User blog comment:YourPrivateNightmare/Thoughts on the new Cassiopeia/@comment-5663427-20140914144115

"Rito knows balance, I swear" could have been Lee Sin instead.

Anyway, Snakelady right now is bad early game, but she is able to catch up even when really behind, mostly thanks to the passive which gives free stats and upgrades your E a lot (with WotA you can heal for 200 hp on each E), also she still has a really good teamfight presence thanks to lots of AoE damage and cc. So yea, her sick late game compensates any early game flaws.