Q: What is the purpose of this guide?
To show people how an unconventional non-meta bot lane can still be viable given the right strategy, items, runes, masteries and lane partner.

Q: Is it viable to play her as support with her play style?
Cassiopeia plays a lot like Annie, you'll be staying at max range, poking when it's safe, and you have an ultimate that stuns so you can go all-in.

Q: But won't Cass be irrelevant if she isn't farmed from a solo lane?
Not entirely true. Cass has a high base damage on all of her abilities, including her ultimate, making spell penetration very effective.

Q: What does Cass bring to the table that other supports do not?
Her Q and W both can be used for vision checking/objective control. Her W can cut off an escape or prevent/delay enemy advances. Her E provides a burst of damage in 2v2 skirmishes that the enemy will not expect. Her ultimate can initiate a team fight or change a losing team fight into a winning one.

Pros:
+Great brush checking utility
+Can cut off escape paths or block enemy advances
+High dragon pressure/control
+High damage potential
+Has potential to snowball

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Cons:
+Mana dependent
+No healing/defensive capabilities
+No natural escapes
+Can fall behind
+Ultimate can become a liability when not optimally used

Masteries

+Mana/Health sustain
+Gold Generation
+Mobility
+Roaming/Ward Clearing


Q: Why would you not take the 9 points in offense?
Well that is simple really. It's not worth it. All you would gain is CDR (less desirable stat on Cass) plus a small amount of AP. It's much better to have the 9 points in defense to ensure lane survival.

• Greater Seal of Health: Depending on the matchup, take Greater Seal of Armor if against large attack damage threats (triple/quadruple ad comps)
  
• greater mark of hybrid penetration: You only lose 3 Magic Penetration in exchange for 10 armor penetration. Useful levels 1-5 for all-ins when low on mana.
  
• Greater Glyph of Magic Penetration: Can make you vulnerable in the mid game against AP carries, but worth it for the early game damage.
  
• Greater Quintessence of Gold: Necessary to scale into the late game, which is KEY for support Cass
  
• greater quintessence of hybrid penetration: Adds a little more damage to your early game without sacrificing much.

Skill Sequence

We take either Q or W at level 1 and never E. You take Q once you arrive to lane safely, we take W if an invade is coming or if you need to have vision somewhere

Q:: Why do you only put 4 points into Q and E? Because by the time you hit level 12, you should be near your Rylai's Cystal Scepter and your W will be essential in your mid/late game objective control as well as teamfights

Q: Why alternate points instead of putting all points into 1 area first?: Well, I like to have Cass's damage spread out. If you put all your points in Q, and you miss, you have zero damage. If you put all your points into E and you hit a non poisoned target, you have zero damage.

• Rylai's Crystal Scepter combined with Liandry's Torment are the most influential items you can buy as support Cassiopeia. Twin Fang now counts a single target spell and is great for endless slows.
• Sightstone This is necessary if you truly want to support your team, but it can be skipped in certain scenarios if you snowball hard enough.
• Frost Queen's Claim This item is great for the gold generation and the useful active. You don't need to rush it all the time but its an option I would consider.

Noxious Blast

• This ability will not reveal you or allies from any brush cast within.
  This makes harassment safe and can force enemy support to constantly ward the bottom brush.
• The movespeed buff will be enabled if any champion is hit, including stealthed champions
• Remember that this ability gives percent move speed thus making flat movespeed more efficient. Early Sorcerer's Shoes can be quite useful.

Miasma

• Provides vision for entire duration.
• Make sure you land the skill-shot in the center of the brush though, sometimes will not grant brush vision if a tad off, even after the poison spreads.
• This ability actually does the most damage of all her abilities if enemies stand on it for the entire duration. Unlikely to happen, but in a teamfight with large amounts of CC people will fight on top of this all the time

Twin Fang

• Teemo, Twitch, and Singed can reset the cooldown with their poison.
• I recommend you bind to a key "target champions only" and then Smart Cast this, as you will less often hit a minion that isn't poisoned.

Petrifying Gaze

• The embodiment of Cassiopeia. Never die without casting this ability even if you only hit 1-2 people. It has high base and slow, even if the stun doesn't hit.
• Note for fighting against Lucian, the direction he is moving is the way he is facing during The Culling for landing stun on your ult.
• Also the direction Katarina is facing when she starts to channel her Death Lotus is the direction she is facing.
• It is worth mentioning you can flash while the .5 second cast time is going. With practice it is better to R then flash as opposed to flash then R. Enabling Smart cast will help this.

ADC Partner

This is a very very important factor in the success of your lane. Try to have a lane partner who primarily plays the AD carry role. Also it is strongly recommended you and your lane partner be in skype or vent/team speak.IDEAL CHOICES
The best choices are AD champs who are not mana hogs, have a natural escape, decent attack range, and high damage ultimate.

• Lucian: Lucian is a good example of an ideal adc partner. He has a large amount of mobility, AoE damage, and wombo combo ultimate.
  
