Bleeding Edge

AinjelFyre

Absolutely love playing with Cass i have quite a few hours on her now.. Few things. with no support for boards, trails.....pretty much anything.....it would be nice to give her access to at the very least the board trails.....or give her "Cass Only" Trails as she doesn't have anything. (i'm sure you're all working this)

Gameplay:
Point Capture....boy does cass excel on this game mode. Easily my fav out of the 2 not having her tied down to hunting power cells makes for being a great support damage and cleanup crew, which is where she shines brightest and stays true to her character design.

Power Capture. This game mode might as well be kryptonite for her. Keeping her stationary whilst hunting power-cells opens her up to a HUGE assortment of crowd control, and burst damage, which from what i've seen and experienced is about 90% of the engagements be it as a full team of 4 or a simple 2 v 1. shes ALMOST guaranteed to die if caught in anything due to the low HP pool. without proper coordination Cass is simply a cell hoarder for the other team.

Mechanics:
Swoop-
This mechanic bugs me (and if i'm wrong please correct me) but from all the matches i've played Swoop dashes in a straight line in the direction you are looking and NOT the towards the person you are locked on to. I like this Idea but being locked on to an enemy and then dashing away from them, or off to the side because you camera is slightly off center means you can either position badly or miss your mark. both of which can leave you in a far worse scenario than if you didn't use it at all. lock on needs to affect this ability. I use Swoop 90% of the time as mobility to escape or close the gap on an enemy vs using it for actual damage. At this point the the game id rather have an extra charge or 2 on her Swoop, and get rid of the damage factor all together.

Rake:
There's not a whole lot i have to say on this mechanic. I think its balanced fairly well, tho being a "Clean Up Assassin" Type i think her Damage is severely lacking. perhaps had a "Hold Y" action where she does a charge kick in a straight line, or a small aoe "Stomp" that does a brief stun.outside the lack of damage behind this ability i think its pretty solid.

Hightail:
This might be my least enjoyed move in the entire game.....this suffers almost the same issue swoop does. I could not for the life of me understand why she leaps in the opposite direction as her actual character direction and not the direction the camera is looking/facing. There have been many times in the early stages of me learning this character that i would be running away from and an enemy with the camera to my front so i could actually see the enemy behind....unfortunately this means that using this ability would literally launch me into their hands for an easy kill so i would have to turn my character towards them to launch myself AWAY from them....which just isn't feasible when its so much better to just build up the little bit of speed and run from them. the other issue i ran into frequently is that the distance she jumps doesn't get you out of harms way AT ALL. maeve, buttercup, daemon, miko, bastard, (virtually the whole roster) ALL can still hit you with abilities as you land well within striking range.....not to mention you STILL HAVE TO TURN AROUND AND RUN AWAY....Another issue i have is that it doesn't say anything in the Ability description about it doing damage so people probably don't know it can DO damage but there is a mod that Increases damage for that move. (so are we increasing from 0 dmg?) Last thing about this move is that, on top of it being hard to use mid fight due to character positioning, the level often hinders you, as Hightail doesn't give you enough height to jump on/over ledges so you often leap into a wall, ceiling, catwalk etc.......VERY POOR ability and needs some love an attention.

Charge Jump:
love this, No tweaks needed. (if anything new colors when new skins come)

Feather darts:
Same issue with rake.....Her damage just doesn't ever seem to be there. This seems almost on par with ZeroCools damage....Fire Rate is Great.

Dive Bomb:
I think this is a very Useless Super. either widen the range on it by a healthy margin or remove the controlling aspect of this super. Just activate and Dive bomb on that spot immediately. I've stopped using this super as it Blade Dance is far more effective for Cass' play style.

Blade Dance:
Love this Ability wouldn't change anything. Damage is good. Movement speed is perfect.

Overview:
This is a very fun Character from the design to the play style. She plays very mid ranged and excels at finishing team fights especially on point capture modes where she has the freedom to constantly move and pick enemies off. however she is extremely weak in one on one fights (even with healers) and in the power cells mode her mobility and speed make her great for grabbing cells but very often leaves her team down a person so shes just isn't a great pick UNLESS you have a team that is strong enough to handle 3v4 match ups for a bit which 9.8/ 10 your team cant maintain the sustain needed for even a good cass player to make use of her. As she stands currently she doesn't quite live up to the title of "Agile Assassin" but more so like squishy version of Daemon. her abilities need a couple tweaks to give her character a little bit more identity and give players a more satisfying feeling of playing an "Assassin"

AmazingVector

@AinjelFyre I disagree with almost all of your points, save for Dive Bomb. I definitely think it is possibly the worst Super in the game and it indeed holds the entire character back from being better.

I am a Cass main as well. She was my highest level at the end of the beta at level 7. I feel like your points are made from a very narrow view of the toolkit and perhaps even a huge lack of understanding of how it all works together. Especially on the note of Hightail, I feel like this is an incredibly strong option. Hightail combined with Swoop allows for getaways that might take a lot of time to happen in mere seconds which leaves enemies in your dust. Hightailing then Swooping afterwards is an incredibly dirty play to evade a kill.

I personally would hate the loss of all of that control simply because it might take a bit more awareness. Dive Bomb needs work, but Cass is a very strong pick to me.

Azrael008uk

Cass is fantastic and I fell in love with playing her as the Beta went on.

