League of Legends - F2P MOBA (like DOTA) part 2

Page 71 - Seeking answers? Join the AnandTech community: where nearly half-a-million members share solutions and discuss the latest tech.
Oct 25, 2006
11,036
11
91
Dominion is pretty fun. I can see it getting boring very very fast though. It's too mindless.

Been getting 20 kills streaks with Kog. Love stomping the pubs.
 

hans030390

Diamond Member
Feb 3, 2005
7,326
2
76
AD Rammus is incredible for Dominion. I regularly dominate with him. Think about it. His passive adds a percentage of his armor to his AD. His powerball, in combination with movement speed items, allows him to get around the map faster than basically any other champion. His shield at max level gives him 150 armor and magic resist for 8 seconds. In that time period, he is an extremely tanky AD champ. The shield also returns damage received, which is very nice. His taunt forces them to attack you for 3 seconds, and it lowers their armor. His ult isn't extremely useful, but it has gotten me extra kills many times.

Since his armor boosts his AD (very much so in shield mode), you can focus more on attack speed and crit items. I usually start with Berserkers Greaves and get Phantom Dancers next. Black Cleaver after that. I then usually get Thornmail, since AD champs are popular in dominion. This also adds a nice boost to my AD, and the passive on Thornmail works in sync with my shields return damage. From there, usually another Phantom Dancers and Infinity Edge.

When he's not in his shield (short cooldown), he's pretty squishy like any other AD champ. But, damn...put that shield up and taunt someone, you'll likely murder them. If they try and run away, powerball them and tell them to sit back down. I've gone 1v1 against Mordes, Jax, Irelia, etc. It's almost a non-issue killing them in 1v1. Depending on the champs, he can sometimes easily take two champs. Throw some CC in there, though, and he'll go down pretty fast. That, and the dual Phantom Dancers add a nice bit of movement speed (along with boots). It's easy to hit 850+ movement speed in powerball that way.

I'm not sure why I don't see more people building him like this. He's a fantastic tank, but he's just as viable as an AD/AS/Crit champ. Works amazingly well in Dominion.
 
Last edited:

LurkerPrime

Senior member
Aug 11, 2010
962
0
71
I played 5 games of dominion yesterday with some friends. We lost our first game since we were new to the map and to what champs to use. Then we dominated the other 4 games with us winning with over 300 health left on our nexus.

I thought Karthus would suck on dominion, but since people play with reckless abandon on this map, its really easy to pick up kills. His ult is actually pretty useless since the reuse timer is so high and the map only lasts 15-20min. His passive works wonders though when defending, since even though your dead, they still can't take the turret for 7 more seconds due to defile and laying bombs under thier ass.

The map is alot of mindless fun, but I see it getting old pretty fast. I also only got 53IP from a win, which seems pretty low, but I guess is probably around the same IP/time ratio as the other maps.
 

Malak

Lifer
Dec 4, 2004
14,696
2
0
I don't see it getting old fast at all. I find it a lot more intense and the really close games more exciting. One of my wins was so close at first I wasn't sure who had won when it was over.
 

ViviTheMage

Lifer
Dec 12, 2002
36,189
87
91
madgenius.com
dominion is hilarous .... I got on for a pug quick, we were at 149, they were at 400~ We were hosed ... kept fighting, and we won with 19, they had 0 :D.

I was so confused, I hadn't read anything on dominion, just got on and winged it.
 

crownjules

Diamond Member
Jul 7, 2005
4,858
0
76
I played one game of Dominion. Our Ashe DC'd for the first 7-8 minutes of the game and we were down something like 330 - 120 when they reconnected. We came back and won it 10-0.

I'm reserve judgement on how it will fair and if it's less strategic than SR/TT for now. It's new to everyone so people are just getting a feel for it.
 
Last edited:

zebano

Diamond Member
Jun 15, 2005
4,042
0
0
Dominion was a lot of fun and the first thing to know is that you will get gold & exp so early game champs are out but mobility rules (Rammus is godly).