• Twitch: Poison! the AoE damage and CC from Venom Cask is great, not to mention his ult is a very good follow up, especially if he was previously retreating and you are turning a fight around.
  
• Caitlyn: Has great attack range, passive = to Sheen Headshot. Long range poke with Piltover Peacemaker. natural escape that slows enemies hit 90 Caliber Net , has a trap that provides flash sight in the bush and damages and roots the champion hit Yordle Snap Trap. Ultimate is literally an Ace in the Hole.
  
• Corki: Has good attack range, true damage, has a natural escape that discourages anyone to chase, Q provides vision, has a great ultimate at great range.
  
• Ezreal: good poke, natural escape that does damage, great ultimate.
  
• Tristana: greatest range in the game (scaling late game), attack speed bonus, great escape that does damage, active gives target a reduced healing debuff, ultimate is a knock back that does damage

AVERAGE CHOICES:

• Kog'Maw Bio-Arcane Barrage is fantastic, and his follow up is great with Void Ooze
• Graves: passive helps lane sustain, good poke, natural escape that increases attack speed, AoE slow that denies vision , and great ultimate.
• Miss Fortune: Great at avoiding enemy skill shots, good poke, Has AoE slow that does damage, wombo-combo ult.
• Sivir: decent poke, bonus movement speed from passive, spell shield, less efficient ult
• Varus: Great poke, AoE slow that reduces healing, follow up ultimate for increased CC.
• Draven: Good range, great at trading, movement speed increase, has CC and global ultimate.

TERRIBLE CHOICES:

• Urgot: Urgot.
• Ashe: no natural escapes, no speed increases, mana hog, ultimate is diminished at close range and can be dodged with natural escapes and/or flash at longer ranges.
• Vayne: Short autoattack range, single target damage abilities, difficult to land crowd control, no ultimate to wombo-combo with.

A few notes on the enemy support, as they will have the greatest impact on your lane performance. My reasoning for this is rooted on that fact that AD carries will be focusing on last hitting from a safe distance. The supports will snoop around the brush and try to initiate harassment and put you in the worst possible position, that way the enemy AD carry can swap targets and try to burst you down.

These are just a quick summary of some supports you will face and how to deal with them.

• Janna: Janna will shield your Q's which will make the lane mostly a farm fest. Just be wary of her potential follow up if enemy jungler ganks or adc engages.
  
  
• Alistar: Alistar is a CC machine. A 1 second knock up with a .5 second stun, a knock-back that immobilizes for 1 second. His heal is also low mana cost, heals minions, and teammates. Counter him by dominating bush control and use a high amount of poke on his teammate. Remember his Unbreakable Will can remove the stun of your ultimate so be ready to follow up the ult with a Miasma positioned slightly ahead of where you think he will move.
  
  
• Blitzcrank: Blitz will pose somewhat of a problem if they are being extra aggressive. Ward the forward bush, camp your bush, and dodge at all costs his Rocket Grab. If you are having problems dodging this, get an early pair of tier 1 boots. His Mana Barrier will make all-ins tricky and with his bonus movespeed from Overdrive will make kiting and landing Q's hard.
  
  
• Leona: Leona is very tanky, Eclipse gives magic resistance and does damage, her Zenith Blade closes the gap and ports her to you allowing her to use Shield of Daybreak. Counter this again by keeping forward bush warded or camp in it. dont hesitate to flash if you feel they are trying to burst you down with her combo. Be extra careful when she hits level 6. If you are denying her Xp by pushing her out of range you should be level 6 before she is.
  
  
• Soraka: Soraka will be your biggest nightmare. She counters any and every advantage, she can heal more than you can poke, she can feed mana allowing AD carry to counter poke even more, she can silence you to prevent your burst in a team fight combined with her Astral Blessing, Wish, combo will give you little chance at killing anyone in that engagement.
  
  
• Taric: Taric support is tricky as the skill level of the taric is the biggest variable. face checking will be extremely risky. Take note of what skills he is maxing out first. If it's his Shatter, be careful for his combo as he will do more damage, but poke him more often as he will be unable to heal as much with Imbue. If he does max that first, he will have a larger sustain making your poking more difficult. Keep your distance and poke as often as possible but as safely as possible and you should win your lane.
  
  
• Morgana: Morgana will negate almost all of your poke with her Black Shield. Try to make her use it and set up all-ins while its on cooldown. If she lands a Q and you can tell they are going to go in on you, a quick Petrifying Gaze will turn the fight around quickly. If she lands an ult on you, see if you can Q her and the use the bonus movespeed to escape the ult range.
  
• Thresh: If he lands his Death Sentence and you think he is gunna follow up on it, you can ult him out of it. His auto's hurt so try to Q + auto then back away. If he puts The Box down be sure to Miasma and ult right away.

Created by (NA) Lolmart - Diamond 5 Season 4

thanks to jhoijhoi's guide on making guides that can be found here