I mained Ashe for awhile she's one of my favorite characters and I play her often. I usually start with a

Doran's blade (it has a lot of bonuses, including health and damage, so it's a good starting item)

or boots and health and mana pots (mostly health pots so you can stay longer in lanes and boots for more mobility)

I really don't suggest getting AS before increased damage, because Ashe hits like a wimp early game. I tried getting AS first on Ashe after my first two items and I had fast attack speed but I could do a lot less damage than if I had gotten a BF Sword or another Doran's blade (if I'm farming slowly or I'm not getting gold fast enough, I get a second Doran's blade first).

What I usually try to get next is a BF Sword. It adds a lot of damage and it's a great item that gives you three other alternatives: bloodthirster , black cleaver(which adds AS /and/ damage, but get BF sword first before dagger), or infinity edge. I usually build up to a black cleaver first. Blood thirster has life steal, so I usually get that if there's a lot of physical damage from the other team.

But otherwise, I get infinity edge.

If I'm getting shot down too quickly, I get a banshee's veil for added health among a lot of other benefits. I might also consider a frozen mallet, but I never tried this in game.

If there are tanks, definitely get madred's bloodrazor and yumumu's ghost blade (which is great on Ashe).

For more survivability consider getting health and defense items that also give you added damage. It might not be as much as if you were having an Infinity Edge but at least you can survive.

I'm new too, so it's not definitely not perfect, but I find that it's effective for me because by end game, as a carry should, I'm usually doing heavy amounts of damage.

Oh, and here are some more tips as Ashe:

your passive allows you to do an early game combo where you hit the enemy with your first shot, and then volley them. That usually takes up to half their health or more.

in a team fight always, always stand in the back. i can't emphasize how squishy you are. i had to learn this the hard way plus by level 20 (i'm 23), people will be focusing you cause you're the main source of damage.

use your ult a lot, because it's got a very low cool down. it has a great benefit, it can stun, and therefore it can be used to get a kill or just to help in a team fight. it can shoot across the map but be careful about accuracy cause teammates usually rage when you miss by very little, and they end up dieing

@ Ikrit122

I was speaking in response to the poster above me, who recommended AS as a strong focus on Ashe in items runes.

Ideally, AS is one of the last few stats on Ashe, IMO. And even then, if you don't get to the AS part, you are likely able to do well anyway.

I'm not saying don't auto attack in fights and wait for her crit to stack (that's just stupid), I'm just saying AS is not that great a stat on Ashe early-mid game compared to getting damage and crit chance. Ashe has one of the lowest base damage, if you attack quickly, you're just tickling the enemy. Plus, with more AD, the more damage your Volley is doing, which is very spammable in team fights in between auto attacks.

Fairly certain ashe has one of the highest base AS growths (kennen is a close second, isnt he?)

AD is much much better than AS because of volley (that crit passive is more helpful than you think, at high levels it only takes a few seconds for you to get back to 100% w/ items meaning you do a LOT of damage while kiting).

also would like people to explain why they disagree with me instead of -1. This isn't gen discussion, forum moves slowly, you have time to talk it out...

I would say get boots, 1 PS, 1 IE, then change your build depending on the enemy team.

O.o what's a PS? (PD, or am I just missing something?)

this may be sort of late but i have played ashe a small bit and i found her to be a character who can play multiple roles you can be assist ashe that uses enchacnted crystal arrow to help stop enemies that are chasing fleeing teammates, gank ashe that slows and stuns, late game tank and/or turret diver ashe that chases fleeing enemies or holds off some turret hits while using her incredible yet not top attack speed to put out some damage, or farmer ashe that clears minion waves and becomes solid ganker/support tank late game. i have even seen scout ashes. these are all dependet on you play style and the best place to find items and stratiges to try out different roles is: http://www.mobafire.com/

Ashe is definitely support/DPS, but PLEASE do not build tank Ashe. Just. Don't. Please. She does not get innately good stats for tanking, and her passive is much more useful for a DPS build.

I am relatively new myself, I have had a lot of success with this build here:

http://www.mobafire.com/league-of-le...ed-games-32871

But things to note:

- The quint should be arpen, not speed. It's marked wrong on the top area.
- You can get multiple doran's in the beginning if you are playing mid and doing well, I.e. - first blood, a couple kills, farming hard.. I think it's referred to as 'pug stomping' at that point.
- I think it's a smart move to get the black cleaver instead of that infinity edge, you can swap them in the build that is shown there
- It's debatable to whether getting exhaust or flash, and switching the first point in the mastery from on the far right to the exhaust mastery. I have been playing with both, I am leaning towards going with flash as it says on the build. Exhaust is nice for locking down opponents early, but if you are like me and end up playing more of a support role, you aren't initiating or ganking often enough to make exhaust useful, and exhaust ends up being playing as an 'oh sh*t' card, more than it should be. Making Flash viable.