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"I won't miss" -- Ashe returns to pro play

Riot··4 votes·60,889 views
Why go Ashe when you could opt for the much more powerful Kog’Maw? All the Frost Archer brought was that fancy arrow before she got owned in a firefight. She wasn’t mobile enough to avoid Lissandra’s icicles and didn’t have the damage to dent Sejuani’s armor. This was the old Ashe, but the queen has had her coronation and she’s raining furious frost arrows down on the Rift. After her re-work, Ashe is finally a capable fighter with enough control to feel like a great leader. She has everything AD carries dream of: utility, damage, and strength in every part of the game. “Ashe is just good at everything,” Counter Logic Gaming's AD carry Yiliang "Doublelift" Peng tells us. “I'd say that she's amazing in lane. She's amazing mid-game because she can set up great picks and set up vision. She's amazing late game because she's a high-range AD carry with a lot of steroid potential. There's not really any point where Ashe is bad.”

Right between the eyes

It’s hard to argue Doublelift's results; he went 5/1/9 with Ashe in his first match vs. Team Dignitas (check out his build, as well as Runes and Masteries right here). With her Frost Shot passive giving her more damage per crit chance, she’s difficult to duel in-lane once she acquires an Infinity Edge. “Now, Ashe with just Infinity Edge knows when she can win a duel,” says Cloud9's AD carry Zachary “Sneaky” Scuderi. “That's an advantage that other AD carries don't have.“ One such example is Lucian, says Sneaky. "He won't know how many times he's going to crit when he goes into a fight," he says. "He'll do a bunch of damage if he does crit a few times, but if he happens to not crit, he's not going to do any damage. Ashe will do consistent damage the entire time.” The only thing the Queen of Freljord lacks in heated combat is an innate dash which enemies can still take advantage of. But now that every one of her auto-attacks applies a potent slow naturally, kiting is made easy. Poking aside, unless you count the unlimited range initiation of course, Ashe has become the love child of Kog’Maws strength and Caitlyn’s bullying. But much like Doublelift said, damage is not the only thing keeping Ashe in the game.

Show me a path

Utilizing two hawk charges and global range to provide your team with tons of intel, Ashe now provides incredible vision control with her new Hawkshot. “You can set the Hawkshot so it scouts four or five camps in the enemy jungle just from bottom lane,” Doublelift says. “This allows you to see where their jungler is and tells your laners where they are. It's basically a maphack.” If you’re smart about your charges, even the most tactical of junglers have no where to hide. Remember, Hawkshot is now global and grants vision as it passes by so always shoot it across the map. “The second you get Hawkshot, just try to throw it at [the] jungle,” Sneaky says. “Take a guess where he is. If you find him, you can go aggressive, you'll know where he is.” The simple act of firing a hawk and seeing the enemy jungler three camps away provides your team with peace of mind. It’s like peeking over the wall in a game of Battleship -- basically cheating. This opens up a ton of pressure for your team and opportunity for your own jungler to disrupt.

United, we are stronger!

“Ashe brings initiation and disengage,” Doublelift tells us. “If someone is out of position, it's a free kill. If somebody's clearing your wards, it's a free kill. In lane, it's most of the time a free kill if they don't blow Flash to dodge the Arrow. Her ult is so powerful, because you're locked in one of two situations. You either dodge it, or you just Flash it. Otherwise, you're dead.” If you’re the type of player that likes to take advantage of slight misplays, you’ll have a field day with Ashe’s ultimate. Sometimes, it can also be used as a back-up plan, but Doublelift suggests you always take the first shot, “I rarely use her ulti to peel back, unless I'm in a desperate situation. Mostly I use it to create picks.” With a powerful initiation spell, it’s good to pick her into supports that can follow up. Sneaky says she’s great with lockdown supports like Alistar or Thresh because of the ability to set-up kills and apply pressure to the lane. Once that Arrow lands, there really is no escaping a Nautilus running full speed ahead. Like Doublelift mentioned earlier, Flash or die. Having more opportunities to initiate on the opposition and then controlling the ensuing fight with perma-slow makes the new Ashe all the more powerful. But remember, with great power comes greater responsibility. Her lack of mobility makes her a little trickier to play. But it’s alright, she makes everyone else easier to dodge. How about all of you readers? Are you enjoying the new Ashe? And what supports do you feel are just too good with the fresh frost queen?

