Why NO ONE Plays Cassiopeia | League of Legends

~SPONSOR~ Thanks to Factor75 for sponsoring today's video. Use my link to get 50% off your first Factor box and 20% off your next month of orders! strms.net/factor75_varsverum
Cassiopeia was once one of the most feared mages in the game, earning her the moniker of "AP Marksman". In recent years though you don't see her all that much anymore. What happened to her? For this episode of Why NO ONE Plays, we'll be featuring Cassiopeia.
Why NO ONE Plays Playlist: bit.ly/30DIeJF
Why EVERYONE Plays Playlist: bit.ly/2PzboTF
Check out my Genshin Impact/Honkai: Star Rail channel! bit.ly/3HQN9ud
Check out my Smash Bros channel! bit.ly/3rlFD3Z
Support me on Patreon! bit.ly/3iy5pvu
Donate to the channel! bit.ly/36TpIQP
~Editor (Wik)~
Twitter: / wikthe3rd
KZbin: / @wikthe3rd
~Contact Links~
Facebook: bit.ly/3lGV9Vg
Twitter: bit.ly/3kv7CZU
Discord: bit.ly/33M2iev
Twitch: bit.ly/2XNes31
Candle.gg: bit.ly/3ndfU9r
Non business email: [e-mail]
Business email: [e-mail]
Graphics provided by: / tofugraphics
#LoL #WhyNoOnePlays #LeagueofLegends

[@VarsVerum]

~SPONSOR~ Thanks to Factor75 for sponsoring today's video. Use my link to get 50% off your first Factor box and 20% off your next month of orders! strms.net/factor75_varsverum

[@GNCD2099]

Cass is like Anivia. You rarely see them in your games but when you do, you better pray they're your teammate.

[@lillyie]

cassiopeia 🤝anivia not letting a minion wave push ever

[@Nipotazzi]

Vladimir is still a good af champion, simply unpopular, just like Cass.

[@stijnd5268]

nah, cuz if theyre on my team theyre first timing her.

[@jonathanabgrall6075]

That's my experience with Leblanc. Absolutely nobody picks her except her day 1 otps with 3k hours on her. A skinless Leblanc will go 18-3 every time.

[@MellowSkyy]

Me when I main anivia and my backup is cass

[@munchiemunchie5226]

Thankfully she isn't played often.

[@portalguy2246]

Was gonna type that, hate facing her top especially

[@1dingerr]

Yeah, she has to have one of the most annoying kits to play against, especially if your champ is reliant on movement abilities.

[@drakinathehuman]

I mean because of Vanguard... there's less players. (Send help)

[@LightshaverConstellation]

I'm glad she played less because she less likely to be banned so I can pick her.

[@einjharrelraca]

@@1dingerr cassio is 200 years for the 200 years champions.

[@BrunoEsquivel-kl4pw]

She doesnt look like nicky bois version thats the main reason shes unpopular

[@minichad5456]

Yep, if Nicky bois Cassio would be the official one, then oh boy, I would play her zoomed in

[@darkgn0ll587]

REAL

[@thelordofthelostbraincells]

Riot should just fking hire Nickiboi and his goobers to be the new designer team.

[@scarletwarlock9325]

She doesnt even look like she is from Noxus.​@minichad5456

[@azurabbit12]

​@@scarletwarlock9325she doesn't look like she's from anywhere in Runeterra, you could say she looks slightly Shuriman cus of the headpiece or smthn but even that's a stretch, she never evolved from ye olden days where the League of Legends was a thing and every character was a tired fictional archetype

[@daniellykhopok5078]

For me she is an appealing champion, but every game on her feels sooo sweaty. You need to farm items, dodge skillshots (because you are in everyone's range), kite as hell, land every Q, monitor mana pool, go above and beyond to ult people, while there are so many characters, who, though won't deal the same DPS are able to do it faster/more consistent/ or from a distance. She can be menace to deal with in some team comp, but there are a lot of situations, when you are pretty much useless and can not play the game, because everyone is faster than you or has greater range.

[@wesker8814]

So real. You explained it perfectly

[@marcusscribner1603]

This is the best explanation

[@benjaminwilson8807]

Pretty much. Cass is fun as, but it feels like theres zero downtime. You're always clicking like a mad man.

[@datphan7958]

This is TRUE! I love Cass but she is so draining to play. 3 games in a row and my hands started to shake

[@SangoProductions213]

Not to mention the god-forsaken E. Imagine if you had 3.0 attack speed, and had to right click, not attack move, every single time you want to attack.

[@milicabojic9434]

I feel like I saw this exact video two to three years ago

[@phillipwang8786]

nope i been asking for a vid like this since 3 yrs ago

[@AnemoneMeer]

one thing barely touched on is that in the current state of lethality, Cass struggles to actually do her damage. An ADC clicks on a target, and they shoot. Cassio needs to hit Q, and THEN she starts doing damage. With burst damage being as high as it is right now, if you go into a fight with an annie and hit Q, annie can have you eat her *entire* combo before your first Twin Fang is on target. It might not sound like much, but it's a major cause of why Cassio builds so much durability, and with mage durability items not being particularly good atm, a major cause of why Cassio doesn't do well. The funny thing is she's a very easy character to fix. The mechanics that fix her are already in her kit. They just haven't been embraced. Not mentioned at all is that Twin Fang heals Cassiopeia on hit, and with the rate she fires them, this healing can be very substantial. But she has the lowest base armor in the game and pretty meh HP. If they leaned into making Cassio a regenerating bruiser mage, she'd require no mechanical changes and actually be an extremely good and likely popular character. Boost her durability, drop her damage a bit, and bam, we have only changed some numbers and Cassio is good.

