Why Ashe support is actually viable in season 12?

The durability update that dropped on patch 12.10 shook up the meta significantly, and we see the results of it through the pick rate and win rate statistics.

Even though she is one of the oldest champions in the League of Legends roster, Ashe always finds a way to stay relevant. She is very well designed as an entry champion and easy for newer players to pick up. One way of doing this is by giving her a lot of utility in the kit so that apart from damage, new players piloting her have another way to impact the game. That way even if you fall behind, you can always be useful. The same can’t be said for hyper scaling attack damage carries like Jinx and Aphelios.

Ashe as a utility ADC

But in the hands of more skilled players, the utility Ashe provides allows her to be one of the most versatile champions in the game. That shows itself in her pick rate, build optimization and pro-play presence. Every time ADCs are weak in pro play, Ashe and Varus become the meta because of their utility and poke from range. What makes Ashe viable in the support role, however, is kit and build diversity. And both of those aspects benefited from the new items in season 11 and this durability update. 

Why Ashe support is viable?

While other ADCs have passives that allow them to dominate with damage, Ashe’s passive Frost Shot is different. It gives her a slow on her basic attacks that slows down enemies for two seconds by 30%. Her passive also transforms her crit damage into a stronger slow on her autos at 60% which decays to 30% after one second.

Her Q is the only ability that enables her to do damage, however, her W ability is how her support potential can be leveraged. Ashe fires seven to 11 arrows in a cone-shaped volley and each of them will apply critical slow. The ability has a range of 1200 units and is affected by cooldown. Laning, contesting objectives, or fighting for waves is an afterthought when facing support Ashe. You probably know how annoying she can be if you have faced her in ARAM. Her two global abilities, Hawkshot and Enchanted Crystal Arrow, both provide vision and crowd control to round out her kit. In our longest immobilization abilities article, Ashe’s ultimate took the number one spot, and for good reason. 

Ashe support in season 12

Ashe support has always been somewhat of a meme pick. The success of the pick is closely tied to the ability of her teammates to take advantage of her utility. Another factor that limits her success is the decision-making of the player piloting her. But in seasons 11 and 12, Ashe support got new items to play with along with new matchups. The addition of the new items and the enchanter meta taking over League currently is what she needed.

Being immobile, she could barely survive lane and fights versus engage supports. With games lasting longer and less explosive gameplay, Ashe doesn’t fall behind as often. Plus, she has enough time to scale up into her items, which makes her the oppressive pick she is. With a 6% pick rate, a 4% ban rate, and over 600,000 matches in this patch alone, it seems that everyone agrees that Ashe support is strong. Pro players around the world have been using her and famous Twitch streamer RATIRL even reached Challenger on stream playing Ashe support.

How to Ashe support

Every game as Ashe support, you will start by buying the support item Spectral Sickle and Tear of the Goddes. After that, you should rush Lucidiy Boots and take Imperial Mandate as your mythic item. If you reach the later stages of the game, make sure to upgrade your Tear into Muramana, as it is a huge power spike. After that, you can build Chempunk Chainsword to apply anti heal to everyone you damage, Tiamat for more damage, or Black Cleaver if your team has many AD threats.

Matchup-wise, the enchanter’s presence in the meta means a lot of free lanes for Ashe. But since she is not a true support, some of the ultra scaling picks beat her at later stages of the game. Yumi and Sona both have a 53% win rate versus Ashe, with Amumu being the only bad engage matchup. Most of these statistics are a result of the game lasting too long and easy control of said champions.

Header: Riot Games