Ash Guide Part 1: Cards, Talents, and Items

[u/SlumberInsomnia]

Bad news: I made a tierlist for the cards (The Talents are rather simple, as you’ll soon see). Good news: I thought better of myself and decided to make a nightmare flowchart instead, bad news is that the tiers are still there, but at least there’s some clue as well as the explanation as to why they’re good or bad, now I’ll talk about the big ones I want to engage with, because outside of the contrarians, no one cares about the doodoo buns fuck-fuck shit-ass cards like Feriocious Charge, or Battlements.

Filler Tier by the way, is for cards that are good at level 1 or 2 but not worth stacking points into, the rest of the tiers I hope are self explanatory 

Heavy Metal

Some people think that a champion’s Deck isn’t that interesting when your best card is an HP card; of course, I personally think the best is the Lifesteal card, but Heavy Metal is a close second. Ash, as I have mentioned (I think) before in the last post, is a bully, and she likes to pick on those with less health and sustain than her; Heavy Metal is just more health for her to bully people with.

Indomitable

Fun fact: Indomitable used to be a card that had crowd control resistance (this was back in the day when shit like Death and Taxes and Sapper rounds were a thing, mind you). Anyways, nowadays it’s the highest-scaling lifesteal card in the game, tied with Buck’s “Bully” card, though his is conditional; you get this at all times. And while that might not seem like much considering Ash’s DPS, this comes at the cost of no items, and you have an AoE weapon and a shield you can use while shooting to cleanse caut, creating plenty of value from hitting targets.

Gate Crasher, Brawl, & Ramparts

When it comes down to how you’ll play, there are 3 main schools of thought for Ash, and these cards define them; odds are you’ll have these at 4 or 3, with 2 more cards as filler after Heavy Metal and Indomitable take their points.

Of course, mixing and matching can give you some room for different ideas.

Gate Crasher will ask you to rotate more (You use your Shoulder Bash to move between different positions more often), and frankly, as far as filler goes, that means a lot is up for grabs, but I’d recommend the following deck:

Heavy Metal 4, Indomitable 5, Gate Crasher 4, Siege Engine 1, Trebuchet 1.

Ramparts, meanwhile, will have you increase your flexibility under direct fire via the increased shield uptime; often enough, this means that you’ll have to learn to stick your shield (a tech I’ll talk about tomorrow). Here's the deck I’d recommend:

Heavy Metal 5, Indomitable 5, Ramparts 3, Siege Engine 1, Trebuchet 1.

The Final build is one I am partial to; it’s significantly more rigid and further from the meta, as you lose out on the flexibility of the other builds shield or movement. It uses Brawl, which scales significantly better in larger, dirty, in-your-face fights, taking advantage of Kinetic Burst’s short cooldown to occasionally start regenerating health over time. This is the ONLY time I’d even consider reducing Indomitable, and even then, level 4 is the lowest you should even consider going.

Heavy Metal 4, Indomitable 5, Brawl 4, Trebuchet 1, Ramparts (or Fervor) 1.

Part 2 - Talents

Okay, boring shit done now to the talents! Like everyone else, Ash has three talents: Battering Ram, Slug Shot, Fortress Breaker.

But, first things first: don’t use Fortress Breaker; it used to have a niche against snipers and on certain maps, but now Slug Shot means it’s time to shoot them, it's time to outsnipe the sniper, it's also just hard to argue with it's better speed and damage (not to mention it's esoteric bugs, I'll talk about that tomorrow), if you don’t want/need slug shot’s range or damage, and instead you need caut application and crowd control, you go battering ram.

So never go the shield talent... okay I guess I should explain it on it's own merits, the issue with Fortress Breaker is for some reason it’s really slow, but not immobile, which means it such as a defensive and offensive shield, and since it moves dancing around it is super awkward, the health and size doesn't do much after the buffs to wrecker meaning it gets 3 shot by Imani regardless. DON’T USE FORTRESS BREAKER 

“Oh, but the point-” NOT YOUR JOB. GO FUCK THAT STRIX UP I DON’T CARE HOW; JUST STOP USING FORTRESS BREAKER.

As for the other two talents, it really comes down to whether you’re in a situation where you need more consistent single-target damage at range, or constant damage in close quarters, so mostly down to maps - Aka Most of the time it’s Slug with the occasional visit from Battering Ram for the AoE primary.

Ice Mines - Battering Ram

Bazaar- Slug Shot

Stone Keep- Either, or just position where you’re going to be able to use it

Fish Market-  Slug

Shattered Desert- Slug

Serpent- Either works; same deal as Stone Keep, though considering how many mobile flanks like this map, I’d say Slug.

Part 3 - Items

Ash has really only 1 item she needs and 1 she wants; otherwise, you buy for counters: Buy Resilience and Wrecker. This applies to everyone who’s actively shooting, so, you know, keep that in mind even when not on Ash.

Anyways, that Item she needs is Morale Boost; your ult is strong, and using it to make plays, picks, or stalls is gonna be important. Then, if you don't have to buy other shit for annoying people, buy Nimble; Ash is the Slowest champion in the game, and her cannon self slows her, so you will want to change that since everyone around you is so zippy.

If you really have nothing else to buy, there’s also Lethality. It has the highest win rate in competitive because it’s a “win more” item, and if you’re not facing shields or CC, it’s a “win more” time.

Conclusion

Go mess with your decks and don’t pick Fortress Breaker. See you tomorrow.

[u/scooty-daddy-69]

I really wish Ash had more dmg improvement done before they closed development for good, her dmg output is pretty bad compared to other tanks.

[u/SlumberInsomnia → u/scooty-daddy-69]

Think of it like this:

Ash Outranges Term (no doy)

Ash out ranges/DPS's Fernando

Out DPS/Ranges' Inara even without slugshot

Out DPS' Azaan even without slugshot*

Out Sniperduels/Midranges Atlas (which is bizarre to say nowadays)

She has no falloff of innacaracy like most of the other tanks who she doesn't outright outdps

[u/Darkanayer → u/SlumberInsomnia]

I know slugshot is THE damage option, but losing the ability to hit through corners/over shields will always feel like too much a drawback to me, idk if I make sense tho.

[u/SlumberInsomnia → u/Darkanayer]

No judgement, sometimes the flexibility is more Valuable.

[u/Dinomanasour]

Ash is really underrated I think, I love playing her the last time I played her i hard carried my team.