Basically "Armor shredding Ashe". Honestly, most of these items are built on Ashe anyway, I just don't think that they're all built together. This build has some overlap with the lifesteal build, too, gets really good attack speed (you can hit the attack speed cap, albeit requiring level 18 + activating Ranger's Focus--otherwise you'll be lower), and I imagine probably some good attack damage. Would have to compare the AD from it to other builds but it's not too shabby.

I imagine that as a result, this might not actually be a troll build. I'm not sure. It might be a legit seriously viable build, albeit probably only in select circumstances.

Basically, I believe the best runes for this (really not sure), are Press the Attack, with Triumph, then Bloodline (the only Legend rune which is useful when you're going to hit the attack speed cap with no method of exceeding it), and most importantly of all, Coup de Grace (for the obvious reason).

Secondary tree, best I could come up with is Cheap Shot and Eyeball Collection. I'll be honest, the runes for this wouldn't be the focus, the focus is more in the items.

I do think that this probably benefits from the double-adaptive extra runes (and then maybe health?), and then the items are...the five items which give unique health/armor shredding, plus Boots of Mobility because that's the boots which assassins take and this is a build inspired by them to some extent.

Rageblade is probably the first item, with Mobi Boots as second, as per usual. From there, not sure, but the other items are Sanguine Blade (for the unique lethality, and in an isolated matchup, one of the highest lethalities of any lethality item), The Black Cleaver (up to 24% armor reduction), Mortal Reminder (flat armor pen, plus grievous wounds--grievous wounds > extra 10 armor pen), and Blade of the Ruined King (for the passive 8% health shredding).

Tanks on the enemy team...would not have a fun time.

But I imagine it's not a very balanced build overall.

Might be good in select circumstances, and I added it to the list of my for fun builds, even if it might still be a troll build.

​Worth trying out tho!

Over. four. god.damned. HOURS. Playing Teamfight Tactics.
And I finally.
Finally.
FINALLY.

Got a game where nobody copied my comp.
And where I was satisfied with the results.
But then again, who'd want to steal from a comp who had a T2 Maokai, T2 Ornn, T2 Renekton, and T2 Thresh, a comp with virtually zero synergies and nothing to really build in to?

I did well not through the strength of the synergies but purely by just having a ridiculously high number of higher-level units early-on and a boatload of luck on items and a boatload of luck in rolls. I eventually managed to transition to a comp that was actually somewhat pragmatic. A T2 Olaf and T2 Volibear and T2 Kha'zix and T2 Zed made me go from a comp with virtually zero synergies, to a comp with virtually every synergy.

T3 Maokai with a Warden's Vest to keep Warden 2, Zed with assassin 3/electric 3 and a hand of justice (not the best item for him but it was the only crit item that I could obtain that late in the game), Olaf with berserker 3/glacial 2 and thornmail-warmogs-rageblade (that is a DISGUSTINGLY strong item combo for him by the way), Volibear with a Deathcap (AP Volibear is quite effective by the way if you can get the items for him--I didn't, unfortunately, but that's why he had it) and sparring gloves, Ornn with sparring gloves, Qiyana as my third assassin, Renekton, all T2 except the Maokai who I got to T3.

Maokai didn't get druid/woodland bonuses like he normally did, but frankly he was the odd man out in the comp from the beginning and I was frankly glad I could figure out a way to keep him in at all.

Did I WIN win? No, I got third. But after having every. single. game. for over four. freakin'. HOURS. Have someone STEAL my comp midgame and as a result leave me unable to finish mine. And then getting tons of sevens, sixes, fives, and eights, nary a fourth in sight.

I'll take it.

I set out to play one game.
One game.
I figured, "I'll play TFT once, like I do every day, then I'll be good for the rest of the night and do something else".
And this stuff happened.

​I can now rest in peace.

I don't really get tilted in League. I know that I am bad, probably the weak link on my team, so when we lose it's expected and I really can't be mad about that--after all, because I suck, losing is a given. I can't really expect better of me.

I do get tilted in TFT when I look at every single enemy player, make sure they're not running my comp, see that nobody is running it, and then midway through the game, start to lose because someone who WASN'T RUNNING THE COMP, midway through the game, suddenly decides to SWITCH to your comp, and because they're competing for it, you can't complete your comp, and then you lose as a direct result of their switch...MULTIPLE. GAMES. IN. A. ROW.

Especially when they go on to themselves win using MY FREAKIN COMP, which they STOLE from me, in the MIDDLE OF THE GAME. Because of course their comp can win the game--it was MY FREAKIN COMP, and most of the time, I am running comps which I know are strong and can win so NATURALLY they can win once they STEAL my comp. Because I was building a comp to win the game. 

It's bloody ridiculous.

And drives me to keep playing more games than I had intended to.

I wanted to play one game, then be done.
One.

I've played, it's had to be like six, eight games.
And. it. keeps. happening. every. single. game.

If I lost using a unique comp that I was the only one running, no big deal. I put my all into it, and with no excuses, just lost.

But that hasn't happened.
​So I keep going.

Riot's really gone off their rockers with regards to balance. Some of the changes, I get. Adding an extra Shadow champion when Shadow's already a fairly strong meta build (ehhh I prefer just Mage 6 Veigar but Kindred/Yi can output some serious dps with Shadow 4) causing what amounts to a bit of a nerf to the trait by shifting it from 2/4 to 3/6, that's a step in the right direction.

