Cassiopeia Build Guide by Demon Cleaner

Introduction

Hey all, recently i saw that there are a lot of new upcoming guides for Cassiopeia. I really like this champ and to my opinion i am really okay with it, so i decided to post a guide here.

Cassiopeia is probably one of the most powerful AP-Carries, because of a heavy dps... basically she can deal that high amounts of dps with poison dots in combination with Twin Fang, that it is almost like a burst (well, facemelting..). She has got a very strong laning with a great harass and also a appreciatable sustain, at least if you rush spellvamp (i miss that on most of the guides out here).

In following, I am gonna explain to you what her strengths and weaknesses are, especially with this build and will tell you something about how to play her.

Pros / Cons

Here i am going to explain the advantages and disadvantages of this build:

Pros Lane sustain due to Hextech Revolver No mana issues Sustainable early on Awesome high Lategame dmg with an ultimate Ap amount OK early damage At least a bit of CDR (I consider 15% cdr more useful than 20 MagicPen due to your masteries and the Void Staff (if you decide to get this item later on) Fast charge of the Tear of the Goddess

space space space

CONS Almost no AP bonus early on until you have got rabadons Cassiopeia can suffer hard from high bursts like Annie Little survivability later (can be cured by another 6th item), somewhat a glass cannon

Runes

_______________________________________________________________________________

Just as always, runes are pretty self explanatory:
Marks: Greater Mark of Magic Penetration what else?

Seals: Greater Seal of Replenishment You don't want to start wirh Dorans Ring so you need to regenerate some mana. If you want you can also go for Greater Seal of Vitality

Glyphs:: Greater Glyph of Scaling Ability Power For Ap on lv18, they are pretty cool. Alternately take Greater Glyph of Ability Power, but the Force Glyphs will pass them t level 6, so they are kinda.. 2nd choice. If you fear a great harassment, take Greater Glyphs of Warding into consideration because Cassio's MR is like 0 and they will help you up with this in the earlygame.

Quintessences: Now, you have the choice between the Greater Quintessence of Ability Power for early damage, the Greater Quintessence of Movement Speed for MS which is always good to have and the Greater Quintessence of Health for more tankiness at the start, that is also not too bad.
_______________________________________________________________________________

Masteries

_______________________________________________________________________________

So, first of all it is your job to be the magicdmg-carry of your game. Therefore you need masteries that provide you bonus ability power and magic penetration so you put yuor main effort in the offense tree.

Get Mental Force for 4 bonus ap and then in the following Sorcery + Arcane Knowledge for CDR and MagicPen. Also, put 3 points in Havoc, because actually nobody lost because he dealt 1,5% more damage. Later on you take Blast and Archmage for a really notable change in your ability power. And, you will have to agree, Executioner is a must have OP mastery. If you want, take 1 point in Summoner's Wrath for the ignite-CD-buff, which may be more useful than 1 flat AP more.

Then I suggest to put either 9 points in Defense or Knowledge tree. If you put them in the Defense tree, take Resistance for more MR on the lane and also 1 point in Hardniess. Then go for HPreg and Veteran's Scars for early sustainability.

In the utility tree, the tier1 masteries suck IMO. Go for Summoner's Insight for a Flash upgrade, and get Expanded Mind which is relly not useful but allows you to skill Meditation if you decide to have it. Otherwise take Good Hands which is also kinda useless except in rare certain situations.
On tier 2 get Meditation for Manareg (you have no Doran's Ring, remind that and you are manahungry) or Swiftness for the versatile MS. Or a mix of both. But in any case, take a point in Runic Affinity for the blue buff your jungler should give you to last longer.
_______________________________________________________________________________

Skill Sequence

_______________________________________________________________________________

First of all remember not to stick on one ability build for Cassiopeia, its variable!

Always try to fit your build to your enemy, but in any case, max Twin Fang or Noxius Blast first and on level 1 you always take a point in Noxius Blast and you max Miasma last but take it once at level 4.

First of all look at you enemy. Is it someone who could land a very dangerous combo if you could come up close ( Annie, Ahri, Akali, Brand) or is it someone you can destroy up close? ( Kassadin (yea really!), Zilean, Veigar)

If you are better on to kill the enemy on range, max Noxious Blast first, if you can dare to make a fight with cloaser range i recommend to take a balanced way of building as you see in the sequence above, its to my mind the strongest thing. Because after one poison you can land 4 Twin Fangs in a row if you manage to close the gap (well, you get an MS buff after hitting the Blast) which is really strong, considering that a Twin Fang at lv3 already deals 130 damage and the damage of Noxious Blast is also not low.

