First - Know where you are laning.
Before the Champion load screen comes up, KNOW exactly which lane you are going to be in. Solo Mid, Top Duo, Top Solo or Bot Duo. This will determine both your second summoner spell as well as your starting items. You should ask for Solo Mid because Cassiopeia excels at early game harassing, however if there is another champion that will do better at solo mid (Annie for instance is an almost guaranteed kill at level 6) by all means let them have it. (Also, until you are really comfortable with Cassiopeia I would recommend going Duo/Bottom, you wont get as good of a farm early but you probably wont feed the enemy carry either. Do not lane with a pusher under any circumstances, Sivir/Mordekaiser will not like it when you take all the last hits because of your DoT spells, plus you push a lane pretty hard so the two of you will be constantly over extending and inviting ganks)
-=SOLO MID/SOLO TOP=-
Take Ghost and Teleport.
Teleport is so you can B, shop/regen and then return to your lane without letting the enemy wail on your tower, Ghost will get your into or out of fights. Ghost helps you land Q's on fleeing enemies while getting you in range for E.
Starting Item(s) - Meki Pendant + 2 Health Pots - The increased regen and health pots will let you harass and stay in the lane longer
-=TOP DUO/BOT DUO=-
Take Ghost and Clarity
Clarity will let you stay in the lane and let you farm far more effectively. Cassiopeia requires a good bit of money to be effective mid/late game so you need a GREAT early game.
Starting Item(s) - Because you are with a friend you can buy a Doran's Ring instead. Just be a little more judicious with your Q spamming early on.
If you're team does not have a jungler you can farm both the Wraith Camp and the Wolf Camp alternately in between waves if you go solo mid. Start with W, then use a Q in the middle of them, one Twin Fang[E] to the biggest enemy and they all normally die quickly and together. Anytime after level 4 you can safely kill either camp. This is good for you because you push the minion wave fairly well so instead of overextending in your lane just fall back and farm a creep camp. The enemy carry will be constantly calling MIA on you and when you are ready to go gank top/bottom they might be slow about it / the other lanes might ignore it.
If you're team does have a jungler do not extend past the middle of the river unless you are going for a kill. Cassiopeia is one squishy champion and while she can be devastating 1on1 you will normally die in a well executed gank. Let the jungler have AT LEAST two runs through the jungle then, provided they did not die, tell them you want to start farming the wraith camp. Most junglers wont care after they have 2 runs through the jungle, some will. If they do let them have another run or two then by all means start farming wraith/wolf. By this time the jungler should be ganking and getting dragon anyway so they wont miss the exp/gold from those two camps to much.
---------------Runes and Masteries for Cassiopeia --------
My Mastery page looks like this;
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| In this image I have taken the extra point in Teleport and Ghost, if you are going to use Clarity take the extra point there instead. |
Going 9/0/21 Focusing on the extra Magic Penetration and regeneration.
Runes I use a VERY basic setup.
I like this as it gives me more of a bang early on. Focusing on the regeneration masteries allows me to ignore regen here and focus on the two things Cassiopeia needs, Ability Power and Magic Penetration. All total you get 14 magic pen and 14 flat AP to start the game with, giving you a great amount of harassment potential.
--------Skill Order for Cassiopeia--------------
There are two distinct ways to skill up for Cassiopeia, and it comes back to what lane you are in and who you are against for which path you will follow.
Solo Mid or Solo Top(vs1) / Duo against non pushers
In general you want to take [Q] first, then start maxing out [Q] and [E] as quickly as possible, focusing on [E] over [Q]. There are some games where I wont take W until level 11 or 12 because I want to focus on damage first and CC second. *As noted above, if you have no jungler feel free to take W early so that you can free farm the wraith/wolf camps, otherwise ignore W and focus on E then Q.
Solo Top(vs2) / Lane with pushers
Do [Q]-[E]-[W] then proceed to max [E] then [Q]. The basic distinction is you take W to help hold the minions. If you are Solo Top against 2 then you will be pushed to you're turret. If they push VERY hard go ahead and take [Q] then [W] so that you can AoE farm the minions and not get pressed to hard. Likewise if there is a strong pusher in you're lane like Mordekaiser or Sivir you want that extra minion damage to help keep the pressure off. In the time it takes for you to get level 2 try and make a decision about the enemy champion. If you *KNOW* you can kill them go ahead and take [Q] - [E] - [E] and get a kill. Otherwise play safe, play smart and take [W] a little earlier, just do not waste points in it.
