So which of those 7 hero builds are working?

At the risk of stating the obvious, you would have to replace the leadership skills or replace a skill bar altogether, if you go with a non-paragon. This also kind of defeats the purpose of going with a 5 paragon team where they draw on leadership synergy with shouts/chants from one another.

I would just go get Keiran since he is not that difficult to recruit. Razah can change primary profs.

Razah can change primary profs. Yes but he doesn't have Keiran.

I don't know why, but for some reason I dislike the idea of have SoS on a hero, maybe because it lacks mobility compared to a human. Although splinter and ancestor's rage are very good skills, I feel as though there could be a better bar made, and I will be working on one and I will share my progress! Well SoS recharges every 30 seconds anyway...so placement isn't really that much of a problem

Would you guys say it's a good idea to have pure defense or offense heroes? I'm definitely one for making my own hero teams, but when it comes to making it workable in areas that NEED prots (huge damage, like Ferothax on way to Bogroots for example) it's not that I don't like a MM with Prot Spirit etc, but I feel like having a hero with both heals/prots and spells that target enemies are very distracting. Is it just me? I've watched some heroes cast and I can't even fathom why they are casting when they are. Prots when they aren't needed, offensive when defense is needed, mixing spells up doesn't seem to make sense to me but when I try to make my own "pure" heroes, sometimes it just does not work out! Haha, tell me what you think. This is sort of true... to a certain extent. To me, the issue really comes down to what you want more of in your party, offense or defense. Hybridizing your heals and prots will increase the offensive potential of your party. This is because, when said heals/prots are not needed, that hero will have offensive skills to use. However, hybridizing heals/prots can also, as you point out, lead to issues with the heroes properly utilizing the defensive skills. If a mm is in the middle of casting an animate spell or death nova as an ally falls under attack, they obviously will not be able to target that ally with a prot until the animate/death noval skill's casting time is over and until the aftercast is over. That can delay the casting of the defensive skill by quite a bit.

So yea, it basically comes down to this. Hybridizing heals/prots will lead to slightly more offense while having pure healer/protters will lead to a slightly increased ability for your heroes to prevent deaths. Its not like the difference is that big though... so it doesnt really matter which you choose. Personally, I use hybrid healers/protters in my physway build and a pure healer plus a pure protter (ER prot) in my caster damage build, since the physway build has sturdier heroes overall while the casterway build is more likely to need prots/spike heals available at a moment's notice.

Would you guys say it's a good idea to have pure defense or offense heroes? I'm definitely one for making my own hero teams, but when it comes to making it workable in areas that NEED prots (huge damage, like Ferothax on way to Bogroots for example) it's not that I don't like a MM with Prot Spirit etc, but I feel like having a hero with both heals/prots and spells that target enemies are very distracting. Is it just me? I've watched some heroes cast and I can't even fathom why they are casting when they are. Prots when they aren't needed, offensive when defense is needed, mixing spells up doesn't seem to make sense to me but when I try to make my own "pure" heroes, sometimes it just does not work out! Haha, tell me what you think. The thing to note about purely defensive heroes is that they will often be doing nothing but wanding, because that's how much damage a typical team takes. This is valuable DPS lost. It is definitely also true however that a mixed hero can cast offensive spells when you need him to cast heals.

There are a few ways to get the required healing while squeezing as much offensive power as you can out of your heroes:

1. Use more than one healer. That way, both of them need to be stupid before you die.
2. Use a Smiting Monk. He'll spend his time casting Smite Condi / Smite Hex / Reversal of Damage, which heals and deals damage at the same time. Damage output is not very high, but it's better than nothing.
3. Use a hero that doubles as something else. One bar I tried out was a D/N Avatar of Dwayna healer. Imbue Health can output healing even when the hero's being stupid simply because of 1/4s cast, and he can keep spamming flash enchantments while using secondary profession skills, Blood Ritual in my case. You can also try lifesteal skills on the hero, that way even if he's being stupid at least he himself won't die.

Personally, I always use hybrids. The gains in offensive power way outweigh the loss in defense.

Would you guys say it's a good idea to have pure defense or offense heroes? I'm definitely one for making my own hero teams, but when it comes to making it workable in areas that NEED prots (huge damage, like Ferothax on way to Bogroots for example) it's not that I don't like a MM with Prot Spirit etc, but I feel like having a hero with both heals/prots and spells that target enemies are very distracting. Is it just me? I've watched some heroes cast and I can't even fathom why they are casting when they are. Prots when they aren't needed, offensive when defense is needed, mixing spells up doesn't seem to make sense to me but when I try to make my own "pure" heroes, sometimes it just does not work out! Haha, tell me what you think. That depends on the area that I am playing in and the profession that I am using. In the tougher areas I prefer pure healers/prots otherwise, I prefer hybrids for the greater DPS.

Melee types that need to be in the thick of the battle tend to have a higher need for prots and heals in general but they balance that out through tank and nuke strategies.