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157 Comments

5OShades0fTrey32 votes

I personally think the new Ashe kicks some Ashe . Sorry but I just don`t think there is Annie other adc better than her. Update: (I just wanted to get top comment so I made a pun, but apparently it sparked something within you guys, I dont even play adc) You guys are just too Talon ted

Holy fúk ADC suc19 votes

ehm..what? Jinx has arguably an even mid-game and a way better late and teamfighting potential. Kog'maw is the god of hypercarries and has armor shred. Lucian is good in pretty much all stages of the game and has a dash. Tristana has incredible range and is strong in all stages of the game. Not to mention she can rocketjump and has an AOE knockback. Graves is better in teamfights with his aoe burst and has a dash.

Tl;dr there is no 'best' adc as you might claim/imply every champ fits a comp, every champ has a purpose and has abilities that makes him unique or different compared to other adc's. Ashe is nothing different at all. I dare say that Kalista is arguably even or even better then ashe at some things in the game. Kalista has a sentinel. Extremely strong early game. Can create picks and has an ult that is an AOE knockup and with hurricaan cajn aoe slow and has unlimited kiting potential and basically a second smite. U wot m9? No adc better? Really? All adc's are good in what they're supposed to be good at. Nothing more and nothing less.

Excalibait75 votes

Bruh, you clearly missed the point of tl;dr..

tl;dr Ashe too stronk

MJ Edge34 votes

Lol cracked me up... The tl;dr was actually longer than the original paragraph.

IPleadInsanity3 votes

dead had me weak.

lostväyne 11 votes

Ashe is all you need to Garen tee Viktor MasterYi

My Anime Waifu26 votes

Riot Logic: Buffs Ashe really hard, then makes article about Ashe returning into pro play

Instiva6 votes

All while planning on nerfing her after raking in dough from the people who do well on buffed up Ashe and buy skins for their new pro level champ (Doublelift Seal of Approval included on the packaging amirite).

Proƒyt3 votes

I really doubt they plan on nerfing ashe. She was reworked.... the term work is there for a reason- these guys crunch the numbers and know what they are doing.

Godaren1 votes

Maoki Sion? ring any bells

Raize5 votes

Okay, but you're also forgetting to factor in the fact that both Maokai and Sion are tanks (which in the new meta makes them just that much better alone) as well as have amazing kits. Don't get me wrong, I was upset when I saw the nerfs to Maokai, and my brother loves Sion (Even thought the juggernaut is still fantastic at what he does). They weren't given a rework and then instantly nerfed. They were left to sit until the meta made it to where a good Sion would dominate any game, and a good Maokai would set up so much bullying in lane that it was near impossible to stay. Tl;dr: It wasn't the rework that got these two amazing champions nerfed. It was simply the meta and their play style. Riot likes to see everything played and wanted something other than Sion every match.

Vhallghast10 votes

Much like how they didn't need to adjust Lucian post-rework. Or Casiopeia. Or Ryze. Or Zilean. Or- you see what I'm getting at yet?

Stexe3 votes

The departments are separate. They don't really factor that into their decision -- if they did they'd go for a higher priced Champion by far. The simple fact is that they over buffed Ashe in the reworking and will 100% nerf her in the near future. She just brings everything to the table at the moment.

EwigD2 votes

Sadly yes, most likely her e will get a range reduction or will only reveal the target area instead of the travel path too, Im ok with that though, nerfing her high uility while leaving her enough to make it relevant to her team is fine, I just really hope they dont destroy her damage output for the sake of retaining her utility, she's an adc, not a support damn it.

momonga30 votes

The same with assassins, they nerfed the shit out of all assassins then wrote an article titled "The fall of assassins in pro play.."

