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Hello everyone, and welcome to my third guide already here on Mobafire. I'm DSM Aubery (ig name), I am a Platinum jungle and support main (EUW), who has been playing League of Legends since the beginning of season 5, and ranked since the end of it. Ever since I started playing ranked intensively, I've always hit at least gold. This is the first season I attained Platinum in soloqueue.

Furthermore I'm a business engineering student at the Catholic University of Leuven (Belgium). I'm a big fan of eSports, watching it ever since I started playing competitive League. I'm supporting King-Zone DragonX. I've also been a huge ROX Tigers fan in the past, in fact it was the first team I "Really" supported. Somewhere throughout this guide, I will post the video from former ROX Tigers player Pray, who made history for himself on Ashe on the World Championship 2016 stage, when he won ROX the game due to an insane outplay with the Enchanted Crystal Arrow. This video gives me chills every flippin' time I watch it, I suggest you check it out, given it's one of the biggest moments in our sports history!

Why did I decide to spend a couple of hours writing a guide for Ashe I hear you asking yourself? And it's a good question indeed. There are in fact three answers I could give you to this question. First, Ashe is one my most loved champions in the game. She is a great champion overall, with a huge damage and utility potential if played well (which I'm about to teach you). Furthermore, Ashe completes my triplet of Freljord champions to write a guide for, after Sejuani and Braum. Last but not least, and probably the most important reason. I feel like very few people are playing Ashe in soloq these days, which is sad given the huge potential she has. She has an easy kit, yet she's quite a hard champion, because she has absolutely no escaping tools aside her cc. So my motivation is to create an easy to understand guide, on how to play one of the most fun and cutest champions in this game!

DSM Aubery

Abilities

Items

Ashe – The babe of the Freljord Ranger, crowd control, high damage, pick potential, strong lane Synergy: Over 9000 Damage output: Legit Speciality: Sniping I only need one shot! Is there anyone who will doubt ashe’ power? The majestic Queen from the Freljord doesn’t need much to mow her targets down, hard stun them or just make them disappear. When you are looking for a fun, cute and very strong, yet challenging adcarry to pick up, Ashe is the one you’re searching!

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Pros → Strong early game damage → Big impact in the laning phase → Crowd control → Flexible building patern → Gank spotting ability

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Cons → Very immobile → Low dps when played wrong → Very skill reliant

Main rune tree Precision: This is the number 1 keystone for any adcarry, and so it is for Ashe, no doubt about it!. Major rune Lethal Tempo: There is a lot to say about Ashe’ main rune, some people will opt into the Fleet Footwork for some better lane sustain, but personally, I think Lethal Tempo does way better. Lethal tempo allows you to play very agressive early on with your Ranger's Focus. Due to the low attack speed early on, this ability might be quite weak, because it relies on attack speed, picking the Lethal Tempo can help you with this. Lethal Tempo became “the thing” in Korea the past weeks, because this enables you do rush Infinity Edge and Essence Reaver, something I’ve told people about even before it became meta. First minor rune Triumph:During laning phase, you’ll have pressure against most opponent adcarries. Picking the Triumph may help you to win early skirmishes and duelling in the botlane. It will give you a little bit more lane sustain, atleast if you can kill the opponent ofcourse. Second minor rune Legend: Alacrity: For this rune, the same can be said as what I said about Lethal Tempo, attack speed! Legend: Alacrity will help you with this. It’s a very handy rune, and one that most adcarries except Kai'Sa for example will pick. Third minor Rune Coup de Grace:Once again, a rune most adcarries will opt into. This will give you a little bit more damage once the real duelling takes place, a good option to consider.

Tree Inspiration: For the secondary tree, people tend to opt into Inspiration in general, however I like going for Sorcery too, every now and then. Yet Inspiration is in general the best option, it gives a slight buff to Ashe’ low lane sustain. Taking Inspiration is always a good option as a secondary tree on adcarries! First rune Biscuit Delivery: As Ashe, you won’t have that much lane sustain, unless you rush Vampiric Scepter. So picking the Biscuits, is a great way to keep yourself longer in lane, so you can take maximum amount of cs, to enter the midgame with! Second Rune Cosmic Insight: Last but by no means least, is the Cosmic Insight. Most proplayers will teach you to go Boots as a second rune in the Inspiration tree, but I say no! The reason for this is that you’ll want to grab boots early on Ashe, because of her low mobilty weakness. The benefit of taking Cosmic Insight is that you can spam your Enchanted Crystal Arrow a bit more during the late game. Either way you go the hardcrit build, or the Blade of the Ruined King build, both of them won’t give you much cdr early in the game, which is crucial for Ashe.

