Domination - why bother with 3rd lane?

Here's something that puzzles me constantly, and is actually the reason I don't play a lot of Domination games.

Why do people feel the need to chase down the 3rd tower?

Isn't the point of the game to whold two towers? Does holding the 3rd tower do anything for you? To me, all it seems to do is spread out your team and give the enemy team favorable matchups (3v2, 3v1, etc) to steal back towers.

Doesn't it make sense to pick two towers and just defend them constantly? And not even engage in team fights. Just stand on the tower, and use that to your advantage constatly. I guess players get bored and want to engage, but all that seems to do is to make them dead. Just stand in two towers and make a defensive block that opponents can't break. When we have people that do that, we usually win. When teammates split up trying to hold all 3, we end up losing.

What am I missing?

if you get the third tower you win even faster, I play a lot of domination and I will never go for the third tower unless the enemy is just doing terribly XD

Ya that really annoys me, your right. Almost every game, we almost end up losing because of greedy people who want the 3rd tower. My team will capture two towers then they will run off for the 3rd tower, while they are trying to get that tower I now have to face 1v3 or 1v4 and lose our towers. Also when my team is getting the 3rd tower they are too far away to even run back and help if I am on the other side of the map.

It pisses me off really bad sometimes. I think SOMETIMES its alright to go for the 3rd tower, maybe by going for the 3rd tower it will FORCE the other team to respond to that tower so they don't all gank one tower and take it.

Most of the time though I get so annoyed that I literally have to type to my team telling them JUST DEFEND THE TOWERS WE GOT. If your playing a bad team go for the 3rd tower but most of the time I face alright teams, and people that leave our towers to go for the 3rd tower leave them undefended leaving me to face a **** load of gods.

I love this thread, probably one of the most things that piss me off when playing domination. I still like domination though. Lets clear this up though, I have no problem with one team member going for the 3rd tower but when your whole team ditches the towers you got for 1 stupid tower it makes me type at them.

Right, if you just won a team fight and 2 or 3 of the enemy gods are dead and the rest are going back to base, send someone over to steal the 3rd tower.

But otherwise, not worth it.

By taking the 3rd tower, you can win the match much quicker. If just winning is your priority, then I wouldn't bother with the 3rd tower as it can often end in disaster while attempting to take it.

depends on how it goes mid, the respawn is fast and if it was a close fight ur guys are pbly low on hp and mana and no cd, insted of waiting u could all go for the third tower so you can loose one while going to base

Another point to bring up: By mid game most carries can take out the sand guardian in about 5-6 second with a full minion wave to back them up. A good team with good defence might send their carry to steal a tower while they can stay and defend. Defending the third tower would not be necessary as it forces atleast 1 or 2 on their team to go and take it back, giving your defenders some respite from uneven fights.

What Nogglez said is something that I do all the time (I normally play a carry).

Also, the strategy of straight up trading towers is there and not available without a 3rd tower. So if you have 2 defending right lane, and 3 defending mid and all 5 of them come at mid then it's a 5 on 3, and even with a guardian you're probably going to lose it. That being said, if you see all 5 coming, you can nuke the wave and all three (or just 2 of you) can break for their other tower, you'll end up trading towers and you didn't have to die doing it.

Another great reason to have the 3rd tower is to ensure that if they all 5 crash 1 tower, you don't start losing points. So if the game is close and coming to an end and you get all three towers (say you deocide them) then you've ensured that they can't 5 man crash a tower to win.

Domination is all about using strategy of taking towers and defending to spread the other team thin, without a third tower it would be straight up king of the hill style play and highly mobile characters would lose a lot (Right now Thor is amazing as he can Ult from one Guardian to another) and defense characters would dominate (Pun intended) even more (Vulcan would be insta-picked).