Ashe/Strategy

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Gameplay

Champion Spotlight

By David 'Phreak' Turley

With the Freljord event coming to a close, this edition of the Champion Spotlight focuses on one of the leaders of the three tribes. Take aim with a giant frozen arrow and Focus your enemies into frigid oblivion as Ashe, the Frost Archer.

With her full suite of crowd-control and utility, Ashe has the ability to harass in lane and deliver high-impact damage complemented by one of the strongest initiates in the game. Ashe demonstrates natural kiting power with Frost Shot, while Volley provides efficient wave clear and Hawkshot's active effect allows her to spot a sneaky gank attempt. Use Enchanted Crystal Arrow to start a fight, or pick off an opponent with a cross-map snipe to end one.

Check out the video for tips, tricks, and sample runes and masteries for Ashe, an ADC with a chilly disposition.

Recommended Items

Tips

Playing As Ashe

• Try to fire Enchanted Crystal Arrow in the same direction enemies are moving, so it is more likely to hit.
• Volley arrows are blocked by the first enemy they hit, so keep your distance to avoid having them all absorbed by enemy frontliners.
• Hawkshot reveals units in brush. If a team fight is occurring in the jungle it can give you a significant advantage.

Playing Against Ashe

• Ashe has very few defensive options, and she's a good target to gank.
• Be wary of moving around the map alone if Ashe has not recently cast her Enchanted Crystal Arrow.

Tricks

Ability Usage

• Ashe's strength as a marksman comes from the utility of her kit particularly, the permaslow from Frost Shot, a global range scouting tool from Hawkshot and a global range crowd control from Enchanted Crystal Arrow.
• Frost Shot adds a slow to Ashe's basic attack and damaging spells.
  • Learning how to kite enemies is essential in mastering Ashe, for she doesn't have an escape mechanism. Besides clever positioning, her array of stun and slows is her only way to keep enemies at bay.
  • Since her basic attacks against frosted enemies are guaranteed to critically strike, the mastery  Warlord's Bloodlust has a good synergy on Ashe.
• Ashe's Ranger's Focus gives her a massive attack speed upon activation and transforms her basic attack into a flurry, that adds a substantial damage to her basic attacks.
  • The flurry of attacks works on towers, letting her push with ease.
  • You only get a stack of Focus for every cast of both Volley and Enchanted Crystal Arrow even if it hits multiple enemies. The best way to fully stack it is to weave Volley in between basic attacks.
  • Try building up stacks on minions if you're going to trade against your lane opponent.
• Volley has a fairly large cone and decent damage early/mid game. Use this to your advantage by positioning yourself to last hit minions and harass the enemy champions with it. Avoid spamming it early game as you most likely end up pushing the minions to the enemy tower.
• Volley diminishes quickly in the late game; however, it still provides a great deal of utility. Volley can slow a great majority of the enemy team, can still be used between auto attacks, hit enemy chasing/retreating in bushes and it can pop Banshee's Veils.
• Use Hawkshot to check the nearby jungle for enemies that may be attempting to gank you. It is also useful to check if the enemy is fighting the Dragon Dragon or Baron Nashor from a distance.
  • If your team is engaging either of those monsters, Hawkshot will give you advance notice of enemy approach, but also inform them of your general location.
  • You could scout the entire enemy jungle when using Hawkshot from a side lane.
• You can use Enchanted Crystal Arrow to help your allies from another lane. If your allies have the advantage, shoot it further up their enemies' lane, and if not, aim further down your allies' lane. This may help your allies the opportunity to strike a killing blow or make a getaway.
  • Keep in mind that there is a low chance you'll hit them and you lose a lot of lane control if your opponent knows it's on cooldown.
• Enchanted Crystal Arrow is one of the best initiators in the game, able to stun an enemy (preferably someone squishy) from a distance.
  • Enchanted Crystal Arrow is also a great skill for ganking. A well-aimed arrow can stun the target long enough for you or your jungler to apply their CC as well.
  • When shooting Enchanted Crystal Arrow towards another lane, ping the area it will hit. This will alert your teammates that you have shot your ultimate.
• Don't be afraid to use Enchanted Crystal Arrow to escape. However, be aware that the duration of the stun is based upon how far the arrow has traveled before impact.
• Try to fire Enchanted Crystal Arrow in the same direction enemies are moving, so it is more likely to land a hit. It has a surprisingly large hitbox.
• Enchanted Crystal Arrow is very powerful in Dominion, as the enemy champion's attempted capture would be interrupted while they are being stunned for several seconds and repeatedly shot at by the turret.

