I’m looking for some fair ideas to nerf Ash that don’t just make her weak or boring to play. I want to keep her as a viable and fun legend, but maybe tone down some of her strengths. For example, maybe longer cooldowns on her dash, restricting dashing to only when she’s on the ground, louder dash sounds so enemies can hear her better, or reducing how strong her snare is. Other ideas could be limiting her dash options when paired with double snare or ult, or even changing her class to skirmisher to limit some buffs. I’m curious what everyone thinks would be a balanced nerf that maintains her unique playstyle without making her feel useless.
5 Answers
For me, restricting her dash to only work while on the ground makes sense. It’s a movement ability, but not a full teleport or parkour trick. So it might feel fair that she can’t dash mid-air. Yeah, this might feel awkward to some at first, but it can be adjusted with control tweaks, like holding a key or double tapping something. It preserves mobility but curbs some of the crazy plays.
The snare is the biggest pain point. I’d love if the snare could be broken by shooting it. Right now, meleeing the edge can free you but it forces you to reposition a lot, which isn’t always ideal. If shooting the snare could break it but required focus and ammo, it would make counterplay more viable without removing the ability’s power. Also, making the snare do slightly less damage or reducing its duration could help balance her.
Honestly I feel like Ash isn’t that broken aside from her snare and dash combo. She was pretty low pick rate before and got buffed a lot with that dash. Maybe just tone down the combination of having two passives plus assault buffs. Like, her death box scans, dash, and snare together with the assault passives feels a bit much sometimes. Removing the death box scan but keeping the dash might be a good balance to keep her unique without being obnoxious.
Honestly, the dash is the crux of what makes Ash strong and fun. Giving her two dashes really pushes her into overpowered territory. Limiting her to just one dash with a reasonable cooldown would keep her unique playstyle without being crazy oppressive. If she overcommits with a dash, she shouldn’t have a second one to bail her out instantly.
I think moving Ash to the skirmisher class instead of assault could be a smart way to balance her. Assault buffs can be pretty strong—things like health regen and reduced reload times. Giving her a skirmisher kit fits her aggressive, mobile playstyle while taking away some of the assault-related perks that might push her over the edge. But then again, some people think giving her skirmisher perks with her damage would be busted too.
