Know Before You Go... For Honor

Dominion isn't "First to a 1000 wins." Getting 1000 points 'breaks' the morale of the enemy team, blocking their respawns and triggering a manhunt to eliminate the enemy heroes before they can reduce your point total below 1000 and 'rally.' It is entirely possible for both teams to be above 1000, thus triggering a rather intense battle to either kill of the enemy players first, or recapture enough zones to rally your team. Hint: Zones A and C are the most important as they heal you, and provide bonus points per second if at least 1 team member is standing in them. Zone B is actually captured by NPC soldiers, who only need your help pushing the enemy lines back far enough for them to seize control. Good tactic is the AH one, split into pairs, take A and C, and send one person from each to skirmish in B for short periods of time. Trying to hold all 3 will actually give the enemy team more chances to retake a zone during Break and Rally themselves)

Duel, Brawl, and Elimination are all pretty much the same, except for team sizes. Also Duel (and I believe Brawl), do not account for Gear Stats or Feats (perks earned though an in-match leveling system that encourages retreating rather than fighting blindly to the death), thus making them solely skill vs. skill. Skirmish is not in the Open Beta, but it's description is, and it seems to be a typical Team Deathmatch with respawns and possible NPC soldiers as well.

There are various practice modes, and Player vs. AI co-op versions of the game modes. The PvAI modes have slighty less rewards, but you can still progress through them, making them good for less skilled players to practice. 

As it stands, you can play all the classes from the beginning, but cannot customize their appearance or gear until your 'recruit' them in in-game currency, Steel. Gear allows you to modify the appearance and stats of your Heroes. All gear has at least 1 Positive and 1 Negative, with some have 2 of one and 1 of the other, so it always a choice between what stats are most important to you. Reaching level 20 (or Reputation 1, Level 1 as it is called in game), unlocks Load outs for that hero, allowing you set up different stats and looks for different game modes.

The Faction War meta-game allows you to apply War Assests earned from multiplayer (you always get some, and the better you do, the more you get) to attack or defend territory for your Chosen Faction. Your Chosen Faction does not limit your Hero Selection, but does determine the Shape of your custom Emblem (Knights are triangles, Samurai are rectangles, and Vikings are circles.

Additional cosmetic loot and a little extra in-game currency doesn't make it pay to win, Jon... Sure, those people will be able to get their desired items and level up a little quicker, but the gear is more about tweaking than anything else, and someone who got to level 20 in the time it took me to get level 10 wont necessarily be just better.

I'll probably get the game later on in the year. Looks great with the videos that AH have done.

  i hate pay to win games, i bet the season pass will only include like 3 maps

Yeah, wasn't able to play the beta because I think their network was down, and that may have hooked me. Considering that I wasn't planning on playing yet another multiplayer-focused online game, I may sit this one out.