While Ashe might seem like a noob champion because she doesn’t cost very much Blue Essence, her abilities are simple and straight forward and the reality is that one of her abilities is seldomly used, Ashe proves to be a scary champion to be up against in ARAM,
Ashe is an average-ranged Marksman and is best known for shredding tanks, dealing an insane amount of AoE damage and for being able to attack and kill enemy champions while under their turret.
Ashe passively slows enemies she hits with Frost Shot (Passive) dealing increased damage to affected targets. Critical Strike damage deals no bonus damage but applies an empowered slow to the target.
Ashe’s abilities include Ranger’s Focus (Q) which requires players to build up Focus by attacking enemy minions or champions and at maximum Focus Ashe can consumer the stacks to increase her Attack Speed and alter her basic attack into a flurry attack.
The ability players will want to focus on is Volley (W), which fires 9 arrows in a cone shape. Players can either use Volley to target multiple enemies at a time or can deal more damage to a single enemy is players are in close proximity.
Volley is going to be your “spam” ability so get used to weaving it in between auto-attacks.
Hawkshot (E) allows Ashe players to reveal an area of the map for a short period of time. Hawkshot (E) is an important ability to have in ARAM, though due to its long cooldown, players will not always see use in it. Hawkshot (E) should always be powered up last as does no damage to enemy champions and players will not reap any benefit for actually upgrading it.
Ashe’s ultimate, Enchanted Crystal Arrow (R) is powerful and while I don’t want to take away from the impact it can have on a game, I have to be honest in saying that it finds fairly minimal practical use. Enchanted Crystal Arrow shoots in a straight line and deals damage and stuns enemies for a period of time. Enchanted Crystal Arrow’s stun depends on the length the arrow has travelled. The further the arrow has travelled, the longer the stun.
All-in-all, Ashe is an incredible auto-attack champion and should be glorified for her ability to slow down enemy champions while shredding them and staying up at the same time. Use her abilities all you want, but just like Caitlyn, this queen shines with just her weapon.
I’ll cover more on Ashe’s playstyle later.
QUICK RUNDOWN:
SUMMONER SPELLS: Flash & Heal
RUNES: Lethal Tempo, Triumph, Alacrity, Coup de Grace // Cheap Shot & Ravenous Hunter
ABILITY POWER UP: Q, W, E
FIRST BUY: Vampiric Scepter, Boots
BUILD ORDER: Essence Reaver, Berserker’s Boots, Blade of the Ruined King, Runaan’s Hurricane, Infinity’s Edge, Phantom Dancer
COMBOS: Ashe’s combo basically compromises of: hit enemies with Volley (W) to apply a slow, attack nearby enemies prioritizing champions until Ranger’s Focus (Q) is activatable. Activate and take down an enemy champion and if necessary shoot them with an Enchanted Crystal Arrow (R) to stun an escaping champion. Easy mode.
SUMMONER SPELLS FOR ASHE IN ARAM
FLASH
I can’t think of a reason players wouldn’t take Flash into an ARAM match on any champion since Flash will help players bounce in or out of battles as needed. Flash is a player’s best friend in all tough situations.
Since Ashe deals very high damage, you will have moments you’ll want to Flash in and secure a takedown, especially if it’s First Blood.
If the player does not have Flash up and is still trying to get away from enemies, it’s a good idea to continue auto-attacking them as Ashe will slow down enemy champions, ultimately making it easier to kill them later.
HEAL
Heal is a bit of a staple when playing marksmen. Heal will help provide a little speed boost to ensure that you’re able to get away from dangerous situations, especially when you’re low on health.
Ashe players can also use Barrier if they prefer it to heal, however, as someone who prefers health on Marksman, Heal is usually my choice.
In very, very rare circumstances will I take Clarity as an Ashe player.
