Hey guys! I’m writing here today to give you all a complete rundown of the drafting phase and how to draft in a way that allows your team to end up with a better team comp in a competitive setting. As a coach, drafting is one of the most common things I hear about when I ask a team what they think their biggest weakness is. This isn’t surprising though considering there aren’t many resources that actually talk about high level drafting strategies. So I hope that with this guide, I can shed some light on this very important part of Heroes of the Storm.
I also want to clarify that this is not the only definitive strategy to drafting. There are plenty of situations where you will want to draft differently, but this one is at least consistent and safe to use if you otherwise would have no idea what to do during the draft phase.
While drafting, there are two possible options. First pick and second pick. First pick is generally desirable but there are benefits to both sides and you should tailor how you draft according to which one you have
First Pick Team Strategy
The benefit to being the first pick team is pretty straightforward; you get to pick the first hero in the draft. This means that you have the option to get the highest valued hero in the meta if the other team doesn’t ban them. For example, currently Xul is by far the strongest hero and a perfect choice for first pick since he is versatile in the types of comps he can play in. What this actually means though is that the opponent is forced to use their first (and sometimes second) ban to take out strong meta heroes while your team can use your first and second bans more strategically to take out counters to your planned team comp, take out off-meta pocket picks or role choke. Alternatively, you can use your first pick to choose a hero that is highly favored for the map you’re playing on. For example, Rexxar on Braxis, Abathur on Cursed, or Kerrigan on Infernal.
First + Second Ban
- Counters to your planned comp
- Role choke (support or main tank)
- Off-meta pocket picks (for that annoying af Samuro main player)
First Pick
- Strong versatile meta pick (eg. Xul, Hanzo, Johanna, Greymane, Ana)
- Map consideration pick
At this point, the enemy team will get to pick two heroes followed by your second and third pick. This is another one of the benefits of being the first pick team; you get to pick three heroes before the second ban phase and before a lot more hero options get banned out.
For your second and third pick, you should pick 2 heroes that round out the core of your team comp while still keeping some flexibility to split off into different team comp options. Generally, you will want your main dps, main tank and support at this point and leave your fourth and fifth picks to your flex dps and offlaner, so that the flex dps can make a situational pick and your offlaner can try to counter-pick the enemy offlaner. Also, you want your main tank and support picks here because those roles have fewer viable heroes to choose from than other roles and you don’t want to be role choked during the second ban phase.
The alternative to this is if you picked your offlaner during the first pick as a map priority (like Rexxar on Braxxis). Then your second and third pick should either be support + dps or main tank + dps. For this, consider whether or not the enemy team has picked their support/tank already and grab the role they have not chosen yet.
Second + Third Pick
- Finish the core comp of main dps + support + main tank
- Alternative – offlane + support + dps
- Alternative – offlane + tank + dps
Next comes the second ban phase followed by the enemies third and fourth pick. For the ban phase you will normally want to ban a support/tank/flex pick that will synergize well with the enemy teams first and second pick. However, if you haven’t picked your support/tank yet, then don’t ban out a possible option for your team. It can be hard to determine exactly what the enemy team is planning when they’ve only shown two picks, but you can still make a decent guess to limit their options. The reason we ban the flex dps pick over the main dps pick is that the number of viable main dps heroes is very large (Raynor, Sylvanas, Hanzo, Junkrat, Valla, Jaina, Guldan…) so banning one out doesn’t really limit the enemy teams options as opposed to banning out a flex dps, which can often be a comp defining hero (Maiev, Zeratul, Abathur, Medivh…)
Third Ban
- Ban out a strong support or tank if the enemy team hasn’t picked them yet and you’ve already picked them
- Alternative – Ban a flex dps pick
Finally your fourth and fifth pick will be the two remaining roles on your team, which if you’ve been following this guide, will normally be the flex dps pick and the offlane pick. Try to pick heroes here that synergize well with your core 3-man comp and cover any weaknesses they may have (do you have enough waveclear? camp clear? frontline presence? flank presence?). This is also where you commit to your final team comp archetype (dive comp? front-to-back fighting? macro oriented?)
Fourth + Fifth Pick
- Your remaining roles (usually flex dps and offlane)
Second Pick Team Strategy
A lot of great second pick team drafting strategies rely on being versatile towards the first half of the draft and then exploding into some colorful surprise picks in the later half of the draft when the enemy team has little room to counter-pick. The second pick team has the burden of banning out key first pick heroes (Xul lul) and only gets to pick two heroes before the second ban phase, but the second pick team also has the tremendous benefit of being able to pick two heroes straight out of the second ban phase, which can be a huge turnaround moment in the draft because the enemy team loses access to four heroes before being able to pick again (two bans plus two picks). Also, the second pick team gets to have the last pick, which is valuable because it cannot be counter-picked.
For your first and second ban, you want to ban out strong meta heroes who are versatile and strong on the map. Alternatively, you can ban out strong pocket picks you know the enemy team is very good at
First + Second Ban
- Meta heroes
- Map specific heroes
- Target Bans
For your first and second pick, you want to pick either main dps + support or main dps + tank. If the first ban phase included a lot of tank bans then pick tank, and if the first ban phase included a slot of support bans then pick support. This is to remain versatile in your comp as most main dps aren’t too specialized in the kinds of comps they can fit in.
First + Second Pick
- Main dps + support
- Main dps + tank
Then comes the enemy team’s second and third picks followed by the second ban phase. This is where it starts to get advantageous for your team. After the enemies second and third pick, you will have an opportunity to lock down 4 heroes before the enemy team can pick again (two bans and two picks). This is where you can try to role choke the enemy by banning and picking a tank if neither team picked a tank yet, or banning and picking a support if neither team picked a support yet. If the enemy team already has their support and tank picked before the second ban phase, then it’s likely that you will have a decent understanding of what their team comp is trying to be (dive? turtle? wombo?) and you can ban a strong dps that fits their comps playstyle.
Third Ban
- Tank if neither team picked a tank yet (one that you don’t want to pick yourself)
- Support if neither team picked a support yet (one that you don’t want to pick yourself)
- Dps that synergizes with their tank+support if they have both already
For your third pick, you will want to fill the remaining role of support/tank/main dps that you have not filled yet. For your fourth pick, you should decide whether you want to save the last pick for your offlane or your flex dps. The benefit of last picking offlane is that you can be sure to pick a desirable offlane match-up because the enemy team will likely pick their offlaner in their fourth + fifth pick. The benefit of last picking flex dps is that you have all the information about the enemy team comp to pick the perfect flex dps to counter the enemy team draft or you can surprise the enemy team with an unorthodox pick like a Sgt. Hammer or Samuro or you just pick a flex dps that would otherwise be countered if picked elsewhere in the draft. In whichever case, your fourth pick will be the role you aren’t saving for last pick.
Third + Fourth Pick
- Third pick – Finish out the core comp of main dps + support + tank
- Fourth pick – either offlane or flex dps
Fifth Pick
- Offlane or flex dps
Drafting is a highly complicated and nuanced part of competitive Heroes of the Storm and there are far too many variables to encapsulate in one guide. However, I hope this guide can serve as a starting point for your team to begin drafting better and making calculated decisions in the draft phase. For any questions or discussions, please feel free to reach out to me on Discord.
Drunkdwarf#5109