Cassiopeia MYMU Rework Feedback/Thoughts and Suggestions

The new Cassiopeia rework is pretty disappointing. I wanted to address the modifications from the previous kit and how it falls short of Cassiopeia's original kit and playstyle.

Cassiopeia is intended to be and is a sustained damage DOT (poison) mage, requiring high skill, especially kiting ability/mechanics.

Many players gave input to the rework, but not all of them could be implemented. A lot of old time players, myself included, want Cassiopeia to revert to her very original/release poison mage lane-bully kit and divert her power back towards her poisons (rather than twin fangs). Unfortunately, Riot reworked that original kit because she was TOO strong - she was dealing so much damage through her AOE poisons to multiple opponents. Whatever you guys are asking for, it is not possible for Riot to revert to this original playstyle, as she was unbalanced. Unfortunately, many people gave input into this new rework (patch 6.9)- input that was given by players that I don't believe actually played Cassiopeia's kit extensively to really understand how it worked together. Many people didn't like her 'machine-gune style' power diverted to Twin Fang, but few understand that this ability is core to her identity as a sustained damage mage. The pre-6.9 patch kit diverted power to her Twin Fang because Riot wanted to balance power between Cassiopeia's multiple opponent AOE damage vs single target damage. The other major rework was giving her a new Miasma (W) because players complained that it was a spell too similar to her Q (both AOE poisons). I personally started maining Cassiopeia in the last two seasons, and before that, I initially had the same ideas, but after maining her, I really realized the utility in her last Miasma spell. While they superficially seem the same and do share a lot of similarities, both her Noxious Blast and Miasma enabled her kiting ability against opponents, as well as offering utility to her in terms of farming with her Twin Fangs. Currently, her re-work Miasma, while seems nice, really takes away from her core identity and ability to farm and duel multiple opponents.

From her last kit (pre-5.9), it was pretty well-balanced, and the two things it needed to really help her was 1) overhaul/rework on her passive, that doesn't depend on time and 2) mana-cost, as she suffers from high mana cost on all her abilities. From this 6.9 rework kit, #1 was addressed, but she still suffers from her #2 problem.

Since I've avidly propagated my disike for the new rework kit, I wanted to offer some suggestions for modifications to her pre-rework kit (kit before the most recent update) that would retain her sustained damage poison/DOT mage kiting identity. I'll go through each ability first, and then get to the passive last.

**Noxious Blast (Q): ** Noxious Blast is fine the way it was, mechanically. Maybe the mana cost can be decreased to what it used to be. As some have pointed out, her new Noxious Blast has decreased range, which puts her at risk for landing those critical poisons, especially against many longer range mages.

**Miasma(W): ** Miasma is pretty great the way it was. While Noxious Blast poison is Cassy's main poison damage source, Miasma, while poisoning opponents, is more of her utility/defense spell. It slows down opponents to augment her kiting potential, as well as help her to farm really well. The ability to cast Miasma in bushes and over walls also enhances her ability to seek out opponents to kill. I don't think this spell needed to be changed at all, and I don't think the new/rework MIasma(W) will help her kit better than her old/pre-rework W, even with adjustable range. The quickly dissipating (doesn't linger /grow as the old Miasma) and high cooldown of new/rework Miasma (W) makes it harder to use to farm and will be easy to play around, negating its intended effect of helping her against more mobile enemies. It's also relatively easy for opponents to dash/blink bast the poison cloud. As her W is intended as a zoning tool, there should be more negative effects to her opponents that stay in it too long, such as, damage against them increases, or their damage output is reduced, or their movement ability is reduced (or rooted?). Whatever you decide, revert to the pre6.9 Miasma cloud (Is there a reason you couldn’t/didn’t want to add mobility ability disable to the old/pre-work Miasma?).

Twin Fangs(E): It is great as it is already. Many players complain of her "machine-gunning" and too much power placed in Twin Fangs (as opposed to poison), but she is designed as a sustained damage burst mage, and this aspect of her kit is necessary. As Riot as stated before, having damage placed in her Twin Fangs is to balance the damage output by poison/AOE (a lot of damage affecting multiple champs) vs single targets affected by her poison. In fact, the last Twin Fangs already does inspire the poison aspect of her kit, as it actually amplifies her poison damage every time it is cast on a poisoned target (20% each time, 40% max). The best and only part I like about the rework is the removal of the poisoned target requirement for the cooldown on Twin Fangs. That being said, the cooldown still needs to stay at 0.5 seconds in order for her to retain her sustained damage playstyle. While the 0.4 sec difference doesn't seem like a huge difference, it does impede her ability to switch between targets and deal the sustained damage she is known for. I have some suggestions/recommendations:

• Cooldown: Rather than 0.9s or 0.5s cooldown down the line, rank down from 0.9s to 0.5s (0.9/ 0.8/0.7/0.6/0.5). This will gate her early power slightly (by almost a half) and yet, she will still be able to deal sustained damage later (even though it may be as early as level 7). In any case, this allows you to give her more in terms of AP ratio on her abilities.

