Guide · Mid

Cassiopeia Guide

the Serpent's Embrace

Mage

Tier S Mid

Cassiopeia, the Serpent's Embrace, is a mage champion that is demanding to master. Across our 599 analysed ranked games, Cassiopeia is mostly played in Mid (64% of its games), and more rarely in Top (19%) and as ADC (17%), with a 49.2% win rate in that role: tier S among Mid champions (#2 of 42, ranked by win rate). Cassiopeia's damage is mostly magic (96%): magic resistance items are therefore effective against this champion. Win rate varies with game length: 51.4% in short games (under 25 min, 138 games) versus 42.5% in long games (over 35 min).

Updated Oct 10 2026 · Patch 26.22

Averages measured over 386 Mid games played with Cassiopeia, from our ranked Solo/Duo data collection.

How to play and combo preview

Cassiopeia is a mage who benefits from movement speed, which is more effective on her. Noxious Blast damages, raises her speed and poisons, Miasma slows and grounds the enemies who cross it, Twin Fang deals more damage to poisoned targets and heals her, and Petrifying Gaze stuns those facing her.

The poison combo

Q › E › E › W

When: An enemy is within range.

Noxious Blast poisons after a short delay and speeds you up if it hits a champion, then Twin Fang deals more damage to poisoned targets.

The facing ultimate

W › R › E

When: Several enemies are facing you.

Petrifying Gaze stuns those facing you and slows those turning their back: position yourself so they look toward you.

See all 3 Cassiopeia combos: key order, when to cast them, cooldowns →

Laning phase

Poison with Noxious Blast then Twin Fang: it deals more damage and heals you. If Twin Fang kills its target, you regain mana.

Common mistakes

• Casting the ultimate with your back to the enemies: they are only slowed.
• Using Twin Fang without poison.
• Placing Miasma without using its grounding effect.

Riot's official tips for playing Cassiopeia

• Use Twin Fang on poisoned stationary targets like monsters and units stunned by her Petrifying Gaze for maximum damage.
• Lead your enemy when targeting with Noxious Blast to ensure the hit.

Build, runes and summoner spells

The most-played core build is Rylai's Crystal Scepter, Zhonya's Hourglass, and Rod of Ages (35 games, 65.7% win rate), usually with Swiftmarch (50.0% over 190 games).

Rylai's Crystal Scepter+Zhonya's Hourglass+Rod of Ages

35 games · 65.7%

Rylai's Crystal Scepter+Hextech Rocketbelt+Rod of Ages

33 games · 45.5%

Rylai's Crystal Scepter+Liandry's Torment+Rod of Ages

24 games · 62.5%

Skill order

Max order : E > Q > W56.1% · 41 games

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15
Q		●						●		●		●	●
W				●										●	●
E	●		●		●		●		●
R						●					●

The order shows which abilities reach rank 5 first; the grid shows the most-played level-up sequence with that order (measured over 46 games).

Starting items

Doran's RingHealth PotionHealth Potion58.5% · 41 games

First completed items, in order

Rod of Ages›Archangel's Staff

17 games · 58.8%

Laning phase (averages)

At 10 min: 3996 gold, 84 CS, 4833 XP. At 15 min: 6199 gold, 125 CS, 7539 XP.

Boots

Swiftmarch50.0% · 190 games

Crimson Lucidity48.0% · 77 games

Chainlaced Crushers44.4% · 45 games

Summoner spells

Flash + Teleport49.7% · 187 games

Flash + Ghost47.2% · 106 games

Flash + Ignite44.9% · 49 games

Exhaust + Flash63.6% · 33 games

Most-played runes

Deathfire Touch + Precision

46.8% · 246 games

Primary tree · Sorcery

Manaflow Band100%

Celerity71%

Scorch98%

Secondary tree · Precision

Cut Down68%

Legend: Haste59%

Shards

Adaptive force87%

Movement speed58%

Health74%

Conqueror + Sorcery

54.8% · 73 games

Primary tree · Precision

Presence of Mind99%

Legend: Haste100%

Last Stand73%

Secondary tree · Sorcery

Manaflow Band92%

Transcendence62%

Shards

Adaptive force90%

Adaptive force70%

Health scaling53%

Deathfire Touch + Resolve

51.1% · 45 games

Primary tree · Sorcery

Manaflow Band98%

Celerity76%

Scorch100%

Secondary tree · Resolve

Bone Plating89%

Overgrowth64%

Shards

Adaptive force87%

Movement speed58%

Health87%

For each row, the most picked rune among the games played with this page (share of games in brackets).

