SPACE

Hi guys. My name is Heartbeat, and I'm a former professional League of Legends player from ex-Team MRN. Currently I have three accounts in Diamond 1, and I play every role at a very high level. I have played mid, AD, and support to a professional level. Let's talk about Ashe, who's been in League of Legends since.. well, for as long as I remember. :^) She's seen in competitive play since Season 1 Championships, even until today in LCS. So what makes her such a great champion, and what are her strengths and weaknesses?

Let's talk about what Ashe's Pros and Cons.

Pros

• Has one of the best initiate abilities in the game
• Offers consistent AOE slows in teamfights
• Passive grants a 100% critical strike occasionally
• Her hawkshot gives you valuable sight information, that also gives you free gold.
• Has the ability to snowball different areas of the map with a lucky arrow

Cons

• Relatively low damage output, no steroids
• Lacks mobility, which means positioning becomes much much more important
• Arrow is a skillshot, meaning you can whiff it and make your team lose.

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Greater Mark of Attack Damage Greater Seal of Armor Greater Glyph of Magic Resist Greater Glyph of Mana Regeneration Greater Quintessence of Life Steal Greater Quintessence of Attack Damage

Marks

I personally think there are no better marks other than AD marks. Not only do these give you a higher damage output on your auto attacks and volley, but it will also help you last hit much easier both in lane and at turret.

Seals

Armor seals are a must have on all AD carries. Without it, you will be taking way too much damage from the opposing AD carries and you won't be able to trade with them.

Glyphs

I like a mix of MR glyphs and several mana regen glyphs. This is because Ashe is indeed mana heavy because of her volley spams and because her slow arrows drains mana very quickly. Not only that, taking mana regen glyphs will let you take 9 points into defensive mastery instead of the utility tree (for the mana regen).

However, if you're against double AP, or very very heavy burst AP champions such as leblanc or annie, i recommend scaling mr glyphs instead.

Quints

I like 1 AD Quint and 2x Life steal Quints. This is because I think with 4% life steal along with your Doran's Blade is more than enough sustain for you in lane. Ashe needs all the AD she can get from runes in order to lane properly because Ashe is not a forgiving champion. You will need to squeeze out a bit more AD than regular AD carries in order to trade with them.

I recommend 21/9/0 masteries. You will obviously need to take 21 points in offensive tree because you are an AD carry, and your purpose in game is to deal as much damage as possible. Hence, you will be maximizing your damage output by putting 21 points into offense tree.

Next, I recommend taking 9 points into defense tree for the extra shield mastery for Barrier, as well as extra hp and armor you get. Because Ashe is not a mobile champion, it's very helpful to take these defensive masteries so that it's more forgiving if you have a bad trade.

Taking 9 points into utility tree is still very viable though, because if you go 9 points into utility tree, taking the reduced Flash cooldown, mana regen, summoner spell cooldown reduction, and increased buff duration - you will obviously have a different kind of benefits. It's honestly a matter of preference - but in competitive play, if the enemy AD carries checks your stat and realizes you took utility tree masteries, he will play very very aggressive on you and you will have inferior stats compared to him in lane.

Let's talk about the most optimal item build to get on Ashe. Remember that item build is ALWAYS personal preference, and even in the professional scene pro's all have their own item builds to their likings.

Starting Item

- Doran's blade is pretty standard in terms of opening item. Not only does it provide early offensive AD stats, but it also gives you a chunk of health. But that's not the end - it also gives you HP gained per auto attack! This item is just a must-have because it offers offensive/defensive/utility capabilities all in one.


Early Game

- If you can afford this on your first back, great! This will give you that early headstart on your core item build. Once you buy a BF sword, you will be able to clear out the caster minions with one auto attack on each minion + one volley.

- If you can't afford a BF sword on your first buy, make sure you buy this item. This will let you sustain yourself in lane until you have money for a BF sword.

- Another great early game buy after a BF sword/ vamp scepter. Getting these early is not only great because of its stat/gold efficiency, but because Ashe is not a mobile champion having extra movespeed is great.

