Ashe

 is a Damage hero in Overwatch.

Overview
Ashe is a hero of Overwatch. She is the leader of the Deadlock Gang and a rebellious gunslinger who's not afraid to get her hands dirty.

Ashe quickly fires her rifle from the hip or uses her weapon’s aim-down sights to line up a high damage shot at the cost of fire-rate. She blasts enemies by throwing dynamite, and her coach gun packs enough punch to put some distance between her and her foes, or gain some air to leap to hard to reach places or for an aerial shot. And Ashe is not alone, as she can call on her omnic ally B.O.B. to join the fray when the need arises.

Strategy
Strength

Ashe is a hero who requires good mechanical skill to be played effectively. Her weapon, the Viper, is quite powerful at long mid-range, particularly when the player uses her ADS (aim-down-sight) alternate fire. Dynamite is a dangerous, versatile ability that can be used to threaten space (such as narrow hallways and chokepoints) and deal decent damage in its radius, as well as inflicting a damage over time debuff. Uniquely, Dynamite can be detonated early by shooting it any time between when it's thrown and when its fuse runs out. Her Coach Gun serves as both a defensive "get-off-me" tool (like Lucio's Soundwave) and a potent mobility option (like Pharah's Concussive Blast). Finally, her Ultimate ability calls out her omnic sidekick B.O.B., who rushes in, knocks enemies in the air, and then grounds himself to shoot enemies, much like a turret.

Weakness

Though dominant in midrange, Ashe suffers in close combat. Her primary fire, while quite fast, deals only mild damage, and Coach Gun is on a lengthy cooldown. Most of her abilities require good follow-ups, such as detonating Dynamite and making quick shots after jumping with Coach Gun. Dynamite can be rather tricky. While it deals impressive damage over time, it will also damage Ashe if she's too close to the blast. Overall, Ashe is best played close to her teammates, so she can have backup available if she is being harassed. B.O.B., though incredibly strong, can easily be countered by the enemy team, as he can be hacked, slept, and stunned in the same way he can be boosted by a friendly team.

Weapons & Abilities

 * The Viper: Ashe's primary weapon. It has two firing modes: a primary fire that shoots rapidly from the hip at reduced damage, and an ADS (aim-down-sight) secondary fire that deals potent damage at a much lower fire rate.
 * Despite its power, an ADS headshot is not enough to one-shot 200 HP enemies, dealing only 150 damage.
 * The Viper has a unique reloading mechanic. Rather than doing a whole clip like most of the cast, Ashe reloads one bullet at a time (at roughly the same rate as her hip-fire).  Try to reload often, as you don't want to be caught in a fight where you can't afford as many shots.
 * Its primary fire is rather weak, best suited to finishing blows and harassing enemies who step out of position.
 * Dynamite: Ashe throws a bundle of lit dynamite in front of her in a shallow arc. When detonated, it will explode and burn enemies.  Uniquely, it can be detonated before its five-second fuse by shooting it with either the Viper or the Coach Gun.
 * Dynamite is designed so that it will automatically fall on the player's crosshair the moment they can act. Provided you don't move the crosshair (or move backwards; forward is fine), you could throw dynamite and immediately hold primary fire to instantly detonate it in front of you.
 * The arc it travels at is unusually floaty, which makes it quite easy to predict where it will end up. Positioning your crosshair where the dynamite will land rather than trying to track it may be easier for long-range Dynamite shots.
 * Its blast radius is rather small, but the burst damage and debuff are quite powerful. Throwing it into or slightly above a cluster of enemies and detonating it will usually get the most value out of Dynamite.
 * Dynamite will bounce off of shields (like Reinhardt's Barrier Field).
 * Dynamite tends to get stuck on slopes (like the rooftops on Eichenwalde), so it is best to not rely on geometry to get it where you want it.
 * Dynamite can be deflected by Genji, and this will switch its "ownership" to him, causing it to inflict full damage on you.
 * Coach Gun: Ashe whips out a shotgun for a strong, close-range blast. Additionally, it deals impressive knockback to enemies and propels Ashe away from the blast.
 * The knockback from Coach Gun is consistent across its hitbox, but the damage lessens the further away from Ashe an enemy is.
 * Coach Gun is best used for burst mobility and disengagement, not direct damage. That said, it can still serve as a good final blow if you have no other options.
 * Its burst mobility is very versatile, as it can allow Ashe to cross gaps she wouldn't normally be able to jump (by blasting horizontally) or reach high ground in a similar fashion (by blasting towards the ground).
 * The Coach Gun, despite shooting individual pellets, cannot deal headshots.
 * If the shot is deflected by Genji, it will knock you back twice as far. This can throw you off the map if you're not careful.
 * B.O.B.: Ashe's ultimate ability calls her omnic butler, B.O.B. into the fight. He has three stages: a charge forward, an uppercut that throws enemies up into the air, and a stationary "turret" mode, where he shoots at enemies within his line of sight.
 * B.O.B. can almost be considered another player, as he can be healed, buffed, and debuffed in any way a player could be. Be mindful of this when using B.O.B. during a fight.
 * A common, powerful tactic is to use Ana's Nano Boost on B.O.B.
 * By the same token, an enemy Ana can neutralize B.O.B with Sleep Dart.
 * B.O.B.'s uppercut is the perfect opportunity for Ashe and her team to line up shots on enemies in the air.
 * Any hero with 200 HP can be immediately killed with an ADS head shot after they are flung into the air. A body shot will leave them with 5 HP.
 * It is also a good setup for a dynamite detonation.
 * B.O.B. can contest — and capture — objectives as well as move payloads.

