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Recommended Items
Spells:
Ghost
Flash
Items
Ability Order
Serpentine Grace (PASSIVE)
Cassiopeia Passive Ability
Threats & Synergies
LeBlanc
You win lvl 1, and may be lvl 18. Otherwise, the duel issue is on her. You cannot survive her burst, you cannot kite with her ( double ) chain, she can easily dodge your R, she pokes and pushes more than you.
The solution is in teamfights, where you are way more useful than her.
Get banshee and HP.
***WIP***
Thx for feedbacks, any remark is appreciated !
I MIGHT NOT BE ABLE TO DO REGULAR UPDATES UNTIL ~ 2ND WEEK OF AUGUST 2017
Incoming, in this order :
- Builds, and build order
- Laning Phase
- Midgame role and fights
- Lategame role and fights
- Tips, tricks for advanced players : some weird powerspikes, all-in strategies, mechanical moves ...
If there is anything else you'd like to see in such a guide, let me know : for example, I don't plan to include videos but I could if this seems important to a lot of people.
To sum up up, I will try to be as precise and complete as possible, for beginners aswell as confirmed Cassio players who might want to try some new things with the Snake !

Cassiopeia is a mid-range AP champion. She has a huge lategame, and a weak early game. She is mainly used for her single target DPS, which is one of the strongest in the whole game.
Due to her unique passive and kit, she is a very interesting champion to play, and requires good mechanical abilities.
She is really versatile and can be useful in very different situations, with and against many different team compositions or matchups.
To understand each point of this description, we'll focus on

Passive

This passive is really, really powerful. Even if it might look underpowered at first sight, it grants

The capacity to build 6 items without having to buy boots is one of the reason which gives

Noxious Blast


- It deals a few damages to ennemy hit : it is a DoT, lasting for 3 second.
- It grants Cassiopeia movespeed if one or more ennemy champions are hit
- It poisons the ennemy ( minion, monster, ennemy ... ) : the ennemy is poisoned for the DoT duration ( 3 sec ). The poison use will be detailed in the
Twin Fang explanation.

Miasma

This spell is unique thanks to his passive capacity ( even if it is similar to

It is an AoE ranges skillshot, with a minimal range ( ~300 ). It poisons the ground in an arc of a circle, with clouds lasting for 5 sec. Ennemies caught in the clouds take damages as long as the stay in them, are poisoned, and can't use any movement abilities. Like the Q, it has differents effects :
- First, it deals damages. However, this is not a spell you'll use to damage your ennemy, and unless they stay in it for seconds, this won't make a huge difference.
- But it also poisons ennemy : if you miss a Q spell, which can be easily dodged, you can use
Miasma to poison you ennemy and be able to DPS them with
Twin Fang ( cf next paragraph ).
- Finally : As long as an ennemy stay in the clouds, he cannot use ANY movement ability.
Lee Sin's Q ( first and second activation ) for example, or any channelled movement capacity (
Zac's E) but also
Fizz's E,
Twisted Fate's R,
Ekko's R,
LeBlanc's W ( first and second activation ) are amongst the interesting one.



Twin Fang

This spell is the first you'll upgrade and max, always. This is your main DPS tool.

The main strenght of this spell is its ridiculously low CD ( 0.75 sec, down to 0.45 with 40% CDR ), making Cassiopeia one of the ( if not 'the' ) highest single-target DPS in the game.
It also allow


During the laning phase, it is an excellent tool to farm, as its mana cost is totally refunded if the target is killed by

NB : Mana cost is refunded even if the target dies during the animation ( which is different from

Damages are increased on ennemies that are poisoned by an ally (


Petrifying Gaze

Another unique abilty in the


As it has a short casting time, ennemies may react to the sound + animation and turn away from the


The



You will always start with

You will always take

The only debatable point is whether you should take a second point in your E, or take your third spell (W) when you up level 3. Here is what I suggest :
- If you play against someone whose champion doesn't have any movement ability (
Syndra,
Annie,
Lux ... ), and the ennemy jungler doesn't have one either, or if you're certain that he won't gank you, and you want to have the biggest trade potential to all-in : take a second point in
Twin Fang.
- However, if you think that you might get ganked, or if the ennemy is a
Fizz, a
Zed, or anyone with an all-in potential with a dash at level 3, take your W. The slow will allow you to survive more easily to any gank, and the disable of movement abilities makes you safer against any all-in.
After this, upgrade your spells following the priority order given earlier. Taking a third point in Q before your lvl 9 is not advisable, as it will delay your first powerspikes, and the damage + movespeed gain won't make a huge difference compared to your E max.




