...And even if I didn't have a nightmarishly long hellish shift tomorrow which starts early and goes fairly late at a high traffic time (the one hope of it not being high traffic is maybe MAYBE the hope, HOPE, that the day after a holiday will be reduced traffic).

Which mind you, I do; I need to go to bed for that.

Even if I didn't have that.

I am already dead tired from today.

I've been feeling exhausted since the moment I woke up and it hasn't improved during the day at all.
I'm tired, I need bed, I have work anyway, so all those things which need to be done, won't be done.
Sucks.
​But it is what it is.

I've somewhat calmed down from this by talking to others, at the expense of going to bed a full hour after I was supposed to, butstill.

I just...haven't really been feeling mentally good for a long long time and today was particularly low for me.

It's a little late.
I'm a little tired.
It's a little cold.
I kinda want to go to bed now.

But, I'm currently waiting for the ability to submit an action which'll take me ten minutes, and I have nothing else to do other than fill that time with something, and writing a blog entry proper seems as good a way as any to do it. Even though the blog will take far more than the time I needed.

I suppose I can write about the story idea I had on Sunday, Red Strider.
With the exception of the polyamorous relationship, I am fairly certain that everything in this story idea has been done before--my take, barring that particular aspect, is nothing unique, nothing original, nothing groundbreaking, nothing putting a twist on the tale which I invented and I am quite certain that it has all been done before.

But I am also quite certain that even if every individual aspect of the story has been done before.

All of them together?

Yeah, my story's the first.

So basically, this is a Little Red Riding Hood and Big Bad Wolf story, with the Lumberjack/Huntsman (combined to be the same guy, which...again, has been done before; combining those two guys to be one and the same is something which is often done) as well.

Specifically, the Big Bad Wolf is a werewolf by birth, who infected Little Red Riding Hood and the Huntsman with his lycanthropy. (So, Little Red Riding Hood as a werewolf, and the Huntsman/Lumberjack as a werewolf--again. Both of these have been done, albeit I'm pretty sure not together.)

To give a little more detail.
Little Red Riding Hood, in this case, is the titular character, the Red Strider: Rosanne (known as Rose to those close to her) "Red Strider" Hood. She, along with Clint "Huntsman" Hunter, and Arthur "Mutt" Wolfe, are a trio of monster hunters, who for their living travel from location to location helping out the locals with whatever supernatural threat may plague their city.

All three of them carry cold iron and silver weapons, along with also carrying wooden stakes, but each of them has their own unique skills, knowledge/background, and tools that the others do not have.

Rosanne was raised by her grandmother, a witch. (Specifically, a good witch--I'll explain more about witches below.) She was taught the knowledge of witchcraft and the tools of the trade, so she is a somewhat-talented witch of her own, albeit not a fullblown master of witchcraft. She was always a hunter, using her bow and arrow, and she also carries two hatchets and two knives on top of that.

She's got some training from Clint in the ways of the woods which she didn't learn with her own upbringing, but he's the real master of the art. She is in love with both Clint and Arthur. Her only qualms with transforming into a werewolf are that she doesn't want to broadcast this to her enemies (as it does have exploitable weaknesses) unless she chooses to, and that she does have a sense of modesty which transforming can potentially run afoul of. (See below.)

Clint Hunter is a master tracker, hunter, herbalist, scientist in the fields of flora and fauna, you get the idea. He basically has lived in the woods his entire life, hunting down prey and learning about natural medicines and remedies, as well as investing time to learn about the supernatural creatures of the world to know of their weaknesses and telltale calling signs.

He uses a crossbow with various different types of bolts, but additionally carries two axes, two hatchets, and two knives on top of that. He is in love with Rose. He is on a last-name basis with Wolfe when showing him begrudging respect. (When not showing begrudging respect, it's just 'Mutt'.) He has a strong distaste for using his werewolf abilities, but will do so in case of emergency.

Arthur Wolfe was born a werewolf. He doesn't know how old he is (werewolves are immortal), because his parents raised him in the wild. He doesn't know the day, month, or even year he was born, and he never cared to track such things. Still, for the vast majority of his life, Arthur was the Big Bad Wolf.

As in. He was evil. He ate people. He killed. He loved the thrill of the hunt, and sought out the best prey, the most challenging of things to hunt down and kill, to get immense pleasure out of the massacre along with a good feast. He was an unrepentant monster...and he still is.

Sort of.

When he met Rosanne, he fell in love with her, and while he originally was planning on eating her, he gradually changed his mind, and eventually (albeit after the eventful fight where Rosanne and Clint were both infected), he swore, promised, to put those days behind him.

He is under no magical oath to keep his word. He is a known liar, he hates being bound by rules, he hates laws, he hates restrictions, and his code of conduct is incredibly lose. So he has every reason to go back on his word--but in his love of Rosanne and knowing that she doesn't want him to do that, he simply chooses not to, even though he still really wants to.

Basically, he didn't change; he still wants to kill, he still wants to hunt, he still wants to be that sadistic murderer, but he gave a promise to not act on what he wanted to do despite his desire to--and while nothing is holding him to that promise...it's not a promise he wants to break because he knows Rosanne would be upset by it.

While he is a werewolf by birth, he is also a skilled alchemist. Alchemy is neither the work of science nor the work of witchcraft. It is a separate system altogether, with different principles. Now, granted. Knowledge of witchcraft/knowledge of scientific principles (such as having botanical knowledge) translate incredibly well into alchemy, but they are still two entirely separate things.

Alchemy, similar to witchcraft, is a latent genetic trait which in addition to requiring the gene also requires training to unlock and utilize the potential of. (And, no, the two are not mutually exclusive; there are plenty of witches who are also alchemists, and vice versa. And some of them are even scientists as well!)

So he carries the tools of the trade, but also arms himself with more traditional weapons. He carries two swords, and in addition to the swords, carries knives...lots, and lots, and lots of knives, throwing them as he pleases, to have basically the same amount of ammo as his companions.

He is in love with Rosanne, and while he and Clint aren't really fond of each other, they at least tolerate and work with the other and have managed to build a steady, healthy, working relationship with Rosanne.

