Hello, and welcome what I hope to be the Official Character Discussion for Ashe, the Frost Archer.


I don't really care about what people think of Ashe, whether she's an "easy" hero or people don't like her. I like playing as her and I want to promote the growth of her competitive potential.

If you want a detailed source of information on Ashe, this site already has all the information you could need.


Without further ado;

My time playing Ashe has shown that she is very flexible in terms of skill and item builds. Recently I have been testing carry builds with a focus on having the entire early-game be about farming. Plentiful Bounty is taken at every possible level and Madred's Razor is the first item obtained. I've had very interesting success with this build. It makes last hitting very reliable, Plentiful Bounty far more useful, and combined with Smite allows some impressive gold acceleration in the early game. In the mid-game I've focused on ganks, defending lanes, and jungling. The gold bonuses from PB, Smite, and neutrals either makes up for the deficit of killing creeps, or adds to it since Volley is a solid farming skill.


My other build is a high damage build. I think Frozen Mallet is a 100% staple on Ashe, it's a joke seeing enemy heroes think they can simply run away and then realize they can't. I like to get Philosopher's Stone first and then boots. Then I go straight for Phage, Boots of Swiftness, and then Frozen Mallet. However I have been finding that Last Whisper is extremely good, both on its own and on Ashe.


In terms of gameplay, I have yet to see an Ashe who plays better than I do. I'm no pro at LoL but I find people don't understand how to use Volley or Frost Shot. Volley's best late-game application is its huge AoE slow. Since I don't know if Volley applies Last Whisper's penetration or other item-based effects, I don't really aim to do damage with it late-game. As for Frost Shot, I've found that people's assessment of its application in the early game is retarded. A 40% slow was the baseline for useful in DotA and level 5 Frost Shot having 35% slow is barely acceptable. (Hency why I'm trying a PB-early build and consider Frozen Mallet the most important item she can have).


Discuss:

copy from the other current ashe thread

first off, getting PB is a waste. like Ryuujinx said it doesn't get enough gold to actually do anything. 200 creep kills is a lot in an 40 min game, unless you just lane and are worthless to your team. at level 5 that is 1000 gold. Take into account leveling and you are looking at ~600 gold. With volley and frost shot you can harass much easier and push them back to their tower and make them go back to heal. effectively denying both gold and exp, which is much better than a few gold early game.


Personally I do not see Ashe as a great carry. Yes, with a lot of items and time you can become one but just about any champion can become a carry with the right items. I see her more as a dps/support. Her consistant slow, aoe slow, and global ult that stuns and aoe slow is amazing at helping others escape, or slowing others down to let your team kill them.

Anyone wanting to play Ashe should read through this thread. It covers a lot of different ideas about build strategy from people who play in high level games. It is a little bit older but it still has very good information.