Tips for someone who is new to dominion?

posted on July 11th, 2012, 7:01 pm

The title says it all!

I'm having the most trouble right now with the triple-resource economy. I was wondering, what are the standard ways to ensure I have sufficient amounts of each resource, from early game all the way until late? Do methods differ from 1v1 to team games?

If you have any other advice for playing as Dominion that a beginner should know, please post it!

One last point: is playing as Dominion generally a bad idea for someone who only plays the game occasionally and isn't very skilled? Should I stick to Feds until I master the basics of strategy?

posted on July 12th, 2012, 9:29 pm

Well, playing Dominion is very very unforgiving. Especially in 1v1. That's because Dominion ships have mostly quite specific profiles. Furthermore the supply cost of the Dominion economy is immense, so lost ships REALLY on the supply side.
You have no supplies to waste since basically everything costs lots and lots amount of supply. So you got to get into a game prepared by having at least a basic strategy. Most importantly you should know the most common ships the enemy is goign to build against you and know exactly how to counter it.
For example Feds will probably build Intrepids and/or Monsoon, so you gotta be prepared to counter that when facing Fed. of course that basically applies to every race in every game, but with Dominion you have very little room for errors. With Dominion you pick your units basically before the game, based on your enemy's race, and then kind of stick with it because you are not really as flexible as other races.
Against Fed, which means against Intrepids and Monsoons, the S2 is the best compromise of velocity and firepower and not being countered. Against pure Intrepids Bombers would be the better, more effective counter but they are to easily countered by Monsoons and Sabers. Bugs would works against Monsoons but are easily countered by Intrepids. And you can't build Bombers & Bugs because that would most of the time be less effective than building S2s full on.
As Dominion player you got to know these interrelations between your ships and theirs well.
Dominion is basically the Zerg of FleetOps: focused on large scale economic and ship building play. The goal is to build up a death swarm of ships that whipes the floor with the enemy. But until then Dominion fleets are like glass cannons: When they counter, they counter really hard but when they are countered themselves they are also countered really hard. And you can seldom afford to have a really mixed fleet until the very late game. You have to focus and commit.
The is the challenge with Dominion and a huge problem in the early game, especially in 1v1.

So for starters to get a feel for the basic mechanics and as a stepping stone to Dominion, I would suggest starting with Feds because they are far more forgiving to play. When you got the feel for the basic mechanics like fleet micro, counters etc. then you can switch to Dominion.
Either that or you got to be stubborn and have a lot of endurance, because until you get the feel for the very delicate Dominion balance, you will lose and die A LOT. If that does not demotivate you, then go for it. It's a lot of trying out and experimenting with build orders (basically when and where to build the supply mining station and when and if to tech up) until you find the right one for your playstyle.
The good side is, that by learning all those counters and what's good against what, you accumulate knowledge that can be applied to all other races. But it still takes quite some time to master.
I play Dominion a lot because I really like the feel and design of it a lot. And still I haven't fully figured out my optimal economy management. But I am kind of a stubborn "well, let's see about that"-type and when you crush someone with your fleet it feels really good.

And be prepared to be called spammer etc. a lot, but don't let that bother you. That's what Dominion is all about.

posted on August 14th, 2012, 12:01 am

A tip from a pro for dominion wait til the next patch.Ammmmm but if ur realy thinking on Hardcore Dominion gameplay id say check up replays form guy called Elim,or better contact him maybe he will help ya.

I hope i helped

posted on August 14th, 2012, 8:40 pm

One of the cruelest things for dominion is switching strategies. You fate can be decided within the first 30 seconds in the game.

- You research B-8 instead of S-2: GG, rematch?
- You lay down your prototype a few seconds too late: that's GG too!
- If you at any time in the early game take the time to sneeze: GG again!

I know, it sounds cruel, but its actually even worse! Not that I would want to discourage you, but if you get it right... oh my god! You become the embodiment of cruelty in that game and whatever terror you might have suffered once this... unstoppable troll of your ships starts to clean the fucking map out (pardon the expression), you just forget all about the hardship!

