Hi, I'm LinCassX and welcome to d guide. In Season 9 I've reached Challenger with 2 accounts simultaneously at around 65-70%wr on Cassiopeia ~700LP each. I have been Completely Stomp some of the Best Soloq players such as TFBLADE , making them Ban Cassiopeia every singe game whenever online.If you have any questions about the guide, feel free ask them live on Twitch

For COACHING contact via Discord: Lincassx

Without further ado, let's get into the guide.

PROS + 1v10 Hyper carry + Huge DPS + Insane scaling + Fast at taking objectives + Great teamfighting + High skill ceiling + Very rewarding when mastered Cassiopeia is a high DPS, hyper carry scaling control mage. She excels at taking Dragon's and Baron's, late game teamfighting whilst controlling the ground/area around with her CC and AoE abilities. This works especially well against low mobility champions as well as tanks and bruisers, since her core build path includes a lot of %hp and over time damage. She can be both an engage tool as well as a peeler, depending on various circumstances such as teamcomps and summoner spells or how fed you are. Great for one-tricking due to her high outplay potential.

CONS -- A lot of bad matchups -- Takes long time to ramp up -- Short range -- Very mechanically intensive -- Immobile -- Very mana hungry early game Cassiopeia's main weaknesses come from her being immobile and needing a long time to ramp up. Champions with a lot of dashes and burst damage tend to run her over since most of her damage comes from hitting her Noxious Blast followed by Twin Fang. Her early game is quite weak since she runs out of mana really fast, so saving your mana and waiting for a all-in timing at(lvl 3)is crucial. Due to her being a high skill ceiling champion she takes many games to get used to and even more to master, so only Those who are willing to put enough time in, will Prosper.

I play this set up of runes if the enemy teamcomp has a lot of slows / is long range based. The other option is Conqueror
Sorcery primary, domination secondary.
Conqueror primary, domination secondary.

Phase Rush

★ Phase Rush Allows you to kite enemies well which is a must on a champion without mobility, very useful in surviving ganks so always make sure to not overextend in lane if its on Cooldown when enemy JUNGLER is near.

Manaflow band

★ Manaflow band Best option since it gives you free mana which helps with Cassiopeia's mana problems.

Transcendence

★ Transcendence CDR is very important on Cassiopeia since she is a DPS mage that relies on spamming abilities.

Waterwalking

★ Waterwalking ( MID ) Is byfar the most underrated rune in MID lane and its going to be your primary option, secondary being Gathering Storm, it gives alot of roaming potentialin in addition to having increased MS/AP around objetives such as dragon and baron which is where Cassiopeia shines. Also good for escaping early game ganks since it basically gives you free boots, which you cant buy on Cassiopeia.

Gathering Storm

★ Gathering Storm ( BOT/TOP ) Is best in BOT lane and TOP lane where you wont be able to move outside of your lane to make roams or gank escapes through river happen.

Taste of Blood

★ Taste of Blood Gives you some extra needed sustain in lane.

Ravenous Hunter

★ Ravenous Hunter Gives you insane amounts of mid/late game healing which is crucial since you are a sustained DPS mage which wants to be in extended fights.

Take 10% scaling cooldown if there is close to 0% chance of solo killing the enemy, lets say when versing a super tank in TOP lane or in situations where the whole enemy team is very tanky and you'll want to buy 2nd item Liandry's Torment

SUMMONER SPELLS - FLASH: is mandatory on Cassiopeia. The main uses for this spell are as follows: Engaging a teamfight by using Petrifying Gaze or Miasma and Flashing right afterwards to give enemies no time to react. Following an enemy after they use Flash or another escape spell. Escaping lethal situations by creating distance. Outplaying enemies in 1v1s by avoiding a key CC or damage spell. IGNITE:( MID ) The go-to spell when you want kill pressure in lane, and going to be the most used one in MID. Should be taken in most lanes where you have kill potential and are able to get into close proximity of the enemies to use it : Vladimir Talon Ekko Qiyana Zed Fizz. TELEPORT:( TOP,BOT,MID ) is a must in TOP lane, and first option in BOT lane secondary being Heal(vs high kill pressure/all-in lane), in MID lane its going to be the best into long range/poke lanes such as : Xerath Vel'Koz Syndra Lux. CLEANSE:( MID/BOT ) This is a must against CC heavy MID or JUNGLE, or a CC heavy team in general. Examples : Twisted Fate Veigar Ryze Zoe Lissandra Sejuani Elise. EXHAUST:( MID ) Is best against champions that rely on burst damage to finish you off. Would recommend taking it if enemy team has multiple assassins, champions this is good into : Talon Ekko Qiyana Zed Fizz Kha'Zix Rengar Lucian Tristana. BARRIER:( MID, BOT ) The more selfish summoner spell compared to Heal. It has lower CD and is a much safer pick against opponents who have Ignite, great versus champs with long range and high burst while being untargetable such as : Karthus Rengar Kha'Zix Ezreal Fizz. HEAL:( MID, BOT ) Great against all-in lanes in BOT lane, in MID lane it increases your 2v2 skirmish potential greatly, less selfish option compared to barrier, works well against champions with long range or champions of whose very impactful spell you want to dodge, great vs : Syndra Vel'Koz Xerath.

