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indentHi, I'm Youngs and I play Ashe as a support in Gold, Division IV. To start, I'd like to say that I worked hard to write, code, and make images for this guide so I would appreciate any feedback you have to offer, whether it be positive or negative. Support Ashe is definitely an underplayed strategy, and I'd like to get my ideas out there for it. I build Ashe as an aggressive support that can get kills in laning phase and peel for my carry lategame. I encourage you to be brave enough to try something unconventional, but most importantly, have fun.

Here's the pros/cons of playing Support Ashe. Throughout this guide I will talk about each pro and con and how you can make the most out of Ashe's strengths as well as hide her weaknesses. Also, i'm gay.

Pros + Strong harass + Strong CC + 4 Utility Abilities + High burst @ level 6 + No mana problems

Cons - Squishy - No escape - No heals - No buffs for teammates

If you put these pros/cons together, you will come to the conclusion that Ashe can be played as an aggressive support early game and contribute to the team later with physical damage. Also im gay.

This chapter is meant to help this guide appeal to anyone who isn't convinced Support Ashe is viable. A tl;dr for this chapter would be that playing Ashe as a support is viable, and that we want to secure kills in laning phase and deal significant damage lategame.

The most obvious reasons to why Support Ashe is good is because of the utility that her abilities offer.


To prove to you why Support Ashe is viable, I'm going to take some quotes from this thread.

Here's a quote from a forumer that is opposed to Support Ashe.

Posted by ButtHooker 09-26-2011

And a reply to the person...

Posted by TrappaKeepa 09-26-2011

indent Ashe's abilities provide great utility to the team. Here's how I make use of Ashe's kit when I play Ashe as a support.
.. .----. -- / - . .-. .-. .. -... .-.. . / .- - / -... -... -.-. --- -.. ... .----. -- / - . .-. .-. .. -... .-.. . / .- - / -... -... -.-. --- -.. . Focus (Passive) : This passive gives us increased critical strike chance the longer we go without combat. As and ADC in laning phase, this passive isn't very useful because you are always CS'ing. As a support, we can harass with this because we won't be in combat by constantly hitting creeps.

indentThese crits become excellent for harassment in laning phase. Pop out of the bush, hit the enemy ADC with our critical strike and a Volley and walk back into the bush. We can drop the enemy ADC's health almost 1/3 at level 1 with this combo.
.. .----. -- / - . .-. .-. .. -... .-.. . / .- - / -... -... -.-. --- -.. ... .----. -- / - . .-. .-. .. -... .-.. . / .- - / -... -... -.-. --- -.. . Frost Shot (Q): This is a very powerful slow that is applied by our autoattack. Unlike other slows, from supports like Nunu & Willump, there is no cooldown for this. We will keep the target slowed as long we land autoattacks on them. This is great CC for peeling our carries and chasing enemy carries, as it is essentially a permaslow.

.. .----. -- / - . .-. .-. .. -... .-.. . / .- - / -... -... -.-. --- -.. ... .----. -- / - . .-. .-. .. -... .-.. . / .- - / -... -... -.-. --- -.. . Volley (W): This is large AOE cone that deals damage and toggles the slow of Frost Shot. Because of the size of the cone, this is very hard to avoid so it is fantastic harass during laning phase. The large AOE slow is very useful throughout the game, it has a very short CD so use it whenever you can.

.. .----. -- / - . .-. .-. .. -... .-.. . / .- - / -... -... -.-. --- -.. ... .----. -- / - . .-. .-. .. -... .-.. . / .- - / -... -... -.-. --- -.. . Hawkshot (E): This ability has an amazing active for a support. This should be used as a Clairvoyance, and we can save our teammates or reveal enemies with it. The passive is very useless because we won't be getting CS, but we will still want to take some levels in it for a larger range on the active.

.. .----. -- / - . .-. .-. .. -... .-.. . / .- - / -... -... -.-. --- -.. ... .----. -- / - . .-. .-. .. -... .-.. . / .- - / -... -... -.-. --- -.. . Enchanted Crystal Arrow (R): The stun on this ultimate can be game changing! This is what makes Support Ashe so good. It has a higher base damage than Lux's Final Spark, with a 3.5 second stun and a much larger range. It scales off of AP so we are doing as much damage as we would if we built AD Carry. Its base damage is high enough to burst down the enemy carry at level 6 with the help of our ADC.

