Luckily, you guys probably have your hands full farming Banshee for that glorious bruiser gear anyways. But at the higher levels of PVP in E7, speed is king. This is true at lower levels as well, but when it comes time to build a unit with 320 speed to contest turn one, most people get turned off by the RNG process of not only acquiring good speed gear, but praying for decent rolls when enhancing it. Units with a high base speed are often used as turn one openers in Epic Seven RTA. They’re designed to take the first turn and either push combat readiness for your slower units, provide some kind of defensive buff to allow you to take a hit, strip immunity and apply debuffs to enemies, or pick off key units on your opponent’s team. Well let’s see which openers stand out the most in all of Epic Seven!
5. Judith
Class: Thief Element: Fire Rarity: 3* Base Speed: 113 (+4) For all the Moonlight Dreamblade Counter Set Arbiter Vildred’s out there, for every 30k HP Apocalypse Ravi and Rem Counter team, and for every Golden Girls draft consisting of Belian and Angel of Light Angelica, nothing is quite as scary as facing down a five-star Judith… This meme has permeated through the E7 community. And it essentially means that if your opponent is confident enough to draft a five-star low rarity unit such as Judith, they must be incredibly sure that they have enough speed to take turn one. Judith is a great budget opener who can boost the team’s combat readiness by 20% with her third skill before… not doing much else. She can deal decent damage, but she is mainly there to ensure you take the first turn.
4. Assassin Cidd
Class: Thief Element: Dark Rarity: 4* Base Speed: 122 (+6) Assassin Cidd is not an opener in the traditional sense. He’s mainly used to counter speedy teams by assassinating the key unit in your enemy’s draft. Most free-to-play players will often have very slow units overall, and sink all of their best speed gear into either their Assassin Cidd or Assassin Coli in hopes of counter speed-focused teams. Assassin Cidd’s massive damage allows him to take the first turn and eliminate your enemy’s combat readiness pusher, or their biggest damage threat.
3. Pavel
Class: Thief Element: Earth Rarity: 5* Base Speed: 120 (+4) Pavel is a great damage-dealing opener capable of ripping apart the enemy team with his skill two, before chomping down on a single threat with his skill three. His insane speed and ability to ignore damage-sharing effects make him a truly great opener that deserves a spot on this list. Not to mention that his AOE doesn’t trigger a counter-attack. Which makes him even more viable as an opener!
2. Ran
Class: Thief Element: Ice Rarity: 5* Base Speed: 123 (+6) Ran is one of the most impactful RGB units of recent memory. In a world of PVP dominated by Moonlight heroes, Ran and Politis stand side by side as the King and Queen of the RGB non-limited unit meta (sorry, Rimuru…) Ran’s blazing speed makes it incredibly easy for him to take turn one. However, without a CR push of his own, he’s reliant on a certain summer elf to help him reach his full potential. Ran’s AOE third skill strips debuffs & also applies defense break. This makes it very easy for a slightly slower Summer Iseria to boost the party’s combat readiness, apply her bombs, and cleave the entire team! While Summer Iseria and Ran go hand-in-hand, Ran is still a great unit if you’re able to pair him with equally fast units (like Peira, Cerise, Flan, etc), who can deal huge damage to capitalize on the defense break, apply debuffs thanks to the AOE strip, or boost up the team’s combat readiness even further.
1. Conqueror Lilias
Class: Warrior Element: Light Rarity: 5* Base Speed: 115 (+6) Cilias catapulted herself to the top of the metagame at release, mostly due to her insane kit and massive base speed for a Warrior. What makes Cilias so great is more than just her blinding speed – it’s also how she’s able to cripple the enemy team just by taking the first turn. Her AOE skill three decreases buff durations on all enemies by one turn, debuffs the enemies’ attack stat, buffs the entire team with vigor, AND grants her an extra turn! Cilias can then use this extra turn to use her powerful skill two – which inflicts redirected provoke on a single enemy and pushes them back. This allows for Cilias to push back the enemy’s fastest unit, to allow a secondary CR pusher on your team to take the second turn. Cilias’ kit is absolutely insane as an opener. And there’s a reason why she has become a strong first pick or pre-ban in RTA. If you missed out on Cilias during her initial Mystic debut, we hope you have enough banshee gear to survive her seemingly lengthy domination in the meta!
Honorable Mentions
These are units that are still great openers, but have either fallen out of the meta (for one reason or another) or have been surpassed by other units on this list in terms of speed or utility. Still, if you can get any of these units to a high enough speed level, your opponent may not think to ban them – allowing for a nice surprise attack!
Basar Fairytale Tenebria Faithless Lidica Flan Emilia Top Model Luluca Elphelt Kayron (Speed Build)
