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League of Legends: Let's Talk About uhhh??

I picked up pantheon and im having a shit ton of fun with him. Now i need to save up 12k of ip for both o my rune pages to be finished.
 
I started playing Cassiopeia as part of this free week, and I have to say I really like her. I have not really found her that difficult, and her smartcasts are not that much of a problem. IDK, but I think she might be my favorite AP carry so far. She is heaps of fun to play and melts pretty much everything with QEEE
 
I started playing Cassiopeia as part of this free week, and I have to say I really like her. I have not really found her that difficult, and her smartcasts are not that much of a problem. IDK, but I think she might be my favorite AP carry so far. She is heaps of fun to play and melts pretty much everything with QEEE
Cass is super good in lane, so even while she's not as good as some other mages in teamfights, it definitely makes up for it
 
Just another great random match in Dominion. Good thing my team sucked. also the Impaler I bought was at the end because I was rushing.
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okay from the few amount of Dominion games I played, here are the champions that seems to be standard on a Dominion team:

-Rammus: usually carrying ghost, always the first to rush the top capture point
-Gangplank: Disrupts enemies capturing points since his ultimate is global AND it's AOE is larger than the point
-Jax: really really really good at 1v1 as he can obtain his core items really fast
-Ashe: good cooldown global ulti that stuns an enemy for up to 3 seconds, good for defending

Other notable mentions
-Nocturne: Paranoia. I played with him once and it seemed to work sometimes, cooldown is a small problem though
-Teemo: Mushroom the health areas lol. blinding dart punishes most carry picks and you can zoom around map nicely
-Yorick: played with him twice and did really well. He holds capture points nicely with his decent cooldowns and defenses. Just build bulky

there are prob more but those were the common ones I have seen

edit:
I am having so much fun with Dr Mundo in dominion right now.
thisssss. I built thornmail and Stark's Fevor along with generic health items and I was nigh unstoppable.
 
Really? If I were to pick a Dominion team it would be...

Rammus- Capture King
Akali- 1v1 specialist
Jax- 1v1 specialist
Shaco- have fun taking turret
Alistar- ^^^
 
thorns' best dominion undefeated except for when some douche on your team leaves and you're left with a 4v5 and you lose twice because of this but other than that i've never lost a game guide

map
the windmill will be referred to as 'top'
the refinery and drill will be referred to as 'mid'
the quarry and boneyard will be referred to as 'bot'
when i say 'your bot' or 'your mid' you will know what i am talking about
anything in the centre will be the 'jungle'
the distance between nodes will be 'lanes'

team composition
a dominion team has three roles - like the three lanes in summoner's rift. these three roles are defender, roamer and guard. a team will have two defenders and two roamers, and one guard.

defender
a defender is assigned to your bottom tower, as well as the contested top tower (which you should own if you win the initial rush, retaking will be discussed later but honestly if you don't win that first fight you're probably bad and won't benefit from the rest of this guide). the stronger champion should take top because it's much more contested than the relatively 'safe' bot.

defenders have to have good cc, good area control, great survivability and the ability to fight off or escape 4+ enemies at any given time. they will also ALWAYS take garrison to make defending a lot easier. the best defenders in dominion are:
- alistar (you can't dive him)
- cho'gath (ditto)
- singed (ditto)
- heimerdinger (ditto)
- shaco (he can escape from anything and fight off hordes)
- teemo (can spot masses of enemies coming from far away and has stealth)

defenders pretty much NEVER move off their node unless they are 100% certain that they can help out with a fight involving at least 4 enemy champions without losing their node. it is imperative that you do not try to farm in the lane unless it is shoved to the node, that you do not chase kills off overextended lone champions (even if you know you can kill them) and that you do not attempt to take the storm shield, or gank someone taking the storm shield.

roamer
a roamer is paired with a defender, hopefully in a synergistic combo (alistar blitzcrank, blitzcrank heimer, etc). roamers should be able to move across the map quickly, through blinks or high movespeed. they should be tanky to cover for the defender when he backs to buy, or whatever. 1v1 prowess is nice, but NOT required. they should be able to escape ganks, or at least delay it until further support arrives. good roamers include:
- blitzcrank (high movespeed, tankyness and DAT GRAB)
- rammus (ridiculous movespeed and DAT TAUNT)
- gangplank (global ult for defending, good duelist, good movespeed)
- twisted fate (long distance teleport for defending and helping in fights, a stun)
- pantheon (ditto, also good duelist)
- zilean (good node interruption with long range autoattack and bombs, revive is awesome and good mobility)
- nocturne (great gap closer, movespeed and a good duelist)
- jax (tanky, good duelist)
- akali (stealth, good duelist)

roamers typically cover the same point as their defender, but if something happens like a 3-man attack on the mid pint, one roamer will move out to assist the defence while the other roamer either takes shield or attempts to cap another point. if a 4man goes down on another point that doesn't belong to the roamer, they typically will cap out the nearest point while the defender goes to assist. at least one roamer (usually bot roamer) will take promote to make pushes better because minions are op. roamers should never, ever die unless it's an all in brawl at the mid point. their primary job is to exploit weaknesses and assist when needed.