He is a bit of a dick, and unashamably so. He's blunt, he doesn't mince words, he's unapologetic, unrepentant, but he is also astute, sharp-witted, reliable, and willing to do what needs to be done. He won't hesitate to perform a deed which is heroic in spite of his past lifestyle, and this past lifestyle can be an asset when called upon to perform deeds that are necessary but which nobody wants to due, e.g. mercy killing those who truly cannot be saved. (Which, they usually can be, if they are willing.)

So there are a few setting details I figured I should mention.
Obviously, this would be a land of fairy tales. A fantasy setting of some sort.
I haven't worked out all the details of the setting, but the general rule of thumb: almost no supernatural creature is inherently always evil; their evilness comes from the individual rather than from the supernatural.

For instance, obviously, Arthur is a werewolf who is evil--doing good things out of love, but still at heart evil. That's not due to being a werewolf; that's due to him having just been evil.

Most people are neutral with a slight inclination to lean towards acts of altruism, that is to say, most people are "more or less, decent/good folk". This includes the world of the supernatural. But the world is a big, big place, and plenty of places are plagued by those who in spite of the general natural lean towards being good...are just, rotten to their core.

Monsters, who are monsters. And most of them are supernatural with the power to inflict great harm on others.

Witches are no exception.
For the sake of classification, you can call some people "good witches" and some people "bad witches", but this is not something designated by some steadfast rule. There's no "oh you were born a bad witch, you can only be a bad witch", or "you were born a good witch, you must be a good witch"; there's no "good witch powers" compared to "bad witch powers"; there's no real separation between the two.

Witches are witches, regardless of whether they are good or bad. And whether they are good or bad isn't determined by birth, but rather, by what they do with the powers at their disposal. Witch powers are universal, so any witch can use any witch power, but some witch powers are more 'evil' in nature (for instance, the witchcraft which extends your lifespan beyond its natural maximum), while other powers are more 'good' in nature (for instance, shielding a place from harm).

I also wanted to talk about werewolves in the setting.
Birth-werewolves, those who were born as werewolves, are almost identical to werewolves who were turned later in their life. The transmission vector is specifically body fluids during a blue moon, usually a bite but other fluids work just as well for these purposes.

The main difference: werewolves who were turned must take full-wolf form during the full moon, and can't transform during the new moon; a birth werewolf has neither of these restrictions. Turned werewolves can also only transmit while in their full wolf form, a limitation a birth wolf lacks.

But, to get into their powers:
In human form, werewolves have peak levels of human everything. The strongest of strong human strength, the toughest of tough human endurance, the most attuned of sensitive human senses. Able to see, smell, hear, see, etc. to the highest ability possible for a human. With no need of exercising regularly being able to do stunts like run a marathon in record time, lift low hundreds of pounds, transport this load a long distance, you get the idea.

They are fast, they are strong, they are tough, but they are still at levels which a human can plausibly achieve. High athletic level, with the build to match. (So, yes, they are naturally ripped. Which applies regardless of gender.) If you took a look at them, you wouldn't think that they were supernatural creatures; you would think that they were average humans, performing feats which are appropriate for their in-shape body build.

And while no human could do everything they do all at once, a human could do anything individually that they do.

The one exception which is supernatural: they have skin which is harder to breach than any human (but not so hard as to make you think it's armor), and they still regenerate ridiculously well. I mean, cut off their heads and they'll die; cause intense extended trauma and they'll die (like, ripped in half and guts scattered), but they can explicitly survive wounds which would normally be lethal.

In their full wolf form, there are advantages and disadvantages.

They possess telepathy with other werewolves, able to communicate with other werewolves, regardless of the other werewolves' states. Other werewolves human but there's a full wolf werewolf? They can still communicate two ways without speaking a word. Other werewolves in half-wolf form but there's a full werewolf? They can still communicate two ways without speaking a word.

They can communicate with canines and felines--a particularly useful skill to have, as cats and dogs are particularly attuned to the supernatural world, and both have evil-detecting/good-detecting innate abilities.

They have the best smelling of any creature in existence. Go look up creatures with good smell (like dogs, bears, and the like--I'd actually have to do the research there myself which...I currently haven't), look at what they can do with their noses, and werewolves in full wolf form can do it.

They have the best hearing of any creature in existence. Same as above.

They have full night vision, able to see in absolute pitch black darkness with a clarity as if it were still as bright as day.

They are incredibly fast, nimble, agile, mobile, and maneuverable. They can sprint at incredible speeds, leap incredible distances with good turns, dodge, weave, twist, turn, you name it. 

Their fur provides not only natural warmth but also a natural level of armor, protecting against bodily harm.

They can pass as being "just a big dog".

They can still fit into smaller spaces.

They are still REALLY strong, supernaturally so. They're stronger than they are when they're human in these wolf forms.

And they have even higher regeneration capabilities in this form.

The form comes with a number of disadvantages though.
Full wolves are full wolves--no human vocal chords. By which, I mean, they can't speak. They can growl, but those growls can't really be understood by others.

Clothes do not transform with the werewolf--so when you take full wolf form, none of your human clothes would fit, and thus, they won't be there when you transform out of full wolf form.

They are fully quadrupedal; this obviously limits their dexterity. No fine motor control with paws or I guess jaws; they can't really do anything which requires opposable thumbs or the like.

As mentioned, they have the best hearing/smelling of any creature--this can cause sensory overload fairly easily. Where loud noises/really bad smells are physically painful to them and can briefly stun them.

They have, relatively speaking, low defense especially against blunt trauma--that is to say, they can very easily be tossed around, they can be stunned, winded, knocked unconscious, and the like by blunt force blows. Rocks, clubs, fists, you name it. They'll still take considerably more than a normal human would to be affected by this, but it is incredibly easy for anything with remotely high levels of peak-human-or-higher level strength to just...grab them and ragdoll them, tossing them about. They can't really counter that except by dodging.

In other words, while against projectiles and cutting and piercing weapons they have plenty of defenses, against blunt force weapons, they are "fragile speedsters".

They are wearing full fur coats--this can leave them vulnerable to overheating.

And they are fully carnivorous in this form; they cannot stomach anything except for meat in it, and thus, if taking this form and requiring sustenance, must eat meat from somewhere or another.

