Elise is by far my favorite Champion. In my guide I will show you all the nitty gritty tips and tricks of Elise you won't see in other guides, with videos included. I have read every Elise guide, and most cater to players that don't already know how to play Elise and don't offer much to players that already know how to play her. What you really want to know is the small details that turn you from a great Elise player into a Master. But my guide is also perfect for players new to Elise.

Elise is very tough to master, expect to totally fail the first 10 times you play her. I would say you need about 30 games before you get a good feel for how to use her. Maybe around 50 games and you will start to feel good. After 100 games you should know it all and be able to pull off every move easily.

You can build Elise as Tanky as you want and as long as you include some Magic Pen runes and items, she will still deal high burst damage and harass.

Detailed explanation and other highly viable options.

Marks

Greater Mark of Magic Penetration for late game damage. Greater Mark of Hybrid Penetration for slightly faster early jungle and late game 1v1 fights. Explanation and Details The trade off here is you gain 9 ArPen and only lose 4 Mpen. If you look at your end game stats most of your damage will be magic damage, but you will find most of this is harassment damage. When it counts the extra ArPen really makes a difference especially in 1v1 fights because of your spiderlings. The reality is it doesn't matter which of these you take but Hybrid will make Jungling easier.

Seals

Greater Seal of Armor Take these regardless of the Rune combination you decide on, these are a must have in every set. Explanation and Details Early game you need this for trades and ganks as well as it helps in the jungle, also scales well into the late game

Glyphs

Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist are the best runes to have for late game, but I usually take three Greater Glyph of Magic Resist to help with early game vs AP champs. You can mix and match these in any combo to increase early/late game effectiveness.

Quints

Greater Quintessence of Movement Speed (Faster Jungle clear and easier ganks or chasing) Greater Quintessence of Hybrid Penetration (Faster Jungler clear. Better sustain) Greater Quintessence of Magic Penetration (provides extra damage) Hybrid vs Magic Pen Qunits If you pick Hybrid over Magic Pen You gain 5.37 ArPen and only lose 1.8 Magic Pen. I Prefer Hybrid over Magic Pen Greater Quintessence of Ability Power (IMO the least useful). Why AP Runes are the least useful - Explanation Neurotoxin Only scales once you go over 100AP, 14 AP will not push any item combination on Elise over 100 AP, nor will it push any item over 200 so this has no effect on Neurotoxin at any stage of the game. Adds an extra 10 damage to Volatile Spiderling. Adds an extra 1.4 damage per spiderling, which is semi useful but the same effect can be achieved via Hybrid runes which also give Elise the bonus and scale with all of her abilities. Remember Elise scales best of Mag Pen not AP.

Pick based on your play style and enemy team comp.


NOTE: Some Elise players like attack speed for the jungle. IMO it is only useful for the first few camps.

Overall I don't really like the new masteries for Elise, they are just not as great a fit as the old ones. The biggest hit is not having Mag Pen mastery from 9 points on the offense Tree. This is a huge nerf to Tank Elise. And really makes using the defensive tree much less attractive.

You can play tank build Elise with either Offensive or Defensive Masteries. I usually go Offensive masteries regardless of which build I am going. I only make the decision to go Defensive masteries once everyone has picked.

Some Highlights and Lowlights

Tenacious and Hardiness
Both are pretty strong. Hardiness helps in the jungle and early ganks. In team fights Tenacious gives you 20 Armor and 10 MR. Even with two champs near you it is worth having. And is particularly strong early game.

Devastating Strikes

Very powerful on Elise and is the main reason you are almost forced into using the Offensive tree over the Defensive Tree. It helps with early jungle clear as all camp mobs have armor but no MR. Your spiderlings scale off AP but they deal AD. You also deal mostly AD to jungle mobs giving you a boost to the jungle. The 6% MPen is a bit of a hit to your over all harassment and burst, but give's you much stronger 1v1 potential and probably evens out in team fights overall due to the slight boost to AD and healing you get from it.

Enchanted Armor Pretty useless on Elise. With most of her builds it only gives around 4 Armor and 4 Magic Resist at full build. Block and Unyielding will provide the same effect but all throughout the game and is very strong early game.

Arcane Mastery gives you a Total of 26 AP at level 18 combined with Mental Force . Over all this adds almost nothing even at level 18 due to the combination of items it will never make Neurotoxin or Venomous Bite do any extra damage. It will only slightly effect your spiderlings and Volatile Spiderling mid to late game.

Expose Weakness and Spell Weaving works well on Elise and is always giving bonus damage.

Juggernaut is not really worth it. With most full builds it will only give you an extra 50HP. With one of the most HP heavy builds it only gives you an 100 extra HP endgame with full HP items. So you can pass over this mastery if you want and go for 22/8/0 if there is something else you really want to choose instead.

Mix and match the defensive items and boots depending on who you are playing against.

Sorcerer's Shoes
I get these almost every time. Good vs a team that has 3 or more squishy players.

Mercury's Treads
You can get these if the other team has alot of AP and CC. But are generally not worth it.

Ninja Tabi
Only viable if the other team has at least two AA champs like Caitlyn + Tryndamere and perhaps a third AD champ, I would recommend Spirit of the Ancient Golem in combination with these boots. Only really viable on Tanky Elise.

Since 3.14 you want to get your gold item ASAP to maximize the passive gold bonus sometimes even before boots.

Spirit of the Spectral Wraith

This is now the best pick on Elise. You are too slow with not enough sustain without it. Spirit of the Ancient Golem does not give you much benefit till very late game with. And it is much slower to clear.

This adds alot of damage to Elise plus after a team fight you can get back to 50-70% in one or two jungle creep camps which allows you to go back into battle. You wont need blue buff anymore and won't have to worry about mana.

One upside to Spirit of the Spectral Wraith is you reach the all important 100 and 200 AP points with simple easy combinations and natural build orders even more so with the new AP on this item and maybe even the 300 mark. Where as you may not reach these important damage points until late game and maybe not even the 200 AP at all on tank builds or Spirit of the Ancient Golem builds.

