Cass Rework thoughts and Ideas

Of all the mages in the upcoming update, Cass is the one that concerns me the most. Vlad is the one most likely to be messed up, and Vel'Koz shouldn't be changed, but Cass' previous rework and how bad that went has me actually terrified for how badly it could end, just through momentum. So, to be part of the solution, not the problem here are the goals I see for Cass' rework and potential changes. This is also an attempt to merge community concerns and goals with those of the developers.

Goals:

1. AP Hypercarry
2. Controlled bully and pressure potential
3. Passive that feels like it enhances her kit rather than locking her kit up
4. DoT mage; damage should come primarily from persistent damage effects applied to the enemy or periodic damage triggers. Not through spammed nuke abilities
5. Feel like she presents a threat at all points in the game, while giving the enemy moments of opportunity to beat her

Example rework (Feel free to steal anything; Half of a designer's job is knowing when ideas are good enough to steal :p). Anything not specified is unchanged:

Aspect of the serpent

Each of Cassiopeia's abilities are able to break one limit that would hold back other, lesser beings.

The poison from Noxious Blast is able to stack Petrifying Gaze is not affected by crowd control reduction Twin Fangs benefits twice as much from CDR, and it's Cooldown reduction cap is doubled (80% base 90% with intelligence) Miasma's detonations apply spell effects as a single target ability

Noxious Blast

Damage changed to 15/21.66/28.33/35/43.33 +11% AP per second (Duration remains 3s) No longer refreshes poison duration Movement speed from hitting enemy champion changed to movement speed when within 1250 units of a poisoned enemy champion

Petrifying Gaze

Moved to W; damage removed from ability; Miasma moved to R

Cost changed to 120/100/80/60/40

Cooldown changed to 22/20/18/16/14

After a brief delay, Cassiopeia blasts enemies in a cone in the targeted direction, slowing them 60% for 2s. Enemies suffering from one of Cassiopeia's poisons are slowed for twice the duration, and are additionally stunned for .5s for each stack of poison if they are facing Cassiopeia.

*Removing some of her burst, and allowing her some strong utility midway/late into a fight. No more flash stuns to start a fight however, as a poison would need to be applied first, to get a stun, and stacks of poison need to be built up in order to get a stun of any significant time, which is something that takes time by itself. The slow is not delayed by the stun so the stun could surpass the slow and the slow would never take any real effect

Twin Fangs

Poison amp removed Cooldown reduction on hitting a poisoned enemy removed When Twin Fangs hits an enemy, all poisons on the target have their duration refreshed Damage changed to 13.75/20/26.25/32.5/38.75 +14%AP Per stack of poison on the target Executes minions below 150 + 100%AD health Mana refund increased to 3% maximum mana + Ability cost

Miasma Reworked into a Targeted Toggle ability Cost - 10/15/20 per second Range 850 (Cast) 1300 (Tether) 150/200/250 (Initial radius) 450/600/750 (Radius cap) Cooldown 2s

Cassiopeia infects target enemy champion with a Miasma of pestilence, disease, surrounding them and growing by 10/20/40 units per second it is active, up to a cap. Enemies units inside the Miasma are weakened, dealing 10% less damage and receiving Grievous Wounds when damaged. The miasma remains until the target dies, Cassiopeia chooses to remove it, or Cassiopeia no longer has the mana to maintain it.

Should an enemy unit die within the Miasma, they explode in a geyser of toxins, disease, and calamity, dealing 5%/10%/15% of their max health as magic damage to enemies in a 125 unit radius. Enemy units that die within the Miasma, while stunned by Petrifying Gaze, instead shatter in an explosion of stone dealing the same damage, while also gaining 30% Magic Pen.

Hitting the infected target with Twin Strike refreshes the duration of all poisons within the Miasma.

---

This puts her Q's DoT as her damage source, gated by mana and the need to refresh their duration by using E. The need to use E to stack limits her optimal fighting range, while still allowing longer ranged damage to be applied through her ult and Q. Her play pattern in the beginning is to farm, and attempt to just poke as much as possible with Q.

At 6 good timing with her ult can allow her to activate it as some creeps will die, dealing damage, but then de-activate it to preserve mana. It is also a potential tear-stacking method. By changing the E to scale with CDR all the way down to a potential .5s cooldown, her early game 1v1 poison stacks can be limited while letting her scale back up with items making the power more usable in teamfights and duels later when she gets items.

I don't know, could be missing the mark completely, but when I hear everything that riot says they wanted from the Cass changes, and everything the playerbase want's and expects from her, this is what I get in my head.