This gives us a direction to give to our builds and

Amplifying Tome AP and magic penetration, obviously, as her job is to deal damages. But also
Sapphire Crystal Mana, to be able to make fights lasting long; the
Twin Fang mana cost, despite being low, shreds Cassio's mana pool as it burns 160 Mana pts per second with ~40% CDR.
Fiendish Codex CDR, to maximize her damages. This point will be explained more precisely later.
Ruby Crystal HP, and more generally defensive statistics, to survive to burst and outdamage her opponents during longer trades.



- First, as she relies a lot on her (Q) to poison the ennemy and deal damages, and as it is a skillshot, missing a Q without CDR means that Cassio's damage output will be extremely low for 3.5 sec, while this duration is reduced to 2.1 sec with 40% CDR. The time gained, ~1.5 s, is enough to cast three
Twin Fang, which is HUGE
- But it also multiplies the
Cassiopeia's DPS by almost 1.7
Imagine what could aLeBlanc with 40% CDR do in a fight compared to a 0% CDR one. They'll both use
Distortion at the same time, then
Shatter Orb, etc. But, when the first LeBlanc will recover her
Distortion cooldown, she might not be able to use it immediately. She has the potential to (W) faster than the other LB, but she might have to wait to use it in the best way. Thus, the 40% CDR gives a lot of potential to
LeBlanc, but her damage output, in certain case, might be the same with or without CDR.
This explanation goes for many champions : the idea is that sometimes, you have to wait before using an ability, to make the best use of it.
ForCassiopeia, the situation is different. Indeed, she can, and she will, spam
Twin Fang whenever it is available, as you don't have a "best way of using it" or any requirement : if you are in range and you want to DPS, you can use it. So your DPS phases in fights will be multiplied exactly by your CDR : the formula is simple, as having X% CDR means that your CD are reduced by X%, thus making you able to cast them 100/X times more in the same amount of time. If you have 40% CDR, you use your spells 100/40 = 1.66 times more, making your Damages Per Second multiplied by almost 1.7 with Cassio as you effectively use your spells as soon as they are available.
You see that CDR, for a


Pros
+ Ranged champion + Huge scaling + Unique gameplay and kit + Gamebreaker ultimate + One of the highest single-taget DPS + Very interesting to play, outplay potential + Can destroy a game alone |
Cons
- Squishy without defensive items - Low escape - Relies on good mechanics, especially kiting - Weak early game - Has some very hard counters - Based on skillshots landing |

Standard runepage
3
|
9
|
6
|
3
|
9
|
Greater Quintessence of Ability Power * 3 These are the standard quintessence you'll run with an AP midlaner, nothing really special there.
Greater Mark of Magic Penetration * 9 These runes allow you to deal damages in early game, compensate the MR runes of your ennemy, and will synergize later with
Void Staff or
Liandry's Torment.
Greater Glyph of Scaling Cooldown Reduction * 6 Having 6 of them grants you 10% CDR at lvl 18, and as I explained in a previous point, CDR is one of the best offensive statistic for Cassiopeia. Combined with a
Morellonomicon and another 10%CDR item, or the blue buff, you'll reach 40% CDR.
Greater Glyph of Magic Resist * 3 The goal is there to reduce the early damages of your opponent, who is most likely to be AP in the midlane, and later on, any upcoming magic damage from jungler, support or toplaner.
Greater Seal of Scaling Health * 9 These runes become very effective as the game goes on, are way more useful than Armor Seals against an magic damage-dealer opponent, and allow Cassiopeia to survive the burst she will have no way to avoid due to her low escape capacity.