Their half-wolf forms come with their own advantages and disadvantages.
They can be bipedal or quadrupedal, switching between the two freely.
They are still incredibly fast and agile, with inhuman abilities to sprint, burst, leap, etc.
While even in wolf form they have incredible inhuman strength, in half wolf form this is amplified to levels which're high even by supernatural beast standards.
They have their already monstrous toughness raised to be literally like hard steel armor plating--they are basically a brick wall, immovable, hitting like a freight train moving at full speed, and indomitable.
They can actually speak.
They have both claws and teeth, but still have opposable thumbs, so have full human dexterity.
They are omnivorous, able to digest just about anything. Things even humans might not be able to.
They still have heightened senses of hearing and smelling--not as high as their full wolf forms, but still supernatural levels beyond what any human is capable of.
They still have fur to give them a second armor level and natural protection from the cold.

All in all, an awesome form which has almost all the strengths of both but almost none of the weaknesses beyond the universal ones.

But it's not without its flaws.
A half-werewolf form is obviously monstrous. It can take some convincing that, yeah, you're not there to eat the townsfolk if you stride in when wearing this form.

It can destroy clothing when transforming--this is why werewolves who care to preserve their clothing tend to wear a bunch of loose clothing with gaps in certain areas and elasticity to them, such that when they transform to and from this form, their clothing remains unscathed. Wear the wrong type of clothing though, and if you don't remove it before transforming, you shred it.

It has low maneuverability. It's fast. It's strong. It's a tank. But while it is capable of those acts of extreme athleticism. Those movements are largely linear. Straight up, straight forward, straight back, or at very slight angles. There isn't the same ability to turn on a dime that the full wolf form has, and even peak humans can do better than them (and thus, they can do better in their full human form).

Yeah, their maneuverability is still about at average human level, but considering their maneuverability in both other forms, this is a massive step down.

On a similar note: their sight is at human levels, lacking the enhancement of supernatural creatures.

And they still can suffer from overheating in this form.

There are a few things universal throughout all forms.
High regeneration.
Immortality.
Immunity to all diseases, even supernatural ones.

But also, weakness to silver--silver in this case causes their supernatural regeneration to be lowered for any wound made by a silver weapon to human levels. That is to say, a normal cut would heal instantly; a cut with a silver weapon wouldn't be permanent, but would still take weeks to heal, just as it would with any given human. This makes it much easier to kill a werewolf using silver weapons.

They also have a weakness towards wolfsbane. When you're not a birth werewolf, you can't transform at all when exposed to it. Even as a birth werewolf, while you can transform freely, you're brought down in strength/speed/etc. in those forms to more human levels.

Hmm...there might be more, but that's all I can think of.

Anyway, this did take me more than enough time and I am dead tired so I'll be going to bed once I do the action I was stalling time for.

...But I chose to spend it on a smart investment, of sorts.
Relatively speaking.
So, you know how I am obsessed with getting every Kongregate badge of the day (and even if I miss one or two a week, making absolutely sure to get the golden)?

Well, there was a badge I hadn't earned this week. Usually I have 6-7 of the games' badges already, so I just need to click one link and bam, that's it, I'm done. This week was a six rather than a seven though, which meant that I did need to earn that final badge.

It turned out the badge was a medium badge, and for good reason; it is a badge which required a little bit of time to level-grind--as well as looking up what the optimal build was. (Because with a non-optimal build, it'd take even longer with level-grinding.)

That ate up about two hours of my time, which I would've spent on a blog today.

However, this having been done obviously means that now, for the rest of the week, I don't have to worry about that task so...time spent now, so that I don't have to spend it later. Meaning I'll be more free on other days.

​Which is why I say it's relatively speaking, smart.

...But let's see what I can do tomorrow, because I do have a good one!
(Which knowing me means it never gets made. OH WELL.)

...But I'll keep it brief and say that I'm dead tired.

But I couldn't help but blog about league a day early.
I wanted to talk a little bit about the LCS. When I managed to track down the page of 2020 teams, my heart sank when I noticed two of my favorite teams were absent from the lineup: Clutch Gaming and Optic Gaming, both of which were the teams of teams that I rooted for this year. (Well, sort of. Optic was the team I was rooting for from the beginning, but I've gone on record as saying Clutch originally didn't really make me want to root for them. It wasn't until Clutch's match against TL or thereabouts that I began to root for them, so I sadly cannot say I was rooting for them from the beginning. I very much was not a believer in them, I just didn't really think much of them, but they really managed to grab my attention later in the year with all of their clutch games.)

And then I breathed a sigh of relief when I read that two of the teams that were on the roster which weren't there in 2019 were those same two teams, just...bought out/merged/rebranded by a legacy/bigger name/longer-time name holder in the league of legends world.

Immortals was a team I believe was around since basically the beginning--and their current lineup is confirmed, at least right now, to be Optic's. Optic Gaming/Academy was bought by them, so it makes sense that the relatively-speaking-newer team, who was bought, was rebranded to be a bigger name team. And I can continue to root for them and hope they will grow, because it's the same people as far as I can tell, in both their Academy and main rosters.

I was of course vaguely aware of Dignitas an old titan having merged with Clutch, but I was thinking that they'd keep the name Clutch Gaming. In hindsight, that was a stupid assumption of mine; Dignitas like Immortals is a name which has been around since basically the beginning of League of Legends, whereas Clutch Gaming was...what, a year old this year? So obviously, it makes sense that going into the future they'd carry the name with a legacy to it.

It's a little bit concerning that unlike Optic-->Immortals, their roster isn't listed officially yet. But I am hopeful that things remain as they are. That their coaching staff (who are quite competent, even if they make occasional massive screwups like trying to out-TL Team Liquid by playing TL's style rather than their own in their final game against TL) remains as is, and players remain as is.

Huni is vital to the team; Lira is vital to the team; Damonte is vital to the team; Cody Sun is vital to the team; even Vulcan is vital to the team. All of them have had moments of inting, all of them have had moments of underperforming, all of them have made mistakes which have lost them games...but vice versa is true as well. All of them have had clutch moments winning them the game; all of them have had stellar games where they popped off; all of them work well with each other and overall they are VERY good at being a coherent team.

They have an identity, they have a style, they are well-practiced at executing it, they know how to plan, they know how to adapt the plans they make, they know how to change things up, they have a signature move but know how to play things beyond their signature move, they just work incredibly well as a team and there's synergy with them across the whole map.

Yeah, they've had mistakes where they lack coordination, but they usually know precisely where to focus.

