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Support Ashe Guide

Painted Celt·4/12/2015, 5:18:57 PM·19 votes·3,449 views

Hey, everyone. Here is a short guide on how to play support Ashe Ashe with some detail on why it is a powerful option.

Masteries: 9/0/21 On the Offense tree, you will want to be sure to pick up Expose Weakness and Martial Mastery. On the Utility tree, you will want Scavenger, Culinary Master, and you will NEED Bandit.

Abilities: You will want to start with Volley and level it up when possible (except when you can level/unlock your ultimate). You should get Frost Shot at level 2 and consider it a second priority to level up. You will want just one point in Hawkshot for most of the game since you won't be CS'ing and therefore won't be utilizing the gold bonus much. You will definitely want Enchanted Crystal Arrow at level 6 and will want to level it up every chance that you get.

Start: item 3303 + item 2010 x 4 + item 3340 Spellthief is the best support item on Ashe despite her poor AP scaling (only adds damage to her ult). You should consider the Spellthief a throwaway item, like a Doran's item, and you should not upgrade it since you will sell it around mid-game. Spellthief with Bandit provides a steady laning income from your poking. Spellthief procs also add quite a bit of damage to your poking early on and Volley can proc Spellthief multiple times. You will want to carefully watch your passive ability, Focus, to know when is a good opportunity to trade damage (your passive can help you win almost any trade). If your opponent has poor trading, then you should poke them relentlessly and zone them from getting CS.

Laning: item 3303 + item 1001 + item 3134 + item 2044 + item 1053 + item 3340 Picking up an early Brutalizer will keep your poking painful to the enemy team and will allow you to continue to poke them out of the lane (and hopefully rack up some assists/kills). Whether or not you get a Sightstone is up to your discretion; if you don't, then you will want to get some wards until you can upgrade your trinket. Your Hawkshot can help somewhat with vision. You can also bush-check with Volley, since it will proc spellthief and grant 5g if it hits an enemy.

Mid-game: item 3303 + item 3009 + item 3134 + item 3050 + item 3101 + item 3361 You will want to finish a Zeke's Herald ASAP. Zeke's Herald is simply a wonderful item for Ashe support as you will fully benefit from all of the stats it provides while granting your team an incredible aura buff. With Brutalizer, Zeke's Herald, and a Stinger, you will already have 40% CDR taken care of as well. CDR will mean more ultimates (48 seconds CD at 40% CDR and max rank is insane) and more Volleys. Your ultimate will do just as much as support Ashe as it would as ADC Ashe, since it doesn't scale with AD/Crit anyways. In my experience, hitting level 6 will nearly guarantee a kill or double kill for your side thanks to the incredible engagement power of Enchanted Crystal Arrow. Make sure to upgrade your trinket and to encourage your teammates to upgrade theirs as well.

Final: item 3284 + item 3071 + item 3050 + item 3172 + item 3031 + item 3046 + item 3361 + item 2140 I find it rare to reach a full build, but Black Cleaver and Zeke's Herald will greatly amplify your team's damage on their own. Don't be afraid to start taking some CS after laning is over, since you will scale well enough for it to be a good investment for your team. Always focus the same target as your ADC so that you can use Black Cleaver to shred their armor. Try to Volley multiple enemies, as this will allow your Black Cleaver and Expose Weakness mastery to really soften the enemy team. Always be careful of your positioning and make the most of the movement speed in this build to kite. You should have no problem closing out games since your double marksmen comp should give you an advantage in sieging/teamfighting while your ultimate will let you pick off lone enemies. If the game does drag on, then finishing your build with an Infinity Edge and Phantom Dancer (or Statikk Shiv) will let you scale up almost like a second ADC while still still providing excellent utility to your team.

I hope you enjoyed reading this guide! If you decide to try out Ashe support, be sure to post and let me know how it went. If you are already a fan of Ashe support, please post and share some of your experiences!

-Painted Celt (Sam)

24 Comments

Saint Archer4/12/2015, 8:38:55 PM8 votes

the fact that you didn't put sightstone into this makes me want to tell you never to play support ever again.

junglerboy164/12/2015, 6:58:53 PM2 votes

When I play Ashe support, I always build item 3042 item 3050 item 2045 item 3303 (sold once I need the slot)item 3071 item 3031 +item 1001 of choice. I hadn't ever thought of getting the item 3361 instead, since I like being able to sweep the enemy support's wards, but that could work if I knew they weren't warding well. if I didn't get sightstone, I'd probably buy the item 3046 for more DPS.