Against a physical opponent
- You MUST take
Greater Seal of Armor * 9 instead of the HP Scaling one. Cassiopeia base armor is quite low, these opponents (
Talon,
Zed ... ) often run Lethality runes and tend to build physical penetration-based items. They also are assassins, or at least good duelist, and will try to kill you. Running HP against them will be inefficient, as their penetration will allow them to deal true damages to you and destroy you.
- You might want to change your three
Greater Glyph of Magic Resist to
Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist, or
Greater Glyph of Ability Power depending on the magic damage you will be facing later on the game. This is not fundamental, as they will always be some source of magic damage in their team, and you only have 3 runes of this type anyway.
Against lategame team composition
In this case, the point is that you won't be useful early on no matter what, as a

In this situation, you might want to skip the




I suggest you to run :
Greater Quintessence of Scaling Cooldown Reduction * 1 along two flat AP runes
Greater Glyph of Scaling Cooldown Reduction * 9
This allow you to have +20% CDR at lvl 18, which can become a 30% or 40% with one or two other items, or the blue buff.
This page is quite specific, and gives you a terribly weak early game. However, you become a scaling monstruous DPS machine, with a massive AP/Magic pen build where CDR isn't a stat you need to invest on.
I will first compare every step of the two first trees, and the 4 first ones of the last tree, in order to give a precise explanation. I will then give a few examples of pages, refering to their keystone, rather than presenting every point for every set.
The little conclusion after each mastery is not a "must-follow rule", but only what the usual choice would be !
All the explainations are made in the paragraphs, so read them if you want to understand when and why these choices are the good ones !
-
Fury vs
Sorcery : Nothing special to say there, as you are obviously scaling on AP more than AS :
5 points inSorcery
-
Fresh Blood vs
Feast vs
Expose Weakness : The real debate does not involve
Expose Weakness , as you are the main damage dealer of your team, and you mainly deal damages to one target at a time.
I personnally preferFeast, as it gives a very interesting sustain during the laning phase, and combined to your
Twin Fang sustain, you'll be able to farm safely for hours.
However, in some very easy matchups ( Ryze, Karthus ... ), or some MU where you are seeing for pre-6 pressure ( typically vs all-in melee champ, where sustain won't change that much :Akali,
Diana,
Yasuo ... ),
Fresh Blood can be a very good option :
1 point inFresh Blood or
Feast, depending on the matchup.
-
Vampirism vs
Natural Talent : Both choices are fine. I prefer to spend 5 points in
Vampirism , that gives spellvamp which gives a huge sustain in lategame fights, combined with
Rod of Ages +
Twin Fang.
Natural Talent is useful only for its AP part, and you are already reaching enormous AP amounts, so I do not think it is necessary :
5 points inVampirism .
-
Bounty Hunter vs
Double Edged Sword vs
Battle Trance : I always use
Battle Trance , because as you are not looking for an instant burst, you'll end up quickly fully using its bonus, even in early game trades.
Meanwhile,Bounty Hunter requires you to kill a lot of different ennemies to be effective. As
Cassiopeia do not roam that much, it is not really worth the price.
Finally,Double Edged Sword only makes you more vulnerable to early kills, for only a few percent more damages than
Battle Trance :
1 point inBattle Trance
-
Battering Blows vs
Piercing Thoughts : Nothing interesting here, as you are doind almost 100% magical damages, even with Liandry's passive or Luden's one :
5 points inPiercing Thoughts
-
Warlord's Bloodlust vs
Fervor of Battle vs
Deathfire Touch : Even if there is no real choice there, as
Deathfire Touch is the only one interesting for us, I'll explain why it is a good mastery :
It is the keystone which will bring you the most damages in lategame. Moreover, with Cassio, your DoT (Noxious Blast,
Miasma ) and your AP amounts thanks to your 6 items will make it even more effective. It will be refreshed constantly with your E spamming, thus making it a permanent DPS buff. Combined with
Liandry's Torment, your poisons will end up doing almost 1.5 times more damages than what they should :
1 point inDeathfire Touch
-
Wanderer vs
Savagery : As you will get stuck onto your midlane if your opponent decided to roam faster than you ( for example,
Ahri,
LeBlanc ... ), you will need extra movespeed to join the incoming fight, which can be a terrible 3v2 crush if you cannot manage to be there in time. Plus, the extra damages given by
Savagery are not really necessary, as you will last hit pretty easily with
Twin Fang :
5 points inWanderer
-
Runic Affinity vs
Secret Stash vs
Assassin : you won't benefit much from