RUNE RECOMMENDATIONS FOR ASHE IN ARAM
There are two ways players have been choosing to play Ashe these days in ARAM and that’s to select runes that are very similar to fellow Marksmen like Vayne, Miss Fortune, Kindred, Caitlyn, Tristana, Sivir, Ashe, Xayah, Varus or Jhin, though some players will choose to use bursty Domination runes as they would on Mages like Karthus, Brand, Anivia, Teemo, Soraka, Zyra, Ziggs, or Malzahar.
The following guide will take you through the benefits of choosing either rune formation and what situation or teams each may be most helpful in:
RUNES ASHE CAN USE FOR SUSTAIN (PRECISION/DOMINATION)
Being that Ashe relies on her auto-attacks to deal the majority of her damage, players will find that Precision runes will help sustain the player’s health while also increasing the player’s attack speed or equally helpful stats.
Ashe players can choose between two keystone runes and will ultimately make their decision based on whether they need extra sustain or want faster damage.
FLEET FOOTWORK/LETHAL TEMPO
Become Energized by using basic attacks or moving. When fully Energized, 100, Ashe’s next basic attack will restore between 3 to 60 (+30% bonus AD) health, based on the player’s level.
Players will also receive a 20% movement speed buff for 1 second.
Since Ashe is a ranged champion, she will only receive 20% of this healing when attacking minions.
Ashe players should try to stay back when in ARAM, as players will have a hard time escaping enemy champions if they are jumped on. If Ashe players take any damage, they should pull back briefly while healing off of minions until it is safe to jump back into battle.
Fleet Footwork falls off a bit in the late-game, but players can definitely benefit from having it still, especially as you build attack speed.
Alternatively, players can also choose to use Lethal Tempo, especially if they are confident in their ability to regain health when they are in battle. Lethal Tempo is the much more aggressive rune, especially as it provides players with a 40-110% attack speed (based on champion level) and can ignore the speed cap for 3 seconds.
Lethal Tempo works amazingly with Ranger’s Focus and will work even better with attack speed gear as Ashe will be able to shred through enemy champions quickly. Lethal’s Tempo has a short cooldown, coming in at 6 seconds.
As a tip, you may want to build some life steal gear when playing Ashe with Lethal Tempo. Even one piece of Life Steal gear should make sure that you will never drop too far down with your health. At the same time, players will not need or want too many life-steal pieces of gear.
TRIUMPH
Triumph is one of the most powerful runes that players can take while playing ARAM, especially if your team gets a number of kills in a row.
Players will receive 6% of missing health as well as 10 Gold every time they participate in a champion takedown. Players will experience a 1-second delay before they get their health from securing a takedown.
ALACRITY
Alacrity provides players with 3% (+ 1.5% per Legend stack) bonus Attack Speed, up to 18% when players have 10 stacks.
Alacrity is a sneaky Rune that I didn’t realize was a staple with Ashe at first. Securing enough kills to receive the 18% Attack Speed can be game-changing, especially if players haven’t died and thus do not have a way to access the shop.
COUP DE GRACE
The fourth Rune is definitely a personal choice, but I always like to choose Coup de Grace because it gives you 8% more damage to enemy champions below 40% health.
Who could say no to a buff in damage, just because enemies are low on health!
CHEAP SHOT
Cheap Shot will deal 10-45 (based on level) bonus true damage to champions who have impaired movement or actions. Cheap Shot has an extremely short cooldown, being 4 seconds.
Cheap Shot works extremely well with Ashe’s Volley (W), though as soon as Ashe has access to Runnan’s Hurricane or simply is able to catch up to enemies regularly, she will deal a great deal of damage simply through Cheap Shot.
RAVENOUS HUNTER
Abilities Heal for 1.5% of damage + 2.5% per every champion takedown for a maximum of 5 stacks. Healing is reduced to 1/3 on AoE damage.
While Ravenous Hunter won’t do a great deal of healing, it’s never a bad idea to round out your damage.
Ravenous Hunter will work on both Ashe’s Ranger’s Focus (Q) and her Volley (W).
