Dominion is easily the best game mode in For Honor, with it combining the intense action of PvP duels with MOBA-esque lane pushing and objective capturing. However, with the game being somewhat vague when it comes to outlining exactly how to do well in the mode, it’s easy to find yourself on the losing team even if you feel as though your team are performing well.
As such, we’ve compiled a guide to help you get to grips with Dominion and its various intricacies. Though much of your success in the mode will inevitably be down to your own proficiency at handling yourself in combat and fending off enemy players, having a greater knowledge of how to defend Control Points and team composition will be vital to stepping up your game. Take a look:
Stay on your Control Point
Given how quickly Control Points tend to change hands, it’s understandable if you currently spend the majority of your time in Dominion roaming around the map, securing objectives and then running away to help out your teammates. This strategy may win you a few games, but it’s nowhere near as effective as staying put.
Securing a Control Point will earn your team one point per second, but standing in one of the two Control Points not contested by Minions will earn you an additional second. This means that you can double your score simply by having a player constantly occupying a Control Point, which will also help you defend these objectives when the enemy team tries to capture them.
Health regeneration
You will swiftly regenerate your health while standing in a non-Minion Control Point that your team owns, so if you’re worse for wear after a fight with the enemy it’s always wise to make your way over to one and heal up. If a Control Point is contested you won’t be able to heal, so if the enemy takes the fight to you then it’s always worth trying to nudge them off the point in order to heal up. Health regeneration is surprisingly fast, so if your enemies aren’t on the point then you can make your way back to full health in no time.
Team composition
Team composition is important in For Honor, with each class able to fill different roles that will ultimately help you win matches. The roles required for Dominion are roughly the same as a Moba; you’ll need three people pushing to take control of each Control Point, while a jungler — a player who floats around the map picking off rival players — will swoop in to lend a helping hand to any teammates who are under attack.
Ideally, the Minion lane will be pushed by a Vanguard, a Heavy or a Hybrid will take control of the furthest point while another Heavy will take control of the closest point to your team’s spawn. The Assassin is most well-suited to jungling, given their ability to easily maneuver around enemies and avoid their attacks. It’s also essential that you manage your Feats before entering into a game, as each of these classes has abilities that will help them in their roles, from earning boosts by way of killing Minions through to buffing allies.
Don’t focus on player kills
Killing another player in Dominion isn’t essential, and in most cases it’ll actually prevent you from racking up more points for your team. Killing an enemy player bags your team 5 points, while killing a Minion — a decidedly easier task — nets the team 1 point. As previously mentioned, standing on a Control Point will also award your team 2 points per second, meaning that basically anything you do in Dominion outside of hunting down other players will be more beneficial to your team’s overall success.
While it may go against your good nature to allow one of your teammates to be mercilessly torn apart in a 3-on-1 attack, risking yourself in order to save your buddy isn’t the most logical course of action. Leaving a Control Point unattended in order to help our your team should be a last resort, with the responsibility of preventing ganking placed firmly on the jungler’s shoulders.
The Minion Control Point is the most important
The Minion Control Point is where matches will be won and lost. With it instantly rewarding 2 points per second even if a player isn’t occupying it, it is also the hardest point to capture, as enemies must kill every enemy Minion in order to push their friendly Minions through. As such, even if your team decides to ignore their roles and float around Control Points aimlessly, standing on the Minion lane and fighting back enemies is vital.
A team that stays together, loses together
A simple strategy employed by many players is to simply band together with your entire team, capturing points one by one and taking out the lone stragglers that pluck up the courage to take them on. Though this can be effective against inexperienced teams, this tactic can be easily undone if your enemies start to capture the points you’re not occupying.
If you come across a team that is stubbornly sticking together, simply swoop in and capture the points away from them. If you have an entire team doing the same thing, it won’t be long before you’re trouncing them in terms of points.
How to successfully rally and end breaking
When the enemy team earns over 1,000 points, your team will break and respawns will be disabled. However, you can successfully rally against this final attack by capturing Control Points and reducing their score beneath 1,000, at which point respawns will be enabled once again.
In order to successfully rally, you and your remaining teammates will want to capture a Control Point away from the enemy team and then sit on it in order to achieve that double score. Defending in numbers means that there’s less chance of your rivals picking you off one by one, and you will have a higher chance of being able to hold the point while your enemy’s numbers deplete. If the enemy team holds on, send a player out to capture another point while they’re distracted.
