by JR Cook - 9 years ago     show comments

The last few weeks, we have covered how to unlock Hero League and how the draft process works.  This week, we will keep the Hero League conversation going by discussing typical team compositions, and what to consider when selecting your Hero.

If you have read my previous articles, then you know that I am a big proponent of new players restricting themselves to a very small pool of Heroes in the beginning.  If Thrall is the Hero that you play the best, then you should play him at every opportunity.  As you grow as a player, you can venture outside these restrictions, but for the time being just enjoy this article and file away the information it contains for some point down the road.

For veteran players, the draft provides a unique opportunity to affect the course of the game before the battle even begins.  Always remember, no matter how well, or how poorly your team drafts, ultimately it is going to come down to how you and your team play.  This is a pitfall that many average players fall into.  Because their knowledge of the game often surpasses to their ability to play it, they make things overly complicated and put themselves into difficult situations.  In poker, this is known as Fancy Play Syndrome, and it is an illness that can just as easily infect Heroes players.  Knowing the ideal pick in a given situation doesn’t help much if you don’t have the necessary skills to take advantage of it.  Even experienced players should err on the side of playing what they are good at.

Now that we have the “Don’t run off and start drafting all kind of crazy Heroes because I read about it in and article” disclaimer out of the way, lets get rolling.

Team Comps

Whether you are a solo queue player, or part of a five man premade group, the likelihood of your team’s success will be increased if you have some type of synergy between your Heroes.  Obviously, this is much easier to accomplish as a full team on voice chat, but that doesn’t mean that solo queue players can’t also build a team of complimentary Heroes.  The first step is understanding the common team compositions, along with the ideas behind them.

Poke: This is your traditional team, consisting of one tank, one healer, and three damage dealers (usually ranged).  The idea is that the tank will block the opposing team, while the damage dealers attack from a safe distance.  The name is based on the fact that you want to consistently apply damage by ‘poking’ at the enemy team from afar.  Your dps should always be dancing around the outskirts, while your tank provides a distraction, and intercepts any enemy who tries to engage your dps.  Johanna and ETC are good poke comp tanks thanks to their ability to reposition enemies who get too close to the ranged Heroes.  Healers like Malfurion and Lili also work well with this type of team, because they can slow enemies, or make their attacks miss.

Dive: This is basically the opposite of a poke comp.  The goal is to quickly converge, or ‘dive’, onto one target and eliminate them from the fight.  This comp requires more coordination to ensure that everyone is focused on the same target.  This can be accomplished by establishing who will be the initiator at the beginning of the game.  Judgement makes Tyrael the stereotypical tank for a dive comp, but Anub’arak and Muradin are also good at locking down targets.  Melee Heroes, such as Illidan or the Butcher, can also be used as initiators.  Again, the key is to make sure that everyone is ready to immediately drop the hammer once the initiator engages.  Ideally, you want a healer who can be right in the thick of things, such as Uther, Kharazim, or Rehgar.

Wombo Combo: This is one of the more difficult team comps to pull off in solo queue, but it is glorious when it works.  The focus of this team is to synchronize several abilities, such as Devouring Maw, Mosh Pit, Gravity Bomb, and Orbital Strike, in order to deal a massive amount of damage to the enemy team.  Much like the dive comp, the key is to identify how the wombo combo will be initiated, and to plan accordingly.  It is usually a two step process.  Step one is to lock down the enemy with abilities such as Devouring Maw, Entomb, or Mosh Pit.  Step two is to nail them with hard hitting abilities such as Gravity Bomb, Ravenous Spirit or Ring of Frost.  As you can see by the abilities listed, there are numerous Heroes who can fit on a wombo combo team.  If you are playing a Hero with lock down potential, communicate with your team so that they can time their abilities around yours.  If you are playing a Hero with a hard hitting Ultimate, look at your team to see what other abilities they might have that you can combo with.