[@FungiHeadFarmer]

People barely played cass because they couldn't hold their load for the entire match.

[@emmettrichardson5833]

What does this mean bro

[@wild_wraith66]

Bro

[@sevaneken3461]

Spirit blossom cass has me actin up everytime

[@emmettrichardson5833]

@@sevaneken3461 😟

[@SylvainJoseGautier-]

What?

[@kilolothe236]

Shes gotten like no changes in years

[@TheDoctorOfThrills]

Yeah after an awkward period of like 4 reworks in 2 years

[@xDarkestDemonx]

Well, I think it's hard to really find any angle to change her, since her win rate is actually quite good. Buffing her is out of question as a result. They could opt for making her more popular by making her easier to play, but that would alienate her dedicated playerbase and might even take away her identity. Amongst mages, she is the heaviest movement and timing based champion, in a similar bracket as Azir or old Aurelion Sol and just like them, hard to play and not "appealing" to a broader audience. The thing is, you can't really change that, without fundamentally reworking her E. So, all Riot can do right now, is make sure that she doesn't get out of hand in the hands of dedicated one-tricks, while still having her feel powerful enough to be a worthwhile champion. And she kinda.. is in that spot right now. In the past.. years, the only spikes to her winrate or playrate have always been tied to system changes that benefitted or hurt her accidentally.

[@shulershifty6240]

I have an idea that would consider the problems Vars has pointed out while making her as least alienating her playerbase and E. You remove the grounded effect from Miasma. It keeps her inherently harder to balance, because she can hard counter an entire mechanic, but also has that mechanic tied to a hyper carry kit, making her possible to be toxic against when you cannot Flash or dash away while she kills you. You could instead make her Miasma follow enemies it hits, like Noc Q. This would also remove her need to rush Rylais as often. You rework Q slightly. It can now be detonated earlier, but can also grow in size before manual or automatic explosion. This would improve her consistency of her damage, and it ties to the last change I would like to suggest. Make her E also damage all poisoned enemies within range around the target, possibly for reduced damage. This makes her have much better and less committal waveclear with the previous Q change, and lets her DPS multiple enemies.

[@pvshka]

One of the biggest problem with League is that the talentless hacks over at Riot actually brainwashed their community into thinking that completely redoing champions periodically, while the same time essentially deleting what those champions once were, is a good thing, when it is in fact a symbol of a broken mess of a game that is impossible to properly balance.

[@bullettime1116]

​@@pvshkaname a singular game that is balanced, outside of rock paper scissors, pong and chess/checkers

[@Keln02]

Her grounding, paired with her being incredibly strong with Rylays (which doesn't have an AD counterpart anymore now that FM is gone). In this league of mobility... I'd say she is extremely strong, but has a high skill floor due to her core mechanics having low forgivability.

[@einjharrelraca]

Serylda's????????????????????????????????

[@joshuaosei5628]

It only works when they’re below half though

[@einjharrelraca]

@@joshuaosei5628 oh no. as if getting someone to half health is a feat in league 2024. XD actually it might be a feat in league 2024, that takes restraint to get them to half and not just 100-0 them in a blink XD

[@marcuslesesne6239]

​@@einjharrelraca Youre saying Seryldas = FM essentially because theres so much dmg in the game. This applies to Rylais too, Rylais slows even a 100% HP target despite all the damage being in the game. So when homeboy says Rylais doesnt have an AD counterpart now that FM is gone, he is right. Seryldas is conditional, Rylais isnt. Frozen Mallet used to give HP and its respective damage, just as its AP counterpart STILL does. Anything else?

[@einjharrelraca]

@@marcuslesesne6239 frozen mallet applied only on auto attacks not abilities. by your logic sylda's is closer to rylai's than frozen mallet ever was, because both rylai's and syylda's apply on abilities, not auto attacks.

[@phantomsnare5925]

11:46 I remember when this was performed on a pro play match, Everyone tried to play her just to do this.

[@Jibbert]

The thing with how item-reliant she is is the items she buys aren't to augment her playstyle, they're to shore up her weaknesses and I'm glad you mentioned that specifically. If you play a marksman, the champs aren't good without items but they still feel like the same champ at 1 item and at 6 items, just with more damage. Cassio isn't like that. After you get your items you feel unstoppable but early on she feels straight up dysfunctional. No mana, no sustain, no bulk, auto-lose trades if you miss Q yet no reliable way to land Q early, all of her items are just covering these weaknesses. It works out because the items cover for her very well and she's still a strong champ, but early game Cassio is as close to playing as an actual caster minion that I've ever experienced and I've been a Neeko main for 4 years

[@CarmenLC]

when u have 6 item slots but 4 are dedicated to mana/speed/slow so u have no damage

[@Hail_Fire]

I think 1 of the key usages of Cassiopeia's W that was missed is that often times the best usage of W is as a stand your ground tool where if you're playing into a target that is going to dash into you then if you place your W underneath yourself and force your enemy to stand in it if they want to hit you, then all you really need to do is be capable of surviving their initial burst.