Mages: Very squishy, I didn't care for Karth (squishy + super high movespeed on everyone so q hard to land) but he had a role defending bottom and ulting every 2 minutes. Cass was similar but w/o the global influence and fell off greatly once the enemy riven got middle buff. Ryze seemed a good choice (TheUnholySaint played him well) and I could see Morgana & Kassadin being good as well.

Off Tanks: I still find most to be too slow but they do shine.

Heimerdinger: Gets a special category since if you can take the windmill it's damn near impossible to take back from him.

Rammus: Godly speed but once you play a few games, since you have sight of the entire ring you can predict when he is BDing. I expect his popularity will fall off a little.

Shaco seemed very strong and I saw AP shacos playing windmill defense like Heimerdinger.

Panth/GP: Global ult AD champs were my favorites... GPs e is great for the team and the Lightbringer devastates Akali (who seems to be a popular pick). Panth was my favorite champs.


The new prospector items are almost too good, I didn't play a single champ that didn't start with one + boots + 2 pots. 200 health + MP5 + Ap or 200 health + 20AD + 5% life leech.... yes please.
 

crownjules

Diamond Member
Jul 7, 2005
4,858
0
76
Off Tanks: I still find most to be too slow but they do shine.

These will probably be your defenders and middle ground holders. I bet Blitz will be really good with his movespeed boost for both that and attacking towers where needed.


Panth/GP: Global ult AD champs were my favorites... GPs e is great for the team and the Lightbringer devastates Akali (who seems to be a popular pick). Panth was my favorite champs.

Can probably add TF to that list as well. With the size of the map I'm guessing he can pretty much ult to any other location (or close enough).
 

hans030390

Diamond Member
Feb 3, 2005
7,326
2
76
Rammus: Godly speed but once you play a few games, since you have sight of the entire ring you can predict when he is BDing. I expect his popularity will fall off a little.

But the thing is, he's so fast that by the time you predict him BDing, he's probably thinking you're predicting that and is BDing somewhere else already. Or, if build AD/AS/Crit, he'll probably just murder you unless you send at least 3 people.
 

Malak

Lifer
Dec 4, 2004
14,696
2
0
If you play rammus you might as well buy the item that lets you cap faster. I think ultimately defense matters most though. The mistake a lot of people make in this is that once you take a spot, move on. Spending 10 minutes defending one spot is amazingly productive. Even if you eventually lose the spot, it will have served its purpose.
 

zebano

Diamond Member
Jun 15, 2005
4,042
0
0
But the thing is, he's so fast that by the time you predict him BDing, he's probably thinking you're predicting that and is BDing somewhere else already. Or, if build AD/AS/Crit, he'll probably just murder you unless you send at least 3 people.

I haven't seen any get that clever yet to fake a bd then go elsewhere. One thing to remember is to always use the speed buffs even if they appear to be out of the way. Also boots of mobility on almost everyone! As a final note, we actually had a lot of emphasis on the jungle in our later games because it allows you to see people coming get the buffs and try to deny buffs.

Maybe Panth is different than typical AD champs but I was able to kill Rammus semi-reliably when he tried to BD (I couldn't with Pirate).

I think the main key is to take 3 spots, defend and watch the jungle (hard to do all at once). If you get 2v1ed try to slow down their capture of the spot then flee, death is still a bad thing because losing 20 seconds of a 20 minute game is just as bad as 40 seconds in a 40 minute game. Of course if you're AP shco or Heimerdinger you can just tell them to f-off and hold the turret.
 

HumblePie

Lifer
Oct 30, 2000
14,665
440
126
After playing dominion it's clear that team comps and champs are radically different than normal.

First off teams need attackers and defenders. Even so all champs that are going to be picked need to consider these attributes.

Mobility, sustain (how hard it is to kill you over a period of time without making you retreat), and killing power.

