Cassia Abilities and Strategy

• Cast Lightning Fury perpendicularly toward enemy Gates to damage all of the Structures connected to the Gate.
• Use Fend to assist with waveclear, execute low Health enemies, or to follow up Ball Lightning.
• Use Ball Lightning to duel enemy Heroes in melee range, or during team fights when enemies are clumped together.
• Avoidance will benefit you any time you are moving, and will persist while stutter stepping.
• Valkyrie is a great tool for pickoffs or interrupting channeled Heroic Abilities, due to its very low cooldown.
• War Matron can be used to mitigate some premeditated Abilities, like Flamestrike or Pyroblast, use Fend on a nearby minion to protect yourself.

Avoidance (D) Cassia

• Cooldown: 0.25 seconds

While moving, Cassia gradually gains up to 30 Armor over 3 seconds. After being stationary for 0.75 seconds, the Armor is rapidly lost over .5 seconds.

Avoidance remains charged while Fending.

Avoidance will benefit you while you are moving, and will remain active while stutter stepping. Try to maintain this effect as much as possible. It will reduce almost all damage, as long as you continue moving. It is important to understand that Avoidance will keep reducing damage for the next second if you are Stunned or Rooted, but Armor will decay rapidly after that. It takes 3 seconds to get all the 30 Armor, getting 10 each second.

It is crucial for a good Cassia player to always maintain Avoidance charged in fights. After 0.75 seconds of not walking, it will decay until 0 Armor. You should always move instantly after delivering a Basic Attack, or your Hero will be very squishy.

Lightning Fury (Q) Cassia

• Mana: 20
• Charges: 2
• Recharge Time: 5 seconds

Hurl a lightning javelin that deals 158 (+4% per level) damage to the first enemy hit and splits into two lightning bolts that deal 158 (+4% per level) damage to enemies in their path.

Lightning Fury has more range than any of Cassia's other Abilities. This makes it a great tool for poking enemies from relative safety. While it is the primary Ability in builds focusing on improving it, it is useful in a variety of ways in any build. Playing the Lightning Fury Build is a good way to become comfortable with the Ability. This familiarity will allow you to use it more effectively in general.

Whenever using Lightning Fury, it is important to think about the secondary lightning bolts. One of the most Mana efficient uses of this Ability is to cast it on Towers or Gates while aiming perpendicularly to enemy Gates; doing so will cause the lightning bolts to damage all of the Structures on the same line. Lightning Fury can be used effectively for waveclear, as long as several Minions will be hit by the resulting lightning bolts. The lightning bolts can even secure kills on low Health enemy Heroes, who would otherwise be protected from the linear path of the main lightning javelin.

Blinding Light (W) Cassia

• Mana: 50
• Cooldown: 15 seconds

After 0.5 seconds, deal 50 (+4% per level) damage and Blind enemies in the target area for 2 seconds.

Passive: Cassia deals 15% increased damage to Blinded targets.

Blinding Light should be only used to speed up waveclear or to punish diving enemies. Since the range of this Ability is small, we do not recommend trying to use it to punish other Heroes with a much larger range than cassia, such as Raynor or Sgt. Hammer. This cost is generally worth it if you force an enemy Hero to retreat, or get a kill. Against team compositions that lack Heroes focused on Basic Attacks, it can be used as a damage boost right before you use Fend and Surge of Light.

Fend (E) Cassia

• Mana: 50
• Cooldown: 10 seconds

Charge at an enemy, and upon arriving Channel for up to 1.5 seconds, dealing 64 (+4% per level) damage to enemies in front of Cassia every 0.25 seconds. Deals 50% reduced damage to non-Heroes. Avoidance remains charged while Channeling.

Fend is Cassia's best tool for waveclear. While it is good to finish a low life target, it places Cassia in a dangerous position, where enemies can counter-engage on her. This means that it must be used on Heroes situationally, and not all of the time. When there is not an opening to use Fend on an enemy Hero, it can be very useful for clearing Minions and Mercenaries quickly.

You will be unable to cast other Abilities while channeling Fend, so it is best to cast Ball Lightning and Blinding Light on your intended targets first. Interrupting Fend early can prevent most of its damage; it is important to use it when enemy interrupts are unavailable. However, with Charged Strikes, it might be better to only use it as a gap-closer to then cancel it in fights, because most of the damage comes from Basic Attacks instead of Fend.

In this section we discuss how this Heroic Ability works and give some tips on how to use it. If you are looking for a detailed explanation on when and why you should pick it, check out the dedicated section in the Talent Build page.

Ball Lightning (R) Cassia

• Heroic
• Mana: 60
• Cooldown: 60 seconds

Throw a ball of lightning at an enemy Hero that bounces up to 6 times between nearby enemy Heroes and Cassia, dealing 180 (+4% per level) damage to enemies hit.

Ball Lightning is an amazing Heroic, with a very low cooldown. It can be used to duel enemy Heroes who are isolated. It is best used after you cast Blinding Light, and just before you cast Fend. This will usually result in the enemy Hero retreating, or dying. In team fights it can be risky to follow up Ball Lightning with Fend, as there will be many enemy Heroes to counter-engage on you. Instead, focus on casting Ball Lightning on enemy Heroes who are tightly grouped up for the team fight. If the enemies disperse in an attempt to stop the Ball Lightning from bouncing, you may be able to pick off an isolated enemy with Fend. If you time Fend correctly, you can sometimes even keep the ball bouncing between the isolated enemy and Cassia.

In this section we discuss how this Heroic Ability works and give some tips on how to use it. If you are looking for a detailed explanation on when and why you should pick it, check out the dedicated section in the Talent Build page.

Valkyrie (R) Cassia

• Heroic
• Mana: 60
• Cooldown: 60 seconds

Summon a Valkyrie that rushes to Cassia after 0.75 seconds, pulling the first enemy Hero hit, dealing 225 (+4% per level) damage and Stunning them for 0.5 seconds at the end of her path. The Valkyrie knocks back all other enemy Heroes in her way.

Valkyrie is a niche Heroic, as its long delay makes it easy to avoid unless the intended target is already controlled. If there are powerful channeled Heroic Abilities on the enemy team (notably Mosh Pit by E.T.C.), Valkyrie can be a great way to interrupt them. Due to Valkyrie's relatively low cooldown, it performs very well for this purpose. It can also be an interesting option when your team has good crowd control and reliable ways to killing Tanks, such as Jaina or Greymane with Cursed Bullet. In this situation, you can follow any Stun with it, and easily kill the target.

Other than interrupting channeled Heroic Abilities, Valkyrie offers little that Ball Lightning does not do better. This Heroic can also be useful on team compositions that are designed around getting picks, but Ball Lightning gives you the burst damage required to solo kill most Heroes willing to duel you. Some teams may have several Bruisers that have too much Health to duel and kill on your own. Valkyrie may work in some of these scenarios, as it can help your team to isolate and kill one of them. The challenge with recommending this strategy is that most Bruisers have a Basic Ability they can trade to avoid the Valkyrie. Ball Lightning is more reliable, and has much higher damage potential per cast.