Greetings, Summoners! My name is Nanotooth and I want to represent my guide on Elise. I've reached d1 in s5 on EUNE server and I am currently challenger on RU server. I've reached this elo playing on our lovely Spider Queen and right now I have more than 600k mastery on her. Moreover, Lolskill placed me as #1 best Elise world.


This guide is for those, who wants to increase rank in SOLO QUEUE, to get accustomed with Elise (And to learn to play 1x9 xD). Here, I'll write my OWN thoughts and vision on this champion, so if you want to find how to play in ranked team or tournaments, go watch professional tournaments.

Are you ready? Let's go!

Pros:

+ Easy to jungle (thanks to Spider Queen)
+ Doesn't require any heal pots
+ High burst damage that can onepunch squishy champions
+ Very confident counter-jungler
+ Best lvl 3 fighter/ganker and one of the best roamers
+ Not so easy to kill
+ Have a wide set of abilities for every occasion
+ Doesn't need any mana in Spider Form
+ Can dodge nearly everything (even Death Mark) with Rappel
+ Effective from beginning to end

Cons:
- Squishy in late-game, if you don't buy defensive items
- Even in full tank build can't soak as much damage as Rammus or Sejuani can
- Lacks of good ultimate
- Mana-dependant at the very beginning
- Long cooldown of Rappel
- Lack of really reliable escape ability
- Very hard to master

Nevertheless, if you really master Elise, these cons won't be so noticeable.

There is only one Ability sequence for Elise and here it is:

Why Volatile Spiderling / Skittering Frenzy and not Neurotoxin / Venomous Bite on lvl1?:
Volatile Spiderling is Aoe and I ALWAYS start from red side so that it (W ability) gives you more damage against Krug . Moreover Skittering Frenzy will provide more damage and heal than if you take Neurotoxin / Venomous Bite abilities.

There are 3 rune pages that I use on Elise:
1) If enemy team has 3-5 ad champions:

2) If enemy team has 2 (non support) ap champions:

3) Just a possible variant if you don't want to buy magic resist items:

Why do I use Greater Mark of Magic Penetration instead of Greater Mark of Hybrid Penetration or Greater Mark of Attack Speed?
Firstly, since Elise was rebalanced in season 5, her Spider Queen and Spider Form / Human Form deals magical damage instead of physical, so that there is no need in Greater Mark of Hybrid Penetration. After any game on Elise you can see that your physical damage is 10-15 times less than magical.
Secondly, despite of Greater Mark of Attack Speed fastens clearing of camps in early game, you don't need this if you are jungling right. How to do this go to Jungle section. Moreover, your damage from Neurotoxin / Venomous Bite is percantage, so you need magic penetration.

Greater Seal of Armor is obvious choice for every jungler. These runes reduce damage from monsters, minions, champions, turrets, etc. to you in early game.

Greater Quintessence of Ability Power helps us to increase damage from all our abilities in early game.

Greater Glyph of Ability Power is best option, but Greater Glyph of Magic Resist and Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist are possible too.

AS
2) Double Edged Sword will increase our burst damage.
3) After trying Vampirism in many games, have found that this mastery is way better than Natural Talent . It helps us to get minor heal in jungle/teamfights and so on. Moreover, we don't need ay AD from Natural Talent and 15 AP on lvl 18 is childs play.
4) Take Bounty Hunter if you are expert on Elise and can easily stack this mastery, otherwise take Oppressor for getting permanent +2,5% damage that works also with combination of Rylai's Crystal Scepter.
5) Wanderer is way better than Savagery . We already have enough damage.
6) Assassin - We don't need anything else here.
7) Merciless - OP mastery to our burst damage. Moreover, we don't need mana regeneration in jungle.
8) Dangerous Game will save you many times against Ignite and other debuffs.
9) Precision - Obvious choice, cause we need magic penetration.
10) Thunderlord's Decree is our final addition to our deadly set of spells.

There are a lot of items that are effective on Elise depending on your role, playstyle and your/enemy team picks.

Starting items:
I buy Hunter's Talisman, Vision Ward and Health Potion in EVERY game. For all the gods, don't waste your money on Refillable Potion and Hunter's Potion. You can jungle [easily without wasting 400 golds.

Core items:
Until 10-th minute I often buy Stalker's Blade - Runic Echoes, Boots of Swiftness and Vision Ward. After this you should decide what will you choose next.

