User blog comment:Reilock/Retiring Dominion: Thoughts/@comment-26815373-20160215214859/@comment-1990160-20160223082909

"The map wasn't very exciting or balanced, minions were just kinda there, and the 'objectives' weren't very satisfying."

Dominion is, like Summoner's Rift, about beating the other team. You do this by killing enemies, out-rotating them, and taking objectives. Maybe you feel that concluding fights by capping a point for sixteen seconds is boring- this much is true. However, I personally find the opposite experience of laning for fifteen minutes to be incredibly tedious, and then quite frustrating when I realize that another lane has effectively already lost us the game.

Playing coordinated Dominion with friends/knowledgeable solo queuers, the essence of it breaks down to: kill someone > rotate > execute teamfight > rotate > take objective. So it's kind of like the posturing on Summoner's Rift, except minus the twenty-thirty minute buildup, potentially large gold/item/experience discrepancies, and long drawn-out sieges / non-engagements.

There were two levels of Dominion: the one with inexperienced folks & unfortunately filled with bots, and then there was the higher-level kind where people actually knew how to play the mode and were able to have fun. Coming from the latter, I enjoyed the game mode a lot and wouldn't assign much value to the opinions of those with under fifty or so Dominion games - it's analogous to discussing ranked with lifetime bronze players (and in fact their profile medal would be bronze) and level twenty-somethings.

And that the thing with the boss monster? You're talking about the featured Ascension game mode. It's gimmicky and had maybe ten total games/player worth of novelty in it.