Cassio Build steps
Im a newly formed cassiopeia Main and im just curious to see what i can do to improve or change my build
Current build:
6 Comments
is so great on her! Many people go 
then or then
I would suggest either RoA or Seraph's, but not both.
Other nice items to build:
Liandry's is nice against tankier teams, but if you need more burst, I suggest selling it for a better magic pen item listed above.
Against Zed or other champs like him rush is almost needed.
First off, I hope you're playing her top, in mid lane she's liable to be out traded and completely bursted by the more aggressive mages living there. Against top laners she has a much easier time sustaining and harassing.
With that said, here is my unintentionally in-depth rationale of how to build Cassiopeia:
To build Cassiopeia, you want Rod of Ages as the first core item, you need the sustain from valors reward in a solo lane, and the HP, AP, and Mana go a long way toward her lategame. Archangel's staff/Seraph's Embrace is unnecessary when you've already got RoA as a mana item. With the mana sustain on her E you're never going to oom on her, so having that much mana is pointless.
Obviously, as an AP caster, you're going to want Sorcerer's Shoes 
, optimally, you want to complete the boots just before laning phase ends, so roaming and shifting between lanes will be more time-efficient.
Rabadon's Deathcap, is of course core on her; she is all about getting to late-game full build and out-scaling everyone else on the map. This item combined with her passive and the correct offensive masteries increases her AP by 77%. This combined with her already stupid ability scaling makes her the highest dps caster in the game.
Zhonya's is very questionable. As a dps caster, the hourglass active hurts you more than it helps. You should never be in the middle of the enemy team as Cass. You need to think of yourself as an adc, only you're using your E instead of auto attacks; if you're in Zhonya's, you're not doing damage. Banshee's Veil 
Is enormously better on cass for surviving an enemy assassin, because unlike zhonya's it allows you to dps while mitigating damage through it's shield, HP bonus, and Magic resist. (If the enemy midlaner is AD, replace "Banshee's Veil" with "Randuin's Omen" 
)
Liandry's Torment is certainly not a /bad/ item on cassiopeia, but what it does is very average compared to the other core items I've talked about. It has some HP, some health, a minor DoT, and a small amount of M/pen. Really the best part of this item is the Magic penetration, but if you need magic penetration, you're almost always better off buying a Void Staff because you can guarantee someone will be building MR against you, and that %/shred is much more effective in the later stages of the game than flat penetration.
So the five items I have recommended so far are:
The reason I recommend Banshees Veil over Runaan's as a default defensive item is because it is much easier to land your ultimate stun on an ADC, as they have to be facing you to auto attack you, once stunned, you will melt them before the stun wears off. Because of this, building armour is less important vs building magic resist against more mobile, burstier casters.
As a final item, if you're struggling to stay alive in fights, I believe you should get a second defensive item, Randuin's Omen is a good choice to survive against a fully built adc, whom by now has built MR of his own to survive your ultimate and follow up. Of course, if you reach late game early, that extra armour isn't going to do much and you're probably looking for a way to close the game before you begin to need it. In this case, Will of The Ancients 
is the best item to get. The AP will obviously make you hit harder, the item's CDR combines with your passive 25% and masteries 5% for the maximum 40% CDR, and the Spell Vamp increases your seigeing effectiveness: instead of having to recall from taking damage, you can spell vamp off a jungle camp or minion wave and go right back to putting pressure on that tower.
90% of your games this will be your build:
First
Sometime after you finish your RoA
Next
At this point you generally want to go for because Cass scales extremely well with the passive, but if the enemy team is stacking a lot of magic resist you may want to grab first. Whichever you don't pick up is your next item anyways, so in the long run it doesn't matter too much.
Once you have those 5 items your last item is generally defensive. 
is not a bad magic resist option due to her amazing spell vamp, but is good if you're against an assassin type like 
or 
. Alternatively you can build a if you want a lot more AP and some defensive stats along with the super sweet active.
Final Build
with an optional 6th item (see above).
The following items are very situatioal:
: If you build this it's generally instead of a RoA. This means you will be a lot squishier and it's a bad idea to go tear against high damage compositions. RoA is almost always better because Cassiopeia has a hard time avoiding damage with her kit.
: This item is mostly for the lulz, but against a team with no burst damage it can be an effective way to fight. The sustain with this on your E is crazy good.
: May be a decent option against a team with tons of HP and MR. Generally your standard build can deal with this fine though, and Cass does so much damage late game that you really don't need the %HP burn. I'd only really consider this if the enemy team has stupid amounts of magic resist.
I don't think your build is good at all honestly.
You want Rylai's for a perma-slow and kiting + tankiness, you only need RoA for mana and getting a Seraph's Embrace is sorta weird to me, with RoA you'll get up to 80 AP which is what Seraph's will usually give so why not get RoA for more health + the passive which is just awesome in lane.
Your boots are fine, the enchantment needs to be Furor though for kiting.
Liandry's is highly situational, however with your build I'd rather take a Void Staff unless the enemy team is health stacking a lot.
Everything else is fine, but Seraph's I find to be worse than RoA and Liandry's is situational so only get it if you need it against the enemy team.
thanks for the advice :P