- ALTHOUGH I don't recommend this as a first buy in a serious game, it is definitely a fun item to buy. It only costs 800 gold, and not only does it provide gold per 10, but it gives you gold per minion kills! Very very efficient, and great synergy with your hawkshot passive. :^)


Building for the late game

- No other item in the game will synergizes with Ashe better. This item provides you a LOT of AD, as well as critical strike chance. But that's not the main reason it's so good on Ashe! The passive on IE gives you 250% crit damage, which means it will synergizes perfectly with Ashe's passive. This is why IE is almost a universal first buy on all Ashe players!

/ - You can buy one or the other, obviously it's your personal preference. I like to buy Shiv over phantom dancer because it is much cheaper, letting you get your last whisper more quickly. Not only that, but if you have your passive up the lightning will also critically strike so shiv synergizes really well with Ashe. Of course, PD will provide more raw damage output with the extra attack speed and crit chance, but i personally like shiv better because of the synergy, item cost, and pew pew lightning.

- The sooner you get this item, the sooner you will be able to carry your game. This will let you do damage to tanks with the armor pen, and it will let you melt squishies. Because most of your damage comes from auto attacks, try to get this as fast as you can so that you can start dealing damage to whoever you're hitting!

/ - Another choice that you have to make. I personally like BoRK because of the utility that the active gives, which potentially also gives you an escape mechanism. BoRK is a very flexible item in general and it will give you more opportunities with the active. However, if you like raw damage and you feel like you won't need the active, then go ahead and buy bloodthirster as it will add an insane amount of AD to your auto attacks, as well as a lot of life steal.


Defensive item

Let's talk about some defensive item options that most Ashe players will buy as their 6th item.
- This item is generally great vs unavoidable damage and pokes. By unavoidable damage, i mean things like Nautilus ultimate, karthus's ultimate, etc.

- If you're against QSS-able skills, such as vlad/zed/fizz/morg/skarner/ww ults, then you're gonna NEED to buy this. Not only that, if you're against way too many CC, then you will also want to buy this. Remember that this item doesn't give you much defensive stat other than a little bit of MR!

- If you're going against multiple AD assassins that will definitely be jumping on you each fight, get a randuins! this will lower their damage output significantly, as well as offering you a lot of HP/armor to deal with their burst.

- If you find yourself completely unable to live in teamfights, just buy this item. Gives you 2 lives, and hopefully if the enemy team blows everything to kill you, your team is able to kill them by the time you revive back up.

Focus (Passive) If you haven't dealt damage for 3 seconds, you will start getting focus stacks every second. When the stacks hit 100, your next auto attack will be a 100% critical hit. This is a pretty nice passive to have, and if you're able to control this effectively, you should be able to look for short trades using this crit in lane.

Frost Shot A simple toggle ON/OFF skill that will make your auto attacks slow. It's crucial that you do NOT forget to turn this on in teamfights, as it will provide perma-slow to enemies that you are hitting!

Volley Although this ability has an extremely long cooldown at early levels, at max rank this skill becomes a 4-second AOE slow ability. You will want to make sure your volley is able to be cast when you want to trade. Remember that the volley arrows will stop at the first target hit, which means it won't hit enemies behind minions! Volley arrows applies the slow % that you get from Q, so make sure you use this between your auto attacks to continue slowing!

Hawkshot The active part of this skill throws out a hawk-shot that provides vision to the target area and the path of the shot! A very nice utility skill to have when you don't know if the enemy team is camping a brush, or if you're about to get ambushed by a jungler. The passive skill gives you gold everytime you kill a minion or a champion (and even towers!).

Enchanted Crystal Arrow This is the fabled Ashe arrow. It is a global skill-shot that will stun the first champion it hits, and will slow everything around it. Remember that it will deal AOE damage as well, meaning yes it IS possible to steal baron with this! (I've only done it once though) Always aim twice before throwing it out, and don't randomly blow this because it will give an incentive to the enemy team to initiate on you if you miss.

You obviously want to level up your ultimate at levels 6, 11, 16 for more damage, and decreased cooldown.

Generally, you will definitely want to max your Volley first. This is because the cooldown reduction you get from just leveling up this skill is way too good to skip on. You will want to get to the stage where you can throw out volleys every 4 seconds!

