Thorns Wrote: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)

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 pomegranate, 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...

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.

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