Hey everyone! Today, I’m going to discuss Ash, the new Apex Legends hero added to Season 11.
She is an aggressive legend with an interesting kit and a passive ability. Since I’m a professional Apex booster here at Immortal Boost, I need to know how to play every legend so that if the clients ask to play a specific legend, I should be ready.
So, I’m going to share some of my tips for Ash with you today. Let’s dig into it!
In this guide, I’ll teach you how to play Ash and maximize your potential. Whether you’re new to the game or an experienced Ash player, I’m confident that there will be some stuff you haven’t seen before, and hopefully, this guide will help you.
If you’ve played Ash at any point for any length of time, then your opinion of her is that she is either extremely underrated or overwhelming. Out of all the legends on the roster, she might be the most polarising, and in my opinion, that’s largely due to how difficult she is to play well.
I think that difficulty stems from how abstract our kit is and how it’s kind of on the player to create their own unique play style because she’s definitely not the most versatile Legend. She also doesn’t fit into any clearly defined roles on the squad. I think this is why she hasn’t really broken into the Legend meta at any point and hasn’t been used a lot in competitive Apex.
Ash Playstyle
Ash favors an aggressive play style and is best suited to be utilized in a leading and scouting role or a fragging and flanking role. This means that she will be in the front line starting most engagements like Wraith. However, there are some key differences in how Ash approaches fights.
Wraith is at her best when she plays as aggressively as possible looking for damage and openings for her team to move up on. If she ever gets in trouble, she has her tactical ability to phase back the safety.
Ash, on the other hand, should start fights from a bit further back. The lack of a cooldown phase means that getting caught out of position away from your team can cost you a two-minute ability or your life.
While Alting out to safety is certainly a good option in many cases, it’s a play that puts you on the back foot for a while, greatly reducing what you can do for the rest of the fight. In this way, she can be very unforgiving, in my opinion. She’s not a great 1v1 Legend, so in CQC fights, skill is entirely dependent on her.
Her kit is also not great for a reactive play style, as certain legends are more forgiving and cater to players who play almost entirely off of reflex angle or Horizon, Wraith, Octane, etc. Her kit is precision-based, and everything you do has to be methodical. Additionally, she is a skill-based legend, and her kit provides the tools necessary for higher-skill players to bully lower-skilled ones.
What Ash can do that Wraith can’t do is use her ultimate as an instant pushing and angling tool. If Ash and her team want to wipe a squad standing in their way, they can portal to a new forward angel, which will put her enemies in an unfavorable position. If wraith wants to do something similar with her portal, she needs to run in, likely use her face, giving her opponents time to prepare for the play and punish it.
Ash’s phase breach does display instantly, making it a much more oppressive and surefire option. By getting to a new position quickly, Ash can pin opponents in place with angles under Q buying time for her teammates to close the gap and help her end the fight quickly.
If anything, Ash should be played much more like Octane than Wraith. Both characters have a low cooldown ultimate, which is very useful for making aggressive plays at a moment’s notice.
Team Comps
Ask for the best team composition to run with Ash because she favors an aggressive play style. She performs the best aggressive team comps and pairs, especially with Recon class Legends, namely Bloodhound, and Crypto. That way, you can keep track of all opposing players at all times with massive amounts of Intel.
I found a lot of success when running alongside Crypto. I would stand next to him while he embeds, and then I would initiate the push with my face tearing. She also pairs quite well with Horizon, Catalyst, Valkyrie, Bangalore, Gibraltar, Revenant, and even Octane.
She’s the most versatile Legend when it comes to discussing her ideal play style and team composition. The only Legend I found some difficulty pairing her with is Pathfinder.
Ash’s Role in the Meta
Ash, in many ways, has many other Legends abilities packed into hers. She has some recon with her passive tracking and some abilities to slow down enemies with her tactics, like Wattson. Her Ultimate can transfer the team much like Wraith. However, Ash is really more of an aggressive Legend due to Ultimate.
A squad that sticks close to Ash can instantly redirect and transport around with ease. This allows for quicker rotations by passing open areas or pushing by the ultimate to get height. Ash can do a little bit of everything, but she really serves as the squad’s attacker and information gatherer.
Best Loadouts/Maps
Because she wants to be Alting towards teams, one mid-range and close-range weapon is ideal. At the end of the day, she performs fine with most weapons and it comes down to what you’re most comfortable with. You can’t go wrong running a flatty, R3, or Nemesis paired with an SMG or shotgun.
