Hi guys, i am Wakka (ign: wakkawakka) from the Garena SEA server and has been playing LoL for nearly a year. I have tried out most of the heroes other than the latest 1 or 2 and i found that Cassiopeia is one of the best champ around with her long range, good crowd control abilities and huge sustainable damage and yet is still relatively bulky with a good build, making her one of my favourite AP champ for current metagame.

This is my first attempt on writing a guide and i hope to receive feedback on how to improve this guide!

I had just finished drafting this guide (at 5am here) and will be doing more proofreading when i have the time real soon.
So sorry for any grammar/spelling mistakes, and hope you guys enjoy this guide!

Log
12 Nov '11 - Guide drafted
6 Feb '11 - Restyled/updated build to newest patch

Before i begin, i must stress that cassiopeia MUST be played with smartcast on in order to be played effectively as she is highly sensitive to every milliseconds.

Smartcast will cause your spell(s) to target your mouse pointer's current location, causing your targeted spells to work like Cassiopeia's Noxious Blast and Urgot's Acid Hunter

I used to play and failed badly with Cassiopeia until i migrated to using the smartcast and the results? faster spell casting and more pew pew pew!

To configure smartcast, go to options(in-game) > keybinding > set Smartcast Spell 1-4 to your desired keys.

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Pros + High damage sustainable nuke + Huge AoE potential + Long ranged harassment + Good crowd control + AoE farming with skills

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Cons - Combo heavily reliant on skill-shots - Requires fast fingers and no lag - Must play offensively to realise full potential - Limited escape mechanisms - Countered by Kassadin easily - Can be juked easily if not experienced

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Deadly Cadence (Innate): After casting a spell, any subsequent spellcasts will cost 10% less for 5 seconds. This ability stacks up to 5 times.

Good passive - allows you to chain cast spells at a lower cost, very good for clearing waves of creeps with your skills but it is not advisable to keep it stacked for prolonged periods without blue buff.

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Noxious Blast (Active): Cassiopeia blasts an area with a delayed high damaging poison, dealing 75 / 115 / 155 / 195 / 235 (+90% of ability power) magic damage over 3 seconds and granting her 15% / 17.5% / 20% / 22.5% / 25% movement speed for 3 seconds if she hits a champion.

Your bread. Very good for farming and clearing creeps, able to 1-shot ranged creeps at higher level with decent items. Long ranged with low cooldown. Scales well with AP at a coefficient of 0.9. Can be used to check if enemy champions are hiding in bushes as you will get a move speed buff upon hitting a champion.

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Miasma (Active): Cassiopeia releases a growing cloud of poison that lasts for 7 seconds, giving vision of the area. Any enemy that passes through it is poisoned for 2 seconds, dealing 25 / 35 / 45 / 55 / 65 (+15% of ability power) magic damage each second and slowing them for 15% / 20% / 25% / 30% / 35%. Continual exposure renews this poison.

DoT version of lux's Lucent Singularity. Slow % stacks with Rylai's Crystal Scepter. Good for blocking choke points. Provides sight for a short while upon casting: can be used to scout brushes.

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Twin Fang (Active): Cassiopeia deals 60 / 95 / 130 / 165 / 200 (+55% of ability power) magic damage to her target. If the target is poisoned then Twin Fang's cooldown is reduced to 0.5 seconds.

Your butter. Spammable on poisoned target. Good for farming poisoned creeps with blue buff. Your main source of damage. It has shorter range than Noxious Blast, must move in closer after landing Q on max range. Low AP coefficient but chainable on a poisoned target (2-3 times per Noxious Blast). Will need a little practice to get familiar with the Noxious Blast's duration. For Best effect, it is recommended to do "orb walk" using smartcast.

According to LoL Wiki, " Twin Fang's poison effect works with Teemo's Toxic Shot and Noxious Trap, Twitch's Deadly Venom, and Singed's Poison Trail.
Twin Fang only slows by 15% with a Rylai's Crystal Scepter."

