Drafting - Hero League:
The first thing that happens in any competitive heroes game is the draft. This is one of the most critical stages of the game and picking the right heroes can make a huge difference. The first thing to consider is 'Do I have a balanced composition?' To win Hero League, every team will want three things.
1) At least 1 warrior hero 2) At least 1 healing support 3) A couple stuns/crowd control
Why do we want these three things?
First of all the warrior hero will excel during team-fights, it allows your team to engage the enemy and warriors have a big enough health pool to survive in front. Warriors normally bring some sort of displacement or stuns to your team too. This can be incredibly helpful for catching an enemy hero away from their team.
A healing support includes every support except Tassadar, and (damage built) Kharazim. The power of the healing support is often underestimated as much of what they do happens before a fight is engaged. Imagine a scenario in which one team has a healing support and the other does not, the team with the healing support will be at full health, while it is likely the other team will not be. This heavily tilts the team-fight in favor of the team with the healing support. Furthermore many healing supports have 'save' ultimate abilities such as Rehgars ancestral spirit - and can save people on your team that end up caught out of position.
You will also want some stuns. Stuns are fantastic, they let your team follow up on killing an enemy, many ultimate abilities can be interrupted by them, enemies can not attack while stunned, and the list goes on and on! A team without crowd control and stuns is destined to lose against a team with them.
Drafting Advanced - Team League
To create the absolute strongest team compositions possible there are other factors to consider, these are synergy, win condition, picking order, and counters.
Synergy is how well two heroes work together, for example Kerrigan and Tyrande have high synergy:
Kerrigan can dish out a lot of damage, Tyrande can increase this with her trait - Kerrigan can stun enemies, this lets Tyrande hit her stun easily, finally Kerrigan is melee range and takes a lot of damage, but Tyrande can heal her up.
Win condition is the strategy your team will use to win the game:
Composition: Uther Illidan Abathur Valla Johanna
Win Condition: Dive the enemy with the least health and kill them before the enemy can react using our teams enhanced mobility
Win conditions don't necessarily have to be team-fight oriented, for example:
Zagara on Blackheart's Bay takes all the camps faster than the enemy can clear them, and then turns in the coins to win the game.
Picking Order is a micro-mechanic that allows you to 'outdraft' your opponent. This can be done by blocking their picks, forcing them into picking a hero that your team already counters, or by scaring them into picking a hero to deny your team. Generally you want to pick the heroes that are more flexible and more likely to be picked by the other team earlier in your drafting phase. The heroes that determine your win conditions are often picked later in the draft - since they rely on less popular heroes and you don't want to show your win condition early.
Counters: Some heroes do a great job countering other heroes and you should consider this as a viable win condition. For example if the enemy team takes Illidan, your team could take heroes to counter him, such as muradin and uther.
1) At least 1 warrior hero 2) At least 1 healing support 3) A couple stuns/crowd control
Why do we want these three things?
First of all the warrior hero will excel during team-fights, it allows your team to engage the enemy and warriors have a big enough health pool to survive in front. Warriors normally bring some sort of displacement or stuns to your team too. This can be incredibly helpful for catching an enemy hero away from their team.
A healing support includes every support except Tassadar, and (damage built) Kharazim. The power of the healing support is often underestimated as much of what they do happens before a fight is engaged. Imagine a scenario in which one team has a healing support and the other does not, the team with the healing support will be at full health, while it is likely the other team will not be. This heavily tilts the team-fight in favor of the team with the healing support. Furthermore many healing supports have 'save' ultimate abilities such as Rehgars ancestral spirit - and can save people on your team that end up caught out of position.
You will also want some stuns. Stuns are fantastic, they let your team follow up on killing an enemy, many ultimate abilities can be interrupted by them, enemies can not attack while stunned, and the list goes on and on! A team without crowd control and stuns is destined to lose against a team with them.
Drafting Advanced - Team League
To create the absolute strongest team compositions possible there are other factors to consider, these are synergy, win condition, picking order, and counters.
Synergy is how well two heroes work together, for example Kerrigan and Tyrande have high synergy:
Kerrigan can dish out a lot of damage, Tyrande can increase this with her trait - Kerrigan can stun enemies, this lets Tyrande hit her stun easily, finally Kerrigan is melee range and takes a lot of damage, but Tyrande can heal her up.
Win condition is the strategy your team will use to win the game:
Composition: Uther Illidan Abathur Valla Johanna
Win Condition: Dive the enemy with the least health and kill them before the enemy can react using our teams enhanced mobility
Win conditions don't necessarily have to be team-fight oriented, for example:
Zagara on Blackheart's Bay takes all the camps faster than the enemy can clear them, and then turns in the coins to win the game.
Picking Order is a micro-mechanic that allows you to 'outdraft' your opponent. This can be done by blocking their picks, forcing them into picking a hero that your team already counters, or by scaring them into picking a hero to deny your team. Generally you want to pick the heroes that are more flexible and more likely to be picked by the other team earlier in your drafting phase. The heroes that determine your win conditions are often picked later in the draft - since they rely on less popular heroes and you don't want to show your win condition early.
Counters: Some heroes do a great job countering other heroes and you should consider this as a viable win condition. For example if the enemy team takes Illidan, your team could take heroes to counter him, such as muradin and uther.