Giving Light an actual item-free way to obtain the advertised 9 synergy and making 6 easier to obtain, step in the right direction--then buffing Light which was already a strong trait...not so much. I get that Light comps are a bit feast-or-famine, that do them right and they dominate but you can easily do them wrong, but this just makes it nigh impossible to do wrong.

The buffs to Inferno including the same "make possible the obtaining of 9 with no spatula item", much needed--it was always a synergy that I thought desperately needed a buff and this change is precisely the sort of thing I feel it needed. When it goes live, probably will actually run inferno comps seriously!

Buffing the ranger trait, also desperately needed! Rangers aren't viable as a synergy right now so they need all the love they can get. Most rangers you run for other comps, e.g. Vayne for Light, Ezreal for Glacial, Twitch for poison (imo a mistake since poison's not a good synergy in my opinion but people still use him for it, not ranger), Ashe for Crystal, Kindred for Shadow, etc.

Buffing Cloud, also much needed! Cloud has always been super weak and super duper not viable; the only time to run a Cloud comp is on a Cloud map and even then it's not very viable. (You need four sparring gloves, two chain vests, and then two additional defensive items, in order to get the most out of the comp.)

Buffing some champions who were living synergies, e.g. Ashe, Varus, Sivir, Lux, also much needed! And nerfing Druids (Maokai and Ivern) is also a good idea because of the aforementioned nigh-guaranteed safe-placement when using them.

But Riot.
I realize these changes aren't live yet.
But what the hell were you thinking with the rest of those changes.
Berserkers were already one of the strongest comps in the game due to Olaf and Volibear--now you want to add raw attack damage to Berserker 6?

Summoner 6 was already one of the strongest comps in the game, and yet Summoner 3 was already one of the weakest synergies in the game--you buffed 6 and nerfed 3 rather than vice versa?

I understand buffing Electric 2 and agree that it was weak and needed the help--but you buffed Electric 3 which is one of the strongest synergies in the game?

Buffing Malphite's ult which is already one of the best ults in the game? I realize his ult didn't deal much damage and this was a buff to the damage, butstill. Malphite's ult works similarly to Sejuani's ult or more accurately Cho'gath's ult in being a huge area aoe stun; making the ult stronger by adding damage to it is ridiculous.

This is buffing some comps that desperately needed to be buffed, yes.

But it is also buffing some of the strongest comps in the game.

Properly executed Light.

ANY execution of Berserkers. (The hardest part of which is getting an Olaf.)
Buffing Ocean/Mage/Mountain/Warden (particularly the latter two halves of this).
A proxy-buff on Predators, via the hard nerf of the main counters to Predators (being, Summoner 3/Druids both getting hard nerfs).
What the hell Riot.

​I hope you realize how stupid those are and don't let those go live, because, uhhh...yeah. They very much don't need those changes.

I mean...it might not be a troll build on certain champions, but it's a troll build for Ashe. It's similar to the builds for full tank/full MR Ashe and might actually be a neat compromise between the two. And it has a similar idea behind it to full lifesteal Ashe (my goto), except...

Instead of actively healing through lifesteal, passively healing through just pure raw base health regen. Grasp of the Undying, probably Font of Life, definitely Second Wind, probably Overgrowth, with Health and then whatever for the other two. Secondary runes could be anything but probably Inspiration for biscuits, outside chance of grabbing precision for Triumph. The items, in whatever order, would be Warmogs, Spirit Visage, Adaptive Helm, Righteous Glory, Mikael's Crucible, and Redemption, I think. 

Now I haven't actually seen how viable this would be. I'm not quite positive those items are all still actually available for that matter. (Specifically, never heard of Mikael's Crucible as an item before when I've heard of most items in the game. The others I know are in there though.) I'm not sure if some of them have overlapping unique passives. But I mean...in theory, it'd give insane healing.

In practice I am quite sure it could never work.

But hey, aint called troll builds for nuthin'.

What's there to talk about otherwise? Why, a commercialized American holiday certainly isn't something I'd need to comment on as an American with a family celebrating said holiday with the traditions. I mean I guess I could, but that's usually a "day after" thing, not a "day of" thing.

Butyeah. So I would like to talk about League a little then. So I did a custom game where I had five bots on the enemy team and four bots on my team, all easy. This was mostly a test of build, to see how viable it'd be. But I also took the opportunity to try and practice attack-moving. (Which I believe I have bound to my f key.) I ended up by happenstance laning against Garen and Leona, which is actually a good lane to practice against since Garen has the ability to run me down ridiculously easily and Leona has easy engage.

So I was actually getting good practice in forcing myself to play smart, engage intelligently, disengage well, kite out my opponents, and such. Obviously. They're beginner bots. Obviously. There's no jungler to gank me or gank for me. It was an isolated 2v2, more like 1v2 because the Renekton who was with me I swear was bugged, past a certain point, just standing in the same spot and not even autoattacking, just repeatedly letting himself be executed by minions, never backing, never attacking, never doing anything.

So obviously. Not as good practice as going against actual players, but I wasn't trying to get practice in for the skills. Thanks to the lane I was in by sheer happenstance, I got actual practice in for those skills--the way the bots were playing was in many instances not far from how players would play. They obviously made some plays which were things no human player would make, and that gave me advantages I'd lack in a real game, but during the times they were acting like players, I got good practice on skills that are good to actually get practice on.