So going into the future.

I really hope all of their members stay on the team, because I'm not sure anyone replacing anyone else would do them any services. If someone left the team and was replaced by someone else. Honestly. Doesn't matter if the replacement was a star player, a legend, an all time best player. Doesn't matter if that new player was the best player ever on their old team. That new team wouldn't perform as well as Clutch Gaming (going into the future, Dignitas) will.

Because the current players have a level of synergy and teamwork that just...works for them. And that's why I think that any player, even one who is theoretically, statistically, historically, 'better', who should be a "trade up", replacing someone on the current lineup.

Would only drag the team down.

If it does end up happening, where they lose one of their players.
I'd be all too happy to be proven wrong. I'd love for them to excel, even if they lost a member.
But I just don't think they can perform to the level they did this year, if they lose a member next year.

Which is why I am hoping that they stay as they are, just with a new name with more history to it.

I suppose I should also mention that a new team came in.

I'm a bit worried to be honest.

Echo Fox was a trash team. Nobody can really debate that. But like. Every trash team in the league means that the teams you want to go on and do well, are more likely to go on and do well. Echo Fox gave teams like Clutch and Optic a much better chance of winning, similar to Flyquest and the like. A new team taking their place could be actually competent and if the new team is actually competent (hey, by my understanding, that's what happened with Clutch Gaming!), then the teams you want to go on are less likely to do so.

So here's to hoping that Evil Geniuses don't fare much better than Echo Fox did.

But anyway.

I do feel kinda guilty talking about the LCS. I am a bit of a fangirl, but I don't want to talk exclusively about pro teams, especially just NA teams when NA isn't even my favorite region and are provably demonstrably not one of the stronger regions in the world.

So instead.

Let's talk about some troll builds meant to be done purely for fun! 

And because I am an Ashe one-trick. (Well, I call myself an Ashe half-trick, because the term 'one-trick' tends to imply a level of competency that I utterly lack. I only play Ashe, but in spite of me only playing Ashe, I'm still a trash player. Or I guess you could say...Trashe tier player.)

The first is a build which won't be viable for very long:
"BF Sword Items only":
Infinity Edge, Bloodthirster, Stormrazor, Essence Reaver, Guardian Angel, and Spear of Shojin. Since Spear of Shojin is being removed, I guess you can instead just add in boots or alternatively some other item which boosts attack damage. (Also, Stormrazor might also be being reworked? Dunno the details there tho.)

I haven't really figured out what runes to use, but this being me, it'd be on Ashe. To be fair. With the exception of Spear of Shojin (which is being removed anyway), all of those items are, individually, items which are useful on adcs. Infinity Edge was, and some insist still is, a must buy on an adc, as a first item or no later than third item pretty much. While that status is debatable, it is undeniably still a good item on an adc no matter what.

Bloodthirster is obviously a great item to have for lifesteal.

Stormrazor is...well, it's an item which Riot wants to rework because "it's only viable on one or two champions". (I believe Kai'sa is one of those.) But it can still be used on Ashe and apparently, people actually win using it as an item often enough for it to show up as an item which is useful for her. (I never saw it on any Ashe guide, but this page lists it as an item for her and that page is apparently somewhat credible.)

Essence Reaver is basically the item which, if people don't say IE is a must buy, people say is a must buy. As in. Anyone who doesn't go IE as one of their first items, will go ER as one of their first items, pretty much. It is a god tiered item on almost any adc, Ashe included. The meta build for Ashe is ER + Trinity Force as first two items and then literally any other three items. (Boots of course being, usually, Berserkers.)

Guardian Angel is an incredibly good lifesaver of an item to have as a lategame/teamfight item.

So individually, all the BF Sword items are good.

It's just that you don't...really use them all together.

Like, Stormrazor pretty much demands you also use RFC and/or Statikk Shiv to get use out of it.
Bloodthirster is good for the lifesteal and shield, but often there's other options to give the lifesteal, e.g. BotRK, Mercurial Scimitar, which often provide greater utility because Bloodthirster is just raw attack, raw lifesteal, and a shield, whereas other lifesteal items give useful stuff with them. When you have another one or two BF Sword items, Bloodthirster is usually not the best lifesteal item as a result because the other lifesteal items can give you more utility.

You can, and some would say should, build both ER and IE together, and probably throw in a GA as a last item later on in a game if need be. So those two work together and synergize well together. (Tho, in my opinion, you can get away with just the ER and no IE. There's other items which give crit chance, there's other items which give attack damage, so there's plenty of viable builds with no IE.)

It's just that all of them together is...well. It's not really items which have any synergy with each other. They work individually, but together there's no real synergy. So that's why the build of 5/6 BF Sword items is a troll build. Now, I have tried it out before. It did a lot of damage, obviously, but felt a little underwhelming to be honest. I could tell there was a ton of damage, but while I objectively knew I was dealing boatloads of damage, it didn't feel like I was doing lots of damage, probably due to the lack of synergy.

That having been said. Again, I didn't really put effort into figuring out what runes to use, so maybe if I had runes to build in addition to the items, this would end up being more satisfying.

Then there's the next one:
Energized Ashe:
This one requires going Precision first and then anything you want for the secondary. You can run the standard Inspiration or go with Domination probably. But what you need is, I believe, the Fleet Footwork rune because Fleet Footwork has an Energized icon. Does it work with items? Heck if I know, I just know it exists and this build is meant to be every Energized effect possible and since there's a rune using Energized it's what you need to run for the effect of the build.

Obviously, the core items: Stormrazor, Rapidfire Cannon, and Statikk Shiv. From there, any items you build would be ones which can help with on-hit effects. (You can use one of the three slots for boots tho.) Runaan's Hurricane, Wit's End, and Gunisoo's Rageblade are probably the best three. (Well, 2/3 if you're using boots. Probably Runaan's + Rageblade.)

This build could also be called "waveclear to the max" I guess, since I mean. Energized attacks to waves + Runaan's. But it is obviously not a viable build. You might hit the attack speed cap (haven't done the math there), but with no Lethal Tempo, you can't exceed it. You'll have decent crit chance (I mean, Runaan's + RFC + Statikk Shiv gives 75%), you'll have ridiculous attack speed, but like.

