Mobafire has some glitches. It keeps renaming my chapter titles when I add new build paths, and it even duplicated one of my sections and erased my Introduction. Please wait while I try to remember what I wrote in the introduction. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Introduction

Ashe is one of only a few carries that does not kite in a traditional sense. She has no repositioning abilities, but she has a slow. This means Ashe is very vulnerable to gap closers and any champions that ignore slows, like Master Yi.

Ashe's form of kiting is, however, pretty powerful, because she can control the enemy team's movements with her slows. She can bait enemies into engages that are bad for them, and she can punish enemies that are out of position very well, because she can prevent the target's allies from aiding them for a second or two. Dodging skillshots with Ashe is not easy, and it boils down to mind games. You have to physically move your champion, and enemies can outsmart you by using linear prediction on your movement. Therefore, if you're dueling an enemy, it pays to zig-zag while attacking them, so they miss their skillshots.

Ashe is actually a very potent carry, because her soft crowd control allows her to shape fights for her team. Most other carries cannot shape team fights, and they have to "fit in" to the team and rely on their allies to properly distract the enemies. Ashe has a degree of independence that many carries lack. Ashe is also very good in arranged teams, because of her global ultimate stun, Enchanted Crystal Arrow. It can initiate a team fight, disengage a team fight, and turn around a team fight, and it can isolate enemies from one another, giving your team time to destroy a front line, or pick off an enemy who is out of position.

Ashe's Enchanted Crystal Arrow can make up for having team-mates who don't understand how to initiate as the tank. As AD carry, I frequently have bruisers and tanks who are wusses and do not understand when to initiate and show aggression against the enemies. This is really annoying, but Ashe's Enchanted Crystal Arrow can often make up for this.

I have been playing Ashe since I was a noob, back at level 10 and the like. I've come a long way from then. Back then, all my runes were attack speed, which makes me laugh now, because they really are not useful on Ashe early game.

1000 Enchanted Crystal Arrows later, I can now confidently say I know how to play Ashe. I know the math, the laning phase, how to trade damage, how to kite, and how to team-fight. I also know Ashe well enough to adapt her to extreme circumstances, where she cannot be the carry.

Story Time with AMDphreak!

a.k.a. Why ELO is a load of ****.

One time, I played an ABAM (All Blind All Mid) game on Howling Abyss, and my team had 3 AD carries, 2 AP carries, no bruiser, and no tank. I had planned on playing AD carry, but during the game, it became obvious that we needed a tank, so I sold most of my items and built myself as a tanky support. Most Ashe players would not have realized this was an option. My team was composed of 3 Bronze league players, 1 Silver league player, and 1 Gold league player. The team that we fought against was composed of 1 Unranked player, 2 Silver league players, 1 Gold league player, and 1 Diamond league player. See the team below. I took a screenshot of the match-up, after the game, because I wanted to share this with the world to demonstrate that ELO and leagues are utter B.S. The only difference between low and high ELO is that people in low ELO are more prone to encounter trolls who go AFK and feed, because their support took 3 CS. Oh yeah not having that 3 CS is going to hurt you so much, you worthless AD carry.

Ashe's kit allows her to play as a front line, because she can initiate and permanently slow the enemies, locking them down, 1 by 1.

Ashe's Enchanted Crystal Arrow is the only global stun in the game. It is perfect for starting a fight for your team, if you are not near the fight yet. Enemies often don't pay as much attention to their formation during a Mexican stand-off, when they think they outnumber your team. A single Ashe arrow can guarantee a kill for your team, but it can also secure multiple kills for your team, because it slows all the enemies around the enemy it hits. You can use this to net yourself two or three kills, whereas most AD carries could only get the first kill, because the enemies would run away from your team after they knew they couldn't fight.

Enchanted Crystal Arrow is extremely powerful in lane, because it can force the enemy bottom duo to fight you and your support. If the enemies are staying out of range of your support to avoid an initiate from your support, you can use Enchanted Crystal Arrow to buy your support some time to walk into range to initiate on the enemies.

Ashe relies on high damage to make effective trades in lane. Her passive, Focus, is a guaranteed Critical Strike on her first auto-attack after going back to base to buy items. Because of this, you can walk back to lane and burst down the enemy carry (or zone them off the creeps, if they decide they don't want to suffer through your burst damage). This is incredibly powerful, because you immediately regain control of the lane. If the enemies ran off, then you can deny the enemy ADC experience and gold by freezing the lane. If they weren't scared off, then you get to immediately crit the enemy. This should be enough to scare them away.