I want to talk about the reason why I decide to put 2 points into Hawkshot before maxing Frost Shot second. The reason is very.. mathematic :^) If you put two points into hawkshot, you will gain 2 gold per minion opposed to 1 gold. Hence it is a 100% increase on gold gain! if you level it up again, it's only a 50% increase, from 2 to 3 - and will give diminishing benefits as you level it up to max. So that's why I like to put the 2nd point into hawkshot because it will give me double the gold i would get from only 1 point in hawkshot. If you don't agree with me, that's fine! you can just forget what i said, and just max Q second. :^)

The reasoning behind maxing frost shot over Hawkshot is fairly obvious, which is the increased slow. Remember that your slow will proc on your volleys, so your volley slows will be much more effective as you put more points into Q.

So which support champions are good with Ashe? Let's talk about some popular support champions that go great with her!

- Alistar provides one of the best peeling abilities in the game. Not only that, but he also offers plenty of sustain in lane, and he can also follow up with your initiate. Although people don't play alistar much today, he's one of the strongest support champions to go with ashe.

- Janna also offers a lot of peel for Ashe, and she also gives Ashe a bit of extra punch on her auto attacks with her shield. A generally good combo, but a bit weak in lane because she does not offer any sustain.

- At level 6 you guys pack quite a punch, and you two have very strong synergy with the double slows and double stuns. If the nami is able to land her bubbles both defensively and offensively, this is a great combination. Nami's ultimate is also a very strong ultimate to follow up with ashe's arrow.

- Although thresh recently got nerfed, he's still a very strong champion, and the cc he brings to the table as well as his lantern makes him a great support to go with ashe. Thresh provides one of the easiest presence in lane, giving ashe a bit less pressure early game in lane.

- Sona offers poke, sustain, as well as an AOE stun. what's not to love about her? at level 6, you should be able to coordinate a double stun combo, and you are both very good at poking the enemy ad under tower using volley and sona's Q.

- Many people know the infamous ashe/zyra lane from C9. This lane is very strong because zyra offers a lot of presence early game with her damage, and has one of the best counter engages in the game with her ultimate. ashe zyra lane is incredible hard to gank, and at the same time incredible hard to escape from.

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You always want to look for an opportunity to hit the enemy AD carry with your 100% crit proc at level 1, followed by a volley. If your support has a CC at level 1, this can often end up in a free kill. If not, it will chunk them for almost half their HP. It is completely fine if you can't, so don't overextend trying to get your crit on them!

Early game, you always want to throw an auto attack when the enemy ad carry is trying to last hit. Always use your volley right after your auto attack, and then back off. Your volley has a very long cooldown at early levels, so avoid trading if your volley is on cooldown. You should be able to farm safely as long as your support is able to provide you brush control. It's also nice to have a relatively higher auto attack range at 600, (compared to the average 550) which lets you out-poke the ad carry if you're good at harassing them. Don't try to force fights because ashe's kit isn't designed to win duels and trades.

If you were able to farm well into mid game, you should be able to hold your own against most AD carries in lane. If you feel like holding on to your ultimate doesn't accomplish anything for you in lane, try to throw out an arrow that will both graze through mid and top lane (this way it will have a chance to hit both the enemy mid AND the top laner!). In a LOT of high elo games, random and lucky arrows that i shot from bottom lane to mid won us the game.

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If you're feeling behind because you're getting camped, fear not! your E should've provided you an extra 200~300 gold into mid game, which means even if you're a little bit behind in cs, you're fine. Just make sure you find a way to farm at all areas of the game, and you can always call your jungler to gank your lane using your arrow.

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This is when playing an AD carry shines the most. You will be dealing massive amounts of damage to the enemy team. Tell your team to stay grouped at all times, and look for a catch with your arrow. I love having the power to start a fight whenever i want. However, remember that if the enemy sees you whiff an arrow, they will try to zerg your team. So always think twice about using your arrow, and try your best to hit it! don't be so hard on yourself, i have on and off arrow games where arrows will magically curve and miss the target (jk). Just get over it if you miss and arrow, and make sure you use the retreat ping if you do miss, so the enemy team won't initiate on you.

In teamfights, you want to prioritize survival first. Do what you can to stay alive! if you know the enemy zed hasn't used his ult yet, you shouldnt be walking into him. Just stay back and throw volleys until you know you're safe to enter the teamfight and start auto attacking. The good thing about ashe is that she's able to provide great AOE slow + dmg in teamfights at a very safe distance. If your team did great and you were able to survive, your slows will make it easy for your to chase down the last remaining enemy champions! :^)