Still in Waiting
So, I still haven't been able to play as Cass, but I've heard what Cass players are saying, and I've done the math, and I've come to the conclusion... That they should quit their bitching.
The supposed "Nerf," included changing her passive into something that builds up into a Rabadon's passive, gives you 25% Cooldown reduction, and makes Twin Fang heal you for 10% of your AP. This is from reducing the cost of your abilities by 10% every time you use an ability, stacking up to 50%. Several of the AP ratios and Base damages have been cut or scaled differently to accommodate for this passive Rabadon.
All the Cass players say that she's crippled now that her main source of damage has been nerfed so hard. But her main source of damage wasn't nerfed. It was actually scaled differently from a flat AP ratio to a scaling one. No, I'm not talking Poison, I'm talking about her E, her nuke, the most obscene source of damage I've ever seen from a non-ADC.
Its base damage was, and still is 55/80/105/130/155, while the AP scaling was changed from a flat 55% to 40%/45%/50%/55%/60%. Now, this might not seem like much. As a matter of fact, it looks a lot weaker now, but let's recall that Passive, eh?
The passive gets things at 75, 200, and 400 stacks. Seems like a lot, right? Well, take a look at how she gets them. Every second an enemy champion is poisoned (by her (To be tested)), add a stack. Every time something dies from her poison, add a stack. Every time she hits an enemy champ with Twin Fang, add a stack.
Assuming we have an ok Player, and they kill 4 of the 6 minions every wave, and only poison the enemy champ 1/2 of the time with the Q, you get about 30 Stacks every minute. Not much. Let's add that Twin Fang stack, and because it is a targeted spell, let's assume she's hitting as many times as she can, while the enemy is poisoned.
75 stacks per minute (It's actually about 75.5, but Riot doesn't do half stacks). So four and a half minutes in (One minute after you hit Level 3 assuming you stayed in lane for all the minion waves), if you are only killing 4 minions of the 6-7, poisoning the enemy champ only half the time, and firing off your 'e' whenever they are poisoned, you will have already hit the first benchmark and be well on your way to the second.
Now, some of you may be complaining, "But Epou, Cass needs so much mana. How am I supposed to stay in lane for that long?" There are two answers to be said here. The correct answer, and buy a chalice. You see, if you are really good about managing your mana, only using it for trading, or one quick minion clear, then you should never have mana issues. There is also the fact that Cass's 'e' now refunds you 3% of your maximum mana if you kill something with it, so building Archangel's staff isn't out of the realm of possibility. You can also buy a Chalice, which is the quick fix, "I don't even care, I just want mana" solution.
Back to the 'E' nuke, now. This early level 'nerf' hardly means anything. When you engage at Level 4 with your points distributed 1/1/2/0, You can thoroughly outplay them by throwing your 'w' on them to slow them down, and using Twin strikes 3-4 times. That's between 137 and 274 damage in two seconds. That is a third of their health in two seconds. If they do not burn their flash, they will die, because this isn't even your final form.
They've been slowed, so if they walk out of the mist, drop a 'q' on them to give yourself a speed boost, and poison them for another 3 seconds. That's good for another 6 Twin Fang procs. If you hit an average amount with the Twin Fang, you've just dealt 522 damage. If you are flawless, you will have dealt 916 damage in total. Gangplank with the highest starting health (819 at level 4)? Piss off. Alistar with the highest level 18 health (850 at level 4)? Milk or GTFO. Any other mid lane champ? Pfft, yeah, right.
BTW, that damage? No runes. No masteries, No Passive stacks. Just one Doran's Ring vs A champ that has standard melee Magic resist scaling (1.25 per level). There is a reason her name is Cassi-OP-a.