MANAFLOW BAND (SORCERY ALTERNATIVE)
Hitting enemy champions with an ability will permanently increase your maximum mana by 25 (cooldown 15 seconds), up to a maximum of 250 mana. Although players will receive an increase in the maximum mana they can have, proccing Manaflow Band will not provide an increase in your current mana.
Once players have capped out their maximum mana at 250 bonus mana, they will receive 1% of their missing mana every 5 seconds.
Although Ashe players will deal with the majority of their mana problems with Essence Reaver, players who want to avoid building Essence Reaver can rely on Manaflow Band.
Ashe players will regularly run out of mana for spamming their Volley (W) and while spamming abilities to the point of being out of mana is usually the sign of an inexperienced player, unfortunately, it’s a big reality for Ashe players.
I’m not the biggest fan of choosing the Sorcery path, though this can be useful.
TRANSCENDENCE (SORCERY ALTERNATIVE)
In my opinion, the only reason you would choose the Sorcery path for Ashe is to gain access to Transcendence.
At level 10 players will receive 10% CDR and 2 AP for every 1% CDR that goes over the 40% cap (or 45% if using Cosmic Insight).
Transcendence comes in very handy for Ashe players who want to use their Volley (W) the most aggressively and are using their abilities and attacks to generally keep enemy champion’s slowed at all times.
Having a Sorcery secondary rune tree will give Ashe a more hybrid feel as players will want to rely on their abilities a bit more than they normally would.
DAMAGE HEAVY/BURST RUNES FOR ASHE (DOMINATION/PRECISION)
I’m personally not the biggest fan of Dark Harvest Ashe, which is a bit shocking since I use Dark Harvest on most other champions I play.
Dark Harvest Ashe takes advantage of Ashe’s long-range abilities and has the ability to help Ashe finish off enemy champions while at a distance.
Since players will have to remain fairly close to enemy champions when using Precision, as Fleet Footwork requires hitting either minions or champions and Lethal Tempo requires hitting enemy champions, Domination will give fairly similar “results” with some major trade-offs.
Using Domination runes severely decreases a player’s attack speed meaning that Ashe players will have to rely on using their abilities in the majority of battles.
Domination Ashe players will also have to manage their mana much more carefully than Precision Ashe players as Domination players will often focus on building Critical Strike instead of mana or attack speed.
Players could take it as far as avoiding attack speed items until the third or fourth item with this build.
DARK HARVEST
Damaging champions below 50% deals 20-60 (+ 25% AD) damage based on your level. Each soul that you harvest adds +2 AP.
Players will only be able to collect souls every 45 seconds or can reset Dark Harvest’s cooldown to 1.5 seconds by being part of an enemy takedown.
Dark Harvest works best when players Volley (W) enemy champions who are under 50% health.
Dark Harvest is most notable when players attack enemies that are trying to get away. It’s going to be important to move around enemy champions to ensure that Dark Harvest is popped on the enemy with the lowest health.
Ensuring that lower-health enemies are attacked first will raise the chances of securing a takedown, especially if the targetted enemy is a Marksman or Assassin.
CHEAP SHOT
Cheap Shot will deal 10-45 (based on level) bonus true damage to champions who have impaired movement or actions. Cheap Shot has an extremely short cooldown, being 4 seconds.
Cheap Shot works great with Ashe’s passive as well as the slows caused by Ashe’s Volley (W). Players will still have to strike enemies with an auto-attack
EYEBALL COLLECTION
Collect 1 Eyeball per champion takedown, up to 10. Each takedown will provide players with 2 AP. Once players have received 10 Eyeballs they will also receive an extra 10 AP.
Eyeball Collection is the only Rune you will be able to use in ARAM from this tier of Runes.
RAVENOUS HUNTER
Abilities Heal for 1.5% of damage + 2.5% per every champion takedown for a maximum of 5 stacks. Healing is reduced to 1/3 on AoE damage.