Spirit of the Ancient Golem
Changes to this item in patch 4.11 made this mostly for Very tanky champs. It is not great on Elise early game. You clear much slower your HP and mana run out pretty quickly compared to Spirit of the Spectral Wraith. I would not take this item but you can swap to it late game for a huge HP boost seeing your build will be HP heavy. If you trust your team you can start this but it will leave you vulnerable in the jungle.


Haunting Guise and later Liandry's Torment
Buy this second always. The magic Pen is a must and the extra hp is a bonus. Remember Elise damage scales the best with Magpen over AP. Upgrade to Liandry's Torment last or second to last after you have Rylai's Crystal Scepter. The slow from Rylai's Crystal Scepter will activate double damage on Liandry's Torment.
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Video of how fast Elise Can heal up from very low HP. With Spirit Stone or any of the three jungle items. Play Video /league-of-legends/item/rylais-crystal-scepter-85

Abyssal Mask
Grab this item only if they are bursting you down with AP casters and your team has AP casters that can burst down their champs. Otherwise GA or Spirit Visage might be a better option. I find this item is most useful on Assassin Elise but it leaves you very very vulnerable to CC and AD. You are better off building some armor or an item like [Zhonya's Hourglass]] instead of rushing this as in most cases you will be 1v1 vs AD not AP.

Banshee's Veil
Probably my favorite MR item on Elise. The main thing that shuts down Elise is any kind of snare or stun. It will break your combo, which results in you losing 50% of your damage and it stops you from using Rappel. Veil can save you from characters that rely on silence or stun as their opening move. For example LeBlanc. This item will mean instead of her killing you without you getting even one hit in, you will either kill her or escape.

Randuin's Omen
If they have chars like Renekton and Riven that do lots of of Physical damage but most of it is through abilities rather than auto attacks, also great for escaping or helping stop escapes. Works better than almost all other armor items in team fights.

Frozen Heart
If they have fast auto attackers like Vayne and Tryndamere this item is useful. The cooldown is very useful on Elise and the mana can help in sustained Harassment. Would only buy this if it is not an option for someone else on the team. Especially after 4.6 nerf which gives it only 15% from 20%.

Locket of the Iron Solari
Great item for team fights. Is well worth getting. Only downside is it can slow you down if you get it early game. And it doesn't provide much to Elise.

Thornmail Could be a useful replacement for Frozen Heart. But again you won't be tanking as much as a pure tank, and you certainly won't be taking enough hits for this to be worth it. Though this is cheap and might be worth getting until you max your build. Where you could swap it out later for something more expensive.IMO Frozen heart with it's cooldown reduction is better suited on Elise.

Zhonya's Hourglass
You don't really need this item as Rappel effectively does the same job. But if you have both you can be very very annoying to kill. This item is a must have on assassin Elise, as it gives you that extra survivability you lose by not building tank as well as the extra ability power you need to 100-0 squishies.

Sunfire Aegis Generally a good item for the price and it works well with the high Magic Pen on Elise, but is very situational. As there are much better items for late game. Randuin's Omen offers near double armor and more HP, and in my opinion is a much better for team fighting item. Is not great on Jungle Elise as you will only build half of it then want to finish other items first. As top lane can mess up your lane phase as it is generally only good early to mid game.

I don't see any reason to build this item on Elise. You are not Tanky enough no matter how you build to sit and take damage all day long like other champs that have innate tank abilities. Also you will spend some of your team fight time in the air or at the back of fights peeling for your ADC. Since patch 4.1 this is even less useful for Elise.

Spirit Visage
Very good pick if you need some extra HP and magic resist. The healing passive works well with your jungle item as well as Skittering Frenzy. Slightly less useful since the nerf but still an option.

Guardian Angel
A good option to take some of the focus off you in team fights and might help vs teams that can burst you down easily. I will usually only take this if my team is doing well and I have full build. I will sometimes sell it and buy something else once the effect has activated. Very situational item.

Rabadon's Deathcap
Assasin only item - I prefer to get Zhonya's Hourglass over this though.

Not much to say here. There is no leeway here you always 100% of the time get your skills in the order listed when jungling.

For top or support you can switch up the first and second skills slightly to your preference.
Some players like to put a second point in Skittering Frenzy earlier than level 8 which allows you to 1 hit the small Wraiths and gives you a tiny tiny bit more sustain very early game.

This makes your ganks less effective and unless you know for sure you won't be ganking until level 8 I do not recommend this.

Spider Queen Passive
Spiderling's are very complicated, and I will go into more detail in the tips section. Basically every time you land an ability in human form she will ready a spiderling. When you change to Spider form the amount you have collected spawn. Spiderlings do Physical damage but the damage scales off your AP. Spiderlings will attack whatever you are attacking and will automatically jump to and attack anything you Venomous Bite.

Human Form
Elise has no ultimate instead she switches forms, leveling up her ultimate gives you an extra spiderling. Because she has two forms she can do 6 abilities in very quick succession, four of which add damage, all abilities in Human Form cost mana except R.

Neurotoxin
Max this first. It will be where most of your damage comes from. Also use this ability first whatever you are fighting as the damage it does is based on how much health someone currently has. So it is most effective on full HP to 50% health targets.

Volatile Spiderling
Spawns a spider that runs in the direction you choose, running at and exploding on the nearest target. It will prioritize champions first so if there is minions in the way send it out to the side first and it will loop around and hit the champ. Also if you spawn Volatile Spiderling then change to Spider Form and press Venomous Bite your Volatile Spiderling will jump from where ever it is over all obstacles and explode on your target. (More of this later) Can also be used to check bushes as it provides vision.

Cocoon
A very powerful stun. Is a skill shot which can take a while to get used to. It reveals targets it hits so it is great for checking bushes or checking if blue/red is up without running all the way around or wasting a ward. You will use it for ganks, initiating and running away. Landing a stun will ready a spiderling, so you can use all three abilities even if you don't need to stun something to quickly ready three spiderlings.

