I was in a match earlier today. I was playing as ashe. Was mid lining, and caitlyn was my opponent. Range wise, she was devastating me. Setting aside switching lanes with someone, does anyone have any suggestions how to counter her? Position wise possibly. Note I'm not amazing at playing ashe, but I'm not too shabby for someone who mainly plays sona. I have the general idea from mobafire.

Volley.

I was using volley. It just wasn't hitting. Granted the person in that match was beasting as caitlyn. But, as far as I know, she has one if the longest ranges in the game. If I'm not mistaken. Also, clever. Prom.

To be honest Caitlyn is THAT champion I hate midding against, the one and only. Surely there are certain champions I can use to defeat her, but on most, its just not the case. And I think that in probably every single case, she ends up pushing too hard for me (unless shes not very good) and if I want to keep up I have to burn my mana, after which she definitely gets to my turret and starts destroying it. Usually its alot easier with smart play on a caster, as you can simply harass her with your skills, as long as you can harass her harder than she will hit you when you run back to safety, youll be fine. On ranged AD carries, I have a much harder time, if I try to harass her, she will be the one giving the first shot and if I dont, she will have no need to B and simply destroy my turret eventually. Her stats are also higher than most ranged carries, so with trading blows, you will tend to receive more damage, after which point youll try to run, and cait will simply keep shooting at you, especially because you cant really run from her, shes slightly faster than ranged carries like ashe, corki, tristana.

All that being said, you need more staying power than her during laning phase, tons more. Most caitlyns will start with a dorans blade, knowing this, you can take a huge advantage by getting regrowth pendant or rejuv bead(dont forget your hp pots), since youre regeneration will be far greater, even if she harasses you harder, you will eventually push her out of the lane. When you do that, take my advice and b yourself, push lane quick and then b, it is better to b when she does than when you make a mistake and have to b just so you dont get ulted. Chosing when to b is important, dont make her make you b when you cant afford to.

EDIT: I dont really have any tips on ashe other than trying to hit some volleys and landing some autoattacks with your regrowth pendant, other champions simply have better ways of harassment, volley is too easily avoided.

Don't bother with cait you should just farm. If you were missing volley thats on you. You should have made her come from behind creeps to hit you and punished her when she did. Just don't play here aggressively cause she will win that battle everytime. Be defensive and let her push lanes(ie no volley unless you guarentee to hit her and only last hit).

Yeah, caitlyn is tough. Just remember that you can dodge her "volley". Get boots and 3 hp potions. Focus on last hitting. Your ult is much more potent of an initiate than hers. Ult in, flash, volley, dodge peacemaker, and keep on attacking. Just make sure you do this right after she wastes a headshot on a minion, so that you have the advantage. It's tough, and you have to pay attention, but range will only get her so far when she's stunned.

She's probably one of the best mid's in the game atm

^For Corki, since hes the only AD carry I really play lately, I get regrowth pendant, cloth armor is probably better, for when you need it the most, but philostone is nice sometines (Though I dont usually get it) and regrowth pendant seems enough to outlane her. Corki is really like the easiest champion to handle cait with though (among the AD carries), he can harass pretty well with his phos bomb, which does hurt quite a bit, has good range and is easy to land.

There is only one thing I cant quite deal with, when cait puts her traps in a straight line so you cant get close to her without having to go around the line, she can still however chose to come to shoot you easily. It also means that you cant really go after her, as if its not already hard enough with her net. Even randomly placing them gives you mobility issues as sometimes you will simply not be able to get to a minion because the trap is in the way. Its extra annoying cause you can feel all the psychological warfare shes throwing at you, and youre helpless to do anything unless she b's.

Caityn only really has the range advantage on her skillshot. The nice part about her skillshot, if you're watching her character there is a queue up animation before it fires, the area she's shooting toward is telegraphed in that shot. It is also a fairly mana hungry attack.

The nice part about Ashe is that volley isn't her highest damage output attack, her normal attack is. I've been fairly successful watching for when Caitlyn is going to shoot, when she is, judge the shot and move in at an angle that avoids the shot. I was normally able to get her with a regular shot everytime she used her skillshot. This was a fairly aggressive playstyle and needed 2 things, #1 awareness of headshot, #2 timing her shot and moving in on her during this time.

You want to play more defensively if the Cait is stronger than you). ONLY last hit. Screw everything else, only last hit. Caits have a tendency to push creep waves, if you only last hit she can get them closer to your tower which is great for safely farming. Once you hit 6, you have the advantage. Your ult is better than her ult. If you've kept the farm remotely close, anybody can initiate a gank on her and you can seal it with your arrow.

That being said, if you know you're mid against a Cait and you typically have trouble get a regrowth pendent like some people have said. Personally though I think Regrowth Pendent is like already giving up and says a lot about your lack of confidence. I prefer Dorans or Boots+pots.