If you are in a hurry to get in game, and you just want a bit of information on how to play Ashe, I'd say this paragraph is one of the most important to read, given there really are 2 big different ways to build Ashe. On the one hand, you have the - how I call it - "Legacy build", and on the other hand you have the - how the big audience calls it - "modern build". It basicly includes rushing crit (resp.) or sustain. Since patch [9.13], a new way of building and playing Ashe has arrived. This new way of building Ashe includes going Arcane Comet and Manaflow Band for more lane poke with your Volley, and rushing the Essence Reaver followed up by a Trinity Force. More on that later in this chapter!

Early crit and Lethal Tempo: "the Legacy build"
Personally, I preffer rushing Infinity Edge on Ashe, and this is the main idea linked to the Legacy build. Back in the days in Season V, just after Ashe' rework around april of that season, people would rush IE and Statikk Shiv, followed my armor pen and life steal. Afterwards, they started buffing Blade of the Ruined King and they introduced Essence Reaver and Rapid Firecannon, which adapted build paterns a lot. In my opinion, in a lot of lanes, it's still a great option to rush IE and follow it up by an Essence Reaver (or first ER followed by an IE) if you take Lethal Tempo, or IE and Runaan's Hurricane if you'd use Fleet Footwork.

• The item, mainly created for high bursts of adcarry damage, is the Infinity Edge. This item will give you 80 AD and 25% critical damage. In my opinion, it's worth rushing this on Ashe because of the crazy amount of damage it gives you. A lot of people will critise me on this one, because Essence Reaver or Blade of the Ruined King is meta, but I feel like rushing IE is still very very strong, especially when taking Lethal Tempo.
  
• This is a MUST build item on Ashe! Whatever build you're going, you should always build the Essence Reaver. Why? Simple! It will give you 25% additional critical strike, which will lead to atleast 75% of crit, given you'll always build a Zealitem aswell, but the big point is the cooldown reduction. When mid to late game arrives, you'll want to spam your Enchanted Crystal Arrow as much as possible to create picks. If enemies dodge it, it's bad ofcourse, but it ain't that bad when you have the 20% cdr. This cdr will enable you to spam your ultimate on a regular base, so it won't become a thing you really have to save for teamfighting. It would have around 60s cooldown at level 2/3.
  
• When opting into a Zeal item, you should definitely consider Runaan's Hurricane. In my opinion, there is no doubt about this item, and it should be built every game. It combines well with your Ranger's Focus, which is your main damage output for teamfighting. So just chill and build this item every game, second item, third item, doesn't matter that much, just build it!
  
• The Phantom Dancer is a strong alternative for Runaan's Hurricane. When playing against multiple assasins, such as Zed and LeBlanc, it might be worth considering this item as a first Zeal item. It's not a very famous item for Ashe, but it might be worth opting into this item under certain circumstances.
  
• In any game, you will want to pick up atleast some life steal. One of the big items for an adcarry to pick up going into the late game, with the eye on having in fight sustain, is the Bloodthirster. It's a long standing item, that hasn't really been reworked or changed a lot. It's always been a reliable source for live steal craving carries, and so it is for Ashe. It will give you a percentage shield aswell, which comes in quite handy, because of your low amount of mobility. Overall I would say you should build this when you won't opt into either Blade of the Ruined King or Mercurial Scimitar.
  
• As Ashe is fairly immobile, as I mentioned couple of times already, it might be a good idea to get something that can cleanse cc! Mercurial Scimitar is the perfect option for this, because it will grant you damage, life steal, magic resist and an active to cleanse crowd control! A very good al around item that is must pick in 60-80% of the games. I'd recommend going for this item as a fourth item, just before rounding up your build! Also possible as a fifth item, or you can buy the Quicksilver Sash after your second/third item, and you can later finish this item!
  

Lane sustain build
The "lane sustain" build is by far the most famous Ashe build these days, which is based around getting early lifesteal and attack speed to recover as much healt as possible. Why and when should you opt into this build? This build is a great idea when you're playing a lane bully oppononent, such as Draven. He'll bully you quite hard, but a lot of the damage will be mitigated by your early lane sustain. The first back Vampiric Scepter rush is necessary in this case.

