A legato guitar lick based on the E Phyrgian mode played on the high E string is today's guitar lick. The usual goal of legato playing is to produce a smooth flowing sound. I came up with this guitar lick on an acoustic guitar and was trying to get a spanish flavor and aimed for a more stacatto feel so I tended to accent the picked note in each legato sequence rather than try to make them even with the notes that were not picked.
To alter this lick even more you may want to experiment with using palm muting to change the sound of the open E string.