14 December 2012: Guide Created

Hello! This is obviously a Cassiopeia guide. Cassiopeia is an awesome champion but with an insane skillcap according to people. This is largely due to the fact that it is so hard to aim her ultimate to stun people, as well as constantly exposing yourself to danger when you want to burst someone down(her Twin Fang has quite a short range). You will have to be aware when you can burst down your enemies without getting caught, as well as when to use your ultimate Petrifying Gaze, as a good ult will lock down the enemy team for 2 seconds, during which your team can burst the carries down and win that decisive teamfight. Or you could waste it, slowing them and making your team vulnerable in those 2 seconds. I recommend you not attempt to try Cassiopeia before lvl 30 as before that, she will be just too hard for you to master. This guide is relatively short but informative, and should allow you to play Cassiopeia well if you follow it.

Pros: Crazy Burst Best ultimate in game Fun She's a half serpent

Cons: High skillcap Hard ultimate Needs practice Constantly in danger Her lore makes her a bit creepy

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As you can see, Cassiopeia has her own pros and cons, but she is much harder to pick up if you are not used to other AP casters. She is the hardest champion to master, imo, along with Anivia and Orianna.

I personally like to go with these runes as Magic penetration is always good on Cassiopeia, allowing you to do more damage. Mana regen seals allows an aggressive player like me to use spells and regen my mana faster to use more spells. Magic resist Glyphs allow me to withstand poke from my opponent better. Ability Power Quintessences allow me to deal more damage.

These runes are not limited, you could always use other runes. However, I feel that these runes allow you to deal more damage but to be safe from return damage at the same time.

Viable ones:
Flash is a good tool to escape with. You can Flash over walls or just Flash away to get away from an enemy. It is also a good offense tool as you can Flash Petrifying Gaze enemies to take them by surprise and have a higher chance to stun them than to slow them. I don't see Ghost as a viable item as it lacks the utility of Flash

Don't you hate it when people get away at low health? Ignite is a very good spell to finish off those enemies. As Cassiopeia, you WILL play AGGRESSIVE(unless you get outpoked or you don't think that you can beat the other opponent), and in this case, you will want Ignite and snowball in lane. Would you want an enemy to escape with 20 health and come back with full health, or kill them, get yourself the bonus gold, deny her farm, and snowball early to become such a lategame beast? You would definitely want to kill them right?

I usually take Flash and Ignite, but this is an alternate spell if you want more presence in other lanes. I would only take this spell if I feel like I want to set up surprise ganks for my teammates in other lanes. You should NEVER use Teleport to get back in lane faster unless your tower is going down fast. 90% of the time, you will need its utility if you pick it to cleanup small fights in other lanes.

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Other summoner spells I find are not viable on Cassiopeia as it does not provide her with better utility than the above.

My Usual build:
This is where people will start to question my build. "Maxing Noxious Blast Ensures that you can constantly poke the enemies, but Twin Fang puts you in more danger and makes you extremely mana hungry if not used right". I partly agree with this statement. However, as Cassiopeia, you are not in mid to happily farm along with your opponent. You will want to wreck his game, deny him of farm, kill him, and let your jungler gank other lanes instead. Once Cassiopeia begins to snowball, she willDEFINITELY win her lane(unless the jungler comes and you somehow die to overextending). This setup allows you to deal "tons of damage" and I will get kills in mid lane 80% of the time with this setup. Maxing Noxious Blast pushes your lane unnecessarily and AP champions can usually farm quite well under the tower. Most AP champions has a weak pre-6, but Cassiopeia has a very strong one. To take full advantage and to cripple the enemy team, this is the way to go. However, do note that this will cost a lot of mana(your passive will help with this problem though). But if you last hit properly, poke a bit while looking for a slight chance that you can burst him down, this is the way to go. Remember that farming>poke and do not poke unnecessarily. I would go for this setup if I am against a champion who needs farm to be effective lategane, and if I can get the blue buff consistently. This build is for aggressive players, and is for the vicious serpent.

"Standard" build: However, if you are new to Cassiopeia, I would recommend this build. Q gives more sustained damage, and it does not expose yourself to danger as often. However, this does not allow you to play that aggressive as you dont have as much burst as you would if you took E first. I would recommend this build if you are against someone with a stronger earlygame than you, as well as if you happen to face a bruiser mid. You can also go this build if you want to spam a spell constantly and if you can't get the blue buff(example, if Swain is in your team, then blue should go to him, not you. He needs it more.)

And of course I don't have to explain why I max W last.

-Your passive is extremely good and allows you to spam your spells to burst someone down due to the reducing cost of subsequent spells. However, if you spam your Q, you will not be able to take advantage of this spell, considering that you might hit only 50% of the time, while E is a guaranteed hit.

-Use this to poke your enemies, and make them have poison to enable you to spam your E like mad if you want to go in for the kill. If not then this spell does nice early damage to enemies.

-Dont use this spell too often unless you are going in for the kill, then you can use this to slow the enemies down and create poison. You can also use this to prevent jungler ganks by slowing them, though not very effective. Useful lategame for clearing creeps fast.

-Your bread and butter skill. Use this to burst enemies down really quickly/deal some nice damage as well as to grab that minion with a sliver of health after trying to last hit it.

-This is what defines Cassiopeia. This can make or break teamfights and the game. Deals nice damage, but you want the stun 99% of the time. It shuts down carries for that duration and your team can easily burst them down. Also prevents initiators from reaching the backline(you and your AD carry). You will ALWAYS want to face your enemies when you use your ult. But the slow is good too for enemies running away.

