So, with the fall of the tank meta again, can we revert one of the two changes to Ashe's Flurry?
TL;DR Revert one change: Volley stacking Focus, or using Flurry without focus still gives attack speed.
Pretty soon after her rework, Ashe had two changes done to her Flurry to tone down her power. On launch, she could activate it any time she wanted, gaining the attack speed buff, but could generate 5 stacks of Focus to super charge it with the barrage of arrows aspect. Also, her Volley would give her a stack of Focus for every unique enemy hit by it.
The Volley Focus stacking, and the ability to activate Flurry before 5 Focus are the two things I want to address.
With the fall of the tank meta, or at the very least, with the rise of Quinn and Kindred (and with Yi still being particularily high tier), we're seeing more of the remnants of an assassin meta again, where the only meat on the team comes from top lane (and maybe support. Like, 20% chance). Thanks to this, the ADC's of nowadays who don't have substantial burst damage are finding it harder to exist, especially those with no escapes. Ashe falls into both categories, where she has no escapes, and no burst damage to follow up on any CC. She functions almost like the bruiser of ADC's, requiring ramping up in a fight before she becomes a real threat. Granted, once she gets there she's a terror, but 5 autos is a lifetime in this game, and that was perfectly fine when tanks were still a thing.
That being said, I'd like to revert one of the aformentioned nerfs she got hit with after launch.
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Bringing back Volley stacking Focus would give her the option to possibly get that quick stack up in time to present a threat to an assassin. It would take skill and patience to decide whether it would be better to fire it sideways at the opposing minion wave to stack, or forward for more up front damage. Downside here is that this would also have laning phase detriments, lowering her skill floor to access the full power of Flurry early game. I think her laning phase is average (if not more-than), so I don't think that a buff there would be neccessary.
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Bringing back the ability to use Flurry without Focus stacks for the attack speed buff would give her the ability to follow up on her own Ult stun, which would give her that threat she needs to present a challenge to assassins. As is, it takes only 5 hits to kill them anyways, but without full build OR the steroid, those 5 attacks take almost 5 seconds, which is plenty of time for the assassin to shake off the ult and kill you. Giving her the AS steroid up front (and the barrage only with full stacks) shortens the window that that assassin has. Also, Ashe is kind of a straight forward character: right click, use all abilities when available, and Ult for either initiation or peeling (Hawkshot is nice, I'll give you that, but it has limited combat use). Giving you the option for half the benifit up front or waiting for the full benifit creates more decision making for a champ who otherwise kind of lacks it.
Now, as an ADC, Ashe is supposed to feel weak against assassins, but, especially with the super speedy likes of Quinn and Yi, you basically cannot venture farther than 10 feet from someone with hard, easy to hit CC. If they see you any distance from heavy safety nets, you're dead, with no hope unless you're significantly more fed than them. I'd just like to not feel like I might as well hit /d the instant I catch them on the edge of my line of sight.
So, who's looking for the change I'm suggesting? Anyone looking for a different change? Anyone think I'm an idiot?
are an example of both), and Ashe feels like she has less tools to fight with when the Q is not charged because she can't use the skill properly.
I don't think I'm knowledgeable enough to say 'up' or 'op', but it feels wonky to play.