Post your thoughts on the Ashe changes, get your voice out there
Hey summoners, Raith Alghul here,
As you are likely aware, Ashe currently has a rework up on the PBE, for those who might not be aware of the details I've included a link to the announcement page. This time in the update cycle is critical for Riot to gather data on player feedback, for what feels rewarding about an ability and what falls flat, but they can't use that info if they don't have it, so whether you've got a PBE account and you've played the new Ashe or you are watching from the sidelines, let your opinion be heard in the comments below. Don't forget to upvote so we can get this seen by RiotRepertoir
Since I'm an Ashe player myself(She's my favorite ADC), I'll give a rundown of my personal view of Ashe and my opinion on what I liked and disliked about the proposed changes. Feel free to ignore this part if you're not interested, the main point here is your feedback reaching Riot.
I've written a post previously on Ashes base stats and scaling. The relevant changes on the PBE are a decrease to her attack speed per level, from 4.0% >>> 3.33% per level and an increase in missile speed on her auto attacks. Her base attack speed remains the same so she scales the same with attack speed items, but gains less attack speed per level, in exchange for an attack speed steroid on Q.
Personally one of the biggest reasons I play Ashe is her consistency, throughout a team fight Ashe will deal a constant amount of damage with auto attacks, whereas other ADC rely on spells or steroid effects that can run out or be negated. Draven can drop axes, Trist's Q can run out, Ezreal can run out of mana, but Ashe will deal damage constantly that doesn't spike or dip. This is one of the reasons I love her new passive, in exchange for the ability to crit Ashe will deal bonus damage equal to her crit chance with each auto attack vs targets affected by her passive auto attack slow, with crit damage runes and IE passive increasing this bonus amount by a %, meaning even crit is now more consistent on Ashe. This perfectly fits Ashe, and compliments her play style, she kites enemies and wears them down over time and distance rather than nuking them like Graves. The slow increases slower than it would maxing Q second on live but it's not by a wide margin.
Q is a bit odd and doesn't really fit with the rest of Ashes kit, generating stacks towards an AD steroid, and activating for an attack speed steroid is counter to her kiting focused kit. Now her damage is no longer a constant and she has been given a press Q to receive attack speed ability, something I was under the impression Riot was trying to avoid as the community seems to be of the opinion that it isn't very interesting. The fact that it can instantly apply 5 stacks of Black Cleaver has me a bit worried that her balance may shift to where it becomes a core item instead of an optional build choice, and the speed at which it shreds turrets is a bit alarming. I think this king of ability would actually fit a lot better on Varus, as it could replace his current W, and have blighted quiver become his passive, giving him another ability to use to proc marks on a target.
Volley was changed quite a bit on the PBE, it has a wider hit box on each arrow, more arrows per spread, deals less base damage, costs less mana and has a lower cool down early. As an Ashe player one of the more rewarding parts of laning as Ashe was landing an arrow from frost shot through the minion wave to harass the enemy laners, sadly with the new W this is no longer possible, and you can't really even use it to clear a minion wave, but without the minion wave there really isn't an opportunity for the enemy to dodge it at all, it's too wide to dodge to the side and you can no longer dodge between arrows, meaning you either need to outrun the arrows or have someone block it, even at max range. In my opinion this is a step back in terms of counter play.
Hawkshot, this ability is probably the most underrated ability on any ADC, the ability to gain vision of an area from far away that can't be denied. This ability has gotten even better, it stores 2 charges similar to smite, and now has a global range even at level 1, you don't get the +3 gold from unit kills anymore, but that's a small price for the increase in utility.
Enchanted Crystal Arrow, Ashes signature move, remains unchanged for the most part, I've heard surrounding targets are slowed less(it might scale with her passive, I'm not sure) but I can't confirm this. Hopefully it will also still apply a stack of Chill.
In my opinion the changes to W should be retooled to be closer to how it feels and functions on live, with Q changed to something that offers utility instead of an on demand steroid, the rest of the kit is flawless as is.