Bitterbind12 votes

Akali Fizz Zed we rule this rift. Riot: hmmm they do seem to, lets nerf them. Akali Fizz what the heck why are we so week now? Riot: it is just the natural way the game flows. Akali Fizz Hey Zed why are you not with us? Zed Sorry guys but...... Riot loves me. :D Akali Fizz What a load of crap Riot: Hmmm they don't seem to be useless enough what can we do...... oh ...... of cores buff the tanks. :D Akali Fizz What the crap we do no damage and now the tanks destroy us what is up with this? Riot: it is just the natural way the game flows. Riot: o crap these tanks are sweet but we don't want people to think we have favorites. Riot: Akali, Fizz your cries have not fallen upon could hearts...... we will watch the tanks to see how bad it is. _Riot privately high fives themselves on their cleverness. _ Akali Fizz oh so if it was not bad enough to be suffering right now they have to watch us on top of it too. some time passes Riot: yes we see the problem, but we don't want to over react to this problem sooooo lets tweak thing a bit. Fizz so let me get this strait Riot is "tweaking" them inorder to give the tanks more time in the lime light. Well enjoy it while it lasts tanks because after this year "the year of the tanks" Riot will say, " Tanks your time is up 'it is just the natural way the game flows.'" Akali "Will matchmaking ever find true balance?"

JeyPeg2 votes

I mean, to be fair, assassins still eat up squishy champs. Poor Azir T,,T

DENI4L7 votes

The job of a tank is to protect the weak carries. How can a tank do that if he gets insta killed by an assassin. Also Tanks needs their damage to be relevant otherwise carries could just ignore them and focus on enemy carries. This is why tanks destroy assassin, because they are a combination of tanky and damage. The tank meta makes it so the fate of the game isnt entirely decided by wich assassin will be best but rather wich team has the best teamwork and team comp. At least that's what I think

Nik Nikerson7 votes

First, true balance in a game is overrated. It's boring. If I wanted perfect balance I'd go play Rock, Paper, Scissors.

Second, who cares if riot is pushing one strategy over another? Of course they are doing this because they want their game to continue to grow and remain interesting. If they left everything the way it was, the game would stagnate and die. You're absolutely right, tanks are going to fall out of favor soon enough, and we'll have a new meta dominated by a new strategy. But purposely causing change and shifting the balance of power is how game developers keep their product fun. It's not a bad thing. It's how you encourage long term growth and interest in a healthy game.

So is what happened to assassins completely natural? No. But what is natural is that a game either has to evolve, or die. Riot is simply trying to evolve their game.

Bitterbind2 votes

Hey, sorry guys this was purely a joke. I am well aware of the fact that tanks counter assassins and i was meaning that to be part of the joke, but i may have leaned a bit to much on riot as the antagonist for this to be funny and i am sorry for that. i actually love the game a lot thus the post, and i don't mind the meta shifts at all. I can see that my humor must be refined a bit more before my next post, but thank you all a bunch for the feed back because i now can see how my post can be seen negatively and i am sorry for that. I don't like the negative side of the community and do not want to add to it so thanks for all the comments.

P.S sorry for the grammar i never red my stuff over much witch also lead into me missing the humor side a bit. Also i love Riot and have had no real complaints with them. :D

Darion3503 votes

Assassins aren't supposed to be tank killers. They're supposed to be ADC/Mage nightmares. Tanks counter assassins by being able to take the burst damage and hold them off until someone can kill them. It's the assassin's fault for trying to kill a tank and not zeroing in on the enemy ADC/Mage. Let your team's ADC and Bruisers take care of the enemy tank after everyone else is dead...

Honeybadger21982 votes

The grammar alone was so cringe-worthy it's impossible to even find humor in your opinion.

Stexe2 votes

That is because Riot is huge and all the departments are highly disconnected now. The teams that do balance and the teams that do eSports news coverage are completely different (often in completely different cities). That is a big problem with Riot at the moment and why they proceed with everything so slowly... there's no department that connects all the pieces together as a coherent whole.