Escape mechanisms are NOT really needed. People will usually let you run if that means pushing you off a tower. Since the object of the game is to capture towers, if you run away from towers then you losing the game. So this game isn't about kills either.

So basically most champs fall under 1 of 2 categories: Attackers and Defenders.

CC while still useful is not nearly as important here because kills aren't as important. so to break down different characters and why they are useful.

Attackers: (the better ones at least)
TF
Nocturne
Pantheon
Master Yi
Riven
Rammus
Jax
Gangplank
Miss Fortune
Kassadin
Udyr
Trundle
Kennen
Ezreal
Poppy


Defenders:
Heimerdinger
Shaco
Rumble
Janna
Swain
Yorick
Amumu
Alistar
Lee Sin
Mundo

Chars equally good both attacking and defending:
Karthus
Garen
Zilean
Singed
Blitzcrank



For the most part the rest are not nearly as good. So what makes an Attacker in my list better than the others at capturing towers? They usually have high mobility of some sort and high DPS. Good sustain and also key with these chars. The trick is to get to where you need to go on the map FAST and beat the living snot out of any defender there fast. The characters I listed above are best designed for this type of dominion play.

What makes defenders great is their great sustain and ability to interrupt anyone trying to capture while being hard as hell to push off a tower. They also need to be able to dish out damage as well. A defenders job is to stick to a tower and beat down or at least hold off all comers. The longer a tower remains under your control the better. Defenders do not need great mobility, but it does help. Constant spamming abilities and sustain are key attributes to defenders. Also AOE and CC abilities are much more useful for defenders than they are for attackers.

Some chars though are just way too squishy for this type of game play. That and while they may be great for Classic games, they are horrible for Dominion style. Take Ashe for example. In Classic she has great damage, the ability to kite almost any melee, a great initiating tool, and CC. So why would Ashe suck in Dominion? First off...

No mobility. Just is very slow and takes too many items to make her move faster. Those heroes with abilities to add to their mobility can get those same items and STILL be faster than her.

Her hawk shot is worthless. You are able to see just about the entire map all the time. There are no ganks in this game style. No buff monsters to see if the other team is attacking in the fog of war. So this is a wasted ability slot.

She is squishy with no sustain. She dies way too fast to make any sort of impact without a front line of tanks or other players with additional CC to prevent people from stomping her. Which makes her a terrible defender.

In other words Ashe is just plain bad as a pick for Dominion games. Her ult the Enchant Crystal Arrow is her only redeeming ability that shines in Dominion as a long range interrupt. But it is hardly worth picking her for that one ability when there are other champs that can do the same thing but add SO MUCH MORE to the dominion style of game play. Take Gankplank for example. Compared to Ashe he has A) higher mobility due to increased run speed from his E. Greater sustain due to self heals from his W. On demand global interrupt with his R, but without the travel time (so it always hits the intended target the moment the player presses the R button). He has as much if not more damage than her as well. Sure Ashe has range, but this game isn't about harassing another player over a minion wave. It's about taking and defending towers control points. Range versus melee is not that important in this aspect.



So if anyone was thinking of what champs to play for dominion and why have a look over my list. Think about what I've written and decide which champ type (attack or defender) you would rather be. If you have any questions about a particular champ or wonder why I have a champ in a spot on my list feel free to ask. I have no problem going over the finer points.


As for summoner spells.

Smite, Clairvoyance, and Flash is near useless in Dominion. Don't bother taking it. Ignite is almost as bad. So what is good? Depends on the role you are playing.

If you are a defender char sustain abilities like Healing and Clarity are almost must haves. The ability to stand and defend in one spot as long as possible is needed. As was as being able to spam abilities to interrupt anyone.

If you are an attacker Ghost and Cleanse are of high importance. Many defenders will have will some form of CC to get help from the tower to kill you as you are trying to take it down. Rushing in to get them to blow their CC abilities on you which you wipe off with a cleanse means they may not be able to dish out enough DPS to finish you anymore if the tower wasn't able to dish out enough damage on you before you were able to attack.

