• I personally suggest that you DO NOT go for both Catalyst of Aeons and Tear of the Goddess. It can work in specific situations where you have a late game team comp or a team comp that doesn't want to take early / mid game teamfights. In any case, it's 1.8k gold for mana & health only... zero AP. Not only does it delay your dmg items, it will make your early game worse by making you a non-threat, and unable to make good trades. Then you need to spend +1k more if you want to have the AP components so before you have any dmg, it has been around 15 minutes already. It's a slow build that you SHOULD NOT do by default in ranked games. Just get either one, not both.

• Also I don't really understand the fascination with Everfrost. Sure it's nice and all but that is all. The active is rather redundant if you already have Rylai's. I would just get Morellonomicon instead since it gives CDR which is more relevant... and then Liandry's Torment for more MPene. Not sure about the passive which is the same from Catalyst of Aeons since the whole point of Cass is to stay in the distance and avoid getting harassed. You will ran out of mana way faster than you will run out of health, so the passive doesn't really help much... unless you are against Assassins or something.

• Then I suggest people to experiment with Stormrider's Surge. You don't necessarily need DFT or TLD. It's a good Boots of Swiftness replacement and can keep you safe or give you outplay potential.

Just wanted to talk about some changes in this upcoming patch (6.10) which drops a few buffs our way.

Q - Noxious Blast
RANGE 750 ⇒ 850
Noxious Blast’s movement speed bonus takes longer to decay
“Poisoned” particle’s size has been increased

W - Miasma
COOLDOWN 22/20/18/16/14 seconds ⇒ 18/17/16/15/14 seconds
MIN RANGE 550 ⇒ 500
MAX RANGE 800 ⇒ 900
No longer stops upon hitting terrain
Fixed a number of interactions with Cassiopeia's W - Miasma Grounded debuff

So the range increase for Q is definitely a plus here, but the the real buff is that the movement speed takes longer to decay. Personal I barely feel the effects of the movespeed buff for more than maybe .5 seconds, this is gonna be a huge help to kiting and/or getting into range.

The range changes to W are also cool but I'm not sure how I like the fact that it no longer stops on walls. Since it does have a minimum range, having it stop at walls helped out a lot in the jungle. Though it does have other cool interactions now, like dropping it on the other side of a wall so opponents can't come towards you with flash or movement skills and making them take the long way around. So this change is kind of a win/loss depending on the situation. They also cleaned up some interactions with W, I'm not sure exactly what that means but it should seem more reliable now than before I would assume.

@Katustrawfic:

- Hextech GLP-800: Happy that I made you "discover" this one ^w^ it's indeed really strong, I wouldn't be suprised that Riot decides to nerf its stats a bit, OR buff back RoA considering the only advantage in building RoA is -400G, +200 HP and +20 AP... with that little of a difference, the Hextech clearly surpasses it considering it also have this cool active that hurts quite a lot.

- Haunting Guide: Used to be part of my core build, although I would personally only consider it if there's more than one tank in the ennemy team, since it ONLY builds into Liandry's Torment which is more of an anti-tank item than anything else.

- Luden's Echo: I need to definitely try it more. Again thanks, because you made remind a few details that make this item pretty interesting on Cassiopeia: the % Move Speed that scales well with your passive, and more importantly the fact that it stacks back really fast thanks to Twin Fang spamming ! I totally forgot about that and now this item makes much more sense to me.

- Match-ups: I'll start writing about match-ups at very last. I'm so focused on finishing the core parts of my guide right now that I don't even play the game anymore lol

Overall your statements look really relevant to me, I already faced Zed once and I gotta agree he's a pain in the ***.

Another champion that put me into serious trouble is Fizz, basically because he just has to stupidly all-in you as soon as he reaches level 3: all he's gotta do is wait for your Q, dodge it manually, and if he succeeds he just Q onto you, starts auto-attacking with W on, and keeps his E for your next Q or to get away if your jungler arrives ... if he does all that correctly you have absolutely NO WAY to fight back, considering Miasma's maximum range.

Finally, post 6 he can still all-in you EVEN knowing your ultimate is up, simply because if his ultimate lands onto you, even if you R+Q him right after, he will just E to time your DoT (thus avoiding your E spam) and finally, even if you W him right after your R, the area is so "vertically" little that he will just walk out of it and start raping your ***.

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Thanks again tho for these suggestions ! They're definitely helpful, and some of the ones from you previous comment can now be more or less found inside the guide (in the finally updated build and the fresh Masteries section.)

