Signs of a new Meta

There are plenty of ranged physical damage assassins in Heroes of the Storm, but not all of them are picked often in competitive play - Only Valla, Falstad, Greymane and Tychus are the go-to picks in nearly all regions. However, this weekend's matches showed signs of greatness from one of the newest Heroes, Cassia.

Cassia has a lot of things going for her, including unparalleled physical damage mitigation, two impactful heroic choices and arguably the strongest level 1 talent in the game: Charged Strikes. All of these strengths and more make her particularly effective in the current double warrior meta, as she can comfortably fill the role of solo-ranged assassin when needed.

An impactful Hero

Team Expert, a 4th place team, defeated Team Liquid with a shocking 3-2 victory this weekend. What made this upset possible was Expert’s embracing of new heroes and strategies including Probius, The Lost Vikings (with Longboat Raid!) and, of course, Cassia. No one would argue that Team Expert is consistently better than Team Liquid, but their read on the new meta gave them the edge they needed.

This loss for Team Liquid is particularly troubling, as HasuObs has been playing a large amount of Cassia on his stream and has remarked on the Hero's strength many times. Losing to the new hero against a much lower ranked team during the first week of her HGC availability just shouldn’t happen. To Team Liquids credit, perhaps they merely underestimated the impact Cassia brings to a draft.

In Korea, GG used Cassia to defeat Tempest during game two, another upset thanks to the new heroes strength..Her position as a solo ranged DPS was impressive, especially on Battlefield of Eternity due to the interaction when Charged Strikes damages an Immortal. The splash damage makes it difficult for enemies to defend without taking excessive damage from stray auto-attacks.

Unlike Team Liquid, Tempest adapted and struck back with a Cassia pick of their own, this time using her to counter the SGT. Hammer composition that GG drafted. Cassia is one of the strongest heroes against SGT. Hammer, as her Avoidance passive allows her to confidently walk into Hammer’s siege range and shrug off the damage. Just a day earlier, MVP Black used Cassia in games two and three against Raven to counter SGT. Hammer and additionally physical threats like Greymane and Tychus.

A tanky alternative

Throughout the weekend, Cassia continued to perform well. In the clip above, MVP Black’s Cassia is caught out of position by E.T.C, Malfurion and Greymane. However, Cassia’s inherent tankiness (combined with her level 4 Inner Light talent) allows her to survive. Then, thanks to the overwhelming power of Charged Strikes, Cassia is able to turn on all three enemy heroes and start delivering loads of AoE damage. It’s hard to imagine any other ranged assassin that would of survived this gank.

This weekend showed that Cassia has a place in competitive Heroes. Her damage potential and ability to function as a team's solo ranged assassin is invaluable, especially in a meta currently dominated by double warriors and sometimes double supports. Fragile heroes are becoming a liability and, as less and less mages see play, Cassia’s niche as an orb-walking physical threat is valued at a premium.