While Ravenous Hunter won’t do a great deal of healing, it’s never a bad idea to round out your damage.
Ravenous Hunter will work on both Ashe’s Ranger’s Focus (Q) and her Volley (W).
TRIUMPH
Triumph is one of the most powerful runes that players can take while playing ARAM, especially if your team gets a number of kills in a row.
Players will receive 6% of missing health as well as 10 Gold every time they participate in a champion takedown. Players will experience a 1-second delay before they get their health from securing a takedown.
COUP DE GRACE OR PRESENCE OF MIND
The fourth Rune is definitely a personal choice, but I always like to choose Coup de Grace because it gives you 8% more damage to enemy champions below 40% health.
Who could say no to a buff in damage, just because enemies are low on health!
There aren’t many instances I would take Presence of Mind in ARAM, to be honest, however, it can be essential for Ashe players who use Domination.
Presence of Mind restores 10% of your maximum mana 1-second after an enemy takedown. Players will also receive 5 maximum mana up to 10 times for a maximum of 500 extra mana. Although Presence of Mind used to reduce your ultimate cooldown, the way it stands is still extremely powerful for Ashe players.
MAGIC DAMAGE & CROWD CONTROL FOR ASHE (SORCERY/DOMINATION)
Although I wouldn’t regularly recommend it, players can build Ashe with Sorcery runes if they hope to cause extra crowd control to enemy champions.
I have seen Sorcery Ashe’s work extremely well with players who have multiple mages or champions who have crowd control.
ARCANE COMET
Damaging enemy champions with an ability causes an Arcane Comet to be thrown at the enemy’s current location. The Arcane Comet can deal between 30-100 plus 35% bonus attack damage. Damaging enemy champions with abilities will help reduce the cooldown of Arcane Comet, though the cooldown sits between 8-20 seconds based on player levels.
Ashe is one of the only Marksmen I’ve seen be very successful when using Arcane Comet, especially if players focus on getting cooldown reduction gear.
Since the majority of Ashe’s abilities slow down enemy champions, players will see a good portion of their Arcane Comets land.
MANAFLOW BAND
Hitting enemy champions with an ability will permanently increase your maximum mana by 25 (cooldown 15 seconds), up to a maximum of 250 mana. Although players will receive an increase in the maximum mana they can have, proccing Manaflow Band will not provide an increase in your current mana.
Once players have capped out their maximum mana at 250 bonus mana, they will receive 1% of their missing mana every 5 seconds.
It’s always good to have extra mana whenever you’re playing a mage, especially if you’re someone who is known to spam abilities… *cough, cough*.
TRANSCENDENCE
At level 10 players will receive 10% CDR and 2 AP for every 1% CDR that goes over the 40% cap (or 45% if using Cosmic Insight).
Since players are probably going to be relying on their abilities when they use Sorcery as their main rune tree, players will want to make sure to take Transcendence to provide them with enough cooldown reduction to give enemy champions a pounding.
I don’t think players absolutely need 40% CDR, but it would be nice. Ashe players can get by fairly well with 20%, but the 30% goes quite a long way, especially in late game when Ashe players have a lot of Critical Strike.
GATHERING STORM
Gain adaptive damage for every 6 minutes of gameplay. The stats are as follows: 0, 4.8, 14.4, 28.8, and 48 AP
Gathering Storm is a nice passive way to gain damage, though at the end of the day it takes quite some time for players to receive enough amplification from Gathering Storm.
The unfortunate truth is that Gathering Storm works best with Rabadon’s Deathcap, which should not be used by Ashe players.
Players will still gain a significant amount of damage as Ashe’s attack speed is unmatched to anyone except maybe Xayah.
CHEAP SHOT
Cheap Shot will deal 10-45 (based on level) bonus true damage to champions who have impaired movement or actions. Cheap Shot has an extremely short cooldown, being 4 seconds.