Starting items:

Boots + 3x Health Potions are the standard opening items on any champion which is not a support nowadays. This allows you to dodge skillshots easily, escape ganks, as well as being able to sustain in lane and be able to trade with your opponent.

This is not recommemded by me as I feel that Boots + 3x Health Potions are much better. Yes, the extra health, AP and mana regen are good on Cassiopeia, you will not have any sustain in lane.

All other starts are not really viable.

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Early game goals:
Generally for any lane you would want to rush 2x Doran's Rings if possible. However if you are winning, buying Chalice of Harmony is also good. If you are losing your lane, you should get Kage's lucky pick to try and recover from the 300 gold you gave your enemy(If you gave a kill) or to recover from being denied your farm(If the enemy bullies you out of lane).

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From then on, you have a choice to build your core items. Let me give you the possible items on Cassiopeia:
Offensive Items:
If you are winning your lane then this item would be a good item to rush. It gives a nice amount of AP, more MR to shut your opponent down and mana regen to let you spam your spells more. As you can see, it is one of the three items that I will ALWAYS get on Cassiopeia as she benefits from all of its stats.
Mandatory on all AP carries, or you lack damage. Also an item I will always get due to its damage.
Gives a nice amount of AP, some armor, and a passive that you can press right after stunning them with your ult to prevent them from aiming you. A mandatory defensive item.
I would usually get Haunting Guise if I'm winning my lane. It is such a good item as with Sorcerer's Shoes, you have 30 magic penetration, which will let you deal literally true damage on carrie without magic resist.However, building it into this is another thing. Its only boost is the %health as extra magic damage and a bit of extra AP. If I have a team like Shen, Alistar or Janna who can protect me, I would go for this item. If not I would usually sell it for Guardian Angel
Personally, I don't really like this item but it gives you more health and mana. I prefer Athene's Unholy Grail as it gives better AP and mana regen, and if you can position yourself accurately then you don't need more health. But if you want it then you must get it as your first item to benefit more from the stats per minute it gives you.
Gives you more survivability and decent AP but I prefer Cassiopeia as a squishy mage that deals tons of damage. The slow and AP are nice though, so you can swap it for Athene's or Zhonya's if you like.
Nice AP, nice Cooldown reduction and a useful active. However I feel that Cassiopeia isn't really an assasin and this item should only be considered if the enemy is very tanky, like if they have Shen and Amumu in the same team.
Mandatory if they stack MR. Not really needed if they dont.

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Defensive items:
Gives you a second life. Very good if you want to stay in a teamfight to deal more damage. My personal favourite defensive item on champions.
Only get this if their team is AP heavy (e.g. AP mid and top, AP jungle and skillshot based ADc). It doesn't beat having a second life.
Only VIABLE if they have a lot of CC, but Guardian Angel is still better. If you position yourself properly you wont get a ton of CC to your face.

You should pick Cassiopeia if your team lacks an AP mid, but its best to choose her when the other AP mid requires a lot of farm to be effective.
You have a strong pre-6, so be aggressive. Your goal is not to have a farming competition with your opponent, but to farm AND deny farm from the opponent. You should find opportunites to poke your opponent, but be careful not to push your lane too much with Q. This is why you don't max it first. When you poison the enemy, you should immediately go forward and spam your E(while taking minimal return damage). Half his health should be gone. Let him use his Health Potions and repeat. When he has no more potions, you should 1.poke him out of lane or 2.kill him with ignite.

Simple combos to harass:



When you hit lvl 6 and he has no potions you should try and kill him by Petrifying Gaze him and using combo 2 on him. 90% chance of a kill. Of course, only try this when you are sure that their jungler is somewhere else, and you are not taking as much damage as him.

By now you will start to down a few turrets and fight for objectives. Most of the time, you will win your lane if you follow my tips. In this case, you can stick with your team. Try to press your advantage by forcing objectives if your team is winning. You should press with your team for towers.
In teamfights, you will want to try and use Petrifying Gaze on their entire team, but try to hit it on their AP and AD carries. If you do, you will probably win the fight quite easily. You should still farm at this part of the game to get money for more items. You should have a few core items at this point.

By this time you should be sticking with your team. You cannot afford to get caught by yourself at this point. Use your ultimate the same way as you would do, but try to attack the bruiser as you will expose yourself to danger if you try to attack their carries. If you win the fight, chase down their remainding members and get the objectives you need. If you sense that you are losing the fight do as much damage as possible, but once the tank and bruiser starts to fall you have to get out of there fast.

Cassiopeia should do well vs a lot of mid champions. I will rate the difficulty of the champions and I will focus on the harder champions. This is based on both players having the same skills.

Ahri-I would say Medium, but this is if you can avoid her E and not be in her Q all the time.
Akali-Easy pre-6, medium after 6. when she jumps to you press Petrifying Gaze and profit. Your poison can also know where she is even if she stealths.
Anivia-Easy. Just avoid her 1mph iceball and bully her pre-6. After 6 she becomes a bit harder but just dont get stunned.
Annie-EasyYou outrange her, so try to bully her earlygame. Watch for her stun though, she has the potential to one-shot you after 6 if you are reckless.
Brand-Easy unless you keep getting hit by his W-Q combo. Your burst is superior to his. Try not to get stunned and go offensive if he wastes his Q.
*Still in progess.

In conclusion, Cassiopeia is a high skillcap champion but very fun to play. She is generally a lane bully who should be played offensively. I will probably add a few videos of her sometime, and I will update this guide periodically. I also want to thank jhoijhoi for her guide to making a guide guide cause it helped me a lot(though i still suck at BBCoding and stuff). You can ask me questions in the comment boxes if you have any queries. Thanks for viewing this guide! I know it's a bit short but I like to keep things simple:D.