Cassiopeia Build Guide by ilke994
Champion Build: Cassiopeia
| Health | 3170 |
| Health Regen | 13.85 |
| Mana | 1450 |
| Mana Regen | 37.13 |
| Armor | 83.5 |
| Magic Resist | 115 |
| Dodge | 0 |
| Tenacity | 0 |
| Movement Speed | 405 |
| Gold Bonus | 0 |
| Attack Damage | 104.6 |
| Attack Speed | 0.828 |
| Crit Chance | 0%S |
| Crit Damage | 0% |
| Ability Power | 502.39 |
| Life Steal | 0% |
| Spell Vamp | 20 |
| Armor Penetration | 0 |
| Magic Penetration | 22.83 |
| Cooldown Reduction | 0% |
Recommended Runes
Ability Sequence





Mastery Tree Is Outdated
WARNING: These masteries are still using the old tree and have not been updated to the new tree by the guide author. As such, they will be different than the masteries you see in-game.
Masteries
Introduction - Snake Tongue Edition
Hello there guys, my name is Ilke994 and obviously I am a LoL player like many of you. I started playing LoL back in October of 2010 (no Kitty Cat Katarina for me :( ) and I fell in love with game instantly. I kept playing and on magical day of 14'th of December, EU servers got serpentine beauty, Cassiopeia. I naturally in life love snakes and now I got one in my favorite game, I got her along both skins and I used her as my main ever since.
Many people found Cassiopeia underpowered and sucking back in the day, and we saw slight buffs, but not major one and there is a reason - she never sucked in the first place. Cassiopeia relies on quick hands and precision to being her potential on the Summoner's Rift and if you believe you have what's needed, with just a few weeks of practice you will discover the beauty of extremely powerful AP carry, with burst, AoE DPS, AoE slow and AoE stun - how awesome is that!
Marvelous Pros / Poisonous Cons
Just like every (almost every >.>) champion, Cassiopeia has her good sides and bad sides, the main problem of Cassiopeia is that 3/4 skills are skill shots and 1/4 depends on well landed skill shot. So let us take a look.
| SPACE |
Marvelous Pros:
+Amazing mid laner, great harassment damage, amazing farm, high range and movement speed. +Has great number of disables for a single team member. +Very hard to gank, even due to being squishy, slow with with use needed. |
SPACE |
|
SPACE |
Poisonous Cons
-Very squishy, this is a problem you can quite easily get over with some positioning, but until you do, you will find hard to land. -A lot of skill shots, meaning she needs practice, but this is not so much of a con for me, it's where the fun is hidden. -Un-reliable disables, needs skill. |
New Masteries
As you can see yourself I went 21-0-9 masteries, these are quite simple masteries taking everything in offense for AP and everything for mana in Utility.With these newly introduced masteries going Utility in my opinion is not such a good idea as it is more support-oriented, while defensive masteries are just outclassed by offensive ones for your role.
You get cooldown reduction, penetration, mana, mana regeneration and ability power, what must be missing you might ask? Movement speed, we used to have it in utility, but we bring it right back through runes. Also your blue buff will last longer.