Exhaust is still a good choice for both attackers and defenders with defenders making use of it a little bit better.

Teleport is decent for both attackers and defenders.

Revive and Rally are "meh" picks.


Unfortunately I haven't seen if fortify actually works with captured towers. If it does then it might be highly useful for defenders.
 
Last edited:

zebano

Diamond Member
Jun 15, 2005
4,042
0
0
So if anyone was thinking of what champs to play for dominion and why have a look over my list. Think about what I've written and decide which champ type (attack or defender) you would rather be. If you have any questions about a particular champ or wonder why I have a champ in a spot on my list feel free to ask. I have no problem going over the finer points.

Teemo, Poppy and Kennen are pretty good champs on this map. All have high mobility and damage. I'm also willing to bet that a well played Janna could be godly.
 

HumblePie

Lifer
Oct 30, 2000
14,665
440
126
Teemo, Poppy and Kennen are pretty good champs on this map. All have high mobility and damage. I'm also willing to bet that a well played Janna could be godly.

Teemo has high mobility, but crap DPS overall. His shrooms aren't good enough to be used as defense. The sight granted by them and utility is damn near worthless.

He just isn't a good pick in my opinion for Dominion. His mobility makes a better escape mechanism than a charging attack one. Dot damage is not exactly spectacular in use in dominion except for defender champs. Still he's way to squishy with crappy sustain to be a defender. And mobility isn't as important for defenders as it is for attackers. Teemo is one of those characters that could ALMOST be good at either attacking or defending, but ultimately fails hard enough at both since much of his synergy and utility from his abilities just don't quite stack up.


Poppy and Kennen are fine attackers though in this game. I mentioned Kennen in my list and forgot to put Poppy in the attacker list.
 

HumblePie

Lifer
Oct 30, 2000
14,665
440
126
Yeah Humble, why no teemo love? I expect him to do well.

Already explained it above somewhat. Here is a bit more detail as to why. I'll break down Teemo's problem as either an attacker role or defender role.


Teemo as an attacker. Attackers need good mobility and dps.

W is great for mobility. He can get around the map fast enough to help take or show up for a added defense on a tower. Not the fastest, but still good.

DPS is sadly where teemo is going to fail here. He is regulated to auto attacks and toxic darts. Blind isnt all that useful against most of the defender style chars I put on that list. Try and blind a heimer dinger defending a tower and he's going to laugh at teemo while his turrets beat him down. Any dps he may have from mushrooms as and attacker is going to be negligible. Defenders are going to see you lay one down near a tower and they aren't going to be stupid enough to leave their defensive position to step on your shroom.

So while teemo does have good mobility to be an attacker, he lacks on DPS to take down a well entrenched defender. Especially on his own.





Teemo as a defender. Defenders need good sustain, spammable damage, and HARD CC.

Teemo is better as a defender than an attacker. While he lacks spammable abilities, dot damage makes up for that somewhat.

As a defender his W isn't nearly as important so that leaves that out.

Blind is somewhat useful, but most attackers rush in to get defenders to waste their CC abilities, and either cleanse them off or back off a second before going back in to finish the job. So while it's decent, it's not great. CC is useful to a defender, but overall CC isn't nearly as useful in this game. CC is more useful in Classic because typically people are suppose to dogpile and gank on a CC'd target. In dominion most players are alone at most with 1 other player. CC isn't as useful when you aren't able to capitalize and kill someone once your CC goes off. Also as a defender you need hard CC, not soft CC. As a defender you are going to be sitting on a tower that will hopefully dish out quite a bit of damage to any attackers that come close enough. To capitalize upon that damage from the tower you need at least a massive slow; but a root or stun is more preferable. A blind or silence is not really as useful.

