http://dramarising.com/post/165416083621
Reading this post just made me… want to take a moment to talk about what I think the actual dom standings are and how I rank them. Hopefully it’s a bit more objective. I keep out mentioning drama, although a few incidents have affected my rankings if I have the suspicion that they may have prompted organizational changes or affected flight participation.
Here’s a link to my personal push tracking and the following are my current standings.
Light (30133 pop; most placings)
Earth (9357 pop; 2nd most placings)
Plague (34159; beat Water ‘16)
Nature (30786; beat Ice ‘16)
Lightning (32796 beat Fire '17)
Fire (19866; beat Water '17)
Wind (35721; beat Water '16)
Water (21262 beat Ice '17)
Ice (32166; beat Fire '15)
Arcane (44016; beat Shadow '17)
Without a doubt, Light is currently the top dom flight. With 28 rankings in the top three up to this point in time (from the start of the year), as well as a well-known culture of profit pushing, Light has long solidified this title. I think their best course of action at the moment is to have event pushes that more fully engage other flights. By advertising an active user base, Light could build (or rebuild) a better reputation and continue being known as not only the dom and money flight, but also a flight that offers more involvement for those leaving less dom oriented flights. Unfortunately, it’s lonely at the top, and until other flights feel confident, Light won’t get any challengers any time soon.
Earth is a strong second, with the second most placings in the top three at 20. Although a planned Earth vs Light match needs to happen. Personally, I think this bout would make it more apparent that small flight size is a disadvantage when two flights with established dom cultures are pitted against each other. I assume Light would win this match just due to the manpower they could muster for it. They should be able to overwork Earth even with large oof help going to Earth.
There’s always a possibility that Earth could do it with a stronger dom culture than Light and a more attractive reputation however. I think Earth’s best course of action is to improve dom programs, participation, and continue to encourage dom participants to move to Earth. Likewise, with Light, I doubt Earth will receive any challengers anytime soon.
The battle for third place, typically reserved for a “dom powerhouse”, is a bit more dubious and may even be a moot point at the moment. “Historically” speaking, this slot has been juggled between Earth, Plague, and Ice for a long time now, but because of Ice’s recent losses to Water and Nature, I feel it is clear that that is no longer the case.
Water did lose to Plague in August of 2016, however, but the question is then, who is third, Plague or Nature?
Both flights tango with Light, which makes them courageous and competitive. But for me personally (and this is my personal opinion), Nature would now rank higher than Plague due to the recent performances of both flights.
Plague doesn’t seem to be the same Plague I witnessed when I was in Ice during IvP. Plague was the flight that never quit and never backed down. The flight that flipped with Light and helped raise the fodder floor to the highest it ever was.
Plague was competitive, took defeat like a champ, and were the fighters/survivors as described in their lore.
Fighting Earth was going to be a hard fight, and anyone who challenged Earth had a lot of courage. PvE was a dream match, but it fizzled out very quickly after its start. While many may argue that Plague could have been just one dragon behind, I’d argue fodder prices told a different story.
http://oi66.tinypic.com/2lsej3q.jpg
And let me reiterate that yes I am primarily basing my opinion mostly on this one fight and surrounding information. It is ok to differ in opinions on this – especially if you are in Plague with the power to change things for the better. I do feel that Plague should focus on inflight events and dom programs and could probably show its strength again from existing programs.
Nature, on the other hand, I’m waiting for the day to call them a new dom powerhouse, but it is contingent on one of two things. One: If they can manage to beat their sister flight Plague and take the title from them (a dream match for many), then they would be accepted by most people as a dom powerhouse. Or two, if they can increase their amount of pushes to be as frequent as Light or Earth’s, then they would stay on people’s radar enough to be considered a powerhouse. I do feel that if any other flight besides Light or Earth challenges Nature, that Nature would most likely win.
After defeating the old powerhouse of Ice, Nature should go on to challenge their sister flight Plague to take their crown. If that never happens and Nature is ready for a challenge, then taking on Earth’s numbers or a Light vs Nature 3 would be a wonderful fight I’d love to guess who might win. At this point in time, I have no idea! Until then, Nature can also continue increasing profit pushes and offering challenges to other flights to increase their competitiveness.
Lightning being this high on the list will surprise most. Infrequent pushing causes Lightning to be further down if factoring total number of placings and weighing 1st, 2nd, and 3rd proportionally. However, judging by track record, victories over Arcane, Fire, and Wind, Lightning could belong here. There may be bias here of course, as I am part of Lightning flight and involved in its dom scene. The victory that primarily places Lightning here is its victory over Fire in February as opposed to Water’s loss to Fire in November of last year. However, it does beg the question, in a fight between Lightning and Water, who would win? Whoever wins this match would most likely be the 4th ranked dom flight.
With a good balance of increased push frequency and improving on our dom culture and programs, Lightning could eventually have a modern rematch versus Nature. In 2015, Lightning beat Nature, but for the purposes of factoring in changes in dom culture and keeping data up to date, those numbers aren’t used in these deductions.