[@einjharrelraca]

the issue with that plan is that this is league of legends 2024. Remember, non-assassin squishies are playing dodgeball. one hit and you're out.

[@Hail_Fire]

@@einjharrelraca I mean your reasoning is highly fallacious, there's a reason Cassiopeia builds for 3 items that increase her durability, in addition to the fact she has built in sustain in her kit through healing with her E, ROA, and Conqueror.

[@einjharrelraca]

@@Hail_Fire 3 items in a game where matches are decided at 1 item and over at 2. Also you mentioned ROA and conquerer as built in healing. they aren't. her only inbuilt healing is on e, and requires a monstrous amount of mana + time to mean anything. As for the ROA debate. wow, such a broken item. its only a smaller spike than serrated dirk as a completed item until it has all 10 stacks, again, in a gamestate where matches are decided at 1 item, and ending at 2. If cassio uses her w defensivly like you suggest, that means she dies. cause if its at her feet that means it isnt grounding anyone that isnt already on her. Just to put into perspective how little she really heals. with ROA and conquerer, and we can even assume she just always have fully stacked conquerer, her e heals 16% ap and then 5% post mitigation damage + 10 hp for roa at 1 item against a base mr target this would end up being 8 + 4 + 10 = 22 hp 22 hp when in the best case scenario for her isnt all that amazing, especially considering this is assuming 100% up time on her poison, which isnt possible anymore. you cant even argue its a lane sustain tool, because against minions it heals 5 hp each cast against a poisoned target.

[@Microtardz]

@@einjharrelraca People cry too much about assassins when they're rarely even in the meta. Like oh no, Akali and Zed are actually somewhat playable. Better cry until Rito nerf them again because I can't play against champs that literally lose the game if they go even in lane. Cass actually does really well into most assassin picks btw. It's mages that out push & out range her that are most of Cass's problems. Why play Cass when you can play Lux and accomplish more for a fraction of the effort.

[@einjharrelraca]

@@Microtardz people cry about assassins because any game they can get even the tiniest of leads into, they INSTANTLY become the most zero counterplay garbage in this game, and well, every game has a real easy target in it for any assassin to collect that 1 kill that breaks them. Cass also does OKAY into assassins at best. She does will into people who are shit at playing assassins and get carried by their class, but if the assassin player has even the tiniest semblence of how their champion works, shes a free matchup for them. Also if they have a are on an ad assassin and have a brain brain they can take nullifying orb in their runes, and go hexdrinker before their dirk and cassio has been negated from existance until 3 items. As for your, "why play cass when you can play lux and accomplish more for a fraction of the effort" yes. thats what they did. its why her playrate is always shit.

[@thomassteen8317]

the thing that makes cass worth learning is how oppressive she is when played correctly. other champs and kits will be better on average in most games, but cass can be really oppresive, which some other champs can't really apply that pressure into the early/mid game

[@user-zj4dk4ch2c]

how can you be oppressive when 90% of midlane champions are mages who just outrange and outpush you

[@googloocraft1217]

@@user-zj4dk4ch2c by getting gud

[@ak3nodxd674]

That stupid hwei that hits u from far away​@@user-zj4dk4ch2c

[@itsmeshady1770]

Cass is insanely strong, but as someone who plays her a lot her biggest issue is she is both difficult to play and impossible to blind pick. She requires the dedication of a one trick, but is situational. If someone plays a long range control mage like Viktor, Syndra, or Ori, or the enemy pick a poke/disengage bot like Cait Seraphine, the game is completely unplayable. In the right situations, however, where teams want to dive into you, she is psychotic. But most people don’t want to invest hundreds of hours for a pocket pick unless they really love the character.

[@dylangames2202]

NickyBoi would like to have a word with you

[@acatwithwiskers9273]

Snakeman himself

[@MrLolguy93]

Cass has a special place for me, since I started playing LoL when she was just released (with breaks of course)

[@tbone9474]

I usually see her exclusively on top lane rather than mid, though even then not often.

[@elgermin519]

I hope anyone who plays Cassio top has an awful life

[@einjharrelraca]

its because she was kicked out of mid lane. She cant play into other mages, she just lacks the wave clear and early pressure to deal with them. And she can no longer lane into any of the assassin rouster because serrated dirk is now 600 gold cheaper than seekers, and her core item being ROA is waaaay too slow to compete with a champion class that 100-0s people while missing half their kit at a component item.

[@ivanrado3430]

One thing I really enjoy about Cass is that you buy Serfas, Rod of Ages, Frozen Heart, Spirit Visage and for runes Conqueror with maxout healing... And than you deal less damage, but you are surprisingly tanky and healing bit too much. 1v3 becomes surprisingly easy if you hit your spells and kite properly. Also very nice way to see enemy team rage

[@GubbiGap]

Cassio is so underrated as a lane bully! Sure she scales well-ish but as someone who mained for 5 years and still plays her at times she feels the best in the early game pre-6 and at 2 items.

[@chrisziadeh6537]

Agreed, I've hit so many first bloods as cass mid

[@somethingsafoot]

ofc she scales well, shes a snake!