You'll have zero damage.
You'll have zero healing. (Well, Legend Bloodline can help there.)
You'll have zero cooldown reduction. (Or close to.)
And while you'll have that ridiculous attack speed, hitting the cap means you won't be able to take advantage of it.

Still.

It's a fun idea.

I haven't actually gotten the chance to try it out (I mean, the closest I've gotten is that there was a time where when I was much newer to League/Ashe I built Statikk + RFC + Stormrazor + Runaan's on Ashe but I didn't take the idea to its logical extreme which this build would), but it feels like a build which would be really fun.

Really really useless, because again. Zero damage. Zero healing. Zero protection. Zero cooldown. Zero utility. Anything Ashe could be used for, you can't be used for. So you'd have to be hard-carried. But, dangit, you'd be clearing waves like nobody's business!

Related build:
Raw Attack Speed Ashe
Same basic idea, but running Lethal Tempo, and running Legend Alacricity specifically.
This one requires Rageblade and attack speed items. Berserker's Greaves + Wit's End + Runaan's Hurricane + Statikk Shiv + Trinity Force. This is the combo which gives the absolute highest amount of attack speed possible for Ashe. (Rageblade's base boost is lower than rfc/pd/stormrazor, but the passive stacks from rageblade make rageblade give more than rapidfire cannon, stormrazor, or phantom dancer would.)

TECHNICALLY SPEAKING, if you have Ornn on your team you can substitute out one of Statikk Shiv/Runaan's for an upgraded BotRK because Might of the Ruined King gives more attack speed than either of them, but probably not worth it especially since you can just have Ornn upgrade the Trinity Force.

I'm not sure if Lethal Tempo allows you to benefit from the extra attack speed. Like, it allows you to exceed the attack speed cap, but is that a flat boost from the rune itself, a flat "max attack speed + 110%", or does it allow items to add to that indefinitely? Regardless of which, though, the build has the obvious problems mentioned before.

You'll have zero damage.
You'll have zero healing.
You'll have some cooldown reduction, and you'll have some crit chance, but you're not going to be carrying your team with this build because it's not really pragmatic.

Now, to be fair.

This isn't that far off-meta from the meta Ashe build. It wouldn't take much to turn this from a troll build for fun into the actual real build for Ashe. All of those items I mention are items which Ashe can use, individually. It's just that generally speaking you'd build one or two (maybe, MAYBE three) of them--not all five. (Not counting the Berskerers Greaves because it's a given that those will always be built, unless specified otherwise.)

Still tho. While it's not a build that I've actually tried, I want to. It's just something which feels like it'd be satisfying to do.

A similar build idea but focusing elsewhere:
Movement Speed Ashe:
For this, you need to take Predator (so, Domination primary, with Relentless Hunter)), with Inspiration as your secondary to get Magical Footwear. Your boots would be either Boots of Swiftness or Boots of Mobility once you get them. Boots of Mobility are better for getting into fights one after another after another; Boots of Swiftness are better for running the hell away or trying to close distance on an enemy who's trying to disengage/flee without wasting your ult.

As for the five non-boot items, it's movespeed items. Black Cleaver OR Trinity Force, Youmuu's Ghostblade (assuming its incoming rework doesn't remove the movespeed...which it might), Phantom Dancer, Runaan's Hurricane, and Lichbane is by my calculation the highest. Black Cleaver/Trinity Force and Phantom Dancer both give movespeed from their passives, Youmuu's gives a flat boost and an active to boost it further, and then Runaan's and Lichbane give +7% which is some of the highest of items.

This is something which might be tweakable, I admit I'm not a connoisseur of items so with my lack of encyclopediac knowledge/understanding of them maybe there's a combo which works better. But the basic idea of this is simple; Ashe is normally one of the slowest adcs in the game, one of the slower champions in the game. And this build is literally, "let's do everything possible to make her the fastest champion in the game!".

I don't think I really need to explain the multitude of reasons why this is a troll build. It has literally nothing going for it. But dang would it be fun to be anywhere on the map in an instant, pretty much.

Maximum Slow Ashe:
Okay so I don't quite know what would be used to make this work.
Maybe taking smite and a jungle item for a start (for chilling smite, obv).
You'd need to run Glacial Augment as a primary, probably with Domination (for Cheap Shot) as a secondary. (Tho there's other runes which take advantage of enemies being slowed, too. A ton in the resolve tree for instance.)

With a jungle item, you'd have five slots free.

One would be in {Blade of the Ruined King, Hextech GLP 800, Hextech Gunblade, Randuin's Omen, Righteous Glory, Twin Shadows} for sure. You may or may not take more than one from that list.

Other options: Frozen Mallet, Iceborn Gauntlet, Rylai's Crystal Scepter, and Zeke's Convergence.

I suppose that the build most Ashe like would be,
Jungle item for the smite (Stalker's Blade--who the heck knows for the upgrade after that but maybe Bloodrazor?),
Blade of the Ruined King,
Frozen Mallet,
Iceborn Gauntlet,
Rhylai's Crystal Scepter (it's an item with no reliance on an active I think?),
Then a final item of {Righteous Glory, Twin Shadows, Randuin's Omen, Hextech GLP-800, Hextech Gunblade}.
Righteous Glory or Randuin's Omen give stats that Ashe can actually get use out of (since she doesn't get much use out of ability power), but the gunblade gives healing. Hextech GLP gives a higher slow, though.

Bonus style points: sacrificing flash for Exhaust. Because if you're going to go for a troll build might as well go full on in troll with it.

I think it could be fun to try this out at some point, but I probably wouldn't really have fun with it more than once to be honest. Still, it's an idea! Who knows, maybe I'd love the hilarity of maxing out slowing down my opponents to a crawl.

Another build which I want to try out at some point:
AP Ashe
​I'm not going to explain this because there's a guide for this.

I probably wouldn't use those exact runes/items but would play around with it to see what gives the best results. (For instance, one thing which I might do is instead run my 'max ult reduction' build, which requires domination + inspiration, leaving out sorcery. Would be less AP from lacking Transcendence among others, but it'd reduce the ult by the absolute most possible.) It'd be something to run at some point for fun tho!

Speaking of the ult tho...
Ultimate Ult CDR Ashe
You need to run Domination/Inspiration for this. Or Inspiration/Domination but really what from Inspiration would you use which you can't use with it as a secondary rune? Magical Footwear + Cosmic Insight is all you need there, so Domination is better. 