Svaboda20 votes

Wait a god damn minute. You know why China and Korea do so much better? It's cause they play more. In the lcs, teams play 2 overhyped matches a week for a total of 18 best of ones. In china, edg plays 40 games a split. All in series. No wonder na and eu with some exceptions gets rocked, China and Korea just have way more competitive experience. Either we make the lcs like that or we keep on with the pretty presentation of a crappy product. We can't expect players to be conformable in competative situations coming from the lcs.

Dibony2 votes

40 matches a split is a lot. but 18 is too less.

Smooth Gunshot4 votes

China also only has one phenomenal team, a few decent ones and a lot of teams who just muck around because they have so many games that they don't care.

KingNooblitTTV3 votes

One of the biggest problems for NA is money, china and korea have huge potential for e-sports while here in NA we still have huge parts of the population trying to argue with the government that League isn't a sport and can't be considered competitive (albeit these people tend to ignore the facts provided to them) because of this NA e-sports aren't provided the sponsorship and funding that could support more games in a week. Now i know what your thinking RIOT is making loads off of league they don't need the extra sponsorship. It's not them that needs the funding its the players. pro players don't make much from tournaments or playing during the season. Really it just provides them with a face to promote their stream where they make most of their money. If the countries we lived in was working towards advancement and understanding (not just on a sports level for league of legends but in science math and other subjects) instead of quite often belittling degrading and even arguing against these subjects.

74% of Americans believe in god with the only proof being a book about a person that we have no proof did not have schizophrenia

50~% of Americans also believe that vaccine's cause autism.

And people still think America is the best country in the world...

theaceofspades29 votes

I liked your point before you implied my stupidity because of my nation of origin.

The comments about god and vaccinations did absolutely nothing to further your point and seemed to be solely placed there to be inflammatory.(Well done)

Cite your outdated and misrepresentative sources please.

TrollFan019 votes

The queen of the Frejord has returned! All hail Queen Ashe !

kneel on Ice10 votes

Lissandra Lissandra is the Queen

Dhanesh6 votes

Ashe is much much MUCH better due to the rework, I can definitely see her coming back to the lcs, on a huge note... FIX YOUR SERVER RIOT

Also... dat Ashe ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Eleshakai5 votes

Dat Ashe

Ulthanne5 votes

New ashe just makes "Frenzy" mastery broken. She can be utilized with some great Movement . With this build she gets more mobility than kalista while shooting. Now Ashe gives hard time to all big and small champions across Fields of Justice.

item 3153 item 3009 item 3071 item 3172 item 3031 item 3172 item 2140

dsfsadfa2 votes

I guess i can try attack speed Ashe It seams okay but two item 3172 can be hard to get...

Wind Savage3 votes

Didn't like the old Ashe..... still don't like the new Ashe

Freekosuave3 votes

Hawkshot needs a nerf to be in line with everything else imho. May as well allow TF to warp across the map at will and a few other things that were nerfed from being global to something less so.

derekthedog243 votes

Riot just get the new zac skin and the game will be a pool party

xxxToiletSeat3 votes

I always went legendary with her before her re-work. Now I'm just not interested in playing her.

Code Red133 votes

If people would just learn to play Veigar they would understand that nothing is hard to kill

Praise The I Am2 votes

The new Ashe is the perfect example of how Riot doesn't understand balance. Now her passive makes her AA slow without the drain of mana and replaces that ability with an AS boost that still slows you. Volly now shoots more so guess what most def going to hit you. Her ult now has an AOE that guess what also slows nearby enemies... So now you have an ultimate CC champ with amazing range. Please Riot just try to learn how the game that you make works because you keep just breaking Champs and leaving under powered champs in the dust because they're not popular.