But anyway. Why I did this was something which should be obvious enough; it's the only environment where I can try to test full builds, in an environment that is not a 1v1 against a single bot player in the practice tool. It takes the same time as in a real game, and unlike against PvE matches against bots, *I* would control when the game ends rather than my teammates deciding to speedrun the game in 15-25 minutes. (People who play games against bots aren't looking to try and get full builds, they're looking to play games as fast as is humanly possible.)

It's the only environment where I can take time to test out full builds, see how they might work in an actual game. In this case, I tested out the build I mentioned before. Rageblade first item on my lifesteal runes (and, yes, this was a huge powerspike; Garen-Leona were actually ahead of me and forcing me to play defensively until I got the rageblade at which point I was able to consistently push them away), with Mobi Boots, into Blade of the Ruined King, then Spirit Visage, then Runaan's Hurricane, finishing with Bloodthirster as my final item. Forgoing Sanguine Blade because in that game I was almost never in an isolated 1v1.

I could've spent more time in the jungle farming jungle camps which would obviously be isolated, but I mean...I don't do that in real matches, and this was meant to be me testing out how the build would work in a theoretical actual match. To test the best build order, to test the viability of it in theory even if against actual players it'd be much harder to execute in reality.

Conclusion: the build is actually really easy to pull off. Yeah, I probably am not getting to the point of a Bloodthirster in an actual match, but Rageblade and Blade of the Ruined King are the only expensive items in the build and they are the first two I'd aim for. Boots of Mobility are some of the cheapest tier two boots; Runaan's Hurricane is, what, 2600? Spirit Visage is only 2800. 

The core build is online at 7300 gold total--mobi boots, Rageblade, BotRK. For comparison, Essence Reaver-Trinity Force (the meta two-item power spike for Ashe to get 40-45% cdr) costs a comparable 7033 gold, with no boots--throw in the traditional Berserkers Greaves, and that's bumped up to 8133 (or, with magical footwear, a cheaper 7833).

It's not the cheapest possible two-item plus boots power spike. Infinity Edge plus Statikk Shiv plus Berserkers Greaves is 7100--6800 with magical footwear. BotRK plus Runaan's Hurricane plus Berserkers is also cheaper, at 7000--6700 with magical footwear. Those are a few item build options I can think of off the top of my head, there's probably other orders you can build items in, but I'm not going to track them down and list all of their prices.

What I'm getting at, is that while it might be not the absolute cheapest three-item-slot spike, it's still one of the cheaper ones, and yet is easily achievable and gives a notable edge that transitions easily into the rest of the build. Because the rest of the build, with the exception of the final item of Bloodthirster (which I honestly think isn't needed unless the game is going super late), is super cheap.

Unless your team or (more likely in my case) the enemy team snowballs, in which case you probably only get 7ishk gold in the game. Unless the game ends quickly one way or another. Usually. Games go into the range of ~12-15k gold. 11-13 if you're doing poorly like I do, 13-16 if you're doing well like I can have in my best moments. 7300 + 2800 = 10,100--even in the worst of games, doable. Add in 2600 to that, 12,700, not going to be doable in every game, but doable in most games.

Bloodthirster is a costly extra 3500 to that, 16200 (and adding in an elixir of wrath for 500 extra per elixir), which is...I mean in a long long game and/or a game where you're csing exceptionally well/getting lots of kills/etc., but most of the time you're never gonna get it. So I mean. You're not going to get the full full build here.

But 5/6 of the items for it? Almost every game you can pull it off.

Now I do need to stress, 'can', not necessarily should, because I mean. Troll build, building for fun not to win, and even troll builds can use adaption on the fly to changing circumstances and whatnot. Butstill. I think the build works well for what it is. Every lifesteal rune possible, plus those items, with flexibility built in.

I really want to try it out in a real game, but that requires specific circumstances. Can't have other obligations, can't be multitasking, and most of all, must be in the mood for it. I don't really get tilted (I'm the one who usually causes my teammates to get tilted, so I really can't blame anyone other than myself for screwups), so it's not something I'd have trouble handling ingame. So I really want to try it against an actual real opponent. Maybe repeatedly.

If it has so much as half the potential which I think it could, it'll be fun and yet still semieffective. As effective as I'd be in any game at least. (Which is to say, sometimes making reasonable plays but most of the time not.)

Mind you, one thing I do need to practice: conservation of mana. I kept running out in my practice, but it's an issue I'm aware of so I can fix it.

It should be mentioned that a Light 6 comp is also ridiculously strong, with the right items and augmenting synergies. I know it is strong, because I have seen it wreck me. It recently got a change to the way the health restore works, which I'm not sure if it's a buff or a nerf, but I have to admit:

Light is a fifth generically strong comp, it's just not one I'll ever run because I don't know how to run it. Like, I know it's strong, I've been wrecked by it when running countless different comps and seen it wreck people and place first or close to, repeatedly.

I just don't know how to consistently pull it off. It's strong, I just don't know how to make it strong. This is the same reason I tend to avoid Summoner 6; I have an idea for what might make that comp strong, but I generally tend to mess up on the execution of it. Same problem with Light 6. I don't really know what to do, I have an idea of what I think is the right thing to do but no clue if it is actually the right thing to do and a high failure rate.

So basically, in the meta, there's five strong comps to run, and I only run three of them, but I can run one of those three comps basically every single game.