So, so far to the skill sequence. I take it for granted that you skill Petrifying Gaze whenever you can.
_______________________________________________________________________________

Now, how do you use your skills...

Wait until you opponent sets up for a common attack to lasthit a minion. Then land a Noxious Blast on him. If you can take a closer fight, move to him (also a bit before hitting your blast) so that you are in range for Twin Fangs. I recommend to use smartcast on then (Shift+E), otherwise you are quite busy clicking.

If you could land a combo often enough, always be close up to your enemy and dont push! Wait until he will do the fatal mistake and looks at you; it will defenitively happen after some time. If he is just running away, punish him with a Noxious Blast.

When he finally looks at you, or better when he turns around to do so, cast Petrifying Gaze and keep in mind that it has a delay after casting which is about 1 sec, maybe a bit less. Very good players cab turn away but that rarely happens. Also, casst your ulti if you think Malzahar casts his one, because you will interrupt him and burn him down after.

Could land you stun? Then, get Miasma and a Noxious Blast under you enemy and spam the **** our of your Twin Fangs. Always refresh the poison by a new blast to ensure that he keeps poisoned for your fangs. If you enemy was at about half health before, you can easily kill him now.

Could only land a slow? Pray that he does not have Flash up, set Miasma and Noxious Blast up in his fleeing direction to slow him and grant you more speed and follow while spamming E. This is not as dangerous as the stun, because you can't facemelt that long, but it is still devastating.

If you entirely miss your ulti, be ashamed and play careful the next two minutes because ganks are now really dangerous. Otherwise you can easily stun your two enemies and maybe even kill one, but now you have to rely on Flash.

BTW: Ignite when you got them either stunned or slowed any you think they may die, i forgot about that ;) And keep in mind that you need some hundreds of mana for your combo, though you have Deadly Cadence passive
_______________________________________________________________________________

Summoner Spells

Just like always Summoner Spells can be treated very briefly.

Still the mosst reliable Escape. You will need it, you do not have another one, besides you can Flash around your enemy and land a stun then, what is quite overwhelming.

Early damage spell, good against healers such as Vladimir or Swain. It is often securing a kill you wouldnt get otherwise.

Can you really not land a stun? Then you may take it into consideration to replace either Flash or Ignite

Actually a viable tool to 1. hold your lane when you are forced back and 2. do epic ganks by porting to a ward or saving a lane from a gank by this.

if you are not used to watch your mana and you are not used to aim your spells and you are used to take masteries with little use, then you MAY THINK ABOUT taking it in soncideration.

Recommended for any kind of trolling or intentional feeding.

others=don't.
_______________________________________________________________________________

Items

_______________________________________________________________________________

Finally we get to the fun part of that build.
Starting items:

For the start i always use Boots of Speed and 3 Health Potions. They give you 450hp regen early which i consider as quite useful and a lot of mobility to cahse, dodge and escape. Playing against someone who got boots this is a must or against somebody with strong skillshots (like Brand or Xerath)

If you want the 100 bonus health and extra manareg combined with some 15 Ap, get Doran's Ring. It is actually viable and i recommend it for beginners though it does mean that you lack any early HP regeneration. Still, i consider it as useless when you buy items that you sell after. having manaproblems you can consider buying two of them after your boots.

If you intend to rush a Tear of the Goddess quickly, then you can also start with a Saphire Crystal and health potions. Later on, if your Tear is not stacked fully, just spam some Q's in the landscape if you are sure not to have mana issues then.

Last option is a Amplifying Tome, usable when you think you wreck your enemy (like Malzahar). Then you can get a real quick Hextech Revolver, but still i consider boots to be better.
_______________________________________________________________________________

Early:

Get a Hextech Revolver quickly if you struggly against an annoying enemy that is making you trouble with the Harass. Then, finish your boots into a.) Sorcerer Boots for MPen, Ionian Boots of Lucidity (if you plan to get Void Staff later on only, but i suggest to take Sorcerer Boots) for an awesome CDR or Boots of Mobility for roaming (Cassio is great at roaming).

If you are a Doran-vetishist you can also put 2 Doran's Ring before that, does really make sense since this are cheap 200hp 30 ap and 10 manareg. just.. it blocks 2 slots and you will sell it later on.