Use this to help your teammates across the map, initiate on the enemy carry, or steal dragon or baron.

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Runic Bulwark is essential on any team. If both your top lane or jungler isn't buying it, get it yourself. I always ask the tank on my team if they plan on buying Runic Bulwark.

.. .----. -- / - . .-. .-. .. -... .-.. . / .- - / -... -... -.-. --- -.. ... .----. -- / - . .-. .-. .. -... .-.. . / .- - / -... -... -.-. --- -.. . indentWe've got our core items by now, but there are still some very important items left to buy.

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ZEKE'S HERALD

This is a great item for our AD Carry. The attack damage and lifesteal is also very useful on Ashe in general, so when you are using Frost Shot in teamfights you will also be doing some damage.

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This item is expected of just about anyone playing support. Its nice that it builds from our PHILOSOPHER'S STONE. Its active is awesome- land your Enchanted Crystal Arrow on the enemy carry and you can give your team the speed they need to capitalize on the stun. You'll lose a lot of credibility if you don't get this item.

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More health, more wards, and less deaths. Nice item.

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This is a great consumable you can buy with extra money. Its especially useful when the enemy team has a stealth champion, such as Shaco, Teemo, and Twitch.

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Final Note on Items

indentLet's take a loot at the finish result of all these items.

• 4 of our items give us health, allowing us a remarkable 2977 health.
• We have reached the CDR Cap at 40%.
• Champions on our team receive Armor, Magic Resist, Attack Damage, and Lifesteal.

One last thing to say is that this guide is not a bible. Different situations will call for different items.

• Frost Shot: I max this first because it's much more useful to have a powerful slow. Also Volley's slow is based off of how much you have in this skill, so you have more utility for your team by maxing this first.
• Volley: I get two levels in this early for better harass in lane. I then max this last because you only need one level in this to apply Frost Shot. If you're feeling confident, max this first.
• Hawkshot: I max this second simply because I have a larger ranged for this skill.
• Enchanted Crystal Arrow: I take this at levels 6, 11, and 16 for a shorter cooldown and the large amount of damage it has at level 16.

• Quintessences: Like most I take GP10 Quintessences simply so we can make more money despite a lack of CS. We don't need Movespeed Quints because our stun doesn't have a limit on range.
• Seals: Again I'm getting standard runes here and getting flat armor seals. The enemy AD Carry is going to be doing a lot of damage in lane so we need some survivability.
• Glyphs: I like scaling MR because we won't be dealing with much magic damage problems in lane and we're very squishy. Without these getting stunned = certain death.
• Marks: I take flat Attack Damage so I can have better harass in lane and hopefully significant damage lategame. Other marks you may want to consider are GREATER MARK OF ARMOR PENETRATION or Greater Mark of Scaling Attack Damage.

I'm going to explain my choices for masteries in this section. Feel free to skip this chapter if you're uninterested. Here's the masteries I use on Support Ashe:

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Offense Tree I take Summoner's Wrath because this will make your Exhaust much more useful. The armor and MR knocked off is no joke and great for the engages you will have in bottom lane. I take Fury because it makes kiting easier and also allows me to proc Frost Shot faster. I take Sorcery for the cooldown reduction, which is something you definitely want on a support.

Utility Tree Must have masteries in the utility tree are Pickpocket and Intelligence . Pickpocket gives you free money every time you harass or use your Frost Shot. Excellent. Intelligence gives us some very important CDR. We need this to shoot more of our Enchanted Crystal Arrows. I skip the Meditation and Expanded Mind masteries because Ashe just has too little problems with mana. Unless you spam Volley hardcore at level 1 you don't need these masteries.

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Flash is a must have because you are squishy and you have no escape ability on Ashe.
Exhaust is also very viable, you already have a slow but this is more powerful. What makes it really good is that it reduces attack speed, which is excellent to use against the enemy ADC in bottom lane.

Other summoner spells to replace Exhaust:

• Ignite: This is good for getting an early first blood or for its reduced healing against champions like Soraka, Dr. Mundo, or Swain.
• Teleport: This is a very fun spell to take for its well-known trick with Ashe. Fire an arrow from the summoner platform and then teleport close to the target for a maximum duration stun while being closeby to the enemy. This is a great spell to take if you're looking for a fun time.
• Clairvoyance: You can use this, but this isn't my favorite. We already have Hawkshot, and there aren't many situations where we would need two of these in the same 60 seconds.
• Ghost: This can work, there's nothing wrong with more mobility and combined with Frost Shot this will make you epic at chasing.