Cheap Shot works extremely well with Ashe’s Volley (W), though as soon as Ashe has access to Runnan’s Hurricane or simply is able to catch up to enemies regularly, she will deal a great deal of damage simply through Cheap Shot.
RAVENOUS HUNTER
Abilities Heal for 1.5% of damage + 2.5% per every champion takedown for a maximum of 5 stacks. Healing is reduced to 1/3 on AoE damage.
While Ravenous Hunter won’t do a great deal of healing, it’s never a bad idea to round out your damage.
Ravenous Hunter will work on both Ashe’s Ranger’s Focus (Q) and her Volley (W).
SKILL LEVEL UP RECOMMENDATIONS & TIPS ON HOW TO PLAY ASHE IN ARAM
Ashe really only has one way to upgrade her abilities simply due to the way that her abilities function.
The best, and arguably only, way players should upgrade Ashe’s abilities is W, Q, E since players will be relying on their Volley (W) over all other abilities.
Being that it takes a few hits of your auto attack before you can initiate Ashe’s Ranger’s Focus (Q), players should avoid upgrading their Q first, simply because they won’t see as much use.
The following are all of Ashe’s abilities, how they work, the stats you will receive for upgrading them and how to use them optimally:
RANGER’S FOCUS (Q)
As a passive, Ranger’s focus must take 4 auto attacks against non-structures (minions and champions) in order to make active. Upon being activatable, Ranger’s Focus will begin to glow, allowing the player to initiate.
Upon initiating Ranger’s Focus, players will receive 20 / 30 / 40 / 50 / 60% attack speed for 4 seconds.
Each basic attack will cause a flurry of five arrows to attack enemy champions dealing 21 / 22 / 23 / 24 / 25% attack damage to enemy champions.
Flurries will also provide players with some life steal which can be boosted by Ravenous Hunter, as arrows from Ranger’s Focus are considered damage by an ability.
Players should try to always keep their Ranger’s Focus up, even if they don’t use it right away. I’ll be honest in saying that I activate Ranger’s Focus almost any time that I can as it’s a simple way to raise your damage and is so easy to not use by mistake.
It’s especially important for Ashe players to activate Ranger’s Focus before they attack enemy turrets as players will not be able to keep Ranger’s Focus up when damaging enemy turrets.
Players should never feel bad about getting 2-3 shots off on enemies when using Ranger’s Focus as it will still deal enough damage to make the ability worth using. Of course, it would be amazing to get all four shots off, but the other reality is that Ashe is going to deal similar damage with her regular auto-attacks, just a bit slower.
Ranger’s Focus always costs 50 mana.
VOLLEY (W)
Volley is an all-time favourite ability, especially because it can deal so much heavy damage to enemy champions.
Volley costs 70 mana and deals 20 / 35 / 50 / 65 / 80 (+100% AD) physical damage to the first enemy struck and applies a Critical Slow to enemy champions.
As mentioned earlier, if champions are hit by multiple arrows, they will receive stacked damage, meaning that players can take up to 9x the damage from this ability.
The best part of upgrading Volley is the fact that the cooldown decreases to 14 / 11/5 / 9 / 6.5 / 4 seconds.
HAWKSHOT (E)
Every 90 / 80 / 70 / 60 / 50 seconds a player will charge a stock of Hawkshot up to a maximum of two charges.
Upon shooting Hawkshot players will expose an area for 2 seconds and upon the Hawk reaching its destination that area will be revealed for 5 seconds.
Hawkshot should always be used when enemy champions are hiding in bushes, especially if players feel like they have a chance to jump in or attack enemy champions. Hawkshot is most useful when players have long-range allies such as Ziggs, Kai’Sa or Varus.
ENCHANTED CRYSTAL ARROW (R)
For the cost of 100 mana players will be able to fire a directional missile, revealing the area for 1 second and stunning the first enemy hit for 1-3.5 seconds (based on distance travelled) and revealing the area around them for 1 second.
