ARAM players, rejoice. An ever-frustrating build on one of League of Legends’ easiest-to-learn champions is receiving a substantial hit from the nerf hammer, likely forcing players into a more standard build.
A new patch on League’s PBE includes various changes to a handful of champions, though specifically in the ARAM game mode. Ashe stands out as the most notable champion on this list due to how oppressive the champion has remained in the Howling Abyss for over a year, now sporting a hefty cooldown nerf to her W from 18-4 seconds to 21-9 seconds.
Ashe has long been capable of completely controlling games of ARAM by opting for a build including Imperial Mandate, Ionian Boots of Lucidity, Manamune, Chempunk Chainsword, and other items that grant ability haste. With such large amounts of ability haste, Ashe can spam her lane-wide W nearly every two seconds, not particularly dealing a decent amount of damage but slowing anyone hit thanks to her passive. This also greatly reduces the cooldown of her map-wide ultimate so that enemies could be completely immobilized by her more often.
While this build does not have a high win rate in ARAM—with Mobalytics noting a 47.4-percent win rate in Patch 13.8—the build is heavily regarded as obnoxious and is useful for spacing at all points of the game. This build gained massive popularity on Summoner’s Rift late last year during the 2022 World Championship. It has since fallen out of favor yet remains a niche option.
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This nerf to her W will likely see Ashe players in ARAM shift to the intended AD-focus build, complete with items like Kraken Slayer or Immortal Shieldbow, though the ability haste build will certainly still appear. Since these nerfs are exclusive to ARAM, Ashe will not have any of her abilities impacted in any other game mode.
But players have been skeptical about the champion’s performance in ARAM following a change implemented earlier this year that made her not only take more damage but deal less as well. At this point, it’s unclear exactly how these nerfs to Ashe’s W will change her build optimization, if at all.
These changes to Ashe in ARAM are currently available for testing on League’s PBE and are expected to be released next week with Patch 13.9, though they may be altered further prior to their official release.