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Spider Form
In spider form Elise moves slightly faster so always use spider form to move places and switch to human form a few seconds before you arrive. She also gains slightly stronger auto attack based on your AP. When switching her spiderlings will spawn. All abilities in spider form cost no mana.

Venomous Bite
This ability is an execution move. Always use it last and on low hit point targets as it does damage based on the target's missing health. Any spiderlings or Volatile Spiderling will jump to your target regardless of where you are and what is in the way and attack the target.

Skittering Frenzy
This is the biggest attack speed boost in the game. It applies to you and your spiderlings and is a must for jungling. It allows you to kill Monsters fast and heals you significantly. Pro Tip: Wait a split second after you have used Venomous Bite as spiderlings lag behind a little bit. If you use it early they will miss out on 1 or 2 extra hits.

Rappel
So many uses. You can activate it in three ways. Directly click on an enemy champ or minion to instantly fly to their location, click on empty space to have Elise stay in the air for a few seconds and she will land where she started, or before the effect ends click on a minion or enemy champion to fly to them.

Rappel Has so many uses and tricks it needs a dedicated section.

Please note all tricks that work on the blue side work on the Purple side but because of the camera angle your Rappel has very very slightly shorter range. So jumping to baron and wolves is slighly tighter from the top.

Some things most players don't know about Rappel. There is a buff indicator when you Rappel which shows how long before you come back down. It does make you untargetable for 2 seconds but you can only press E again to land on a target for around 1.75 seconds. You will notice you can't press E once it gets past 85%. Rappel will always land inside your range circle even if someone flashes outside it. If you Rappel and the target is not near the edge of your range you will land behind them, if they are on the very edge you will land in front of them. This is useful to know and landing behind them can add significant damage from spiderlings and your AA.

You can use it to dodge turret fire but generally if the turret projectile has gone more than 30% of it's distance it will still hit you in the air(see spoiler below for more details). Also some targeted abilities can still hit you on your way up. For example if TF threw his stun card at you it would still hit you most of the time unless you fluked Rappel around the same time he cast it. Your Rappel would still work as normal but you take the damage you would not get stunned.



Turret diving - Dive a turret and tank a few hits, then Rappel to an enemy minion or champ to get away. Or use it to lose tower agro or buy you some time. Note if you don't have minions or an allied champion with you when you land the tower will agro back onto you.

Escaping turret dives - If the enemy dives you at your turret you can use Rappel to stay in the air for a few seconds so your turret will usually hit him twice then you can land and drop a few skills on him.

Chasing the enemy - When chasing an enemy that is out of range click Rappel on them and Elise will chase until she is in range then automatically Rappel. Or if you know you are in range click them to instantly jump to your target.

Dodging skill shots - This is an advanced tip but anyone can do it. You can jump over skillshots or just Rappel into the air to avoid them or even turret shots. If in human form it requires an extra step, R>E, if you are in spider form already you just have to press E to avoid the skillshot. I say this is advanced as your Rappel has a long cooldown so you should only be using it to avoid a skillshot that would result in death such as Nidalee's Javelin Toss or Sivir's Boomerang Blade. You would only use this if you were sure you couldn't sidestep.

Jumping the skillshot can be more difficult, say Lux or Morgana are running away from you, chase them in spider form, wait for them to do an ability then Rappel over it onto them.

Rappel over skillshots to avoid getting hit and going for the kill. Play Video _____________________________________________

Escaping or jumping walls - Elise can Rappel to minions champions or neutral jungle monsters. Always try to position yourself to fight near an escape option. You can also use it to jump to wolves, blue/red or dragon and baron. Though you need to be in the correct spots so see below vids.

I suggest doing a custom game and and trying out all the Rappel spots I show you in the videos. You can use it to avoid ults like Nunu & Willump Caitlyn Morgana. It cancels Vi's Ult and puts it on cooldown but you have to be fast. If fizz puts his ult on you you can Rappel out of it make it useless, just make sure you wait a few seconds because if you do it too early and land before it snaps it will hit you. Can also be used to avoid skills like LeBlanc stun that takes a few seconds to channel. Also works on Unspeakable Horror but it doesn't reset it so he can cast it again right away.

Other skills it does not work on like Fiddlesticks Bountiful Harvest. It will continue to drain you through Rappel. It does not stop damage of time abilities from killing you like Teemo poisons or ignite.

How to Rappel to Dragon and Wraiths Play Video _____________________________________
Tricks for Rappel to Wolvles or Blue Buff Play Video _____________________________________

Rappel stun/gank - 90% of the time you will want to start in Human form for ganking then spider form to finish them off / chase as it will maximise your damage. But on occasion you may want to quickly Rappel to and stun someone on low health. To do this start in Spider Form click Rappel on the person you want to kill and as soon as you land press R Human Form then E Cocoon. So E>R>E then finish them off with Q>W. This is for a low health target generally, but works on some full hp squishies if you are ganking and you have a team mate that can follow up with another stun or burst for the kill.

***Video coming soon***

Stop spiderlings last hitting in an emergency - Sometimes when you want to leave blue for your team mates you might be stuck in Spider Form and are unable to change back to Human Form because of the cooldown, your spiderlings are likely to finish it off if you are not careful (as you can't stop them attacking. You can Rappel to instantly stop any damage and let your teammate finish it off. Obviously you want to avoid this but sometimes you can't.
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Emergency Rappel to stop last hit on Blue or Red buff. Play Video /league-of-legends/ability/rappel-570 Ganking section for some advanced tips and videos on ganking with Rappel.

In Depth Spider Queen

This is the part I find lacking on other guides, I will show you all the methods you can use. Most of them are not very useful and you will rarely use them. But they are good to know about as on occasion you will use every method.

Everyone knows you can get Elise's spiderlings to tank jungle monsters and you will be told more times than you can count when to do this by others incorrectly. I will tell you how to do it and when you should and shouldn't do it.