Worth mentioning: Woodland/Druids still work as a fairly strong comp, but in my experience, tend to fall off in the lategame unless you really really luck out. In ranked, I might play them just because they are a good way to ensure you don't finish near the bottom, but most of the time you're not going to win with them. The only Woodland unit which doesn't build into Woodland/Druid itself (since Neeko, Ivern, and Maokai are all Druid/Woodland exclusively) is LeBlanc--which means the most obvious comps to build off of Woodland/Druid are Mage 3/6 (I've yet to achieve Mage 6 when starting Woodland/Druid and Mage 3 was largely ineffectual), or more likely, Assassin 3/6.

Assassin 6 is ridiculously hard to achieve by the way, but in my opinion, probably worth it especially with the tanky frontline of Woodland/Druid, so that's probably your best bet. It's a fairly fun comp that works well enough, but it won't win you the game against one of the generic strong comps when they come online.

There's probably less obvious comps that use Woodland/Druid but I don't know them. Assassin 6 just seems like the obvious to try for as the augment for it, and like I said. It's safe. It works well. It'll get you about top four, most of the time, unless you're running into competition.

And most of the time, you are.

Which is, mind you, one of the main reasons I tend to shy away from it as a comp.

You might get 3+ people in any given game trying to run predators, but I still run predators because those other people won't successfully out-predator me because they focus on leveling up whereas I focus on rerolling to max my predators. (Rerolling to max predators is the correct play; using all four predators, not just three, is the correct play. Most people think just getting three for the synergy is good, and that leveling up for extra synergies is better. It is not.)

You might get 3+ people in any given game trying to run ocean and/or mages, but usually if they're focusing on one half, you can focus on the other half. (Basically, while you have some units to fight over, you can have an invisible handshake of, "okay, you're focusing on this half, I'll focus on the OTHER half" and it'll still work.)
​
You might get 3+ people in any given game trying to run Berserker/Glacial, but like Ocean/Mage, you can usually run whichever half they do not. They want to aim for Glacial 6, you aim for Berserker 6; they want to aim for Berserker 6, you can get Glacial 4 and maybe Glacial 6.

You probably won't get 3+ people in any given game running summoner 6 but it's a bit hard to tell there because you can't tell someone's running summoner 6 until they're at like, summoner 4/5 and their competition's probably already dead by that point.

And you probably might encounter 1-3 people in any given game running Light, though that's not nearly as much a staple as the others; I have seen it tho so I know it crops up on every rare occasion or so.

But when it comes to Woodland/Druid.
You WILL, not might, WILL, get 3+ people in any given game, trying to run it. And unlike predators where people seem to focus on leveling up rather than rerolling. For whatever reason. People who run Woodland/Druid DO focus on rerolling--meaning, that I have trouble out-Druid/Woodlanding, someone who is trying to run Druid/Woodland.

Basically, it's a safe comp to run...but everyone KNOWS that it's a safe comp to run, so everyone runs it, and if everyone runs it, nobody wins using it. Which is why I tend to avoid it. My preferred strategy is to focus on comps that do well early, but which I know also have incredible lategame scaling that allow me to have a good chance at winning.

Woodland/Druid does well early, but if multiple people are running it, you're royally screwed lategame and even IF you have no competition, the comp falls off in said lategame.

So I'd run it, but most of the time just prefer other comps. (One problem for the comp, too: its only real damage source is Neeko. Maokai is a tank; Ivern is a support who shields; LeBlanc's ult is useful for stunning but deals very little damage. Neeko's aoe ult is your best damage source, but it can be difficult to get the right build on her. She could use an extra healing item to augment the druid healing that doesn't scale, she could use ap items, and she could use mana replenishment items, yet she only has three item slots so it's hard to get everything ideal for her, on her.)

...So today, I guess it's time to talk about Teamfight Tactics! In a nutshell, I may have mentioned this before, but Riot is absolutely off their rockers with some of their ideas of 'balance'.

Like, they said that they wanted to avoid giving units too many things in their toolkit, then release Olaf who has three abilities which if he had only one of them would be in of itself strong and yet he doesn't get just one strong ability, he gets three, so he's basically almost an instant wincondition/instant shift in comp in that if you get him early and shift to glacial/berserkers you're basically invincible especially once you get him to T2 (since admittedly T1 Olaf can be killed easily enough, even post-ragnarok).

And they said that they wanted to avoid creating generically strong comps whose only counters are generically strong comps, and yet with their balance changes, they've...encouraged precisely that. They've repeatedly nerfed Ionic Spark, so Ocean/Mage/Warden/Mountain has gotten stronger. They gave a mild nerf to the Woodland comp, which was one of the biggest problems Predators had. To their credit, they did slightly nerf Glacial 4 (and since Glacial 6 is nigh-impossible to obtain, that's the main nerf to implement), but 5% less chance to stun doesn't do much to change the strength of the comp.

A particularly ridiculous change--they did what they thought was a small change to Veigar. Turning his 'instakill lower star level units' ability from "insane damage that is basically an instakill", into instakill proper--they also made it so that it instantly kills summoned units, meaning that Veigar is now able to hard-counter Summoners as a comp, AND, one of THE best counters to him (crystal), no longer counters him at all.