PASSIVE ABILITY

Serpentine Grace ✦ Cassiopeia gains 4 Movement Speed per level. Cassiopeia cannot purchase Boots items. The main pro of this passive is the fact that your scaling is unmatched inside of the game, allowing you to buy 6 items whilst still having some movement speed later on in the game.

Q

Noxious Blast ✦ Cassiopeia blasts an area with a delayed high damaging poison, dealing 75 / 110 / 145 / 180 / 215 (+90% of ability power) magic damage over 3 seconds and granting her 30 / 35 / 40 / 45 / 50% movement speed which decays over 3 seconds if she hits a champion. This ability is the main skill you have to master if you want to maximise Cassiopeias damage potential and kiting. Make sure to use this ability after enemies have used their dashes or are CC'd before you use it, always try to guarantee that it hits,consider waiting and not using it right away. Dont use it much early game since it does not that much damage, rather wait for level 3 and 1 point in Noxious Blast and 2 points in Twin Fang before you use any mana whatsoever to have the best value for your mana to damage ratio.

W

Miasma ✦ Cassiopeia spews venom in an arc in front of her, leaving toxic clouds for 5 seconds. Enemies in the cloud take 20 / 25 / 30 / 35 / 40 (+15% of ability power) magic damage per second, are slowed by 40 / 50 / 60 / 70 / 80% (decays over the duration) and are grounded, prohibiting the use of movement abilities. Can be used both for engaging combined with Flash, as well as for disengaging depending on the situation. 95% of the times don't level it up until level 4.

E

Twin Fang ✦ Cassiopeia deals 48 (+4x champion level) (+10% of ability power) magic damage to her target. If the target is poisoned, Twin Fang deals 10 / 30 / 50 / 70 / 90 (+60% of ability power) bonus magic damage and restores 12 / 14 / 16 / 18 / 20% of Cassiopeia's ability power to her as health. This heal is 75% less effective against minions and small monsters. If Twin Fang kills a unit, its mana cost is refunded. Learning how to properly last hit with this ability is going to be key to making sure you don't waste mana which is crucial for your pressure in lane. Make sure to put 2 points into Twin Fang at lvl 3.

R

Petrifying Gaze ✦ Cassiopeia releases a swirl of magical energy from her eyes, dealing 150 / 250 / 350 (+50% of ability power) magic damage to all enemies in front of her. Enemies facing her are stunned for 2 seconds, while enemies facing away are slowed by 40% for the same duration. One of the most key things to learn is how to properly use Petrifying Gaze into Flash combo, its absolutely game changing, allowing you to catch enemies completely off guard into an unexpected comeback or game winning play. You should go into practice tool and do it over and over until you feel completely comfortable doing it without any thought, make it an instinct.

Full Build

Seraph's Embrace

Liandry's Torment

Seraph's Embrace

Deathcap

Void Staff

Morellonomicon

Starting items

Sapphire Crystal is by far the most optimal first item in most situations, giving you mana which equals to damage, it gives you quite a lot more early lane pressure than Doran's Ring, also allows you to get to your crucial power spikes like Tear of the Goddess and Lost Chapter the fastest.

Refillable Potion Is a really good item to pick up when you have 150g to spare. The earlier you buy it, the better. It is extremely gold efficient, as it gets refreshed once you base.

Control Ward Buy it on basically every base when you have some gold leftover, during mid-late game always buy it instead of small component items(400-600gold), sell your starting items such Refillable Potion etc., if needed. It will save you and your team from unexpected ganks/roams. Its key to always have a Control Ward down on the map.. One of Cassiopeias biggest Strengths is her objective taking, so making sure you take the initiative in getting vision control around those area's is a must.

