1. Introduction
2. Pros / Cons
3. Masteries
4. Runes
5. Summoner Spells
6. Ability Explanation
7. Ability Sequence Order
8. Items
9. Teamfights
10. Summary

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// My guide's main focus is to make Elise as strong as possible in every stage of the game. Where common bruiser builds have strong early games but fall off late, and common AP builds are the exact opposite. My build doesn't have a weak period. You will be strong through the entire game! Keep reading to find out how. // SPECIAL THANKS: Credits to jhoijhoi for the template, which you can find here.

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Pros + Extremely fun to play. (IMO) + Counter to most typical top picks. + Both ranged and melee. + Has ultimate at level 1. + Versatile! (Can go Hybrid/AP/Bruiser) + Is a spider (Pro for some) // Elise has a very good laning phase, although sometimes you can be weak in the very early levels before you buy your magic penetration items. Although with my starter items it should be easy to play safe and farm till you have the gold to buy them. She has very good poke in human form, and very good "finishing" potential in spider form. Spider form also gives movement speed for faster travelling across map to be where your team needs you. She plays a lot like AP Nidalee but is better in teamfights.

Cons - No reliable escape - Prone to being ganked - Shields/sustain counter you in lane - Not the best farmer early game - Not an all in balls deep bruiser. - Is a spider (Con to arachnophobes) // In order to escape ganks you have to land your stun and/or have a minion in the perfect place to rappel to. Meaning her escape mechanisms aren't very reliable. This can be overcome with wards, which are included in my starter items. Shields/sustain can counter you in lane because you like to poke people down before you spider form and go in for the kill. If you can't poke them down, you can't get the kill. Lastly you have to play smart with her, you cant just go balls deep and spam abilities like certain bruiser champions.

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Going any deeper into the offense tree is pretty much pointless early game, and my goal is to be good throughout the entire game. The utility tree is an acceptable choice, but I find defense to be overall better. Decreasing the damage you take will be good all game, especially early. And the reduction to crowd controls will also be good all game, and helps against being ganked. Which is one of her few cons.

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• Greater Quintessence of Movement Speed: // I find these to be the most useful quints for Elise. Greater Quintessence of Ability Power is useless early game, so I advise against using them. Your only other option is Greater Quintessence of Magic Penetration, which would help in the very early levels before you get your magic pen items. I use movespeed because I like starting with consumables instead of boots. These combined with your bonus movespeed in spider form will be very helpful.
  
• Greater Mark of Magic Penetration: // These are your only option for marks in my opinion. Magic penetration is your best stat early game and continues to be a strong stat all the way to victory.
  
• Greater Glyph of Magic Resist: // Magic resistance is necessary if your laning against an AP, and for late game teamfights. You can get Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist if you know your not going to be laning against an AP. (Draft Pick)
  
• Greater Seal of Armor: // In the top lane you will usually be playing against an AD. So these will help a lot. Also minions and neutral monsters do physical damage making these a great choice overall, even if your not laning against an AD.

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Flash: // I, believe flash to be the best summoner spell in the game. It can help you initiate and get kills. Or escape and not die. Dodge a skillshot. Or even steal a dragon/baron. I grab this summoner spell on almost every champion I play.

Ignite: // This will give you that extra bit of damage you might need to finish someone off. Also thanks to Summoner's Wrath when it's on cooldown you will gain 5 AD and AP. Which will make it easier to last hit minions, poke, and even get kills.

Cleanse: // Cleanse is a great summoner spell for countering CC and other summoner spells. If used properly it can and most likely will save your life. I grab cleanse when playing ranked (draft pick) and I see the enemy team has a lot of CC.

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• spider swarm: // Early game this passive won't do very much, but it scales very well into late game and becomes amazing!
  
  // Human Form - Your spells will ready a baby spider, to know how many spiders you can have ready at once take the rank of your ultimate and add 1.
  
  // Spider Form - Upon entering spider form you will summon all the baby spiders you have readied. They do damage based off of your AP, but the ratio is only 10%. So early game when you can only summon 2 or 3 spiders AP won't do much for them, but late game when you summon 5 its actually really good. One of the best passives for damage I would say. If you exit human form with baby spiders still alive they will go back to being "readied". You won't lose them :D
  
• neurotoxin / venomous bite (Q): // This ability does damage as a % of the enemies HP. Making it naturally stronger late game when people have higher HP. Every 100 AP = 3% bonus damage, so early game when you can only manage to get a few % you won't notice any big damage through AP. But late game with large AP amounts and higher health amounts it will do considerable damage.
  
  // Human Form - Average range for a ranged ability, but a moderately low cooldown. This combined with the pretty good base damage makes this ability great for poking, which is why it is maxed first. It will give you lane dominance. It does damage = to a % of their current HP, so it does more damage the HIGHER current health they have.
  
  // Spider Form - Not quite melee range, but only by a little. This ability will cause you and all your spiders to leap a small distance. Even your human form W ability Volatile Spiderling / Skittering Frenzy. This does a % of the targets missing health as damage, meaning it does more damage the LOWER current health they have.
  
• Volatile spiderling / skittering frenzy (W): // Overall good ability. This is your only other damage ability besides Q which is why its maxed second. Not much I can say about it as a whole because the 2 different versions of it depending on your form are very different.
  