guard
the most difficult position to fill, and probably the position with the most pressure (aside from top defender when playing against bads), the guard's job is to make sure his mid point is never taken. a team usually loses if their mid is taken. the guard will take the storm shield most often because it's usually his point under attack by 4+ champions (which occurs when teams get desperate). it is his responsibility to make sure this does not happen. note that the guard is NOT a defender, because he isn't always sitting on his point (there's usually no point to doing so).

guards have to be tanky as shit, and able to fight off and stop a capture involving four or more champions for a short period of time. the best guards are:
- alistar (unkillable with ultimate, aoe interrupt and sustain)
- cho'gath (tanky as hell, aoe interrupt and sustain)
- kog'maw (NOT built tanky, but can interrupt just by spamming artillery from fountain and has insane damage for smaller attacks)
- teemo (can spot the massed pushes coming, still build him tanky)
- shaco (as above)
- tryndamere (unkillable with ultimate, can delay point while help arrives)
- yorick (has a second life, interrupts node captures really well)
- karthus (as above, also global interrupt)

the guard won't usually assist in defending top or bot (unless it's five on one point), but he will take control of the jungle if something like that happens, so he can catch stragglers, take storm shield, while still being in range to defend mid. think of him as a roamer confined to the middle third of the map.

i guess my ideal team composition would be something like:
- heimerdinger (top defender)
- blitzcrank (top roamer)
- yorick (guard)
- shaco (bot defender)
- gangplank (bot roamer)

there are op champions in dominion but that's for unorganised, kill everything sort of play. if you want to win every game you probably won't use op champions, you'll use champions that fit the team composition. i mean master yi, katarina, jax are all op in normal summoner's rift, but you never see them in organised play...

2hf30d1.png

blue - defenders
red - roamers
green - guard

think of it like zone defense in basketball except you move around a lot more

the initial top fight
as you all know the standard opening strategy is for one champion to cap bot and one to cap mid, while three champions attack top. i will usually have the three most mobile champions take the top node initially, with the guy capping mid coming to help if possible. if they retreat, or if you kill some of them, everyone should take their positions. just because you capped bot doesn't mean that you have to sit on there. the three guys you send top have to be mobile and good in skirmishes (usually your two roamers plus a defender or guard). everyone moves to their positions in downtime. if you somehow lose the top fight, send a roamer to bait the enemy mid or bot, then push 3 guys onto the point and cap it out. if they do this to you when you own top, your own mid should be able to deal with it.

other stuff to note
don't underestimate the power of the speed buff. your roamers and ideally your guard should have the speed buff as much as possible to get to places. the health packs are good gank spots if you have a huge advantage and want to press it. if you have a shaco, teemo, etc. you can trap the enemy storm shield so they can't get it, or they pay in health for taking it.

NEW JEWISH TRICK: recall on top of a speed pad and you get the boost straight out of fountain

this guide will mostly only work with an organised group of five people, though you may be lucky enough to find the pub team willing to follow your orders. i guess you could sacrifice the guard role for a third roamer because guard is honestly a pretty boring job 90% of the game. but if you run one you will usually win and by usually i mean always

except when you're playing with some smogon guys and we just lose our shit half way through hoooooooo. the main weakness with this strategy is that if they mass 4 or 5 onto a point, it's hard to recover as they'll steamroll your inner points and just retake anything you backdoor. i guess the best way to respond to a 5 man roam is to do it yourself, win team fights and try to move around and respond to pushes
 
I actually really like your guide, Thorns, I feel it would work really well in organized play. I'll be using that roaming guide next time I play Nocturne.

The problem is, if your forced to solo-que like me (campus network and pvp.net chat are not compatible right now), NO ONE is going to follow this willingly (if they are, you got lucky). My most recent game, I tried out Yorick as a guard like you suggested, which works GREAT 1v1 (you'd be surprised at the range his W and E get), but the second they send someone to 2v1, or they have Garrison, chances are unless you get help you're not staying alive for very long.

I think the problem is in solo-que Dominion is that no one fully understands how to play and goes for the KDR score rather than defending points. Oddly enough, the people who ignore the game's objective wind up with the worst KDR in the game. Also, I don't know what you guys think, but I find Dominion VERY melee-centric. At least 2/3 of the champions Thorns listed are melee based (good exceptions are TF, Teemo and Zilean), and there are hardly any mages. I have yet to see a team WITHOUT Tryndamere, and I have over 20 matches played so far (not much, but it should say something). This game is dominated by 1v1, and Tryndamere is one of the best 1v1 champs in the game alongside Jax and Akali. Draft pick is a good counter to this, but I'd still like to see ranged characters have more of a place. I faced a very annoying Vayne yesterday, and I definitely understand how MF is viable, but other than that I'm not sure.