[@GubbiGap]

@@somethingsafoot Lol xD thanks for the laugh xD

[@slowedvsbattle]

i disagree with some of your points. She as an AP ''AA'' champion means that her E scaling of AP makes all her poisoned E damage seems like you are getting hit by a crit, since the E will roughly deal around 800 damage each since she a high base damage on her E and 70% of 800 AP is roughly 600, also her lack of on hit is compensated by the fact she is burning you with her Q, Liandrys and blackfire torch. She is THE duelist mage, in fact this is her more clear identity, she is the best 1v1 mage in the entire game and easily top 5 best duelists in the game, a good Cassio will make sure you are getting hit by her Q, and if you get hit you are doomed, she has a lot of mind games behind her duels, and they are very overwhelming and stat checky. There are champs who can keep with her or have straight up advantadge in a 1v1 in the late game like Fiora, Kayle and Yasuo (with a wave), but all of them are not even guaranteed win, cause there is a lot of room for counterplay for both sides. also a correction for you Vars. her 700 range on her E would be insanely powerful if wasn't by the fact it is treated center to center instead of edge to edge like an AA, so her 700 E range ignores completaly hitbox range, while AAs counts their AA range + the enemy hitbox range, for example the 550 range Vayne hitting a Caitlyn will mean Vayne has her 550 innate range + 120 from Caitlyn's hitbox, totalizing 670 range in total, which is -30 range compared to Cassiopeia's E, so Cassio's E true range in average is around 580 agaisn't most champs, thats why it is so painfully low to a mage, since she has no invisibility or innate ms boost like Vayne's R and Q.

[@lissandrafreljord7913]

Yes, she is probably the only mage who can 100 to 0 most types of champs in most situations, if she plays it well. Sure Vlad, Ryze, ASol, Malz are all pretty strong too, but they definitely don't have the same dueling power as Cassio throughout all of early, mid, and late game.

[@lonerimortal8]

At this point, Riot might as well give back her old stacking passive without taking away her current one and give her The smolder treatment, where stacking gives her "E" some extra properties. Imagine her "E" with a tiamat-like effect or work like Runnan's (even both), It could sound op but considering what when already have in The game It seems quite tame.

[@sommertraum7473]

Delusional af

[@lissandrafreljord7913]

She would basically make Ryze obsolete, considering she already offers more zone control with her AOE stun + grounding effect, while Ryze at least has higher burst and AOE.

[@lonerimortal8]

@@lissandrafreljord7913 you mean The same way that Briar made Warwick obsolete? Nah I don't think so. But If that's The case, it's not like Riot is not willing to rework hin for The 70th time to solve his issues :^V

[@giladfadel5920]

Her twinfang is in a good place but, She deserves a buff to her other abilities like: a wider Q, a longer range on ult, things like that.

[@caesar1512]

I think they should add another effect to her passive while having the no boots passive

[@lissandrafreljord7913]

@@caesar1512 I personally think it would be cool if they added true damage to her poison, such that she would have to unlock it by landing 5 stacks of Twin Fang on her poisoned target. In the late game, it would mean she would start melting tanks faster, considering she is still a very vulnerable immobile shorter ranged mage that has no form of guarantee peel with her ult and miasma (meanwhile Azir has wall and dashes away, Kayle got her ult, ASol can just fly through walls and land E, while melting tanks with much more ease).

[@Denimy0]

Agree on this, her ult radius range is so bad you have to almost walk up in melee range

[@WallySketch]

Ah yes, the ultimate ability "Petrifying Geese". One goose is already dangerous, so you can only imagine its power.

[@hectordelacruz7693]

I just played a Cass game and got an S- and mastery 2 when this released. I thought I was being watched

[@Plight_]

I still listen to the badministrator song for cass. Every time it gets me inspired to give her a shot I open the game and immediately change my mind. I wonder how Cass performs in arena actually.

[@jacobdudzik1307]

Ridiculous. In arena if she has a signed duo it's basically a free win.

[@zeichofreed79]

Having an extra item slot and disposing off the shoe without getting punished for mov reduction is cracked tbh. Where it means you can get additional number on your dmg output and stat for sure

[@NoFatVampires]

The problem is she does get punished. You don't get tier 2 boot ms until level 13

[@adamperdue3178]

I think the biggest problem is that she requires set-up. If you miss your Q, your E will have about a quarter of the damage output. The CD on her Q is fairly short, but basically if you're in the middle of a fight and whiff that Q (or your enemy flashes or whatever), then you're shit out of luck for several gut-wrenching seconds. Or even if you land your Q, you'll only do damage to the person you hit, and if there's multiple enemies, you won't be able to damage them if you haven't poisoned them first. Thankfully you have your W in case of emergencies to inflict poison, but you also need your W to stop dashes and it has a long cooldown, so like Vars said you have to know when to properly use it for defense vs. offense. Also as somebody who plays Cass, one of my biggest gripes is her passive. The fact that you CAN'T buy boots means two things- 1) you won't ever be able to benefit from the very gold-efficient passives that boots can give (not being able to get merc treads can sometimes really hurt). 2) Even with your passive giving you MS, you're still going to end up being slower than your lane opponent early-mid game once they've bought boots. Her passive gives 4 MS per level (and she starts from a pitiful base of 328), so it's not until level 12 that she's actually broken even compared to just getting a normal pair of boots (level 15 if you'd have bought swifties). Compare that to somebody like Janna, whose passive gives +6% MS (and gives it to allies walking towards her AND adds 30% of your bonus MS on-hit), and whose W passively gives 6-10% (+2% per 100 AP), but she can still buy boots. She's faster than Cassiopeia at level 1, and (assuming a build with at least 350 AP), she's faster than her at level 18, WITHOUT boots. And of course they're different champs with different kits (and Cass gets MS from her Q if she lands it) but in general the only real game impact her passive has is negative impact that you have to play around not being able to buy boots even if you need them. Sure, it means she's viable to go 6 items with no boots- but there's other champions in certain matchups that can ditch boots as well to greed for 6 items, and actually end up in a better position than Cass for it.

