THE ULTIMATE ASH GUIDE
Intro
Season 11 is here and we have one of the coolest looking legends added to the Apex legends game - Ash. Back to the topic, at hand by the end of this article, you will know everything that you need to know to start mastering Ash whether you're looking to take over your Normal games or dominate Ranked on the brand new map Storm Point. She's an awesome legend with a ton of flexibility, so let's get right into it.
Ash’s Ability Overview
First, let’s do a quick overview of Ash’s abilities and then we’ll take a deeper dive into the play style and tactics that you need to implement into your gameplay.
Marked for Death (Passive)
Starting off, we have Ahs’s passive Marked for Death which allows her to interact with enemy death boxes and mark the players who killed them on the map. This ability can be great for scouting an area that you and your squad are coming into. If you see any death boxes, you can check how far away the killers are, and give yourself some comfort, or better yet, you can hunt them down and take both teams’ loot for yourself. While this ability requires you to find death boxes to get any use out of it, it can come in really clutch when you’re trying to find yourself some Kill Points or just counting out some kills and pubs.
Arc Snare (Tactical)
For Ash’s tactical ability, she throws out an Arc Snare tethering and damaging the closest enemy. While it only does 20 damage to shields or 10 to health, the snare lasts for about 3 seconds on the enemy that it tethers to this. This can be a great tool for slowing down an enemy push or when initiating a fight. Keep in mind, arc snare does last for seven seconds if it doesn’t hit anyone. So, you can use it to zone or even just block off a doorway in certain situations. The flight pattern of this ability is in a perfectly straight line, so it’s pretty easy to through. However, it does have a pretty slow travel speed, and if you won’t directly impact someone while it’s in the air, it won’t land. So, what’s important here is to make sure to try to use it at the enemy’s feet or nearby walls or rocks. Look to connect to a surface close to the and it will make your accuracy with this ability so much better. This aspect of this ability makes high ground really useful when you are throwing it, as it will allow you to reliably land at people’s feet. While cooldown is sort of long at 25 seconds, if you are patient with its placement and find good uses for it every single time, it can bring a lot of value to any team. This ability is an important and imbalanced advantage, so it is often used by boosters like Pirate Bay Service.
Phase Breach (Ultimate)
Alright, now it’s time for the coolest part of Ash’s kit by far her ultimate Phase Breach. This ability allows Ash to tear open a one-way portal to a location in her line of sight. Think about a Wraith portal but with a shorter range and she can open to form a long way away instantly. While the distance isn’t really anything crazy, the speed at which you can portal to the location is. This portal opens up almost instantly and the only real delay is the brief moment of traveling through the void. Unlike Wraith’s portal which requires her to run to the target location and put her own life on the line, Ash can get her alt off in a matter of a second or two. This can allow her to use it very effectively on the fly to initiate a fight, reposition or even just escape a bad situation. With a really low cooldown at two minutes, you can be very active with this ability throughout the game which gives you a lot of opportunities to make some very cool plays. You should always be on the lookout for good opportunities to use Phase Breach, as this is the primary strength in Ash’s kit. Rather than holding the cooldown most of the game to only get or two uses off, look to be active with its use attempting to maximize your value throughout a match.
Ash Tips
Since Ash is new I want to start off by giving your five tips that I and the team have personally one together with through playing Ash for over a couple of days and where better to start them with her ultimate:
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The biggest tip I can give you with this ability is to always look to portal out of the enemy’s line of sight into the high ground if possible. The last thing you want to do is get beamed as you exit the void, so make sure to always be conscious of where you are porting to. Getting quick flanks or angels is arguably the best use for this ability, but be careful that you are not getting too greedy and getting yourself killed in a 1v3. Remember, if you use Ash’s portal, you have to commit and there is no going back. High ground is the other super important positioning aspect of her old for a ton of reasons. As you guys know by now, high ground in Apex Legends is op especially for apex legends boosting. It’s tough for many legends to gain height quickly but if you can you have a much better angle for your gunfights, and it makes using a lot of abilities and names much easier to land. Most of the legends that can gain height quickly require a lot of time to do so or they make a lot of noise. Examples are Octane pad, Horizon lift, and Valk’s jets. These can get you up to height really quick. However, they are pretty noisy and easily draw a ton of attention. And this right here is what’s so great about Ash’s portal. You can reposition to certain locations faster and more quietly than any other legend. While the distance isn’t nearly as far as some other abilities in the game, its speed and subtlety are what make it so powerful.
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Our next tip is to use Ash’s passive for more than just hunting down kills. It’s easy to just ping out some enemies and then tunnel on pushing them, but where this ability really shines is when you are constantly using any death box that you can gather info for your team. While there are a ton of instances where this can save your squad from a nearby lurking team or show you a few enemies to kill in the later stages of the game, you should be looking to use this to gain info on the remaining squads on the map. Pinging enemies out and then using that info to help you make better rotations and plan out the last couple rings for your squad can be huge for this passive. And as I’ve told before, information is king in Apex. While this doesn’t make Ash a full-on recon legend, it does add a little bit more info for your team while playing a movement legend.
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Tip number three is to involve your Arc Snare. While this is really good at catching enemies by surprise, one great use for it is to use it in really close ranges. Let’s say, you’re getting pushed by an enemy who’s about to round a corner on you. This ability does not damage or ccu. So, if you literally throw it at your feet as they’re coming into close range if it lands the cc will make it much easier for you to land shots and it will keep enemies being able to perform much movement during the fight. While the tether doesn’t do a ton of damage, it does enable you to deal much more reliable damage. So, try to get creative with how your use this ability. Also, looking to combine these abilities with other legends or names can be absolutely huge. If you time an Arc Snare with a teammate’s nade or skill, you can guarantee some serious damage. Just because this ability isn’t crazy OP at fist glance, do not sleep on the value of some good old-fashioned crown control. If you use the cc to gain advantages or just flat out deal more damage, then it might as well have a bunch of damage tacked on to the ability itself.
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Beyond just looking for good ultimates to make plays on your own, if you have coordination with your squad, you can get pretty sweet combos with this ability. Taking the portal as a team with a Gibby for example lets you push someone and instantly bubble for defense. On the flip side, if you have a Caustic, you can actually portal into enemy bubbles and throw ultimate from the inside. Revenant’s totem is sadly another cool combo here as well. Giving you a quick entry in shadow form is a really nice one too because enemies can’t take the portal back to where you towed him. So, if you’re sneaky about it you can portal in totem form, reset, and then re-portal or heal without fear of being found. One thing to keep in mind here is the range capabilities are a lot lower than using a Wraith portal or even an Octane pad. So, don’t get caught putting your totem too close to the fight. Even portaling in with just a Mirage to cause mayhem or an instant sear ultimate to gain info can be really strong. Make sure to put a focus on using this portal with your squad if you can, because you can get way more bang for your buck than if you try to solo push a team and don’t do any combos.
Verdict
In conclusion, Ash is looking to be pretty balanced here on release and she seems to be a really cool addition to the roster. Personally, I think she has the absolute coolest intro cinematic in the game by the way.