III.Laning Techniques: Farming
As I mentioned, the general goal of the laning phase is to prepare for the mid game. To do that, players try to accumulate as much gold and attain as high a level as possible. This process is referred to as farming. If a champion farms poorly during the beginning of the game it can be a very difficult hole to climb out of, and if a champion farms much better than his opponents it is generally a decisive advantage. It is no exaggeration then to say that farming is the single most important skill for the laning phase. Surprisingly, many LoL players do not grasp this concept,and foolishly neglect the skill. Readers of this guide should have a decided advantage against such players.
Fortunately, this is actually a fairly simple skill to learn, and Ashe is fairly good at it. You'll want to take Volley (bound to the W key) as your first skill. Though you shouldn't use it primarily for farming, it can be a good tool toward that end if need be. Instead, your primary technique for farming is known as “last hitting”. Since you only get gold for minions that you actually kill, not merely ones that you have damaged, it is essential that you are responsible for the final blow which brings the creatures Hit Points down to 0. Instead of allowing Ashe to autoattack blindly, continuously click on the map to make Ashe run back and forth, thus preventing her from attacking. Make sure you are behind your minions and watch their HP (Hit Points are displayed in a bar above each minion's head), and when it gets sufficiently low, quickly click on the low-HP minion and one attack should kill it. At first it will be difficult to gauge how low a minion's HP needs to be for a last hit, but with practice it will come naturally to you. Employing this technique will ensure that you have a healthy amount of gold for the first time you return to base to shop.