Just remember, W early means you intend to push/farm. Only take it for those two purposes, otherwise ignore it until later on.
-------------- Building as Cassiopeia -----------------
My main theory when buying items for Cassiopeia is to focus three different things in this order, AP first, Survivability Second and Mag Pen Third.. Because of this mindset my typical build looks something like this,
Meki Pendant + 2 Health Pots
Meki into Tear (on a very rare occasion I will turn it into a Chalice, normally if I am solo vs another mage and they are out playing me, otherwise I go tear to build my mana pool up for a later arch angel)
Boots 1 into Sorc Boots
From here most people will build Rylai's. And while I consider this a good item for Cassiopeia, I also think there are some better alternatives. The main reason people get Rylai's is for the slow (and to a lesser degree the extra health), however once you have mastered landing [Q] you gain a permanent movement speed buff. Instead I like to focus on higher AP items boosting my damage output.After all the enemy can't run or kill you if you make them dead first ;)
Buy 2 blasting wands. ( If I had a great lane phase I sometimes buy the 1600g Large Rod first, then turn that into Death Cap, most games however I end up porting back because of team fights or gank attempts by the enemy so I buy 2 blasting wands)
The Rod is 1600 gold for 80AP
Two Blasting Wands are 1680 gold for 80AP
The biggest difference is having extra AP during the game while you are waiting to buy/build the Death Cap. You will end up with an extra 12 AP once you finish the Cap because of the bonus 30% the Cap gives. This is my personal theory but, if you are at spawn and can afford something for your build then buy it... This will only increase your chances of living or getting a kill your "next time out". Either way though, your focus should be on building a cap for a first item.
Turn the first one into a Rabbadon's Death Cap
At this point it should be nearing the end of mid game so build a defensive item that counters the enemy team and compliments you're build.
Frozen Heart / Banshee's Veil are both great choices (FH against AD heavy teams, BV against AP heavy teams)
And finally turn the tear into an archangels staff. You should be *near* 400 AP at this point and able to deal out amazing amounts of damage.
With the final two slots I like to buy wards and something to cut into the enemies Mag Res. Abyssal Scepter / Void Staff are both great choices. (Just remember to look at the enemy team setup BEFORE you decide, look at what type of damage they deal, the CC they have, and what items they bought. There have been games where I bought a QSS as my last item because of a CC heavy enemy team that failed to get mag res items.)
And remember, Elixers are your friends! Even if all 6 of your slots are filled you can still buy an elixer or oracles!
------------- Playing As Cassiopeia -----------
First things first. Learn the range on your Q. If you hover over the Q spell while in game you will see the range marker. I "believe" it is roughly the same distance as Karthus's Lay Waste spell.
League of Legends Wikia indicates that it is 850 units. This is farther than most ranged carries can attack so feel free to harass any enemy champion in your lane.
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| The range of Cassiopeia's Noxious Blast [Q] spell is fairly large, use it to your advantage! |
Early game focus on harassing the enemy champion when they come within range of the minion's. Ideally you want to cast your Q spell so that it will hit the enemy champion and one or two minions. Once you have the enemy champion zoned keep them there is easy, simply focus on last hitting minions and casting Q at the enemy.
Cassiopeia has some of the highest sustained DPS of any caster in the game. However, it all comes down to being able to land her Q consistently throughout a fight. If you miss a single Q your output drops over 75% because Twin Fang goes back on full cool down.
Using her Passive to it's utmost requires you to basically spam, two of your spells are AoE so you ARE going to be pushing a wave of minions pretty hard and pretty constantly. While this is great for keeping pressure on the enemy champions just remember not to over extend and get caught in a gank.(As solo mid, fall back and farm wraiths/wolves in between waves if you fear a gank, just make sure it is ok with the jungler on your team)
Cassiopeia 's Q grants you a movement speed bonus if you land it, learning how to land it is crucial to early game kills. Spend a few minutes in a practice game getting the timing down between casting it and it going off. Generally speaking you need to cast it where the enemy champion will be 1 second from now. And unlike Karth's Q there is no damage reduction for hitting multiple enemies. Any enemy caught in the blast will take the full damage.