Getting your spiderlings to tank is harder than you think. In general Jungle Monsters will attack whoever is closest to the monster. In reality most of the camps react differently and do not follow this principle unless you follow a few basics.

First of all when should you and shouldn't you let your minions tank? Generally on big Monsters like red and Blue you don't want them to tank until it is almost dead. It is better if you tank for two reasons. If your spiderling dies you will lose the damage it does. Also you will lose the healing it does.

On smaller camps you can let them tank after you have tanked some of the damage, this works well on wolves and Golum camp. After you reach level 6 you can let more camps tank more often but it becomes less important as you clear them so fast anyways.

How do you do it.

Start in Human Form. Use whatever abilities you want to from a distance then instantly change to Spider Form and wait at least 1 or more seconds for your spiderlings to walk in front of you to the mobs before you use any other ability. This will work 100% of the time if you are not too close. Once your spiderlings start attacking press Skittering Frenzy and Venomous Bite. The key here is to not use Venomous Bite to early. If you do your spiderlings will pounce and make it near impossible to make them tank.

Other less effective ways to make spiderlings tank which are not as useful but worth knowing.

Zoning - You stand outside the agro range but your spiderlings run inside. This method works 100% of the time but it can be tricky to learn the zoning distances. Also if you let your spiderlings die before moving back inside the zone range the mob will reset, so you have to practice that too. Also I find it a bit slower for clearing avoid using this method
Play Video .
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Moving back or around - Most people will just say move back. It is trickier than it sounds. If you simply move back your spiderlings will stop attacking and move with you resetting the agro to you again. Sometimes when you step back the spiders are closer but the Monster is still attacking you (varies per camp). If you want to tank to start with simply get close to the mob and move back when you want the spiderlings to take over.

In between auto attacks move back very slightly and attack. Repeat if it doesn't work the first time. Also just moving around slightly between attacks will sometimes force an aggro switch, so always move between attacks when Skittering Frenzy wears off as it can cause some mobs to miss an attack they would have normally had. The flip side is, if you move too far your spiders might miss an attack as they reposition. It takes alot of practice.

Spiderlings Tank red buff after you tank for a few seconds. Play Video
Spiderlings tank Wight and Blue buff Play Video _____________________________________

Another way is to wait for Venomous Bite to be ready move back a step then instantly Venomous Bite. This takes practice, because you don't want to move so far that when you Venomous Bite it moves you closer to the monster but you want to do it fast enough that your spiderlings don't reset. I find this method works really well but is not always practical.

Start in Spider Form auto attack the mobs from a distance. This works almost every time. The problem is you will want to start in human form 90% of the time and you can't use Venomous Bite because as soon as you do they will switch agro to you when you leap in unless you are at the perfect range so that you don't move when using this skill.

Spiderlings Tank Wolves
Play Video _____________________________________

Spiderlings Tank Solo Wraith. Play Video _____________________________________

Drag to bush method - This works every time on red/blue you need to pull the Monsfter into the bush once in the bush you can change to Spider Form Venomous Bite or whatever skills you want and it will always go for the spiderlings. Must be fully in the bush not halfway standing outside regardless if it is hidden by the bush or not.

Dragon - Very easy to force spiderlings to tank it. If you can tank it do so, as you want all the damage you can from the spiderlings, only let them tank it if you need to. All you have to do is simply step back and they will tank it. If you allow them to tank it, this is one of those times when changing to Human Form and using all three skills to recharge your spiders is appropriate. Tip you can use Cocoon on dragon to recharge a spiderling even though it does not stun him.

Elise Spiderlings tank Dragon and heals Back to Full health. Play Video

Baron - Move around as you attack so his AOE doesn't hit you or your spiderlings. Your spiderlings will always stay in the same spot.

Solo Baron on Elise (See Video notes for details) Play Video

Other uses for spiderlings:

-Your team mates can Teleport to them so Elise is a walking teleportation pad, no need for a ward to be around.

- Can block skllshots such as Nidalee Spear or Morgana Snare.

- Can tank turrets - If you do not have turret aggro and all minions die the turret will always go for your spiderlings first before going for you. So you can stay for an extra 4 maybe more turret shots. Spiderlings are great for taking down turrets.
You can also force turret agro when alone onto spiderlings. See below Video. Play Video /league-of-legends/champion/lee-sin-73

Neurotoxin

Once you have full build with Rylai's Crystal Scepter and Liandry's Torment the combination of these two skills on a full health target will drop their health significantly. Is a good scare tactic and makes then think twice before diving your turret or team if you are trying to stall for time. Just be careful you don't get caught when doing it.

Volatile Spiderling

Spider bomb. Send your spider any direction you want change to Spider Form and Venomous Bite and your spiderling will jump all targets in the way from any distance and land on your target blowing up. I use this if I plan to Rappel to Jungle monsters over walls, before you Rappel Volatile Spiderling then Spider Form Rappel Venomous Bite quickly and your Spiderling will jump the wall and blow up on your target.

Video of Spider Bomb Rappel to blue buff
Play Video
Spider Bomb over minions to hit Enemy Champ Play Video
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Scout Bushes with Volatile Spiderling Play Video _____________________________________

Human Form vs Spider Form Mechanics

Human Form attack animation is a bit clunky and cancels very easily if you give another move command but does not cancel if you cast an ability mid animation. So if you have red buff always auto attack first and immediately follow up with a spell mid animation.

Queuing up spells. On Elise you can't queue up spells. Previously you might have been able to before they changed Rappel but now you cant. So when stunned or coming out of Rappel you need to spam whatever skill you want to do next.

Spider Form is less clunky and will almost always land mid animation even if you give it another command, have a practice with it to get a feel. In general you don't need to time your skills so you don't miss an auto attack but it can sometimes make a difference.

Where to start

I tend to always start whatever side my ADC is on. So bot I will start red. Top I will start blue. But it doesn't matter where you start on Elise. If you start Red, burn your mana for faster clears before you get to blue.

