Analyzing the 4.16 Cassiopeia rework from the eyes of a Cassiopeia main

Analyzing the 4.16 Cassiopeia rework from the eyes of a Cassiopeia main

                As many of you know I'm a long time Cassiopeia main and have played well over a thousand games on her between norms, ranked, and other accounts. I've gotten a lot of people asking for my opinions on the changes. When they first released that "revamp" a few weeks back the numbers were different and directly nerfed the champ hard but now that we have the finalized numbers and the patch hitting live tomorrow I figured it's the best time to do a write up. I'll mathematically break down and theorycraft some of the new damages and discuss where she falls in the current state of the game, the pros, the cons, and some of my personal thoughts on the change overall. Hopefully it gives you some insight into the changes from an experienced Cassiopeia player and most importantly I can provide an example of why "best case scenario" mentality is really dangerous in gaming.

THE KIT CHANGES

Noxious Blast (Q) (old) 

                - Damage: 75/115/155/195/235 + (.8ap)

                - Movement Speed Increase: 15/17.5/20/22.5/25%

                - Cooldown: 3 seconds

                - Mana Cost: 35/45/55/65/75

Noxious Blast (Q)(new) 

                - Damage: 75/115/155/195/235 + (.35ap)

                - Movement Speed Increase: 10/15/20/25/30%

                - Cooldown: 4 seconds

                - Mana Cost: 40/45/50/55/60

                Previous PBE changes had the Q base damage severely nerfed but it appears that they're leaving its base unchanged as we go live. I still don't like that you can no longer really Q max against certain matchups efficiently and play pure ranged mage poke Cassio like you wanted to in certain matchups but this is overall not that dramatic a change after 20 minutes or so. And in the first 20 minutes you were relying mostly on base damage anyway.

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Miasma (W) (old)

                - Damage: 25/35/45/55/65 + (.15ap) PER SECOND

                - Slow: 15/20/25/30/35%

                - Cooldown: 9 seconds

                - Mana Cost: 70/80/90/100/110

Miasma (W) (new)

                - Damage:  10/15/20/25/30 + (.1 ap) PER SECOND

                - Slow: 25/30/35/40/45%

                - Cooldown: 14/13/12/11/10 seconds

                - Mana Cost: 40/50/60/70/80

                Shifting some of the damage towards the slow and a reduction in mana cost offset by slightly longer cooldowns. Miasma is typically a one point wonder but you usually only use it when spacing, sieging, wave clearing, and if you miss your Q so this hopefully won't be that big of a difference.

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Twin Fang (E) (old)

                - Damage: 50/85/120/155/190 + (.55 ap)

                - Mana Cost: 50/60/70/80/90

                - Cooldown: 5 seconds (.5 if target poisoned)

Twin Fang (E) (new)

                - Damage: 55/80/105/130/155 + (.4/.45/.5/.55/.6 ap)

                - Mana Cost: 30/45/60/70/90

                - NOW RESETS ON CAST RATHER THAN ON HIT*****

                - Refunds Twin Fang's mana cost PLUS 3% of Cassiopeia's total mana when it kills a unit

                Takes a little bit longer to ramp up but can now restore its mana cost so you can last hit under tower as well as having a lower cost at lower levels to reduce the risk of failed all-in's leaving you manaless. This is a massive buff if you can get to the mid game which becomes easier with the mana refund mechanic. Cass is actually really difficult to last hit under tower with until you have enough levels to instantly clear the back line and grind through creep waves so this is a huge quality of life change as well as a late game so you no longer "need" a mana item.

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Petrifying Gaze (R) (old)

                - Damage: 200/325/450 + (.6 ap)

                - Mana Cost: 100/100/100

                - Cooldown: 130/120/110 seconds

Petrifying Gaze (R) (new)

                - Damage: 150/250/350 + (.5 ap)

                - Mana Cost: same 100/100/100

                - Cooldown: 120/110/100 seconds

                - NOW ACCURATELY HITS UNITS DIRECTLY IN FRONT AND ON TOP OF CASSIOPEIA *********

                The "accurately" hits is yet to be seen but if this is even close to accurate this is a huge quality of life change that even extends to improving certain matchups that were previously challenging. Other than that, lower cooldown for less damage is actually a trade I'm ok making because the cooldown was so much longer than most other mids. Couple this with the 25% from the new passive and we're in business.

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Passive (old): Deadly Cadence - Casting a spell causes any subsequent spellcasts within 5 seconds to cost 10% less mana, stacking up to 5 times.