Fire is next primarily for being sandwiched between Water, who they scored a victory over, and Lightning who they suffered a loss from. Fire is in a similar case to Lightning, though more so. Fire does not seem to have much “background exalting” outside of conquests, and finishes near the bottom of the dom board. That being said, it’s recent victories over competitive flights point to it being competitive itself. Fire further brings up the question on if placings in the top 3 make a dom flight competitive or its track record of recent victories. As the case with Lightning, increasing pushes and dom prowess would do Fire some good. A rematch versus Lightning may be a proper goal, though for something fresh, Wind versus Fire may be even more interesting.
My gut says that Wind and Water rank similarly. Water has recently tangoed with Ice, Fire, Plague, and even Earth in Battle of the First Four Prt2. While I am impressed with Water being courageous in challenging the likes of dom giants, I personally feel the sum of the attempts and successes have yet to surpass those of Wind who has done the same thing. Wind was also in Battle of the First Four Prt2 and took second place from Wind. Wind also went against Earth solo as the only flight to accept its challenge for a father’s day conquest. Wind also has victories over Shadow and Arcane, which may not be competitive, but may have been what the flight needed to gain more confidence in dom - helping to establish a stronger base for programs and participants. This is all my opinion however. Water has recently beaten an old powerhouse in Ice, and Wind has just come from a loss from Lightning, so differing opinions make sense here. That all being said, a fight between Wind and Water would be interesting! I think both flights need to work on their strategies and programs to get a leg up over similarly placed flights.
Ice put up a good fight versus Water, make no doubt about it. But I’ve got to say, and I feel others may share the same sentiment, I didn’t think Ice would lose to Water. I also didn’t think we’d lose to Nature when it happened though (I was in Ice during that time), so there’s that. And it’s ok to lose. Losses will happen. But as far as my ranking is concerned, Ice unfortunately is nowhere near the top 3. All I can really say is that I think Ice should focus on its internal dom programs and increasing its participants. I felt that members over-relied on the dom team when I was there – to the point that without them it felt like the cornerstones of operations were gone – causing everything t fall apart. This may not be the case now, and I feel like this is also something that has affected Plague this year, so it’s not an isolated phenomenon. Dom participants should both know and have the means to execute their own gameplans to help the flight win dom. And that’s a combination of encouraging autonomy and encouraging as many participants to understand how dom works as possible.
Now, there is also a chance that I am very very wrong, because ranking Ice here means that I assume any flight above them (given the current track record) should be able to beat or at least flip with Ice in a conquest battle. I don’t think it will be easy, but I would bet on it with a certain degree of confidence. As I’ve said before, differing opinions are fine and I could be wrong.
Aside from its win versus Shadow, Arcane has not won a conquest since 2015. And I’m as disappointed about it as I am with Ice and Plague. Before the decline, Arcane had one of the first themed profit pushes I had seen. Or at least I think that was the case since I can’t actually find what I’m talking about. It was before March, but I still can’t find it. In any case, interactive events such as the Houses from their push versus Lightning had me shaking in my boots at the time. Despite that, there weren’t many flips that push, even though as an outsider I felt I’d participate in Arcane more than Lightning because of those events.
My personal opinion is that because of surrounding information on dom organization and participation, Arcane may need to refresh and regroup to prevent being known as not a dom-oriented flight. And to also not be known as the flight with dom participants who don’t want to participate in dom – for various reasons. I’m not sure if this is still the case however. I think Arcane should definitely focus on more event pushes to build up a better reputation with not only oofers, but more importantly, in-flighters as well. I’ve seen Arcane’s potential in the past, and still think they could eventually give other flights a run for their money.
Shadow does have a steep hill to climb. Being the largest flight isn’t a guarantee of losing a dom match, but having a reputation of being known as a non-dom flight does. This doesn’t mean that Shadow needs to start making non-dom people feel unwelcomed or call them “dead weight,” however. That’s the very last thing a big flight would want to do – discouraging potential participants from participating. Small flights need to focus on outsourcing a lot of their manpower, while Big flights should be making use of their own potential participants (in addition to outsourcing their manpower). A non-dom person who logs in at least once in the two weeks prior to the last day of a push is still counted as an active participant. You are better off making your dom programs simple, fun, and social to encourage that one person to exalt at least 1 dragon than you are in telling them that they are useless. And yes, it’s true that a non-dom person might not even look at the forums or know you’re even pushing – but it’s the same for other flights. Also keep in mind that a person who moves to your flight to not participate in dom, most likely knows what dom is and thus most likely sees the forums. Changing their mind about dom is the way to go.
I feel that encouraging those already participating in dom in Shadow, to establish an energetic base would be a good starting point for Shadow. I also feel that reaching out to other flights, especially flights that don’t receive pushes often like Light or Earth for event pushes that may have joint exalting challenges, foddart, and of course events for those oof would be a perfect joint opportunity to make dom appear more inviting and exciting.
