Apex Legends Season 11 is here and it includes a lot of new content for players to check out as part of it. As with any new season in the battle royale game, this also includes releasing a new character to play as. This time around, we have Ash and the Apex Legends Ash abilities have been revealed.

Season 11 Escape is one of the most exciting and highly anticipated seasons of the battle royale game since its start in February 2019, almost three years ago at this point. The 11th season is starting a new era for the game, introducing many expected and surprising changes alike. 

There are the usual additions, like a new weapon, gameplay balancing, and the like, but the biggest addition is the fourth new map to date. This is only the third season to introduce a new map location, making this one of the most important seasons ever.  

Then comes the fact that you have someone like Ash, who will be the new legend that will drop in Season 11 alongside the new Storm Point battle royale map. Ash has a lot to live up to this season, given that, a year ago, we received Horizon and Olympus in Season 7 under similar circumstances, and both turned out to be quite good. 

Horizon remains one of the most popular legends in the game and one of the most powerful, despite the balancing changes over the past year. Furthermore, Ash’s character and the hype that the Apex Legends Ash abilities will have to live up to this season. 

Ash is a very familiar character to Titanfall 2 and Apex Legends veterans as she was featured in both of those games before her debut as a playable character in Season 11. She is currently a simulacrum, but that was not always the case.

Like fellow simulacrum, Revenant, she was once a human known as Dr. Ashleigh Reid until her untimely death. At that point, she was resurrected as a simulacrum and continues to live on as such. She would then be featured in Titanfall 2 as one of the Apex Predator villains there. 

The main character of that game, whom the player played as, would defeat Ash in one of the missions, seemingly ending her. However, that was not the case as she was recovered, rebuilt, and now serving as the overseer for the Apex Games with a very recognizable voice. 

Given how crucial she is to both games, it came as no surprise that she leaked in the backend of Apex Legends quite a long time ago, hinting that she would become a playable character at some point. That time has finally come. Ash will have her chance to participate in the game that she once oversaw.

Her debut is a key one. Fans of the Ash character will be hoping that the Apex Legends Ash abilities are great ones that help her be a rising star in the Apex Games, while some will just be hoping that she ends up a better playable simulacrum than Revenant did in the end. 

Fortunately, she is a pretty good character. Not the best one that we have had this year, and certainly not better than Horizon from what we have played, but a decently balanced and solid character that we recommend to check out. Here’s everything that you need to know about the Apex Legends Ash abilities, from how they work to how to play her and more. 

For starters, with the Apex Legends Ash abilities, we have the passive one. This is known as Marked for Death. It is a fascinating ability that shows that Respawn is not afraid to exclusively give key gameplay features to certain characters. 

In the case of Ash’s passive ability, her map will show her the location of the nearby deathboxes that have recently appeared. This on its own is fairly useful as it allows your team to know then exactly where the fights are happening and be the classic third-party that comes in to beat both teams.

It is also good for biding time and taking the loot that is leftover after the fights are finished, or for avoiding those highly populated areas entirely if you are not looking for a fight at the time. Regardless, this immediately makes it a helpful ability and one that no one else can do. 

However, the true utility of Marked for Death does not just know where the deathboxes are, but what you can do with them. Ash can use a special prompt on a deathbox to then mark the surviving attackers so that you can avoid them or hunt them down to finish them off. 

This can only be done once per box, but it is useful to give valuable insight into the other teams’ movements. This is a useful ability and one that will certainly make aggressive Apex Legends teams all the more powerful in the end. 

Next up in the Apex Legends Ash abilities is tactical that you will likely be using quite often. Known as Arc Snare, this ability creates a decently sized circle on the ground that is electrified and will damage and tether the first enemy that gets too close. 

It is essentially a crowd control ability, but mainly for just one legend, rather than a whole group. Arc Snare looks like a great counter to the movement-based abilities of other legends in the game, including Wraith and others. 

Arc Snare can be an overpowered and overused ability in the 11th season of the game, which remains to be seen. Still, it is our opinion that it is quite balanced and a welcome change of pace for where the game’s meta currently is. 