I’ve personally found a lot of success running the Havoc because of its versatility and the wingman. I’ve also been very effective running the Sentinel paired with an R9 or PK, but in general, I’d probably avoid Marksman or Sniper weapons when playing her.
In regards to what her best maps are, I think she plays decently well on all of them. This speaks to her versatility in this respect but in my opinion, her best maps are World’s Edge, Storm Point, and Olympus.
Ash’s Toolkit
Marked For Death (Passive)
Ash is a great Legend for learning the fundamentals of the game. She is an assault Legend with a Pseudo Recon ability, a Pseudo zoning ability, and a movement ability. To keep things organized, I’ll break down our abilities one by one, and we’ll start with her passive Marked for Death. Earlier, I said that if you’ve played Ash, then you have one of two opinions: Underrated or overwhelming. When considering her best ability, you’re also in one of two camps.
Her Alt ability is her best ability, and the real ability she has, or her passive ability, is her best ability. Mark for Death allows Ash to interact with the death box of any player killed by another squad to find that squad’s current location. If the attackers are dead, it will return no surviving attackers.
The locations of the attackers are marked on the map with the Enemy here being for 8 seconds. For about 4 seconds Ash has told the number of marked enemies. Those enemies are notified of the position revealed by Ash on their HUD or a heads-up display. In addition, Ash’s map screen displays a marker over every death box that is less than 200 seconds old. She can use these markers to ping them from any distance.
That is a lot of unique Intel, and it’s quite slept on, actually. I’ve played with plenty of random Ashes, and they do not siphon information from their passive to the rest of the team once. I will say, though, that if I’m solo queuing ranked on Ash, then I won’t always ping death boxes because as soon as I ping a death box, my randoms will usually immediately rush in that direction. So, be selective about it based on in-game situations.
Why you should prefer this ability
If you play Ash simply for her Alt, then you’re doing yourself and your squad a disservice, in my opinion. Her passive is incredibly powerful for locating enemies, planning third parties, or even trying to avoid fights. By knowing where recent death boxes are, Ash can lead her team in whatever way fits their objectives.
When you start playing Ash, you hit a wall as a player, and you don’t feel like you will be improving. One of the players’ weaknesses is that they don’t think the game is Enough, and they think that Ash’s kit will be a direct means to work on their weaknesses actively.
Having macro intel, such as what her passive ability provides, helps you learn how to or simply work on your rotations throughout the match and even provides you with the means necessary to become an IGLi or IGL even more effectively. If you’re not the IGL, it’s very important to constantly siphon information to your squad’s IGO.
Ping relevant death boxes and nearby Pois and choke points. Also, challenge yourself to evaluate the ideal rotation based on where fights are taking place across the map. This ability is for ranked and I think that it offers even more utility in pubs.
In my opinion, Ash is an amazing legend for pub stomping. We’ve all been there. Where should we go? With Ash’s passive, you should always know where to go, allowing you to maintain a good pace throughout the game. Overall, the utility of the passive ability is understated. With all the Nerfs to Recon class Legend, I can Envision a scenario in which her utility is Pseudo-Recon Legend of even greater importance in the future.
Arc Snare (Tactical)
Moving on to Ash’s tactical ability, Arc Snare. Once again, if you’ve played Ash at any point, for any length, your opinion will be that it is an overwhelming part of her kits. It allows her to throw a spinning snare that damages and tethers the first enemy that gets too close with a 20-second cooldown.
Upon landing the projectile, she creates a spherical snare trap with a radius of 4 meters. If an enemy enters its radius, it will take 10 damage, with shielded opponents taking double damage and being snared for 4 seconds. She did recently get a buff centered around this ability or respawn and attempted to make it more reliable and deadly by increasing the snare’s travel speed, decreasing its cooldown, decreasing its activation delay, and increasing its growth time.
This is the weakest part of her kit, and I also think it’s actually quite versatile in terms of how it can be utilized. Her tether is similar to a fuse knuckle cluster. You should be farming and pestering teams and generally just trying to make life difficult for them. You should deploy her tether to let the enemy know you’re there, make them feel you and feel your presence.
Ash’s kit can also be thought of as a diet Wattson fence; it’s a good zoning tool and it’s useful for pinning your opponent. This means that if you’re in a situation where you’ve enemies on either side viewing the squad If you’re looking one way and your teammate calls for you to help them, shoot the other way. What I’ll do is use her tether to pin the opponent I was shooting at in order to keep tabs on them and be able to look off and shoot the other way. They won’t be able to move from where I snared them in my mind, I’ll have a mental clock going look back after three to four seconds.
