Hello and welcome to my Cassiopeia midlane guide.

I made this guide because I think Cassiopeia is a very good champion for aggresive players and she can win games like no other champ in League Of Legends. If you are that aggresive player and you dont know which champ is the best for winning games I have to recommend you Cassio. But there is one problem about her: She is not very nooby friendly. If you are a beginner and youre searching for an easy champ who can win games, Cassiopeia is definately NOT the one for you.

You may ask: Why is Cassiopeia so much different than other midlane champs and why she is better for carrying games?

The answer is: Because she is the only ap champion who deals dps = damage per second. There are basically 3 kinds of how ap carrys deal damage:

1. BURST (dealing all your damage with 1 or 2 spells, good for destroying 1 or 2 people in teamfight but not for destroying whole team, example: )

2. NORMAL (most characters, its basically a mix between burst and dps)

3 DPS (thats Cassiopeia, and shes the only ap who is a real DPS in my view. DPS means every second you deal damage and Cassiopeia deals tons of damage every second, so thats why she is so gud for making plays and pentakills and destroying everyone, she has no real cooldown so its kind of an ad champion but shes ap and this is why Cassiopeia is so much fun and I hope I answered the question now :P)

I have to say that she is my most played champion in ranked and I think that I mastered her pretty well. In this guide I want to show you my ways (oh yes, there are different ways) to play her.

It took much time for me to write this guide but I found that it is pretty helpful. If you want to add something or you have question write a comment below. Thx for reading this and hopefully you learn something from me.

EDIT 8/16/12: Im thinking about uploading a Cassiopeia game by me that will show you how I play her and help you to understand what I wrote.

-IM STILL WORKING AT THIS GUIDE-

PROS:

- Very much damage through the whole game

- Amazing ult can turn around teamfights

- Brushes mean very much to Cassiopeia (even more than do Nidalee)

- Good lane dominance early and lategame

- ***** on almost every ap

CONS:

- Blue depending

- very squishy

- you often hit 2 nox blasts and push hard and pushing is the last thing you wanna do

- very high skill dependend (one of the most difficult champs in the game)

- no escapes makes her easy to gank

So here are my runes for Cassiopeia:

Marks: Go for magic penetration marks because its the best mark for almost every ap since it helps out your lategame damage and even if your opponent builds heavy magic resistance you have enough magic pen from your marks.

Seals: I see many different ways here but like I said before this is my way to build and I like it because I usually have aggresive seals because you already have offense from your other runes and seals are the defensive runes mostly and I think it makes no sense to go for ability power here. Edit: I forgot, you could go mana regain per lvl here thats also an option and then you go magic resist per lvl on glyphs for sure.

Glyphs: If you want to play aggresive ability power per lvl are definately very good, but if you want to play more defensively you go magic resi per lvl, so note that there are 2 ways to build seals and glyphs. Try and practice with both and decide what you like more.

Quints: For quints, there is only one possibility: flat AP. Your main early game damage comes from these 3 runes believe me!

My masteries are pretty standard for every ap champ. Take the point on Summoners Wrath instead of the third point on Havoc since Ignite is a very very important early game spell and this will help you getting first blood early. You dont have to go 9 points in utility but Cassio is very high mana depending although she got her passive but if you want to spam your spells without blue, I would recommend to take the 9 utility points instead of 9 defense points.

Start:

This starting allows you to have mobility for dodging skillshots and it helps you for chasing the enemy and escaping. The 3 potions give you lane sustain what is really needed as Cassiopeia early game since shes very squishy and 3 enemy spells will take her to half hp.

Early Game:

x1

Buy one Doran's Ring if youre dominating your lane, get blue and youre not having any early game problems with your opponent.

x2

This is what I do very often because 2 Doran's Rings dont cost that much gold and give you early health and ability power.

x3

This is for times when youre very behind and dont have much gold and you dont get blue or are low with mana, or your opponent shuts you down, then you need the health. But sometimes when I have enough gold and I think I can afford it, I go for 3 Dorans even if Im very good on my lane. Dorans Ring is just an amazing item which combines the most important things for an ap champ.

After that, get

This is a very very good item for Cassiopeia because as Cassiopeia you are spamming your skills and with this item, every skill heals you and its just amazing on Cassiopeia. Buy it right after your dorans rings. Its good for trading damage as well. Build it into later.

Mid Game:

Now you should have enough gold for .

Then buy your boots. There are 2 boots which I would recommend:



if you dont have problems with your oponnent and you want to go full ap.



against heavy cc / if youre having problems with your opponent or if you think you dont need sorcs boots.