I mean, that's I suppose an indirect nerf to Predators as a comp, because it means Scarner can be instantly deleted if he's a lower star level, though frankly that's not a problem when I am running predators because I hard-reroll until my four predators are all T3 anyway. But against most players who get to T2 and then try to focus on leveling up, they are in for the nasty surprise of "wtf I built crystal and Veigar instantly deleted them".

And it's kinda ridiculous. Mage 6 isn't too hard to get. Mage 6 has built-in Ocean 2, with an easy in to Ocean 4. This comp also goes into an easy Warden 4, with Mountain 2 as well. Make Veigar a Warden to give him some tankiness so that he survives being burst, give him a Seraph's Embrace to get a third of his mana cost back instantly which Ocean 2/4 quickly replenishes so that he's spamming spells, give him, sayyy, Luden's Echo so that he starts combat at full mana, launches two spells thanks to Mage 6, and deals insane damage even if his opponents aren't instantly deleted...

...Well, if you get him to T3 it's an instant win, and even if you don't, T2 is still devastating enough to delete most units.

Plus I mean...the comp is still strong even if Veigar is somehow killed. Vladimir can heal to full HP with the right items and spams the spell to do so, making him basically a pseudo-tank that is nigh-unkillable unless you get him bursted down. (Incidentally, giving Vladimir Mountain with, sayyy, double deathcap? Well, get him to T3 and screw Veigar as a carry, Vlad carries plenty on his own.)

Taliyah and LeBlanc both have CC abilities; Malphite has a CC ability; Nautilus has a CC ability; the comp has incredible CC which ocean helps spam and mage helps spread/apply damage. (Particular favorite; mage Malphite. Also effective: mage Thresh, to apply his shield twice, giving an utterly ridiculous shield.) Brand's damage was good enough to apparently require a nerf.

And over half the mages (Taliyah, Vladimir, Syndra, LeBlanc) are easy to get to T3, even if someone else is is competing for your comp. (There's enough champions in the pool to get two T3s of a 1g unit, without Neeko's Help!) All in all, the comp is strong even if you don't get your Veigar online, and if you're not running into competition on the comp (or if the competition is focused on Woodland and/or Ocean rather than on Mages), then it's rather easy to do precisely that, and tears of the goddess are not a high-priority item on the carousel. (People have begun to grab sparring gloves slightly less, but they're still a generically good grab; people will still grab spatulas, large rods, and recurved bows, well before they grab tears, most of the time.)

And if you have a spatula and warden 1/3, then the chain vest to get warden 2/4 is fairly easy as well because nobody grabs chain vests for the chain vests, pretty much. (And most grabs for tears are for the champion the tear is on.)

So like. If you don't have competition, you can just...decimate using it, and it has no counterplay because they nerfed ionic spark and things which were designed to be counters to it (sayyy, poison) are woefully inadequate at actually countering it. (Poison's pretty bad as a synergy, by the way. If you get Kog'maw, you want to focus on predators; if you get Dr. Mundo, you want to focus on Berserkers. If you get Twitch, well honestly, Twitch is a unit whose ability sounds broken but I've yet to see him used effectively in any comp so really he's not good. And the strength of Singed is mostly that stupid AI on the parts of his opponent's units will cause them to chase him and ignore units they should be aggroing instead of him, which is to say, not something Riot intended to be his strength and is a pure accident of coding. Basically, every poison unit is just...better used in other ways.)

Like. If I am aiming to have fun I'll run any comp I want. If I am on a Mountain map then whatever first unit I get, I build a comp around because I am stubborn in refusing to let so much as 30 HP go to waste. But in most circumstances, playing seriously.

I don't have much reason other than to run one of four comps.

Summoner 6, though I tend to avoid this one.
Berserker 6 Glacial 4/Glacial 6 Berserker 3 focusing on Olaf/Volibear as carry units that chain-cc the entire enemy team (qss is pretty worthless at countering nonstop glacial stuns by the way).
Predator 4 building into Crystal/Steel/Glacial to augment Rek'sai, Scarner, and give the chain-CC.
And Mage 6 Ocean 2/4/Mage 3 Ocean 4, with Warden 2/4 and Mountain 2.

Summoner 6 is generically strong especially Zed.
Olaf is broken and Volibear can be made really strong with help.
Every Predator is strong--Kog'maw with Runaan's can proc Predator on two units at once, and give him a rageblade to build up speed (preferably augmented by either a second Runaan's or a second Rageblade, but Ionic Spark on him is also decent since most units can't get to him on the backline if you position your board correctly); Scarner with qss (the best unit to have qss) + a healing item and then something else like attack speed or health or spell spam (fire buff, ocean buff, mountain buff, cloud buff, rageblade, spear of shojin, etc.) is nigh-unkillable; Rek'sai can use almost every item (spamming bites, healing items, whatever); Warwick is really good at using Thieve's Gloves; Nocturne doesn't have the instant deletion but can use most items well; Taric can help keep your units alive; if you run Volibear, his bite makes him an honorary glacial and he can use most items (spam bite, build crit items, build tank volibear, etc.), and you can alternatively run Olaf if you so fancy.

Like.

I can run other comps if I want to and do well with them, and on occasion I will do precisely that especially if I so fancy. But these comps are just...strong, and Riot hasn't nerfed them, and has indirectly buffed them.