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And the summoner spells that you really shouldn't take:

• Heal: It might make up for your lack of sustain abilities but Exhaust is just much better.
• Clarity: This could work on some supports but Ashe has barely any mana problems at all.
• Revive: I don't know why I put this spell here. It should be your #1 summoner spell. I take it all the time so I can get back in the fight.
• Promote: This doesn't exist.

Your job at this time is to:

• Ward the river and tribush to relieve jungle pressure off your lane
• Harass/Zone the enemy ADC and support
• Do whatever you can to keep your lane partner from dying

Let's take all three of these goals one at a time.
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indentThe pictures of the sight wards and vision wards obviously represent areas you should place your wards. The red number next to them represent the priority of that area. 1 being of top priority, 5 being the lowest. Let's say you only brought along 2 wards, then you'd want to make sure that area 1 and 2 get warded before caring about 3, 4, and 5.

• River and Tribush (1&2): I put these at top priority because the enemy jungler ganks from these areas 90% of the time. The river is at a higher priority because you can see dragon from that ward, and we don't want the enemy team to sneakily kill dragon under our noses.
  
• Bottom lane bushes (3): Place the ward in the bush that's closest to the enemy turret. This is a good place for a ward because 1: This is where they will try to pop out and harass from and 2: This is the area the enemy jungler ganks from the other 10% of the time.
  
• River bush (4): This is a good place to put your ward if you only have one ward or you don't want to go very far away from your lane partner. The enemy support usually places their ward somewhere around here, so it's also a good spot for a vision ward.
  
• Purple team tribush (5) The enemy jungler might try to turret dive you. If you think they can do this, you may want to consider a ward here.

indentWhenever we place a sight ward in the river we are also in range to reveal the either the enemy jungler's buff or our jungler's buff. This can either help our team to counterjungle or save our own jungler's buff. Do this whenever you can.
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indentSupport Ashe's harass is extremely strong. I've talked about this method earlier in the guide, but a strong combo when you pop out of the brush to harass is a Volley and a critical strike from Focus. This makes Ashe formidable in lane, and you can get First Blood very fast with this.

• Try not to hit minions with your Volley. We want to avoid accidentally pushing our lane.
• Your Volley has a huge cone, it's very easy to hit both the enemy support and ADC with the same Volley
• Make sure you have Frost Shot toggled when you use your autoattack. This will help for kiting and gives your ADC the opportunity to get some harass in as well.

-.- .. .-.. .-. --- -.-- / .-- .- ... / .... . .-. .-.- .. .-.. .-. --- -.-- / .-- .- ... / .... . .-. . Ashe, being an aggressive support, unfortunately doesn't have a sustain ability or a shield to save your ADC. This does not mean that you can't protect your ADC however. Here's a few tips.

• If you're both running away, use your Volley behind you to make it harder for the enemies to catch up to you.
• Never let your ADC facecheck. You have Volley and Hawkshot to prevent this.
• Exhaust can also be used to escape. Use it on the most dangerous person when you're running away.

indentThis part of the game is so critical that I made an entire chapter for it. This is where Support Ashe is the most dangerous. At level 6 we are similar to LeBlanc, Ahri, or Diana- We have an extremely strong level 6 and we need to use it to start snowballing now or be very weak the rest of the game. We want to burst down the enemy ADC with this combo:

indentBasically we stun them with our Enchanted Crystal Arrow, hit them with Volley, and then our critical strike from Focus (Make sure Frost Shot is enabled). If you execute this correctly, you should burst them down to somewhere close to half health. Then we follow up with Exhaust and a few more Frost Shots. If we land our ult and our lane partner helps out, this should be a very smooth kill.

• If you're solo-queueing, let your lane partner know that you want to burst them down at level 6. Before you fire your ult, make sure to use your pings so your lane partner knows.
• Try to coordinate this with your jungler. Stun the ADC before he ganks for an even smoother process, perhaps even a double kill.

