Anon's guide for Ash, aka best girl
Oh, hey, didnt see you there. You want to play Ash? K, grab your mouse and keyboard.
I hope what i have to say help you in some way, been playing her since launch, currently level 119, 302 hours from my 950 playtime of paladins dedicated to her and I still make mistakes, oh well.
I remember when Raynday said she was gonna be the face of Paladins and then, nothing, since were in thundershit's era, i guess thats not too bad.
Basics not so basic
Ok, Ash is pretty straight forward, she screams aggression and creating space, she can be a point FL, off tank and both at the same time (proof chicken.png). It mostly comes down to how aggressive you are and your cards. Just bear in mind, there are others that do a better job in some situations and team comps, so, if in ranked, don't blindly first pick Ash.
Ill assume you read her skills descriptions, but doen't hurt to coment on them.
Her m1 is ye old crag shot, it's ok, but at only 400 dmg you really feel that cauterize meta, even more when you face big healing numbers and dmg reduction, so you will want to rush caut 2 before getting something else. It blows up by itself after traveling a certain distance, go to the shooting range to get familiar with if you haven't yet, some may say to you to shoot above crowds when theyre at your max range, but dont over do it, there is dmg falloff and 100 dmg wont help too much. The projectiles explode near enemies, don't know exactly the distance, but its something around extra 50% size of the projectile, dmg fallof applies here, so always go for a direct hit. This mechanic wasnt original, before it you could hit a retreating oponent behind someone else shooting over or to the side of the enemy FL with ease, you still can, but you need more distance from the oponents direct in your face and some tight shots can't be done. As a trade of, its easier to hit around corners, you don't need the max range for that shit to explode, so, keep shooting, sometimes they just dont run away far enough, also, paladins huge hitboxes. Altough they dont explode when using the Slug Shot talent, your shoots keep their enemy detection box, so you can still hit despite missing or blindly shooting into a room.
M2, kinetic burst, it is a nice skill, vrum vrum goes boom, sometimes it has a bigger range than you think, sometimes its shorter and sometimes it hits only the enemy's shield on your left. Don't rely on it's default knockback value for sending people out of the map, want that life? Pick Percussion and crank that up before the next patch. You can combo Kinetic Burst with Shoulder Bash for, of course, sending people far, and to get extra WHOPING 50 dmg over just Shoulder Bash+M1. I think they fixed it, but sometimes you reved up your M2 and it wouldn't actually rev up, it was annoying, and be careful not to cancel it if youre beginning with her. You might think that castle forged is a good card, I personally don't use it, the CD is alright and, lets say, mothers grace Inara won't have Earthen Guard all match long, so, be patient, controled aggression is key.
Shoulder Bash is your highest damaging ability and mobility option, very punishable and then youre stuck for 14 seconds until you can do it again just to get punished again. Youll need to bait enemy CC before using it most of the time, and that changes from enemy to enemy, some might burts that cc early some might hold on to it. Wait for jenos to lift you before Shouldering him, unles its Void Grip. As an escape option, not very good aggainst your counters, which are quite popular toons among the playerbase, its preferable to engage with it making use of a 1200 dmg combo, Shoulder+m1, you don't need to run away if they're dead. You can change directions in a short time frame, before actually lounging forward, can't really say how long it is, around 1,5 seconds, i guess, it's more of a feeling for me, shooting range is your friend for this, get familiar to it, turning at the last second may come in hand. Thank Saint Terminus that the hitbox for Shoulder Bash got fixed. Resilience is your friend.
Shield is a shield, what else? Don't just drop it when retreating, your enemies, which are chasing you, will just cross it right after you drop it, turn around, drop it, cross it and retreat with it while shooting if possible, otherwhise, use it to cover your Shoulder bash out of there, unless jenos and khan exist in your match. You can dance around it too if needed.
Assert Dominance you go invincible for 8 seconds but still CC vulnerable. Don't wait forever to ult, you follow a very predictable arc and your enemies won't stop shooting you. If the theres a roof over your head, just bump into it, youll drop faster. It's more of an engage than panic button, like Shoulder Bash, be carefull to not land where the enemy can just ignore you. SB+m1+Ult fuck most of the cast, don't forget the m1 for caut. You can ult+m1+SB in crowds duting team fights.
Talents
Well, they don't exactly fit a single role.