But first of all, let's discuss boots choice:
After 25-30 minute of game, Boots of Swiftness became less profitable, so I highly recommend to change them after getting 5-th or 6-th slot.
Ionian Boots of Lucidity - Not bad boots for Elise, they are cheap and gives us cdr. But there are better choices.
Ninja Tabi - Take it if enemy team is full ad.
Mercury's Treads - Best choice, especially against AP champions. Also gives us Tenacity that can save our life.
Sorcerer's Shoes - Increase your burst damage. Use only in full AP build.
Other boots are useless for us.

Another question what jungler item to choose?

I prefer Stalker's Blade, cause it allows to deal true damage to enemy champions, speeds us and slows enemies. You can use it while chasing or escpaing.

Tracker's Knife is good on high ELO (Master or Challenger), where warding solves everything.

Skirmisher's Sabre - Possible choice, especially against autoattackers or fat guys like Master Yi, Gragas, etc.


1) AP build.
If you had a very good early game (Sth like 4-0-2), or you are the only AP caster, or your team consists of tanky champions like Braum, Malphite, etc. go for it. Also I use this build to climb up in ranked (cause 1x9 games are btetter to carry in this build).

Vision Ward - ALWAYS buy it if your ward was destroyed. Remember! Good ward can win a game!

Rylai's Crystal Scepter - This item you should buy in 90% of games As Elise in SoloQ, because it's your bread&butter. +100 AP wil greatly increase your damage, while +400 HP will increase your survivability. And of course we have an awesome passive that is slowing enemies and works in synergy with Spider Queen and Stalker's Blade - Runic Echoes

Liandry's Torment - This item was more preferable than Rylai's Crystal Scepter in my builds before 5.22 patch, when jungle items were rebalanced (increased cost, nerfed additional gold income from large minions) and the cost of all AP items was increased.
Nevertheless, this item sits well on Elise. It gives us +300 HP, +80 AP, + 15 Magic Penetration and very strong passive that works good with Rylai's Crystal Scepter and Cocoon.

Zeke's Harbinger - I really love this item, and it sits on Elise. Gives us Ap, cdr, armor and very strong active that increases our AP and Crit Chance of our adc. If you play with good adc - MUST buy.

Abyssal Mask - Cheap and strong item. If enemy team has a lot of AP champons, take it. Also this item doubles the speed of clearing in the jungle.

Mejai's Soulstealer- Very cheap item that requires HARD WORK to stack. If you are confident in yourself - buy. Moreover, +15% MS is very good addition to Boots of Swiftness and Stalker's Blade - Runic Echoes.

Void Staff - Cheap and strong item for every AP champion.

Nashor's Tooth - I am not fan of this on Elise, but it works well with Wit's End against champions like Dr. Mundo, Malphite, etc.

Guardian Angel - MUST BUY as 6-th item in every build.

Example of full AP bild:
2) AP Offtank build.

Rylai's Crystal Scepter - Already discussed above.

Randuin's Omen - VERY strong item in 6.3 patch. It gives you a lot of tankiness, strong passive against enemy ADC and strong AoE slow.

Dead Man's Plate - Item similar to Randuin's Omen. Less Armor, another passive, but bonus MS. If I play against 4-5 AD champions, both of these items will be good on you.

Locket of the Iron Solari - Strong item for you and for your team, that sits perfectly on Elise. Moreover, buying this item will help your support to concentrate on another team items like Mikael's Blessing

Frozen Heart - good item against AD team. Don't buy it first or second: you need HP first. Moreover, 500 mana is useless for us, but 20% cdr is a good addition to our pokes.

Sunfire Aegis - Don't buy this item: too low stats for this price.

Thornmail - Replace Guardian Angel when it's passive on cooldown.

Banshee's Veil - Too many AP casters? Go for it.

3) Full tank build.

Instead of Stalker's Blade - Runic Echoes better to take Skirmisher's Sabre - Runic Echoes, because we will deal more damage from our autoattacks as we are fat.

All other items must give us hp, armor and magic resist. We don't need any AP in this build.

Let's look deeper in our skill set.

Human Form:

Our passive is Spider Queen. Elise will prepare spiderling for each SUCCESSFULLY launched skill.

Comment:
- Don't underestimate spidrelings damage. With activated Skittering Frenzy they deal damage, comparable to our abilities.

Our first ability is Neurotoxin. It's our source of % damage with low cd.


Our second ability is Volatile Spiderling. It's the only AoE skill that we have.


Our third ability is Cocoon. Just a stun, no more, no less.


Our ultimate ability is Spider Form. It changes us to a spider with new set of abilities.


Spider Form:

Our first ability is Venomous Bite. It is source of % damage for us.



Our second ability is Skittering Frenzy. Very strong ability that GREATLY increases our attack speed.


Our third ability is Rappel. It's one of the best abilities in the game.