Runic Affinity as you will probably wait until your first blue buff, and you will never take the red one. Thus, this is not a good investment.
Secret Stash can be good, but you will need to buy some potions to make it efficient, and this is not likely to happens as your innate sustain is enough in easy lanes, and
Corrupting Potion is there in hard ones.
Meanwhile, you will stay in midlane for a while, and so will be playing in duel :
1 point inAssassin
-
Merciless vs
Meditation : Both masteries are useful to play. As it depends on your playstyle more than the other masteries ( afk farming or seeking for kills ), I do not recommend anything special as long as you play according to the point you chose ( farming with
Meditation , trading with
Merciless ). Another viable option is to split the 5 points you get, and this is what most people do :
3 points inMerciless , 2 point in
Meditation
-
Greenfather's Gift vs
Bandit vs
Dangerous Game : You won't autoattack that much, and are a ranged champion, making
Bandit almost useless.
Greenfather's Gift might be good toplane, as many bushes are along the lane, bu it midlane you will almost never be able to use it.
Dangerous Game allow you to sustain both mana and HP during fights, as you will probably get some assists or kills, or it might allow you to survive a DoT that would have killed you after your opponent died :
1 point inDangerous Game
Precision vs
Intelligence : Despite being extremely efficient on
Cassiopeia, the extra-CDR given by
Intelligence is not enough to justify its price.
Indeed, the magic pen will scale extremely well with your build, as you will probably get a lot of AP before buying any magic pen. Moreover, it will give you a flat ~10 Magic Pen at level one, multiplying your damages more than 5% CDR.
To be precise, 5% CDR will give you, ultimately ( lvl 18 + full stuff ) more damages than the 8.4 magic penetration, if your ennemies build Magic Resist. However, even at this point, the difference won't be much, and having a decent early game will be a lot easier than betting on super lategame fights :
5 points inPrecision
-
Stormraider's Surge vs
Thunderlord's Decree vs
Windspeaker's Blessing : as you have no shield or heal towards allies, the third keystone is definitely useless.
Stormraider's Surge is extremely powerful. You will have no problem using it, as you can (Q) + 3*(E) during the 2.5 sec needed to trigger it. The huge movespeed + slow reduction given by the keystone, combined to your
Noxious Blast's MS, and sometimes
Ghost, will make your ennemies go mad, as you will be running way too fast for them. However, it requires good mechanics, as it won't be easy to kite well ( not too close, not too far ) and to dodge skillshots. If you just move randomly at 600 MS, this is a bad use of the keystone !
Thunderlord's Decree is also viable. In laning phase, you can proc it very easily with this combo:
Noxious Blast ->
Twin Fang + Autoattack
This might help you to pressure easy lanes, with the same idea that I already explained in the first tree forFresh Blood . However, once the game goes on, this little burst won't make a huge difference, and deathfire touch would be a better choice to deal damages later in the game :
1 point inStormraider's Surge
-
Recovery vs
Unyielding : You won't stack a lot of Magic Resist or Armor, besides your basic statistic or runes. Thus, you have no interest to play with
Unyielding :
5 points inRecovery
-
Explorer vs
Tough Skin vs
Siegemaster : if you are playing with this tree, you are facing a ( very ) hard lane. Thus, you will try to use the defensive masteries of this tree.
Siegemaster might look as good option, however you will usually have enough range not to be poked while under tower : the danger will come, precisely, while you are out of your tower's range.
ButTough Skin will be useful for every autoattack trade you might take in early game, and above all, it will reduce the damages coming from the minions :
1 point inTough Skin
-
Runic Armor vs
Veteran's Scars : Both choice are viable. If you fear the early game, go for
Veteran's Scars . The bonus sustain given by
Runic Armor is not neglectable either, but you might look for earlier stats if you are spending that much in the Resolve Tree :
5 points inVeteran's Scars
-
Insight vs
Perseverance vs
Fearless : Despite
Insight looking pretty good at first sight, having your flash 45 sec earlier won't always save you. Plus, it is not as teamplay oriented as a toplaner having its
Teleport 45 sec before the ennemy one, and using it to make TP plays.
Perseverance can also look great, but you won't have that much problem sustaining from low life. Moreover, you will not try to stay in lane vs lane-bullies with less than 25% life, thus making it hard to use effectively.
Meanwhile,Fearless grants you huge capacity to survive bursts :
1 point inFearless
18/12/0 :
This is almost viable in any situation, as your primary role is to be an AP carry.