Passive (new): Aspect of the Serpent - Cassiopeia permanently gains a stack of Aspect of the Serpent for each second that she has poisoned an enemy champion, for each poisoned unit that she kills, and every time she hits an enemy champion with Twin Fang. Caps at 400 stacks.

• ·         75 stacks: +5% ability power and Twin Fang restores 6/8/10/12/15 + (.1 ap) health
• ·         200 stacks: Ability power bonus increased to +10% and Cassiopeia gains 25% CDR
• ·         400 stacks: Ability power bonus increased to +30%

                The new passive seems insanely powerful. You get a ridiculous amount of gold value from a passive ability which seems broken but it will all depend on just how fast you can stack. A lot of the power of her kit was sacrificed and shifted towards this passive so its reliability will be important. My guess is that you can reasonably stack this up between 17 and 20 minutes.

Overall opinion of the kit rework

                I was really afraid of how far they nerfed her base damages in the first two rotations on the PBE so much so that I thought they'd kill the champion for good but now that they've reverted the Q change and tweaked some of the other numbers I honestly think this kit has the potential to be ridiculous. I like that they left the Q max option available albeit weaker.  It's really important to look at this new kit with an "average case scenario." It's way too easy to look at a full build, full stack Cass and be like "OMG OMG BUFFS WOWWW" but it's just not realistic. How often do you get there? Not very often. So let's break this down by phases of the game.

• ·         Early game: Weaker for bullying and all ins, but still decent enough at it for Cass to do her job. Being able to last hit more reliably by having Twin Fang as an less punishing option is a really understated buff.
• ·         Mid game: This is hard to judge. I feel like this actually depends on how quickly the passive stacks but with a lower ult cooldown you're punished a lot less for using it just for damage (or just missing it). Also, if the new ult actually is more accurate and reliable that could end up being yet another mid game buff.
• ·         Late game: She was already a hyper carry. Let's temper the expectation here. She didn't need late game changes... but I'm not complaining that she got better.

                The question becomes whether or not its significantly harder to get her to this late game hyper carry point. On one hand they've given her the tools to get there with lower cooldowns and mana costs, as well as a mana refund. On the other, they've taken away a lot of her early damage to eliminate her highly potent early game dueling and lane bullying. If you can get to the late game, yea she'll be significantly stronger as a damage source. But if not, I actually feel this is a slight nerf. Let's keep in mind that while the ult and E mana refund changes affect certain matchups, Cassiopeia retains most of the problems she had before when it comes to other champions. She will still be weak and possibly weaker to assassins and with weaker poke and dueling potential she'll actually have an even harder time in lane against many of them and with the meta shifting in that direction, it could limit her potential.

THE TWIN FANG DPS MATH

                       I was originally going to write on this to show just how hard they nerfed the base damages but now that things have changed I'll just show some of the high end damage potential we're going to see.

                   
                      These numbers assume rank 5 Twin Fang, 15 ability power from runes, and archmage mastery as well as havoc mastery but I'm excluding CDR (which is more of a factor now that it checks immediately instead of on landing). It's perfectly possible that I've missed something so if you spot it please let me know!!

*some rounding up was done*

EDIT: Thanks to /u/papajacky on reddit for clarification on the math which should be correct now

EDIT: Obviously different builds vary and it's yet to be determined what will be optimal but I was just using these for an example.

EDIT: These numbers didn't factor in the Mental Force (ap per level) mastery cuz I'm dumb so add a little to each number.

100 ap (roughly Dorans + Initial Rod of Ages, 10% from passive)

New: (100*1.05) = (105 ap)*1.05 = 110--->110*.6=66, 155 + 66 =221 + 3%(Havoc)=227.6 per Fang

Old: (100*1.05) = 105ap ---> 105*.55 = 57.7, 190 + 58 = 248 + 3% (Havoc) = 255 per Fang

200 ap (Dorans + Stacked Rod + Needlessly Large Rod + 10% from passive)

New: (200*1.10)=(220ap)*1.05 = --> 231*.6 = 139,  155 + 139 = 293 + 3%  (Havoc) = 303 per Fang

Old: (200*1.05) = 210ap ----> 210*.55 = 115.5, 190 + 115 = 305 + 3% (Havoc) = 314 per Fang

312 ap (Dorans + Stacked Rod + Deathcap (bonus included), 30% from passive)

New: (312*1.30)=(405.6ap)*1.05=425.88 -> 426*.6 =256, 155 + 256 = 411 + 3% (Havoc) = 423 per

Old: (312*1.05) = 327.6 ----> 328*.55 = 180, 190 + 180 = 370 + 3% (Havoc) = 381 per Fang

403 ap (Dorans + Stacked Rod + Deathcap (bonus included) + Void Staff, 30% passive)

New: (403*1.30) = (524)*1.05=550 ----> 550*.6 = 330, 155 + 330= 485 + 3% (Havoc) = 500 per 

Old: (403*1.05) = 423 ---> 423*.55 = 233, 233 + 190 = 423 + 3* (Havoc) = 435 per fang

and so on and so forth the gap grows further and further apart the more ability power you have...