I can't believe I spent half the Beta not even realising she had Charge Jump... which you can charge as she's running?!?!?!

How can you say "Powercell" is Kryptonite to a character with all that speed and maneuverability? You identify the powercells for your Team and you'll probably have gobbled them all before the enemies even show up.

Swoop does what it should very well. It's not supposed to be a homing missile but something to get you in close for some claw attacks and then back out.

Cass can be devastating but not for players trying to stand there and just swing toe to toe.

Best used when your motto is "Why don't you and him fight... so I can kill you".

Sol Aethiops

<_< Bird Lady is super weak. All her skills are niche and she is next to useless in both game modes. Who would ever play such a character?

Cass mains please copy/paste this everywhere so we can get an already terrifying character buffed even more.

She is 100% this game's "agile assassin", and I shudder to think what she could do if buffed. With the right mods, she is basically untouchable. If the enemy team chooses to zerg, she will cost them the game by capping the points they can't and collecting all the things. She can cross a map in under 10 seconds fairly easily. Although "squishy", a smart Cass will always be the one deciding whether a fight happens or not, so just bide your time and kill stragglers. It only really dawned on me just how apt her description is when I actually tried to play that way and ended up with a 15/0 game with highest Kills and Killing Blows and 3rd in Damage Done (half that of 1st place). She's not there to carry teams necessarily (possible, but that's not her role). She's there to cause sweaty tryhard teams to rethink their group mentality, and punish them for trying to adjust.

Hightail makes it so that chasers are left with their ****s in their hand at any given moment. I've had people completely lost and running in circles due to a Hightail/Swoop combo (you can change directions mid-air by adjusting your camera). If you're launching yourself into enemy hands, then you are quite simply doing it wrong.

Dive Bomb being "useless" tells me all I need to know. Nothing against Blade Dance, but I had to put that one down once I realized that it doesn't really fit her style. She's not a "in the thick of things" character, so why use that except for rare situations where you need to dive? Dive Bomb is another mobility skill that can be used to escape/engage in ways that no one can deal with, and with the right mods can make her incredibly annoying.

OP, I think you just need some time to revisit her skillset. It's going to take some time for people to understand that she isn't a brawler. In fact, if your 1v1 is more than 75% health, then bail and find a weak opponent or objective to complete. I think most people won't like this playstyle, but that is how you get the most of of Cass.

But yes, I agree... buff all of her skills please.

xSUND0WN

Level 8 Cass with a 75% winrate and ~7.5 hours on her...

I disagree with pretty much every single point you make about her tbh.

I felt like she was much stronger in Power Capture than point capture, because her mobility and ability to pick off high value targets, while also being able to very quickly and efficiently clean up cells.

I never had this bug with swoop, if I was locked, I went to the target. Anytime I was unlocked I went straight. And you also are likely undervaluing the damage double swoop adds to a combo. You can swoop, evade, swoop into rake and then clean up with AA's in any area where super jump and your B will get you out of trouble.

Rake is already incredibly strong and you can CC anyone against a wall. The stomp mechanic you talk about also exists if you are airborne vs. airbone opponents.

Hightail is tricky at first, but allows for way more interesting combos once you're able to orient yourself correct. I think this adds for a level of skill expression, also make it harder for certain characters to track you.

Feather darts feel incredibly weak if you don't buff them, so I use all 3 of my mods to make them stronger. 20% extra range, 7.5% damage on basic attack and the 7.5% increased damage after casting swoop. This allows for you to very quickly single out any squishies who step near a wall with swoop+rake, followed by AA's as they try to evade away.

Blade dancer>Dive bomb if youre able to constantly have power ups and isolate 1 to 2 people reactively. I think dive bomb overall will end up being more useful at top tier play, but I used Blade Dance in pubs and stacked 4's incredibly well.

I would hesitate to call for any buff/nerfs on any character until we see 1 or 2 more Fighters in the overall roster.

strayfox3558

I don't think she's weak but I do think that, currently, Daemon is a much more effective and efficient pick who serves the same role and I think that's the main problem with her. As well as the fact that Maeve is SUCH a great counter that you will struggle to get any success at all if the enemy team just switch to a Maeve.

I thought it would be cool if one of your Swoops would reset upon a kill as it would help her survivability even more. I think this would increase her potential as a DPS/Diver in her own right rather than just a secondary Daemon. It would also be extremely satisfying!

@AmazingVector said in Cass Overview. Shes my favorite but needs some love.:

@AinjelFyre ...save for Dive Bomb. I definitely think it is possibly the worst Super in the game and it indeed holds the entire character back from being better.

Interesting! I feel like this is the majority consensus as well from games I played vs Cass and reading this forum. I had about 10 hours on Cass during the Beta and a couple more hours on the Alpha and I've always used Dive Bomb. I actually use the Mod that heals you for 60 per second while in the air. It has been incredibly effective for me as it allows me to chase healers and low health targets further than I normally would without that Super as I know once I'm low I can instantly heal myself to at least half HP whilst being able to land right back on the enemy's toes again.

Azrael008uk

I didn't have much time for "Blade Dancer" because it just said "Hey, look at me, I'm Ult-ing... please shoot me".
I found Dive Bomb an incredible tool for unsuspecting attacks and finishing off characters trying to escape.