Yes, its true! Cassiopeia can be a wonderful top laner due to her kit's focus on mobility. However, much of the meta in top lane revolves around champions with closers/dashes, and Cassiopeia does very poorly against a majority of them. However, if you have the chance to counterpick a Darius, and want to make his life absolutely miserable, Cassiopeia is a wonderful choice. Her early harass and bullying, along with high base damages and easy use of items such as Liandry's Torment allow her to build incredibly tanky and still dish out insane amounts of damage.

Unless you are absolutely confident with your Cassiopeia top, do not choose her unless you are counterpicking a top without a dash

Pros + Is ranged and can harass most other tops rather easily + Has a slow and a speed steroid, both doing poison damage + Ranged and tanky, can absolutely destroy most melee tops + Has an AoE 2 second stun, great against ganks. + Is amazing at holding a lane + Becomes deceptively tanky while doing tons of damage (inb4 trinity force) Cassiopeia excels in kicking out whoever you are laning against, and preventing them from farming without taking massive amounts of poison damage. She shuts down plenty of melee tops, but as previously stated should not be played against anyone with a great closer such as Xin Zhao, Vi, Garen, Wukong, etc.

Cons - Not too bursty at first. - Champions with charges (Xin, Wukong, Irelia) can give her a hard time early on - Pushes lane easily, unless you know what you're doing - Not great at killing towers - Vulnerable versus silence - Her ingame model looks scary as ****. Cassiopeia isn't very tanky early on, and until she wards her river should have an easy and accessible escape route available at all times.

I advise going 9/21/0. The defensive tree is easily the most effective tree as far as getting benefit per mastery point, and as an AP caster in top lane you can use all the survivability you can get.

I go ahead and grab Arcane Knowledge for obvious reasons, and Block in the defensive tree is invaluable.

I take magic penetration for damage, armor and scaling MR for survivability. As far as quints go, I usually prefer Greater Quintessence of Movement Speed because movement speed is amazing all game.

With no natural escapes (unless you count her slows/stun) I usually find Flash the best option for Cassie, especially top lane, where your opponent will most likely be getting something like Phage if they don't already have CC.



Ignite + Poison = Easy kills.

Enemies, especially ones not used to laning against Cassiopeia, will underestimate and be absolutely destroyed by the combo of your poison damage and Ignite. It hits for tremendous amounts at early levels, and often gets me first blood.



Cassie already has a Mini- Ghost with Noxious Blast, and although its unreliable, I still find Flash to be the all-around better option for her.



Miasma kinda of fills the role for slow, so Exhaust is overkill in my opinion.



I wouldn't advise taking this in ranked, but if you feel like it suits her better then by all means, it's not a bad spell at all. In fact, while practicing Cassie top I would advise going Teleport and Flash until you master her kit as a top-lane.
Also, be aware that Teleport should be used for ganking other lanes much more than it should be for just getting back to your own lane faster.



There are other good summoner spells, but none that you should really worry about as a top-lane other than these.

Crystalline Flask is the new meta for mana-hungry tops. Sooooo..... yep. With no natural sustain, Cassie benefits greatly from this item.

Chalice of Harmony should be rushed due to it allowing you to have near-infinite mana, which is great when bullying your lane opponent out of farm and in direct relation , gold. It builds into Athene's Unholy Grail which is just a beast of an item in general, and adds a bit of magic resist to increase your tankiness.

Hextech Revolver in combination with Chalice of Harmony should make it so you rarely ever have to leave your lane until laning phase is over (Although children, remember that ganking an over-pushed mid is always nice) .

Liandry's Torment is easily one of the most important items you can buy, and should almost always be core (If there is a time not to build it on Cassie I am not aware of it.). Your poison procs its passive damage repeatedly, and impairs their movement, also causing double the effect. However, please note because your poison is a DoT (Damage over Time) its effect will be halfed, so someone standing in your Miasma will be taking 1.6% of their health a second in addition to the actual damage it does.

Seeker's Armguard is a new item, and a very viable one. With Cassie's amazing farming capabilites, you should have this item stacked in no time. People really do underestimate the armor you get from this item, and it builds into the amazing Zhonya's Hourglass, and is very cheap to boot. As a top going against mostly AD champions, this item is invaluable.

Sorcerer's Shoes makes your poison go pew-pew. If you are against a CC-heavy team, Mercury's Treads are also viable.

Rylai's Crystal Scepter makes your Twin Fang absolutely terrifying and adds a bit more tankiness. Very few champions can get away from you once youve begun chipping their health away once you get this. However, I get this later in the game, as I personally focus on harrassing and denying farm early game. However, if you feel like you need a bit more health, you can rush this before your Athene's Unholy Grail.

Will of the Ancients is an interesting item. You can switch it out for other items and Cassie really wont change all that much damage-wise, although it does give her a tiny bit of sustain with Twin Fang. However, some other items I commonly take in place of it are Guardian Angel, Abyssal Mask, Void Staff, and the Morellonomicon. The Morellonomicon and the Abyssal Mask both , in my opinion, help your team in a teamfight more than Will of the Ancients unless your team is mostly (which I consider 3 or more) casters.