Siege: The focus of this type of team is to gain early map control and to strongly push lanes.  Specialists such as Zagara, Asmodan, and Sylvanas are ideally suited for this type of play.  It is important to realize when playing with siege focused Heroes, that they will often not be participating in team fights or Objectives.  What makes these Heroes valuable is their potential to strongly push a lane all by themselves.  What separates a good Specialist from a bad one, is the ability to correctly judge when they should continue to push, and when they should help the team.  These players also need good map awareness to determine when it is no longer safe to continue pushing.  Ideally, the extra experience and level advantage they generate thru pushing will more than offset the fact that your squad is outnumbered in team fights.

Double Warrior: The traditional double warrior team comp consisted of one warrior focused on durability, and one focused on damage.  The first type were the more traditional tanks like Johanna.  The second type were warriors such as Sonya or Arthas, who could deal a reasonable amount of damage, and be quite difficult to kill.  While these teams could be effective, they weren’t overly common in solo queue Hero League games.  The addition of Leoric has brought a renewed popularity to the double warrior comp.  Johanna and Leoric are currently the two best warriors in the game.  Drafting both of them not only gives your team a great combination of survivability and damage, but it also denies the enemy team a top level tank.  A wall of two solid tanks, complimented by high damaged ranged Heroes such as Kael’thas, Jaina, or Sgt. Hammer can be devastating.

Now that you have an idea of some of the common team comps you might encounter, lets talk about the different factors you should be considering when deciding which Hero to draft.

When do you pick?

The first thing you need to look at is your draft position.

If you are drafting early, you are going to have more options than if you are drafting late.  As a new player, if you have one of the first couple of picks you should simply pick the Hero that you play best.  You may get some grief from your team if you first pick someone like Raynor or Li Li, but don’t sweat it.  While they may not be traditional top tier Heroes, you are better off playing what you are good at, instead of trying to play a “better” Hero poorly.  As you improve and learn more Heroes, it is important to use these early picks to lock up top Heroes and deny them to your opponents.

When you pick later in the draft, you naturally have less options.  Not only will there be fewer Heroes to choose from, but your pick is going to be largely influenced by what else you already have on your team, or in some cases what you don’t have.  For example, if you have one of the final two picks, and your team doesn’t have a tank or a healer, then your options are pretty limited.  This is why everyone who plays Hero League should be able to tank, heal, or dps reasonably well.  While dps may be your strong suit, you should be able to tank in a pinch.  If you are new player picking late, take a look at what roll your team needs and pick the best Hero that you have who can fill that roll.  Veteran players should be looking at the synergy between their pick, and the Heroes who are already on their team.  This is where experience, and knowing how different Heroes compliment each other comes in handy.

Balance

An often overlooked aspect of team building, is the balance between melee and ranged dps.  Being unbalanced in either direction can cause problems.  Too many melee Heroes leaves you succeptable to Area of Effect damage, and it can also make it difficult to lane against certain opponents.  Having too many ranged Heroes can make it hard to initiate a fight, and it leaves the melee Heroes that you do have vulnerable to being focused down.  Again, when you are new sometimes you just have to play what you are best at and live with the consequences.  As you improve, you should be factoring this balance in to your decision making process.

The Map

This one is more for experienced players, but what map you are playing on can be an important factor in deciding which Hero to play.  This information is displayed right below the draft timer.  While some Heroes are good on any map, there are other Heroes who are more situational, and whose stock rises on certain maps.  On larger maps, Heroes with extra mobility such as Falstad and Brightwing have extra value.  On battlefields such as Sky Temple or Dragon Shine, where controlling an area is key, Heroes like Gazlowe shine.  Specialist like Abathur or Lost Vikings can be effective at farming experience on maps such as Haunted Mines or Battlefield of Eternity, where teams are forced to spend significant time outside of lanes.  These are just a few examples of how specific maps can influence your Hero choice.

A good draft isn’t about picking the ten best Heroes.  If it was, every single draft would be the same, and it would just be a matter of who picks first.  You have to consider countless variables, and make the best decision in that specific situation.  This is by no means an all inclusive list of team comps and draft considerations, but it should give you a solid starting point.  We haven’t even talked about things like crowd control or counter picks.  This isn’t the end of the conversation, this is the beginning.  Keep looking for ways to improve your draft decisions.  Good Luck and High Five!