[@peschionator7873]

I dislike the passive, boots would be so much nicer into most mage matchups. The "upside" of having 6 full itemslots feels diminished since you cant get fullbuild most games anyway and even if you do, Cass buys so many utility items in comparison to other mages that she needs a slot more to actually get some damage.

[@adamperdue3178]

@@peschionator7873 yeah, it feels even worse considering that some of her power balance went into that passive, so she's losing power elsewhere in her kit for the privilege of not being able to buy boots (and getting some scaling ms as compensation)

[@sevaneken3461]

They could change her e into an auto attack so that she could buy items like nashor's or guinsoo like azir and make he e into a passive that makes that her abilities gain crit chance according to ap so having a certain amount of ap would make her a real ap marksman making her shots deadlier as the game goes on

[@thatbean7644]

Small correction at 5:30 the current iteration of shadowflame gives magic crit to low health enemies

[@naja6561]

Yes, finally a „Why no one plays Video“ 10/10

[@erichiguera]

Now that everyone can one shot tanks, that means everyone can one shot her too.

[@noahhightower8222]

Been waiting for this one for two years! Instantly pressed play!

[@randomlolclips1092]

Amazing video! It's the first time I've heard a non-Cassiopeia player discuss the champion without being completely disconnected from her reality and straight up yap

[@arisume7393]

There are ways to empower her e with cdr wich is the equivalent of attack speed for abilities. Also there is items that proc on abilities which she also ends up buyi g often like liandry and rylais.

[@kroth3049]

Cassio could go a long way if they switched her ult and miasma (like they have done to other champs). Make the miasma an ult level ability that covers a large area around her for a long duration and her stun a line skill shot stun. Make her a hard counter to all assasins, brusers, and fighters. Maybe her stun is very short and close range but greatly reduces the damage u do for a longer duration.

[@harryskywalker1018]

She is one of my favourite champions and i played her consistently in ranked as well. 2 issues though 1. There are champions who have so much mobility to bite the w 2. If you use w/r and haven't killed them all you dead 3. You need to hit her anilities 4. You need to avoid skillshots cause you play from really close

[@jacobdudzik1307]

As a cassio main with ~4m mastery and masters peak. I agree wholeheartedly with many of these points. A common issue with cass mains is when they get to high level play they "Burn out" and a common sentiment is "Why do i play cass if X just does the same thing with less work". She requires so much engagment and focus to play well each game can become exhausting. And you often are barely rewarded for putting in that effort because thats just what you are SUPPOSED to do. This is a similar issue to azir and anivia. Tons of work to pull off what you are meant to do. Only dedicated mains tend to want to put in that effort. I know you touched on these points already. Just putting in my own personal experience.

[@MatheusTAzevedo]

Hey can you do the Shurima region video or those aren't a video format anymore? great canal btw

[@notyouraccount6038]

As a Wild Rift player, this is the only champion that I have no idea of what it does. Never seem anyone complain about or praise her online.

[@metrux321]

I think a small thing that went unsaid, is that she used to be a magic dps carry, which did give her a niche when you needed it. But nowadays anything and anyone can carry, just as adcs are having problems, she's having that in double, even tanks can be magic dps carries now, and they have better tools for staying in the fight than her.

[@MangaGamified]

I know it's late but there's this AP item that reduces your ability damage by 1/3rd but your abilities proc a chainlightning with a short cooldown. I forgot what was it's name tho, it came at the same time as Sundered Sky, etc.

[@Emptylord]

As someone who loved her original version and I would go as far as to say I mained after her first rework with her stacking passive - I don't personally like her current version because she doesn't have enough mana to kill enemies in the laning phase unless her opponent is extremely obliging. I love picking her up in FGMs that cover mana issues. After her first rework, I loved playing her bottom lane as the carry - the old refund on her E covering the cast cost plus a percentage made farming and trading in a 2v2 really engaging. I think her refund really needs to be tuned like Malzahar/Xerath, so that she can play around refilling her mana rather than merely getting to "farm for free". Having to stack mana items feels like I'm sacrificing my power spikes. I really prefer her having a Marksman playstyle though - I hope they don't ever make her more "mage-like". You mentioning the lack of crit chance reminds me of the fact they get Syndra a built-in Collector so she wouldn't need to buy it, and how they gave Brand a built-in Rylais and Morgana a built-in Shurelya's. Maybe Cassiopeia just needs an extra effect on her Twin Fang saying "Twin Fang has a 25% chance to Critically Strike for X% bonus damage for every Legendary Item." I kinda wish her passive had an AP ratio, even if it was really low - it's currently a bit lame as-is. Her old Deadly Cadence was fun to use; her old Quest Passive was fun to use; but getting a free item slot doesn't *feel* good in most games because you have to get to super-late game before you really feel it, especially since she doesn't really feel faster than other champions at other stages of the game (not factoring other effects like her Q or Phase Rush). P.S. I hadn't seen the poison icon I made for the wiki in a while. It was nice to see. Thanks for using the wiki!

