Cassiopeia's Rework: Aspectsss of the Serpent

Cassi's received a gameplay update! Focusing on her new passive, Aspect of the serpent, she's now more about rewarding consistent, succesful use of her abilities for end-game scaling than being a dominant lane force.

" Cassiopeia is the idea of stalking your prey, to slowly whittle the victim down with venom untill they realize their folly, but too late! The chase is on! Faster and faster slithering closer and closer until finally the prey, cornered, turns to make a desperate attempt at a fight, only to be petrified by a deadly gaze, it’s eyes locked in stone, it can do nothing but watch, watch as the serpent’s Twin Fangs tear into it’s flesh.

Cassiopeia is a difficult champ and has always been so, but with this greater difficulty comes greater potential. Of course it’s very dangerous to make her very powerfull in all situations and just say “yeah but she’s really hard”, it has to be fun for those mastering Cassiopeia as well as those mastering to play against Cassio.

So, there’s the difficulty, but where’s the fun?

With the Aspects of the Serpent Cassiopeia players will find rewards for excelling in the different aspects her abilities provide: Landing skillshots consecutively (Q), proper zone-control and positioning (W) or knowing when to go all-in (E). There’s a scaling component, but it’s not free; Cassiopeia players will have to work for it and put themselves in danger. Limited resources (Mana gated) and opponents can counter-play her attempts to stack her Passive’s Aspects.

I definitely liked the new passive’s direction, but I strongly disliked (and so does Riot, at least officially) the way it just handed out base stats. "

• new Passive - AspectSssss of the Serpent

  Succesfull use of Cassiopeia's abilities & gameplay aspects will grant those abilities a stacking benefit.

• Aspect of the Stalk (Q): Cassiopeia gains 10% movement speed for 3 seconds if Noxious Blast hits an enemy Champion. Each consecutive Noxious Blast on the same champion (refreshing the Q’s poison) permanently increases this movement speed by 0.5%, up to 40%.

• **Aspect of the Venom (W): ** Miasma's slow% is increased by 0.4% (up to 40%) and it's cooldown is reduced by 0.04s (up to 4) for each unit killed inside miasma's pool. This effect is tripled for champions.

• **Aspect of the Kill (E): ** Twing Fang steals 10 HP (+0.1 AP) from poisoned champions, minions and monsters. Every third consecutive twin fang that hits an enemy champion permanently increases Twin Fang's Lifesteal by 1, up to 100. (consecutive = within 4 seconds)

• Q - Noxious Blast

Removed Don't stop! Keep going! Cassiopeia's cast animation roots her in place (actual delay unchanged) Base Magic Damage: (unchanged) 75/115/155/195/235 AP Ratio: +0.35 AP => +0.5 AP Cooldown: 4 seconds => 3 Seconds Cost: 40/45/50/55/60 => 30/35/40/45/50

“It doesn't make any sense to have a chasing/kiting tool that gives you movement speed but also roots you in place; fix for quality of life/absurdity. Cooldown reverted to allow consecutive Q's to land and AP ratio increased to compensate the old-new passive's AP boost removal.”

• W - Miasma

new Just don't step in it! Miasma's poisoning pool cripples it's victims: slowing, damaging and preventing them from escape (cannot use dashes or movement speed boosts while inside the pool). Removed Just step out of it! Miasma no longer poisons enemies for 2 seconds, instead the effects are only active inside the pool. Magic Damage per second: 10/15/20/25/30 (+0.1AP) 25/35/45/55/65 (+0.15 AP) Cooldown: 14/13/12/11/10 => 14 seconds Slow: 25/30/35/40/45% => 5/10/15/20/25% Cost: 40/50/60/70/80 => 40/45/50/55/60

“Miasma no longer 'sticks', so the damage might seem high, but really isnt. The slow starts of really weak, but Miasma grows into a pool of crippling venom come late-game. With Aspect of the Venom & CDR you can achieve 100% uptime on Miasma. “

• E - Twin Fangssss

new make use of that second fang! Cassiopeia's Twin Fangs has two (2) stacks. Hitting a poisoned unit refreshes the stacks. Using all 2 stacks will cause Twin Fangs to go on a 5s Cooldown. new eye-to-eye Twin Fang's cooldown is reduced by an additional 0.1s for every 100 range the target is closer (than 700 range), to Cassiopeia, up to 0.2s cooldown. Base Magic Damage: 55/80/105/130/155 => 50/75/95/115/135 AP Ratio: (unchanged) 0.4/0.45/0.5/0.55/0.6 Cost: 30/45/60/75/90 => 35/40/45/50/55

"Twin Fangs Sorta works like Rumble's Harpoons, but with a refreshing mechanism. Cassiopeia is rewarded for getting up close to deal increased Damage Per Second. Early game, the increased dps from the (potentially) lower cd is gated by high mana costs and obviously high risk. Lower higher ranks’ base damage, to compensate for the (potential) increase in damage through Aspect of the Kill (10 (+0.1 AP) + (1-100 stacks))."

• R - Petrifying Gaze

Stare contest! Decreased Cast delay (not removed) Magic Damage: (unchanged) 150/250/350 (+0.5 AP) Cooldown: (unchanged) 120/110/100 seconds

I was tinkering with the damage numbers, but honestly that's not the issue.

There's a basic flaw in the thought process behind the Cast Delay on Petrifying Gaze: It's not something that has to be delayed to allow a response (Like an assasin's combo), it is an ability used as a response (to counter the assasin's engage).

A quick google didn't find me the exact numbers on the delay time and it’s late and I’m lazy andIrealizenobodywillactuallyreadthisandimtiredandIwannagoho-oome.

I had been thinking and writing this down (napking/post-it notes) for quite some time, with the recent change to cassiopeia (which feels imho uninspired) I felt like working it out and posting this.

When commenting please focus on the gameplay aspects and less on the numbers, I mainly want to see if my thoughts & ideas strike home with those who like Cassiopeia, numbers don't really matter because, well, this won't ever go into the game.

Edit: Changed Miasma's aspect to no longer increase in size but increase the slow, but lowered the base slow.