Ashe

Welcome to the Ashe guide for the new player, with a few tips for advanced players as well.

Ashe <---Link
Read this for a description of Ashe's skills, and to read the "lore." ^

Intro:

Ashe is ranged DPS champion revolving around locking down opponents, positioning, and ganking.  Considered to be a noob-friendly hero, many players don't even use Ashe to her full potential.  Hopefully with this guide, you should pick up a few skills to improve your Ashe play.

Runes:

Your rune set should be 9 armor penetration in red, 9 scaling mana regeneration in yellow, 9 cool down reduction, flat or scaling based on your preference, or more scaling mana regeneration in blue, and then 3 armor penetration in quintessence.  Alternatively you can get 3 flat hp quintessence instead, but this is not recommended.

Masteries:

Your masteries should follow a 21/0/9 DPS build with improved Teleport and Ghost.  If you're a newer player, you should fill out your utility tree first starting with improved summoner spells, and then the mana based masteries; as you increase your summoner level, then starting adding to your offensive tree.

Summoner Spells:

Your summoner spells should be Ghost and Teleport.  Alternatively, you can go Ghost and Flash, but I recommend Teleport because each team should have at least one teleporter to stop pushes, and Ashe is one of the best counter pushers in the game.  There are also some cool tricks Ashe can pull with the Teleport summoner spell.

Ashe is a mid based champion.  A good player always chooses according to team needs, so if the mid position is not available, honestly, do not bother picking Ashe for that game.

Your starting items should be one of these combinations:

+2 hp potions +1 mana potion

Or alternatively:

+2 hp potions

Or alternatively:

+1 hp potion

Or lastly:

For the newer players, you should start with either the Boots of Speed route to keep yourself a little safer from ganks, or the Meki Pendant route to supplement your Volley.  Also note these choices grant you an extra hp potion/s.

For the more advanced players, the Long Sword and hp potion route works best for normal games, or the single Doran's Blade in ranked games, as the risk of ganks increases dramatically in these matches; the extra hp really helps, and although small, the lifesteal as well.

Now for the pre-laning phase:

• If you aren't comfortable with the following strategies, simply add you first point into Volley and head mid.
• If you want to go for first blood, first make sure you head to an outside lane with 2 members of your team that will be laning there.  With a strong lane control team, actually doing this strategy is insanely easy.  All 3 of you simply wait in brush, and when someone curious enters, you fire a point blank Volley quickly, and then auto-crit with your passive.  Your damage alone should drop them to around 1/2 hp, and assuming your team mates aren't idiots, that WILL be first blood.  If you get the kill early enough, make your way back to mid.  If not, simply teleport to the middle tower.
• If your team has a jungler and you are in a helpful mood, don't add your first point into Volley, but instead into Hawkshot.  Use it to scout the Dragon area so your jungler does not get ganked at the blue Golem buff.

Okay, now that that's settled, we're moving on to the laning phase.
The DO's and DON'Ts:

• DO last hit minions as much as you can
• DO call mia when the your opponent leaves your lane, follow up with a Hawkshot
• DO play aggressive as much as possible, it's key for locking down the lane, especially early
• DO maintain lane control and stay relatively close to your tower, without the tower actually taking damage
• DO NOT Volley and Volley and Volley until you are out of mana
• DO NOT push up to their tower unless you know for sure exactly where all of their team mates are
• You WILL get ganked ^
• DO NOT auto attack, the only exception to this is to end a push on your tower, or if you went the Doran's Blade route, and need the lifesteal
• If this is the case, steal life from the highest hp minion, and switch targets to last hit whenever a minion gets low

As long as you maintain control of your opponent by locking them down, you will win the lane consistently every game with few exceptions.

So how do I lock them down?

• Locking down your opponent is relatively easy, but requires you to keep a very close eye on your mana, especially when you are level 5
• Use angled Volleys to harass your opponent along with Frost Shot whenever they turn around or overextend
• Think "orbwalk" Drow the Ranger from DotA
• If you do this right, your hp should always be higher than your opponent
• The key to this strategy comes at level 6

Now... The level 6 kill, there are many ways to do this, and Ashe excels at this more than most heroes in the game due to her ultimate, Enchanted Crystal Arrow.