I will not pretent to be the expert here, but have a look at this game, its a good example of what im talking about:
http://guide.fleetops.net/video/play/601
It was my finest hour! I will never forget that one!

posted on August 15th, 2012, 1:50 am

That's probably the hardest part about playing the Dominion, especially in 1v1: making sure you start out with the ships that have passives to top your opponent. If your enemy instead does that to you, the penalty to change your build order is pretty much defeat. That's the one thing I dislike about the Dominion so much: it's almost impossible to change build orders so early in the game and it's extremely punishing if you do the wrong one because of prototypes, where's the Feds can just cancel all their Monsoons and switch to Intrepids no problem. If you manage to get past the early game stage though the Dominion do start to shine. It's just a matter of surviving past the initial build order.

posted on August 15th, 2012, 9:01 am

The thing with Dominion in 1v1 is that you do NOT build ships with passives to smash the enemy ships, but ones with passives to not get smashed by enemy passives (that almost always being the S2). I think that's the crucial difference in mentality when playing Dominion.
Dominion ships have devastating passives but if the enemy counters them, those same passives become devastating to the Dominion ships themselves. So one has to assume a defensive mentality regarding passives, i.e. which ship's passives don't hurt me that much when countered while still giving me an oberall able ship.

The answer is almost always S2... in 1v1 anyways.

posted on August 15th, 2012, 11:16 am

I keep it short: S2 vs (a good) Rom or Klingon... you guys made my day

posted on August 15th, 2012, 11:38 am

S2 against Klingons or Romulans in a 1v1 is not going to work, K'Vorts and Leahvals shred them to pieces in no time. What you should do depends on what you will face, some stuff will not work at all.

Against cloakers B8 War Frigate is quite solid choice since its good durability and firepower, but going offensive due to the slow speed will be trickier as the cloaker should know where you are. Later on when you get the IS Bomb, it will make retreats easier and you can also prevent enemy units from moving into yard by deploying one in a battle.

S2 is more useful against Federation, since Monsoons can be very problematic if you building B8s. Bugs are also a nice option against Federation against monsoons or sabers.

Apart from B8, the units from the Construction Yard are rather fragile, but quite fast, so you need to pay attention to not lose too many of them in battles.

T15 from the large yard is quite a versatile unit, but in 1v1 it is unlikely you will be able to do it against a good opponent.

The guide has a extensive description of different Dominion strategies in detail and the general strategies and tactics apply to Dominion like any other faction as well.

You should get your supply mining up after the first supply purchase from the starbase, since the later ones will get very expensive due to high supply costs of dominion units. Usually it is a good idea to get the mining to your base due to easier defensibility/miner replacement.

posted on August 15th, 2012, 2:18 pm

uhm... where did my comment go?

posted on August 15th, 2012, 3:18 pm

uhm... where did my comment go?

do you really have to ask? gonna have a wild guess here, i think a mod was trying to quietly avoid some drama. i think you can figure out what part of your post was likely to cause that drama.

posted on August 15th, 2012, 4:00 pm

do you really have to ask? gonna have a wild guess here, i think a mod was trying to quietly avoid some drama. i think you can figure out what part of your post was likely to cause that drama.

Well isn't that a self-righteous flurry? One of the most spammy forums in the startrek franchise and I got censored for user criticism.



Anyway... dreyas, you've learned what you can from the forums, what you need now is practice. Most of us are online during the weekends: Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays. Its a little slow these days due to the anticipation of a major patch coming along, but I'm pretty sure somebody will be there at the aforementioned days.

Just ask somebody for a practice duel or to pit you up against another new player and put you in the corner where you 2 can duke it out!

###To satisfy the admin team the part about "some" impatient teachers has not been repeated.###

posted on August 15th, 2012, 5:35 pm

Well, there are many more or less experienced players, and if you're really new, usually small hints here and there will have the highest impact.

What Beef (possibly) tried to say: not every players "teaching style" might suit your "learning style & curve", some people prefer it more bossy, in my opinion for an example it's faster and more efficient to push and get pushed a little, others maybe wanna have a more slower and very calm way, maybe due missing RTS experience or less pressure. Then of course the language barrier, and how fast you want to improve... some beginner are even quite competitive, others are not at all.

Anyways, you've already been a lot on teamspeak, don't be scared to ask for some hints.