Thanks to a video which is, more or less, my preferred 'having fun' build on Ashe, just on a champion who's more suited for the build than her due to having built in lifesteal:

To give you a recap, I have posted what the previous fully fully lifesteal Ashe build would be. Fleet Footwork or Conqueror (Fleet Footwork for more laning phase healing, Conqueror for more lategame/dueling healing), with Overheal and Legend:Bloodline, plus Ravenous Hunter and Taste of Blood, building every lifesteal item in the game:
Originally, Blade of the Ruined King, The Bloodthirster, Mercurial Scimitar, Death's Dance, and Hextech Gunblade (then from there, not sure, since Ashe can't use Ravenous Hydra and at the time there wasn't Sanguine Blade).

With the addition of Sanguine Blade, you'd keep those but add it in for six items that gave lifesteal, even if one of them Ashe doesn't get much use out of (that being the gunblade; Blade of the Ruined King is godly on Ashe, Bloodthirster can be decent on Ashe, Mercurial Scimitar to counter CC on the enemy team is a situationally decent item for Ashe; Death's Dance Ashe can get some use out of; Sanguine Blade as I've previously mentioned, Ashe gets incredible utility out of due to how broken that item is).

This is not a very pragmatic build even for having fun tho, in part because it requires a ton of gold to pull off and you die repeatedly before you can get strong enough to hold your own--get going with it and you're incredibly hard to kill, but fall behind and you're worse than worthless because this is a build which doesn't even give you much access to your utility abilities (i.e., your ult).

However, a more pragmatic build is only building ~3 lifesteal items, getting tier two boots (if you lack attack speed, berserkers; if you're near or at risk of hitting the attack speed cap without the berserkers greaves, then opting into boots of mobility or maybe boots of swiftness is the better option), and then adding in extra items like Runaan's Hurricane (double or even triple bolts = double or even triple stacks of conqueror, plus the fact that basically no champion in the game is better suited for that item than Ashe due to how Ranger's Focus works with it) and Guinisoo's Rageblade (because every third attack = double stacks of conqueror).

You can get close to the attack speed cap, maybe even hitting it with that combo. Sayyy, Sanguine Blade + Blade of the Ruined King + Bloodthirster + Mobi Boots + Rageblade + Runaan's Hurricane. This gives you reasonably good movement speed, reasonably good attack damage, reasonably good attack speed (in fact, can take you to the cap!), and ridiculous lifesteal. For a fun build, not bad! (Not a build to run competitively, obviously, but when playing casually...might as well!)

But that video taught me that there might be a better option for the fun build. For whatever reason, I always thought that Spirit Visage doubled only the healing from passive regeneration items/passives/abilities and the healing from active-use items/spells/abilities/etc. (sayy, the summoner spell heal, as an example).

For whatever reason, I didn't think that it doubled the healing from lifesteal.

...Apparently.

It does!

Of course. I'm not quite sure where it'd fit in, even though for the full-lifesteal troll/fun build on Ashe, it would be a great addition. (Mind you, I already have Spirit Visage as an item to build in some cases normally anyway, but usually to counter assassins particularly magic ones, e.g. as an item to counter Eve as a hypothetical example.) 

It'd give CDR in a build otherwise lacking it. (I mean, if I did build Death's Dance, that'd be some, but Spirit Visage + Death's Dance gives a respectable 20% total, in a build which can feasibly have absolutely none normally.) It gives a ton of MR. It gives a lot of health, in a build which health is something you should have a lot of. (Doesn't matter if you can go from 10% health to full health with one auto, if the enemy can KILL you with one auto; you need to have enough health to survive long enough to lifesteal.) And it apparently gives a huge boost to lifesteal among other healing sources.

But while I can easily see where it'd slot in to the full full FULL lifesteal build (replacing Hextech Gunblade as Hextech Gunblade doesn't do much for Ashe), I do have a little trouble figuring out where it'd fit in for the more hybrid/pragmatic build.

Runaan's Hurricane can make you attack three targets and gives crit chance in a build which otherwise lacks it. Plus, it has really good attack speed, and also one of the highest movement speeds of items in the game!

​Rageblade gives attack damage, magic damage, armor penetration, plus the huge attack speed. It, and Runaan's, also help proc Conqueror's healing effects.

Tier 2 boots, particularly Boots of Mobility/Swiftness, give Ashe much-needed movement speed to allow her to keep up with targets, not to mention, when she does need to flee, allowing for escape when need be.

On that note--Blade of the Ruined King has an active which allows for closing distance on the offensive, or creating distance on the retreat. (Mind you, I suck at actually USING it, forgetting to use it most of the time and failing to properly activate it when I try to use it, but in theory properly utilized it's an amazing tool for this build.) It's got great lifesteal, great attack damage, decent attack speed, and its passive can help shred through enemy's health bars, too.

Bloodthirster might seem like a weak link, since while it gives the highest lifesteal of any item, it does basically nothing except that...but one of the key features of this build is the above-maximum-health shield. Overheal works IN TANDEM with Bloodthirster. Plus, as a BF Sword item, it gives good attack damage, too.

Sanguine Blade gives lethality (which is armor penetration), very high attack damage, and in an isolated duel (and this build is good for dueling in the lategame), the highest attack speed boost of any item in the game, and even at lower levels giving respectably high attack speed.

Which of them would I replace?

I mean, if I could get away with moving slower, probably the boots. But if I needed that movespeed, which of the items would I replace? To be honest, as much as I think it is an OP must-buy item even post-nerf...probably the Sanguine Blade, actually. Sanguine Blade is unparalleled in 1v1s, but while the build is very good at 1v1s, most of the time I'm not engaged in 1v1s (mind you, that's half the reason why this is a troll build for Ashe; a built great for 1v1s, from someone who is almost never in a situation to 1v1, is obviously not optimal).

