Advise This Newbie!

Ifneth··2 votes·622 views

Hey guys,

I've just started ranked and would love some advice from you guys about what to do. I've broken down my questions by game phase and, for reference, I'm an Ashe main who started a few months ago.

Laning -It feels like the other ADCs flat-out beat mine. Whether it's their longer auto range or their minion-crossing pokes, harassing enemies off my farm feels hopeless, and trading seems to lead only to feeding. Is Ashe hamstrung and, if so, what should I do? -Of course, I have noticed that my skills also need work. Where's a good place to practice last-hitting creeps under the same kind of pressure I face in ranked?
-Also, does anyone have a comprehensive minion management guide? I have no idea when to push the wave, let it come to my tower, or whether to help my minions kill enemy minions and when.

Mid-Game -Once a tower drops, the support leaves, and I am suddenly exposed. Ashe has no escape and only soft CS. In general, what should I do then? -Ashe's sluggishness means choosing between boots and other items. When should I buy boots, and when should I finish them? -Also, Ashe being slow and squishy with no escape, early skirmishes outside bottom lane feel way beyond reach.

Late Game -I know not what to buy after BORK. I mean I literally have no clue. Infinity edge? Bloodthirster? Lord Dominik's Regards? Is it situational or essentially set in stone? -How should I teamfight? Right now, I am the furthest back and the first and sometimes the only one to die, while also contributing little damage to kills. -With her Hawkshot and ECA, Ashe can find undefended objectives and escape the odd enemy who comes to chase her. But when is this a good idea?

Any other advice also welcome. -Ifneth

14 Comments

Joalsm1 votes

[deleted]

Ifneth1 votes

Here's my most important question then:

I cannot easily learn by just watching someone do something. Are there any streamers who use their channels to show people how to play and, if so, who are they?

Doozku1 votes

Don't play ranked until you are happy with how you play. At the bear minimum, you should be able to get around 30 kills in every bot game. But bot games really don't matter much. Just stick to norms until you have a good understanding of what mechanics are like wave management, situational items, or zoning. Try a lot of roles, especially jungle since its the role that's likely to affect your games the most. Knowing about the jungle is going to be very helpful for you.

In fact, play a lot of champions so you can get an idea of their weaknesses and strengths.

Also website like OP.GG or Champion.gg basically tell you what to build. If you ever want to know a build for a champion, that's the place to go. Once you get a good grasp on what items do what, then you can start itemizing situationally, but most ADC's have builds that are set in stone anyways.

Ifneth1 votes

Did you make a typo when you wrote "30"? Besides that, I want to learn more about wave management than just definitions and expectations. I know that what freezing and pushing etc. are, but I do not know how to do them in unusual situations or when doing which is better. Where can I learn that?

Thanks for OP.GG. I had no idea it offered analytics down to the build level. This is great. It works even better than my previous build! Where can I learn about situational itemizing?

Doozku1 votes

In bot games, it's fairly easy to get 30 kills consistentlu. But that's less about being good at the game and more about knowing how to manipulate bots so just forget what I said. Wave management is less important bot than in other lanes, but I'd highly recommend watching youtubers like SoloRenektonOnly who makes videos where he talks a lot about wave management (he has a basic tutorial on it and on almost every gameplay video he makes he talks about wave management as well.) He is a top lane main bit I'm sure you can still take some stuff you learn from him into bot.

Situational itemization is buying certain items to fit a situation. Almost every champion has a set of core items that they take into every situation, and when they finish that core they get to build situational items. Ex: On ashe, you may want to build Lord Dominks Regard vs a lot of tanks, Executioners calling and eventually mortal reminder vs healing champions, or GA vs champions that drive you constantly and kill you.

The only way to learn this is through game knowledge. Get to know all of the items, and learn about every champion, what they build, and what items you can build on an ADC like ashe. Best way to learn this is by playing a lot, trying different roles, and watching streamers and youtubers that talk about why they build certain items. Most of the big, high elo streamers tend to do so.

Ifneth1 votes

Oh, when you said "bot," I thought you meant the bottom lane in a normal game.

I'll watch SoloRenektonOnly, then, and the other big, high-elo streamers too.

Aha, I see now. I'll buy core items for all games and situational ones for each game. Thanks for telling me what to buy versus each kind of champ.

Hige1 votes

uhm there's a couple things I'll provide advice from, I'm not too high in rank (though at some point I reached platinum) but I've been playing for almost 8 years now

Laning, Ashe has one of the longest autoattack ranges in the whole game, beaten only by cait and situationally by others with skills and whatnot, more importantly is that Ashe has more than her auto range on her W...

As an ADC your strongest point of defense is range, as long as you are attacking from distance you'll be doing a good job

Ashe's W also has multiple arrows and somewhat low mana cost, this means that if you time it correctly you can farm with W and poke at the same time, yes Cait has more range than you do but if you poke through minions with your W, you'll win trades and farm better than her... it's a bit complicated but the flow on trades is incredibly variable and you need to adjust on the fly, the most important thing to have in mind is that every trade should be worth it, meaning that if you stop and autoattack it's only because your opponent will end up with less life than you do, if that's not the case, keep running.