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Petrifying Gaze (Active): Cassiopeia deals 200 / 325 / 450 (+60% of ability power) magic damage to all enemies in front of her. Enemies facing her are stunned for 2 seconds, while enemies facing away are slowed by 60% for the same duration.

Your AoE CC tool. Has potential to turn the tide of team fights with good positioning/timing. Your main escape tool as well aside from Flash. Great for stopping a group of people chasing you or your teammate(s) who is running towards you or against unsuspecting teams walking into brush. Needs some prediction to correctly stun people if used offensively as they might turn away to retreat or reposition themselves.

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Twin Fang is taken at level 2 and maxed first as it is your main source of damage and can be used to easily kill opposing champion(s) if he/she has no blink/flash/stun.

Noxious Blast is taken at level 1 to harass opposing champion as well as to set up poison for Twin Fang and maxed second as it generally gives more DPS at a lower cooldown as compared to Miasma

1 point in Miasma is taken at level 4 for the slow and back-up poison and another 1-2 points is added before maxing Noxious Blast depending on the situation for the extra AoE slow.

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Cassiopeia has to be highly mobile in order to be played effectively. Having boots equals easier harassment with Noxious Blast and Twin Fang as well as for escapes from jungler's ganks. With this setup, you'll be able to force most champs who start with Doran's Ring to recall for heals and maybe even snag a kill when you are level 3 with Ignite. Health Potion helps with lane sustainability.

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space These babies provide Cassiopeia with a really good early game boost, allowing her to snowball easier. It bulks up Cass with the extra health, AP and endow you with decent mana regen when coupled with the masteries. space

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Brings your magic penetration to a total of 29 which is roughly a 15-20% increase in damage against others with a base MR of 30 like Annie, LeBlanc, Brand etc among others who would usually solo mid lane in current metagame. The additional move speed also helps with kiting/positioning.

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Provides the much needed HP, AP and also slow debuff. Good synergy with all your skills. Makes chainning Noxious Blast and Twin Fang much easier when your opponent is moving slower. Helps buff your Miasma into a really good AoE slow.

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Provides a huge AP boost and makes all your skills hit so much harder: the Mages' Infinity Edge

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Great if you keep getting focus fired on or if opponent have plenty of physical dps-es.

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Great against MR stacking team.

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Great against AP heavy team or if your team deals a lot of magic damage. The aura increases your damage by quite a bit if opponents do not have much MR.

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Great item, but i usually build this as my last item, which is rather rare for games to drag that long..

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Good gold to AP ratio with decent stacks. Great for pub queues when you're owning but NEVER GET THIS FOR RANKED GAMES. NOT recommended for new Cassiopeia.

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Only if you really want more survivability and sustenance, but not recommended.

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Decent item if you really spam like no tomorrow, but will be really squishy with this.

Work in progress.
Early Game: Harass using Noxious Blast until you have level 2 Twin Fang as level 1 is rather mana inefficient. Do note your opponent's item choices. If they start with Doran's Ring, you can generally force them back to heal easily, unless they are playing very defensively, in which you can also attempt to zone them out from getting last hits by playing more aggressively.
However do take note of bushes and prepare to run towards the opposite direction if a jungler appears out of the bush: you can usually outrun them as you started with boots of speed.
Do try not to be too trigger happy as your mana regen is rather weak until you get your Doran's Ring

Mid Game: You should be able to at least get your Sorcerer's Shoes, Doran's Ring and completed or have Rylai's Crystal Scepter to near completion. Do watch out for top or bottom being ganked by opponent and you can usually get a kill or 2 when you've reached as they would usually be on cooldowns. Choosing and executing a good gank (on champs with no escape mechanism, low mr and most likely no wards) would help you and your team greatly.

Late Game: You should be stick around with your team and stay at mid-range when fighting as your ultimate has limited range and your team can peel anyone who is targeting you off. Before engagement, you can move slightly closer towards your opponents and spam Noxious Blast for harassment, which should do pretty good damage with your AP items. However, do exercise discretion to see if opponents will pounce onto you. if they do, unload your ultimate, do a quick QEE combo on a squishier target and start kiting.

Do remember to use your Noxious Blast and Miasma to check bushes for opposing champions.