Our final ability is Human Form. Elise transforms back to humanoid form.

General thoughts:
- Switch between forms as much as possible, so that you can use all set of your abilities.
- Remember that Spider Form is better for close combat, while Human Form allows you to harrass/zone enemies better.

So, the game has started, you have bought your items and going to jungle.
First of all, you should decide where to place your Vision Ward. I prefer to place it here:Because it helps your mider to avoid ganks. Moreover, many junglers love stealing blue buffs and this ward can help you to spot an enemy invading your jungle. Always place your trinket in bush near red buff at 1-25, so that you could spot enemy Lee Sin or other strong early game champions invading to your red camp. Also, if you are playing against Evelynn or Shaco I highly recommend to ward bush on red camp by Vision Ward, cause these champions can easily come through trinkets unspotted.
Let's look deeper into our jungle item:
Hunter's Talisman heals us iff we aa monsters or using SKILLS on them. So, if we land, for example, Volatile Spiderling on Raptors , this item will heal us on 100 hp in 5 seconds (4 raptors, 25 health from each). The key to early clears is to heal FROM ALL monsters we are fighting against.
Jungle rout:
I highly recommend starting from Ancient Krug , because of their passive that has great synergy with Skittering Frenzy. Moreover, Elise can kill Ancient Krug easily without any help on lvl1. Then go to red buff and clear Raptors to reach lvl3.
Clearing Krugs:
Choose the position so that big Krug is closer to you then less one.Use your Volatile Spiderling on them, Smite big one and land aa on it. Then turn into Spider Form, use your Skittering Frenzy and allow your spiderlings tanking big Krug while you are tanking lesser one.If lesser Krug won't attack your spiderling, they'll be able to tank 4 hits. Once our spiderlings are dead turn into Human Formand use Volatile Spiderling again and land ranged aa to kill big Krug. Then turn into Spider Form and using Skittering Frenzy, kill lesser one.
Clearing Red:
Upon clearing Krugs you are 2-d lvl. Use your Volatile Spiderling and Neurotoxin on big monster and deal 2-4 ranged autoattacks following back to the edge of red area. Then turn into Spider Form, use Venomous Bite and Skittering Frenzy and move through monsters behind big one constantly attacking it. When you are behind monster, your spiderling are tanking big monster, while you tanking lesser ones.When spiderlings are dead, turn in Human Form and use Volatile Spiderling and land several aa. Turn into Spider Form, use you abilities and kill big monster. Then kill lesser ones constantly changing focus (so that you could restore more hp).
Clearing Raptors:
Use your Neurotoxin and Volatile Spiderling on Raptors and turn into Spider Form and hit big raptor until it die. Use your Smite to deal final blow.After this, kill lesser minons constantly changing focus from 1-st to second and to third (and repeat) until they die, so that you restore more HP.
After clearing this camp you got 3-d lvl (approximatley at 2-45) and you can choose what to do next.
Clearing Gromp: Face 2 hits, then let your spiderlings tank hits. Try to dodge one aa with Rappel if spiderlings are dead and Gromp still alive.
Clearing Blue: Same as clearing red, but it's much easier, cause big monster is very slow.
Killing Herold on 6-8 minute sololy:
If you reached lvl 6 BEFORE 7-30 (or lvl7 before 8-30) you can easily take THREE Herolds in game (+750 gold for your team, + experience to you and buffs to your allies).
Clearing wolves: Can't advice anything here. Just kill big one first, then kill lesser wolves.
Mechanics is the same as on red: Use your skill in Human Form than turn to Spider Form and after that allow your spiderling to tank 6 hits of Heroldwhile you are hitting hin from behind and dealing critical damage to it. After spiderling are dead, cast all your skill on Herold in Human Form and repeat the process..
If you haven't reached lvl you needed on time, ask for help your allies or go back to Herold on 12-13 minute.
Killing Dragon :
The problem of killing Dragon early is his splash attack. DO NOT try kill Dragon before lvl 6 and without Stalker's Blade - Runic Echoes even if you killed enemy bot lane and jungler on 5-th minute. You won't be able to kill it fast and you could easily die there.
When you have jungle item and lvl 6-7 you can try to take it. Use Rappeland jump to Drake so that your spideling will be splitted and Drake wouldn't kill them ALL in 2 hits, use your skills in Spider Form and when spiderlings are dead, turn in Human Form to use skills. Repeat the process until Drake is dead.
Will add Nashor guide soon.

Will add this part soon.

Will add this part soon.

Will add this part soon.

Elise is the strongest jungler (on my opinion), that requires a lot of mastery to play. But if you master her, you'll be definitely rewarded.