Cassia Combat Style and Abilities

In Blizzard’s Hero Spotlight video for Cassia, we learn that she’ll be a ranged assassin who excels against auto-attacking heroes. Her kit grants her a strong laning presence, as well as some powerful maneuvers that will let her pressure and disrupt enemies. 

Passive: Avoidance

This hero trait lends itself well to trading attacks in lane, which will allow Cassie to potentially outlast opposing heroes whose damage primarily comes from basic attacks – like Raynor, Valla, or Illidan.  But you’ll need to be wary of poke damage spellcasters such as Chromie, Jaina, or Azmodan.

Q: Lightning Fury

This will be your primary source of poke damage, keeping you at a safe distance from melee ability damage assassins (like Kerrigan, Greymane or Alarak).

W: Blinding Light

This is another ability made to shut down auto-attackers, but it will do next to nothing against long-range casters if you are unable to capitalize on the damage increase.

E: Fend

Despite the damage reduction to non-heroes, this sounds like Cassia’s primary method of wave clear.  It’s an adequate fallback when enemy mercs and minions are closing in on your fort or keep. But really, you’ll want to leave the farming to better suited allies.  

For optimal use against enemy heroes, have a tank body-block for you while you maximize your channel time in team fights.   

Heroic: Ball Lightning

League of Legends players will find this attack similar to Ryze’s Spell Flux ability – bouncing between the player and surrounding enemies. Naturally, you’ll need to use this ability to best effect in team fights, especially when a large component of the opposing team is relatively fragile (and lacking in spell armor).

Heroic: Valkyrie

This is a good hard crowd control ability, which will be best used to drag backline heroes out of position – disrupting their team’s formation in the process.  Try to make sure the rest of your team is ready to follow up, though, since Cassia seems more adept at sustained damage rather than burst damage.

This could also be good for securing a kill on an escaping foe.

Cassia will soon enter beta testing for players who are interested in trying her out. Only time will tell if her kit and combat style lives up to the expectations of Diablo II fans. 

What are your thoughts on Cassia?  Which other Diablo II characters are you hoping will enter the Nexus?  Comment and let us know!