Having finished your Hextech Revolver now (if you figured out that you need one), farm for a Tear of the Goddess AND Catalyst the Protector. This will cost you 2k gold. Probably there is an insane lack of AP at this point of time (Thats the disadvantage of this build - your midgame sucks somewhat). If you got over 3k gold by a random occasion like a pentakill (huehuehue) buy Rabadon's Deathcap instantly, or at least the big-staff thing whose exact name i dont know and a catalyst. Now you should be into midgame.
_______________________________________________________________________________


Midgame:

As you may have noticed (I would rather be surprised if you had not ô.O) this build is focussing on lane sustain and the collection of power for a lategame.You only have 40 Ap from your items, but spellvamp, mana like crazy and also a notable Hp-bonus. I take it for granted that you spam a lot to charge your Tear of the Goddess, you do not lack mana for that.

When you have enough gold, buy the Rod of Ages because it will need time to charge up. Its an awesome expansion of your mana pool (Your later Archangel's Staff will thank you)

Build up your core as quick as you can. These are the items you should get each game:



+ any kind of boots, preferrably Sorcerer Shoes

Hextech Revolver should also be bought and i recommend to build it into a Will of the Ancients in the late midgame, but you can also sell it if you need anouther item or do not even buy it if you doubt that you will need Spellvamp.

Well, why are these items your coreitems?


Rod of Ages is a good boost for AP, HP and MANA at quite low cost for what it gives. I belong to the half of the people building this on any Ap with mana because its overwhelming good.


Rabadon's Deathcap is the king of all Ap items. 140 AP and 30% more Ap in any case, that is all you need to know. I dont think that i have to justify this purchase^^

Archangel's Staff is somewhat the queen of ap items. Providing 45 Ap at a cost of 3000 Gold sounds incredibly ****ty, but taking you mana for the passive in consideration ( Archangel's Staff itself, Rod of Ages and a possible Banshee's Veil and your basic mana) you will see that the passive grants you about 100 Bonus-AP.

So far with that. Now you are probably in the..

_______________________________________________________________________________

Lategame:

You have got your boots and your core and maybe a Hextech Revolver in your inventory.

Now i am gonna list you items, from most viable to less viable, but all are okay. Choose two of them.

25% spellvamp and cheap 80 ap, and 30 ap + SV for your entire team. and you already got that Hextech Revolver.

Providing AP, extra survivability and a nice slow. (35% on the Twin Fang since it is single targeted.

You do your job too good and deal so much damage that every enemy gets a Force of Nature? This will be the cherry on the top of your damage, the magic pen is really worth it.

a nice survivabilit yitem with one or two hard forms of CC you should fear. Gives you the hardly needed MR, some HP and Mana that also scales with your archangel (okaaay... really not notable much, maybe 15 AP). Against harder CC or supresses, take Quicksilver Sash instead.

100 Ap and some armor. and the ability to survive the nasty ulti combos andheavy bursts. besides you can simply ignore a quick supress. Very nice tool.

Got ya.

An additional source of damage paired with little mana and mr but notable AP. You wont need it since you can spam the **** out of you Twin Fangs. Possible but not recommended.

If you can kick *** with 750 hp... nvm. but telling you a secret.. you wont!

#2. much damage, glass-cannon-style. Hellyeah 8-)

Rylai's Crystal Scepter >> Rod of Ages #2. nuff said.

_______________________________________________________________________________

Well, choose some items (two to be precise) out of this pool and try to adapt them to your team as well as to the enmy team. Use your brain for this; sadly random tests figured out that about 45% in free pick normal games are braindead or brain-afk, 35% in draft dont use it and still about 20 in ranked. Sad but true.
Now, back to topic. Always go for damage>survivability IF YOU DO NOT DIE!

A dead carry is a bad carry, since you dont carry if you die (makes sense huh?). If either your team is not able to protect you because it lacks charges slows and stuns or you yourself entirely fail positioning then your brain forces you to go Survivability>>Damage. At least in the best case it does so. You should follow that intention btw.