• Infinity Edge has been an often-repeated suggestion on Ashe. Ashe's guaranteed crit from her passive, Focus, allows you to immediately become dominant in lane at the beginning of the game. It forces the enemies to play defensive for the next minute or two, and it forces them to use their sustain items immediately. Focus passive is actually a good passive for zoning and controlling the lane.
  
• Trinity Force is a new choice for items, as of the 3.10a patch. It was changed, so that it really will be useful on Ashe. Trinity Force improves kiting ability on any champion because of the new Unique Passive - Rage. This passive gives you 20 move speed after attacking an enemy, or 60 move speed after killing a minion, monster, or champion. The Unique Passive - Spellblade was changed so that whenever you use a spell, your next basic attack deals an additional 200% damage, instead of 150%. Because of the recent changes, combining Infinity Edge with Trinity Force gives you insane in-lane burst damage to regain control of the lane. With both of these items, after you use your Volley, your first auto-attack will deal 250% + 200% = 450% damage. With the Lethality mastery, it deals 455% damage. Trinity Force also increases the damage that Enchanted Crystal Arrow deals, by a small margin. This additional damage on your ult improves your mid-game damage, but it falls off in late game.
  
• Boots of Swiftness - This item can be situational, but we primarily buy it, because Trinity Force is our only other movement speed item. Boots of Swiftness's unique passive, Slow Resist, also helps Ashe survive against many of the OP champs that normally stomp Ashe, because they have insane slows and gap-closers to engage on her. Examples of this include Singed's Mega Adhesive, and Tryndamere's Mocking Shout, Nasus's Wither, and Ashe's Frost Shot. Ashe's goal should be to control the flow of a battle. She can easily shape battles, which is more difficult for other carries to do. Also, because Ashe is so slow, and because she is vulnerable to gap closers, you need to be able to out-run bruisers if at all possible.
  

These runes are what I would consider standard for advanced AD carry players.

• Quintessence of Attack Damage and Mark of Attack Damage - These runes give you alot of damage for trading in lane. Your first crit with your passive, Focus, deals 205% damage, so the more damage you bring, the harder you will crit.
  
• Quintessence of Movement Speed - This is so good on any AD carry. Ashe is pretty slow, so she really needs some early improvement in movement speed. This rune allows you to chase enemies and run up to an enemy and auto-attack then back off without enemy retaliation. Also, because Ashe is so slow, and because she is vulnerable to gap closers, you need to be able to out-run bruisers if at all possible.
  
• Quintessence of Life Steal - This gives you some life steal to heal up a little bit in between fights in your lane. 2% life steal seems like nothing, but it really does add up. If you trade with the enemy carry and then start pushing the lane, you will heal up, and the enemy will be forced to last-hit under tower. This prevents them from life-stealing on the creep wave as effectively as you (if they have life steal as well), so you maintain a consistent advantage in lane by having more health over time. Combined with the Doran's Blade starting item, you maximize your damage in lane, as well as the amount of health you heal in lane, because Doran's Blade heals 5 health every time you autoattack. If you aren't comfortable with having 2% life steal, you can replace the Quintessence of Movement Speed or the Quintessence of Attack Damage with another Quintessence of Life Steal.
  
• Mark of Attack Damage - see the section about Quintessence of Attack Damage above.
  
• Seal of Armor - These are pretty standard for AD carries. In lane, you will be playing against another AD carry, most likely, so having flat armor runes lets you trade harass during laning phase. Also, getting flat Armor runes is necessary, because we are forced to choose between Hardiness and Resistance in the defensive mastery tree. By choosing flat armor, we make up for some of the armor missing from our masteries. Also, all AD carries gain Armor per level, but they do not gain any Magic resist per level.
  
• Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist - I bring these, because Ashe primarily has to deal with Attack Damage enemies during laning phase. The scaling magic resist makes it more likely that Ashe can take a punch late game from an AP carry. This basically doesn't work against AP assassins, however. If Fizz or Katarina jump on you, you're probably dead. You should make it a point to avoid assassins, usually. Although you can bring flat MR ( Glyph of Magic Resist), scaling magic resist is preferable, because all AD carries gain Armor per level, but they do not gain any magic resist per level. This addresses a large problem with AD carries' late-game durability, while allowing them to build primarily offensive items. The scaling magic resist also complements our defensive masteries. We get Resistance mastery, because all AD carries have naturally low magic resist, and the Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist does not help much at the beginning of the game.
  

Ashe's job in the game is to provide consistent ranged damage, meaning, AD carry. Because of this, she needs to bring spells that will help her position herself, fight enemies, and keep herself safe. Split pushing with Ashe is not the best idea, because you are easy to gank. The best spells for AD carries in general are these:

• Flash - This spell is the god of all spells. It lets you instantly reposition your character. It can separate you from a chasing enemy by letting you go over a wall. It can help you adjust your position during a team fight, so that you are safer, and it can let you catch up with fleeing enemies.
  
• Cleanse - This spell allows you to undo crowd-control initiates. This spell is very useful against champions that have long-duration CC or teams that can chain crowd control to pin you down. This spell does not work against suppressions, however, so you either have to buy a Quicksilver Sash in game or avoid whichever enemies have suppresses. Just a few champs with suppression: Malzahar, Warwick, Urgot. Cleanse will also remove some summoner spells. It removes Ignite's damage but not the healing debuff, and it will completely remove the slow and armor/MR debuffs from Exhaust. The caveat to bringing Cleanse is that you have to remember to use it, and you have to time it so that the enemies' Crowd Controls initiates are removed immediately after they have used the CC, but before they are in range to lock you down and kill you.
  
• Barrier - This is another very strong spell for early and mid-game and for any AD carries that refuse to build defensive items at the end of the game. This spell allows you to out-trade an enemy AD carry that has an item advantage over you. This spell does not completely mitigate the damage from Ignite, but it can block a few ticks of Ignite, possibly saving you.
  
• Ignite - I never carry this spell on my AD carries, but it is still effective, if you are a very aggressive player. With the Summoner's Wrath mastery, you can get a bonus 5 AD at the start of the game if you Ignite an enemy. If you're smart, you can use this to out-trade the enemies and then maintain advantage over the lane for as long as Ignite is on cooldown. The bonus 5 damage will make it even harder for the enemy to trade with you, so this spell can indeed help you win lane. If you don't get the kill, this spell can force the enemy to go back to base, allowing you to push the lane up to the tower. The enemy will miss experience and money, at the very least.
  

Level 1 All-in against the enemy carry

A really fun thing to do with Ashe is to all-in the enemy at level 1 with full offensive items, masteries, and runes. You can get off some serious damage if you bring all AD runes, buy an Elixir of Fortitude (red pot), which gives you +15 AD for a few minutes, and ignite the enemy for the extra +5 AD, and then all in the enemy.

After you do all of this, you will have around +40 AD at level 1.

Here is a formula for a huge level 1 burst:

• 3x Quintessence of Attack Damage = +6.75 AD
• 9x Mark of Attack Damage = +8.55 AD
• 9x Seal of Attack Damage = +3.87 AD
• 9x Glyph of Attack Damage = +2.52 AD
• Subtotal = +21.69 AD
• Elixir of Fortitude (red pot) = +15 AD
• Summoner's Wrath mastery = +5 AD
• Total = +41.69 AD

Ashe's base damage at level 1 is 46.3 AD
Your total AD at level 1 is now 46.3 + 41.69 = 87.99 AD
With the Lethality mastery, you will crit the enemy for 2.05 * 87.99 = 180.3795 AD.

At level 1, Volley deals 40 damage + 100% AD, which amounts to 40 + 87.99 = 127.99 AD.

At level 1, Ignite deals 70 true damage.

Totaled up, this gives us 70 + 127.99 + 180.3795 = 378.3695 burst damage (if we pretend that Ignite applies instantly).

Because of the Frenzy mastery, we gain 10% attack speed, upon landing our first autoattack, so this allows us to land about 2 more autoattacks before the enemy ADC has discovered that we hurt like hell.

How effective is this?

This combo deals almost all of the health of any AD carry at level 1.
Some examples:

• Ashe = 474 health
• Vayne = 442 health
• Tristana = 497 health
• Varus = 482 health
• Corki = 457 health