The exception is if I am playing vs a strong Jungle like Shyvana who is likely to meet me at my second buff and try and kill me. For example Top, I will sometimes start red to avoid getting ganked there. As Elise is vulnerable before she hits level three.

Leash and should I ask for smiteless?

New Smite and Leashing

There is several options with the new Smite all of which still require your teammates to help.



Elise needs a STRONG leash at level 1 even with the new smite. Your initial burst is so good that the ADC will often leave early thinking you will kill it fast, but after your initial burst she is super weak and slow at level 1.

Gank or Keep farming at level three?

At this stage you will have double buff and just hit level three. You can look to see if any lanes are pushed and think about ganking. If mid or top are not pushed but are even you can still go for a gank if those lanes do not have an escape skill. At the least you will likely force a flash. Or you can keep farming. Just farm any camp that closest, order does not matter.

When to go back

At around 6:30 you will need to decide if you should go back or just stay out and farm. Usually I will almost always B and grab Spirit Stone and Boots and if you have enough Amplifying Tome. If you don't grab some Health Potion and Mana Potions and a couple Stealth Wards. Head back out to Red/Blue and do the same path as before, watching for ganking opportunities.

Note how much you need to buy Spirit of the Spectral Wraith (or other gold item of your choice) and as soon as you have enough money to buy it take any good opportunity to go back and grab it. The boost to gold as well worth getting as soon as possible.

I find Elise perfect for Ranked play. She is one of the best first pick champions, so if you have someone who can first pick her for you and you can pick for them that is ideal.

The reason being is she doesn't have many great counters, and no one knows where she is going to go if you first pick her. She could be jungle or top. And can be effectively played mid or bot as support if you counter pick the mid/bot players.

I would almost always play tanky Elise, but even assassin Elise is semi tanky. The only time I go assassin Elise is when my team has three other tanky characters already.

If you look after a lane for someone try not to miss CS. It can be diffult to farm with Elise as her spiderlings auto even when you tell Elise not to, and her spiderlings often cause you to miss a last hit as often as they get the last hit.

Venomous Bite Is perfect for last hitting minions.

Elise is good at pushing lanes. Always push a lane under turret if the enemy has gone back to reset the lane. This requires you killing all their minions and your minions reaching their tower before the next wave of theirs arrives.

I would not worry too much about CS when you are in the Jungle. As Elise is one of the best gankers in the game, you will be ganking often.

Jungling combo.

Start in human form Q>W>R>Q>W>Q
Neurotoxin> Volatile Spiderling> Spider Form> Venomous Bite> Skittering Frenzy

Neurotoxin the big Mob first and if you have high mana or blue buff also use your W Volatile Spiderling . Make sure you are in a position so that the spider will hit all mobs. Instantly Change to Spider Form and Venomous Bite and Skittering Frenzy.

If you have smite ready and want to use it make sure you smite before Venomous Bite as it will do alot more damage. Also you can slip Cocoon in there if you want if you have high mana and dont want to take damage.

Sometimes you will Skip Neurotoxin to save mana. Or just start in spider form to save mana. If you get Spirit of the Spectral Wraith Venomous Bite will return hp and Mana for no cost on neutral monsters. So if you are low on mana stay in spider form and Spam Q Venomous Bite.

On single targets you can skip (like the new Solo Wight) Volatile Spiderling.

Ganking Combo's.

Most of the time you will want to be walking around the map in human form, because you get the Maximum burst combo from this form as well as you can Cocoon instantly if you need to.

Human Combo: E>Q>W>R>Q>W>Q
Cocoon> Neurotoxin> Volatile Spiderling> Spider Form> Venomous Bite> Skittering Frenzy.

You can either start with Cocoon or use it right before you change forms you will need to learn when. Generally if they are pushed you can use it after they try to flash away or use some other dodge skill as using your other skills will scare them into thinking you are trying to stun them. If they are near their turret or you are diving them stun them first.

Sometimes you will Volatile Spiderling first if you are far away from them as Neurotoxin will land before it arrives, most of the time your Volatile Spiderling will spider bomb onto them when you Venomous Bite and in some cases you will send Volatile Spiderling backwards away from the direction you are going if there are minions in your way so it will 100% spider bomb.

And you can follow up this combo with Rappel to either chase or escape, and here is a really useful tip. Do not [Rappel]] right away if you can help it. Chase them for 1-2 seconds then Rappel and stay in the air as long as you can before dropping on them unless you know one of there escape skills is about to refresh. If you Rappel to them immediatly none of your skills will be ready by waiting Spider Form will have refreshed and gives you that gap close leap you need when coming down from Rappel if you have red buff it allows you to get an auto attack off and slow them or Rylai's Crystal Scepter will slow them with the bite otherwise if they are faster than you they will escape.

Waiting to do Rappel so Venomous Bite is ready when you land Play Video /league-of-legends/ability/rappel-570 Play Video
Spider form Combo:
E>R>E>Q>W>R>Q>W
Rappel> Spider Form> Cocoon> Neurotoxin> Volatile Spiderling> Human Form> Venomous Bite> Skittering Frenzy

This takes some practice to do. The idea is you want to close the gap fast with Rappel and instantly stun them so your team mate can then Ult or stun them too before they can flash back to their tower or over a wall. Or you can do this combo solo on a low health target.

Alot of the time you will only land half the combo. And is more dangerous than human form combo. As you will not have Rappel or Cocoon to escape with. So I generally don't use this combo very often unless I am already in spider form.

After either combo's after a few seconds your Cocoon will refresh again so there is some hope if you get counter ganked.

Smart cast is a must for all Elise abilities. Lots of people prefer not to use recticles but IMO on Elise they are very useful and come down to personal taste.

You can lead your stun and see its range and you can also see the range on Rappel.

It also gives you the option of cancelling that ability if decide you don't wan't to use it.

EG Volatile Spiderling or Cocoon you can press and hold down the key to bring up the recticle and aim it around to get the perfect shot. Simply release the key to fire off your spell. Or right click to cancel.