You can run any of the three combat runes for there. (I mean I guess you could run Predator but that isn't as helpful for making the build work well.)

But obviously.
Take Cheap Shot + Ultimate Hunter + Cosmic Insight + anything else you fancy.
Build Essence Reaver and Trinity Force; with your rune giving the additional 10%, you should hit the cdr max with no extra items.

I mean, I guess you could build cdr items beyond this point but you're not gonna get anything from them. The idea is to get this down to 33 second cooldown so that you can spam enchanted crystal arrows.

Since this is basically the build I am using right now, obviously I can vouch for it being fun. Not quite optimal, but realtalk; I don't think it takes much tweaking to make it go from kinda troll to actually legitimately a good build. It's not something a player of my skill can probably manage to figure out how to be good, but it's still fun even if not optimized as effectively as it could be.

Full Lifesteal Ashe
So this one requires running either Precision/Domination or Domination/Precision. Your choice, really. Depends on which primary keystone you want, and/or which final keystone you fancy. You NEED Overheal + Legend:Bloodline from Precision, and you NEED Taste of Blood + Ravenous Hunter from Domination. I run it with Precision, for the Last Stand bonus and run Lethal Tempo for the attack speed boost, but it can work with anything else, too.

The items you'll want for this:
Blade of the Ruined King, Bloodthirster, Mercurial Scimitar, Death's Dance OR Hextech Gunblade (Ashe doesn't really benefit from the AP of the gunblade, but Taste of Blood gets some bonus healing from the gunblade's AP), Maw of Malmortius, and Wit's End.

Maw of Malmortius and Wit's End don't constantly give lifesteal, but give lifesteal when certain conditions trigger. This build is something I've actually tried out in a game and I have a few conclusions from running it.

One, it is hella fun. It is ridiculously fun to run this.

Two, you heal ridiculously large amounts. At one point, I was down to 10% health, and within 3-5 autos, I was at full health with a ~500 shield.

Three, the build comes partially online once you have two items, which I do BotRK-->Bloodthirster, but really really really comes online once you have three.

Four, you need to change your style of play when running this. Normally, Ashe wants to kite things out. Poke, retreat, poke some more, retreat, and then eventually (probably after stacking Ranger's Focus), go all in after the poke has already chipped away at the enemy's HP bars. And/or wait for her ult, cast it, and engage off of the stun. But this Ashe?

Well, two or three of my eight deaths that game were because I thought, "I can't take them, I need to run!", when if I had turn and fought and all-inned, I'd have won. This Ashe is an Ashe who relies on all-ins. Because her poke damage is nil, but her all in damage is ridiculous, and she is virtually immortal while autoattacking.

Five, you need to be aware: you have zero cdr with this build, so you can't spam your ult. You need to save it. In the game I ran it, for instance, I noticed that the enemy adc, Miss Fortune, would only fire her ult off after she either saw me waste mine and/or I was in the death chamber. (Mind you, that's probably because early in the game I used my ult to cancel hers like three, four times. And then I think she wised up that I'd always try to stop her. Granted. For Ashe to cancel MF's ult, her arrow needs to land and I have abysmal accuracy, and it needs to be fast, and I have ridiculously bad reflexes, so most of my ult-to-cancel-her-ult usages weren't very optimized, butstill. Good to do!)

There was one exception, where she shot it while I was alive and had my ult up...where she was being bodyguarded by her entire team blocking my arrow. (She used that ult to waveclear, breaking our siege of their inhibitor turret. We ended up losing that fight and extending the game longer than it should've gone specifically because of her ult which I couldn't cancel with mine due to her bodyguards.) But for the most part. She waited for me to stupidly waste my ult before firing hers once she knew I could no longer negate hers.

Which means that with this build I need to save my ult in case of emergencies only. I normally spam it. Use it to start engagements. Use it to start a disengagement. In some cases, use it to buy time when we really can't afford to lose an objective and use it as a deterrent to the objective being taken even if we don't get a pick from the ult landing. But I can't just waste it frivolously with zero cdr in my build. (Well, basically zero anyway. I didn't get the Maw before we ended the game.)

Six, you actually deal absurd amounts of damage and attack rather rapidly too. This might be a troll build, but I still dealt the fifth highest damage in the game to champions...fourth highest damage to turrets...and third highest damage to objectives. And those amounts? Really close to fourth which wasn't far from third, and really close to third/second. (I was nowhere near close to the first in objectives/turrets, and nowhere near close to first/second in champions.)

Basically.

This troll build?
Deals an absurd amount of damage. Ridiculously high amounts.

Seven, this build is hard hard HARD countered by Tryndamere.
You might think, Ashe can beat Tryndamere, right?
Well, normal Ashe can, sure. She kites, she pokes him out. Tryndamere's ult lasts five seconds; if he can never catch Ashe, then she can just kill him once his ult times out. Except...as I mentioned previously. This build Ashe doesn't want to poke, this build Ashe doesn't want to kite. This build Ashe wants to all-in. Except there's a problem. Tryndamere is better at all-inning than Lifesteal Ashe. Much, much better. Because his ult keeps him alive for five seconds, and his rage deals ridiculously high damage.

Over half my deaths were due to Tryndamere being able to kill me faster than I could heal and me unable to kill him back. (In my defense, in all but one case where my team had already been killed, he payed for this by his own death but trading my life for his life was advantage the enemy team.) In one instance, he actually spun through my entire team to snipe me out, and I couldn't escape and my team couldn't cc him before he killed me. Like, I was on the backline, behind every one of my teammates. Four people who should've been absorbing damage...and he waltzed through them, without killing them, to kill me instantly.

Another instance, he was tanking my tower AND my shots...even after I wasted my ult to stun him. He stood, under tower, for the entire duration of my stun, and then some. And he tanked the turret that entire time. Knocked it down. And once the turret was down. Killed me. Without me being able to kill him. (He did die for it tho, and we didn't lose our inhibitor even with the lost tower, so, not a complete loss.)

