Elise General Guide by oventoasted

I. Intro

I'm Oventoasted, and this is my first champion guide.

With that out of the way, let's proceed.

Elise is a versatile AP mage/melee AP fighter. Generally, players will max out her ability power. After much testing, I have found that she works most effectively as an AP/AS hybrid. In this guide, we will explore the power of an AP bruiser Elise.

II. Pros/Cons

Pros:

Ability to switch between melee and ranged.
Great early game harass ( Volatile Spiderling).
Late game powerhouse.

Cons:

High cooldown on Rappel/ Cocoon.
Squishy early game.
No game-changing ultimate.

III. Summoner Spells

Although Elise is versatile, she works well with just a few combinations of summoner spells in dominion. This is a breakdown of what spells work best and tips on picking the spells that work best for you. The spells are listed by my personal favorite to the ones I avoid.

IV. Item Choices

Bottom Lane:

Starting Items:

Blasting Wand and Boots of Speed- You'll be acting as an AP mage during the early game. You're too squishy to really engage in combat, so just stay back and poke with Volatile Spiderling and Neurotoxin.

You'll be rushing Wooglet's Witchcap, so naturally you'll want to grab either Chain Vest or another Blasting Wand, depending on your opponent.

Berserker's Greaves- grab these as soon as you can after you get Wooglet's Witchcap.

Amplifying Tome -> Malady- always grab the tome first. You're likely to still be keeping back at this point. Once you have Malady, get in there and rough up your victim.

Stinger- You've got plenty of AP, now let's build up the attack speed.

Hextech Revolver and Vampiric Scepter- get either one first, depending on if you're attack more or casting spells more (you'll likely want to grab Vampiric Scepter first).

Nashor's Tooth and Hextech Gunblade- Get Nashor's Tooth if you want to pump out more damage, or Hextech Gunblade if you're dying a little too easily. Once you have both, you'll be dealing death so fast that you're opponents will marvel at your power.

Guinsoo's Rageblade- You're last item. Honestly, I almost never make it here, so you can sub it if you need another item ( Quicksilver Sash for disables or hextech sweeper for annoying invisibles.)

V. Abilities and Gameplay

Of course, get your three basic abilities at the start.
The beautiful thing about Elise is that her W not only functions at a powerful harass ability, but in Spider Form, it's a ridiculous attack speed buff with a heal thrown on top. Max Volatile Spiderling/ Skittering Frenzy first. This will be your primary source of damage.

In the bottom lane:

Stay back and harass your enemy with Volatile Spiderling. Land as many hits with Neurotoxin as you can. When your enemy is low, there are a few ways you can go about killing it.
A) If you have Flash, use it to get behind minions. Then, land that Cocoon, followed by a Neurotoxin and a Volatile Spiderling (in that order for maximum damage). Pop Spider Form / Human Form and jump at your victim with Venomous Bite. Then, begin ripping them up with Skittering Frenzy. If they start to get away, use Rappel and continue the punishment, Qing them whenever they get too far away.
**Remember- If you cast Rappel on an escaping enemy, Elise will jump on it even if it moves out of range. That's right, Flash and Ghost can kiss your eight-legged, web-spitting thorax.

B) The second way to go about things is to pop Spider Form / Human Form and wait a couple seconds. Then, rappel directly onto your victim. Pop into human form again, hit with Neurotoxin and Volatile Spiderling. Land a few auto attacks and when they think they're just about to get away, slap 'em down with a Cocoon to the face, pop into spider form and get your kill.

C) The above two ways are the most common ways you'll be killing victims, but if you get the chance to land a clean Cocoon, then that's all the better. If you can do that, then just repeat the steps from option A.

In the top lane:

**Remember- Stay in spider form when not in combat. You get a small movement speed buff.
Always grab mid if you can. You're squishy, and you're going to get squished if you run in ahead of everyone, so it's best if you come in last.

When you get to the top lane, it's likely that your team will be locked in combat with your enemies. Your job is clean up crew. Find the weakest target and Rappel onto it and bite the hell out of it. Proceed to rip up the remaining enemies with Skittering Frenzy. If someone comes for you, pop into human form and Cocoon the insolent cur.

The other thing that could happen is that your allies are dancing around the point trying to land pokes at your opponents. If this happens, hang back where you're safe and let your Volatile Spiderlings attack. NEVER jump in first. You WILL die if you do that. Wait for your chance to strike, and then take out your first of many victims.

Fighting 1v1

:
There are only a few champs that Elise cannot fight against by herself. These champs will be high-damage burst champs like LeBlanc. The only way Elise can really kill champs like this is if she has the element of surprise.

With that out of the way, let's run through a typical fight.
You want to avoid using your Cocoon if you can. It's a powerful crowd control, and you can use it to press the attack or escape, depending on what happens. Open with Neurotoxin and Volatile Spiderling. You'll almost always throw these abilities together when fighting 1v1.
Next, pop spider form. Your victim will be doing one of two things at this point: fight or flight.

If it's fight

: run at your prey and pop Skittering Frenzy and go at it. Don't worry, your heal from W will sustain you fairly well. If they are above 50% hp, pop back into human form and hit with Neurotoxin and Volatile Spiderling. If you are low health, land your Cocoon and run back a bit to wait for your Skittering Frenzy to come off of cooldown. If there's some distance between the two of you, pop spider form and immediately Rappel on top of them. They won't be expecting this, and you can catch them off guard. Pop Skittering Frenzy and continue tearing them up. Use Venomous Bite when they are nearly dead to secure your kill.

If it's flight

: pop spider form and Rappel onto your prey. Strike at them with Skittering Frenzy, and slow them down with Exhaust. When they start putting distance between you two, Venomous Bite to catch up, pop human form, and throw your Neurotoxin/ Volatile Spiderling/ Cocoon, moving closer as you do. Pop back into spider form, and continue beating the **** out of your opponent.

Thank you for reading my guide. I hope you learned a little something about Elise. Please vote and comment. :)