game is a patient tug-of-war -- with the ultimate goal being the destruction of your opponents' base -- Dominion is a game of capture-and-hold. If you've played a massively multiplayer online game in the last five years, you've probably played something similar. World of Warcraft's Arathi Basin battleground is probably the best-known example of this game type.
The game takes place on a map called the Crystal Scar. It's a massive circle, with five nodes spread evenly around the outer ring. The two teams start off on opposite sides of the map, and the goal is to capture and hold (hence the name!) more of these nodes than the other team. The very center of the map houses power-ups called Greater Relics, which give a general boost to your champion (the specifics are still in flux). This is intended to let almost any champion win a one-on-one fight with an un-boosted opponent. Getting this boost takes time and makes you vulnerable, as well as taking you away from the pertinent action. One layer out from the center lay Speed Shrines -- simple run-speed boosts. Further out still are five power-ups called Health Relics, which regenerate your character's health at an enhanced rate. Finally, the outermost layer of the Crystal Scar onion is where all the action goes down.
While most of the capture-and-hold scenarios I've played in other games take anywhere from 30 seconds to a full minute to capture a node, Dominion is lightning-fast. Clicking a node starts the capture process, and every extra player who clicks it speeds the effort up further. And it's not just capturing that's fast; Dominion does exactly the opposite of what Magma Chamber originally intended, and eliminates the slow, methodical laning phase entirely. Every player begins the game at level 3, with over 1,000 gold to spend on items. Right off the bat, you can get your basic three skills and drill somewhat deep into an item build. Gold doesn't just trickle into your savings slowly throughout the match, either -- it pours in like a heavy, metallic waterfall. A metalfall, if you will. Characters also level up with lightning rapidity, with most players hitting level 6 (which is crucial for learning your Ultimate ability) just a few short minutes in. The AI-controlled minions (or creeps) that are so crucial to character growth in Summoner's Rift are heavily de-emphasized in Dominion. They still give gold (a lot, actually) and experience, but they're mostly around to help capture nodes and feed characters who are reliant on itemization or environmental factors -- such as Tryndamere's need for big weapons and keeping his fury bar filled.
In fact, creeps have been so heavily de-emphasized that the "jungle" just doesn't exist in this mode. Dominion is so far-flung from the traditional ruleset that it feels in many ways like an entirely new game... just using characters and a control scheme you may already be familiar with.
But this ramped-up pace and downplaying of creeps and leveling shouldn't be mistaken for a simplification of the game. Domination is complicated, with a multitude of paths between each node, and a completely different mindset required to achieve victory. With success and failure determined wholly by how long you've held the majority of the nodes, dying isn't such a big deal. If you're a tank, 30 seconds spent harassing three capture-happy enemies -- ultimately resulting in your death -- is 30 seconds of freedom for your team to cap other nodes, and 30 seconds where your enemies aren't.
The drastically different dynamic of Dominion has resulted in some rebalancing efforts; while no champions are banned from Dominion, some global changes affect the way armor and magic resist stats function, making them less effective at mitigating damage. A lot of items are also changed (or swapped out entirely) for Dominion. For example, Banshee's Veil -- an extremely powerful defensive item -- would be incredibly overpowered in a format where fights rarely involve more than three or four champions. Instead, for a very similar price (and for the same items that would be required to build Banshee's Veil), you can get an item which mitigates an extra portion of magical damage, saves it up, and lets you unleash it as a potent attack at will.
I played two full matches of Dominion, and I came away wanting to play many, many more. Having seen the way the mode functions, my mind was abuzz with all the tactical options and champion choices I could use. I honestly couldn't wait to jump in and play more. Unfortunately, I will have to wait... but perhaps not for too long. Dominion is playable at the upcoming Gamescom and Penny Arcade Expo consumer trade shows, and -- according to Riot -- it goes live shortly thereafter. It's also freely available to all players from the moment it comes out. Ohhhhhh yeeeeaaaah!
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