• In most played Ashe games these days, low elo, high elo, pro play, the Vampiric Scepter is standard at the first back. In my opinion, going an early Vampiric is good when you really need the lane sustain. Even when you are playing more difficult lanes, you can still rely on your Biscuit Delivery to help you out. Picking Vampiric is a great option in the really harsh matchups, such as lanes vs Draven or a support Vel'Koz. You won't harm anyone by rushing this item, so if you full uncomfortable in lane, just pick it up, you'll be safe!
  
• Same can be said here! BORK is a great early item on Ashe, because it provides her kiting, sustain, damage, and a little bit of burst and slow with the passive, which is great to counter her own mobility weaknesses. Overall a great item to rush, eventhough I don't regularly rush it myself.

Other "situational" items

• When playing against burst heavy magic damage champions, such as LeBlanc, Fizz and Katarina, you might wanna consider going for the Maw of Malmortius. This is an item not many adcarry champions would wanna pick up, but because of Ashe' low mobility, you are quite vulnerable to all-ins by assasins. Picking up this item, or first the Hexdrinker will give you even more in fight sustain, which will always be great on ashe! Remember guys, the longer you survive in the fight, the more damage you can deal!
  
• This one doesn't need that much additional information I think. Build this when you're against a tanky comp, which champions such as Ornn, Zac, Sejuani, Nautilus,...
  
• Same can be said about Guardian Angel as I said about Maw of Malmortius, with the only difference you'd have to replace AP assasins by AD assasins. When playing against champs like Zed and Talon, it might be worth considering this as a fifth item. You should never build this as a third item, and in most games not even as a fourth item, because it will delay your build really hard!

Choice of boots
The standard choice for most adcarry champions, the Berserker's Greaves. It gives you a big amount of attack speed, which comes in quite handy as an adcarry. With the recent increase in popularity of Lethal Tempo, a lot of players tend to delay their Berserker's Greaves purchase. Buying Boots early, and relying on the attack speed from your main rune might be worth considering. The benefit you might have doing this, is that you can wait and see who's getting strong on the enemy team! If they have a very fed smurfing Twitch jungle, you might wanna /ff, or try and win by buying Ninja Tabi. Going this item early isn't really the greatest option, but in a lot of games you're stuck in the late game with your Berserker's Greaves, wishing you had bought Tabi's.


Triforce Ashe
Since patch [9.13] arrived, high elo Korean players (who else…) started playing Ashe in a different way than we’re used to see her being played. In the past we’ve seen people, including myself, rushing Trinity Force into Black Cleaver on Lucian, because of the huge cooldown reduction, mana supply and damage output. On Ashe these days, things are a bit different.
People rush Essence Reaver, because it has been buffed in this patch, followed up by a Trinity Force, after these two core items, you can basicly go wherever you want and decide from game to game. The thing I want to tell you is why this build might be a good option considering, because afterall, that’s the reason you’re here and that’s the way you should understand the things you do and pick on LOL. Ashe has always been fairly reliant on her cooldowns, so she can spam her ulti to create picks. In the past, season 6-7, you could get the 40% cap with Essence Reaver and other crit items, but that passive hasn’t returned since the adcarry item reworks. Because nowadays, people still want to get this 40% cap, Koreans started using triforce, because it gives Ashe everything she needs. 40% cdr, movement speed which is very handy given her low mobility, attack speed for kiting, and damage. It’s a big and hefty item to build, but I strongly recommend you to consider going this, because it looks fairly busted at the moment! Goodluck on the field!

Frost shot (Passive) RANGE: 450 COST: / COOLDOWN: /

Frost shot applies auto-attack empowerd slows onto enemies, slowing them by 15%-30%, based on level for 2 seconds. When the attacks are striking criticaly, they gain 30%-60% slow instead (based on level).

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Ranger's Focus (Q) RANGE: 450 COST: 50 mana COOLDOWN: none

When seeking to harass your lane opponent, this is the main ability you will wanna use. Ranger’s focus can be activated once your Focus has 4 stacks (auto-attack based). Ashe will gain bonus attack speed and extra damage per arrow Every auto attack will fire 5 arrows at once, which will guarantee a big amount of damage output. Very effective throughout lane harassment and teamfight, in combination with Runaan's Hurricane.