The main source of Cassiopeia 's damage comes from her Q and E combo. Landing a Q will give you a speed bonus, and reduce the cool down of your E to .5 seconds. Generally speaking you can get 2 Twin Fang spells cast for each Q you land. (Actually it's three, but aside from jungle creeps I never get a chance to cast the third against a champion. So fighting a champion Cast Q, E, E then repeat. Fighting jungle mobs like Dragon or blue lizard do, Q, E, E, E then repeat.)
You have two distinct types of spells. Q/E are for damage while W and R are for Crowd Control. W has very little damage even late game with 6 advanced items. It does however slow down any enemies that move through it. So try and setup combinations where you lead off with Q, get your movement bonus, throw a W where you believe the enemy will go and then start blasting them with the Q/E combination. You can think about the W like you would singed's pool of glue, on it's own it is useless but when combined with poison and twin fang it can help you get kills.
Your Ult is not the most OP thing in the game. I know the first time I read it's description I thought to myself "OMG I AM GOING TO RUSH OUT AND STUN ALL 5 OF THEM MWUAHAHAHA" Try it. Die a few times and then start looking for it's real uses. Saving yourself or a friendly. Stunning the enemy team's tank when they go for your carry. Stunning the enemy teams Carry? (Harder but doable) SLOW! Yep that's right. Instead of looking at the ULT like a giant "IMA STUN JOO ALL!!" think about it like an AoE slow... You can slow the entire enemy team! So remember, your ULT is basically a form of CC that does some damage, while your Q/E combo is where the money's at.
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| You can aim Cassiopeia's ULT just remember you only stun enemies looking AT you. |
----------Ganking Top/Bottom as Cassiopeia -------
If you end up going Solo Mid one of your jobs will be ganking top or bottom lane. Be sure your ULT is ready before you leave. Like any gank try and come out from the bushes in the river BEHIND the enemy champions*. This will force them to run past you or run into your team mates, meaning it should be very easy to land your ULT stunning them. If another champion in that lane has a stun you should be able to pickup a double kill easily. Just remember to use your Q/E combo and LAND THOSE Q's!
*(you can take a turret hit so you might even want to try coming out from in front of the turret, this will force the enemy into your team mates or down the river, having a jungler in the bushes can be a great 3 way pincer attack but requires some coordination)
Landing a last minute Q under the enemy turret gives you a movement boost and lets you get out of turret range quickly. Typically they get away with just a sliver of health and die to a well placed final Q. If you cannot Twin Fang them for the kill, normally your Q will take care of them.
--------------- Team Fighting as Cassiopeia ------
You should never. I mean. NEVER. Go in first. EVER. EVER, EVER? EVER! EVER! While you posses the arguably highest sustained DPS in the game, you are also one of the squishiest champions in the game. Respect your frail nature and let someone with health and armor go in first.
Use your Q spell from afar and keep harassing the enemy team. Wait for ANYONE on your team to initiate then move in a bit. You want to keep at least one team mate between you and the enemy team at all times if you can. Granted this may be hard as you are harassing with Q but just make sure you are not completely alone.
One of my first lessons with Cassiopeia was expecting my ULT to stun an entire team. It never happens. Oh sure there are occasions where you can nail a whole team hiding in a bush, but for 99% of the team fights you will use it to stop one or maybe two enemy champions.
The best way to use it is to wait for the enemy team to "fall" together. During a team fight it is fairly common for the enemy team to focus which ever team mate extends just a little to far. When they "fall" in on that poor guy rush forward and ULT them. Quickly cast your Q/E combo on the enemy carry then back up. Do not stay around. You are squishy and unless you are VERY fed you will die. Instead burst the enemy carry, back up and then start harassing again with Q and W. Remember, W slows it is hardly ever going to kill someone. Q and E kill, W and R are for CC.
In some games there comes a time where your team knows the enemy team is hiding in a specific bush, waiting for an opportune moment and blindly casting your ULT into the bush can some times be highly rewarding. While I try and save her ULT for specific targets or saving an ally, it can also be rewarding when you catch an entire team hiding in a bush all on top of each other.
-------------Final Thoughts about Cassiopeia -------
Cassiopeia is one of the most under rated champions in the game. However, she is also the single hardest champion to learn to play properly. Where Corki could be considered a high skilled champion, Cassiopeia is miles higher on a "Skill Required to Play" chart. Insane amounts of sustained DPS but it all hinges on your ability to consistently land her Q spell.
great guide. helped me alot mate =]
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