General Strategies
Use B.O.B Smartly! Don’t just throw him into the enemy team: line B.O.B up for his cannon to do damage and delay them, as the enemy team can counter your B.O.B quite easily. The line of sight you are facing when calling out B.O.B is very important, as it can lead to B.O.B running clean off the map or into a unfavorable position.

Story
Ashe is the ambitious and calculating leader of the Deadlock Gang and a respected figure in the criminal underworld.

Ashe has an organized mindset. This affects her ideas of how her organization should be run, to how relationships should work. Her relationship with Jesse McCree is "way more complicated" than a simple label, though could be described as a "love-hate" type of relationship.

Background
"Funny. They say there's no honor among thieves. But that's not how things work around here. If you cross me, or if you break your word, there'll be hell to pay. You can count on it."

- Ashe

Elizabeth Caledonia Ashe grew up in Texas on a large estate. Born into a wealthy family who came from "old money," Ashe grew up surrounded by privilege. Her parents were highly sought-after business consultants and coaches for powerful CEOs around the world. Though her parents paid little attention to her (mostly leaving her in the care of the family’s omnic butler, B.O.B.), they ensured that Ashe had every opportunity to succeed. Because of their absence, Ashe grew to have a contentious childhood, getting into trouble at school, and spending her time shooting bottles on the family estate. A loner, Ashe spent a lot of time talking to B.O.B. (even if he was apparently incapable of talking back).

As a teen/young adult, these demeanors led to being temporarily incarcerated. On the day of her graduation, she was arrested yet again, which caused her parents to disinherit her from the family fortune. To steal back what was rightfully hers, Ashe teamed up with B.O.B. A chance meeting with a local ruffian named Jesse McCree, and an impromptu string of crimes committed together opened her eyes to her true calling. The satisfaction of outwitting her targets and the thrill of getting away with it set her on the outlaw path. Not only had she found something she enjoyed, she'd found something she was good at. As a criminal, the idea of making a name for herself appealed to her. She and McCree never dated; according to McCree, Ashe wasn't his type, as per her wealth. McCree knew how to "push her buttons" better than anyone else.

Ashe, McCree, and two others formed the Deadlock Gang. She formed it out of a rebellious act against her parents, as given her wealth, she certainly didn't need the money. Ashe started to make a name for herself with bigger and more extravagant heists. While the Deadlock Gang wasn't the first gang to plague the American Southwest, Ashe declared that the gang would be "bigger and better" than its rivals, that they would "write their legend." Ashe found that she excelled as a leader&mdash;not only was she good at organizing heists and being a career criminal, but years of watching her parents coach and run their businesses had imparted her lessons on how to run a criminal enterprise.

The gang's rapid rise to prominence put them at odds with the other criminal organizations in the American southwest; the encounters often became violent. After years of skirmishes and bloodshed, Ashe called the heads of the major groups together, seeing the potential to grow the influence of all. She used what she’d learned from her parents’ business to bring order to these groups. Her proposal was that the gangs could work together (or at least, not work against each other). Her principles: keep your word, don’t work with the law, respect each other’s territory, and always punish betrayal. No longer having to focus her energies on squabbles with the other gangs, Ashe began writing her name across the American Southwest with a string of audacious heists and operations that has placed her at the top of most-wanted lists and cemented her legacy as an outlaw legend.

McCree ended up being captured in an Overwatch sting operation, and ended up joining Overwatch. Following the news, Ashe kept a picture of McCree...on the dartboard of her hideout.

Reunion
"Jesse McCree. It's been a while. You promised you'd write. Well Ashe...I've been kind of busy."

