On Nov. 21, League of Legends Patch 13.23 introduced a plethora of changes to Summoner’s Rift. But seemingly not many ARAM players know that the update also brought a heavy nerf to one of the most-played champions in the game mode.
Ashe is known as one of the most annoying champions to play against in ARAM, especially when she could continuously spam her Volley (W) ability across the entire lane to hit multiple targets in a row. This was one of her most frequent playstyles in the game mode since she could poke at the opposing team without many repercussions.
In Patch 13.23, however, the cooldown on Ashe’s Volley has now been set at a static mark of 18 seconds in ARAM instead of dropping to four seconds at max rank, according to the latest patch notes.
As a result, Ashe’s W spam build is much less effective, especially when it comes to activating the passive of Imperial Mandate, a crucial item in this playstyle. Imperial Mandate marks any enemies who are slowed by the player, and whenever a teammate hits that marked opponent, they deal extra magic damage.
With these nerfs, Riot Games has forced Ashe players to build primarily AD since it is now her strongest build in the game across all modes. Players don’t seem to have noticed the changes, however, and are still building her like she can use her W over and over in the later stages of a game.
As a result, her ARAM win rate has dropped tremendously, going from a normal 49.6 percent win rate to a shocking 41.8 percent win rate as the seventh-most played champion in the mode, according to U.GG. For some players, their latest ARAM game will serve as their only warning for her recent changes, especially since most ARAM adjustments go unnoticed among the changes to Summoner’s Rift.