I'm in a duo lane; I'm often engaged in teamfighting. So Sanguine Blade doesn't get the extra lethality and doesn't get the extra attack speed. Its removal removes a significant amount of the lifesteal, but Spirit Visage might more than make up for that. I'm not quite sure how to test this though; the training tool doesn't really work that well for testing lifesteal since you need to face something which takes your health away and an enemy champion who in the process of you lifestealing from them, you obliterate, doesn't give the best of testing conditions for seeing what build provides the maximum lifesteal per second, as it were.

Of course, if I was engaged in dueling and nothing but dueling in 1v1s, I might replace Runaan's. I'd lose crit chance, I'd lose some movespeed, I'd lose the extra waveclear/lifesteal from extra hits on minions, but in a 1v1 it wouldn't help me lifesteal much more.

Obviously, I could also forgo the Rageblade, since Sanguine Blade serves similar functions--attack damage, attack speed, and armor penetration, and both items are similar in having specific conditions to get the most mileage out of them.

I guess it would depend on what I was doing in the game to be honest. Not getting much use out of extra mobility, get rid of the boots; not getting much time in a solo lane, get rid of Sanguine Blade; not getting much time outside of a solo lane, probably get rid of Runaan's. 

Of course this is all hypothetical because it relies on getting a full build in a game, when I almost never do anyway in even the best of games, not even close. And it also is, again, not a build I could run if my teammates wanted me to actually be trying hard.

If we really really really needed to win, I'd need to run something else; if I was playing ranked, I'd need to run something else. But if I was playing a normal, regardless of whether it's a normal with others in my group or I'm playing solo, I could probably get away with it. Still might be flamed by teammates if I'm going solo, and would definitely get commentary from my teammates if not going solo (trying to encourage me to play more optimally), but it'd at least be okay to do.

Not a clue what is the best build order. I'm not really sure leaving a lifesteal item for third is a good idea, but Runaan's Hurricane and/or Rageblade are items that I've just found so incredibly useful for me in terms of being...well, not dead weight. When I build Blade of the Ruined King as a first item (which mind you, is a legitimate choice for Ashe and in fact incredibly common), in spite of it giving an incredible array of stats between its lifesteal, attack damage, attack speed, hp shredding, and active, for whatever reason regardless of what runes I'm running, I just don't seem to make much of an impact with it as a first item, and still get smashed until I build a second.

Whereas, no joke, Rageblade as a first item, for instance, seems to make it so that the only times I'm worthless are when I'm in a spot I REALLY shouldn't be (as in, 1v3 or so), and/or moments of extreme stupidity. (Which to be fair, since it's me, happens a lot.) I know it's an item which most of the time is, on Ashe, a "situational buy at best" in terms of being built, but like.

Every time I complete it as my first item, I feel like it allows me to actually have impact on the map, just by itself. Regardless of what runes I am using, but actually, especially when I have even partial lifesteal runes. (No need for conqueror, just having ANY lifesteal from runes, with a rageblade, allows me to die less often, and stay in lane when I might otherwise be forced to back, because I can heal up.)

I don't have a clue why that item seems to help me so much, it just seems to make a big difference and seems to be a big power spike for me for whatever reason. If it's my second item it's a second-item powerspike; third item, a third-item powerspike; first item, still a first-item powerspike.

My thoughts are, maybe, to build in the order of: Rageblade, Boots (because I need boots early-on to return to lane as quickly as is possible, since if I am winning lane I need to keep pressure up; if I am losing lane I need to do my best to prevent the enemy adc from snowballing; regardless of which, I need to be in lane as quickly as is possible), then lifesteal item either BotRK or Sanguine Blade (probably Blade of the Ruined King), and from there I probably only get to build one more item before the match ends.

Bloodthirster's extra shield might be a key part of the lifesteal troll build, but I actually think that it's most effective as the last item built to be honest. It's what I've been defaulting to trying to build, but I think that's been a mistake on my part to be honest. 

Which would leave the options as Spirit Visage or Runaan's Hurricane. Runaan's would be better for waveclear and movement and damage, Spirit Visage would probably be better for staying alive. So, situational, for whichever of those I felt I needed more.

And then the other if I could.

And Bloodthirster as the final if the game went on long enough (but it wouldn't).

And if I had the gold to spare, subbing in Sanguine Blade if the conditions where it could be better, were met. (Selling one item to put it in instead.)

Again I feel the need to emphasize.
Yes, I know. No matter what order I build these items in. No matter which items I use, and substitute in. I am aware. Not an optimal build. It is, no matter how you build it, explicitly a bit of a troll build, built not to win, but to have fun. If I was asked by, as a hypothetical example, sayyyy, my girlfriend, "don't run this", then I would oblige; I wouldn't run it. If we desperately needed a win and didn't have time to play many more games, even if I wasn't told that, then I would self-enforce not running it.

This is not a viable build, it is not competitive, it is for fun. No matter what you do, you can't really make it work that well. But what you can do, is try to make it work as best as is humanly possible given what it is. You'll always know that a different build would be more optimal, more successful. The goal isn't to win; the goal is to make a fun build and try your best to win given the fun build.

Basically.