Update: Alright guys, I had done some testing with 9-0-21, and while it is viable, if you go this road you may want to take
IP Biting Runes
| Runes | |||||||||||||||
Greater Quintessence of Movement Speed 3 |
Greater Quintessence of Ability Power 3 |
Greater Quintessence of Magic Penetration 3 |
Greater Quintessence of Health 3 |
||||||||||||
|
Q
u
i
n
t
s
|
SPACE |
|
SPACE |
Q
u
i
n
t
s
|
|
M
a
r
k
s
|
SPACE |
|
SPACE |
M
a
r
k
s
|
|
S
e
a
l
s
|
SPACE |
|
SPACE |
S
e
a
l
s
|
|
G
l
y
p
h
s
|
SPACE |
|
SPACE |
G
l
y
p
h
s
|
Viable Summoner Spells - Makes it all better
- New Cassiopeia:
Ghost +
Teleport - Intermediate Cassiopeia:
Exhaust (or
Ignite) +
Flash - Skilled Cassiopeia:
Ignite) +
Flash
SPACE
SPACE
SPACE
SPACE| SPACE | Teleport: I am not a big fan of this summoner spell on Cassiopeia, although it is viable. It can be very good if you have no other option but going solo top or for new summoners who can't use flash effectively, but I doubt there are many of you with this problem. It depends on your play style if you prefer farming and pushing over killing, then do take this. | SPACE |
Cassiopeia's Poisoned Skillset
SPACE
SPACE
|
SPACE |
Noxious Blast (Q): The core of
|
- Use it to spam in lane constantly, do note if you stack up to 5
Deadly Cadence stacks with this and keep spamming it just when
Deadly Cadence is about to run out, along MP5 runes you will lose no mana, but be careful and don't push your lane too hard. - You can hardly make strategy above work if enemy has
Boots of Speed, if that case just farm and when enemy comes in for the last hit, punish him with a
Noxious Blast, it always works for me. - Next to being offensive, it is much of a defensive tool too. If you are escaping use this on enemies behind, it will give you MS and damage them and just in case they are unskilled (stupid :x) enough you can eventually turn and finish them off.
- When you hit an enemy champion with it, you will see buff icon on you, this can be used to very well check bushes.
SPACESPACE
- At level 5, much like
Morgana you can use this skill in combination with
Noxious Blast to clear whole ranged mob way in the back, amazing farming tool and I use this strategy all the time, while being careful of how pushed the lane is. Very effective against
Malzahar and
Brand. - If you have the blue buff, you can use this skill again before it's duration goes away, use this advantage and mana regeneration to scout bushes, never head in and face check, that is pretty much a death wish.
- It is much easier to land than
Noxious Blast so you might want to land it first and slow the target before hitting off your Q.
SPACESPACE
- One of most often made mistakes, even by me would be hitting
Twin Fang before proccing your
Noxious Blast, and yes this can happen, due to
Noxious Blast having delay on it, you might wanna wait for it to hit before instantly firing
Twin Fang, you might end up on 4 seconds cooldown, which is not nice. ESPECIALLY watch this after you
Petrifying Gaze someone, make sure your poison procs first. - Yes, this skill works with other poisons, not just your own, but don't rely on this. It is just a safety net for you, still aim your poisons because DoT deals amazing damage.
- In early game while this is level 1, you don't really wanna spam it on enemies, use only
Noxious Blast to harass, don't follow up with this UNLESS you are going in for kill, it will burn your mana down and distract you from much needed farm. - One thing I discovered is that, this skill eats Morgana's
Black Shield alive, just spam it on her shield and it will be gone before you know it, laning against
Morgana is not really a problem. - You can always smart cast this skill, even thorough I don't do it, it can be useful it really depends if you prefer it so or not.
SPACE
|
SPACE |
Petrifying Gaze (R): Ah, finally, my favorite thing about |
- Think about position, think outside of box, no one said you are limited to being in front of target or close to them, this skill is actually most effective when used over walls or trees and you can see that in video below.
- With
Rylai's Crystal Scepter the slow will be very high and it might compensate for missed stuns, but remember stuns are better. - Try to use it from the bush, enemies won't see it coming and you have the highest chance of hitting the stun.
- It is very effective for escaping, use it and then use
Miasma and
Noxious Blast on stunned target, you will be out in no time. - I love using it for mind games, when some cocky squishy (mostly
Vayne) is chasing me, I just turn around, stun her and then burst her down with
Miasma
Noxious Blast
Ignite
Twin Fang combo.
Skill Sequence
SPACESo this is the build I most often use, please note you can have variations. I use it like this most of the time because I really love the harass and mana perseverance I get by harassing with
I wanna stop here for a moment because there is a debate if to max
Obviously at level 4 I pick up
Core Items - Miasma Blast!