Enchanted Crystal Arrow deals 200 / 400 / 600 (+ 100% AP) or 100 / 200 / 300 (+50% AP) to champions that surround.
The one thing about Enchanted Crystal Arrow is that it gets absorbed by most tanks. Of course, a player’s goal is to hit a squishy champion such as a Marksman or an Assassin, but that will not always be in the player’s control.
GEAR BUILDS FOR ASHE IN ARAM
When building Ashe there are a few different stats that you’re going to want to look at including life steal, cooldown Reduction, critical Strike and attack speed.
Depending on what runes players are building, players may want to focus on a particular type of build as it may provide them with an advantage.
Players who are using Precision runes should be focussing on critical strike damage and attack speed.
Players who are using Domination should focus on cooldown reduction and critical strike.
Players who are using Sorcery should focus on building Essence Reaver then attack speed and critical strike.
The following is the most common build that I while playing Ashe, though the build order varies.
But before we start it’s important to note that players can build Vampiric Staff for life steal/sustain, B.F. Sword for high attack damage, or Caulfield’s Warhammer for cooldown Reduction and average attack damage.
ESSENCE REAVER
Dealing 70 attack damage, 20% cooldown reduction, 25% critical strike chance and refunding 1.5% of the player’s missing mana on-hit, Essence Reaver is a phenomenal item to build while playing any version of Ashe.
If players realize that they don’t need mana, build Infinity Edge first instead of Essence Reaver as it deals more damage.
BERSERKER’S BOOTS
I don’t think I have to explain this… Attack Speed Boots for an Attack Speed Queen. You can thank me later for my brevity.
BLADE OF THE RUINED KING
If players are dealing with Health issues or dealing with issues shredding tanks immediately begin building Blade of the Ruined King
Giving players 40 Attack Damage, 25% Attack Speed and 12% Life Steal, Blade of the Ruined King is the only Life Steal item I would ever build on a Precision Ashe.
The most enticing thing about Blade of the Ruined King is that basic attacks deal 8% of the target’s current health as bonus physical damage. This makes shredding tanks fairly easy, while still giving you the same effect on lower health champions. The minimum bonus physical damage players will deal is 15 AD.
As an active, players will deal 100 magic damage to the target champion, causing them to move 25% slower for 3 seconds.
Blade of the Ruined King is essential for players who are up against tanks as it provides both rapid damage and exponential damage.
RUNAAN’S HURRICANE
If you want to take as much delight as you can with Ashe’s attack speed, make sure you build Runaan’s Hurricane, especially because basic attacks deal 40% AD damage to 2 enemies that are nearby the initial target.
Runaan’s Hurricane is a Marksman’s wet dream when it comes to shredding all nearby champions and provides Ashe players with 40% Attack Speed, 25% Critical Strike Chance and 7% Movement Speed, making this slippery woman, very powerful.
Players will profit from building Runaan’s Hurricane whether they are attacking enemy champions or minions, though it would be so stupid not to bring up how insane Ashe’s wave clear becomes with Runaan’s Hurricane, especially with Ranger’s Focus (Q) active.
INFINITY’S EDGE
I’m someone who likes meaty damage against enemy champions and so I find Infinity’s Edge to be helpful when playing Ashe. Infinity’s Edge deals 80 Attack Damage, 25% Critical Strike Chance and also deals 25% critical damage.
I often build Infinity’s Edge first or second these days, but it really depends on how well my team is doing. If they simply need me to deal more damage, especially after I’ve built attack speed, Infinity Edge is the way to go.
PHANTOM DANCER
Providing players with 30% attack speed, 25% critical strike chance, 5% movement speed as well as providing Ashe players with ghost as well as 7% bonus movement speed for 2 seconds.
As a unique passive, players will receive a shield that absorbs 240-600 (based on level) damage decaying over 2 seconds every 90 seconds when the player’s maximum health is below 30%.
Phantom Dancer is great for allowing Ashe players to kite enemy champions and will also provide players with a high amount of attack speed.
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