When I'll consider the core of my guide being done and start writing some Final Words, I might write out your name there, after all you're kinda my very first supporter so I think you're worth being mentioned ! <3

@Musiicy I'm happy to help with suggestions :) Especially since I'd like to, but have exactly 0 experience writing guides. Cass has always been a fun champion for me but this last update has really cemented her as my go to laner again. I think a lot of people underestimate her (I've been told not to pick her a couple times since she's trash) and that only helps you out if opponents don't know/respect her damage output. She also has range buffs to her Q (up to 850 from 750 on live) and W (500-900 from 550-800 on live) on the PBE as well. Link

EDIT: As a side note, after doing some CDR calculations with Twin Fangs I've noticed that every 10% gives more benefit than the last 10% which when you do your table will show what I mean. So much so that going from 40-45% CDR is actually even more beneficial than going from 0-10% CDR.

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So anyways to continue my point on items, I do also really like catalyst for that extra 20 hp/twin fangs cast but I didn't care much for RoA. I'm looking at Hextech GLP-800 in your guide now and wondering why I never went for that item. I'm definitely gonna try it out tonight but I feel it will be really strong. My thinking between the two is that for 400g you get the same amount of mana and AP instantly AND that huge active damage/slow for extra kiting power or use as a fight starter. You do lose 200 hp overall, but I feel the active and no 10 minute wait on other stats makes up for that easily.

Since we lose pen from sorc shoes I'm wondering if an early haunting guise could be a good buy. Maybe not so much if you go for Abyssal against an AP mid since that has its own magic pen. But if you don't need the MR for example against lower damage/tankier mids (and just really far ahead, or they have a heavy AD comp maybe?) it could be a good buy. And also builds into liandry's, which is even better if the other team has a tankier top/jungle/support champ.

I definitely like luden's echo for extra damage and most importantly the move speed passive since again, we lose out on some but not too much speed from boots. I think they would be best if you really need to dodge skill shots such as against long range mids (lux ziggs and xerath come to mind). You also get to proc the Echo passive often since you are a spell machine gun (lol) and with the movespeed bonus from Q.

I could go on forever about items, there are just that many options haha but I'll let you speak to others since this is your guide.

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Ok, last thing I want to also get your input on is champion matchups. I have little to no problem against most other traditional AP mids. I haven't had much trouble in lane aside from Zed destroying me (but who doesn't), Xerath and Zyra beat me pretty badly the one time I saw either of them. Ziggs can be a pain as well but is a little easier to dodge his spells and counter attack. I haven't played against many (if any) melee mids besides Zed, but I think anyone that can close distance fast could be a big problem to deal with since Miasma has a minimum cast range. You could kite with Q move speed but melee mids usually have slows of their own (thinking of talon and fizz here) so kiting would be hard to do for sure.

Some interesting matchups that come to mind are the lux veigar and leblanc games I've had. If lux lands a snare, you can counter-attack with Q>E combo when she walks up to auto for her passive proc, I think ulti also has enough range to hit her while snared as well. Veigar if he drops his cage around he can also be countered with Q>E combo as well as long as the cage doesn't land directly on you, or you walk into it. And for leblanc, if she does her quick Q>W combo you can trade back by dropping your Miasma on her original distortion location and she will be slowed when she returns to it. If she lands chains she might not instantly return but if you can land Q you can use the speed to try and both retaliate and get away from the chain snare.

@Lars Lyon:
Thanks a lot for your feedback mate !
As for the pros/cons, first of all I gotta indent this section, but I might also change a few things, e.g. after many Cassiopeia games, I realized early game is far from being "sh*tty" as long as you know what you're doing.
The "CDR on Cassiopeia" section I mention is coming really soon, it is simply going to be a table with the number of castable Twin Fangs during your Q duration, depending on how many %CDR you have ! So you won't have to do the math by yourself :D

@Katustrawfic:
- Runes: I've never tried Spell Vamp Quints tbh, but I personally don't feel like needing it at all, simply because I consider Catalyst of Aeons to be 100% core item on Cassiopeia, since then you got E heal + Catalyst passive, which is A LOT. Problem being, I haven't updated my build yet, I should do that pretty quick since it's the first information you get out of the guide.
As for scaling CDR, I never tried either, for the simple (and quite weird) reason that I don't like having non-multiples of 5 as %CDR during the game. I just feel way more comfortable with a precise an unvarying number.
This is totally a personal preference, so I'm going to insist on that point next time I work on the guide ! And I might also try scaling CDR just to see, thx for advising me this anyways :)