Alright, we will go through each and every item of this build and explain it's use and the reason these items are better than some other items like rod of aegis. So your first question must be "Why Miasma Blast?", well the reason for this name is powerful mix of
SPACE
SPACE
|
SPACE |
15 Ability Power, 100 Health, 5 Mana Per 5 Sec. Two of these will solve all possible problems you might have in early and even maybe mid game. Let's see, you get additional HP to survive these nasty burst champions and last longer, you get bonus AP to strike harder so it is both offensive AND defensive, you get mana regeneration and combined with |
SPACE
|
SPACE |
80 Ability Power, 500 Health, 15% Slow. Yes 15%, all your spells are either AoE or with cooldown lower than 3 seconds, but then again look at it. |
|
SPACE |
25 Magic Resist, 35 Tenacity. These are the only alternative I would take to |
|
SPACE |
50 Armor, 100 Ability Power, 2 second immunity. It goes in replacement of |
|
SPACE |
430 HP. I suggest you buy one of these before |
|
SPACE |
40 AP, 15% Spell Vamp.. I found this item to fit quite well into the core, although the problem is it delays it a bit, it your personal choice, but if you go for this item I suggest going for |
Rod of Ages- My hate for you burns with power of thousand suns!
I feel like this item needs special mention, I see a lot of Cassiopeia's get this item and I will admit, I used to get this item, until I realized just how bad it is- ok I used a bad word, this item is not bad, it is good but thing is there are much better items for lesser price or better effects, and let's see these items.
SPACE
| SPACE |
So, let's first compare the two. Both give HP, both give AP, one gives mana, other gives slow. One of these gives this instantly, other gives it over time. Now look, in ranked game I usually don't have time to charge up
|
SPACE |
SPACE
|
SPACE |
Why not compare these two, first thing to notice is price, 2x |
SPACE |
While
Items - Damage, fang their heads off
After your core in case you are not getting damage on yourself, which is not very likely if you have smart enemies, or maybe you are just freakishly amazing positioner, you may want an offensive item, here are few I recommend:
|
SPACE |
140 AP, + 30% increase of AP. If you took |
SPACE
|
SPACE |
70 AP, 57 MR, 20 MR reduction aura. This is the alternative to |
|
SPACE |
60 AP, 10 MP5, active that attacks 30% of enemy current HP (3.5% more per 100 AP}, 15% CDR. This item is very useful for |
|
SPACE |
75 AP, 12 MP5, 20% CDR. A solid choice, if enemies don't build up much MR and someone else in your team has |
|
SPACE |
50 AP, +30 AP and 25% Spell Vamp aura. I find this item quite amazing on |
|
SPACE |
45 AP, 400 Mana, 25 MP5, 3% of mana converted into AP, each cast gives you more mana cooldown 3 sec (cap 1000 mana}. I will tell you right now, you will not get this item ever. You have your |
SPACE
|
SPACE |
20 AP, 8 more per stack, kill is 2 stacks, assist is 1 stack, you lose 1/3 of stack when you die, 20 is stack cap, 15% CDR on 20 stacks. I am talking about ranked gameplay and if you get this, you are instantly focused. It COULD carry you in early and mid game but in late game a single death will be defeat of your team, so no. Although in normal, where organization is destroyed this item dominates and I recommend it right after your 2 |
Items - Survivability, you don't turn to stone, you turn them into it
After your core, most of the times you are gonna go for a defensive item, simply because you are deadly after your core and will probably be the center of attention.
