Cassiopeia/Strategy

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Skill usage

• Building stacks of Aspect of the Serpent is paramount for Cassiopeia.
  • While farming, always try to poison creeps before last hitting them.
  • Landing Noxious Blast and Miasma on enemy champions and spamming Twin Fang on any champs that get too close will be the main source of stacks. Poisoning multiple champions has no greater effect than poisoning one.
  • 6 Twin Fangs can be cast for each Noxious Blast without putting Twin Fang on full cooldown. Be aggressive with this in lane, even when a trade goes poorly. Getting stacks of Aspect of the Serpent quickly is paramount.
• Each benchmark of Aspect of the Serpent is a massive power spike for Cassiopeia.
  • At 100 stacks, Cassiopeia gains a very small AP boost and significant health sustain which, along with the mana sustain from Twin Fang, allows her to stay in lane very well just last hitting with Twin Fang. As well, this allows Cassiopeia to trade and duel very well.
  • At 250 stacks, Cassiopeia gains a decent AP boost and can have her poisons up constantly. The CDR also means failing to Twin Fang a poisoned target is less punishing and keeping targets poisoned is easier.
  • At 500 stacks, generally hit around 20-35 minutes on Summoner's Rift, Cassiopeia gains a massive AP boost, equal to and stacking with Rabadon's Deathcap's passive.
• Cassiopeia is a great harasser in all stages of the game. All three of her basic abilities, especially Noxious Blast, can be used constantly in lane to zone, capable of dealing damage over time at a safe distance. Twin Fang provides the bulk of her damage at any stage of the game though.
• Cassiopeia must play fairly safely until she hits late game; however harassing is very important for gaining stacks and farming is a very large part of her gameplay.
• Noxious Blast has a slight delay; lead your enemy when targeting with Noxious Blast to ensure the hit, or use it on them when they will have to stand still to last-hit.
• Using Noxious Blast in the brush does not reveal Cassiopeia, so when in the side lanes, use the brush to your advantage to harass with little to no retaliation from enemy minions.
• Noxious Blast can also be used to check brush, as it gives you a movement speed bonus (and a buff icon) if an enemy is hit. If you cast it in a brush, and notice the buff icon, you know that an enemy is there.
• Noxious Blast grants a significant speed boost, using this is crucial to juking skill shots and repositioning in fights.
• When chasing/fleeing, be sure to use your Noxious Blast on an enemy champion to speed yourself up, and Miasma to slow them down.
• Using Miasma in the middle of the lane when enemy minions are coming will slow them and deal some damage giving the advantage to your minions, this tactic is best used in pushes as intentionally pushing your lane during the laning phase opens yourself up to ganks.
• Since Miasma grants vision over the area affected, it can be used to check brush.
• Twin Fang is the main source of Cassiopeia's mana and health sustain.
  • It is crucial to last hit with Twin Fang to sustain your mana. Using Twin Fang repeatedly on a high health target, like tanks or Dragon or Baron, will drain your mana.
• Twin Fang becomes extremely powerful if the target is poisoned, allowing you to deal out large amounts of damage with its low conditional cooldown.
  • It is very highly recommended to smart cast Twin Fang, as it will make it much easier to land the maximum amount of Twin Fang allowed by the duration of your poison effects.
  • Due to Twin Fang having the potential to be constantly refreshed, don't be afraid to target durable melee champions if necessary. Unlike many other mages that rely on burst damage, Cassiopeia and her Twin Fang can realistically cut through tough enemies with time, accuracy, and enough mana.
• Twin Fang is reduced to a 0.5 seconds cooldown on cast, if the target is poisoned. However it doesn't matter who poisoned the target. So if you have a team-mate such as Teemo or Singed who have a poison effect on their skills, use it in your favor.
• Try to use Petrifying Gaze offensively, and usually against more than one target. That said, it can also be used when being ganked to escape enemies.
  • It is, however, safest to use it when a team fight has happened. The enemy will be less likely to manage to turn around with their attention split amongst five champions - and more likely to all be facing you since that is largely required to fight your team.
• Using Petrifying Gaze followed by Miasma, Noxious Blast and Twin Fang can turn most 1v1 fights and mid game turret dives in your favor.
• Petrifying Gaze also allows Cassiopeia to be a very strong anti-ganker. Simply casting it when your lane opponent and the enemy ganker are in range, then bursting down the weaker one with your combo can turn the 2v1 into a 1v1. This tactic is only effective when your Petrifying Gaze stuns both targets.
• Cassiopeia can proxy through the use of Noxious Blast and Miasma.
• Aspect of the Serpent interacts with the Archmage mastery and Rabadon's Deathcap. Aspect of the Serpent is applied first, then Archmage, then Rabadon's Deathcap.
  • So at 500 AP with 500 stacks

