First Impressions on Dat Shiney New Ashe

So its finally here. A real update for that oldest of champions who popped your LoL cherry (coughtutorialcough). I wont deny that I have been hoping for this for a long time, and was very excited to see it actually happen, but what is the verdict of these subtle and yet significant changes to Dat Ashe? I'm glad you asked. Lets begin with my first impression...

AWESOME! No joke. I had probably one of the best games of my life with Ashe my 1st time out with her new kit. She feels relevant again. Its hard to say whether anyone would ever call her OP in her current state, but after a handful of games i feel like i have more presence than ever before. My damage with the new steroid is just amazing, and my ability to annoy with my slow and poke seems much stronger than i have ever felt it. I also notice my mana issues are way better despite having more skills to actually cast now. Her lack of mobility and very strict positioning will always be her biggest weakness, but the slow when paired with her max focus stacks makes kiting a breeze and a real treat when you pull it off.

I haven't experimented a lot with her yet, but here are a few things i noticed that might help.

#1: Understanding how her new Crit system works: The tool tip is not very helpful, and while the wiki helps this is basically how it works.

• Your first Auto-Attack on a target will never Crit...Ever. You get no bonus damage or crit damage of any kind on the first shot. (1 exception below)

• Once your first attack has applied Frost to an enemy, things get better. A lot better! You now have a 100% chance to land a critical hit! However, damage is multiplied at 1.1 instead of 2.0 as normal...meaning you get a 10% buff to your damage on each Critical hit, but you Crit Crit Crit like a lot.

• You can use your Volley or your Ult to tag an enemy with Frost before your first Auto-Attack. This will allow you to Crit on your first attack.

• Your Critical hits on enemies with the Frost debuff will trigger any Crit related effects such as the one in the Offensive Tree That buffs AS, so always take it!

• Extra Crit Chance will not increase your likelihood to Crit...it is already at (0% / 100%) depending on if your target has frost applied. It will now increase the amount of damage you deal...for example, taking full Crit chance Marks adds 8.4% "Crit Chance" normally. On Ashe, your Crits will now deal an additional 18.4% ( +10 base, +8.4 runes) "Crit Damage". In other words, your 1st shot hits for 100% of your AD....every shot that follows hits for 118.4% of your total AD. So on Ashe "+Crit Chance" is now "+Crit Damage" ... any questions? Got it? Good.

• But what about normal "+Crit Damage" buffs? Ashe will also benefit from extra Crit damage such as from runes or items. I won't write out the formula, but basically it adds more damage. In Ashe's case, an item like Infinity Edge will usually help bring her "Total Crit Damage" after all modifiers, back up to around 200% of her Total AD. That kind of sounds weak when you consider IE usually makes other champs Crit at 250% of their AD, but ASHE NEVER MISSES A CRIT! (after target is frosty that is)

#2. So what does all this mean? Tips from the first few days:

• You still need early AD/AS to last hit. Whether you take marks or runes, last hitting is still as hard as ever because your 1st shot does not crit, EVER!

• Taking Crit chance or Crit damage runes is not advisable. It provides a decent spike to your damage on subsequent hits after frost is applied, but your last hitting will likely suffer. These runes do however scale better into the late game if you go with a high AD item set than most other offensive runes, but if your early game suffers its not really worth it. Id suggest taking AD/AS runes that best help you last hit.

• Ashe gets more out of Avrice Blade than most champions, and building it early can be a good idea. You can gain a fair amount of passive gold and it will always build into something useful for her later in Static Shiv or Ghostblade later in the game.

• Always take the AS buff on Crit Mastery...you have 100% crit chance and will benfit from it more than most.

• Always try to build up your Focus to 5 stacks before casting Q for the bonus damage and sweet animation. You will hear a sound effect and see Ashe's Quiver glow when its fully stacked.

• Ashe will not crit targets that are slowed by means other than her frost shot. the Frost debuff she applies with her autos and her spells is the only way to get those sweet sweet Crits rolling. . . .

I will edit more tips in as i think of them or as they are suggested for easy reading later.

Good luck and see you all on the fields,

M4nTiCoR3