Just because it's a for fun build, doesn't mean you're not going to try and win, doesn't mean you're not going to try and make it work the best it possibly could, given what it is. Yeah you know it's not the most optimal; yeah you know other builds would perform better. But the goal is to have something which would allow for fun, in moments that otherwise wouldn't be fun, while still trying to have some semblance of effectiveness.

I can sum it up as basically, "We are probably going to lose. But I am going to try my hardest in spite of thinking that, and even if we do lose, I'll have fun playing this game." Trying the hardest, in spite of using something that isn't designed to optimize win chances, knowing that even if trying your hardest fails, it's more fun than what the optimal build might be.

So, basically. The challenge is to try and find the best build order to win, given the combination of my natural incompetency as a player and ineffectiveness of the suboptimal fundamental build choices from runes onward. And heavy lifesteal Ashe is one of my favorites to do precisely that. I suck, regardless of what build I run. But I have more fun with this build than I do with a more optimal build. I may, or may not, perform worse with the fun-build than the optimal-build. It's kinda hard to tell; I am such an inconsistent player who sucks on even my best of days, so it's really difficult to tell if I do better or do worse with the fun lifesteal rather than optimized paths. Depending on item build order, probably (as I mentioned, rageblade first seems to work very well; other items first seem to not work very well), also my choice of starting with Doran's Blade or not (I honestly can't tell if I do better with it or without it, I think I do better with it but I'm not positive), bunch of variables like that.

But regardless of my performance, I will always have fun while running it. I do try my hardest to make sure that my fun isn't detrimental to the fun of my teammates, try my hardest so that if we lose it wasn't specifically due to me; if we win it's not despite of me. I do try my best to try to achieve those goals. But while that is obviously something to strive for (you don't want to have fun at the expense of others), even if I was the reason we lost, even if we win despite of me, I want to play mostly for fun and I will never not have fun while running builds I invented.

To put that another way. A lot of the time, for Ashe, I ran runes I was told to run; I built items I was told to build, in the order I was told to build. Sometimes by others, sometimes by guides, sometimes by watching what pros were building when playing Ashe.

Some of these worked better than others, some of them could've worked better than others even if they ended up not being actually better. But the whole time. I felt like I was being asked to be something I wasn't. It wasn't until I started running the runes I wanted to, and building the items I wanted to, that I felt like I was really being me in a game. Ideas like the ultimate cooldown Ashe, and the lifesteal Ashe. Things which're distinctly me, my own inventions, my own creations, my own identity.

I can still have fun while building more conventionally. And if I were asked to play seriously, I would play those more conventional builds. Mind you, in my personal opinion...I wouldn't perform much better. Because, again. I suck. I am not good in any way shape or form, regardless of what runes, what items, I run.

But I have the most fun, when I am doing something which I feel has my stamp to it. Something which I put in, not because it was something which I was told to put in, but because it was something that I decided would be fun to put in.

Again, I don't want my fun to be detrimental to the fun of others. So I still try to play my best in spite of the trollish fun builds, the suboptimal choices I make in runes/items. And if it were that serious, I would even forgo the fun builds to run the conventional builds in a (probably futile) effort to try (and almost assuredly fail) to perform "better", in a push come to shove scenario.

But left to my own devices, given the option, given the freedom, to run what I will want to, I will run what I think is fun, regardless of whether it is optimal or not. And, mind you--properly executed, it's still effective! I legit think that my fun build, while it's not the meta build, while it's off-meta, is actually quite powerful. Every build I make for fun, has counters to it, obviously. (Healing reduction being an obvious counter to the lifesteal build, as an example.)

But I mean...even the optimal builds for Ashe, have counters to them. And given that I am a lower level player. Someone who probably would've been placed in Iron if I had played enough games to get an official ranking rather than the unofficial Bronze II. Given that I play pretty much only Normals, against opponents who're often just as incompetent at the game as I am. (Okay, not quite; they're often slightly better than I am because I am bottom of the barrel trash tier.)

The off-meta builds don't really present much of a problem in of themselves. A higher skill player would know how to counter them, how to exploit them, how to punish the off-meta build. But I'm not playing against higher skill players; I'm playing against players who're only slightly less incompetent than I am. So the off-meta build, given where I am, isn't actually an issue and works just well enough to not be utterly worthless.

So if it isn't much of a problem. And is fun. Because I invented it, I made it, I created it, rather than just being told what to do. I have played with it, have figured out how to kinda sorta play using it. Because it has the stamp of being mine because I figured it out on my own through trial and tons of error, rather than being something I adapted because I was told that's what I should be doing.

If it's fun, and isn't too much of a problem. Even if my teammates roll their eyes at the suboptimal nature of it, because it's not as effective as the hypothetical maximum would be. If it is the most fun I can have, and in of itself isn't creating huge problems that could be solved by not running it.

Is there a reason not to run it?

Not really.

I'll not run it if there's good reason to not run it--if we really really need the win, if it were a ranked game, if I am told not to run it by my teammates, if I know that my teammates have been tilted the last few games and are short on time and need me to perform at my absolute highest possible theoretical skill.

But in all other situations--running something fun, which I invented, is...well. FUN.

​And I honestly think that's the right way to approach playing the game casually for entertainment.

This time, with me finally finally finally starting to play the third Danganronpa game. It's long-overdue. Finished the prologue, but that took a ton of time, soooo. Gotta sleep now, too tired.