Strategy in High Ranks - How Legend Players Draft in Epic Seven RTA
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Open Draft ToolLegend RTA is a different game. The same heroes that carry you through Champion become liabilities at the top. The drafting strategies that feel natural at lower ranks actively lose games in Legend. We analyzed 272,000 Champion+ RTA battles to understand how Legend players draft differently - and what you can learn from them even if you are not there yet.
How Legend players think about drafts
Principle 1: Draft for skill expression, not raw power
The biggest difference between Champion and Legend drafting is hero selection philosophy. Champion players pick the "best" heroes - the ones with the highest overall win rates and the most straightforward kits. Legend players pick heroes that reward mastery.
Look at the Legend win rates versus the overall dataset:
| Hero | Overall WR | Legend WR | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shepherd Diene | 58.6% | 62.6% | +4.0 |
| Commander Pavel | 55.7% | 58.2% | +2.5 |
| Ruele of Light | 54.9% | 57.8% | +2.9 |
| Mort | 55.7% | 52.0% | -3.7 |
| Genesis Ras | 52.5% | 50.8% | -1.7 |
| Boss Arunka | 48.1% | 46.8% | -1.3 |
The pattern is clear. Heroes with active, decision-heavy kits gain win rate in Legend. Heroes with passive, automatic kits lose win rate. Legend players extract more value from heroes that reward timing, target selection, and rotation management.
Principle 2: Ban what disrupts your plan, not what is "strong"
Champion players preban the heroes with the highest overall win rates. Legend players preban the heroes that specifically counter their composition.
The data shows that Legend preban patterns are more diverse and more targeted. While Lady of the Scales (37.6%) and Shepherd Diene (28.5%) still dominate the preban charts at every rank, Legend players are more likely to preban niche counters like Commander Pavel when running buff-heavy compositions or Frieren when drafting Knight stacks.
This means Legend bans are reactive to the opponent's draft rather than proactive based on a static tier list. The same hero might be prebanned in one match and ignored in the next depending on the draft context.
Principle 3: Win conditions over individual power
Legend players draft toward a specific win condition. Every pick serves the team's strategy rather than being individually strong in isolation.
Common Legend win conditions:
The sustain war:
Draft cycling Soul Weavers, extend the game, and let Frieren's scaling take over. This composition gets stronger every turn and is extremely difficult to out-sustain.
The surgical strike:
Identify the opponent's keystone hero, delete them with Commander Pavel, and win the 4v3. Requires perfect target selection - a Champion player kills the wrong hero and loses. A Legend player eliminates the one that holds the draft together.
The lockdown:
Prevent the opponent from executing their strategy. School Nurse Yulha and Sea Phantom Politis shut down speed-based plans while Maid Chloe provides insurance against burst.
Legend pick order strategy
First pick: Secure the contested flex
Legend players do not first-pick "the best hero." They first-pick the hero that is strong in the most matchups AND difficult to counter in the remaining picks.
Best Legend first picks:
Frieren (53.8% WR) is the premier Legend first pick because she fits into both sustain and burst compositions, scales into every matchup, and has no hard single-hero counter. She does not commit you to a specific strategy.
Monarch of the Sword Iseria (52.5% WR) is the single hardest hero to counter-pick in the entire dataset according to our AI model. Her counter resistance score is the lowest (most negative) of any hero - meaning she weakens the opponent's draft just by existing.
Second pick pair: Establish the win condition
After first pick, Legend players use the second pair to establish their win condition while reading the opponent's direction.
If the opponent first-picks a Knight: consider scaling DPS like Frieren or burst options like Commander Pavel.
If the opponent first-picks a Thief: consider control options like Sea Phantom Politis or tanky compositions that absorb the speed advantage.
If the opponent first-picks a Soul Weaver: consider burst damage that can overwhelm healing, or Mort whose anti-counterattack passive shuts down reactive sustain compositions.
Last pick: The counter slot
The final pick in Legend is almost always a targeted counter. This is where game knowledge separates ranks. Legend players maintain a mental database of every hero's weaknesses and have specific answers prepared.
Common Legend last-pick counters:
| If opponent drafted... | Last pick... | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Buff-heavy Knights | Frieren | Scales off their buffs |
| Fast cleave | School Nurse Yulha | Disrupts speed strategies |
| Counterattack comps | Mort | Shuts down counterattack entirely |
| Single carry threat | Commander Pavel | Surgical removal |
| Debuff-heavy | Maid Chloe | Cleanse + revival |
The Legend ban phase
Prebans: The mind game
Legend prebans are a negotiation. Both players are trying to shape the hero pool in their favor before a single pick is made.
The standard Legend preban pairs:
The default Legend preban is Lady of the Scales + Shepherd Diene. This removes the two highest win rate heroes and forces both players to compete on a more level field. It is the "fair" preban - neither player gains a specific advantage.
The aggressive Legend preban targets the opponent's suspected strategy. If you expect cleave, ban Briar Witch Iseria and Ran. If you expect sustain, ban Lady of the Scales and Ruele of Light. This is riskier because you might guess wrong, but the payoff when you are right is enormous.
Postbans: The surgical strike
Legend postbans are where the real draft skill shows. After seeing 3-4 of the opponent's picks, you need to identify which single hero holds their composition together and remove it.
Key postban principles:
- Ban the enabler, not the carry. Removing a Soul Weaver from a sustain composition is often better than removing the DPS, because the DPS cannot function without healing.
- Ban the counter. If they drafted a specific answer to your key hero, remove that answer.
- Ban the unknown. If one hero in their draft has an unclear role, it is probably their flex pick designed to counter your last pick. Banning it removes their safety net.
What Legend players never do
They never autopilot drafts
Every Legend player has a comfort roster, but they never draft the same five heroes regardless of matchup. The data shows Legend drafts have significantly more hero diversity than Champion drafts.
They never ignore the opponent's draft
Champion players often draft "their team" without considering what the opponent is building. Legend players adapt on every pick - their third pick is informed by the opponent's first two.
They never pick heroes they cannot play at max level
This is counterintuitive, but it is backed by data. A Commander Pavel (55.7% WR) in the hands of a player who cannot consistently identify the correct snipe target drops well below 50%. A Setsuka (52.1% WR) in the hands of a speed tuning expert is far more reliable.
Legend players have deep mastery of 15-20 heroes rather than surface-level knowledge of 40.
Building a Legend-ready roster
Based on the Legend win rate data, here is the minimum roster for competitive Legend drafting:
Must-have (Legend S-tier)
Core rotation (Legend A-tier)
Specialist picks (Legend B-tier)
This gives you 15 heroes that cover every draft scenario Legend throws at you.
The takeaway
Ready to practice Legend-level drafting? Our AI draft tool provides rank-conditioned recommendations that adjust for Legend-level play. Use our Stats page with the rank filter to see exactly how every hero performs at your target rank.
All data from 272,000 Champion+ RTA battles, latest season. Analysis powered by E7 RTA Bot Predictor v6.0.0 with rank-conditioned FiLM layers.
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