• Poison Requirement/Effects: It was great that her poison requirement was taken out, and I also liked that she dealt more damage on a poisoned target. However, amplifying the poison damage (as on her current Twin Fangs) achieves the same effect (dealing more damage on poisoned targets), so it should be just kept as is. Rather than amplifying her poison damage by 20%, how about amplifying it by 15%, with no limit? This, coupled with the cooldown modification, should curb her early power, yet also make her a threat towards the middle-to-late end of the game. Rather than her rework passive, which increases her movement speed every level, how about giving her movement speed every time she casts Twin Fang on a poisoned target (maybe 5% for 1 second, with a maximum stack of 3- you can even scale the movement speed bonus with rank), which will enable her mobility and kiting potential?

• Mana return: Mana return is too low, currently- she still suffers from mana problems. I sometimes don't regen the mana back and am often stuck in the early levels- increase to 2-3% or adjust mana costs on abilities.

With these adjustments, you would probably have a higher/above average base damage than old/rework Twin Fangs, but less AP/damage scaling with ranking (so that the actual poison would still be the source of most of her damage).

EDIT: Rather than taking out the poison target requirement, just have twice the cooldown (so 1.8, 1.6, 1.4, 1.2, 1.0s) on non-poisoned targets. Also, what about refunding half the mana cost of Twin Fangs on poisoned targets ) and whole mana cost of Twin Fang on unit death (rather than a % of Cass's mana pool on unit death)?

Petrifying Gaze(R):

Her ultimate. A great ultimate, and hard to land, yet I love this ultimate because I'm a Greek Mythology fan.

• Since she puts herself at risk for missing the stun on the ultimate, rather than slowing opponents with their backs turned, they should instead be feared. After all, she is a threat and there MUST be a reason they wanted to face away from her, right?

• Reset Cooldowns: Someone else has brought up a great idea to reset her cooldowns on other abilities. Nothing is more frustrating than having your Q or W on cooldown when you have landed a perfect hard-to-land ult and being unable to take advantage of that.

Passive (P): The rework Serpentine Grace passive is interesting, but I personally find it weird not to be able to access boots and boots upgrades. Probably, if I played Viktor, I would be more appreciative of this passive. However, since her present problem is her mana-costs, I think something that helps her to manage that is better suited. Otherwise, since her current passive is intended to shift her power later, passives facilitate that would also be ideal. There are so many ideas that I have.

Let's call/name these passive ideas Venin (Snake Poison) for Cassiopeia damage/ability power:

1. For every second an opponent is poisoned, Cassiopeia gains increased damage (set a certain percentage or scale with level) against them
2. For every level, Cassiopeia gains an increase in magic penetration, starting with 3% at level 1 (so she gains 20% magic penetration at level 18)
3. For every level, Cassiopeia gains an increase in ability power (ie, like in Deathcap), starting with 3% at level 1 (so she gains 20% ability power at level 18)
4. If Cassiopeia's mana pool is >80% full she gains magic penetration (20%, or this can also scale with level, as in #2)
5. If Cassiopeia's mana pool is >80% full she gains ability power (20%, or this can also scale with level, as in #3)
6. Cassiopeia regains mana based on the total health of the unit killed, scale with level or %of total mana (essentially improves/moves Twin Fang passive here)

I offer these passive suggestions because, as Cassiopeia currently stands, her early/core item builds don't offer her much in the way of buying ap items first (she either has to start with Tear of the Goddess or Catalyst, building into RoA)- and she suffers in damage output, especially when her opponents purchase magic resistance early (or adjust her mana costs accordingly).

Alternate passive ideas for Cassiopeia movement speed, Serpentine Grace:

7. Cassiopeia gains movement speed when moving towards/pursuing a poisoned target (much like Vayne's passive), adjust Q movement speed boost as necessary.
8. Cassiopeia gains movement speed after she has poisoned an opponent (like a mini-Furor), remove Q movement speed boost or adjust as necessary.
9. Cassiopeia gains movement speed when she has landed/hit any spells against an opponent (much like Nami's passive, but affects herself- scale with level or AP), remove Q movement speed boost or adjust as necessary.
   Overall, I really don't believe she needs a huge rehaul on her current kit, besides reworking her passive and adjusting mana/ap ratios accordingly. Her kit, while difficult to play, is fine the way it is. I believe your current rework is taking away from her original design/kit and will be harder to play.