Despite my misgivings about Cassiopeia, I’ve been having a lot of success with her. My deaths are usually higher than I’d like, but I’ve generally had a positive KDA and in some cases even carried my team. Until now.
As I start this post, I’m in the thick of what is almost surely a losing game, a game that has been laborious from the start, largely due to the way Cassiopeia casts. I laned mid against Karthus early, which was definitely a challenge, but one I was up to if he didn’t get blue buff at 6. Unfortunately he did, which meant I was slammed against my own turret all of the early game, woefully trying to time poisons against tower hits. My farm was pretty bad.
Karthus also had a much easier time with lane harass than I did. His casting mechanics are somewhat similar, but generally much more reliable. His slow AoE is huge while Cassiopeia’s is tiny. Hers grows, but the growth is slow and easy to see – not exactly difficult to avoid. There’s also the fact that Karthus can move his DoT spell by just moving his body. In one fight I hit him with my slow, a couple Twin Fangs, and a Noxious Blast to keep the poison up. It was looking like a kill until he hit me with his slow, which is much more devastating than my own, and then melted me with Defile and Lay Waste. It was close, but he got me and lived.
Cassiopeia’s ult is also extremely frustrating because of the facing requirement, especially against teams that kite. Karthus is a great example of a champion that will run away from you but turn back often to cast a single spell. If you catch him, great, but when he whole team is trying to keep you from him, but also kiting themselves, her ult can feel like a big waste. The slow isn’t really long enough to give you a shot at catching a distant target, and the damage isn’t spectacular either.
The more I play her, the more Cassiopeia seems to be designed around winning fights against champions that don’t know what she can do. She is very hard to 1v1 if you’re chasing her. Her ult plus an Ignite and any poison -> Twin Fang combo is pretty much GG. In most other situations, though, she’s easy enough to handle.
