Ash Review
It's been 24 hours since Apex Legends: Escape, and with it the game's newest Legend Ash, went live. How is she currently performing in the meta?
As the newest Legend, Ash has the highest pick rate which we expect to drop down as the season progresses.
She has a very strong information-based Passive, which allows her to see deathboxes on her minimap and tag them to locate the fallen squad's killers. This ability is mostly used to locate other squads and potentially set up third parties. I see it being paired with Valkyrie Ultimate to effectively hunt down squads and reap lots of kills. This ability does seem very overpowered on paper, and to be honest, at the moment it is, however we expect this notion to die out as the season progresses and people learn to counter Ash.
Her Tactical Arc Snare is an ability with a very high skill floor to use effectively. To tether an enemy in place for a few seconds is very powerful and can be combined with grenades and friendly Ultimates like Fuse. However the projectile has a slow travel time, meaning surprise and good timing is key to successfully capturing an enemy. In the right hands, this may be a menace especially when a player goes outside of the box to come up with combos. It is however mildly countered by Horizon's gravity lift and Wraith's phase, however gravity lifts and jump pads in particular will not allow players to remove the tether, although they will gain vertical height.
Phase Breach is a somewhat controversial Ultimate, as it is essentially a one way Wraith Ultimate with a much quicker cast time. Unlike Wraith, Ash's portals need direct line of sight with each other, which means there are scenarios where Wraith's will be much more efficient. For the most part, Ash's portals can fulfil most of what Wraith's can, such as transporting downed allies from location to location, or aggressively pushing with your team. It can be combined with Revenant Ultimates, however it is likely the portals will have closed by the time the player returns to the totem, therefore the jump pad is a better combo with the death totem.
Right now, Ash is very powerful and causing outcry within the community, however our perceptions may change as we move further into the season.