EurobeatStrider3 votes

Yes, her passive makes her AA slow, but she can only fire so fast, and cannot target anyone in brush she hasn't checked yet. Hawkshot will only reveal for so long. Please keep in mind that new Volley's arrows can hit the same target more than once, but deal no extra damage or slow, while old Volley's arrows would actually hit you more than once, dealing more damage and making it more viable for shotgunning. As we've already explored with the latest addition to our roster (Ekko is so kawaii), Ashe isn't the most powerful for damage. Instead, she relies on a power window for a large portion of her damage, and her CC to attempt to force a fight with said power window. Her shared weakness with all ADCs is her susceptibility to dying while under the effects of crowd control. As soon as she gets stunned or snared, she's practically Garenteed guaranteed to go down in a teamfight. Silences also remove a large portion of her damage potential for a short while, given that ranger's focus wasn't activated beforehand. Concerning her ult, it isn't quite the easiest thing to dodge and it can often come in unexpectedly during team fights. The downside to it is shared with Super Mega Death Rocket (and to a lesser extent, Trueshot Barrage) with it being quite difficult to aim, given that it loses effectiveness when shotgunned. If your team is spread out or taking jungle routes, Ashe will often have difficulty hitting her target.

Exiles SoIace2 votes

Ashe's old volley could not hit a target multiple times the rest would go through so you could volley a champ through a minion wave but could never apply increased damage.

Maletizer8 votes

Have you even played the champ yet? She by no means is op. Yes, she is much stronger than the old Ashe but the old Ashe didn't have much base dmg to begin with. Her volley shoots more but it is easier to block now, so minions become a shield to use now against her volley. Her AA slow is there to compensate for her lack of any mobility. Other adc's like Vayne, Ezreal and Tristana have a lot of mobility and cc. Ashe makes up for the lack of mobility with harder cc. If this is the definition of broken then over 80% of all champions need to be redone.

TheGrandAlliance2 votes

Why go Ashe when you could opt for the much more powerful Kog’Maw? All the Frost Archer brought was that fancy arrow before she got owned in a firefight. She wasn’t mobile enough to avoid Lissandra’s icicles and didn’t have the damage to dent Sejuani’s armor. This was the old Ashe, but the queen has had her coronation and she’s raining furious frost arrows down on the Rift.

LoL the premise of this is post of the year worthy...

FIrst of all Ashe was fine until RIOT ADDED MOBILTY TO EVERYONE ELSE. Last time I checked she was just fine for Seasons 1-2. KogMaw sucks and doesn't scale well (requires AP and not only AD; no crits therefore and no Stuns).

Clearly Whomever wrote that first line forgets Jinx ; and of course a build (that works on old Ashe too) item 3031 +item 3046 +item 3046 .

...and forgets that Ashe's problem isn't Ashe's Problem... rather RIOTs continuous reworks of game meta... Sejuani wasn't always that strong until item 3709 + New summoner 11 meta came around.

The RIOT noobs who write these articles are fascinating nonetheless...

Indeed it is so...

THE KILLER GUY2 votes

I stopped at "KogMaw sucks and doesn't scale well (requires AP...." because I realized that this is the most atrocious league-related reply/post/etc I've ever read in my life.

TheGrandAlliance1 votes

[{quoted}](name=Shashou nanren,realm=NA,application-id=9hBQwnEU,discussion-id=npzh3dyE,comment-id=00120002,timestamp=2015-06-04T02:48:00.902+0000)

I stopped at "KogMaw sucks and doesn't scale well (requires AP...." because I realized that this is the most atrocious league-related reply/post/etc I've ever read in my life.

LoL we are talking AD Kog vs AD Ashe... get with the program plz (ADC/MARKSMAN COMPARISON)

Father Cthulhu2 votes

Lol Doublelift has a point in Frenzy on his masteries when he can't crit..?

Zerian5 votes

? Ashe crits every time she hits a slowed enemy. Every four shots is max frenzy.

It's a really good early-game steroid.

Clandestine Fox3 votes

Ashe cannot crit NORMALLY, is what her new passive states. She still crits, it's just no longer an X% chance to happen for 200% damage. This new sort of crit also applies to item 3087 item 3122 item 3185 which is hilarious to think about, I love item 3185 Ashe in 3's, constantly applying a slow and gaining vision on them. Thou shall not kite! also fun fact, item 3185 and item 3122 have a unique passive that applies a bleed, however they're not the same exact effect and they are not named, so these items actually stack for a 150% bonus AD ratio bleed on crits.

Briañ2 votes

AHEM- Kappa

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