Wraith has dominated the game’s meta for a long time, even if it is not that apparent these days, and Ash is billed as a nice counter to her. As seen in the tactical ability, many of Ash’s abilities can slow down or match what Wraith can do. 

Then we come to the ultimate that is known as Phase Breach. This is an interesting ultimate because it is similar to another character’s ultimate, but with a key change. That is, of course, Wraith’s ultimate, and Ash has one that also has to do with portals. 

But the key difference here is that Ash pulls up a one-way portal to a location rather than going back-and-forth, and the other key change is that you can target where to throw the portal from the start. The portal will then stay open for a short time in which anyone (friend or foe) can use it for a one-way trip. 

This can be, of course, used for movement, like getting to a higher point for loot or trying to escape the storm quickly, but there is more to it than that. It is mostly useful for fights as you will pursue someone and finish them off, especially the movement-based legends. 

The fact that Ash has a portal makes her a direct counter to Wraith and aims to tackle fights with her, but this ability is also great for covering short distances to take on other movement-based legends, like Octane.

In the end, it is a powerful ability that is balanced enough with the fact that it is a one-way and that you can only target the portal for so far ahead of you that it is a brilliant way to handle this character. While it remains to be seen for now at the launch of Season 11, it does seem like Ash is quite balanced overall.  

We could see a situation where Respawn finds that Arc Snare is a little too powerful and needs to nerf it some, but we could also see a situation where Ash ends up feeling a little underwhelming in her ability set and needs a slight boost. Regardless, we feel that the Apex Legends Ash abilities put her in a solid, balanced area for now, with only minor changes needed in the future. 

With the Apex Legends Ash abilities in mind, here’s how to best play as Ash, whether solo or part of a team. Now, it is worth noting that Apex Legends is a game that features squad play only with still no solo mode for players to check out. 

That said, there are times when you are in matches. You will end up as a solo player anyways. This will happen in both Arena and battle royale, especially if you do not have a solid group of friends that you are playing with, leaving you with randoms that will not be that helpful sometimes. 

In these situations, Ash is again similar to Wraith in that she is decent to play as a solo character. Everything that she has is useful enough as a solo player as it is with a team. Arc Snare is a nice ability that will let you take on other teams alone or even escape. 

This is helped by Phase Breach for quick escapes or finishing off a team that you have on the run. Marked for Death is great, too, for solo players since it lets you know information that would be hard to get otherwise while playing by yourself. 

But the real benefit of Ash comes from playing with a squad as Respawn intends it. In this case, Ash is both a solid aggressive character and can stay back to be the scout of sorts for the group. You can be the scout for the group due to Arc Snare and Marked for Death. 

You can find some decent information for the team while also laying down Arc Snare from afar to help out your more aggressive teammate (or yourself, if you are that player). But then you can be the aggressive one thanks to Phase Breach that allows you to hunt down your foes. I see Ash doing well in an aggressive team, and, therefore, that is what I recommend. 

To make an aggressive team happen, you need to pick the right partners to have Ash excel as a character. With only three characters at max on a squad, you have to pick and choose well. Because of this, it is really up to you, but we have a few recommendations. 

I think that you should have a more defensive or supporting character, for sure, as part of a team with Ash. I think Wattson could be an interesting one for players who dive into that route, but I recommend Gibraltar as the character you should have as your tank here. 

From there, the hardest part is making your third partner for the team. Ash is a pretty balanced character, as mentioned, who can handle information-gathering and fighting alike. Because of this, it is easy to see going either way for who you want to be on your side. 

Horizon is one of the best choices, in my opinion, as the more crowd control and powerful abilities that she has pair nicely with Ash. You could go the route of someone like Loba, too, who can gather up items for the team for Ash to be the main attacker with. 

I also think there is room for a highly aggressive duo of both Wraith and Ash or Bloodhound and Ash that will stick together or take turns being the assassins in the squad while having a defensive character that can keep them safe in the more drawn out fights.