AoE is useful for a defender and Teemo somewhat lacks that. With one exception: His mushrooms. These are actually sort of good to use as a defender. The problem is the long setup time it takes to place any decent amount around an area. Unlike Shaco or Heimer or other champs that spawn a "defender" ability, shrooms don't do much until someone walks over them. If someone see you lay down a shroom then it's wasted as that player is not going to activate it. If someone comes to attack the tower that Teemo is defending through a route which doesn't have shrooms placed then those shrooms placed else where are negated as well.


As far as sustain goes... Teemo is one of the squishier champs. He has no built in shield, health regen, life steal, or anything else that would make being a defender needed. Sure he can use items to make him better, but so can the attackers get items to overwhelm that.




So on a whole teemo makes a crappy attacker and only at best a mediocre defender. He lacks the needed DPS to take down defenders rapidly as an attacker. As a defender he lacks sustain and his shrooms as defense are dubious at best due to set up time to place them, and an attackers ability to avoid them all together. He also lacks spammable abilities for interrupting, but at least his dot damage sort of helps back out with that. He has no hard CC or reliable AoE either for use in defense. There are much better champs for either an attacker or defender than Teemo.
 
Last edited:

HumblePie

Lifer
Oct 30, 2000
14,665
440
126
Forgot to add Mundo to the defender list. He makes an excellent defender. Crappy attacker, but excellent defender. Godly sustain, mobility, spammable cleaver throws, AoE, and a massive slow. Everything a good defender needs.

Also Blitzcrank makes both a good attacker and defender.

As an attacker he has good mobility and damn good damage. He can pull a defender away from their defensive fortifications to expose them.

As a defender he has great sustain and a built in shield. He can pull attackers into towers to let the towers help him kill attackers. The constant AoE damage from his ult interrupts anyone nearby trying to take a tower. Overall he can fill in well as either an attacker or defender.
 
Last edited:

Malak

Lifer
Dec 4, 2004
14,696
2
0
Yeah I can see myself picking a lot of champs over teemo. Now there is one glass cannon worth considering though; Lux. I see here as a very different kind of defender. Her ult is on such a low CD that you can hide in jungle and just do a drive-by on attackers. You should be able to stop captures and maybe even support captures pretty well.
 

ImpulsE69

Lifer
Jan 8, 2010
14,946
1,077
126
I've only had a chance to play 3 games of Dominion(won 2, lost 1), and I agree with most of what has been said so far. Team dynamics are completely different.

I started by playing Heimer (and probably will continue to for awhile). He is squishy..but the turrets are great for defending and even taking over a point as you can hold off 1-2 ppl as you take the turret.
I've been in champ select and told by multiple people that Hiemer is horrible, but I've proved otherwise. He doesn't score high points because he is defending most of the time (don't chase people down).

The one trick I like to do with him though is to put turrets at the health powerups or the shield powerups. Generally it will kill some unsuspecting low health person :)

From what I've seen so far:
Kass = Horrible
GP = Not good

As for teemo..having seen him, I think if a teemo went straight shroom spammer would do very well. If they can't make it to the points, they can't take them. (or if they make it there with 1/3 health. It remains to be seen.
 
Last edited:

HumblePie

Lifer
Oct 30, 2000
14,665
440
126
Yeah I can see myself picking a lot of champs over teemo. Now there is one glass cannon worth considering though; Lux. I see here as a very different kind of defender. Her ult is on such a low CD that you can hide in jungle and just do a drive-by on attackers. You should be able to stop captures and maybe even support captures pretty well.

Possibly, but there is no real jungle to "hide" in. There is no real set approach pattern for attackers to come at any given tower. They can come from any direction which makes hiding nearby a dubious proposition at best. As a lux hiding nearby, it might work for the first time, but not anytime after that. It's just to gimmicky to work often enough to remain as a strong defender.
 

HumblePie

Lifer
Oct 30, 2000
14,665
440
126
I've only had a chance to play 3 games of Dominion(won 2, lost 1), and I agree with most of what has been said so far. Team dynamics are completely different.

