@ Riot: Thank you for Heartseeker Ashe!

LycopolisKing·Feb 6, 2014·5 votes·480 views

I'm sure that many people who have played Ashe - myself included - have thought of the great possibility of a Heartseeker skin for her. The theme of her spreading the love with charming arrows, and having a dove as her reveal works wonderfully with her kit and existing theme. The particles are well done, and the outfit is not that far of a cry from her original wear, while still being unique. I love the heart cape, for one.

And the Splash art is not overly explicit, and makes great use of her lore with her loving - now extremely loving - husband. (Not my first choice of ship, but hey, it's canon.) The recall animation is wonderful, and the hearts and rose petals launched by her abilities only complete the transformation from Queen of the Freljord to the Queen of Hearts. I love it, and look forward to playing in it. But thank you specifically for not making it - overly - revealing, which I don't think fits with Ashe's character.

As someone who plays Ashe quite frequently, it's great to have more reasons to play her, because it's getting harder to use her well in the current meta, especially with recent champion releases. I'll revisit this topic, but I think the number adjustment to Hawkshot is definitely a step in the right direction. I think, to be fully viable again without removing any of her core abilities, she might need a steroid added to her Q or her Passive; it still strikes me as odd that she must level Q for Volley to even have a slow - or her base stats might need to be tweaked. For someone with no mobility, she has very low armor and base attack speed, so I think they might need to be looked into to help her out completely.

But in the mean time, I will work with what I have! I thoroughly enjoy Ashe as a character, so for better or worse I will continue to play her. Thank you for remembering her in the current meta and giving her a great skin and updated icons, Riot. :D

TL;DR - This skin is a great expansion on Ashe's kit and theme, and is wonderfully put together. However, I think she may need some number adjustment to really be able to use the new look to its fullest and compete in the current meta.

7 Comments

RoaranorFeb 6, 20141 votes

You do have to put points in your frost shot for volley to slow, but it's compensated by the fact that the slow of volley scales with her frost shot. I kind of prefer it this way tbh, as it gives Ashe a split path for mid game. She can either A) max out her q first for a strong aoe slow, or max her w for the added dmg.

Her early game does feel weak, especially in the current meta, but her late game is still really strong especially with crit builds. Giving her buffs might make it a bit overwhelming. Also, the bonus gold from hawkshot gives her more of an incentive to play it safe early and focus on farming her way into late game. The amount of cc in her kit helps considerably when securing kills during a gank or disengaging from an unfavorable duel. How about reworking her passive instead of adjusting numbers, so that she can make use of it more often early on? I think a change like that could help her get through early without making a huge impact on her already nice late game since she generally has a good amount of crit by then anyway.

As a fellow Ashe, I share your gratitude in Riot giving Ashe some attention going into Season 4, and making it a Heartseeker skin at that. ^^

I Main SwainFeb 7, 20141 votes

I want to be good with ashe really bad, but I suck with her so much. I feel like her passive is extremely under powered and needs reworked. maybe bonus crit damage or something?

MichichaFeb 7, 20142 votes

The problem with ashe's passive is that it messes with critical strike, which makes it difficult to balance. Adding increased critical chance damage would cause a lot of issues when combined with infinity edge and Static Shiv, we don't want her doing 1000+ damage with one basic attack, on top of it being mixed damage cause of shiv, would be terribly broken

I Main SwainFeb 8, 20141 votes

it wouldn't have to be a massive crit damage buff though. also, like I said, im a pretty noob ashe. I just feel like her passive is at least one of (if not the worst) in the game

MichichaFeb 8, 20141 votes

To make it balance, it would have to be 1% increase, otherwise, broken, with the multiplicative increase of crit chance damage. Pretty much just a better cait passive if that happens

I Main SwainFeb 9, 20141 votes

1% wouldn't do garbage, but I do get what you said about the cait passive. I still think it needs a rework. they could at least make it so her autos give her more stacks of her passive, doubled against champs.

RoaranorFeb 7, 20141 votes

When you play Ashe, don't expect to have a particularly stellar early game. If you see an opening to trade Post-level 1 (assuming you didn't start q), Q-empowered auto + volley + second auto, then back off before they get to retaliate too much. Don't expect to all-in pre-6 unless you're getting help from the jungler or they're terribly out of position as most Marksmen can out duel her simply by abusing the minion wave as a shield from her volley.

Basically, you just want to farm your way into late game which is where you really shine, especially in engaging/disengaging.

Hope this helps.