Core items

Archangel's staff ( 1 )The FIRST item you're going to be buying every single game. Its a must since Cassiopeia is very mana hungry, so a big mana pool is required in order for her to spam abilities. Cassiopeia does a great job at stacking Tear of the Goddess as she can spam Twin Fang and get all the mana refunded in addition to getting mana back from the Tear of the Goddess passive.

Rylai's Crystal Scepter ( 2-3 )Buy this item SECOND in most of your games, especially if you are ahead or the enemy team has a lot of squishy champions. Its a great item since it fits Cassiopeias spammy kit well since you're always going to be reapplying the slow, it also allows you to land your abilities easier, as well as to kite and to chase opponents down.

Liandry's Torment ( 2-3 )Buy this item SECOND if you are slightly behind, or if the enemy team has a lot of bruisers/tanks since this item does CRAZY %hp damage. The passive of this item is ideal for Cassiopeia since she is a Consistent DPS mage.

Post-Core Items

Deathcap The best late game AP item in the game. Best bought as FOURTH item. It synergizes well with most of the mages, even better so on Cassiopeia because she can build 6 AP items, giving you an absurd amount of stats.

Void Staff Great if enemy team has stacked some MR.

Morellonomicon Good into teamcomps that have a lot of healing effects/champions such as Vladimir Soraka. Also great if the enemy team has low amount of MR.

Defensive Items

Banshee's Veil Key item against heavy Magic damage or CC teamcomps, great SECOND item if enemy team has a bursty AP MID with great pick off potential for example Syndra Fizz Annie LeBlanc, or if enemy MID/JUNGLE are both AP for example : Zoe Ekko, Veigar Elise.

Zhonya's Hourglass Is a really good item to pick up SECOND when enemy team has assassins or a lot of AD champions in general. Build Seeker's Armguard asap into matchups like Zed Talon Qiyana Irelia asap to make sure you never die 1v1 and are able to scale reliably.

Your main goal as Cassiopeia or as any other scaling mage in any lane is to - Scale up and look for gank setups with your Miasma or solokills whenever possible. First most optimal timing for a solokill is going to be at level 3 with 1 point in Noxious Blast and 2 points in Twin Fang whilst having full mana, so use it sparingly until that point.
Once you get Tear of the Goddess+ Lost Chapter you become an actual champion that can get lane priority consistently with your wave clear and less common mana issues.

Laning Example 1 - You're playing against a long range poke mage like Vel'Koz Xerath Orianna. Your primary goal is going to be pushing them in as much as you can to force them to use their abilities on creeps/lasthitting thus they wont be able to poke/abuse you as much.

Laning Example 2 - You're playing against an opponent with great gank setup such as LeBlanc Pantheon Irelia. Your primary goal is going to be freezing(After the enemy has killed your entire wave, you let 2-3 of the enemy creeps live, and kite them until the next wave is here. When the next wave arrives, the wave will freeze right outside of your turret range) the lane in front of your tower, to make sure you're ungankable and are able to scale up reliably.

Laning Example 3 - You're playing against a melee assassin such as Zed Fizz Qiyana. Your primary goal is going to be to create a slow push and abuse them under the tower, and then let the wave bounce right into you creating a freeze into a slow push once again, upon which you can choose to either again keep harassing/looking for a solokill on them under the tower with a huge wave or instead to make a recall.

These are just basic examples of how laning should be executed depending just on the 1v1 matchups without taking JUNGLERS into account .

In teamfights you must always be patient with your Petrifying Gazes usage, by far the best way to use it is in combination with your Flash, making it unexpected, giving enemies no time to react/counterplay it.
You should have it already pre-planned how and in what exact situation you're going to use it, just use some Visualization before the fight happens while looking at who's the biggest threat/carry in the opposing team.

The most consistent way to fight as Cassiopeia is going to be front-to-back, meaning, you hit anyone closest to you, squishies/carries as primary targets always.

Like mentioned in ABILITIES section, you should make Petrifying Gaze into Flash combo an INSTINCT, go ahead into the practice tool and do it as many times as needed, until you can do it with ease & comfort & without any thinking whatsoever.

You recognize the Opportunity - you go in.
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And that wraps up my very First guide!. I hope that it was helpful in any way and if there are any other questions regarding anything else I can help you with, let me know in the comments or feel free to stop by on my stream where im online daily, and ask me there, I will get back to you ASAP!


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