I started by playing Heimer (and probably will continue to for awhile). He is squishy..but the turrets are great for defending and even taking over a point as you can hold off 1-2 ppl as you take the turret.
I've been in champ select and told by multiple people that Hiemer is horrible, but I've proved otherwise. He doesn't score high points because he is defending most of the time (don't chase people down).

The one trick I like to do with him though is to put turrets at the health powerups or the shield powerups. Generally it will kill some unsuspecting low health person :)

From what I've seen so far:
Kass = Horrible
GP = Not good

Yep, heimer makes an excellent defender. Take both heal and clarity as summoner spells. Stock up on items that add to your sustain and no one is going to take a tower from heimer easily. The trick is NOT worrying about building as much AP as possible to kill people. As a defender killing other players is not a primary concern. It's about sitting on top of a tower for as long as frikking possible. The longer you can hold people off the better.


Kass and GP are great attackers for different reasons.

Let me break down each char.

Kassadin. First off has great mobility once he reaches level 6. Just make sure to get items that allow him to keep the mana drain from it in check. Although attacking champs with his auto attack will net him a decent amount of mana back. He has a great long range initiating tool to jump on an entrenched defender. With Null Sphere (his Q) he has a long range attack to silence a defender from spamming abilities or CC right away. He has great damage with all of his abilities as well. He makes for a great hit and poke attacker to get defenders to blow their CC and or Ults when he comes in at first to only flash out with his ult and come back in again. Most defenders are also typically AP based which makes him even better at taking down some defenders with his passive. He is also great at spanking other enemy attacking champs he may come across on his way to his target (which happens a lot). His mobility allows him to get to buffs around the map easy to use in his assaults on defended towers before the enemy has a chance to claim those buffs. All in all a very good attacking character.

GP is great as an attacking champ as well. His mobility isn't as high as others, but it is stil up there with his E. Passively it increases his run speed a decent amount and when activated it increases it by a large amount. Not to mention his damage output is insane. Most defenders on towers are going to have some form of hard CC and his W ability allows him to shrug that hard CC off. His DPS is one of the highest in the game as well. He is hard to kill and more then likely will be victor if he meets other enemy attacking heroes on their way to towers his team is defending. His ult is great in both offense and defense. As an offensive tool it works to soften up a defender before going in. See a heimer with a couple of turrets placed on defense? Drop a Cannon Barrage to soften heimer up and take down those turrets before you get there. As a defensive tool his cannon barrage is one of the best abilities. Only karthus ult is better as he can interrupt attacks are multiple towers at once.



GP and Kassadin are both solid picks for dominion. Both are solid attackers and GP even adds in some defensive support to the mix.
 

ivan2

Diamond Member
Mar 6, 2000
5,772
0
0
www.heatware.com
Due to the way that turret work, if the have 2 people, one can disable it while the other pound on the defender. Imo champs with 0 cc should not be defending.
 

HumblePie

Lifer
Oct 30, 2000
14,665
440
126
Due to the way that turret work, if the have 2 people, one can disable it while the other pound on the defender. Imo champs with 0 cc should not be defending.

Yep, with two attackers one can be attacking a defender while the other is "changing" over the tower by clicking on it. When the tower is clicked on by an attacker it won't attack. Which is why a defender needs spammable abilities to interrupt attackers. Damage done to an attacker trying to capture a tower will interrupt the capture few a little bit. The attacker that was just interrupted can not restart capturing either for a second. This allows the tower a chance to turn back on and start firing again. Which is why a defender does better with AoE and hard CC. The moment a defender interrupts an attacker on the tower the tower will start to fire again. So it's important to be able to constantly hit attackers.

Which is why Karthus makes an excellent defender. His sustain is not that great at all, but he can interrupt with Defile and his Q bombs like no one else. Even after death he can still defend the tower for a little bit longer. His wall is a decent slow down for CC to allow towers to pound away at attackers for a little bit longer. Top that off with his global ult hitting all enemies at once makes him a formidable defender. Just have to build items to make him not such a glass canon.
 
Last edited: