Elise Build Guide by Sermoln

Introduction

Hello! Welcome to my first guide on MobaFire

In this guide I will discuss and guide you through the great features of my favorite champion, Elise

I'm not pro player (not even close in fact), but I have developed a love for the new champion Elise and have a well understanding of her abilities/play style, so I am doing my best to share my knowledge with anyone else through this guide.

Elise is a very flexible champion for roles (Solo top, Jungle, AP Carry, AD Carry, or support) However, in this guide I will discuss her role as an AP Carry (Middle lane). Her abilities are very unique and she has a level one ultimate which allows her to change forms from Human to Spider.

Note-For some reason tagging with brackets don't work with Elise's abilities, which is why I don't tag them. When it is possible to "tag" them I will, feel free to notify me when it's possible or if i'm doing something wrong.

Before downvoting (or even upvoting) read the whole guide tell me what I did wrong or right, and give me a chance to improve. I appreciate it a lot.

Pros / Cons

"Why should I play Elise?"

Pros
+ Any role (AP Carry, Jungle, Solo Top, Support, or even AD carry/Hybrid)
+ Level one ultimate (Change forms-Spider/Human)
+ Free abilities in Spider Form
+ Her Q does more damage based on the target's current health
+ Spiderlings can block abilities such as Javelin Toss or Mystic Shot
+ Rappel can be used to dodge many skill shots, ultimates, or other abilities (discussed later in the guide)


Cons
- Very hard to 'master'
- Leveling up Cocoon/Rappel only reduces cool downs
- Spiderlings can get in your way sometimes
- Although she can be any role, she's still not an effective choice for most of them.

Skill Sequence

I max Elise's W first because of it's very good ability to farm, poke, and her main source of damage (Discussed later on)

Elise's Q should be maxed second for multiple reasons:

• It's another source of damage.
• Human form's Neurotoxin deals damage based on their current health
• Spider form's Venomous bite deals damage based on their missing health

And lastly, Elise's E should be maxed last because leveling it only reduces cool downs, and it's a utility spell. However, if you find it to be useful, and it's on cool down a lot you should level it once or twice, just be wary that it's not an entirely smart choice.

Of course, level your ultimate every possibility you have.

Summoner Spells

Viable summoner spells

Exhaust Highly mobile champions will be slowed so you can land a skill shot, catch up to a running away enemy, or to be sure your opponent won't get to the safety of their tower (That'll teach them to over-extend!) Also good for being chased by a highly mobile champion.
Heal Good summoner spell for any champion you're new to playing.
Teleport Save towers, allies, or even yourself.
Ignite "TFW Enemy gets away with 50 health". In other words, secure kills on enemies with very low health and get out of your range.
Flash Almost same reasons for Exhaust (Catch up to enemies running away), but you can blink past walls/obstacles (CHASE BREAKER)

Somewhat viable choices

Barrier If you're playing ARAM or something on The Proving Grounds.
Garrison If you're on dominion, if someone turret dives you, they'll pay the price. Or gives you the opportunity to dive them.
Clarity You're having mana problems, however you should just pickup some mana-regen items.
Ghost Substitute for Flash or Exhaust, but not suggested
Clairvoyance If you're support, gives vision of ganks, and where your enemy jungler is.
Smite Only if you are jungling. Pretty obvious why if you are.
Surge Absolutely ONLY if you are a low level and don't like the other spells for some reason.
Cleanse If you're against someone like Malzahar and you have an extra summoner spell slot.

No, please don't use these.

Revive No. Long cool down, and just bad spell overall.
Promote The super minion may be cool and fun, but it's not gonna help much.

Runes

I choose somewhat normal AP carry runes.

Greater Mark of Magic Penetration
Magic penetration for those thick skinned enemy champions

Greater Glyph of Magic Resist
Magic resist to save you from those AP champions you're against (important for going mid)

Greater Seal of Armor
Armor for the AD champions you're against.

Greater Quintessence of Ability Power
Flat ability power! Good for early game and somewhat late game.

Items

As with many other champions, Elise is highly dependent on her Items. Don't use my build exactly, as it barely even fits my play style as Elise. Change it up, and make it your own.

Starting Items

Doran's Ring For early AP, health, and Mana-Regen
Boots of Speed You don't need these that much early, because of your extra speed in spider form, however you will need them eventually.
Sheen Get this as early as possible, it works very well with your abilities (especially if you're hybrid)

Teir two boots

Get boots whenever you feel you need them, however you should have Boots of Speed before you start getting core items.

Some boots you can take are..

• Berserker's Greaves for some attack speed
• Mercury's Treads if the enemy has a lot of Ability Power or Crowd Control
• Ninja Tabi the enemy has more Attack Damage and not much Crowd Control
• Sorcerer's Shoes for the magic penetration of course (if the enemy is stacking Magic Resist, however you will want more than just these if they are)

Mid Game Items/Core

Malady The attack speed is important (like I keep saying.. Especially if you're HYBRID) and the ability power is nice too.
Lich Bane Builds out of Sheen. Pretty obvious why you'd want this (Ability Power, Magic Resist, Mana, and some movement speed. The Unique Passive is good too)

Situational Items

Archangel's Staff if you're having large mana issues or buy an early tear of the goddess
Frozen Heart AD carry fed? If no one else has this item, buy it. The AD carry's attack speed will be somewhat lowered, along with it has armor and cooldown reduction (doesn't stack, only one person on your team should have this)
Athene's Unholy Grail like archangel's staff, only if you have mana problems and really would like this item
Deathfire Grasp if you're against a Volibear and he's either very fed, or has too much health. However not only a Volibear, any enemy with a lot of health (Read it's active if you don't understand why). Get an early Kage's Lucky pick if you want this later on.
Morello's Evil Tome ability power, cool down reduction, and mana regen. The active is very nice too, get this instead of Deathfire Grasp if you want.
Nashor's Tooth in replacement of Malady
Abyssal Mask ability power, magic resist and a unique passive. Nothing else to say.

Spider Swarm-Abilities 1/5

Spider Swarm/Passive

Elise's passive is a lot like Malzahar's except better.
Whenever one of Elise's abilities are successful (hits an enemy) in human form, she readies a spiderling for when she goes into spider form. These spiderlings can be used to block skillshots like Javelin Toss / Takedown or Mystic Shot, when you know they might use that, just turn around and let a spiderling take the hit.

Spiderlings

Spiderlings deal AD (physical damage) and take reduced damage from multiple-target abilities. Her maximum number of spiderlings is increased with "Spider Form" (her ultimate)'s level.

Neurotoxin/Venomous Bite-Abilities 2/5

Neurotoxin/Q/Human form

Neurotoxin deals damage based on how much health the target has (8% of their current health+3% per 100 AP). In other words, it's can kill an enemy with large amounts of health relatively well.

Venomous Bite/Q/Spider form

Deals damage based on how much health the target is missing (8% of target's missing health+2% per 100 AP)

Both abilities are capped against monsters.

Volatile Spiderling/Skittering Frenzy-Abilities 3/5

Volatile Spiderling/W/Human form

Volatile Spiderling is a lot like Maokai's Sapling Toss except the spiderling comes from Elise and can't go over or through obstacles. The spiderling will stay in it's area it reaches until an enemy champion, minion, or neutral monster is within range, it will then chase after the champion, minion, or monster and explode after it collides with them, however if the enemy is running away, it will explode after the time. The explosion does area of effect damage in a small radius around it. Also if nothing comes into range of the spiderling it will just explode in that spot.

Skittering Frenzy/W/Spider form

It's passive effect increases your spiderling's attack speed, when active it increases the attack speed of Elise and her spiderlings for 3 seconds, Elise is healed for a small amount when she or her spiderlings attack.

Cocoon/Rappel-Abilities 4/5

Cocoon/E/Human form

Skill shot stun, stuns first enemy hit for 1.5 seconds.

Rappel/E/Spider form

The best part of Elise (in my opinion). Elise and her spiderlings go into the sky for a short time, becoming untargetable and revealing all enemies in brush or the fog of war while ascended. She can then descend on an enemy champion, neutral minion, or enemy minion. This does not show stealthed champions sadly.

Now this ability can allow for some amazing things, like Lee Sin, she can go away from an enemy by going to a neutral minion in the jungle, she can catch up to enemies hiding or running away, and allows her to dodge abilities such as Enchanted Crystal Arrow, Trueshot Barrage, Requiem, Absolute Zero, Time Bomb, Dark Matter and Explosive Cask.

Note-Leveling up this abilities only decreases the cooldown

Spider form/Human form-Abilities 5/5

Spider form/R/Human form

Brings Elise into her Spider form
While in Spider Form, Elise does extra magic damage with her autoattacks and gains 10 movement speed, along with bonus armor and magic resistance. She also gains use of her spiderlings.

Human form/R/Spider form

Turns into Human form from Spider form

Farming

Farming is relatively simple, use your W in human form if you'd like, but to conserve mana use your spider form abilities, considering they have no cost. Also remember to deny your foe in lane their CS, and try not to have to recall.

Lane Matchups A-H

(In my three "Lane Matchups" chapters I noticed I am repetitive and don't explain many things well, please help me out by leaving a helpful comment or just give me time to fix the chapters. Also tell me if I missed a champion)

Ahri is a difficult champion to counter, however only if the player knows what they're doing. In a lane matchup against her it just comes down to who's better at playing their champion. Your best chance to counter her is to dodge her skill shots with Rappel or good movement speed, along with poke her and deny her CS. The most important ability to dodge is Charm, so save Rappel for that moment.

Akali, hard to counter but you can. Poke her a lot to make her recall, as you should with any champion you're against. You will have to avoid being in spider form when CSing around her, being as you're melee in that form and she can poke you relatively easily. After level six she will be more deadly and aggressive, so having more CS will mean you have more xp/gold than her.

Anivia can be hard to counter, you have to keep a middle range away from her, to prevent getting stunned by Flash Frost. Poking her and getting her out of lane is difficult because of her lane sustain with Rebirth, try to get her to lose that egg early, so you have a better chance killing her or running her out of lane.

Annie's burst is incredible, pay attention to when her stun is up by the white smoke(?) floating around her, that is most likely when she will try to go in for a kill. Deny her CS, and don't let her poke you with her abilities.

Ashe is somewhat easy to beat in lane, the only problem with her is Hawkshot because not only can it see when someone will come to gank your lane, it also gives her extra gold on every CS. Like always, deny her CS.

Blitzcrank is a champion not normally seen mid lane, but you still might see him, dodge his Rocket Grab by hiding behind minions. His Mana Barrier will prevent you from killing him often, so just run him out of lane when possible.

Brand is insane in lane, his abilities put a mini ignite on you, along with he has a stun and amazing burst. Play safe, let him waste his mana and push the minions up to your turret, making him overextended and vulnerable from ganks, and your rappel.

Cassiopeia, a champion not seen very often anywhere. If you're against her just do the standard poking and csing, that should make you able to kill her easily, just don't get hit by her Petrifying Gaze when she hits level 6 and you'll be fine.

Cho'Gath can be deadly in lane, just take notice to when he's walking into range to use Rupture or Feral Scream along with don't get too close to him when he might his Feast.

Diana has tremendous poke with Crescent Strike, and if she gets close enough to do her combos she can destroy you easily. Pay attention to when she may come in to kill you, or even poke you. Counter her Crescent Strike by going to the opposite side that it comes from (it only goes in a crescent shape from her angle, stay on the side it doesn't come from)

Elise is a tough one, considering you're playing her. It's a battle of skill, however pay attention to if they waste their Rappel, considering it's a long cool down they are very vulnerable.

Ezreal is incredibly easy to counter, as all his abilities are skill shots, and you can just Rappel with good timing to dodge his ultimate. Don't let him poke you by dodging his skill shots and you will win lane.

Fiddlesticks is hard to counter as you can't Rappel out of any of his abilities except Crowstorm. Use rappel when you think he'll try to poke you, then just fall back down, or jump on top of a minion so he won't know where you'll drop down to. Also rappel to stay away from his ultimate for as long as possible.

Fizz can dodge abilities with Playful/Trickster just as you can with Rappel. Use Rappel at the perfect timing to jump to a minion or neutral minion to dodge Chum of the Water however it will be very difficult.

Galio is difficult to poke because of Bulwark, poke him when it's on cooldown and you'll be fine.

Gragas is difficult for anyone to counter practically, but you can Rappel away from Barrel Roll, Body Slam, and Explosive Cask

Heimerdinger is relatively easy to counter, use his turrets to your advantage by Rappeling to them to get positioned well and then eat his soul.

Lane Matchups I-P

Jax isn't seen mid often but you can counter him by staying away from his Counter Strike and then combo him or continue CSing

Karthus you should just use Rappel, as usual to dodge his abilities.

Kassadin is an amazing (overpowered) mid champion, don't get hit by his abilities and let him overextend.

Katarina, a wonderful mid (very effective if played correctly), stay away from Bouncing Blades and don't get hit by her ultimate

Kayle is hard to counter, as she can hybrid effectively and you can't exactly dodge any of her abilities, along with her Intervention can prevent her from dying. Do the normal poke and deny CS, it's all you can do.

Kennen's abilities can all be dodges relatively easily with Rappel, anything else you can do is just out-CS him.

LeBlanc has good burst, and is underplayed. You will want to get a good understanding of her abilities by reading a guide about her to find her weaknesses, for when you meet a very good LeBlanc, as there are a lot.

Lulu will do a lot of damage with Glitterlance early, dodge that and you will be fine.

Lux is easy to counter by just letting her miss her skillshots, or juke them if they can land them well.

Malzahar... Dear god.. If you're in draft pick or ranked, I highly suggest Quicksilver Sash or Cleanse early. I love Malzahar as a champion, but he is incredibly overpowered. Don't let him get you with his ultimate, or any of his abilities in fact.

Master Yi, probably the easiest champion in League of Legends, other than Darius, but be careful of his poke, and just do the regular CS denying, or let him push up to your turret so he can't get CS.

Mordekaiser es un numero uno. Seriously, just, don't even play if you're against him. I can't find a counter to him, other than the general denying CS, like I keep saying.

Morgana is a champion I never see anyone know how to play, however if you meet someone who can play her correctly, just stay behind minions to prevent her Dark Binding

Nidalee can be countered by not walking into her Bushwhack and staying behind minion to avoid her Javelin Toss or you can even Rappel out of it's way.

Nunu's Absoulute Zero can be avoided with Rappel, which makes him very vulnerable to being killed, as it will destroy the rest of your team, leaving you to take him out. In teamfights, if a lot of your team dies to it, you will want to fallback of course, as you can't 1v5, however while your foes are distracted by Absoulute Zero and trying to kill your teammate, Rappel out of the ultimate and take out high priority targets before having to fallback or continue fighting.

Orianna is a difficult champion to play, however if they know what they're doing you should let her overextend, and then give it to her up the butt. In other words, when you're pushed up to your tower, Rappel over to her and burst her, I find it relatively easy to kill her early if you let them overextend.

Pantheon is scary in lane, don't let him use Aegis of Zeonia on you, as he will have a large chance to take out a lot of your health. Stay in lane longer than him and you should be able to out-CS him.

Lane Matchups Q-Z

Ryze, and underplayed, well balanced champion. His Rune Prison can work well for him to poke you, so out CS/Poke him to win lane.

Sona is normally seen as support, and very rarely mid, however you should be able to beat her easily by just poking her and getting her out of lane.

Soraka is also normally a support, but mid she can shut you down with her silence and sustain. Poking her won't do much, just let her waste mana and force herself to go back.

Swain's combos are difficult to avoid if he lands Decrepify, don't let him land that and you can poke well.

Syndra good in lane once she gets her ultimate, shut her down with large amounts of Crowd Control from a jungler or friendly champion on your team, as you don't have much CC yourself.