You might think, "maybe Tryndamere was just fed?".
Except.
Every single member of my team except for me could solokill that Tryndamere. Even my support could and did solokill the Tryndamere.
So then you might think, "maybe you couldn't 1v1 someome from the enemy team?".
Except.
Each of my four kills that game was exactly that, a solokill from a 1v1 against the enemy team's members, aside from Tryndamere. (I didn't get many kills, but I had a ridiculously high number of assists.) I solokilled Miss Fortune. I solokilled Blitzkrank. I solokilled Cho'gath. I solokilled YASUO. (Yasuo, a champion I am notoriously bad at killing. I SOLOKILLED.)

But I couldn't solokill Tryndamere.
Tryndamere couldn't solokill any other member of my team. Tryndamere couldn't kill anyone on my team, really. Except for me. I couldn't kill Tryndamere. I could kill the entire enemy team except for him.

So. I could kill 4/5 of the enemy team. And the one member I couldn't kill, couldn't kill 4/5 members of my team. That tells me that, yeah. Tryndamere hard counters this Ashe build because it's basically trying to do what Tryndamere's the master of, as someone other than Tryndamere.

Tryndamere's Chicken taunt and me having no boots and him having a spin meant that my only defense against him was a flash with a cooldown way too long which allowed me to escape once...and then be vulnerable to being killed.

Every time Tryndamere killed me, even if he himself died, it was an advantage to the enemy team, because in spite of this being a troll build, I was still an actual attack damage carry. I was pulling my own weight. Yeah, I hard-inted at times. Eight deaths, only four kills! Yeah I made lots of stupid mistakes. Yeah, my team had to pick up and carry the fights whenever I died, and I died often. 

But I was still contributing far far far far more than I normally do. Like, it wasn't just "I contributed and trusted my team to be able to finish what I started". It wasn't just "I set up my team to be positioned well enough to take the enemy down". It was "I was dealing such an absurdly high amount of damage that even though my teammates often got the kill credit, 90% of the work was done by me".

And I didn't even get full build, I only got BotRK + Bloodthirster +mercurial Scimitar + the final Vamp Scepter (building into Death's Dance).

Soyeah. It's fun. It's also rather effective.

That having been said.
There's maybe a better build than that which I want to try out.

Hybrid Lifesteal Ashe
Same runes, and same three core items: Blade of the Ruined King, Bloodthirster, and Mercurial Scimitar. But instead of building extra lifesteal, branching out. Like I said. In the full lifesteal game, I didn't get to full build and yet I still got ridiculous utility out of it.

So, this build? Has boots. Boots, for movement. Since you don't have Magical Footwear, you can change which pair of boots. You probably initially want Berserker's Greaves, but later on want to switch them. Merc Treads or Ninja Tabi for defense, or Mobi Boots for speed. Berserker's Greaves give you attack speed + movement speed, but later on you might be hitting the attack speed cap so you'd want to use other items instead. (Specifically--if you use Rageblade. Use PD instead, and you won't hit it so you keep the Berserker's Greaves.)

So, BotRK + Bloodthirster + Mercurial Scimitar + Boots, then what?
Runaan's Hurricane as a fifth item, for movement, attack speed, crit chance, and hitting extra targets.
Sixth item, you want more utility. Best two are probably either Phantom Dancer or Rageblade. Rageblade for armor penetration, a little extra healing for your abilities (taste of blooded volley, in other words) due to the ap from rageblade, and raw attack speed.

Phantom Dancer for crit chance (50%!), movement speed, and its passives.

Overall, Phantom Dancer's probably the smarter of the two for the last item, but Rageblade's probably the more fun of the two.

Realtalk: I actually think that this might be a legitimate, genuine, actual seriously good build, when paired with Lethal Tempo. It covers a lot of bases. You've got the ability to move in and out of combat fairly well. You've got damage. You've got crit chance. You've got attack speed. You've got the healing to never die. You've got protection from burst damage, and from being CC'd. (Well, assuming you remember to trigger your qss.)

This is a build I think can actually be a legitimate attack damage carry.

When I ran pure lifesteal Ashe.
I could solo objectives.
I solokilled a dragon by myself.
I could have solokilled Baron Nashor. I didn't, because I didn't want to risk it--Ashe the adcarry who can wreck your entire team save Tryndamere, is alive, out of vision for 20 seconds, and you have no vision at baron? Any enemy team even remotely competent would send at least one person up to check, if not more. That's asking to get myself killed and maybe, worse, leash it for them. Too much of a risk, basically.

But it doesn't take much to pull this off.

This Ashe is monstrously strong, with very little skill required to pull it off.

​​I want to play her and see if it can do what I want it to, consistently, or if it was a one-off.

There is one more troll/fun build I'd like to mention tho.
Inspired by a certain video...
AD Carry Lifesteal Vladimir
For when Ashe is banned and my team doesn't want to dodge!
Yes, you heard that right.
AD Carry lifesteal Vlad.
Not AP.
AD.
Yes, I know.
Vlad's a mage, not a marksman.
But the build would be the hybrid Ashe build mentioned above, substituting Runaan's Hurricane for Hextech Gunblade.

This is the ultimate troll build.
Would it work?
Almost certainly not!
But imagine the sheer hilarity if it, somehow, actually did work!
Like, imagine being on the enemy team, knowing that the Vladimir player is blatantly trolling by building AD on a mage...and still being beaten by it. Would be the ultimate tilter.

Soyeah.
Those are my for fun build ideas.
​We'll see how many of them pan out eventually.

...But that wasn't my fault. My internet went down before I could make one.
Still tho.
You'd think I'd deliver on a lengthy blog today to compensate.

I won't say 'I got nuthin'', because. Well. Actually. I do have a rather lengthy blog entry I want to make. And knowing me. That means it never gets made. But I don't really have the mental faculties to make it right now because I'm pretty dead tired right now. I had a lovely evening which I spent on a date with my girlfriend, and while I admit it was one I occasionally made some minor multitasking for, I was mostly intent on watching my girlfriend. Not on doing other things, e.g. blogging.

I like blogging. I hate missing blogging. I hate blog dodges. I hate empty entries. I hate not delivering. But frankly. If I had to choose between writing a lengthy entry on a blog or spending devout time with my girlfriend I am choosing my girlfriend every single time. (I mean, maybe I'll write a blog entry concurrently to a date...but IF I do so, I'll be doing so while informing them of what I am doing. After all, as pretty much my only reader, my girlfriend would actually take interest in that! Sometimes. My point is. While blogging and girlfriend time are not mutually exclusive, because I can write blogs when not spending time with my girlfriend and there are some windows where I can write and so on and so forth...if I have to pick and choose, and tonight was such a night...I'm gonna choose my girlfriend. A blog's just...not worth it in the long-run.)