[@chrisziadeh6537]

I love Cass! I went on like a 6 month spree of playing her back in like 2014. There's no feeling like hitting your q and chaining e in a tense fight or hitting a 5 man ult.

[@daniellykhopok5078]

Dying on Cassio, because enemy Yone dodged your W, dashed out from Q and turned back on your R, blowing you in the process, while you deal 0 damage, even though you have massive gold advantage kinda sucks.

[@salahworx6963]

then just play yone. you know he is a cheater champ?

[@randomlolclips1092]

I agree yone is bullshit, what I do is ult him when he q in and than I get a guaranteed w on him and juste dps him while running in direction of his shadow

[@DivadRovert]

Never seen this attempted before, but does Cass E proc off external sources of poison? Like; Would a Teemo supp - Cass bot combo be a viable way to maximize her uptime?

[@lissandrafreljord7913]

I love that barely anybody plays Cassiopeia, because as a one trick Cass main, not many people know what to expect of me.

[@theholyroman6283]

I will say that Twinned Fang can “scale” with ability haste and “on hit effects” like Rylais.

[@Auchtung]

I’m going to say this before I watch the video, people don’t play her because a certain prolific KZbinr made a better version of her and riot didn’t adopt it 🤷🏼‍♀️

[@huyhoang7819]

She's a menace in aram. As a casual aram enjoyer, whenever I encounter her in Aram, she just counter a lot of play making and engage attemps. Lucky not many want to play her lol

[@edt49er]

I love playing Cass, wish she did get more movement from her passive though

[@ultimsing]

To give her a bit more flexibility, I would add a passive: She can mark enemy on applying poison to them. Then on her fang, for X number of enemy marked by her, all of them take X times 10% (can be tweak ofc) of the fang damage . It would put Cass in the situation of either poison everyone to spread damage or focus down one opponent.

[@sanzyboy3952]

The problem with cassiopeia is that she gets so much hp and shields by building full ap but often can't fit many resistances

[@jonathanabgrall6075]

Haven't tried it but i feel rushing blackfire torch on her this split would make laning vs her a nightmare.

[@matthewdavis3421]

Honestly, if they made the Q bigger or have less delay, so it'd be harder to side step, she'd be in a much better place automatically.

[@joeyzamora1689]

Whenever I face champs like orriana, zoe, azir and asol, I always use Cassiopeia since most of the time they are facing forward to trade with you.

[@Juria1987]

I've always seen her as the mage you want if the enemy team is going heavy on being beefy. Her damage into tanks is nothing to sneeze at and her bulk lets her endure the slap fights. But in this league of damage meta, ehhhhh

[@Significantharrassment]

That Penta steal was criminal

[@lissandrafreljord7913]

It would be cool to see an update in her kit. Maybe make her the mage version of Vayne by adding true damage in her kit, but more practically in her poison, such that after 5 stacks of twin fangs, the poison starts dealing DoT max % health true damage to melt tanks in the late game faster.

[@lillyie]

there's nothing more satisfying being an opponent of cassiopeia and correctly predicting an ult to not get stunned

[@Yokai_Yuri]

You still get slowed, she can set yp W to root you, Q + E, E, E while dancing around the poison while you try to catvh her to land your first skill or A.A. By that time you either are dead or super low health. She is tanky so by the timr you finally get to her, you can't kill her. I am assuming this in case you play Nafiri, the Yasuos, Zed, Irelia, Yi, Jax, Trynda etc. If you are a mage you still lose close range since she outdps you.

[@iratevagabond204]

I would like to see them switch her to a new resource system I've dubbed "potency". The bar's neutral state is full, or "engorged", and as she uses abilities it lowers to "depleted". The lower the bar, the more bonus move speed and bonus ability power she gets, but also the shorter her ability ranges become (aside from ult). The base size of her w and e should be larger, but also decrease in size the lower the bar gets. The potency meter only starts regenerating after not using abilities for a time. This would give her better poke range and coverage when her bar is fuller. More sustain because she isn't tied down by mana. Also makes her more potent in prolonged fights/all-ins, with the downside being that she is more vulnerable due to reduction in ability ranges - she has to get into the dnager zone.

[@peschionator7873]

I love Cassio but she is insanely unforgiving, now more than last season. Most mages can give you a hard time if they can space correctly. Your passive is a detriment in these matchups since you cant just rush boots to close the gap or dodge skillshots like any other champion. Even when fed, most of your damage is single target and takes some time so it is harder to carry with a lead than with other mages. Now with gargoyles stoneplate gone Cassio lost her best defensive item. In my experience you cant afford to not build somewhat defensively unless you are either a god or you have a team that actively plays around you (good luck finding that in soloq).

[@danielpaxton3560]

How do you know I watch your videos when I’m eating? 😂

[@liyaozsoyler]

Well, only if they add a smart AI on Twin Fang, like prioritizing champions who have been hit by Q for example, it would help her a lot.