Item Usage

• Stacking 2 Doran's Blades early game gives Ashe a much stronger lane presence, and are later sold for stronger items.
  • Cull presents a different alternative, allowing you to farm for items faster at the cost of lower starting attack damage.
• Ashe is a standard ranged carry and should be built accordingly. Her build path varies depending on the style of play and the enemy team.
  • If your enemy is stacking armor, try to get Lord Dominik's Regards or Mortal Reminder in your item build, depending on what the enemy builds. Lord Dominik's Regards is better for those stacking health, while Mortal Reminder is better against those with high health regen.
  • Standard crit items include the likes of Infinity Edge, Phantom Dancer, and Essence Reaver. Infinity Edge buffs her attacks, Phantom Dancer is good in 1v1 situations, and Essence Reaver is good if spamming abilities and stacking cooldown reduction.
• The Black Cleaver synergizes well with Ashe's Ranger's Focus. As an attack speed steroid, it helps apply the passive armor shred frighteningly quickly - one autoattack applies five stacks of The Black Cleaver's passive immediately, removing over a quarter of the target's armor. This lets Ashe punish targets even quicker, and gives her the option to wear down multiple enemies in a team fight, inherently making her team deal increased damage. The Black Cleaver's Rage also provides nice bursts of movement speed, helping her kite even easier, and complementing her passive slow.
• Banshee's Veil is extremely good when fighting enemies with strong crowd control. It grants her far more durability from her natural squishiness. Other possible item is Mercurial Scimitar for both a good attack damage bonus and the Cleanse-like active.
• Building Ashe as support is not ineffective considering she does have a low damage output. Building auras and cooldown reduction is an extremely effective way to play her. With her permaslow, cone slow, global vision, global stun, and requirement to be in the back during a teamfight, she can do just fine supporting her team.
• Runaan's Hurricane lets Ashe apply Frost Shot on up to 3 targets. This is not sufficient reason, since  Volley can apply a similar effect in a higher range and to a larger amount of targets. But it's also the best item for a ranged champion wanting to focus on wave clear, whether for gold, or experience, or to splitpush.
  • It does give her good multi-target damage output in teamfights, as the bolts can target multiple champions, readying critical strikes, and once Ranger's Focus is activated, the flurry will cause Runaan's to fire additional bolts.
• Ashe has mediocre movement speed. Buying Boots of Speed early game can help her with this, and later, once you leave lane, consider upgrading this item for a Berserker's Greaves or  Boots of Swiftness to help her escape and chase even better.
  • Boots of Swiftness is highly recommended for three reasons - the difference in movement speed is quite noticeable (and very much appreciated by such a 'slow' champion), the slow reduction is very useful (as slows are the most common CC), and the minor Attack Speed bonus that Berserker's Greaves gives is relatively negligible, and better built elsewhere. Simply put, you get a lot more bang for your buck with Boots of Swiftness.

Countering

• Beware of Ashe's's kiting capability. Frost Shot combined with Volley will keep you from reaching her.
  • Movement speed and Tenacity items can help counter her kiting.
• Ashe mainly deals damage by using auto-attacks, so buying Thornmail can help counter or even kill if she has low health.
• Although Ashe has great harassment during the laning phase, but her low health is a great disadvantage. Putting pressure on her can keep her zoned.
• Ashe is an unusual ADC, relying on something that almost every other ADC barely has if at all: sbc. Enchanted Crystal Arrow alone packs a stun, something unique and very rare for ADCs, as well as having a sort of Frozen Mallet in Frost Shot.
  • Due to this Ashe's ability to gank or assist in a gank is the best for any ADC in game, watch out if paired with strong gankers such as Hecarim or  Nautilus as they will simply CC lock you until you die.
• If Ashe starts to chain attack you with Frost Shot, you will most likely not be able to escape if you lack a dash or a blink (even with those, fear the Enchanted Crystal Arrow).
• Being tied for the lowest movement speed for champions in the game leaves Ashe vulnerable to skillshots.
• Ashe has little to no defensive capabilities. Use this to your advantage.
  • Gapclosers can quickly take advantage of this, since her slows cannot counter them.
• Watch for when Ashe uses her Hawkshot. This tells what part of the map her team has no vision of.
  • At the same time, beware for the inverse. You might be tricked into thinking an area is un-warded because she just used her Hawkshot, while it was just used to lure you there after the effects wore off.
• The most unique part of Ashe's kit is Enchanted Crystal Arrow, giving her a significant nuke and much appreciated hard CC (for an ADC this is extremely rare), simultaneously, she is quite dependent on her ultimate, so if you force her to burn it for an escape she is losing a large portion of her power and ganking abilities

References

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