5.22 Ashe Discussion

Just wanted to list a few interactions for those of you who still want to play Ashe in the new Era of OP Marksmen. Notably, 1) her Q damage now works on turrets if you stack it up on minions/champs (huge seige buff) 2) removed runaan's interactions (nerf, see below).

Frost/Crit mechanic clarification: Ashe still has the bonus damage that scales with crit chance and crit damage as she had previously, it just not longer is considered a crit (total garbage for Warlord's Bloodlust). Now "critical strikes" are actually critical slows.

Nerfs: -Lower noncrit slow scaling (worse early game kite) (lvl 1-3 slow is still equivalent) -Removed focus stacking with W and R -Removed focus stacking with Runaan's: now only stacks once on attack instead of 3x on hit -Removed Q active Runaan's interaction: now only fires 1 bolt at nearby enemies instead of 5

Ashe cannot match other adc's use of Warlord's Bloodlust because now they have equal chances to crit, but Ashe's crits do [insert frost formula here: < 200%] damage while others do 200% --> meaning Ashe heals less per crit. Honestly, if RIOT had left the Runaan's interactions the same, she would have her Q active on 95% of the time because there is no cooldown and she could stack it in 2 shots (aside from mana constraints). Also, you should no longer sell last whisper for black cleaver after getting runaan's, since you can no longer 5-stack BC on multiple opponents with one shot.

Buffs: -No cooldown on Q! -Crit chance now scales her damage AND critically slows -Q active bonus damage works on turrets, not just an atk spd steroid anymore (but still does not stack on turrets) -Can "crit" slow 3 targets with Runaan's (now that Runaan's bolts can crit) (ultra kite)

Her utility definitely improved now that she can 50% slow 3 enemies perpetually when she has Runaan's and decent crit (at lvl 16). The Q active does insane damage to towers, so split push might be a thing now.

Build advice: This is my opinion Personally, I believe the stats that are strongest on her now are attack speed (for more Q-ing, remember no cooldown) and move speed. I will be maxing Q: now you can press Q as much as you want (essentially free damage and attack speed), you just have to wait for 5 autos before you can press it again. **MS: **There are a lot more options for getting movespeed now, and that along with her new critical slows means your objective is to kite the bruisers that are looking to dive you and thus just outpace them in extended trades, try and delay them long enough for your team to back you up and It's unlikely he'll escape when you can critically slow for 50%!

tl;dr: Q active works on turrets. Don't buy runaan's. If you're building crit get a lot of it (99% of the time). (I will likely edit this as discussions continue)