|
SPACE |
375 HP, 375 Mana, 50 MR, blocks a spell every 40 sec. This is my first choice when it comes to MR, we can compare it to |
SPACE
SPACE
|
SPACE |
56 MR, removes all debuffs every 90 seconds. If you have |
|
SPACE | 18 Armor, 270 HP, 24 MR, 12 Armor + 15 MR + 8 DMG aura. Don't get it, this item is gotten by either support or tank, not you, so no don't ever get it there are better options. |
|
SPACE |
40 HP per 5 Sec, 76 MR, 8 Movement Speed, restores 0.35% HP per second. This item is really solid MR choice, although I do prefer |
|
SPACE |
99 armor, 500 mana, 20% CDR, Reduces AS of enemies by 20%. I don't think you should get this, this is item for tank mainly and |
|
SPACE |
100 Armor, Returns 30% DMG on hit as magical DMG. This item is good for those rare situations when they pick |
|
SPACE |
45 Armor, 450 HP, deals 35 magic DMG per sec in 400 AoE. Ok i saw this item in a guide and I went like "Well I won't class item out until I try it", so I went for it, and well..********, why would anyone recommend this freaking **** on |
Gameplay - Look out! There's a snake in the grass!
So, you had picked
You are in loading screen, take a look at other champions and their summoners, you will almost -always- see CV. Once you enter the game wait about 20 secs before doing anything, make sure you don't get CV to reveal your items. This is important because
Now that you are in your lane, make sure to last hit your minions, the thing to remember is that you are harassment queen and no one can stand up to you there, so whenever they are in range remind them of your presence with a
If enemy tries to harass back, your boots will let you avoid skill shots and you have 3
Don't use your skills to push, use them to harass or push back. Pushing back means if you have
At level 5 or 6 you will have around 1000 gold, go back buy 2x
Keep on playing like this, try to score kills, farm and deny your enemy, until you are able to either go gank side lane or destroy the tower, this is what you early game is consisted of, more on specific laning opponents later.
SPACE
Blue Buff respawns in 5 minutes
Total XP: 280
Total Gold: 80
Being
SPACEYou love this part of the game, you got your
The most important part of mid game for you is positioning, you must work and practice on this, no guide can help you, but remember your spells are not restricted by walls, not even your ulti, do feel free to take a safe spot and spam your abilities.
Another good strategy is to get into bush and cast from there, always be behind a tank and don't stupidly rush in like I do sometimes, yes I get cocky...
Remember your goal is victory not an amazing K/D/A, so head towards pushes and always have a ward on dragon, you really wanna control dragon and take it every single time you can, also ward Baron Nashor because if enemies get it, it can be nasty. Due to your naturally long range you can harass enemies who pile up to try and steal him, but be careful and don't do this if there's
Rest of the game should be push for victory.
Here's the video made by pro Cassiopeia player who plays on 2000 elo, it is amazing and how just how viable Cassiopeia is, a really good watch so come and see:
SPACEThe title must be confusing for you, but "snake in the grass" is name of a extremely powerful strategy
The point of this is catching enemy unprepared while you are in the bush, you wanna know where you mid enemy went for gank, and once he starts returning, you enter the bush you believe he will pass, as soon as he is close to the bush, you do this combo:
And you spam your fangs until enemy is dead, this combo is INSANE surprise burst and can catch unaware enemy off guard and net you a quick and easy kill, which is very useful, but it can't always be done as I said maybe your enemy has wards there and so, map awareness is the key of this strategy working.
SPACEThis was requested part so here I am writing it up, how should
First of all the biggest mistake by most
What I do recommend is standing back on quite a range, let your tank and melee off-tank DPS initiate the fight, you should come in a bit later. Your range is very high on
A bit later when their protection is gone, which you should judge, you should come closer and spam
I don't suggest you to look for moment when you can stun all 5 because you will never use it, use your ulti on most people possible for DMG + Slow and if someone is stunned then you are at luck - of course this only counts for team fights, in 1v1 or 1v2 or so, always try to make stun priority over DMG.