This mastery set is more effective against tanky compositions, where your team already has peel for you ( you are playing with


To sum up, it is not that much a "soloQ" keystone, as it won't allow you to outplay your ennemies, and if you somehow manage to get fed, you might be hard focused while your team doesn't react - remember these games where you were 5/0/3 and your allied

12/18/0 :
This is my standard masteries page, and should be yours too. I already explained some of the advantages of the

You will make the best use of this keystone in games where most of the opponents are squishy ( so you can proc it easily - forget it against a Shen/Maokai/Galio/adc/Blitz draft ), and where you excpect yourself to outplay your ennemies : you rely on the extra movespeed, which is not a combat statistic in itself, to dodge/kite/reposition during fights.
This is also good against "diving bruisers" composition (






To sum up : always a good choice, as it allows you to outplay people, can be used offesively or defensively, and does not rely on teammates or items to be effective. However, it needs a bit of training to be used, as it might surprise when it triggers, and requires a bit of "mechanics".
12/18/0 :
Not a keystone I recommend, however it can be useful in some very specific situations : if you clearly have an advantage over your ennemy midlaner, and if you don't think you'll need the extra damages from


However, as

To sum up, it can use to snowball a game quickly, not playing according to your usual playstyle as a Cassio or to the team composition as a whole.
18/0/12 or 0/18/12 : Resolve Tree investment
The choice between the three keystones is up to you, according to my previous explanations.
However, the missing 12 points won't be invested in the Ferocity or Cunning Tree, as they would have been ususlly, for ONE reason : you are terrified by your direct opponent burst ( aka



However, as hard engage composition are usually tanky, the damages and sustain given by the first two trees is not neglectable, thus reducing the 12 points in Resolve Tree only necessay in one case :
The BURST. As I already explained in this guide, this is the first threat you are facing as


To sum up : use this page when facing


FLASH

It also gives her the capacity to engage through your


The second summoner spell
Here, many choices are up to you :
GHOST





During fights, you should be able to dodge most of the incoming skillshots that might hurt you or CC you, with

During laning phase, it is quite a weak summoner though, not giving any combat power comparable to



EXHAUST



Indeed, this spell has two main effects :
First, it reduces the physical and magical damages dealt by the ennemy you exhausted for a brief time, this effect being instantly effecive as you cast


Secondly,



Matchups where this is a must-have :




Matchups where this is a good choice nonetheless :






CLEANSE

As you are mostly vulnerable to burst damages, you absolutely don't want to be hit by a CC during which you could easily dive, thus not doing your long-term damage dealer role.
The

However, if you are too slow to react, or if you are already caught in a bad place, you will also need your

Matchups where this is a must-have :




Matchups where is a good choice nonetheless :






Barrier

There is not any matchup where you must run it, but some are pretty easier with this instead of


Matchups where you can go for a







I would not recommend to play with a

I would not recommend to use an












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