Battering Ram
It was a beast of a talent, CC imunity and 90% dmg reduction, but life ain't fair. With 75% dmg reduction it does become a good escape tool, but doesnt actually solve the problem Shoulder Bash has with certain CCs. Good to bully high burst dmg champs and face tank some ults so your team doesn't have too, like eating lian's Enlightenment and BK's ult. You can use when contesting mid to receive some burst and be cool with that when out of a shield.
Fortress Breaker
The best suited for point fighting because it stays in place and with the correct loadout you can surely reset the shield's since youll be sumo wrestling an enemy FL, can be usefull if youre off tanking, but aggainst teams with high mobility you wont have the best uptime on your shield and could make use of other cards and talents, still preferable they hit a 6500 renewable wall than you. Also, turns your shield into the strongest one in the game.
Slug Shot
It's really good aggainst teams without a frontline and in open large maps, youll want more ammo with this one. Remember to help focus retreating enemies when using this talent, your shots go really far, if you see you can probably hit it.
Advanced tips? More like stuff everybody knows already.
Old trick but, when youre going to ult, look straight up and do it, youll fall in place, good for everything. You can also kinda slide on certain terrain, Magistrate Archives comes to mind, but I wouldnt rely on this "tech" since you can't do it everywhere and youll probably hit one pixel out of place and end up out of position.
You can hug corners with Shoulder Bash and slide them, the most famous is at Serpent Beach on the ocean side of the map, shoulder bash at the doorway corner aiming at the point and youll end up there. There are many places you can do it, just be carefull to not get stuck on the wall.
When ulting, you have some kind of air control, can fuck you up sometimes.
You can jump and then ult if you're not sure about reaching a high ground, wall jump as well, usefull on Splitstone Quarry to get to the back line, also, on point, there's a pathway over the point, opposed to the grinders, you can ult under that for fast stuns. In Warders Gate you can ult out of point, over those wall around it, the idea here is to ult from out of sight to get people off guard.
With ult and facing jenos without void grip, you can either ult again if he grabs you or Shoulder Bash to bait other moviment impairing CC's like Comand Grab and Koa's hook and then ult, just dont do that if there are three people shooting you, just ult again.
Slug Shot is very good aggainst WYRM jets drogoz.
Andro can't eat the damage of Shoulder Bash, when he goes for Reversal, just tackle the cunt, you have plenty of time for that to hit.
You can come back from a pit with your ult, just make sure you wont get jolted, Khan ulted after that.
Shoulder Bash reduces the amount of displacement someone inflicts on you, use it aggainst Torv ult as soon as possible but don't go straight back at him.
On mirror matches, be the first one to hit Kinetic burst and the second one to use shoulder bash for superior ground control, of course, sometimes youre forced to do earlier, but keep it in mind.
Xeno Buster canon doesn't do as much noise as other options.
Moji can eat you inside your ult.
Cards
Probably biased.
Very good
Fervor, Indomitable, Vanguard.
Youll want these in every loadout, Indomitable gives you 50% lifesteal at max, and yes, it works on multiple enemy gamers at the same time and with Kinetic Burst, level 4 is the lower ill allow you to go with this one. Fervor is a flexible card, can either be between a filler or hard 5, depends on what you want. Vanguard helps engaging and DR is always good.
Good
Gate Crasher, Siege Engine, War Machine, Brawl.
These can be considered very good cards, but will be more Talent and playstyle dependant. Brawl could actually go up since now it properly works with multiple enemies. Lower shield cooldown with Siege Engine is fine for most cases but works for one enemy hit only. Gate Crasher and War Machine act as a snowball tool, getting that Shoulder Bash more often and then more eliminitions and so on. But if you just die or don't take fights, they become average cards, Gate Crasher being the better one of the two.
Average
The rest of them, minus Battlement and Trebuchet, their benefits get trumpled by stronger cards and aren't worth to be used.
Castle Forged, Heavy Metal, Ramparts and Thrive, are loadout dependant and can make space for other cards that will help you in a specific job. I'm not one to use Castle Forged, 6 seconds aren't that long and you can easily manage that, if youre going heavy on Brawl then sure, pick it.
Loadouts
Take these with a grain of salt.
Fortress Breaker
Fervor-1
Indomitable-4
Ramparts-5
Siege Engine-4
Percussion-1
You can get Indomitable at five by lowering Siege Engine and getting Cronos but i prefer to focus on other items early on. Works well when youre solo tanking with only 2 seconds downtime on the shield, just drop it, shot, prime Kinetic Burst at the 9th shot and you cand drop that again. The CD reset only occurs after the shield disapear/is destroyed.
