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Why play Cass?

Hellioning··4 votes·1,073 views

Now, I know what you're thinking. 'Cass is hard, sure, but she has great dps! One of the highest in the game! You're not gonna get great results from her with just a couple of games of playing, you need to master her in order to unlock her great abilities!' This gets brought up a lot, but is it really true? I mean, if it was simply 'Cass is strong when played well' she'd get picked all the time in pro games.

But she's not.

Her weaknesses are low mobility (having to land a Q in order to get any real escape, and she has to stop to do that) and lack of CC (W is weak at early levels, ult has to wait til six and is conditional.) She does have great damage, though they all require landing skillshots. Her strengths are large amounts of damage.

But that's Syndra's thing, isn't it?

Syndra's simply a better Cass. She has worse dps, yes, but it's still enough to kill a squishy and provide sustained DPS in a fight. She also has additional CC before level 6, and has to aim less abilities. She even gets to cast on the move, while Cass has to stop. Why play Cass when Syndra exists?

9 Comments

Lord Graves III6 votes

You answered it yourself. Syndra has higher burst and Cass has higher DPS.

Syndra is an assassin, Cassiopiea is a marksman. They are both mages.

Syndra can assassinate a Marksman or mage. Cassiopeia can grind down a tank, a bruiser, a support, or she can murder the mage or marksman.

Oh, and she has the self peel to SERIOUSLY PUNISH anyone who dares jump on her. Getting on her just makes landing the Qs easier.

Syndra is not a better Cass. Syndra and Cass have very different skillsets. The only similarities are that their ranges are similar, they are both lane bullies, they both are high damage mages, and they both are scary women who I find strangely alluring.

Cass could likely use some QoL stuff on her Q, but her Miasma is a powerful AOE slow. Combined with a landed Q catching her can be difficult without gapclosers. Once you have closed though she has the highest DPS of nearly any mage, and it only gets worse as you get closer to her. Cass actually hurts you MORE when you get to melee. The Serpent's Embrace is a better chaser and has stronger carry potential. She is also among the best mage duelists. She is on the short list of mages I don't doubt can stuff Talon or Zed in a garbage can when played well.

Syndra aint gonna do that, and Syndra is my single favorite champion. Syndra

Now Cass's weaknesses can make her very frustrating to play at times. Her low mobility requires her to rely on a tank in teamfights, and I'm not entirely opposed to letting her move while casting Q (thought that is sort of Syndra's thing), but any buffs have to be careful. I remember the days where cassio was a constant pick for mid lane. The only Mages even in her league for raw DPS are like Karthus Ryze and Vladimir . And of them I think Karthus is the only one to really match her.

Kao Atlantis2 votes

Cassiopeia I love Cassiopeia, but she is a hard champion to master. I have had a lot of sucess playing her against champions like Yasuo, due to the fact that her Q can get around his shield. She is squishy, and has low mobility, but the high DPS is a decent tradeoff.

I have seen her played a lot recently by HotshotGG, and Scarra. I think she is one of those champions that is sucessful in soloqueue but not quite as sucessful in the LCS, which is why you don't see her played more often.

I would like to see a Cassiopeia rework that addresses some of your issues. Against a team with a lot of gap-closers, she can be difficult to play unless you can rely on your tank line to keep you safe. I do still think she is a decent pick though.

Grimoire Reaper1 votes

if her q allowed her to move more freely, she would definitely be more use. Her q keeps her static for too long.

Better play making, more mechanical, more modern Solution: After she lands a Q she can slither any direction. Like a smooth seductive quick slither that covers distance similar to yasuo's dash rather than having increased movement speed. I might make a post about this if it doesn't receive enough traction.

OR

Simple Solution: Have her able to move after casting more quickly.

Cloud Potato1 votes

One drawback that Mages have in general is that since their abilities have Cooldowns, they have moments when they are less of a threat than usual and you can play around them more easily for a time. Cassiopeia isn't like this. She is ALWAYS threatening as long as she has mana. Q and E will destroy you if you don't do anything about it. Cass' skillset has perfect synergy, so she is even more deadly when she has W or R at her disposal, and her threat ramps up over time as well thanks to her passive and her DoT style of damage. If she wasn't so short ranged and squishy she would be permanently pick/ban.

tl;dr Cass is threatening enough that she's still worth playing despite her drawbacks.

Nightmist Dark1 votes

if you are a fan of Medusa or Greek myth you will enjoy Cass, it's simple.

Tolinar1 votes

I'm a Cass player and here is how I see it. Syndra's added skillcap and complexity, is in working with angles, using your spheres like Carrom shots.

Cass's skillcap is more working with Zones, controlling the distance to your enemy and 'claiming' areas of the lane. She has intentionally poor mobility - because if she didn't, she would be impossible to stop.

On another point.

Syndra's balance fulcrum is low mobility and toughness balanced by very high burst.

Cass's balance fulcrum, is low mobility and toughness balanced by very high efficiency. If a Cass player plays right, she will do everything another champ does, at a fraction of the cost, and safely. Her individual potential skill damage per resource cost is through the roof, her damage potential in a team combo is very high, and she is frequently capable of outlasting and grinding down most other champions.

Zarkkast1 votes

Cassiopeia and Syndra are both my mains and the answer to your question is simple: because Cass is fun.

Now, on a more serious note: they're quite different actually. Syndra is a burst mage like Veigar. Cass has sustained dps and is probably the best mage at kiting. If Syndra misses her stun she's pretty much dead, unless she's against a squish that instadies with her ult. Cass is like a marksman, but with higher skill, she requires landing a poison to do good, but if she does she can outshine many mages. She offers dps over long time and can destroy tanks and bruisers with spell vamp and liandry.

MalikCaesar7771 votes

Syndra and cass really aren't anything alike.

One is a burst mage and the other is sustained damage.

There are plenty of champs that can kill a champion faster than cass.

What makes cass unpopular is how strict she is.

There are times where you can't miss your Q because if you do you get a massive dps loss and lose MS.

Not to mention that unless you are a godly cass there will be other champs that can mirror your damage at far less work.

I remember laning against pre-re worked gragas where it was early game and I landed a Q and two Es

But after doing so he threw a barrel and evened out the trade.

also, cass needs to be built somewhat tanky since she is in the middle of things and has no get out of jail free card. Obviously, that forces her to build less AP than other champs.

Cass has no safety button in a game where you need one.

Linna Excel1 votes

Why play Cass when Syndra exists?

Thematic allure of snake chicks?

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