Hello and welcome to my first guide on mobafire. I was inspired to make this guide after seeing the build by pimzy http://www.mobafire.com/league-of-legends/build/ashe-ap-sniper-68176 as the title says, this will be a guide on how to play a competent AP ashe. as this is my first guide, it might seem noobish (idk how to put pictures or items into the chapters). Constructive criticism is welcome as are tips on guide building. ty ^^

Pros
[*] dominate other ad champions in 1v1 scenarios
[*] ult hits for over 1k damage and can stun for up to 3.5 secs
[*] constant flow of nukes (death to squishies and tanks alike)
Cons
[*] extremely squishy (unless banshee's veil is adapted into the build)
[*] takes skill to pull off
[*] heavily reliant on good positioning and timing (once again the skill aspect)

For runes, I take magic pen red, some cd blue and magic pen blue, and flat MR yellow. Let me explain my curious choices. The magic pen for red and blue are meant to pierce more of the enemy's magic resistance. Most people don't stack a lot of MR so piercing even this much is huge. Why i don't go all magic pen blue is to reach maximum cooldown reduc with as little waste as possible. The total from the cd blue should come to 2.6. The 3 from masteries should bring it to 5.6. with boots of lucidity adding 15 and morello's adding 20, it should cap at 40.6. the max is 40 so only .6 is wasted. the flat MR yellow is to help against ap enemies that ap ashe has a little more trouble dealing with.

I put points into deadliness and lethality simply to help the Avarice Blade early game. late game, it won't do much but it also helps reach that final point of Havoc which helps ALL game. I put points into as many mana related areas in utility as i can fit (9) because ashe's mana pool sucks. This should help remedy that problem even if just a little.

I max Volley ASAP to be able to spam it. The primary harassment early game should start after going back for Sheen. With points in volley, the cooldown goes down dramatically. Hit the opponent with volley then one auto attack. Rinse and repeat. Obviously take the Enchanted Crystal Arrow whenever possible as this ult will be game changing and a severe pain in the *** to the other team. The curious choice here is Hawkshot. After grabbing level 2 frost arrow, I max Hawkshot. This is to improve farm on minions and also for some funny crystal arrow shots. Several times i've seen enemies run away with low hp but their allies block the way of my arrow. Instead of firing down lane hoping to miss the high hp enemies and hit the low ones, I move off to the side, Hawkshot to where the enemy is most likely b'ing and shoot my arrow at them as they start casting recall . It could also be used as an emergency proc for Lich Bane as Volley even at max cd reduc will be slower than your auto attack.

I take Flash and Teleport as they seem to be the most useful. Flash adds considerable survivability if you know how to use it (i.e. flash over wall not just down lane). It could also be used to close the gap on an escaping enemy to use volley and proc sheen/lich bane for the kill. Teleport is a must if you lane in mid. Ap ashe has an expensive build and must farm or kill constantly. This can also be used as an escape method in intense situations or as a way to quickly farm a large minion wave pushing one of your side lanes.

Start off with Brawler's Gloves and 2 Health Potion. For the beginning levels, you want to harass and farm last hits simultaneously. Use Volley to harass the enemy every now and then and even some auto attacks but never put harassment over last hits. After going back for the first time, you should have enough for Avarice Blade and philosopher's stone. In a perfect world, you should get level 1 boots as well and part of Sheen (mana first). Heavy harassment should start after getting Sheen. To harass an enemy, pop Volley on them and then one auto attack. After going back for Pickaxe and boots of lucidity, if meta game has not initiated, your harassment should be terrifying. You can get an early kill at level six if your enemy is around half health or lower. The best way is to kite them with making it look like you're in danger and then volley/sheen them once they have committed. As they are about to win the fight, pop your ult into their face, auto attack, volley, auto attack and they should be dead. If not, they're probably trying to run away or very close to dead. Remember that you can use hawkshot as an emergency proc for sheen/lich bane.

Meta game might be the hardest part for ap ashe as this should be when you make the transition from ad to ap. Once you get Guinsoo's Rageblade and Lich Bane, try to spam Volley and auto attack as hard as you can on enemy champs. Watch the side lanes (if you are mid or watch mid if you are in a side lane). Watch for fights in progress and try to use Enchanted Crystal Arrow to save your friends or secure a kill. Remember, a long range ashe ulti means a whole 3.5 seconds of stun which is a lifetime in LoL years. Landing a long range arrow feels extremely nice too. In skirmishes, stay back as far as you can and use Volley-auto attack. Try to target high profile champions (any ap nuker must die ASAP i.e. veigar, annie, malzahar). Many times Tanks will take heavy damage from you as well as they don't expect an ashe to build magic damage.

In team fights be sure to stay back and away from ap nukers. If possible, stay unseen to the side until the actual fight begins and then enter unexpectedly targeting the ap nukers who would likely have just blown their main abilities on your tanks. Timing your ultimate may be the turning event. Try to land it on squishies (preferably an ap nuker that can 3 shot you) or fleeing enemies. The best arrows, however, are those in the middle of a team fight that interrupt a core moment for the enemy team (nunu ult, malz/ww suppression, mf ult). Do NOT underestimate the damage your arrow can do. Even if an enemy still has over half their hp, it may be a squishy that can fall to a ONE THOUSAND dmg arrow. I've seen my arrows take enemies from full hp to less than a quarter. with 500+ ap at late game plus 150 standard damage, lich bane procs for 650 guaranteed damage (the volley also does 200+). Play smart and try not to die.

Farming may be a little slower late game than for ad ashe but it is still pretty quick and you can still fight off super minions effectively. Baron and dragon shouldn't be big problems either.

Remember these key factors to ap ashe:
volley-auto attack-volley-auto attack
hawkshot can be used as an emergency proc for sheen/lich bane
timing and positioning on ult cannot be stressed enough
stay away from the center of team fights, poke from the outside and go all in only if you feel it is necessary. survivability will always be a problem for you so you must play it safe.

you probably shouldn't do this in ranked play. But if you want to, by all means, go ahead :D