[@Apephis]

What I've always loved about Cassio is that she teaches you flexibility. You can build her is different but similar ways ( for example: slightly more defensive and tanky, or full damage)

[@juancamiloramirezforero7354]

The main issue with cass is her mana. Her passive was perfect back in the day, as it decreased her mana costs by 50% when fully stacked iirc. You're forced to build a tear on her no matter what, that's what sets her back due to tear items relying on stacks and games being shorter nowadays. The same occurs with anivia, mana costs are way too high in the current state of the game, so you'll end up with no mana when trading, unlike other mages. Even with the rune that increases mana regen when attacking champions, cass can still run out of mana, it's insane how much mana you need in order to actually deal damage, whereas other mages can nuke you with their ult and still have over 80% of their mana. Additionally, you forgot to mention cass' reliance on poison. Her DPS drops whenever a target isn't poisoned, and you can't keep them poisoned 100% of the time reliably, hence why rylai's another must in her build. The final nail in the coffin is her current passive. While free ms is great and all, the lack of boots wrecks her early game completely. You can't roam as fast as other mages, plus you'll struggle dodging and kiting until you level up some more. If cass had her original passive, she'd be a different story nowadays, but by the time you've stacked that tear and are building rylai's, you'll be wondering why you didn't bring a different mage to the match.

[@Ayumu2898]

I feel like it would be great if they make her ult so that when enemies are facing her they will be stunned, if not they will be rooted instead for the same or half of the stun's duration.

[@Ratty524]

I think you kind of nailed it. She's a deceptively hard champ to play because everything you do has to very little margin for error, lest you burn through your mana and your pressure is gone in an instant. The mobility creep in this game has also not been kind to her as you can easily dodge everything she throws at you, and she's more dependent on landing those abilities for any kind of escape potential, which then means she's easy to gank especially pre-6. Even the fact that she doesn't buy boots is somewhat of a hinderance because it denies her from reaching the same major power-spikes around the early-mid game that most mages have. That and like, I feel like the state of mid lane right now is that everyone either wants to play a very safe, long-range poke mage or an assassin/skirmisher that has tremendous kill pressure up close. Nothing in-between, and Cass doesn't excel at either.

[@Akario3]

I still find it interesting that almost 14 years later, Cass can STILL empower her E from allied Singed Q poison and Teemo E and R poisons. It baffles me how such a legacy mechanic has gone under the radar for so long, but it makes it very fun when some of us old farts quee up with these old champs can totally make the enemy team hate their life lol

[@IonutBisoc]

That penta steal was hard to watch

[@nathanc939]

Cass E is one of the few thing that has a center to center range. So it is not a true 700 range, as attack range is edge to edge. This also means that the bigger she is and the bigger her target is, the lower her E range. You usually have between 650 and 550 effective range, around 600 on normally sized champions (it is actually a bit less than that, by memory).

[@fforfcuz3933]

Man i wish you would make a kassadin video ,doesn’t matter about what just that its about kassadin

[@atmosfear2274]

yooo thank for the new vid man!

[@miyonacleo]

All of these is why i love playing her on top lane!

[@iq642]

This isn't to argue against the video, but small fun little tidbit, there's boosters who use Cassio + pyke bot lane to snowball game out of control lol

[@jaykitty4654]

Yeah, I was also going to say, that this video kinda explains the rationale for why they are paired together in the botlane.

[@UkeNicky]

She deserves the next Champion graphical update. Other than that I just want lots of little buffs for her like a tiny buff to the range on her Q and W would be so nice.. And then reduced mana costs across the board. Nothing crazy drastic but just a little something. I think her base kit/concept is perfect tbh.

[@anubisschatten5103]

It's a lot of fun to play her for me (I am a fan of both mages and marksmen) but I simply find her so mechanically demanding that I often throw games with her after becoming fed during laning phase.

[@Dracomandriuthus]

"Cassiopeia is best in neutral and advantage"- Sounds exactly like a marksman to me.

[@rodney_jaspers]

Cassio is like the AP version of Ashe on steriods. I still think she is super viable in every role: top, mid, bot, jungle..

[@markjaphetsegui6403]

i think its about the player base it self, Mostly i saw want to play flashy or One shot champion rather than chipping down the enemy bit by bit (like you said neutral)

[@bltelysian]

she is one of those champions that isn't played much, but if you play against her you want to perish

[@isnanesavant]

Also even if she has 1000 ap, her scaling is NOT 100% or even close on her abilities, but 200+ AD at 2.0 really IS 400 damage delivered every single second

[@TheAngelRaven]

The saddest part is she is one of the better champions in the current game because virtually EVERYONE has movement she can hard counter.

[@souporcat]

Imo there isn't really any reason to play Cass when Veigar or Syndra exist, they have much better options to deal with mobility with added CC without their 60 second cooldown ability

[@Yokai_Yuri]

​@@souporcat syndra? What is she gonna do vs Irelia or Yasuo? Also Yone bypasses Veigar's E. Meanwhile Cass stops all of them specially Yone who can't go back to his body.

[@souporcat]

@@Yokai_Yuri Syndras e easily deals with most assassin attempts, and usually is able to turn the damage back with the balls used to push them away. What? Last I remember Yone can't go through veigars cage, nor does Cass w stop him from going back. It's completely unstoppable, he can't go back unless the time runs out or he does it himself. Sure it stops him from initially casting it, but no Yone is going to cast it in Cass w range because the second they go back they're getting an ult to the face so that's more of a skill issue. (I stand corrected on Veigar Yone interaction, he gets stopped on his way back but not on the initial dash so you're right my bad)

[@Ale-km3ux]

@@Yokai_Yurishe’s gonna push them with E, one of the best get off me abilities in the game; you picked two creep reliant champs to argue against a champion that controls creep lmao

[@lissandrafreljord7913]

@@souporcat Syndra and Veigar can't do anything if the enemy has a Mundo, Maokai, Ornn, etc. Too many tanks make them obsolete.