I like that you get that as support Ashe you're job is to be aggressively poking in lane but then transition into a second ADC by farming up (E's gold passive is great for catching up like that). Zephyr is actually a rather overrated item in my opinion, and I normally don't get it anymore, because tenacity isn't that great if you aren't in range to be hit by it initially, and my support masteries already have 10 CDR from the get go, which makes that a little redundant. personally, the early tear start works wonders on support Ashe, because I can poke infinitely, always have frost shot on, and never worry about mana. Then, in late game it turns into a strong damage item that lets you deal crazy amounts of DPS with ease.

item 3071 won't really be that good of an item on support Ashe after the next patch though since they are nerfing the AD and removing the flat penetration. It could turn out pretty great though because it will have the rage passive on it and can get higher levels of armor shred for better late game utility, but I wouldn't ever build it or its components early anymore.

rampaging poet4/12/2015, 6:32:02 PM2 votes

Interesting. I hadn't thought of getting Zephyr on support Ashe because it's an expensive item that mostly adds damage without extra utility, but I forgot about the 10% CDR. I've been getting Hurricane for better teamfight presence and picking up a CDR defensive item, but doubling down as a second ADC with armour shred to help the primary ADC chunk targets even faster sounds interesting. I forgot about Zeke's entirely but it's actually really good on AD supports. I'll try this next game.

Do you think that will still be efficient after the upcoming Black Cleaver changes go through? Taking Zeke's, Zephyr, and nuCleaver will overcap CDR by 10%. It will build out of Phage instead of Brutilizer, which is a much worse rush for support Ashe because it has less damage and lacks armour penetration. I still see Black Cleaver as good item for support Ashe, but I don't know if it will be rushable or synergize properly with the rest of the build.

Saint Archer4/12/2015, 9:13:10 PM2 votes

no it's not almost as good. because you buy sighstone, and you have more than 2 charges and you control when the charges come back up. and buying it allows you to get a sweeping lense. there is a reason why every single high elo support and professional support does it this way. so you don't just "get vision" you get vision and deny them vision. also, unless you're doing it wrong, you should be warding more than 6 sight and 1 vision+2 charges at a time over the course of a game. 3/3 at almost all times. once again, there is a reason why every high elo and professional support does it this way, it's far superior than just upgrading your yellow trinket.

origiona4/13/2015, 12:40:21 AM2 votes

Wow, we build support ashe very similarly, pretty awesome. I've seen some people go coin or other things but spellthiefs is by far the best item since it adds 10 damage on your autos/volley and manaregen really helps your lane while giving really good gold gen and yea of course never upgrade it. Zekes/black cleaver also great although I don't like to build cleaver unless the team is very heavy ad but zekes I always get. I go a more heavy support/tanky build since I feel like I die too easy otherwise and your damage doesnt scale up fast enough to be too relevant with the tanks right now so being tanky is safer and easier to get your utility out but 40% cdr is 100% necessary no matter the build and it looks like you recognize that :p

residentshooter4/14/2015, 3:31:31 AM1 votes

This build is amazing won three in a row with it who knew, two by surrender one with me finishing of the nexus

DEmperor954/13/2015, 1:03:21 AM1 votes

What Runes do you use?

M4nTiCoR34/13/2015, 2:23:25 AM1 votes

I've played many variations of support Ashe since like season 3. The one I like to troll atm I call cA$hse. it usually goes something like this...

All the gold masteries in utility...buscit and Lifesteal too.

1 crit mark...rest Damage gold seals with some AR AR Glyphs Gold quints

Spellthief + Biscuits on 1st buy at 800 head back and buy Avirce blade

This gives you crazy income, over 10+ GP10 from runes and items, poke gold from Spellthief and bandit, and bonus farm when your alone in lane through Hawkshot and Bling Blade.

Rush into Zekes+boots ASAP

Sell spell thief once it's paid for itself and profit usually replacing it with sight stone...hold bling blade as long as possible upgrading late game into Ghostblade for tower pushing and objective control with the active, or Static Shiv for mobility and wave clear.

The rest of the build is dictated by game. I've used just about everything from a full support style on hit debuff er with hydra...to a full ADC with IE and PD and LW.

Aspynn4/13/2015, 3:24:09 AM1 votes

I kind of felt like what you were going to say was just this:

DON'T

Overall though nice guide. I honestly really like that you DIDN'T advise using sightstone. I feel like it is definitely necessary at higher levels of play but it does the job just fine at lower elos (especially with a sight skill) I feel like the trinket upgrades could really open the door for full damage supports, I'm a big fan of full ap mages as supports. (Syndra, Orianna, Caitlyn, (YES I SAID CAITLYN) Lissandra, Zyra, Elise, Cass etc.) I don't feel like support Ashe is really that great but hey, I'm always up for off-meta supports and I've played support Ashe a few times. One huge downside though is the expense of all of the items that she requires to do well, as well as her mana management, especially as a support.

BD Wilton4/12/2015, 8:29:22 PM1 votes

The hardest part is the sustain, also having less of a frontline. Live or die by the Ashe arrow. Also prepare to be flamed for not going Sightstone

bubee4/13/2015, 9:53:06 PM1 votes

I like this support Ashe build and I will be sure to try it out!