500 x .3 = 150 from AotS

650 x .05 = 32.5 from Archmage

682.5 x .3 = 204.75 from Deathcap

887.25AP or 387.25 bonus AP total

Build usage

• Prioritize items that allow Cassiopeia to survive via resistances, health, or kiting, over raw damage as she has no instant escapes or defensive buffs. After she can survive and sustain she can build damage.
• Though Cassiopeia is mana efficient through last hitting with Twin Fang, Tear of the Goddess and Rod of Ages work well for her and she can stack the passive of Tear of the Goddess very well. The shield from Seraph's Embrace also gives her a lot of survivability, as well as granting a significant boost in AP.
• Catalyst the Protector is a perfect alternative early game item for Cassiopeia; allowing her to spam her spells more often with the extra mana and some health for survivability. This can then build offensively into an early Rod of Ages, is also very suited to Cassiopeia as the stacking late game power and in lane sustain item works very well for her.
• Rylai's Crystal Scepter is a very strong purchase at any stage of the game to survive burst, increase Cassiopeia's kiting potential, and allow her to provide a perma-slow during teamfights. It is notably less useful against enemy teams with gap closers.
  • With Rylai's Crystal Scepter Noxious Blast gains a 15% slow; Miasma's slow ranges from 29% - 48%, gaining only 4% - 3% increased slowing; Twin Fang gains a 35% slow; and Petrifying Gaze, when missed, gains a 62% slow, or 2% increased slow.
  • The perma-slow provided by Rylai's Crystal Scepter with the move speed increase from Noxious Blast allows Cassiopeia a stunning degree of outplay and chasing potential.
• Will of the Ancients is a strong item for Cassiopeia due to her constant damage and the CDR it brings. It also doubles the healing from Twin Fang late game; however it's in no way essential.
• Liandry's Torment is a strong item for Cassiopeia, but only in certain situations. Liandry's Torment shines when Cassiopeia can continually stay back and poison the enemy team or the enemy team has health tanks. Due to Twin Fang being the majority of Cassiopeia's damage AP benefits her more.
  • The synergy between Rylai's Crystal Scepter and Liandry's Torment in slowly shredding and kiting enemy teams cannot be understated.
• Rabadon's Deathcap is a major mid to late game purchase for Cassiopeia due to her high AP scaling and the synergy with Aspect of the Serpent.
• Void Staff works very well on Cassiopeia due to her very high late game damage output and high number of instances of damage.
  • For every tick of poison or Twin Fang magic resistance affects the damage, so magic penetration is invaluable.
• Avoid building cooldown reduction. At 250 stacks of Aspect of the Serpent Cassiopeia gains 25% CDR. With the Sorcery mastery's 5% this becomes 30% CDR. This is primarily to allow Cassiopeia to constantly have her poisons up and to make missing Twin Fang less punishing. As well, Noxious Blast's and Miasma's damage ticks are constant and can only be reapplied, and using Twin Fang on a poisoned enemy reduces the cooldown to 0.5 seconds (which cannot be further reduced by CDR). Therefore, Cassiopeia does not gain the significant benefit from CDR as other mages do and getting 40% CDR isn't necessary.
  • Will of the Ancients, Twin Shadows, and Deathfire Grasp are all viable choice to max CDR. Each fits their own separate need and niche.
  • Will of the Ancients is good for sustain as Cassiopeia puts out constant damage. Twin Shadows gives more move speed and the slow is great for scouting and making picks. Deathfire Grasp is good but not recommended as it's for bursting down carries or tackling tanks, but Cass doesn't really burst and her DPS is already very high late game.

Recommended builds

Countering

• If you can predict when Cassiopeia will use Petrifying Gaze such as at the beginning of a fight or at the end, you can avoid the 2 second stun.
  • You will hear Cassiopeia gasp before she activates Petrifying Gaze (.65 casting time), so you have a brief moment to react to Cassiopeia.
• Cassiopeia relies heavily on landing Petrifying Gaze so that Miasma and Noxious Blast are unavoidable.
• When dueling her she will put  Miasma right on you, despite the constant damage from it the time needed to move out will let her spam Twin Fang to death. It's better to stay in the venom and outburst her.
  • Mages with strong regenerative abilities like Swain, Vladimir, or Fiddlesticks can better outlast her DoT damage.
• Cassiopeia lacks a powerful instant nuke apart from Petrifying Gaze, other mages who can nuke potently or disabling her like Malzahar or Xerath can effectively counter her mid-late game.
• Cassiopeia has excellent range on Noxious Blast and as her main harassing tool, outranging her is highly beneficial, mages like Lux and Xerath have a clear advantage.
  • These mages can also outburst her if done correctly.
• Cassiopeia is a very powerful harasser. Noxious Blast allows her to give her lane opponent a hard time, but also be wary for Miasma, as it can set you up for ganks, make landing Noxious Blast or especially Twin Fang extremely easy, or zone you from minions very effectively. Buying Boots of Speed is a good and cheap way to limit her harassment.
• Cassiopeia is extremely proficient at duels, having the most sustained damage of all mages (maybe only matched by Vladimir). Therefore it is not recommended to engage her alone.
  • Champions who can outmatch her sustained damage but also survive the 2 second stun like Vladimir, Kayle, Elise, or Swain can potentially duel and kill her.
• Due to Noxious Blast and Miasma, Cassiopeia is very powerful at kiting. If she gets Rylai's Crystal Scepter she will be almost impossible to reach if played correctly; do not engage her with a champion without strong gap closers or excellent ranges while also being able to withstand her damage in a 1v1 fight.
• Avoiding her Noxious Blast and Miasma is critical for your survival, as they deal heavy DoT, and being poisoned allows Cassiopeia to spam her Twin Fang on you.
  • Also, avoid being hit by the poisons of other champions: Singed's Poison Trail, Teemo's Toxic Shot/ Noxious Trap, or Twitch's Deadly Venom which will also allow Cassiopeia to spam her Twin Fang.

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