Deadly Cadence is one of the better passives in the game, in my opinion. It awards spamming of skills, and with Chalice of Harmony and a few levels under your belt, you should be able to spam all your skills near indefinitely.

Noxious Blast 9 times out of 10 should be maxed first, for targeted harass and the speed boost it gives you. A small blast of poison is much better than a large field like Miasma when it comes to bullying your opponent out of lane due to it being easier to not damage minions in the collateral and accidently push your lane. The base damage on it is also quite high for what it does.

Miasma is my favorite skill on Cassie. If you push to their turret, leave a Miasma field in front of your minions so that the opponent has a really hard time getting any farm without taking some good damage. Miasmaalso reveals the inside of any brush it is put in, making it a very effective alternative to face-checking. It can be used to run away, proc Liandry's Torment for massive damage, and is great for teamfights. Be aware though, although this skill makes Cassie one of the best lane bullies ingame, it also means you need to use it intelligently. The damage from the poison will make turrets target you, so if you wish to farm minions at their turret (Which unless you have a few wards I advise against) you need to wait for the poison to wear off before you engage. Turret shots at low levels will force you out of lane.

Twin Fang is Cassie's best-worst skill. If you use it effectively and spam it while they are in Miasma or under the effects of Noxious Blast, it hits for tremendous damage. If you mistime it, theres a small cooldown associated with it, and you wont exactly be bursting anyone down with the single shot. Please note it is called Twin Fang for a reason. Master this skill before you go Cassie top, and your Deadly Cadence will thank you.

Petrifying Gaze is again, one of the best-worst ultimates. Knowing that you will be dealing with mostly melee champions top, this skill is incredible at 1v1'ing near anyone who tries to kill you. However, if you don't hit them while they are looking at you, this ult is very meh. Needless to say, this absolutely demolishes teamfights if used at the right time, and as a top lane, you bring unbelievable power to team fights with this and Miasma. Make sure to do max damage: unless you are using this skill to run away and the enemies have high health, drop a Miasma and then a Noxious Blast onto the stunned/slowed enemies, and throw a few Twin Fangs in there if you think it will finish the job.

Your job in being an amazing top that screws with your opponent is to learn how to last hit with your autoattack. Your poison should be used to clear large waves and harass your opponent (By putting poison behind the wave to block out their paths to farm) until about level 9, or until your opponent starts roaming. Then you should ward the river and begin to take down the opposing turret. You should do this by relatively ignoring the turret, and farming the opponents minion waves at the turret until your opponent returns, in which you should greet him by slowing and pinging him with Miasma, Noxious Blast, and Twin Fangs.

Darius
Miasma, Noxious Blast, and laugh, just make sure to take advantage of your range. Twin Fang should be avoided until you are confident you can kill him with it, as his grab range and Twin Fangs range are very close.
Nasus
Nasus NEEDS farm to do anything significant, and with your harass, his lifesteal and farm might as well not be there.
Elise
She will poke you down as much as you poke her at first, but play it smart and you can make her laning phase hell.
Ryze
You outrange Ryze......soooooo.....have fun with that.
Garen (I know i mentioned him earlier as a bad matchup, but if you are a good Cassiopeia your poisons should win you lane every time)
Mordekaiser
The Mighty Huekaiser has very short range compared to you, and because he has no CC you can easily harass without worrying about any Flash/ CC combos (Unless he brought exhaust, and if he did then hes probably bad enough you'll win your lane)
Singed
Again, a champion that needs farm and is item-dependent. He needs to get within melee range to hit minions with anything (Unless your minions are pushing to his turret) so you can harass easily with your Noxious Blast.
Hecarim
Slows + Harass = Sad Pony
Malphite
Malphite builds armor and AP for damage. You deal with MR and outrange him for everything except his Unstoppable Force and Seismic Shard. When he gets his ult, just keep your distance.
Olaf
Olaf has been nerfed to oblivion, enjoy your free ELO (Whoops i mean POINTS >.>)
Pantheon
Pantheon's stun is problematic, but if you are experienced with Cass, rush a Hextech Revolver and you will be fine.
Sion
Farm-Dependant, Get Dunked, Moving on.
Volibear
Needs 3 auto-attacks on a minion to do damage, if hes building viable items. If not, you win, and if he does, you win.
Yorick
You can Out-Poke the mighty Yorick, and although he will most likely never die, you can win your lane easier than most other top-lanes.
Rumble
Stay behind minions and you've won your lane.
Dr. Mundo
^^
Kennen
^^
Jarvan IV
He can potentially be a tough lane opponent, but place your Miasma in the right spot, and closer or not he wont be able to do anything other than stack health and MR.
Aatrox
His HP regen balances out your poison damage, ONLY PICK IF YOURE SURE YOU CAN OUTPLAY.

P.S. Watch out for dunks.

If they aren't on here, I would not advise choosing Cassiopeia against them top.