- Ashe and McCree

Years after McCree's departure, Ashe and the gang planned a heist of a hypertrain crossing above Route 66 at 11:55 AM, having received an anonymous tip that it was full of military ordnance. They destroyed the bridge, causing the train to plummet onto the road, giving them easy access to the cargo. While loading their hover dolly with the goods, however, the plan took an unexpected turn when McCree emerged from the dust. At Ashe's suspicion that his presence was not a coincidence, McCree confirmed that he had sent the tip about the train knowing that she couldn't resist, and all he wanted in return was a specific crate, telling Ashe that she could have everything else. However, he refused to elaborate on what it contained. Becoming interested in what was inside after opening the crate and taking a look, Ashe prepared to drive off the disappointed McCree, which led to a standoff, and subsequently at the stroke of noon, a gunfight. Despite being outnumbered, McCree was able to hold his own, though Ashe and her crew managed to pin him down with their gunfire. However, McCree got the upper hand with a pack of grenades that Zeke had dropped on the ground earlier in a panic, shooting them mid-air and incapacitating the gang.

Upon waking up, Ashe found herself and her gang bound on their hover dolly just as McCree was placing B.O.B's head onto it. McCree activated the dolly and sent it down Route 66, but because Ashe had turned down his deal, had removed all the loot they'd loaded onto it beforehand. Despite Ashe's yells, threatening to have B.O.B. rip off his other arm, McCree just ignored her. Further down the road, having had time to cool down, Ashe bitterly reflected that she should have just shot him the moment he turned up, conveniently ignoring the fact that her greed was responsible for their ending up with nothing. To add insult to injury, McCree zoomed past the dolly on Ashe's own hovercycle, ignoring (or not hearing) her as she shouted after him.

Trivia

 * Ashe is Hero 29 and the eighth new hero added to the game.
 * Ashe was announced by Jeff Kaplan live from the opening ceremonies of Blizzcon 2018, alongside Echo, who Kaplan stated 'needed a little more time'.
 * Ashe's nickname, Calamity, is possibly a reference to famed American frontiers-woman Calamity Jane.
 * B.O.B. will wave back to Ashe if she waves at him in-game.
 * Ashe appears to have a special connection with roses, as she has a rose shown on every skin: Default+Rare+Posh: tattoo on left arm | Thorn: roses all over | Gangster+Mobster: an actual rose on her hat | Jungle+Safari: a (wind)rose on her scarf and on BOB's back
 * A Funko Pop Ashe figurine is available.
 * One can earn a 'Lifesaver' highlight by saving BOB's life.

Development
Ashe and the rest of the Deadlock Gang members were originally created for the Reunion animated short by project director Jason Hill and storyboard artist Mio del Rosario. At the time she wasn't intended to be a playable hero, but rather one of the enemies for McCree to battle, conceived as a female member of the Deadlock Gang with long white hair wearing a duster, wide-brimmed hat, and wielding a lever-action rifle, who would be accompanied by a giant omnic bodyguard and other gang members. During the storyboarding process they found the character to be exceptionally compelling, often coming to the forefront of scenes; realizing that there was something special about her, they decided to further flesh out her character design and backstory. Senior concept artist Jungah Lee produced several iterations of the character in order to hone in on a unique silhouette and color palette that conveyed her youthful appearance and outlaw nature without overlapping with the likes of Reaper and McCree, settling on a final design that married the Western cowgirl and biker themes. Lastly, they shortened her hair by giving her a unique asymmetrical bob, both to sharpen her silhouette and to avoid having to simulate flowing hair.

At around the same time, Geoff Goodman and the game design team were interested in developing a new weapon-focused Damage hero, as the two other post-launch Damage heroes they released, Sombra and Doomfist, were both ability-focused. Upon seeing the early concept and storyboard art for the character, several designers independently came up with their own hero proposals, with the inclusion of B.O.B. being one of the only universally agreed upon ideas. Ashe's final kit revolved heavily around her lever-action rifle, deciding that, like McCree's similarly anachronistic revolver, it would be an extremely powerful, highly personalized weapon. To that end they gave it two firing modes, allowing her to rapidly fire from the hip for her primary fire, or to use iron sights with a reload between each shot for her secondary fire. Additionally, they gave the rifle a unique and satisfying reload mechanic, with Ashe reloading one bullet at a time in a dynamic loop that can be interrupted to resume firing. Her Coach Gun was designed mainly to create distance between her and her enemies, though it can also be used for mobility and trick shots. Ashe's Dynamite ability, originally conceived as a cluster bomb, was designed to be a versatile, high damage ability that is difficult to use.

Her Ultimate, B.O.B., was very technically challenging to implement due to memory and performance restrictions, and almost resulted in Ashe being scrapped, as the team was adamant about B.O.B. being included as part of the hero. Unlike the AI-controlled turrets in the game, B.O.B. is treated more like an additional teammate, and can be healed, buffed, and debuffed accordingly, and can also capture or contest objectives. For a time the team experimented with having the game treat him as a full teammate, but ran into balance issues and bugs.