** RETRACTION/WARNING: After playing with the new build a little bit more actually stacking her passive is more difficult and unreliable than I originally thought making the late game even tougher to reach. Some of these predictions like the 312 ap example probably wouldn't have the 30% passive yet. ***

                What this basically means is that somewhere in the upper 200s ability power (I'm bad at algebra so cut me a break) there is a point where the new passive overcomes the ratio and base damage reductions strictly on Twin Fang. Now at this point you could have 30% cdr (masteries and 25% from passive) which would bring the cooldown of Twin Fang down to 0.3 seconds which is more relevant than it used to be because you no longer need to build CDR to see the benefits and Twin Fang also checks on cast no upon reaching its target. If you include these changes you could argue that the passive becomes worth it a bit sooner but we'll stick purely to damage for this conversation.

                So you're losing damage on your Petrifying Gaze, Noxious Blast, Miasma, and Twin Fang (all of your skills) until you have roughly 300+ ability power. And it's actually even more if you count the base damage you lose on your Noxious Blast and Petrifying Gaze if you choose to factor that into your combo.

CONCLUSION

                The new Cassiopeia theoretically will perform significantly better in terms of raw damage after she hits the 2.5 to 3 item threshold. But these calculations ALL include Rabadon's Deathcap. To me, it's still an overall damage nerf. They've given her the tools to sustain through lane as a way to smooth out your journey to six items with the mana refund from Twin Fang and lower mana costs accross the board but have nerfed her lane dominance pretty heavily. Cassiopeia used to have a strange power curve where she spiked early, dropped off mid, and then became an AP hyper carry again later. They have made her "better" at the late game but what a lot of people forget about in seeing all these new flashy bonus AP numbers is that she ALREADY WAS A HYPER CARRY LATE, the challenge was getting there which you used to do by bullying out your lane and getting ahead enough to deal with the mid game.

                These changes severely limit variety in builds almost forcing you into a second item Deathcap or your damage will pale in comparison to its previous numbers which is incredibly frustrating if, for example, you're against a fed assassin and need resistences or a Zhonya's. One of the the unsung strengths of this champion was that her base damages were high enough that you could afford a first item Rylai's or just a couple Doran's and sorc shoes and build whatever defense you needed to help get you by. That option is now substantially weaker. The penetration focused Sorceror's Shoes to Haunting Guise option also takes a significant hit.

                But it's not all bad. There is a very good possibility that the quality of life changes alone could make up for all of this. A more reliable ultimate for close targets, Twin Fang checking on cast and not landing, as well as some "free" CDR actually up the amount of Twin Fangs you can cast and all of this could add up to higher DPS. A lot depends on whether or not games actually get to this threshold with such a weak early game and just how quickly the passive actually stacks up in an "average case scenario."

                Cassiopeia has always been a high upkeep champion. What I mean by that is that you need to be good with her and playing her a lot to stay good but at the end of the day, the ceiling just isn't that much higher than certain others that have a bigger impact or easier time getting to that point (Ryze, Karthus, Orianna, Ziggs, etc.). Although games are going significantly longer on average (see my stats Vlog for recent months), the upkeep factor combined with the direction the meta is heading toward (mobile assassins again) make me feel as if this rework didn't come at the right time but could potentially be impactful down the line.

                It's always a bummer seeing your favorite champion changed and while I do feel as if it's a slight nerf or roughly the same in an "average" game I do think it is a step in the right direction from a design standpoint. I think a little bit of time live and some number tweaking and we'll be good as...old.

                Thanks for reading! Feel free to leave comments, questions, concerns, and other inquiries here or on my Twitter and as always come on over to the Live stream where I'll inevitably be playing a lot of Cassiopeia in the coming weeks.

-Gelati

Twitter: @GelatiLOL

Live Stream: www.twitch.tv/GelatiLOL