With the buffs to her Ranger’s Focus (Q), Ashe has quickly surged to the forefront of draft priority in pro games. With Ashe being picked regularly in the LPL, it leads a casual player to wonder how this typically unpopular marksman has found her way into the pros’ hearts. Her popularity is growing even outside of the LPL, and solo queue players would be wise to follow the trend.

How Does Ashe Work?

The first defining factor of Ashe’s playstyle is her poke in the lane. With her Volly (W) range, she can consistently poke her enemies out of a lane. This poke allows Ashe to gain lane priority, which helps secure drakes, get better back timings, and bail her jungler out of trouble. In Season 10 specifically, early drake priority has become a necessity rather than a luxury, causing hyper-carries such as Kai’sa and Xayah to fall out of the meta. Instead, the meta has been filled by marksmen who can dominate lanes and hit their power spikes earlier. For this reason, champions such as Varus, Ashe, Ezreal, and Kalista have encapsulated the Season 10 meta.

In addition to her heavy poke, Ashe provides kill pressure once she unlocks her ultimate, Enchanted Crystal Arrow (R). The stun allows for Ashe to set up picks for her teammates. This game-changing ultimate allows for Ashe to pair with aggressive supports and allows her to set up easy ganks for her jungler.

Ashe also is renowned for being a “utility ADC”. Through her passive slow and the vision provided by Hawkshot (E), Ashe helps her team by being more than just a damage dealer. This utility helps her remain safe in lane, peel for herself and teammates, and gather valuable information on the map. With juggernauts finding their way back into the meta through picks such as Sett and Mordekaiser, Ashe’s slows have a pivotal part in defining team fights. These immobile champions struggle to get to their target when under the effect of Ashe’s slows. Meanwhile, her long-range crowd control through Volley (W) and Enchanted Crystal Arrow (R) allows her teammates to engage on their targets without fear of them slipping away.

What Should I Build?

Ashe players have a few options in regard to build. The standard build includes a Blade of The Ruined King, followed by a Runaan's Hurricane, and then a choice of a few options. These options include everything from an Infinity Edge to maximize damage, a Death's Dance to add survivability, a Phantom Dancer to further increase the ability to kite, a Guardian Angel to survive burst damage, or a Mortal Reminder to stop healing and tanks. The third item is game dependent and differs between those options.

What Runes Should I Run?

Ashe fits the bill of most marksmen by going down the Precision tree. Typically, Ashe relies on Lethal Tempo as a keystone. Her only game-to-game decision on runes is whether to use Inspiration or Sorcery for her secondary runes. Sorcery provides Nimbus Cloak and Gathering Storm to offer more mobility and late game scaling. Inspiration provides Ashe with Approach Velocity, enabling her to run down her targets after slowing them with Frost Shot (P).

When Should I Pick Ashe?

Ashe is generally a quality blind pick in the current meta. She has few bad matchups, and those are typically champions who have mobility abilities and thrive on all-in fights. Examples of these champions are Draven and Tristana. By using their mobility abilities to engage, they essentially negate Ashe’s slows, and they do more damage over an extended fight than Ashe can in the lane. Ashe needs to play against champions who she can continually out-poke so that she gains the health advantage required to take a successful all-in with her ultimate.

Ashe is also a phenomenal pick when her team has multiple damage oriented carries. While ADC is traditionally a damage-centric role, Ashe is often behind her lane counterparts in total damage. If your team has selected other carries, Ashe serves as a great tool to enable those picks and fill a more supportive role.

Finally, Ashe is a great pick when either team selects immobile tanks or bruisers. The standard build for Ashe includes a Blade of The Ruined King, which thrives against tanky opponents. Also, Ashe’s slows make successfully engaging very difficult for the enemy while enabling those opportunities for your team. Through these advantages, Ashe quickly dismantles slow, immobile teams as they have no means to access the backline damage dealers.

Why Add Ashe to My Champion Pool?

Ashe is a great educational champion for new ADC players. Through her slows, kiting is made easier but also is a pivotal part of her kit. If you’re new to the role or feel like your kiting could use a tune-up, Ashe is a phenomenal champion to use for practice. Like many of the older champion designs, her kit is rather simple, which makes fundamentals a much larger priority when playing her. This extra focus on fundamentals makes her a great choice to get a grasp on the role, rather than just a specific champion.

Who Should I Pick with Ashe?

Ashe thrives with mage supports. As mentioned above, Ashe lacks a lot of the damage that other marksmen offer. She provides plenty of utility and crowd control. Mages, such as Zyra or Brand, are assisted by Ashe's slows, as it makes their skill shots easier to land. They also help fill the hole in Ashe’s kit by providing some needed damage. Finally, most mage supports rely on poke to get an enemy to low health and then struggle to get the required all-in to secure a kill. Once unlocking Enchanted Crystal Arrow (R), Ashe helps ensure the all-in by locking a target down for her or the support to finish.

Why Has Ashe Returned to The Meta?

Season 10 has placed a burden on marksmen to win lane, and Ashe fits the bill of a lane-dominant ADC. She is fantastic for the shorter game times that have become standard in Season 10. In addition to this early game dominance, Patch 10.8 buffed Ranger’s Focus (Q) from a 20-40% attack speed scaling to a 20-60% attack speed scaling. This 20% buff on her attack speed steroid allows Ashe’s lane dominance to transition into the mid-game much smoother. With the movement speed buff that was just given to Zeal, Ashe now has an even easier time kiting or running down her opponents. Her standard build includes at least one Zeal, through the purchase of Runaan's Hurricane.

Conclusion

All in all, Ashe is a phenomenal marksman. Through her simple yet effective kit, players can learn the role without memorizing fancy champion-specific mechanics. This "easy to learn, hard to master" champion design has been put on display at a professional level as pro players around the world have begun to showcase what a proficient Ashe player can do for their team. Recent changes to the game have catapulted Ashe to the top of the meta, and as a result, she's a phenomenal pick to have in your back pocket.