  // Human Form - Volatile spiderling is your only spell with good AP scaling early game. Even still one spell isn't enough to make AP viable early game. Basically this is a homing skill shot, which can be a good thing and a bad thing. It can be a good thing in open fights because you don't have to worry about missing. It can be a bad thing in instances where minions can be in the way, for example the laning phase. Also because of its higher cooldown it doesn't pull very good DPS. I mainly use this ability early game to check bushes and if someone comes close you can throw it on them, OR if you land a cocoon.
  
  // Spider Form - The passive on this is actually not bad. Your spider form passively increases your right click damage so any bonus attack speed won't be completely wasted like on most AP champions. The activate is amazing! 140% attack speed is pretty huge. This is one of the biggest attack speed steroids in the game, its only problem is the cooldown. Use this ability whenever you know you can get off multiple right clicks on an enemy champion, or for the little bit of healing in lane/jungle. Very useful for grabbing blue buff and things like that. Late game when you have 5 spiderlings and good AP this will give you massive DPS for the duration.
  
• cocoon / rappel (E): // These are your utility abilities. Although situational, they can land you kills and save your life if used wisely. The only benefit to leveling this ability is a lower cooldown, which is helpful... But not nearly as helpful as leveling your others. Which is why this is leveled last.
  
  // Human Form - Decent range skillshot stun on a moderate cooldown. That pretty much sums this ability up perfectly. Very useful when someone jumps on you as you can just stun them, go spider form, and walk away. Also helpful when going for kills, being a stun it will prevent them from running away or casting anything in order to escape. Be smart when using this ability. Think about any mobility tools or gap closers the enemy might have and wait for them to be on cooldown to use this. Because that could be the difference between you landing and missing, living or dying, getting the kill or getting mad. One thing to keep in mind, if you land this ability you will get vision of the target. Meaning you can check bushes with it and things like that. Be creative.
  
  // Spider Form - This ability is amazing! It can be used in so many ways. To escape, stall, chase you name it! It can be used to jump to an enemy player, minion or even neutral monster for the perfect escape. You can use it as your own built in version of Zhonya's Hourglass to stall the enemy team. Or you can just use it as a gap closer. It has a small delay before it goes off, but as long as they are within range when you click them it will still go off. Also never forget it gives vision within the range of the ability. Very useful if in the jungle and you need an escape.
  
• spider form / human form (R): // This is what makes elise Elise. You start out with this ability at level one and with it you can switch between human form and spider form. Other than just switching your moveset completely, spider form gives you extra passive bonuses whilst in it. It causes your right clicks to do bonus magic damage, scaling with AP. Aswell as giving you movespeed and armor/magic resist. As you level it it increases the amount of spiderlings you can ready with your passive. Level this ability every chance you get.

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// Your Q is the best tool you have for dominating lane, aswell as it being your main damage dealing spell. With its low cooldown and high base damage its a great poke so its maxed first. Second is your other damage ability. Last is your utility, because you don't gain much from leveling it. Grab your ultimate everytime you can at 6/11/16.

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// Increased movespeed, and magic penetration. This is the best early game item you can possibly buy. AP does next to nothing early game, so the best way to increase your damage is magic penetration. Rush this.

// Haunting Guise is another item that is good for early game, giving you magic pen and also health. This builds from it. Mid game AP is good, but still not great. So I build AP items that also bring penetration or strong passives to the table. This being a good example.

// As stated above, mid game I build AP items with penetration or other good passives. This lowers the enemies magic resistance, which is basically the same thing as magic penetration but for your whole team. Also the magic resist on this always helps against APs. Good mid game item.

// Late game AP becomes phenominal. This item has the most AP in the game, so its pretty obvious why we go for it once late game begins. After level 16 this is your best option for items. Point blank period.

// 80 AP is a pretty good amount, making this a great late game item. Also the HP and slow it brings is always a big help not only to you but also to your team. Because of the HP and slow this item actually wouldn't be a bad choice for mid game. But I prefer the others listed above.

// I can never praise this item enough, it can literally be a game changer. 100 AP automatically makes it a great late game choice. But the 50 armor only makes it that much better. When you factor in the stasis active it has its usefulness becomes indescribable. Whenever your being focused use this right before or after a rappel for a full 4.5 seconds of invulnerability. During that time the enemy team will scramble around like idiots doing sub optimal damage. This maneuver will win you teamfights.

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// In team fights elise plays the role of an AP carry. With high burst late game you can annhilate high priority targets such as the enemy AD carry or AP carry. She can either stay back and play safe doing as much damage as possible, or she can jump into the fray and help kill whoever needs to die and still be somewhat safe. The reason for this is the above mentioned Zhonya/Rappel combo that gives you 4.5 seconds of invulnerabilty. Kill the enemy AD and AP carries very quickly, and be very annoying when they try to kill you. This will make a big difference in teamfights.

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// Elise is a very fun and pretty unique champion. When she first came out I was very intrigued and played her a lot. I've tried AP, bruiser, hybrid, etc.. Pretty much every viable way to play her and THIS guide is what I've gotten from all that. I strongly believe this is the best way to build/play her to the most effect through the entire game. This will also make you as helpful as possible in teamfights. So give it a try and have fun dominating! // SPECIAL THANKS: Credits to jhoijhoi for the template, which you can find here. Top of page!