User blog:Contractas1/Ashe - The most ignored concept of a carry?

First of all, thank you for reading my blog.

The role of a carry is an interesting one. Your champion starts out quite weak, not able to do much and as the game goes on you get stronger and stronger  the more items you get the more your team depends on you till it comes to late game and you're the main damage source of the team. I like to categorize carries into 2 categories: Passive and Aggressive. The passive category consists of those who play more of a farmfest such as Kog'Maw and Ashe while the aggressive ones have carries like Vayne and Draven. Ashe is one of the lesser played carries nowadays, she's not underpowered in any way, but people just seem to prefer other carries like Vayne or Caitlyn.

First of all, let's look at Ashe's skillset.

Her passive - Focus isn't a very strong passive. The problem with the passive is that it isn't as strong as other passives in the game especially compared to other carry passives like Caitlyn's Headshot which is a 150% damage attack or Tristana's which grants her bonus range for progressing in the game.

Ashe's kit doesn't revolve around her passive, so the passive crit isn't the key skill. Still it can come in useful but not gamebreaking.

Her Q - Frost Shot is a toggle ability. If it's toggled on your attacks take off a small chunk of mana but slow the enemy's movement speed. This slow is also passively applied to her second skill Volley

Frost Shot is one of the best auto-attack modifiers for a ranged AD Carry. Since Ashe has no escapes and is weak to assassins, Frost Shot helps kiting if their dashes are lower range. Frost Shot is also very useful for chasing and the passively applied effect to Volley makes it a very strong skill. I still prefer to max the skill last even though the slow gets very good when maxed.

Her W - Volley is her harassment skill. It deals AoE damage and slows(if Frost Shot is levelled) the skill is great for pushing and for lasthitting multiple creeps and of course it's great for harassing enemy champions.

The bread and butter of your early game, Volley is a very strong skill early game and has a long range and a wide cone which also helps with kiting. It's a very strong skill when maxed which is why it's maxed first. It is also Ashe's only non-ultimate damaging skill.

Her E - Hawkshot is her scouting tool and her income skill. It's a free Clarivoyance which helps Ashe scout the surroundings and check objectives or just guess where the enemy jungler might be. The skill's passive is also very strong but usually neglected.

I love this skill because it's very strong if used well. The scouting hawk is also very strong since you can reveal your enemy's position putting them at a disadvantage. The passive is one of my favorites since it really adds up if you can farm well, also it's why I max the skill second and why I considered writing this blog in the first place

Her ultimate - Enchanted Crystal Arrow is a gamebreaker. It's one of the global skillshot ultimates that is actually rewarding if you hit. The effect is a stun and a strong aoe slow. The hitbox is also pretty huge and it's one of the better ADC ultimates compared to other ultimates (like Living Artillery no offense to Kog players)

I am in love with the concept of the skill. Also it's an unique skill and a very strong one aswell. It requires good accuracy but hitting it is very rewarding as the stun and slow will most likely guarantee an escape, a kill or an assist. The only problem with this skill is that it's punishable unlike other ultimate like Final Hour or Ace in the Hole.

Now I think some of the most unique things about Ashe are these:

1. As a carry she has quite a lot of crowd control and peeling power.

2. She can be played as a support though auto-attack reliant supports shouldn't ever get far.

3. With her passive gold gain combined with other sources of easier gold gain (Utility Masteries and Avarice Blade) Ashe can achieve a higher GPM than most carries. This is contested by Draven's Adoration and the bonus gold from Gankplank's Paaaarley!(Wish I knew how many A's or R's were in the skill name -_-)

4. Her kiting and chasing power is over the top for a carry.

5. Her base damage while one of the lowest for an ADC(if not the lowest) is compensated by her being able to land more hits due to the slow from Frost Shot and her higher than average range.

Now the reason I think Ashe is one of the most ignored concepts in the game is simple. She works very well if your support can ensure you farm, buy Relic Shield and get you some gold and your team can assure you'll get the highest GPM possible. I watched one video - it was basically a troll build Ashe (Season 2) which suggested maxing E first getting items like Philosopher's Stone Heart of Gold(R.I.P) Avarice Blade and Kage's Lucky Pick and farming your ass off and KSing every kill you can. It ended in a way that you'd have your full build by about 30 minutes if you managed to farm well since your GPM was skyrocket-high so I decided to try that troll build. I was laning with a Soraka versus a Caitlyn and some other support. All I know is that we were losing the lane pretty hard and I couldn't get almost any farm. But then laning phase was over.. I didn't help out much I was basically freefarming everywhere that I could with my 4 gold income items while my team fought 4v5 with my ult. They managed to turtle until I had all my items. And this is what happened: They managed to catch me off-guard and I was dead while they were pushing and my team defending. They defended but still died then I respawn and clean up everything - getting a Quadra kill. Then a bit later another fight happens at our "Wraith Bush" where I happen to get another Quadra Kill. Then we just end the game with our win.

The concept that Ashe has the ability to have the highest GPM in the game due to her Hawkshot is pretty cool since you get rich and acquire the much needed items much faster than your opponents. This allows Ashe to "outgear" every champion even if she was behind if she gets enough farm. While the crowd control and kiting ability compensate for her weaknesses as a carry.

Yet again, thanks for reading this blog about Ashe and leave a comment if you think otherwise or if you agree