Then take a look at the enemy team. How mobile are they?
- Do they have multiple charges? ( Nocturne, Lee Sin, Renekton, LeBlanc)
- Are they completely immobile and stand around like a stone in the Desert? ( Xerath, Miss Fortune, Malzahar)
- Do they deal sustained damage ( Caitlyn, Malzahar, Ashe), do they deal bursts ( Akali, [[Vayne, Kassadin), do they deal no damage at all ( Shen, Amumu, Alistar, Soraka) or are they FIRIN DA LAZOR ( Lux)?+

If they are very agile and your team lacks the ability to protect you, then pick a lot of survivability.
_______________________________________________________________________________

Laning

On the lane you will most likely keep the upper hand, but nevertheless always be careful and do not underrate the sudden burst that may come from enemies you usually can handle like Annie. Do never push in the early (before level 6), since you will be very vulnerable to ganks. Even after, try to keep the creep on your half of the lane, so your jungler can easily gank and there is a long chasing distance to the next tower.

Early on lasthit only with common attacks, Cassiopeias animation somewhat sucks and it may be quite difficult if you are not used to it. After you have got Hextech Revolver and anything to solve mana problems, you can use Noxious Blast on creeps to regen hp and make them low. They will need 1 more autoattack then until they die if you got it maxed.

To harass your enemy set a Noxiuos Blast on him, preferrably when he stands between creep or is currently starting an autoattack. Try to set it a bit behind your enemy so that he will most likely get it if he tries to avoid it. But look how your enemy avoids the spell and place it in a different way then. If you land each 2nd on them its already okay. Try to get 1/2 Twin Fangs after him or maybe also 3 or 4 if he does not react. Always be aware of your enemy if you come up close. Some of them can make your life hell then, since you do not want to get caught by a Malzahar ulti or by Summon: Tibbers.

Recently, there are some really tough enemies for Cassiopeia. I hate leblanc, Kassadin (well he is always banned so what?) and Urgot, but luckily he is hardly played and almost never sent mid.
Playing against Kassadin i can only give you the advice to run at him when you are silence, he cant do anything to you close up, poison him and land some Twin Fangs and back out before Null Sphere is up again.

Against most other lanes you will most likely win the game since Cassiopeia is somewhat overpowered but underplayed. You have a heavy poke at an okay range and a kickass damage up close; somehow nobody can face you. in what range ever. If you want to go for a kill or piss off quickly you can always cast your aoe stun ulti (requires practice, to see where the enemies move), but you will be out of jail mostly.

Sounds good. :)
_______________________________________________________________________________

Team Work

Oh yea, the good old thing, the team...

I recently figured out (*sarcasm on*) that i am not the only player on the field of justice and that there are some more in a match. I only play carry because i am the boss, so i log in a good damage dealer and say I GO MID, whatever i play; even if it is Ashe. I pwn everyone so whatever. Cassiopeia has one of the most heavy damage outputs of all AP-carries so she is also on the top of my list. Usually, i run around alone, take the blue EVERYTIME, dont give a SH*T about our jungler and kill everyone who is around me. If i get trapped I flame my team why nobody helped me
(*sarcasm off*)

Back to topic: Don't behave like these guys do though there are plenty of them.

1. Ensure that you lane mid each time. Do not pick Cassiopeia unless you know that your team allows you to lane mid.

2. Before the minions spawn, ask your jungler how many blue buffs he will need. Buy corresponding items like Mana Potions or maybe start off with MReg. Consider to do this before the game starts, so that you can adapt your masteries. If you may get the second blue, put more effort in Movespeed in the Utility Tree.

3. Play with draft pick, no matter if you play ranked or not. The players are more kind there, and above all they communicate with you.

4. Do not dare to be caught alone and do not make 1v1 fights if you will also die, even not if your opponent dies. it is good if you take 2 with you, but 1 is kinda useless since you are the biggest or 2nd-biggest troublemaker in your team.

5. Cassiopeia is viable on any team really. She has a moderate mobility and a mixture between burst and Magic DPS. Its usually a nice choice to pick her.

6. Hold back in the teamfights and hurt then with Miasma and Noxious Blast. Do not use your E unless you will be able to get a carry off or you are not in danger if you do this.

7. Wait for a good moment to cast your ulti. Best, if the enemy team approaches onto your team or you run away, they catch up and you turn around and ulti them.

8. Do not mind to use your ulti for escape purposes. You do not have to run a kill.

9. Follow your teammates and their strateigies and ensure that they listen if you say something important. If not, ping ONCE.

I guess thats pretty much it.
_______________________________________________________________________________

Summary

First of all i apologize for some minor (i hope minor) grammer and typing mistakes, i am no native speaker ;)
... and for some sarcasm in the guide :P

I hope you liked it though, leave me a nice comment or some CONSTRUCTIVE criticism =)
_______________________________________________________________________________

Demon Cleaner