Overwatch is getting close to having thirty heroes now, and the recently released 29th hero is Ashe, leader of the Deadlock Gang. She's a DPS hero with a bit of utility, and some people seem to think that she could potentially be a decent substitute over someone like McCree or Soldier 76. With that in mind, let's take a look at her kit.

• The Viper - Semi-automatic rifle with twelve rounds reloaded individually. It can either be hipfired rapidly or you can aim down sights by holding RMB, which reduces her rate of fire but essentially doubles the amount of damage it does.
• Coach Gun - Ashe's shift ability. It's a double-barreled shotgun that knocks back both herself and any enemies in front of her. It can deal up to 90 damage max, but it's mainly used for mobility.
• Dynamite - Projectile AOE that runs on a two-second fuse, but it can be detonated immediately when shot by Ashe. Deals a bit of damage on the initial explosion and will proceed to burn (20 DPS) anyone caught in it for a few seconds.
• B.O.B - Ashe's ultimate. She summons a large omnic that charges forward and knocks up anyone in his way. Upon hitting an enemy or a wall, B.O.B stops and starts acting like a stationary turret that automatically targets anyone in his LoS that's within range.

STRENGTHS AND LIMITATIONS

As mentioned earlier, she's a hitscan DPS that may seem like a good substitute for the role that McCree and Soldier 76 fill. She's decent at short and medium range combat, but her damage very noticeably drops at longer ranges. Looking at her kit, one can easily assume that she can take McCree's place as a mid-range DPS, but she's much more vulnerable to flankers due to her lack of CC (which the former has), and her Coach Gun typically won't be enough to fend off someone like Tracer. Compared to Soldier 76 though, she has better burst damage and can get to high ground much faster due to her Coach Gun, but she also lacks Soldier's self-sustain.

With all of that said, I believe that Ashe won't really shake things up too much and choosing her over the other hitscan heroes is mostly going to be a matter of personal preference. What I like about Ashe that her alternatives don't have though is the potentially devastating AOE damage provided by Dynamite. While it may not seem like a lot at first, the damage-over-time effect it has can completely negate Brigitte or Lucio's (non-amped) passive heal, and the maximum damage it can deal to several people at a time is definitely nothing to scoff at.

TEAM COMPS

In my opinion, Ashe is best used against a comp that doesn't have flankers, which mostly means that I'd personally avoid picking her against a dive comp. Again, she doesn't seem to fare well against flankers when compared to the likes of McCree, who can also help peel with his Flashbang. D.Va's Defense Matrix can also pretty much eat anything Ashe can throw at her, though I guess the same could be said for most of the DPS heroes anyway. Also, if you're facing a Sombra, you should try to keep track of her hack usage (or watch out for her EMP) if you plan on using your ultimate because she can disable B.O.B long enough to render him mostly useless.

She synergizes well with healers such as Mercy and Zenyatta, who can help boost her already pretty high damage. With Mercy's damage boost, she can straight up OHKO 200HP heroes with a single headshot, and Zenyatta's Discord Orb can add even more to that. Her damage still falls off hard at longer ranges though, so don't expect her to be a replacement for Widow, especially since Ashe isn't intended to be used as a sniper anyway (though she can definitely compete, depending on the map).

Speaking of healers, there's also the pretty humorous but somewhat effective combination of Ana's Nano Boost and B.O.B. It's basically like having a beefed up aimbot who can probably help your team defend/deny an objective. He's still vulnerable to CC though.

CONCLUSION

While it's still too early to see exactly how Ashe will affect the meta, one can easily assume that she won't change things up too much. Overall, I personally think that she's mostly just gonna be another alternative hitscan hero for when you need one (I do think B.O.B is better than some of the other DPS heroes' ults though). Some people think that she can be a bit of a nuisance against deathball/GOATS comps due to her dynamite, though in this case, I believe she'd need the help of Ana's Biotic Grenade so that her enemies don't just heal through her DoT. Only time will tell if she'll really shake things up in the competitive scene, and we'll probably have to wait a little while before people can finally figure out exactly where she belongs.

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