[@panlis6243]

It's because she didn't want to crush my bones

[@matthieuiets8239]

In holland its between 17:00 and 18:00 perfect for after dinner vids

[@Umadoveracommentg]

Everytime i see 3-4 melee’s with dashes im having a field day. Then a mage shows up

[@UncleRob_2017]

Is Karthus somewhere in your pipeline of videos to make for why (no/every)one plays?

[@DownForceSimRacing]

He got massive buffs from new items

[@nicholasmaspono]

Honestly it’d be more balanced if her miasma was a giant ring like trundle. Switch the grounding to Q. The whole grounding aspect is something that I’ve seen only be a target vs one person on enemy team or a zoning tool. Q is already hard to hit/easy to dodge, so making Q the grounding ability makes more sense. But since people dodge it so frequently, having W just be there for poison, will make her kit more forgiving. W doesn’t do much damage anyways so just have it be a giant ring. Either that or make her ult do a 3-5 second grounding regardless of stun.

[@Taireyn]

Than God barely anyone plays her, I play top and I just picked her up a week ago and it is so much fun, there are almost no match ups that are unplayable, also no one ever bans Cassio ever

[@shadowhunter3380]

Shadowflame can technialy make your abilitys crit

[@Sloppyjoey1]

Her kit is embarrassingly cumbersome. Her Q can be shielded AFTER you land it by half awake supports, her W is barely the range of most dashes anyways, her R allows for a ton of counterplay and E isn’t efficient unless you overcome the other 3… I feel like she’s like Ryze, she looks great on paper but in practice it’s a different story.

[@tyago1949]

we need a WNOP Vladimir or Elise next :D

[@jonathanwynne6925]

It seems like you could use an audio upgrade for your channel, I love the content, but the audio quality seems poor.

[@sunnyarts3086]

Im trying to learn her but she is pretty hard. Would probably help if i had midlane fundamentals lol.

[@cristianmontoya3149]

Wait so, rell Q now dashes a small distance, What would happen if she is in miasma, I know her W gets blocked inside, But what about the Q🤔

[@hqhuy931]

As an Anivia support enjoyer, I can see why Cassiopeia's kit makes sense: she's supposed to be a more single-target and consistent version of Anivia, as they have the same E (double damage if hit by another spell), a zoning W and ult, and damage boost on Q. Though, because of this, Cass is much more gold-dependent and ironically much shorter-ranged, much less safe and less consistent than Anivia - not to mention lacking that revive which would 90% help good Anivias survive a rough early game and tower dives. Overall, Cass is just incredibly punishing to play - both when you're weak and strong - while getting outclassed at her only niche: single target, consistent AP damage by literally every other battle mage (Ryze, Brand, Anivia) as they are safer/ easier to play on a micro and macro level, yet have higher reward if played correctly. It's traggic, really - but I thank the gods for not having to deal with a good Cass since mages already burst through magic shield like butter

[@igrazm2437]

8:06 nice ability haste, lmao

[@Aaron-bj3wt]

Cassio is actually one of my favorite battle mages. Viktor is fun, but i suck with his laning phase and trying to last hit, and im just really inconsistent with vladimir. But Cassiopeia is one I can bith blind pick and counter pick with. Plus playing her in urf is the only reason ill play the damn game mode. But i just prefer more assassin type characters like akali, or for marksman, twitch.

[@torri776]

The reason Cass is on the weak side largely stems from the fact that she takes a while to get going, and loses to range. In terms of raw DPS, Cass can outmuscle most other Battlemages in 1v1s. For reference, Ryze, a champion who hard counters melees with his point and click CC along with great tempo, loses to her one on one in the lategame, despite both scaling really well. Cassiopeia also hard counters dash champions such as Riven or any champion who depends on dashes in some way to deal damage or get into range to dish out damage, especially given Miasma lost its minimum range, effectively making her broken against those types of champions. However, Cass is a battlemage so her range isn't that great, making her susceptible to artillery/burst mage poke in addition to being at a higher risk of getting stunned in general. Movement speed got so high across the board that Cass isn't faster than ADCs, who, provided they bait her W, can dodge her Qs with 450+ move speed and kill her in 5-7 crits (Cass has gotten pretty tanky thanks to Rod of Ages and Seraph's Embrace), effectively making her E useless. In essence, she gets outscaled by Marksmen, and her CC isn't the best since she is more damage centric. Movement speed growing so high also makes it MUCH harder to hit her slow, easily sidesteppable skillshots consistently, which is why she went from a 10% pickrate in 2020 (she's not that hard to play, as Vars said, her kit is simple, she's just hard because her skillshots are hard to hit and she does no damage without them) to a >1% pickrate in 2024. This I believe, is why Cass just doesn't see much play sans onetricks. They are better at saving their W and position better so that they don't melt before other sources of DPS.

[@andystockman761]

As a Cass main, this is entirely spot on. She's limited by mana very hard early, and her chase potential is killed once enemy builds boots early on. Her positioning is extremely important, and requires a good frontline to succeed in team fights. Honestly though all things considered, a W buff would go a LONG way into making her viable; it's just to inconsistent with its long cooldown to be largely useful