Which items to build against the enemy team?

We sort every game by the enemy team's damage. These are Cassiopeia's completed items and their win rate in each situation; "▲" marks an item that does at least 3 points better than its usual win rate.

Mostly magic-damage enemy team52.9% · 121 games

At least 50% of their damage is magic

Rod of Ages 56.5% ▲

Rylai's Crystal Scepter 57.5%

Liandry's Torment 64.5% ▲

Hextech Rocketbelt 42.1%

Zhonya's Hourglass 60.0%

The item that stands out most is Rod of Ages: 56.5% win rate, +7 points versus its usual win rate.

Mostly physical-damage enemy team50.0% · 94 games

Less than 35% of their damage is magic

Rod of Ages 49.3%

Rylai's Crystal Scepter 54.0%

Hextech Rocketbelt 52.6%

Zhonya's Hourglass 72.2%

Liandry's Torment 57.1%

No item clearly stands out in this situation: the usual build remains the reference.

Balanced enemy team46.2% · 171 games

Mixed physical and magic damage

Rod of Ages 44.8% ▼

Rylai's Crystal Scepter 55.3%

Zhonya's Hourglass 53.1% ▼

Hextech Rocketbelt 42.9%

Liandry's Torment 50.0%

Bloodletter's Curse 38.5%

No item clearly stands out in this situation: the usual build remains the reference.

Counters and matchups

Who counters Cassiopeia in Mid

Syndra Cassiopeia: 50.0%16 games

Syndra has the edge in 50% of the 16 Mid duels against Cassiopeia. See the Syndra guide.

Who Cassiopeia is strong against

Syndra50.0% · 16 games

How to play against Cassiopeia

• Be wary of Cassiopeia's damage potential with Twin Fang when she has you poisoned.
• Turn away from Cassiopeia when she is casting Petrifying Gaze to get slowed instead of stunned.

Win rates measured over direct same-role duels; only matchups with more than 15 games are listed. See all of Cassiopeia's matchups.

Cassiopeia Mid: what our games say

Laning phase against the Mid average

Measured over 46 Cassiopeia games with a timeline; the average covers 72 champions played Mid in our ranked games.

Win rate by game length

Best result: short (under 25 min). Only groups of at least 30 games are shown. A gap of several points shows the phase where the champion is the most reliable.

Cassiopeia in another role

Role	Games	Win rate	CS/min	Gold/min	Most-built items
Top	113	44.2 %	7.7	402
ADC	100	52.0 %	7.8	459

Roles where we have at least 40 Cassiopeia games.

Abilities

PassiveSerpentine Grace

All Move Speed bonuses are more effective on Cassiopeia.

QNoxious Blast

Cassiopeia blasts an area with Poison after a brief delay, granting her increased Move Speed if she hits an enemy champion.

WMiasma

Cassiopeia releases several clouds of poison, slowing, grounding, and lightly damaging enemies that pass through them. Grounded enemies cannot use Movement abilities.

ETwin Fang

Cassiopeia lets loose an attack that deals increased damage to Poisoned targets and heals her for a percentage of the damage dealt. If the target dies from this attack, Cassiopeia regains Mana.

RPetrifying Gaze

Cassiopeia releases a swirl of magical energy from her eyes, stunning any enemies in front of her that are facing her and slowing any others with their back turned.

Other Mid champions to know

Most played

Syndra53.0 %Viktor48.9 %Ahri50.4 %Yone49.8 %Locke50.8 %Yasuo48.9 %Zed51.8 %Sylas48.5 %

Strongest (at least 100 games)

Vel'Koz54.3 %Kassadin54.0 %Twisted Fate54.0 %Lux53.0 %Diana52.9 %Katarina52.6 %Anivia52.3 %Aurelion Sol52.1 %

Frequently asked questions

Full Cassiopeia page · League of Legends tier list · All champion guides