After that its depending on what your opponent builds and whether you are controlling your lane or not. I will show you different situational item builds:



Dont buy this if youre behind, only buy it if you can afford the money and need this crazy ap boost. It can happen sometimes that you have enough ap and you better want to buy something defensive with your gold. Even without this item you can shut down almost every ap.



Buy it if youre playing against a high magical damage enemy team, just leave it there and build something bigger like or with it later.



against a high burst enemy team



against high physical damage



if you have to chase often or youre playing against a lot of meelees

Late Game:

There are many options but I will only cover the most important:

OR

Buy if the enemy team doesnt buy magic resistance or only a bit magic resistance.

IF they buy more than 100 magic resistance, buy

In low elo games you will often see the enemies buying no magic resistance at all because they dont realize that they have to buy magic resistance to counter you. Thats why I recommend Abyssal Scepter for lower elos instead of Void Staff. But you are better with looking for the enemies and know what you build. Know what to build and when to build is a basic in League Of Legends and if you want to become a better player, you should know something about it.

is also good. If you see that the enemy team are very high on physical damage its a must-have for ap carries. This is also good because if you rush an early you can upgrade it into this one later in the game.



Feel free to decide when to build it, I would usually build it when theres a or a in the enemy team.

is very good as a last item especially against a high burst comb. I often get it as my last item because she is very squishy and its very helpful in teamfights. But only get this if you think that you have nough damage and you are fed.

Of course there are lots of other items but I just want to cover the most important for Cassiopeia.

After casting a spell, any subsequent spellcasts will cost 10% less for 5 seconds. This ability stacks up to 5 times.

This is a great passive because it helps to not run out of mana. Its good in early game because you dont have blue and you really need mana regeneration. Always watch your passive's stacks.



Cassiopeia blasts an area with a delayed high damaging poison, dealing 75 / 115 / 155 / 195 / 235 (+80% of ability power) magic damage over 3 seconds and granting her 15% / 17,5% / 20% / 22,5% / 25% movement speed for 3 seconds if she hits a chmapion.

This is your main damage dealer together with . You need to hit this spell to get your full damage output from . Always start your combo with because it sets the cooldown from to 0,5 seconds which is amazing. This ability is good for clearing minion waves out fast so this helps out your late game farm.

Why I max this first instead of Twin Fang is because Twin already does amazing damage and this is better because even if youre dead the poison will often kill the enemy.

Lets compare these 2 abilities, and and see what damage they deal over 3 seconds:

does 25 / 38 / 52 / 65 / 78 magical damage every second. The target is poisoned over 3 seconds. So we have to multiply this by 3. So now we have: 75 / 115 / 155 / 195 / 235 magical damage over 3 seconds. Dont forget that this also gives you a movement speed boost: 15% / 17,5% / 20% / 22,5% / 25%

does 50 / 85 / 120 / 155 / 190 magical damage and has a cooldown of 5 seconds if the target isnt poisoned. If the target is poisoned, Twin Fang can be casted 3 times. So we multiplie 50 / 85 / 120 / 155 / 190 by 3. Now we have: 150 / 255 / 360 / 465 / 570 magical damage over 3 seconds.

So what I wanna say is: Twin Fang does a bit more damage if casted right but I dont think that most people hit Twin Fang 3 times in 3 seconds. If you do it right, you have more damage with Twin Fang, but in my view it does enough damage and costs more mana than Nox Blast. Nox blast is also better for teamfights because you hit more enemies than only one like with Twin Fang.




Cassiopeia throws a growing cloud of poison to a target location. The area lasts for 7 seconds and provides vision over it for the duration. Any enemy that passes through it is poisoned for 2 seconds that is renewed by continual exposure. Poisoned enemies receive magic damage each second and are slowed.

This seems to be the weakest skill of Cassiopeia but it helps you more than you think. Its the only slow before lvl 6 and if you dont get this at level 4 you will have huge problems with chasing down the enemy and make a kill although you have your movement speed buff from . Get this one time at level 4 and maximixe it last because it deals not much damage, its basically for the slow or for poisoning the enemy which allows you to have 0,5 secs cooldown on .




Cassiopeia sinks her fangs into target enemy dealing magic damage. If the target is poisoned when hit then Twin Fang's cooldown is reduced to 0.5 seconds.

Of course this is your main damage source. Once you hit that or you can spam your Twin Fang 2 or 3 (with smartcast, more about it later) times and have amazing damage. I would get this at 2 first and max it second. Compared to it does more damage but for starters I would recommend to max Nox Blast first and then Twin Fang.




Cassiopeia deals magic damage to all enemies in a cone in front of her. Enemies facing her when damaged are stunned for 2 seconds, while enemies facing away are slowed by 60% for the same duration.

