Top 10 Legendary Champions in TFT
Whenever a new Teamfight Tactics expansion comes out players often race to see if their favorite champions have returned but also, which champions occupy the coveted five-cost champion slots.
Five-cost champions are known to be the most powerful champions in any given set while also being the flashiest. The best five-cost champions are the ones that are most fun to play which means they have to be good of course but also provide something that sets them apart from their counterparts.
Here is a list of the top 10 Legendary (five-cost) champions in each set in TFT history from Set 1 to Set 10.
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Set 1: Pantheon
The first set of TFT had some growing pains when it came to making five-cost champions stand out but one champion they killed in the “oh yeah this is a Legendary champion” was the addition of Pantheon.
On top of being at the time the most busted champion in the entire game, when Pantheon casted his ability and set the board ablaze, players felt it.
Set 2: Zed
TFT Set 2 was a little lackluster in the exciting department but there was one champion that was so over the top that it was funny to watch. In TFT Set 2 one of the traits that caused headaches for the balance team and the player base was Summoners which essentially was a trait that allowed certain champions to summon entities on the board. But with the five-cost Zed, he summoned…himself.
And these clones that Zed could summon functioned just like the original himself which let them also summon copies. Essentially this would create board states where there are a dozen Zeds on the board which was cool to look at if you were the Zed player.
Set 3: Gangplank
Teamfight Tactics
There were a lot of cool five-cost champions in TFT Galaxies like Thresh and Aurelion Sol who were among the first champions that pushed the envelope on what a five-cost champion can do. But it was Gangplank that brought in a brand new concept.
Gangplank was the big bad of the set thematically and also meta-wise. That is because Gangplank allowed players to purchase “upgrades” for their ability in the shop. These upgrades cost 8 gold but made his ability trigger twice, have a big radius and have a faster cast speed. All of these combined made GP one the most busted champions of all time.
Set 4: Lee Sin
Lee Sin is up there in the most impactful champions in the history of TFT because he was the first champion that pushed the board design of TFT to its limit. Instead of just providing CC, Lee Sin can literally kick opposing champions off the board, killing them instantly.
Lee Sin provided countless moments of him kicking off a key enemy carry in what would of been a hopeless fight and his design is so popular, it's been replicated in future sets like with K’Sante in Set 9.
Set 5: Teemo
Teemo was the first Legendary champion who started to bend the rules of TFT. Although Gangplank in Set 3 introduced upgrades, those still ultimately cost gold in the shop, but when Teemo shows up in the shop, he costs HP. Paying for the Devil in blood, Teemo rewards the player with a powerful AP carry that in a one-versus-one, will automatically give the player the round win.
Set 6: Tahm Kench
To this day Tahm Kench is at the top of the list in most players all time favorite champions. While champions like GP allowed players to “invest” into their carry with gold, Tahm Kench in TFT Gizmos and Gadgets had a unique trait that allowed players to feed champions to Tahm Kench to increase his stats.
In combat he got even cooler, Tahm Kench sucked up enemy champions and did damage over time, if he killed a champion while they were in his stomach, he would spit out either gold or item components making him an amazing snowball champion if players found him early.
Set 7: Soraka
In a set filled with massive Dragons, it's Soraka that takes home the best Legendary champion award thanks to her being inherently broken. Champions usually just impact a round by doing crazy damage, CC, or healing but Soraka takes the healing to another level by healing the Tactication and if the player is at max health, she blows up enemy champions instead.
Also, there is just not a better three-star five-cost champion in the history of the game as she heals to 100 HP every round and if a player is already 100 HP, well…she just auto-kills the board.
Set 8: Urgot
Like Tahm Kench, Urgot is a fan-favorite five-cost champion in players' eyes because he allows for those high-roll moments. Urgot in TFT: Monsters Attack was a utility champion that sent massive waves toward him that knocked up any enemy champion they passed through. But whenever a wave would hit an enemy champion, there was a chance that loot would drop which usually contained gold.
Players love their money maker champions and with Urgot provided universal CC to any comp on top of it, it was a no brainer that the wave maker was one of the most splashable champions of all time.
Set 9: Ryze
Ryze takes the crown for the most ambitious five-cost champion ever created which is thanks to his ability, Realm Warp. With TFT: Runeterra Reforged having 10 different regions that changed from game to game, so did Ryze’s ability. This means that Ryze is essentially 10 different five-cost champions in one.
This made Ryze’s role in a team comp change every single game. One game he can be the main damage dealer, the next be the team’s CC bot and then the next be the team's main healer.
Set 10: Jhin
It’s still too early to tell which Set 10 Remix Rumble champion will be the most impactful when the set is all said and done but we can look at which champion has the coolest design and when it comes to that, Jhin takes the cake.
Jhin becoming a musical maestro and having turrets fire at his targets while he plays the violin is one of the coolest things ever seen in TFT. And the way players have to sacrifice bench space to make him stronger brings some uniqueness that has not been seen before even 10 sets in.