Battering Ram
Indomitable-5
Fervor-1
Vanguard-4
Gate Craser-4
War Machine-1
You rush them down and keep that pressure on, haven/blast and cronos go well with this. Use your shield to hold out an area while healling with Indomitable or while peaking your sup.
Slug Shot
Fervor-5
Indomitable-5
War Machine-2
Siege Engine-2
Heavy Metal-1
Just use your extra range, and annoy everybody. Siege Engine is the most out of place and could be replaced while bringing Heavy metal one point higher.
Items
Cauterize is the first one youll get, unless there are no supports on the enemy team, but just delay it then. Since Indomitable heal procs on Kinetic Burst, we can assume it applies caut too.
Resilience can be your second pick, even more now that it has been buffed, that or Rejuvenate fit nicely as a first round buy complement.
You can save the extra starting money to rush Caut 2 or to buy Morale Boost/Cronos depending or your build, but Morale will have better use outside Batering Ram loadouts.
Resilience and Rejuvenate are ok, Resilience being the better choice.
Quick Rundown: Caut/Resi/Morale/Reju. Can trade resilience for haven if little to no CC's on the enemy team, switch Reju for Iluminate if going after the invis toons
Guardian might go well with Fortress Breaker if you have an empty slot on your item list and new Veteran doesn't seem good enough to compete with some "stardard" choices.
Notable Counters
Yago
Yagorath is the frontline that no one wants to go aggainst, its just a chore. On ranked theres always counterpicking, so it isnt a problem and you won't be solo tanking, preferably. In casual yago will probably go after your squishies, play with them and tank, her quils will go through and the acid pools will still be there, so position your shield in a way to block not only her but her team, since, you know, extra dmg from the quill+acid. If it anchors on point, delay going to it, getting a first pick on a suport or dps before going to contest yago is the best solution and on some maps enemy yago will just be completely out of the fight. Her ult kills you even inside Assert Dominance, be careful. Slug shot outranges her, of course.
Khan
Youll learn to hate this dude, shield on demand, grab that goes through your kinetic burst, an ult that is bullshit, 1k heal. A 1v1 is mostly in his favor.
Mindgames are needed, hell probably reserve his Comand Grab for your Shoulder bash, the CDs are pretty even with cards. Youll have to peel him with your M1 and force his retreat or an early grab so you can hit him with SB. Khan's tend to save their ult's to get you out of Assert Dominance, remember to save your shield for your ult and keep him on the other side. With some luck your team will burst him, but sometimes youre OT 3/3 and theres nothing you can do besides ulting, so try to stun and kinetic burst him away. It's not a fun match up and youll see it a lot on ranked. The answer is to play alongside someone else, like your supports if he goess for them or coordinated with a DPS/flank. You can go around him and Shoulder Bash away if crossing paths in a team fight, but then he can go free to your backline and you might get fucked by their backline, so, don't go for that unless that khan really hates you, but play passively while the rest of your team shoot the distracted squishies, implying theyll notice that.
Makoa
His hook, shoot, shell spin combo can be fatal but other than that he isnt the worst, his hook must be respected and taken into account during engagements, good Koas will hook you when youre really close to hit him with shoulder bash, rendering your shield useless as means to avoid getting punished. Punish him if hes close to ledges, but do so with your shield out, you don't want to go with him. Don't be affraid to step inside Half Shell and drop your shield there.
Inara
Treachrous Ground will shut you down most of the time, Mother's Grace helps them, but you can boop her away in the downtime of Earthen Guard. Rush resilience and you can get the fuck out of Treachrous Ground with ease. She will take all the punishment you give her, so, her backline is more important. Be aware of being walled away from your team and don't rely on Shoulder Bash.
Saint Terminus
Siphon cucks you and his leap can interrupt your SB with the proper talent, on some maps youre bound to have a hard time. Attacking him from multiple angles is the best, but you alone can't do it, hope your team help with that.
Ash
Mirror matches can be defined by who cycles their CDs better, as i said, be the first to kinetic burst and the second to Shoulder Bash for ground control.
Don't fall for shield battles, go through her shield and drop yours after Bursting her away. Resilience helps a lot. Consider the enemy Ash loadout as well and silently judge her choices.
There is a whole cast of toons, but they either have stuns, fight from a distance or do a lot of burst damage, so, resilience and shields. Against mobile chimps, you can go Slug Shot and, with your god aim, shut them down, or wait till they land/waste their dashes and shoulder bash+m1 to quickly dispatch them, don't be afraid to leave the point to help your team.
(May or may not be revised.)
(Fuck Ska'drin)