Especially when it's 5 am and you're getting ready for bed because you're dead tired.
I guess this still counts as a blog tho.
​Just...not much of one.

One final entry on League, until Saturday.
Today I had to lock my picks in for how the rest of the tournament will go. You already saw me say how the first round will go: Griffin beats Invictus; Fnatic beats FPX; SKT beats Splyce; G2 might beat Damwon albeit it's a literal coinflip.

But then I had to go to the next stage of predictions as well.
In Fnatic versus Griffin, I gave it to Griffin. If Invictus wins against Griffin, then Invictus wins against Fnatic. If FPX wins instead of Fnatic, it'll be Griffin still. If both my predictions are wrong and it's Invictus versus FPX, well, FPX are first seat in China and Invictus aren't, but I'd probably still favor the world champions there even though domestically FPX was the better team.

But since you can't make these "what if" alternative predictions, the only official one is Fnatic versus Griffin, with Griffin winning.

In SKT versus G2, I gave it to G2--I said it yesterday and to reiterate again; I feel like whoever wins G2 versus Damwon will win Worlds. There's no world in which Splyce beats SKT, but if that somehow were to be the case, G2 beats Splyce; Damwon beats Splyce. Yet we're just going to see it be SKT, so the real question is whether the alt-prediction matters.

In SKT versus Damwon, well, this is a match that is a domestic rematch. While I've seen both teams clash in their regular season, I didn't actually catch their final bout with one another. I know they fought and I believe SKT won, but Damwon is a team that gets better and better with time, whose main weakness is a lack of experience...experience which if they do beat G2, they'll have begun to earn. So I give it to Damwon.

To talk more about SKT versus G2, this is a rematch. G2 barely won last time against SKT. I watched their five games in their entirety. Both teams were fairly equal in skill. I think that either team could win it, and SKT would be thirsting for vengeance given MSI semifinals, but in spite of that, I still think that by a hair's breadth, G2 wins.

Which gives in the finals my official prediction being Griffin versus G2, with G2 winning.

The other options:
Fnatic versus G2 (how on earth that'd happen, I don't know), G2 has proven twice that they win, albeit only just.
Invictus versus G2, a match which almost happened at MSI, G2 still win in my opinion.
FPX versus G2, G2 win handedly. Splyce a weaker team than G2, managed to go toe to toe with FPX; G2 can do better than that.

Fnatic versus Damwon, Damwon wins.
Invictus versus Damwon, Damwon has proven that they win.
FPX versus Damwon, Damwon still wins.

Fnatic versus SKT, SKT wins.
Invictus versus SKT, SKT still wins.
FPX versus SKT, SKT definitely wins.

It's really not worth talking about Splyce as an option, but sure, to entertain the possibility even though there's not a chance it'll happen,
Fnatic versus Splyce, Fnatic has proven that they win.
Invictus versus Splyce, Splyce win. Yes, really.
FPX versus Splyce, I give it to Splyce.

But again.
I only get one official prediction and my official prediction is as I said.
Fnatic versus FPX, Fnatic wins.
Griffin versus Invictus Gaming, Griffin wins.
SKT versus Fnatic, SKT wins.
Damwon versus G2, literal toincoss but I officially locked in G2.

Fnatic versus Griffin, Griffin wins.

SKT versus officially G2, still almost a toincoss but I officially locked in G2.

Griffin versus officially G2, close matchup but I still locked in G2.

Do I think that G2 pull off the golden road in spite of that being my official prediction? Probably not. They have to beat all three Korean teams in a row to pull it off. Every single Korean team they face is basically a cointoss, 50/50, on whether they pull it off.

If it comes up heads, they beat Damwon.
If it comes up heads a second time, they beat SKT.
If it comes up heads a third time, they beat Griffin and win worlds.

But it only takes it coming up tails once for G2 to fall. So they have to win three consecutive 50/50s, three consecutive cointosses, three consecutive close matches. And while officially this is my prediction, I don't think they get that lucky. And make no mistake. With teams this good, it'll be exactly that. Luck. Not a skill gap. Every team G2 faces will punish even the smallest of mistakes and trade blow for blow, objective for objective, kill for kill. But G2 will punish even the smallest of mistakes they make, trade blow for blow, objective for objective, kill for kill. G2 won't make many mistakes; they won't make many mistakes.

It'll be a game of inches stretching to miles, each and every single time. A game of one missed skill shot, one connecting skill shot, one dodged skill shot, one autoattack's difference, to determine win or loss, things which were a 50/50 chance of having gone the other way. Things which we can attribute to human error or human skill, but which in the live environment comes down to basically being human guessing and either guessing right or guessing wrong, where both teams not misclicking and deliberately going where they intend and shooting at where they intend, are guessing at whether this is a good or bad call, and roll the dice on it with a 50/50 chance of one or the other.

And that? That will apply regardless of which teams clash. G2 and Damwon. G2 and SKT. G2 and Griffin. Damwon and SKT. SKT and Griffin. Damwon and Griffin. None of those, in my opinion, have a clear favorite, of "this team is going to win guaranteed". None of those, in my opinion, even really have a "this team has a clear edge, 60/40, albeit still having the chance to lose".

They are all literally close to on the point, 50/50. Where you can't be blamed for predicting the losers to have won, because they could easily have with so much as a single thing having gone differently. You can still make predictions based on what you think, on the day, they will do. And my prediction is that, on the day, whoever of G2/Damwon wins will move on to win the whole thing, and I think that G2 at their best given their experience advantage have a 1% extra chance of winning.

But those four teams are, in my opinion, the best four teams in the whole world. There's a gap between their games with each other and their games with anyone else. You can make arguments for any of the eight teams being competent contenders, but realistically. Fnatic at their best aren't good enough; Splyce at their best aren't good enough; Invictus Gaming might be the world champions, but they've shown that at their best they still can be beaten by others; FPX might have domestically beaten the world champions, but they've shown that at their best they're not undefeatable.

They just won't win.

Whereas any of the four titan powerhouses of the tournament I mention, could easily do so.