It may seem impossible, but does anyone have any suggestions for how to carry my team, and what champions are best at that? So far, Rammus seems good as he can 1v1 the metagame (melee) AND can cap points very well.
 
I need to pay people to play GP or Nunu with me to run me around until I can get boots or something.

But you were yelling at me about my obsession to play Nunu lately. :pirate:

if you have a shaco, teemo, etc. you can trap the enemy storm shield so they can't get it, or they pay in health for taking it.

Truesight around the circle in mid there, brah.
 
I actually really like your guide, Thorns, I feel it would work really well in organized play. I'll be using that roaming guide next time I play Nocturne.

The problem is, if your forced to solo-que like me (campus network and pvp.net chat are not compatible right now), NO ONE is going to follow this willingly (if they are, you got lucky). My most recent game, I tried out Yorick as a guard like you suggested, which works GREAT 1v1 (you'd be surprised at the range his W and E get), but the second they send someone to 2v1, or they have Garrison, chances are unless you get help you're not staying alive for very long.

I think the problem is in solo-que Dominion is that no one fully understands how to play and goes for the KDR score rather than defending points. Oddly enough, the people who ignore the game's objective wind up with the worst KDR in the game. Also, I don't know what you guys think, but I find Dominion VERY melee-centric. At least 2/3 of the champions Thorns listed are melee based (good exceptions are TF, Teemo and Zilean), and there are hardly any mages. I have yet to see a team WITHOUT Tryndamere, and I have over 20 matches played so far (not much, but it should say something). This game is dominated by 1v1, and Tryndamere is one of the best 1v1 champs in the game alongside Jax and Akali. Draft pick is a good counter to this, but I'd still like to see ranged characters have more of a place. I faced a very annoying Vayne yesterday, and I definitely understand how MF is viable, but other than that I'm not sure.

It may seem impossible, but does anyone have any suggestions for how to carry my team, and what champions are best at that? So far, Rammus seems good as he can 1v1 the metagame (melee) AND can cap points very well.

You're showing how much solo dominion you're playing. TBH the most broken champs on Dominion are Rammus, Karthus, Lux, Teemo, TF, Pantheon, Heimer. If you play solo queue you're only playing with tards that have no idea how to play. Which is what make Trynd so good there.

A good team comp has a caputurer, a pusher (second capturer), a ganker, a top holder and a base point holder.

Generally though these roles are very different to those you will find on SR and a bit different from TT.

Notable capturers include Rammus, Garen, Teemo, TF, Panth
Notable Pushers include Cho, Singed, Alisar
Notable Gankers include Noc, WW, Stealth. (Yes Eve is very good on Domnion surprisingly.)
Notable Tops include Amumu, Sion, Leona, Taric, Cho, Lux
Notable Base points holder include Heimer, Karthus, Garen

Basically if you are playing solo Dominion treatt it like a solo queue ranked game. If your team has a bunch of capturers then pick Heimer or Karthus so that you can hold two points simultaneously. Do the thing that is best for the team or find an arranged team.
 
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So got onto my smurfy so I was in level range with my 4 other friends. Completely dominated the other 'clan', we constantly had 5 points captured after a few mins in resulting into the 460-0 score you see. 7 mins.
 
While we're posting random dominion information TheOddOne posted a character overview on Solomid recently, worth checking out: http://solomid.net/guides.php?g=7194

Apparently a second edition for the gameplay stuff but probably the write-up I've seen in regards to characters that I agree with the most, though I think he's overvaluing a few characters. Bonus points for being written by one of the handful of pro players that has an even enough attitude to fit back into society post-LoL.




Also what the fuck did thorns just post you never see Jax in organized play in SR lol someone better let Dyrus, Hotshot, and Voyboy know...
 
I'm still waiting for them to tell us that the IP Gains from Dominion weren't meant to be so high. Then they take it away from us.
 
I swear like 1 in 3 times you do 3v3 there is a guy who is really insistent about how the 3s meta works but is completely wrong.

"What? No ganking bot?"
"Singed won't top"
 
I was supposed to be saving my ip for ranged carries but I caved and bought Nasus instead.

The combination of a passive Singed and a Shaco that never ganked allowed me to farm my Q to ~450 by 30 minutes, when the enemy surrendered despite being ahead in kills.
 
Mr.E said:
Truesight around the circle in mid there, brah.
that's not what i meant, i mean shit like trapping the bushes in the jungle and just out of the truesight circle so eventually they just go 'fuck it' and never go near the circle

Synre said:
Also what the fuck did thorns just post you never see Jax in organized play in SR lol someone better let Dyrus, Hotshot, and Voyboy know...
i initially wanted to leave jax out but jax is a completely different champion in pub and organised play, can't really explain it

mf is getting a shit buff
lee sin and morgana are getting nerfs in the wrong places
more at 11
 
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