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indentHopefully by this point we have gotten that kill at level 6. During midgame we want to keep repeating that process when your ult is up. It should be much easier because of the snowballing. Usually dragon is first killed during midgame, let's take a look at this.
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indent Ashe's Enchanted Crystal Arrow is a lot like Ezreal's ult. It doesn't pass through minions or neutral monsters such as DRAGON, but with the aoe effect we can still steal it. When trying to steal, hit someone close to the dragon and if you timed it right the aoe damage will secure 750 gold for the team.
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-.- .. .-.. .-. --- -.-- / .-- .- ... / .... . .-. .-.- .. .-.. .-. --- -.-- / .-- .- ... / .... . .-. . indentUsually the first tower in bottom lane goes down during midgame. Here's some tips for protecting towers.



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Taking the enemy's outer turret in bot lane can be very useful, but in some situations it's not always a good idea. Here's a flow chart I made:
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And also some tips for taking the turret:

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In lategame, BARON NASHOR and Teamfights are introduced. I will go over both of them.

• Baron Nashor
• Teamfights

indent Ashe's Enchanted Crystal Arrow is an amazing ability for initiating a fight. Whenever someone squishy on their team doesn't have a tank blocking them, use your ult. You can fire it from a long distance and still be able to capitalize on it with Shurelya's Battlesong.

After the fight has begun, your role is to peel for your carry. Ashe has no escapes and is very squishy, so it is best to stand in the back, behind the AD Carry. From this position you can use all of your abilities on any assassins that come into range of your carry. Frost Shot, Exhaust, and your carry's red buff will make it easy for them to be kited.

Once you're done killing any assassins you still want to play safely in a teamfight. From here it's best to kite anyone on the enemy team trying to protect their own carry, and eventually ace the team.

If you failed to intiate the fight yourself with Enchanted Crystal Arrow, you have two choices on how you will use it during the fight:

• Shoot it at an enemy carry to leave them vulnerable to the bruisers on your team
• Use it to stun anti-carry's on the enemy team that come close to you

Summary: Ult anyone who is out of position then immediately use Shurelya's Battlesong. Then peel for your carry.

-.- .. .-.. .-. --- -.-- / .-- .- ... / .... . .-. . Here are some guides for placing sight wards:

• Kommerzgandalf's very long guide on how to place sight wards. If you're looking for something very detailed, this is an awesome guide. It has tons of information, tips, and drawings that covers just about everything there is to know about a SIGHT WARD.
• This guys's's simple guide to placing sight wards. This is a lot shorter and on the League of Legends Forums.

I already talked hawkshots in the previous chapter, Pre-6 Laning Phase, but here is some more information for the rest of the map. Once again, I'll point you to a guide made by someone else because I'm lazy.

Clairvoyance is very similar to Hawkshot, so most of the information in Xpecial's guide to using Clairvoyance will be useful.

Very Important: Lategame it is very risky to ward in areas such as the enemy jungle and baron. Getting caught while warding will usually throw the game. Before you start walking to a location to ward, use Hawkshot on the location. Unlike Clairvoyance, it scales with Cooldown Reduction, so you can pretty much cast it for each ward. It will keep you safe and hopefully catch an enemy who is also trying to ward off-guard.

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In this chapter I rate all carries on a 1-10 scale on how well they work with Ashe, as well as learning some neat tricks you can do with other carries. Securing a good lane partner gives you a major advantage before the game even starts. Let's begin!

-.- .. .-.. .-. --- -.-- / .-- .- ... / .... . .-. . Altogether, Support Ashe is a fun and viable choice. Ashe will go down as one of the greatest aggressive supports. It may seem outside the meta at first, but don't judge a book by its cover. If you play Ashe as a support, not only will you offer the team strong CC, map awareness, and tons of damage, but you will also introduce them to a new way to play Ashe. Thanks for taking the time to visit my guide, good luck, and have fun.

Credits to:

• jhoijhoi for the template, which you can find here.
• jhoijhoi for the awesome guide to writing on MOBAFire.
• bérnkastel for the support auras item list, which helped me a lot for item choices.
• League of Legends Wiki for the information.
• WhatSawpChannel for their video that I used in the Introduction.
• sakabadger for the Epic Ashe Arrow video.
• Bogarn for the Ashe dragon steal video.
• ItsUltimateTime for the Cho'Gath Baron Steal Video.
• Gbay99 for his video about the meta changing.

• ***Teviar, ODoubleMidO, and CodTitan for revising this guide***

Screenshots

I'll be posting screenshots of your games or match history using this guide here.
Upload them to an image sharing site like imm.io or imgur.com. You can give me a link in the comments or inbox on this site.

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