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Volley (W) RANGE: 450 COST: 50 mana COOLDOWN: 14/ 11.5/ 9/ 6.5/ 4

Volley is a great tool for cleaning low hp minion waves, and to slow incoming enemy champions. For example, when getting ganked by a Gragas, you might wanna time your Volley good so he get slowed on the right moment. When a Vayne or a Kalista try to harass you during laning phase, you just Volley them and they’ll be slowed enough so they can’t do too much. This is a great ability, but you have to use it to its max potential!

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Hawkshot (E) RANGE: Global COST: 1 charge COOLDOWN: 90/ 80/ 70/ 60/ 50 (recharge timing)

Hawkshot is a great tool to spot which enemy camps are taking, especially which buffs. A great tool for tracking any opponent, and especially the enemy jungler! It’s clear I think, when the jungler hasn’t been in any lane for quite some time, make sure to shoot a Hawkshot over the map, to spot where he is! This can litteraly save lifes!

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Enchanted Crystal Arrow (R) RANGE: Global COST: 100 mana COOLDOWN: 100/ 90/ 80

Ashe’ ulimate is a great ability for pick creating. When playing with a Thresh for example, you can combine Ashe’ R with Thresh’ Death Sentence, to guarantee the cc chain and atleast get a couple of summoner’s out of the enemy. When entering the midgame, don’t spare it when it’s up, just use it to keep the momentum going! You will wanna land as much ultimates as possible! Especially when you have 20% cdr or more, just spam it, you’ll land more of them than you think! One more important thing to mention: Enchanted Crystal Arrow will stun atleast 1 second, up to 3.5(!) seconds! So if you manage to land an Ashe arrow from atleast one lane away, you’ll have around a 3.5 second stun on this target!.


Ashe, if picked into certain matchups, has a very strong laning phase, given her high amount of damage and her utility. A well combined Ranger's Focus, with Volley's and Frost Shot's slow, is a great setup for succes! Allthough, there is also a big disadvantage on the other hand. When playing against cc heavy supports, such as Leona, Thresh and Morgana, you're sidestepping skills will be tested! Make sure you stay behind minions and you are able to dodge were needed. When the enemy team tries to engage on you, they might get ganked, use your Volley to disengage the fight!

As an Ashe player, you should try and hard push in the wave, given this will setback the enemy adcarry in terms of farm, but be aware! Always keep the river warded, for incoming ganks. When playing against junglers such as Warwick and Rammus, you so should just let the wave rest in the middle of the lane. Hard pushing in towards the enemy tower, might be dangerous because of the gank potential of these champions. Other than that, you might not find much difficulty in farming under tower with ashe, given you can easily farm up with aa and Volley.

Once you've unlocked your Enchanted Crystal Arrow, you may seek to go for plays in combination with your support's crowd control. Wait for the good moment, when the enemy has cooldowns, and take the shot! If coordinated well with your support, this should be a great setup for kills! Goodluck!



Teamfighting as Ashe is a little more tricky than your average adcarry, such as Lucian and Caitlyn, because of her low amount of mobility; therefor positioning is very important! Try to pick up a lot of teamfights when you start learning Ashe, because this way you'll be able to improve very fast on your Ashe playstyle! Learning which fight to pick and which fight not to pick is very important, because losing a fight early can put you on a big disadvantage, which isn't really nice when playing Ashe.

As Ashe, you have a big iniation tool on your hands, the Enchanted Crystal Arrow! This is a real powerful tool to start fights and to create picks. When you rush the Essence Reaver into the Trinity Force, you'll rapidly get 40 or 45% CDR, which means your ulti won't have too much cooldown! Try not to safe it for fights, but to snipe people with it. Because of its low CD, it's worth trying to snipe people because of the huge 3.5 stun! When fighting around important neutral objectives, you should always aim to snipe the opponent jungler, because this will set your team up for a free neutral!

Always try to stay in the backline, and learn how to kite in an agressive way! This is the same for Caitlyn or Lucian for example, and contrary to a Vayne or a Kalista, who will wanna kite around the fight or backwards. Try to kite forward so you push the opponents back! You'll deal tons of damage, so this might not be the biggest problem. Ofcourse, you should always check the situation if you can do this, if your team fell behind early and the opponents have some strong assassins, you might not wanna jump forward because it will be //ff immediately then!