If you want the spell to cast instantly simply tap the key instead of holding it down. It can take some getting used to, but I personally find them useful and more fun. But on a very very rare occasion have reticules can slow your combo down because you didn't tap the key fast enough and held it down for a second. This is the only disadvantage. Once you are pro at Elise you can try turning them off, but I found it less fun. Also I love the recticle for threading the stun through minions.

Everytime you go back you need to pickup at least one or two wards.

You want to ward around Wraiths to protect your jungle and also your laners from backdoor ganks. This spot is a must ward.

You can also ward their jungle near wraiths to ensure your team mates can see the jungler coming if he goes for a gank on mid or top/bot through his own Jungle.

I also like to help by warding lanes if I notice my team mates wards have faded. So Top I might ward the river or tri bush. Bot I might ward the dragon or Tri bush. Mid I will generally ward Wraiths either side not his lane bushes.

You should be the person warding the most in the game other than perhaps support.

You have a few roles in team fights. Harrassing. Use Neurotoxin on anyone with high health, but make sure you do it safely, and harass or push minions with Volatile Spiderling.

Be ready to catch any squishy champ you can out of position with your stun. May require you to flash stun them or Rappel stun them, this can be very risky though so make sure your team is ready by pinging and that you know your team has the advantage in the team fight.

Alternatively you can wait for them to engage and land your stun on a valuable target/peel for your adc. Elise is very good at protecting the ADC especially if she has Rylai's Crystal Scepter to slow them down, and she can drop a tonne of damage on anyone going for the ADC hopefully allowing the ADC to finish them off.

And lastly, tank damage and deal damage. In some cases she can be used to kill the squishies.

Elise is Viable in any position which is what makes her great. Although she is probably least suited to support.

Top and Mid

I have included a build for top and mid. You can either build her Tanky or Assassin for top and Mid you will likely always go Assassin Elise. Her masteries, runes and items are pretty much the same as on the Tank and Assassin builds. Although you may want to change a few masteries to suite your playstyle.

The main difference is your starting items and you don't build a jungle item. You will pick Neurotoxin/ Venomous Bite as your starting ability as it is good for last hitting.

You can play her aggressively at level 4 with 2 points in Neurotoxin. Before level 4 you don't want to waste your mana too much. Or you can play her passively as she has very good sustain and is near impossible to turret dive.

Venomous Bite can also be used for a mana free harassment especially on melee matchups.

Use counter pick websites and read the comments to get a better feel for matchups. As I feel that is a better place to get tips and info for matchups.

Support

The only time I would go Elise support is if you knew she would work well against a certain matchup bottom.

She works well with Caitlyn as you both can Harass and if they step on a trap you are almost guaranteed to land your stun and full combo. And if you land your stun Caitlyn can instantly cast a trap that is guaranteed to land.

You would build her pretty much the same as the Tanky Jungle build. But instead of the jungle item you would start with the support item of your choice. You could use either Tank Masteries or Support masteries. And you would likely get a second support item rather than Liandry's Torment depending on the situation.

As Jungle this is not very important, but you will occasionally hold a lane so it is useful to know but I would recommend going to any of the Various counter picking sites to get more details as well as read the comments. Here I will just go over picks Elise is strong and weak against when Jungling.

Elise is at her weakest early game. Especially before level three as you can't Cocoon or Rappel. Make sure you spam your healing pots to keep yourself at full health (but don't waste them).

Nunu & Willump: Can be very annoying to Elise. He is unlikely to kill you but he can steal buffs and mobs easily and Run away and heal up any damage you did.

Nasus: Lane or Jungle. Similar to Nunu except he is likely to kill you once farmed. Early game in the jungle you will should be able to kill him using your combo and he is not much of a threat. Mid to late game he is a huge threat as he will easily be able to kill you if you try to go toe to toe.

Shyvana Lee Sin Jax: All early game threats. You don't want to meet them before level three, consider starting red so they don't level 2 gank you there. Shy and Jax are tough to 1v1 late game.

Jarvan IV: can be a pain for Elise with his early game damage but if you all in on even health you will often kill him. He has good escapes and often catches you early game on lower health in spider form. He also has good counter ganks.

Zac: Not much of a threat to you, unless he lands his full combo on you including his leap. If you catch him out you can probably at least burn his passive, again is very strong counter ganker.

Amumu: He suffers from the same problems as Elise early game but even worse. You can counter Jungle him at level three if you know where he is and easily kill him if you land all your skills. Late game he can disrupt your combo's and be generally annoying. You can Rappel to avoid his Ult.

Kassadin: can shut you down and be out of range before his silence wears off. Kass is particularly annoying. Banshee's Veil Should help you survive. Go in human form and try to land your stun then combo. [[Rappel] when he tries to ult away. An easy kill if another player on your team has a stun,snare or silence to follow up after your Cocoon.

Shen Darius Garen top lane: These are all very easy ganks, you can predict
where Shens taunt will end and have Cocoon Aimed and ready for when he does it. Be sure to land your your Human form combo before Garen can silence you. Use Rappel to cancel Darius alt or escape out of its range.

Fizz His ult is practically useless vs you so he can't burst you down. Especially if you are tanky. Try to bait his Playful / Trickster with Volatile Spiderling because once he has used his escape skill he is a sitting duck. All in on him from Human Form and force him to use his ult on you, wait a few seconds and Rappel right before the shark bites. After it bites land on fizz and finish him off.

Fiddlesticks: Very Dangerous as he will interrupt your combo's and his drain will out sustain any damage you do. Early game if you can stun right as he drains you, you might be able to take him down, but he will likely fear you then his Bountiful Harvest will be off cooldown again.
Mid to late game the cooldown and power of Drain is so overpowering you will have no chance 1v1 by yourself unless you can catch him by surprise and land Cocoon and pull off your full Human Form Combo, even then he is likely to get away if he had full health to start with.

