Ash: Wrathful Storm
Ash: Wrathful Storm
TL;DR
Building for Blade Storm and Teleport. Blade Storm does true damage using finisher attacks, on the clones or you. It’s slow single target damage on an ability that sounds like it’s AoE, but the cost makes it only worth using on small groups. Gas can be added, making it AoE and not just single target. Using Teleport with a Prisma Obex, we can do AoE damage on an ability that sounds like it’s single target. Meaning Blade Storm is for big tough guys and Teleport is for everything else. Helminth: use Wrathful Advance (replaces Shuriken), boosts the damage to millions that instant kills everything until level 6000, can scale into level cap. Consider a companion, Diriga to group stuff together, Wyrm to negate status effects, or a Hound. Use the Prisma Obex due to how it does AoE attacks, and the Incarnon version has plenty of bonuses. When using it with Teleport, it’s faster than Blade Storm.
Ash builds for Blade Storm and Teleport. On the surface it looks like Blade Storm is AoE and Teleport is single target, when in reality that role is flipped. Of course you need the right weapon to make that work. Prisma Obex from Baro looks custom made just for him. Combine that with Helminth, and you can do some pretty silly things with Ash. Even before that, this frame already had plenty going for it, now it’s just gotten more tools and toys to play with, going from a build that’s just Blade Storm to one that’s Blade Storm plus Teleport. Not much can survive the storm of damage. Being able to do millions of damage means it takes a while before you find anything that can survive such an attack, after that it dies on the next hit. He’s Mr. One Punch Man, but each punch is slow with Blade Storm. Teleport with Prisma Obex is much faster due to it being an AoE attack.
Relying on invisibility or damage over anything else to survive. What can’t see you can’t kill you, but random damage not aimed at you can. Millions of damage makes Ash one of the best level cap frames in the game. If he can target it, he can kill it, it’s all glass cannon. Amount of damage is stupid, and you rarely need it unless going to level cap. Even at level cap you do way more damage than is required. Makes him very good at endgame content that requires serious damage, say level cap Void Cascade. He’s not good at clearing groups, hence using gas damage, but great against key carriers in Disruption or Void Cascade. Where you want to kill a small group with a ton of health, he can do that.
In terms of weaknesses: energy required to do damage is higher, anything that can’t be targeted, anything that nullifies his abilities. His damage output is much slower but higher compared to others, why he’s seen as primarily a solo frame. Not just damage, his energy costs add up very quickly, making it very expensive. Energy economy is why using Teleport for AoE makes sense, and why Blade Storm for small tough groups makes more sense.
Archon Shards
Do you need any of these shards? No, just nice to have. I’ve used two violet shards, for energy economy, for critical damage with energy over 500. Which is why I’ve added a blue shard for +75 energy. Added two red shards for duration, you can swap one for power strength. Or you can go all in for violet or purple shards.
Frame Build
Aura: Steel Charge, bonus damage for the shadow clones and you.
Exilus: Primed Sure Footed prevents knockdowns.
Primed Continuity, Transient Fortitude, Umbral Intensify, Primed Flow, Narrow Minded, Fleeting Expertise, Augur Reach, Archon Stretch. Last mod, you want range, and using a pet to do electric damage for the bonus energy helps with the economy.
What you want is duration, strength and range, throw in some efficiency which can be changed to something else. Primed Flow due to the shard usage and using the Primed version, can’t reach 500 with the regular version, and just hit 502.
Arcanes
Molt Augment and Crepuscular, Trickery also works here.
Blade Storm: Shadow Clones
Two arcanes I use are Melee Exposure and Retaliation. First build I like to use toxin damage, other one I use gas. Clones use a dagger and deal finisher damage, also have an internal cap on attack speed. They do however get buffed by Steel Charge and other effects. Which means we’re going to be stacking damage, an element, and finisher damage, along with anything else useful. Remember, due to using Wrathful Advance we already get critical strike, so.
Looking at things like Primed Pressure Point, Primed Fury (overcaps the attack speed), Finishing Touch, Organ Shatter, Primed Fever Strike, Covert Lethality and more.
Helminth
The ability Shuriken is replaced with Wrathful Advance, which is why the build is called Wrathful Storm. After testing, it became clear that Wrathful Advance is far superior, options like Silence less effective. Also another benefit, you don’t have to use the Savage Silence augment. Damage is lower, so everything just points to WA being better.
Other Things
Companion I use is a Hound, which patches up Ash’s big weakness, crowds. Spreading status effects and electric damage which triggers Archon Stretch in the main Ash build. Bond mods pair nicely here. Weapon it uses is Lacera.
Weapons wise, primary can be anything that’s good, really. Secondary, anything that can take out a nullifier bubble if you want, that can be your first slot. Prisma Obex for your melee. I don’t have that currently so I can’t suggest any builds. You’ll want to upgrade it to the Incarnon version to get the most benefit from it. Rather a unique build just for Ash, uses a similar build path to what Marked for Death used to do, just with less range and requiring only a weapon, meaning less setup overall. That old idea was even slower than Blade Storm, so nobody used it.
Closing Thoughts
Ash with Wrathful Advance is incredible, however his damage is slow. Sheer damage numbers are something the game really struggles to throw at you, takes a while to find something that can take it, but the follow up hit will destroy whatever it is. Using Helminth just ramps up that raw power output. Designers have made him easier to understand but there’s still a couple of things hidden away, mechanics you need to read on the wiki or play with him enough to notice. Plenty of weaknesses, at times with a squad you can feel like you’re doing nothing. But when you find the right mode and reach a level which your squad finds hard, Ash starts to show just how much power he has, barely even making him sweat.