• As you near level 5, keep harassment on your opponent, and have EXP higher than your opponent.  Ideally, you want to hit 6 while they are 5.  When your EXP bar is just about full, and your minions are in combat, rush your opponent with Volley and Frost Shot.  Make sure you have enough mana to use your ultimate soon.  As the minions die, you will hit 6 during the rush.  While in pursuit, add your point to R as fast as you can, and finish the job.
• A tricky move Ashe can pull off is the Teleport kill.  It works best on fragile heroes as you need to react very quickly.  As soon as you farm up to level 6, expend all of your mana on your enemy for damage, and then return to base.  During this time, your opponent will most likely begin to start hitting your tower.  Since most people don't move around while hitting the tower, aim your enchanted crystal arrow behind their position.  Count to 2-3, then Teleport to your middle tower or minion, and finish the job with your maximum length stun.  If you are really good, you can actually time this so your tower kills them while they are max stunned within range.
• Other than that, her skill set alone allows for the level 6 kill relatively easily without using the above strategies.

GANKING:

• The time to gank is after you have your ultimate; don't even bother before level 6 unless it's for a first blood attempt.
• Stay out of sight of the mid enemy, then make your way to an outside lane without being seen.
• Your team mates should initiate the gank; however, if they are too low, you can initiate, but if your team mates are that low, you probably shouldn't be attempting the gank in the first place.
• Once they are engaged, rush in with your ghost and unleash Volleys paired with your Frost Shot.
• Your job is not to ks the kill with your ultimate when it's not necessary for the kill; most likely all you need to kill the first enemy is Frost Shot and Volley, then move immediately to the second and since they will probably have some space between you by now, close the distance with your Enchanted Crystal Arrow.
• Even while ganking, Ashe is a glass cannon, and should never be within melee range of an enemy.  Position yourself to consistently land your Frost Shot and Volleys without actually taking damage yourself.  In other words, stay behind your team.

The items:

This is the final build you should work towards, but you don't have to buy them in this order exactly.  The only exception is the Banshee Veil, which should always be purchased last.  Always adapt your build to be more effective on the team you are facing.

first, second, or third item

first or second item

third item

fourth item

last damage dealing item

always last

• Rushing the Yomuu's Ghostblade isn't necessary, but the active is extremely overpowered early game; the synergy here is that Ashe needs to keep them within slowing range, and she can catch up easily with the active, and do lots of damage with the bonus attack speed.
• The common idea some people think when it comes to Ashe is, "If they can touch you they can kill you."  This is actually quite true if you fail to position yourself safely, but some people use this as an excuse to buy Berserker's Grieves instead.  I disagree with this because boots are usually an early game purchase, and Ashe's starting speed is among the worst in the game.  Also, if you use Frost Shot to harass early game, you will be out of mana often because of how many weak standard attacks you are making if you buy Berserker's Grieves.  Boots of Swiftness also position yourself better in most cirumstances.
• In the past, the third item would usually be the Last Whisper, but since the item changes, Ashe needed a substitute.  The Black Cleaver after changes is actually better than the Last Whisper was, and is the single best item for Ashe.  It adds damage, it adds attack speed, and the unique passive is extremely easy to take advantage of because of her slow.  This item breaks the game.
• I usually get The Bloodthirster next because at this point in the game, you should be able to farm like a champ, and max out your Bloodthirster in a matter of a few minutes if you are pushing a lane all the way, granting you huge amounts of damage and lifesteal for a relatively cheap price tag.
• At this point, the game should be over, but if it's still going, you should buy the Infinity Edge.  Why you ask?  Simply because it's the most expensive damage dealing item in the game, and gold will not be an issue for you anyways.  If you are out of combat for a while, and your auto-crit passive is up, it will do broken damage on the first standard attack.
• If the game is lasting an hour or more, your last item should always be Banshee Veil.  Your damage should be killing them in 5 hits anyways, so there is no reason to add more damage.  Instead, the Banshee Veil will save your life because blocking out one spell buys you a few more seconds of combat, usually all you need to make their screens turn gray.  This item also synergizes somewhat with The Bloodthirster because it allows you to straight up melee champions late game because of how much hp you will recover and their inability to use disables on you.

While most champions can have alternate builds depending on your play style, Ashe is not the case.  Generally, you will buy the same items every game, and keep a consistent playing style.  If you add too much variation you will most definitely not be playing well.  Of course, you should make obvious changes such as adding in Last Whisper and Madred's Bloodrazors as substitutes when facing an all armor/tank team for example.  Ashe's survivability is entirely dependent on how well the player is at positioning, but this should be mastered after only a few games.  In team fights, use your common sense and stay away from the fight itself, but close enough to do damage.  Almost always you should target the squishies first, as they are free kills.  Ashe seems to be the "feeder" in most public games, but that is because players don't know how to utilize this overpowered hero very well, and get caught in a bad positions.  You have no excuse to feed as Ashe.  You have Hawkshot.  You have a spam-able slow.  DO NOT further tarnish Ashe's good name by being one of those god forbid, "I go mid w/ Ashe, but my record is 1/21/6 :D....."

I believe this covers everything, but if you have any questions or want me to add more specific sections, feel free to request it.

Fin