Talon is a good champion overall Rake can destroy you at higher ranks/levels, however the range on it is small so you can avoid it with high mobility or just keeping your distance.

Taric another normally support champion, however even then he's not seen often. Avoid his stun, let him waste his mana and you can win lane.

Teemo is hard to counter on any champion, if he's AP try to avoid his autoattacks, and avoid obvious Noxious Trap placements.

Twisted Fate can be countered easily by dodging Wild Cards as it is an easy to dodge ability. Also pay attention to his Pick A Card by seeing the blue, yellow, or red colored card above his head. Blue card does the most damage and gives him mana back, red card will slow an area around his target and deal second most damage, and gold card stuns the target hit but does least damage.

Urgot is rarely played, but don't push too much up to his turret because he can use Hyper-Kinetic Position Reverser to bring you under his tower, if he does this use Rappel to jump to his position and get away.

Veigar is scary when he hits level six, but if you are hybrid you'll take less damage, being as it does extra damage based on your ability power, so hybrid is a viable choice against him.

Viktor, you can't counter him other than just avoid his abilities, no one plays him very much and he's not a good champion, this will be edited if he gets a rework/updated, because there is a large chance he will be soon.

Vladimir is easy to counter, poke him when Sanguine Pool is on cooldown, as he is most vulnerable then. He will recall when his health is low, as his abilities rely on health. Make sure you get him to use Sanguine Pool as it can make his health low very quickly.

Xerath is a good champion that has good ratios/range with Locus of Power but he vulnerable when using it, he will most likely get out of the ability as soon as you go to poke/kill him, he does gain movement speed when leaving that state, but it isn't very good so you can still kill him if he makes the mistake to use Locus of Power in a bad position.

Ziggs is easy to counter as all you must do is avoid his skillshots or abilities, however remember nearly all his abilities can be used as utility, so don't over-extend.

Zilean is more of a support, however in lane his Chronoshift is like a Angel, if you manage to silence him somehow it is easy to kill him.

Zyra is a great champion due to her "turret like" seeds, they can be wards or mini-turrets. Avoid the Seeds and use rappel to jump to the ones closer to her, then get away from the seeds (maybe closer to her tower) and she is completely useless leaving you free to give it to her in the butt.

Other tips/tricks

Elise is a unique champion, like many other, and I found these tips can help anyone get used to playing her quickly.

• Use Spider form to chase and finish enemies. The bonus magic damage on auto-attacks, armor, and speed helps chase. Also because Venomous bite does more damage to foes that have lower health.
• Like mentioned before, use Spider form abilities to save mana.
• Spider form can also be used for running away, as it gives bonus armor, magic resist, and movement speed.
• Rappel is another way to run from enemies, as you can become untargetable when they turret dive, or jump to a neutral minion in the jungle to get further away from them, however the neutral minion can still kill you if you aggro it (like Ezreal's Arcane Shift
• Rappel can be used to dodge certain abilities, read the Rappel chapter for more information
• Rappel sadly does not stop leash spells, such as Drain, Soul Shackles, or Decrepify.
• Zhonya's Hourglass is good item which gives you more damage along with its active ability can help you in bad situations, synergizing well with the time of disappearance from your Rappel

Special Thanks

Thanks to jhoijhoi for the "making a guide", which you can find here.

Here's an amazing Elise guide that reassured me about some problems with Elise
Click me!

Resources

I have played Elise since her release on the PBE, and played many real games on NA servers since.

I also used the League of Legends Wiki for more information about EliseHere such as her ratios.

Conclusion

In conclusion, I find Elise to be a wonderful champion, and I hope you all do too. Be sure to tell me what you think, and vote it up or down, however please tell me how to improve my guide, not just tell me "oi yur gueede suxz bru"

Please check out my other guides (links will be available when I make other guides)

Planned Changes

Fix the repetitiveness in the Lane Match ups.
Go into more detail in short chapters/sections.
Add sections/builds for all other roles.
Fix grammar/spelling errors.
Always update.

Remake the guide completely

Notable comments/opinions

None yet.

Changelog

11/4/12-Guide published
10/27/12-Started making guide