Champion Analysis Spotlight: Ashe - The Frost Archer

Ashe is the leagues classic archer, and the first champion to which new players are introduced. This isn't a coincidence as several aspects of Ashes kit demonstrate or enforce important concepts to new players, in this analysis I'll go into each of her abilities as well as what concepts they demonstrate. Keep in mind that depending on the patch, some information may be outdated.

Starting off lets look at Ashes base stats. As of patch 5.1 Ashe starts the game with a base attack damage of 51 gaining 2.85 per champion level, and 0.658 attacks per second gaining 4% per level. The AD Ashe gains each level is low compared to other ADC, at 2.85 AD per level she gains the least of any traditional ADC, Ashes attack speed has both a high base and the highest increase per level of traditional ranged ADC, tying with Caitlyn and Vayne. This high base and increase per level give Ashe a high degree of gold efficiency as a high base attack speed scales well with the % bonuses from items and the high increase % per level scaling well with pure attack damage items to increase Ashes DPS. Ashes basic attacks have a range of 600, giving her the second highest for traditional ADC at level 1. Her base movement speed is 325, which is slower on average. Ashes Range and move speeds tie in to part of her active kit, so for now I'll only note the values.

Ashes passive is Focus, which gives a stacking buff that grants a free critical strike on next basic attack once it reaches 100, starting at Ashes current critical strike chance. The first effect of this passive is that Ashes first attack in lane will do noticeably more damage, guiding the player towards a basic understanding of trading windows as trading basic attacks with an enemy laner will usually result in a favorable trade if Ashes passive is up and she backs off before the enemy can trade damage back. The second effect is demonstrating the importance of critical strike in an ADC build. Unlike Caitlyns passive, Focus is linked to an easily measurable and purchasable stat in game, players can link the critical strike from Ashes passive to items like Infinity Edge or Zeal, leading them to be able to optimize their build for damage.

Ashes Q: Frost shot: This ability ties in with Ashes range to demonstrate two concepts in game, range leashing and kiting. Skills that are core on all ranged ADC and some other classes or specific champions as well. Ashes low base movement speed is meant as a counterbalance to this ability and helps to enforce the need to learn these concepts in order to play effectively.

W: Volley: Aside from providing Ashe with some wave clear and a long range Harass early on, this ability helps to demonstrate the idea of favorable positioning. In order to use this ability as a trading tool, players will need to take into account other units and how those units will interact with the ability, encouraging them to angle away from neutral or hostile targets when attempting to damage enemies beyond them. This ability also allows Ashe to safely check for enemies in the fog of war if Hawkshot is unavailable or being saved. This ability also allows Ashe to continue chasing, fleeing from, or DPSing enemies that break line of site, as well as allowing her to kite multiple enemies.

E: Hawkshot: This ability gets a lot of hate, but unjustly so, it's actually a very undervalued ability both in teaching new players and for use in game. First a bit of pretext on this one. Ranged ADC is the most gold efficient role in the game, meaning that they scale the best with items, since their kit relies on multiplying the values of items and the range allows them to focus on damage items that synergize with each other. As such, having an ADC that understands the importance of CS will absolutely give a team an advantage. The passive portion of Hawkshot reinforces the importance of last hitting by offering further rewards, and also helps balance Ashes kit given her low base damage but high item scaling. The active portion of hawkshot is one of the best utility spells an ADC could have, it allows long range scouting of potentially dangerous areas, helps prevent enemies from juking or getting an auto attack lead by ducking into a brush, and offers assistance securing objectives or determining if an enemy may have backup close by. This also helps to get players to develop better map awareness.

R: Enchanted Crystal Arrow: Aside from tying into the idea of developing map awareness along with hawkshot, Ashes ultimate can help demonstrate the elements of a good team fight. First, the arrow is a great initiation tool, it has a global range and increases its effectiveness the further it travels, emphasizing the point that you want to be further back from enemies when using it rather than close up. It also shows the importance of crowd control effects, teams that have multiple members hit with this ability are at a disadvantage that is easily evident to players even if they are new to games with crowd control effects, it also demonstrated the contrast between different types of CC, affecting an enemy with the stun portion is easily visible as being favorable to the slow.

Ashe is one of the minority of ranged ADC that lacks an in combat steroid. However this is made up for in consistency, Ashe is punished far less severely than other ADC for being zoned from combat momentarily, as she does not have to wait for a cool down in order to continue dealing her kits maximum damage, and also Focus will have begun stacking, allowing Ashe to potentially "make up" the damage that continuous attacks would have provided. Ashes excellent scaling with most traditional ADC items allow the player to experiment with different build paths and item orders without putting themselves at a significant disadvantage. Rushing a Static Shiv will synergize with Ashes high base attack speed and her passive will allow the passive to immediately benefit from critical damage after buying the item while Infinity Edge will increase the damage from Ashes passive while scaling well with her high attack speed per level.

I might end up making a series of these if the response is good, hopefully it can help new players and maybe even some long time players as well. Hope you enjoyed reading.