[Baalz]

[too much holiday cheer]
Meh, my own person experience was mostly in Demigod - which apparently drafted almost exactly the same community (and mirrored my experience when I tried DotA). I played very well, was in the top 10 players worldwide in a couple categories, but I kept getting idiots ragging me because I didn't play exactly how they expected. I played character X, and if I didn't max out power Y as they expected I could expect constant BS...right up until I dominated, and maybe if I was lucky got an apology for the asinine treatment I got for 90% of the game when my score tripled my nearest teammate. Heaven forbid I go with a build designed to help the team rather than rack up the kills, if I didn't have the highest score I was a noob looser despite the fact my team won handily (due to my support role). And God forbid I try something that didn't work out, if my team didn't win because I was playing the "healer" who didn't heal I was absolutely due for the most vitriolic rhetoric that the basement dwelling caste of our society could produce.

I can't address the assertion that there were different groups which I didn't participate, all I can say is that my experience (and apparently others posting to this thread) was that DotA players are a bunch of pimply faced kids who would rather yell at people than have a fun game.

My point is that the Dominions culture is quite different, and much more open to people playing stuff because it's fun or interesting rather than because it's the universally accepted "optimal" strategy. I don't want to get into a discussion about whether specifically my suggestions on strategies are good, but rather to point out that your position seems to be "that wouldn't work, that's not how most people would/should approach this problem and therefore you're a fool for not doing that." I think you could have a lot more fun playing the game with the attitude of "I'm gonna go with the monkeys and see what kind of damage I can do". [/too much holiday cheer]