Reworking Cassiopeia
Cassiopeia's identity as League's Poison Mage has been somewhat lacking, so here's a platform for discussing where Cass falls short and what can be done to improve her playstyle.
What's Wrong With Cassiopeia
Her current kit revolves around stacking her passive and spamming Twin Fangs: a simple strategy that feels unrewarding to pull off. Cassiopeia was reworked to put most of her strength in her late game, but she is currently gated in such a way that she can rarely get there. Additionally, Cass is supposed to have more consistent damage rather than burst damage, but her Twin Fangs mechanic is more bursty.
What Makes a Poison Mage The defining characteristic of a poison mage is their reliance on poisoning their enemies for damage and/or using strategies that revolve around crippling their enemies. There are multiple ways to achieve a poison-centered kit:
- Different effects in combination with poison, e.g. slowing, extra damage, etc.
- Relying on poison damage instead of ability damage
- Increased damage against poisoned/crippled targets
Kit Concept Here's my idea of making a Poison Mage kit. The overall purpose is to focus Cass's kit on poison and giving her more variety with what her poison does.
Passive - Aspect of the Serpent Cassiopeia gains stacks of Aspect of the Serpent over time and by poisoning enemy champions. The amount of stacks Cassiopeia has determines her poison damage.
This passive is meant to keep Cassiopeia's poison damage relevant and balanced the entire game. In the early game when champions have low health, Cass will have to rely more on her abilities base damage. Late game, when champs will have had time to build health and resistances, Cassiopeia's poison will have gotten stronger to compensate. Additionally, this rewards Cass for poisoning enemies while keeping her distinct from other stacking champions like Veigar.
Q - Noxious Blast - Cassiopeia blasts an area with Poison after a brief delay, dealing damage and Poisoning hit targets for 3 seconds. Noxious Blast does increased damage against targets that were already poisoned.
The chance to increase her damage will encourage Cassiopeia to combo her abilities together without forcing her to. Overall, the extra damage would make landing Noxious Blast more rewarding.
W - Miasma - Cassiopeia fires a cloud of poison in a line that slows and Poisons any Champions who are hit by it for 4 seconds. The cloud lingers for 4 seconds, applying the same effect to any Champions who walk through it for half the duration.
Changing Miasma from a circular cloud to a linear one is a significant change, but I think it makes Miasma's slow easier to pull off. Cass can still use it as a zoning tool, but it won't be so obviously and easily avoided.
E - Twin Fang - Cassiopeia lets loose a damaging attack in a short cone in front of her. Targets are damaged and Poisoned. Killing a unit with Twin Fang refunds the mana cost and restores 1.5% of Cassiopeia's maximum mana.
To spread power more evenly over Cassiopeia's kit, this version of Twin Fang is meant to be guaranteed Poison and damage at the cost of range. Cass will have to get up close and personal to land Twin Fang.
R - Petrifying Gaze - No change
Cass's ult is iconic and her main teamfighting ability. I don't think it needs to be changed to include a poison element.
Result Passive – Pros: Puts a focus on poison and gives poison scaling Passive -- Cons: No longer grants additional AP, CDR, or healing off Twin Fang Q – Pros: Damage and Poison Q -- Cons: Skillshot W – Pros: Inflicts poison and slows W -- Cons: No instant damage, skillshot E – Pros: Guaranteed damage and poison, mana sustain E -- Cons: Close ranged R – Pros: Crowd Control and damage R -- Cons: Nothing to do with poison
Thank you for taking the time to read my thoughts on how to make Cassiopeia more of a Poison Mage and less of a Twin Fang machine gun. If you have any ideas on how to improve Cass's identity, please share them.
