Hey everyone and welcome to my guide of Cassiopeia. In this guide i will cover all of the 'ins and outs' of how she is played to what i think is the best effect, as well as helpful mid lane tips for any champion! Hope you enjoy and please leave your feedback!

As i have said in the notes part of the rune choices, it is essential to win trades at a low level, because it either forces them to use potions at a more frequent rate than you, or even forces them to go back, making them miss valuable creep kills; as runes have the highest impact EARLY game, having the correct ones is a must.
Greater Glyph of Magic Resist - This was my choice of glyph because it is impossible to build any magic resist at level 1, unless you take Null-Magic Mantle which isn't advised, as boots and pots give you more sustain and speed to dodge abilities; so having this much magic resist early forces your opponents spells to do less damage to you if you get hit, whilst still hitting hard back.
Greater Seal of Magic Resist - This is the same reason as the glyph, except with this there are other runes you could go for, for instance the ability power rune, but as most mid players stack AP runes and magic penetration, it's ideal to have a little more MR.
Greater Quintessence of Ability Power - That being said, early game ability power is insane, so it's definitely recommended to still get some, and it was either these quints or the magic penetration ones, but these give you just under 15 AP early, which allows you to hit them harder during trades.
Greater Mark of Magic Penetration - Last but not definitely not least is the magic penetration. This makes your 15 ability power seem like a lot more, and with your magic resist will usually allow you to win trades in lane, especially if you're able to dodge their abilities.

offense tree is a kind of obvious choice for Cassiopeia as she is an offensive champion by nature; she can harass constantly as her Noxious Blast has barely any cooldown, and she can also push the lane faster than most champions, allowing her to roam, so having the offensive talents will help her out massively early and late game.
But the reason i chose the utility tree over the defense tree is simple: you can't build any item which can make a buff last longer, but you can build items to enhance magic resist. Having blue buff for longer in lane will mean you can spam your spells to either harass or push the lane, making your enemy fear you for longer! Also the movement speed out of combat helps against enemy junglers, who will inevitably gank you.

The skill sequence i have chosen seems to be the most effective by far.
Leveling up Noxious Blast is something i have always done, and was quite surprised looking at other guides on here leveling Twin Fang first. THIS IS STUPID!. If you level Twin Fang first, it means you have to land a poison THEN start doing the real damage, which you might not even be able to do as the opponent may take a step back out of your Twin Fang range, making you go closer in and opening you to a gank or a counter attack.
Noxious Blast has a THREE SECOND COOLDOWN people, even if you miss this it isn't a problem, as you just step back so your opponent can't fire something back, then shoot another one their way. If you are lucky enough to land the spell, you don't have to step further in to do the damage as it's already being done, and the massive speed buff you get from landing Noxious Blast on a champion allows you to easily get out and dodge the enemy spells which are surely coming back your way, and THEN maybe fire a twin fang back, doing a little more damage.
As well as the fact you don't have to dive in to a risky fight, it allows you to get out of situations you wouldn't usually be able to, as you get 7.5% more movement speed at level 5 Noxious Blast. For instance if a jungler ganks, you can fire a noxious blast at them, giving you the speed to get out, whilst still hitting him for high damage, usually making them retreat. If they don't retreat because they have full hp when they enter, a jungler may not realize the immense damage that Noxious Blast can do over time, so he could be easy to bait in to a risky turret dive, allowing you to finish him easily and maybe picking up the double kill.

Spells on Cassiopeia aren't really a hard choice:

Flash - to secure a kill or get away from a bad situation.
Ignite - To finish a champion off, or to stop a heal which you know is coming.
Exhaust- To sap the opposing champion's damage and slow them down to either get away or secure the kill.
Cleanse - to get rid of an ignite that will kill you, or a stun such as Brand's.


Although Exhaust and Cleanse are still viable choices as a mid lane, it's not usually advised. Exhaust i only ever use if it seems i am to come against a Talon or Zed, maybe even Akali depending on your team. Cleanse again depends on your play style, but as an AP carry is a burst based champion, usually if you have to cleanse something it won't save you anyway, unless it's an Ignite, which isn't often enough to make it viable.
All of the other spells aren't viable whatsoever, i have seen some mid players take Teleport then complain when they die from Ignite. Teleporting to another lane is a good thing to gank, but quite a lot it doesn't bear fruit and it has a huge cooldown, so don't try it guys!

Boots, Health Potion's and mana potions are always a good thing to start with as a mid player, as it means having in effect 300 more hp, and 100 more mana, whilst having more speed to dodge abilities.

I always recommend buying Rylai's Crystal Scepter first over any item, even Rabadon's Deathcap. It gives a large amount of ability power, whilst giving you that extra tankyness early game. But most importantly it has an INSANE passive which couples really well with Cassiopeia's spell Noxious Blast. Slowing an enemy champion whilst gaining movement speed yourself is crazy, especially with her Miasma coming into effect when you're closer! Plus is slows that pesky jungler down when he appears.