Her kit is designed for you to be the aggressor. Tether your opponent to close the gap toward them and eliminate them quickly.
Phase Breach (Ultimate)
Now, I’ll break down Ash’s ultimate ability phase breach.
Basics
It tears open a one-way portal to a targeted location and has a cooldown of two minutes. Ash immediately enters the phase tear upon activation, which lasts for about 15 seconds and has a maximum range of 62.5 meters. Her ultimate is where her skill gap lies because it can be extremely punishing if used incorrectly.
While her passive ability is great for macro positioning, her ultimate ability is a great micro-positioning tool. But ultimate placement is important. If you’re pushing someone with your Ult, you probably shouldn’t portal right in their face, even if you’ve damaged them.
You always want to be scanning and looking for good spots to cover ground and ideally portal to somewhere that has cover. With her ultimate ability, Ash is very effective at flanking and taking off-angles. Even if you’re using it as a team rotation tool, the same rule should apply: don’t ult to super obvious locations; try to ult to spots that have some level of safety where you can still catch your opponent off guard.
Now, a common error I see with Ash players is that they will use their ultimate when just rotating to zone or if they fall behind to catch up with their team. The enemy squad pulls up after you have just used your ult. Now, you’re without that utility to help yourself or your squad. It’s really important to refrain from blowing your ult if avoidable and save it for more important moments in a match, either as a team rotation tool or as an escape tool.
Even if you think her passive ability is her best, her ultimate ability is what helps your squad the most. It is recommended that you always carry Ult Excels or pop Ult Excels as you find them to ensure that you always have your Ult charged and ready to go. It does have a faster cooldown, but you want to stay ready.
Tips to use Phase Breach
One of the most challenging aspects of playing her is finding the balance with how you deploy her Ult. It should be used at your own discretion and you have to develop a feel for making reads and seeing openings. If you see an opening, go for it. If you’re in danger, use it to stay alive.
Ash isn’t well-suited to be played reactively or entirely off-reflex. That applies here because her Ult is much more effective when using it to make a team push where you can target it accordingly.
If you’re in the middle of a fight and you want to try and escape, it often feels like a shot in the dark where you’re just hoping for the best. But suppose you’re in a scenario where you need to use it as an escape tool. In that case, a pro tip I have is to either tether where you exit the tear to slow whoever is chasing you or take a step backwards when you exit the ultimate because the enemy will have their back to you and you can then proceed to beam them.
Another thing to keep in mind is to keep a steady hand or thumb when aiming her ultimate and ever her Q, especially if you’re a roller player on a linear response curve. Ash Ult is more effective at taking height than covering distance on flat ground.
Overall, the impact of her Phase Breach shouldn’t be understated when used correctly. It’s a powerful tool that can really help your team as well as instil fear in your opponents.
How to Play against Ash
There are a few things to consider when going against Ash to try and counter the advantages she brings to her squad. Given that you’re notified when an enemy Ash marks you with her passive. If you’re savvy enough to note where you rotated from, there is a good chance you know where their team is and the direction, they’ll come at you from. Allowing you to rotate or be ready to trap them.
Legends with teleports or phasing abilities can escape the snare scot-free, so know that as your advantage when coming across the Ash, you can consider saving your ability if you’re trapped in a bad position.
Finally, Ash’s Alt is extremely Loud both when she activates it and when players travel through it, which is useful for enemy teams who will know their location pretty confidently. It’s important to use these audio cues to your advantage so you can quickly deny an enemy team flank for example.
On the surface, Ash is a simple character but possesses a lot of potential in terms of overall impact. She provides a very unique value that makes her a character with a high skill ceiling, and while she may take a second to get down, the payoff is definitely worth it. Plus, she has some of the best cosmetics in the game which doesn’t hurt. Passive ability is extremely powerful in the right hands, especially once you’ve put in the time to use her kit effectively. Ash is currently undervalued and many players aren’t drawn to her because of her high ceiling and how unforgiving she can feel at times. But if you want to be the player that provides a unique impact, Ash may be the legend for you.
Wrapping it up
Thank you for reading my guide and I hope you have great success as Ash! Don’t forget to check our Apex 4K badge boost, where we can unlock any badge for you with Ash. I would also like to remind you that we provide the best Apex Legends rank boosting services here. We can help you reach any rank in Apex, whether by having you play with us or us playing with you. Book your desired division today, and let’s get started!