The lane flow is a bit more advanced but if you control it properly it can play in your advantage, basically, if you got no vision you're better under turret so don't push, freeze... if the enemy leaves the lane and you have the proper wards in place, push hard and make them loose minions to turret... everything is very situational though and again, you need to adjust on the fly, adjusting is what makes people rise in rank or sink

Mid game If your turret falls down, the best thing a support can do is leave lane, this is because you're probably behind in both minions and experience, when the support leaves you earn more experience plus the enemy must be out of position to keep pushing, the jungler should pay special attention to the lane that is pushing against the most, though it's not always the case, again, adjusting on the fly.

Your best bet is to stay and farm as much as possible in order to close the gap in gold and experience between you and your enemy ADC, of course, if you farm it super fast the lane will push and you'll be the one out of position, your best bet is to freeze... or to push really hard and move to another lane... it all depends

You buy boots as soon as you can during early game but never before staying toe to toe with the enemy's dmg potential, not just from the enemy ADC but from the jungler too, more damage and less movement speed can turn ganks into kills for your team, escaping isn't always the right choice... Ideally you buy boots as your second item though

Late game

BotRK is good on every ADC but Ashe has special synergy with Critical chance, read her passive carefully and you'll realize that while BotRK is good, crit chance is almost staple on ashe, so if you rush BotRK, go for an Infinity edge right after and then a Hurricane, these are Ashe's current core items but it always changes... adapt

Teamfights with Ashe are complicated, you MUST stay out of range and you must know how to orbwalk properly... that said Ashe has 2 modes for teamfights both being always long ranged:

No life steal: do not make plays, catch people with your arrow if anything but don't run towards ANYONE, stay iout of the enemy's range always, stack your Q, poke with W and wait for the right chance to unleash Q

Lifesteal + hurricane: if there's more than 3 units in front of you and you have your Q charged up, turn that thing on and don't even move, Ashe can lifesteal a LOT from Q alone, of course always be mindful of your positioning and if needed orbwalk to safety but more often than not you can simply stand still and kill everything... until your Q runs out of course lol

Ifneth1 votes

I would write more in reply, but your guide is so clear and thorough that I have trouble saying anything. Much of it is news to me or confirms things I suspectedf; e.g., freeze when the enemy is there, but push only when they retreat.

Ah, orbwalking! It has helped me much. Beating a Yasuo at point-blank range because I just keep autoing him is very satisfying.

I tried BORK > I.E. for a while, but my attack speed was so low that the extra attack damage counted only when I poked or used my Q. Whereas the OP.GG core build of BORK > Hurricane > Phantom Dancer has brought me back to my happy, low-level days of mowing down baddies with a constant hail of arrows.

Hige1 votes

bork + hurricane + PD is pretty good too, the thing is that ashe has something akin to 100% crit chance although in reality she doesn't really crit, her damage on slowed enemies is amplified by the amount of crit chance you have, Infinity edge gives her a LOT of extra damage thanks to the bonus multiplier which also accounts for her damage on slowed targets

hurricane and pd both have crit chance so it's not a completely bad choice but the problem is that you seem to be hitting with a nail clipper a thousand times but other ADCs will scale both damage, attack speed and crit, when faced against them you'll find that they do more damage than you do except when in Q

Lifesteal works on total damage done, so if you have bork's 15% lifesteal and you hit 100, you heal 15 hp back (+ the %hp damage) on a single autoattack but if you hit only 20 per auto, in the span of 5 autoattacks you'll be healing 3 per auto, so, in total 15 hp back, it seems like it's the same number but realize that the enemy ADC also has attack speed, so in the time it takes you to heal 15 hp back, they get something around 45 hp back (if they hit you 3 times while you hit them 5 times for example)

In Q active mode you have the upper hand though since each auto you do counts for 1.25 of your AD + frost damage making the gap almost zero... the problem is when your Q is down xP

AD from Infinity edge or Essence Reaver will help you poke with W, while with hurricane + PD you are pretty much a Q bot

Ifneth2 votes

I see your point about building a pokey ADC, but sometimes you just have to stop running and fight. Having attack speed lets any ADC hit more often and orb walk faster, and Ashe can use it to quickly build her Ranger's Focus. So, I build Infinity Edge after Phantom Dancer to keep my attacks damaging while also having had enough of them to make a difference in the meantime.

Ifneth1 votes

Also, thanks to all of you for answering all these questions. You're helping a lot! :)

JustJayson1 votes

If you like playing ADC then you need to realize the match up your in; Your bot lanes strengths and weaknesses as well as the enemies. It is something that comes with experience and experimenting. What others said, definitely watch some streamers on twitch and how they position themselves in fights, what they do when they are behind in lane etc. Also na.op.gg is a descent resource if your looking to track your own game stats and looking for build information under champion analytics. There are a lot of resources out there as this game has been around for quite awhile.

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