Rabadon's Deathcap is a standard item for ANY ability power carry, as it increases your ability power by a percentage of 30%! Which, endgame, usually amounts to around 150 AP extra! Sometimes it is worthwhile taking this before Rylai's Crystal Scepter, but early jungler ganks are gunna be much harder to dodge with it, and it will be harder to secure a kill unless you engage in a full head on fight, which isn't recommended in lane as a player that isn't fed can still rip through you if you're fed, for instance Talon deals huge damage and can silence you, which stops your damage, meaning he can get in and out fast and leave the fight before you can do little more than land 1 ability.

The core items out of the way, it all depends on what the opposite team is building, who's getting fed, who's going tanky, all of it! Liandry's Torment i almost chose as a core item because of the burning effect it has, which is huge added to Cassiopeia's poisons... But it also has that magic penetration to rip through those people who decide to think they can beat you by building MR (ain't gunna happen). If you're the only fed player on your team, it's kinda blatent that the opposite team will build out a lot of MR to stop you snowballing, so as well as Liandry's Torment being your 4th item, Void Staff is another, so you can maximize the damage you can do no matter what they build.
Will of the Ancients and Zhonya's Hourglass are quite defensive items for Cassiopeia, which i don't usually like to build. But Will of the Ancients has a very nice passive for your team, so for instance your top laner is Rumble or Vladimir it's advised to build this, or at least shout at them so that they do :D but mostly your toplane is a bruiser, so having this is usually a good choice Zhonya's Hourglass i don't usually recommend because if you die as an AP carry, you've usually blown all your abilities during that fight, and they all have quite high cooldown, so even when you come out of the stasis, you can't do anything to get away so you just die again. Cassiopeia has low cooldowns so it is still viable, but it depends on your play style.
Deathfire Grasp Is a more preferred item for me, as using this first will increase ALL magic damage against that target, allowing you to explode on them and kill them really fast; like you would want to with an AD carry.
Abyssal Mask is another good item to have as Cassiopeia, as for her to use her ultimate effectively in a teamfight she needs to be in the middle of the action before backing out, and with all the magic penetration she has, coupled with this magic resist reduction, it makes her ultimate smash an enemy team. If you would prefer to build another of the choices (above) then always try to make your support build this.

Jungling
Although your role is to play mid, it's always good to deny your enemy a bit of their jungle, so taking Wraiths whenever you can is recommended. A little later in to the game it's even good to take your own wraiths, but ask your jungler. Only ever go to wraiths on either side when your lane is pushed and it's difficult to farm in lane, so instead of stopping farming it's always good to take them. Also keep your eye on blue buff timers, as it's devastating to let their team have them both.

Warding
Warding is essential for a mid laner, as they are open to ganks from BOTH sides of the river. There are 4 main places that i always try to ward as a mid, as i will show you on the map below. A lot of the time if you ask nicely, the jungler will ward one or two of the places, because it benefits him to see the enemy jungler sneaking into his side. If your team wards as i show on the map, then it will be impossible for a jungler to get out of his jungle without you knowing about it, even if it's through bottom or top lane in to your jungle.

The red spots are where would stop you getting ganked, if you're paying proper attention to the map; but i know 4 wards are a lot to buy, especially early game, so i'd recommend putting two wards on the opposite side to where you're playing, and asking the jungler to do your side (as it is his jungle after all!!). The yellow spots are where the rest of your team should be warding, which gives you full map coverage for laning phase and allows you safety in lane.

As Cassiopeia you can be a huge asset to your team even if you're not fed. Your Miasma slows targets chasing your ADC, whilst still doing damage and making it easier to land your Noxious Blast from a safe place. But this isn't even the start with her. If you can't put out much damage due to a bad game or some other unlucky situation, your Petrifying Gaze is still game changing as a good ultimate will get at least 3 players in, usually the ones that are coming for your ADC, and keeping them alive is main priority, even if using your ultimate and dying is the cost.
If you do a bad ultimate in a team fight and you're NOT fed, you're not going to be able to do much but prick the hide of another fed player. If you are fed you can still smash the enemy team to make an impact, but landing that ultimate is the game changer guys, so practice it and DO NOT MISS.

Farming as Cassiopeia is really easy, but again situational. Certain champions (like Evelynn) depend on roaming to win the game, and so are always pushing their lane and running around to other lanes. Cassiopeia is similar. If an enemy champion is pushing your lane, don't let them, harass the hell out of them, or push the lane back so it freezes. If you roam with a frozen lane you're going to miss a lot of CS, so it's always essential to push your lane if you want to roam, as they then have two choices:
A. Follow you to help their team, but lose the creeps that are currently getting beat up by their turret.
B. Keep farming and leave their team to fend for themselves, allowing you to dominate.

Most mid players choose A, as you should... So pushing the lane first is always good, because if you don't claim a kill or an assist out of it, the enemy has lost the CS, whereas you have not.
Spamming Noxious Blast is the best way to push a lane, but if you want to harass and push, stick your Miasma on the mage creeps, and then Noxious Blast on top, which usually kills them slowly and surely.
Harassing at the same time is always good, so the best thing to do, even if you DON'T want to push your lane, is to hit them when they are crowded inside their own minions; they get blocked by them and can't escape, and it still gets the farm for you.

All in all this guide has served me well, i didn't record a game for you as LoL recorder seems to crash my game for some strange reason... but i got a print screen of how i did in a ranked duo game with the Caitlyn by playing exactly as i have explained in this guide.


Hope this guide helps, please give feedback and feel free to ask any questions!