SPACELaning is extremely important part of being a good
|
Your LoLReplay (Using this Guide) Here. You have to have LoLReplay to watch these replays. Download LoLReplay Here. The program, LoLReply, allows you to record your own games and replay them at any time. An hour of gameplay is about 7 MB; 100x smaller than an average quality video, so don't worry about the files taking up space :) LoLReplay is great because it allows you to see how you could have handled a situation better, it allows you to analyze possible other routes or paths you could have taken. It also allows you to show off :P |
SPACE |
|
SPACE|
|
SPACE |
Replay. Status: Permabanned. Since in ranked he is permabanned I had to play normals till I found one, this is normal game, not ranked. |
SPACE|
|
SPACE |
So called "classic counter" to Replay. Status: Rarely Banned. Since she is rarely banned she was picked as counter to me on mid. Yes this was ranked game, I handled her with balance between aggression and passive play, you can see for yourself. |
SPACE|
|
SPACE |
I myself take Sion to be harder than both of the above, just because his shield can get really big and strong and stun can interrupt you, but remember his stun range is shorter than your harass range. I don't suggest you to go right into him when his shield comes up, but try to take it down from semi-risky range using damage and then go right up against him in lane - ask your jungler for help. Replay. Status: Permabanned. This was normal game as in my elo and server this guy is permabanned. I won the lane but I lost the game due to my team being quite..idiotic, but oh well in the end I lost my will to play and it was morning and I'm not giving you more excuses, but we lost - still it is worth watching the laning phase because I handled |
SPACE|
|
SPACE |
This guy is very tricky, first thing first, you don't want him farming. Try to harass him quite aggressively, if he is one of these good Veigars he will probably stand up to you and make you back off, or if he is bad he will back off and you will dominate him, lvl 6 on you will need help to down him, good or bad Veigar, you must back away because burst is so hardcore, I suggest some HP before the Deathcap and maybe QSS to dispel the stun. Replay. Status: Available. This Veigar wasn’t bad, he was one of better Veigar's I've seen, I also made some stupid mistakes in this video, but you are supposed to see it so you don't make them yourself. In the end I end up with higher farm although he has decent farm himself, we win the game. |
SPACE|
|
SPACE |
Alright, I was people complain about Morgana who really isn't much of a big deal if I am honest, sure she has spell vamp, farm, shield, but you have spam and she stands no chance to your harassment, also you have farm power with Replay. Status: Permabanned. In this game Morgana did fine against me, we ended up with same score actually, although my farm was higher, we won in the end. |
SPACEThese three are the most often mentioned ones, if you find ANY other champion that makes a lot of problems for you, post in comments and I will write up and make a replay of how to counter that champion in lane.
Credits - People who helped me sharpen up my fangs
Many thanks to these amazing persons who made this guide even better:
- jhoijhoi: I should make this girl co-author of the guide, she helped me a lot and this guide is based on her guide to make guides. If you like this guide along with +repping me, I suggest you +rep her as well and check out her amazing guides right here: Ashe, Vayne, Morgana, Nasus, Warwick, Guide about making Guides.
- Nurok: Outright awesome Cassiopeia player, he is one responsible for high elo video above, I suggest everyone to go to his channel, watch LoL videos subscribe and leave a comment :)
Summary - It had come to an end
All in all, that is all I can tell you about our beautiful snake
Cassiopeia, rest of it is up to your practice, if you have any questions do make a comment and if you disagree with something don't downvote me right away, leave a comment and I'll either explain or agree with you and fix something within my guide.
Be quick on your fingers, and practice, her skills will soon become 2nd nature to you and then you will truly unlock beauty of this champion.
Hope I helped and have fun with
Cassiopeia :D
-ilke994.
|
|
|
Latest on MOBAFire TV
More Mobafire Video
Scheduled Tournaments
|
MOBAFire Community Cup NA May
Registration Open
|
|
Dominate Dominion #57
Running
|
|
Dominate TT #10 (NA)
Finished
|
|
Dominate Dominion #56
Finished
|
Drop-in Games
![]() |
MOBAFire Inhouses
Registration Open
|






Build Guide
Discussion (319)













