An introduction to Ashka

Overview

This guide aims to show the possibilities of Ashka gameplay.

Abilities

Let’s start with his Fire storm, which you cast with M2/RMB. It’s pretty basic.
You charge 1 second to throw 3 powerful fire balls.
Each fireball is dealing 14 dmg and applies ignite. That’s pretty much it.

However..

The reason I start with his second skill is the fact that it applies ignite.
Ignite is your bread and butter debuff. It ticks 4 times over 6 seconds and does 2 dmg with each tick.
Now that sounds pretty lame, doesn’t it?
The special thing about ignite is that it ticks at second 0. Most of the other dots like Lucies toxic has the first tick after a few seconds.

This means that each of your M2 will not just reapply it but also do 16 dmg instead of 14. That’s pretty huge for such a simple spell.

Next one is your M1/LMB fire ball. It has good range, does 12 dmg and reapplies ignite. Yes you heard right.
It does reapply ignite. Easy 14 dmg with each hit.
As with most ranged Champions you will want to spam this attack as much as you can.

His Spacebar Searing flight skill is a really useful traveling ability. It’s kinda fast and does 10 dmg where you land. What makes it even better is that you can reduce the cool down but more to that later.

His Q, Flamestrike or also called Vulcano because of his BLC origins, is an non-trancable AOE that does massive 20 dmg and stuns people for 0.6 seconds. This is huge.
However, because it is so mighty, it is also hard to set up.
After casting the spell it takes 1.2s to actually explode. People can just walk out of it or use defensive cool downs.
Try to combo it with your team mates for big success.

His E Molten Fist is a very useful tool. Unfortunately it doesn’t do any dmg but it knocks people away, snaring them for 1.5 seconds.
Now if that’s not useful enough already, you also get invincibility frames during the spell. This means you can use it to evade ultimates and other hard hitting spells and CCs!

His R ability is called Flamewall. This spell is pretty situational and can be used for offense as well as defense. For 25 points of energy (that is one bar) you create an area that block all enemy projectiles. Yes, also ultimates like the one of Iva and Jade.

You can also use the wall to push enemies back and to snatch the ORB for your team!
Great skill but rather hard to use for full effect.

His ultimate Infernal Scorch is activated by having 100 energy points and pressing F.
You will turn into a giant raging fireball that dashes forward your cursor, leaving behind an burning crater. This attack is really devastating. It stuns people for a short time, does 36 dmg plus 4 every 0.5 sec that the enemy is standing in the crater. It also applies ignite.
Now this is an ultimate worth it’s name.
Beware, though, that you are not invincible while channeling up the ultimate.
It combos really well of your Flame strike for even more damage.

Ex1 is called Searing FIRE and is exactly like the base ability, searing FLAME.
However after reaching your destination you will receive a mighty buff that turns you into a green living flame. While this, your M1 will heal you for 12 with every hit. It even works on the orb!
Use this if you are low on health but beware that it costs 50 points of energy instead of the usual 25.

His second EX is Molten Chains.
For 25 energy, this awesome ability petrifies everyone in an radius around you for 3 seconds.
Use this to either chain CC people or just peel Melees off you.

Since it shares the same slot with Flame Strike, you have to decide if you want to go more offensive of defensive. Great Ex ability if used right.

Battlerites

Okay, now that you know what his abilities do, I’ll cover the stuff that decides how Ashka plays. The Battlerites.

As intended by the developers, the Tier 1 rites have the biggest impact on the play style.
Char makes your Flame strike (Q) lingering for additional dmg and ignite debuffs. Useful to apply ignite to many people if you cast it on choke points.
In general I would not recommend taking it, though, as it’s easily avoidable for most champions.

The middle rite is Blaze. Blaze is absolutely amazing. After using your Searing flight (SPACE) you get a movement speed buff and what’s more important, your next Fireball becomes a Fire storm!

An very easy way to spread ignite on the main target without the need of the long channeling M2.
This is my go-to rite, since mobility is important for Ashka.