This is one of my favourite ultimates in the game because it really can turn teamfights around. Here, I listed some reasons why this is such a powerful ultimate:

- Amazing damage
- Good for escaping (if someone is going to kill you, just ultimate and you will usually get away if well casted
- teamfight turner (if you hit 5 enemies with your ult in teamfights there are 2 seconds for your team to hit the enemies for free, remember this!)
- usage of brush (Cassiopeia ult from the bush is a 100% kill! (I will tell you more about it later)

AND

These two are the best summoner spells for Cassio because she needs since she has no escape and almost every mid laner needs Flash to get away from ganks or close gaps to an enemy. is a the best spell for every midlaner at the moment because it helps you getting first blood or just because ap carries have the best earlygames and it helps them alot to have that early bonus true damage to make a first kill.

Other viable spells:

Sometimes this is good for example against many stuns or slows (cc). I found this not as usefull as Ignite because its more a defensive item and Cassiopeia is a very aggresive champion. Overall, if you have oponennts like: Veigar and Warwick, its definately a good spell.

This is an option for when you playing against an ad champion midlane like or if you see that the enemy team got 2 or more ad champs. Normally, this is not an item for a midlane because its better to have this on a toplane bruiser or tanky dps.

I found that this is also viable on Cassiopeia because although she has a movement speed boost, it can be very helpfull vor chasing or escaping. But since I think is a must-have, and I wouldnt take Flash + Ghost, its not that good I think but it depends on your playstyle, if you think you can manage it without flash, then its ok.

This is also an option, but since I think almost every ap mid takes ignite, heal is not that great on an ap carry because Ignite lowers your healing effect.

This is good if youre playing against a heavy pusher like or but normally Cassiopeia should not have any problems with getting pushed or having problems with last hitting. I took this spell only 4 or 5 times with Cassiopeia and I never found it really good.

The other spells I dont listed, are not that strong on Cassiopeia or they dont fit with her playstyle.

You might know what farming is, but I explain it for beginners:

In League Of Legends, there are several roles who need several items: AD Carry, Ap Carry, Support, Offtank/Tanky Dps, Tank/Initiator. Cassiopeia is an AP Carry, that means her damage deals with ability power. So you want to buy items that give you ability power. For items you need gold. You can get gold from champion kills, turret kills, monster kills and minion kills. Farming on a lane is about minion kills, most know it as Last-Hitting.

So now we know that Farming is about getting gold for buying your items.

What is Last-Hitting?

Your minions and the enemy minions try to destroy the turrets from each other. On their way, they fight against each other. What you want to do is: Doing the last hit on every enemy minion. I know that most people in lower levels just let their champion attack the minions with their auto attack the whole time. But you will get much more gold than them.

Normally, you will last hit with your auto attack because you want to save your mana for other things like harassing and you want to cast your abilities on the enemy and not on minions.

Now, lets get over to Farming With Cassiopeia:

Your minions will attack the enemy meelee minions, so you can the ranged minions if you want, but then you will push and you will lose alot of mana. More about the laning phase in the thread below.

Cassiopeia is one of the strongest laning phase champs.

As Cassiopeia, you want to make the oponnent cant farm at all. Try to not hit the minions and only hit them for last hit. You dont wanna push your lane and overextend because then youre easy to gank. If you see that you push, freeze the lane. If the enemy pushes, counterpush him. You want the minions in the middle of the lane.

If your teanm has a jungler, pull him blue or red buff (spawns: 1:55 5 min respawn time), or help him at wraiths/wolves first (spawns: 1:40) (depends on your jungler's jungle route).

After you pulled blue/red buff, go to midlane and last hit. Try to only hit the minions for the last-hit. Everytime your oponnent wants to lasthit or just wants to hit a minion hit your because his auto attack will force him to stand still for a short time. If it is too difficult for you to last hit and harass at the same time, focus on last hitting which is your main gold source. If you hit some Nox Blasts you should be at more hp than your oponnent. Thats the moment where you want to start

Zoning

What is Zoning?

Zoning is basically controlling your lane and make the oponnent cant farm. A lane is divided in different zones. For example: You want that the enemy youre facing cant farm at all. What you gonna do is you go between your minion wave and your oponnent. You create a zone which is invisible of course. If your oponnent wants to last hit, you can hit him for free and he will forced to go b or drink a potion and you dont take any damage.
Keep in mind: Zoning is controlling your lane. You want to tell your oponnent that youre dominating your lane. If you zone well, you will find yourself with alot more gold than your enemy.

Maybe there are better words for describing what zoning is but I hope this will help you to have lane dominance.

For those who want to know more about zoning I recommend this nice little video which helped me alot. It shows you all kinds of zoning.
Play Video