Yasuo: Very annoying to fighting unless you land your Cocoon which can be difficult if he is dodging around try to engage when there are no friendly minions nearby. He is less annoying since they nerfed the timer on his shield. Be careful facing him in Spider Form as he will be able to Sweeping Blade to each of your spiderlings. His does not block Volatile Spiderling as it walks and is not a projectile. You can Rappel over his wirlwind to avoid getting ulted.

LeBlanc :If you land Cocoon you have a good chance of 90% killing her solo then she will likely escape with her passive and ult. You might be able to Rappel to her after she jumps away but she can always reverse her location. If there are two of you do not both chase, one should stay on the mark incase she does reverse her location.

She can combo you to death if she lands her silence. Banshee's Veil Should stop this and allow you to kill her instead of the other way around.

Kha'Zix Jungle: He has the potential to level 2 gank you at red buff but it is risky for him. Generally he is not a threat unless he is lying in wait somewhere for you. Even then you will likely have time to Cocoon and either flash or Rappel away. In saying that you are much more of a threat to him in the reverse situation. Wait for him in a bush. Cocoon and drop full combo which will kill him if he doesn't jump away. Use Rappel to chase and kill. You can likely take him 1v1 once you have Warden's Mail or even before then as long as you land Cocoon somewhere in the fight. You can harass him reasonably safely from human form.

Udyr Jungle: Can be a threat early game if he surprises you from a bush. You can not out run him even if you get a full range range Rappel he may still catch up. Your best be is to flash over a wall or Rappel over a wall. You are very unlikely to be able to go toe to toe vs most builds except you maybe able to bust down a glass cannon build. Wait until he stuns you in Human Form then do your full combo and he will likely start to run. You can harass Udyr all day from a turret or near team mates.

Pantheon:

18 June - 4.9 and 4.10. Nothing much changes on Elise other than Warden's Mail and Randuin's Omen have had a nerf. No longer slows someone attacking you. And attack speed reduction only 10% now.
27 May - 4.7 and 4.8 brought no real changes for Elise other than the changes to the HP of jungle mobs in 3v3. She is still viable in 3v3 jungle.
23 Apr - Patch 4.6. Nothing interesting for Elise
23 Apr - Patch 4.5 introduced changes to runes. There is no real change for Elise. Although scaling amour runes might be an option for jungle Elise if you can stay out of trouble until level 6. Even then they wont make much difference. Some of the other boots might be more viable and Frozen heart is now even less attractive.
19 Mar - Added section dedicated to patch 4.4 below
28 Feb - Patch 4.3 Changes to Jungle items. Slight nerf to both. Down to 6% health and 3% mana. But effect not lessened for AOE. Overall this is a nerf. It means you can use spider where you may not have before but the overall result is your sustain for health and mana is lower.

19 Feb - Hotfix some possible fixes/changes to Rappel -Your text to link here...

4.2 Stealth fix of Volatile Spiderling See thread http://forums.na.leagueoflegends.com/board/showthread.php?p=45063159&posted=1#post45063159. Bug seems fixed. Though it may still exist. Please post in the above thread if you see it again or comment here and I can follow it up.

4.2 - Size of Elise in Spider Form is now the same as human form. Previously she was smaller in Spider Form. Warden's Mail and Randuin's Omen now effect spiderlings.
Perseverance Nerfed by 50%. Might still be worth taking though if you favor Tank masteries.

4.1 - All jungle items now provide sustain and build from Spirit Stone which also provides sustain very early. Suggest going back earlier than usual to pickup this item. (usually when blue ends, spam your abilities to clear camps faster).

3.14 - New Mastery trees introduced. Has a huge impact on Elise. Defensive tree is much less attractive as you can no longer spend 9 points in the Offensive tree to get 10% Mpen. Defensive tree less effective overall for Elise.

New Offensive tree MUCH stronger and is hard to pass up even if you are going to build tank it might be worth still picking the Offensive tree. Devastating Strikes adds both to your jungle and 1v1 fighting ability. The down side is the old 10% Mpen was better in team fights and for harass. Both blade and spell weaving are a nice boost in the jungle and in 1v1 fights. Overall the new masteries offer much better jungle and 1v1 with similar presence in team fights as before.

3.13 and below -
Range on Rappel was significantly decreased to match the range indicator, also she is slightly ?stunned? as she lands which was not there before the change. IMO this change was needed but they needed to meet half way as the current range needs to be extended very slightly (not to anywhere near the range it was) to make jumping to wolves, dragon and baron reliable. Currently if you take one tiny misstep or go slightly from the wrong place you will miss. All other chars with escapes don't have this frustration.

Spiderlings now descends from Rappel after Elise which effects how she interacts with turrets.

Spiderlings were made easier to kill and do slightly less damage. This has not had much effect on the game other than in the jungle tanking creeps. They take reduced damage from aoe but a couple AOEs in a team fight will still kill them. If you stand on a shroom just switch to human form to avoid losing your spiderlings. They are also packed together more tightly making them easier to aoe.

Volatile Spiderling move speed reduced. Not a big deal but makes using this skill slightly harder.

See the actual numbers below. Will post updates as I play her more.

This is a big nerf to Elise probably the biggest nerf I have seen to any one character and she has already received alot of nerfs which did probably need to happen. Some of these new ones are probably justified but some of it is certainly not. There are other characters that can clear the jungle faster than Elise so I am not sure why they need to make such drastic changes to her jungle especially early game. She is also very vulnerable in the jungle early game and if she gets behind it can be hard to catch up again.

The real hit I see is the base damage reduction on your Q in both forms (not the % change to monsters). This will likely make your early ganks less effective and players are likely to escape on low health. Will also reduce your jungle speed. The nerfs to max jungle damage, mean you will be clearing the jungle much slower and you will have worse sustain because you will take more hits.

The changes to spiderlings is not going to make much difference, because tanking with spiderlings is situational and not really a big deal.In most cases they will still tank the same amount of hits they did before. Most of the time I prefer to take the damage myself to get a faster jungle clear. By level 9 your spiderlings or more tanky than before. This is around the time you would solo dragon from level 9-14. So this is a possitive change most likely. After level 13 or 14 most of the time you can solo the dragon before 2 or three spiderlings die so it doesn't really matter how tanky they are, though you will be doing less damage now.