- Masteries: I'm tied just as much as you are between DFT & TLords. I need to try Thunderlord's more, especially considering the theoric 7 Twin Fangs that you can cast with 45% CDR (as I said above, there soon is going to be a quick chapter about CDR)
As I'm totally gonna re-do the build, I might just do 2 different builds: 1 with each keystone, and adapted stuff depending on it.
Savagery: THANKS MATE, without your comment I would probably have never realized that this mastery also procs on single-target spells ! :O this is the main reason why I chose Wanderer, anyways you are saying wise words about these 2. Masteries chapter is the next one to be coming (along with the CDR one) and I'm going to argue every mastery, so I'll think of your reasoning when coming to that point :D
Secret Stash: that's again very arguable, I love both Assassin and Secret Stash, I do switch a lot between them, so again, I'll discuss them in the upcoming Masteries section. And once more, I can only agree with your POV, I'm thinking quite the same, I only like to go Assassin because of its scaling with other %dmg masteries (Bounty Hunter, Sorcery, Executioner) also I don't buy much potions anymore on Cassiopeia, considering I rush Catalyst quick after Tear, and again, Catalyst is beast for sustain.

- Items:
Need to update that build.
I'm such a big fan of Tear + Catalyst that I don't consider Morello this much, except for the 20%CDR which is indeed amazing. I'm going to go into further detail about items once build is updated & I start writing the Items section, but overall I would just grab Morello before (or instead) Rylai if I'm facing some high sustain laner / comp, Mundos and **** are a pain in the *** for Cassiopeia without the sweet Grievous Wounds.
Finally as for first back I'm indeed gonna just insist on Tear, it's obviously the ****ing strongest thx to Awe, which means you regenerate free mana if you successfully last hit with E :D

Thanks A LOT for this big comment bro, I sincerely appreciate that you took the time to express your feelings about my guide ! <3

I've played a ton of Cassiopeia this patch (I just hit rank 5 mastery while only having rank 1 pre-patch) and I wanted to give some suggestions based on my experiences.

Skills very simple, I agree R>E>Q>W is best, since most damage is focused on landing poisoned Twin Fangs. The only thing is leveling it doesn't help last hitting in lane since the unpoisoned damage is based off level.

Runes, I agree with just about all your choices except blues and quints. I take 5 flat CDR blues along with 3 scaling CDR. This gives 5% at level 1 scaling to 10% at level 18. This allows me to take a spell vamp quint and 2 AP quints. Plus scaling CDR runes are also half the price in IP. The spell vamp quints help you sustain in lane while you last hit with Twin Fangs along with the Mastery that also gives spell vamp.

Masteries I also agree for the most part on Ferocity though I'm torn between taking DFT and Tlords, though I see both as viable especially considering the amount of AP you should have on Cass. Tlords is a huge proc early landing just a Q>E>E combo, and since you have to burn a ton of mana on just that combo alone, it's smart to wait for the 15 CD to proc it again.

For cunning However I prefer savagery to help early game last hitting with Twin Fangs though I can see the use of Wanderer as well, to get in range for combos. Also focusing on lane I like to take biscuits over Assassin. Early game laning is incredibly bad so I like the extra sustain Biscuits give. Also considering Cass is a late game champ Assassin will not provide anything for you in late game teamfights.

I've experimented with taking Intelligience, the theory is it takes your 40% CDR twin fangs CD from .45 (6.67 possible casts per 3 second poison) to .4125 (7.27 casts per 3 second poison) with 45% CDR. Of course it would be near impossible to cast twin fangs perfectly off CD but the 5% from the mastery allows you land them that much faster. It also has the benefit of giving you 10% CDR at the start of the game with 5% from runes.

Now items, this is easily the most difficult part of playing cass is deciding on a build. Since boots are out I feel she has many more possibilities than other mid-laners. An item I definitely consider core on her though is Morellonomicon. It gives 100 AP 400 mana (which is another 12 AP with Seraphs) 20% CDR, and the passive which restores 20% max mana on kill. The 20% CDR is one of the best parts of this item since it gives you another twin fangs cast per Noxious Blast duration even without any other source of CDR. And your first back 100% of the time should include tear. The passive Awe (refunding 15% of the mana cost) just gives you so much more freedom to spam spells to both last hit and harass opponents.

(I've run out of time for now but I'll try to remember to come back to this later and finish up talking about items. I'm looking forward to reading the rest of your build, Cheers and good luck)

I disagree with some of the things you listed in the cons section but the rest of the guide is looking quite good so far. I'm most interested in reading that "CDR on Cassiopeia" section you mentioned so I hope you're still looking to write that one.

I disagree with some of the things you listed in the cons section but the rest of the guide is looking quite good so far. I'm most interested in reading that "CDR on Cassiopeia" section you mentioned so I hope you're still looking to write that one.