Cassiopeia, the forsaken one?

You know, as a longtime Cassiopeia player I feel really disappointed by what Riot has (or more like HASN'T) done to this champ so far. I remember Meddler dropping by in another thread about a month ago, telling us how there isn't anything planned for the snakelady. Meanwhile tons of champions are getting attention (a great example would be the latest patch) whereas Cass remains simply neglected and unloved.

I think the best way to voice my disappointment would be a list of things which left a bad impression on me this season, just to give a better insight on how I perceived the recent development on this champion.

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1. The most popular argument by far has to be the way her rework was handled and realized. Many of you should still remember how extremely upset players were when the rework went live without any feedback being taken in consideration beforehand. The guy in charge of this project had the bad tendency of disappearing for extended periods of time while seemingly ignoring HUNDREDS of pages with arguments AGAINST the direction this rework was going.

Many of us already feared the consequences these changes would bring with them since her current kit is heavily focusing on a playstyle that cannot be healthy, no matter what. Either she's completely destroying her opponent in lane or she becomes useless for the rest of the game, there's simply no middle ground in between. Cassiopeia's primary identity is the one of an immobile squishy champion with abnormal mana needs who relies on spamming a short range damage ability. She's the epitome of high risk and low reward right now.

2. Her gameplay is extremely monotone and lacks any diversity compared to the build paths and playstyles her old self offered. Her poison only serves as a tool to enable Twin Fang spam nowadays, playing her as "poison mage" with DELAYED skillshots is apparently out of question since it's widely considered a toxic playstyle by Riot. Meanwhile high range nukes and hooks are still allowed to exist on other (and more mobile) champions - abilities which come with extreme kill potential once they've hit their target even once.

3. This brings me to my third point, the evolution of her winrate/pickrate. You surely remember how Cassiopeia was considered the worst champion in the game after the initial rework, sporting a winrate of 37% across all elos. After WEEKS of crying they finally reacted and gave her some much needed number buffs. And guess what, she finally saw some play. While some called her overpowered after that, I still considered her a somewhat balanced pick due to her huge handicaps which still made her extremely fragile against hard cc, burst and high range poke.

Despite all of that she was nerfed several times to this very day. We seem to have gone almost full circle at this point, with her winrate reaching another low (44%) and her previous counterpicks receiving buffs. She has fallen fallen out of favor for months already and yet there wasn't a single attempt at fixing this mess as Meddler has said himself. If a champion has become that much of a problem that any form of buffs are perceived as gamebreaking on them, shouldn't be the priority to rework said champion?

4. What exactly was the purpose of the rework then? To raise her popularity while making her widely accessible to other players? Well in this case your rework has failed, there's no debating it. What she needs is a kit that heavily focuses on her original identity as poison mage if you ask me. Right now no one even wants to play her, her pickrate is lower than it ever (!) was before. I realize she still sees some play in the korean and chinese pro scene but those are on a whole different level of communication and teamwork. Meanwhile the LCS doesn't even acknowledge her existence anymore.

You may think that only dedicated mains are playing her but her winrate is just proof of how unplayable she has become in a Solo Q environment. The thing is, you cannot balance a game around an extremely slim minority while leaving a champion pretty much unusuable to the rest of the community. That's just questionable game design.

5. And finally, where are the highly demanded skins? If you haven't realized it yet, some of the more artistic endowed members of her playerbase have created incredibly awesome skin concepts since her initial release, and yet the only thing she gets is a lazily done set of chromas. Speaking of quality, how come her Mythic skin still costs 975 RP while other skins of that tier come with a recall animation and/or new particles whereas her skin has none of those things? You seriously need to reconsider your pricing.

It's been over 2 1/2 years since her last skin release, meanwhile someone like Ahri gets a new one almost every 6 months (well, at least feels it that way). If this isn't a clear sign of favoritism, I don't know what. Speaking of fanservice, I haven't seen a single trace of the dear snakelady in your merchandise nor in your cinematics or summoner icons, you act as if she doesn't exist. Cassiopeia already is the black sheep of the Du Couteau family and you apparently want to keep it like that in many other ways.