The change to Rappel is a nice buff but will not change the way you play. But could save your life on occasion.

Changes to Cocoon are slightly over the top, I think we will see slight changes to this nerf. It is already a highly skill based to land compared to other stuns. In fact it is probably one of the hardest to setup and land compared to others because of its slow travel time and can be blocked by minions. You are unlikely to change your skill order so not until level 15 will you have the same stun time as before. And anything after that is a very nice buff to Elise late game. In fact this change can probably be counted as a buff as this will make Elise late game much stronger. The good news is if you land your stun at any level it is enough time to land your full combo in most situations unless your landed it at full range they may flash away etc. And it still gives your team mates time to react when you gank.

Will update as I play her a bit more.


Q Neurotoxin Base Damage 40/80/120/160/200 ⇒ 40/75/110/145/180
Maximum % health damage vs. monsters 60/120/180/240/300 ⇒ 50/75/100/125/150

Q - Venomous Bite 60/110/160/210/260 ⇒ 60/100/140/180/220
Maximum % health damage vs. monsters 60/120/180/240/300 ⇒ 50/75/100/125/150

E - Rappel
26/24/22/20/18 seconds ⇒ 26/23/20/17/14 seconds

E - Cocoon
Stun duration 1.5 seconds ⇒ 1/1.25/1.5/1.75/2 seconds

R - Spider Form
Spiderling Health (Rough Values) 90~260 ⇒ 85~390
Spiderling Health (Real Values)
90/100/110/120/130/140/150/160/170/180/190/200/210/220/230/240/250/260 ⇒
85/ 95/105/115/125/135/145/160/175/190/210/230/250/275/300/325/355/390

Note this is a list of bugs I have experienced myself and others have come across.

Confirmed Bugs:

-New vision system in Patch 4.x. When chasing characters around bends and turns you may lose vision of them for split second even if they don't go in a bush where in previous patches you would not have. This causes your Q in both forms to reset mid cast. Riot has acknowledged this and are working on it.

- Venomous Bite and vision loss. When a player enters brush or turns a corner and you lose vision at the same time you press Q. You will leap but your ability will miss. It means you can sometimes double leap. Also means they sometimes escape.

***Video Coming soon***

-Spiderling move speed bug. Spiderlings use to have a base move speed of 370 and would increase as Elise move speed increased. A patch that changed all characters move speed seems to have bugged spiderlings. They now have a base move speed of 345 that does not increase with Elise. Note they do still move faster to catch up to Elise. This issue here is when you are not moving and they acquire a new target or they just spawn when you are at the jungle camp. This may have been intended but I don't think so it is not in any patch notes.

Unconfirmed Bugs:

-Victorious Elise Bug - In Spider Form if your current target dies and Elise acquires a new target automatically you can't cast Venomous Bite.

- Venomous Bite sometimes lags. Sometimes when press Q or spam Q and you are in range Q will not go off instantly. I am pretty sure this is not due to lag but could be wrong.

Fixed Bugs:
- Rappel "stun". Occurs when players move or blink outside your range indicator after you cast Rappel. Elise will land and not move or use abilities briefly. I think this is fixed.

- Rappel bug when jumping over walls. Sometimes when you jump walls especially around the wraith camps Elise lands on the wrong side of the wall.

- Volatile Spiderling disappears on cast going on cooldown. Known bug that happens near walls or when entering/exiting brush. (Meddler currently looking at it) (Stealth fix in patch 4.2) More testing required but I can't reproduce this bug anymore near walls. Unsure if it still happens moving in and out of bushes.

I hope you like my guide and I hope to make it the most detailed guide for Elise out there.

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated. And any requests or questions are Welcome.

I made this guide because there is a real lack of in depth Guides for Elise, for example the top guide has basically no information in it and is basically getting votes purely due to the Rank of the player.

8 - July - Updated guide to reflect 4.11 changes.
18 June - 4.10 Patch notes added.
27 May - Added 4.7 and 4.8 patch changes.
23 April 2014 - updated patch notes for 4.5 and 4.6
19 Mar - Added section dedicated to patch 4.4
4 Mar - Added matchups of most of the characters you will have issues with. Post requests for more.
28 Feb - Updated Patch notes for 4.3.
20 Feb - Stealth fix in patch 4.2 for Elise Volatile Spiderling bug see patch section
19 Feb - Added to patch notes.
13 Feb - Added some tips at the top of the Rappel Section that most players would not know.
13 Feb - Added 6 Videos. Spiderbombs --
Emergency Rappel to stop buff steal -- How fast Elise can heal from low health -- How to tank with Spiderlings -- How to solo Baron -- How to tank turrets with spiderlings without minions.

12 Feb - Added patch notes section 4.2 update
11 Feb - Added known Elise bugs (if you know other bugs please post them and I will add)
16 Jan - Updated "Items Core Build" section to reflect changes to Jungle items in patch 4.1. Also updated "Defensive and Situational items" to reflect 4.1 patch changes.
13 Jan 2014 - Updated some mastery and item details. Cleaned up guide. Spirit of the Spectral Wraith info updated. Updated Rappel Tips section. See bottom for new tip on Rappel to enemy wards.
18 Dec 2013 - Updated Jungle section with explanation on how to use the new smite.
17 Dec 2013 - Updated to reflect changes made in patch 3.15
06 Dec 2013 - Added short guides and builds for Top,Mid and Support.
03 Dec 2013 - Revamped my Runes section so it looks all pretty using coding. Added lots of coding after reading some guides on how to do it, guide is much tidier and a lot easier to read.
01 Dec 2013 - After Experimenting some more with the masteries added detailed information on some masteries.
30 Nov 2013 - Fixed a minor bug in the Mastery tree, tidied up the text. Added Change log.
29 Nov 2013 - Released