Next on is the last Tier 1 rite, Knockout. This rite can be powerful but is very situational. If you knock people into a wall with your Molten Fist (E), you stun them for one second. It’s a great way to set up bursts with other classes like Croak but depends heavily on the map.
As you might have noticed, the first two maps Mount Araz and the Orman Temple, have many walls. Especially in their daytime variants.
The later added maps like Sky Ring are more open and have less walls.
I mean look at the night version of Sky Ring (

View post on imgur.com

). 4 very small walls. Don’t expect to push people into them. That’s why I don’t recommend taking this rite.

For Tier 2 we start off with Wild Fire. What it does is that you launch 1 additional fire storm with your M2. That’s it. No extra effects or synergies like the other rites.
Because Fire Storm kinda roots people in place it helps to get pressure up. You will do 64 instead of 48 dmg if you hit all bolts.
You have to decide yourself is this is worth it or if other rites fit your play style better.

Next is Lava Punch. What is does is basically reduce the cooldown of Molten fist (E) by 1 second and additional 2 seconds if you actually hit some one.
Usually I choose this rite by default because it gives me a bigger chance of evading important spells (see above).

Last one for Tier 2 is Fire Ward. With this you get a shield for 3 seconds that will absorb 14 dmg. This equals to about 1 to 2 hits.
The rite compliments an very aggressive play style as you have a bigger room for errors when going in.

All the tier 2 rites are very solid. You have to see what fits your play style best but I’d recommend to default to Lava Punch if you are uncertain.

In Tier 3 we finally get the rite called Heat. Heat reduces the cool down of your Searing flight (Space) by 1.5 seconds for each Fire Storm (M2) you hit. This goes very well with the Tier 1 rite Blaze, which makes your first M1 a firestorm too. It helps immensely at staying mobile throughout the whole match.

If you are brave enough, you can Space in, throw a full Firestorm and space out without being endangered too much. I heavily recommend taking it.

Emberfire, the middle pick of Tier 3 is pretty useless in my opinion. It is too rare that you hit people with your flame strike and 14 health is not enough to justify taking it. AVOID.

The last one, Conflagration, is turning your fireballs into firestorm bolts if you are shooting through a flame wall. It can help you being extremely aggressive but I’d suggest watching people the 2 rounds before and think about if it’s worth taking this situational rite for a situational ability.

In Tier 4 there are two really good choices.

I usually take Inspiration which gains you more energy and lets you have a total of 125 energy points. You cannot go wrong with this. Ever.
A big plus is that you only need 4 instead of 5 M1 hits for an bar of energy.

The middle one, slayer, is useless most of the times. 20% more dmg sounds huge but if you managed to get people below 30% it won’t help you much to get the actual kill. Take Inspiration instead of throw an ultimate to secure the kill.

Magma is an interesting rite. It reduces movement speed of ignited enemies by 12%. This makes them easier to kite and to hit. I take this rite against Champions where exactly this is the problem.
E.g. for me, Taya is hard to hit if not slowed and Sirius and Rook are easily kited by just slowing them down.

For Tier 4 rites it recommend that you default to Inspiration and see if you need magma to stay on top of your enemy.

The fifth rite it depends on your team mate.
I usually pick Everlasting Flame, which does the same as your Ex1 Searing Fire, and turns you into a living flame that heals with each M1 attack. It’s awesome to stay on your target especially in the absence of a support character.

If you are coordinated with your team, the massive slow down of Molten Shackles can help you securing the kill.

Synergies

Ashkas synergies mainly build on three factors.

• Firstly, he can get by solo pretty well. So your mate does not have to be a support and even if he is, he does not have to look after you all the time.
• Secondly, his Ex2 – Molten Chains – that petrifies people is great for chain CCing.
  Lucie works as well as all other team mates with incaps.
• Lastly and most important: Flame strike. This is what you should build your combos off from.
  Champions that can take advantage of this are those who can stun Croak (stun -> stun), Oldur (Slow on E), Shifu (Incap on R) or generally keep people in place like Poloma ( [link] credits to /u/Avanus) and Taya (see the video at Flame Strike).

This section will be extended later.

Bonus Tips

Some people think it’s a good idea to take the double fly rite with Iva. Punish them. Punish them hard for this idiocy.
Same with Polomas who use their Spirit Guide (Space) offensively.

For some reason people think that Pearls bubble makes projectiles disappear. They don’t.