Hello fellow League players! My name is Ivan and I'm here to bring you my first ever guide here on Mobafire. I've chosen to teach you a little bit about League's own spider queen - Elise.

This is, as I said, my first guide and it might be a bit difficult to understand my English from time to time, but I hope you can learn something anyways.

EDIT:
Thanks a lot for the all the nice comments and especially for all of the views :) I'll be trying to update this guide whenever Riot does any major changes to Elise.

Okay so recently I've started to record a few games on my smurf (not my main acc), and I happened to play Elise a few times. These clips doesn't really teach you how to play Elise, but will show you a few neat things you can do with her.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=kQzZpyNMxWM#t=159s

A like would be very appreciated :)

SPACESPACESPACE Pros Can win (or come out equal) in almost any top lane match up Has high burst Consistent poke and high damage A lot of mobility Hard long range CC in form of a stun Percentage health damage Very versatile (can be played in most positions) Many different buildpaths Her spiderlings can come to block skillshots from hitting you in many situations Cons Scales fairly bad into the lategame Her only form of CC is a skillshot (can be a 'pro' in some situations) Pretty short range compared to many other ap carries High skillcap Pushes reaaaally slow earlygame. This can be a huge problem if you need to push your lane if the enemy toplane dies or recalls.

Simple, basic AP bruiser masteries. Gives you a lot of lategame survivablity and the magic penetration helps you dominating your lane early. Also, the extra AD from the improved ignite mastery helps a lot with lasthitting and harassing your opponent with autoattacks. I feel like with the nerfs to Elise Q going 21 into the offense tree is a viable option, but I personally like to roll with 9/21/0

Elise has been hit a few times in the last couple of patches. Increasing her manacosts on Neurotoxin and lowering the damage on the same ability. These nerfs has made her a lot weaker in lane, and has made tear slightly better pickup earlygame.

In the V3.01.0.1 patch, they nerfed the damage on Neurotoxin further, but buffed the damage on Venomous bite, forcing Elise players to go into spiderform a lot more. These changes made her a tiny bit weaker, but a lot more fun in my opinion.

24-03-2013
Added an update section and a "youtube-clip-section-thingy". Also added a few more starting items, edited notes, masteries and a few spelling issues.

25-05-2013
Holy **** 100k views! Thanks a ton guys!

29-05-2013
Will be working continuously on a support section. Keep on upvoting and commenting, it really means a lot to me!

30-09-2013
Changed the item section and buildpath slightly.

10-12-2013
Just added some trinkets. No major changes in the preseason. Elise still a viable pick, though she might be a bit stronger in the jungle.

As I mentioned earlier in the pros/cons section, Elise has a wide number of buildpaths, making her a very versatile and safe pick in many different situations.

You can build her as a high burst assassin, a tanky ap bruiser, a support/aura carry etc.

Earlygame goals
Haunting guise - gives you a lot of damage and the extra health makes you survive high burst

Tear of the goddess tear of the - has been a viable pickup ever since the mana increases on her Q. Really great lategame when upgraded into a Seraph's Embrace.

Sorceress boots /Mercury threads /Ninja tabi - Sorcs if you're winning, Mercs if the enemy team packs a lot of CC, Ninja Tabi's if the enemy team has a lot of AD (which is pretty common nowadays)

Crystalline Flask - incredible sustain. Not quite as op as it was before the nerf but still a good pick up if you're laning against an opponent with a lot of sustain and you need to outpush them to win.

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Midgame goals
Liandry's torment - damage and HP + synchronizes very well with Rylai's

Rylai's crystal sceptre - health and damage + synchronizes very well with Liandry's

Sunfire cape - Deals A TON of damage if you rush it against AD opponents. Also, as you'll be stacking a lot of magic penetration, the damage/second will always be high.

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Lategame goals
Abyssal sceptre - Against scary AP carries. Makes you survive a lot of AOE. Elise will almost always proc the passive as she has a pretty low range.

Zhonya's hourglass - A load of damage and combined with your E grants you 4 seconds of invulnerability.

Elise has like a few other in the League the possibility of swapping between 2 skillsets. This makes her a pretty unique champion. Her abilities in human form are ranged abilities and you'll spend most your time in lane in this form.

Her spider form brings a lot to the table though. It gives her a small bit of sustain, tankiness, higher base stats, more escapetools, spiderlings but it limits her range. Therefore you won't be using the spiderform much until you've started to build up your survivability. Rapell has a very long cooldown in the early levels. It's a great tool to use for both escaping and chasing, but be carefull when using it because when it's on cooldown flash is your only way out if your enemy turns on you.



Passive Spider Swarm
INNATE: When Elise's Human Form spells hit an enemy, she readies a Spiderling. When Elise transforms, she summons Spiderlings to attack nearby foes. The maximum number of spiderlings increases with Spider Form's level.

Neurotoxin
Q Human form
ACTIVE: Deals magic damage equal to a base amount plus a percentage of the target's current health. Damage is capped against monsters.

Venomous bite
Q Spider form
ACTIVE: Elise lunges to a target with a poisonous bite that deals magic damage equal to a base amount plus a percentage of the target's missing health. Damage is capped against monsters.

Volatile spiderling
W Human form
ACTIVE: Summons a venom-gorged Spiderling that moves to target location and explodes, dealing magic damage to nearby enemies when it nears an enemy unit or after 3 seconds. The Spiderling will chase down enemy Champions, if it does not hit an enemy at target location. The Spiderling's Movement Speed increases as it gets closer to it's target.

Skittering frenzy
W Spider form
PASSIVE: Spiderlings gain bonus attack speed.
ACTIVE: Increases the attack speed of Elise and her Spiderlings for 3 seconds. While active, Elise is healed for a small amount when she or her spiderlings attack.

Cocoon
E Human form
ACTIVE: Elise fires a web that stuns the first enemy hit for 1.5 seconds. It will also reveal enemies that are hit for a second.

Rappel
E Spider form
ACTIVE (ON ENEMY CAST): Elise reveals nearby enemy targets, while she and her Spiderlings lift up into the air, and then descend upon the target enemy.
ACTIVE (ON GROUND CAST): Elise reveals nearby enemy targets while she and her Spiderlings lift up into the air, becoming untargetable for 2 seconds. During that time she can cast Rappel again to descend upon a nearby enemy.

R Spider form
ACTIVE: Elise transforms into a menacing spider, granting access to arachnid abilities. While in Spider Form, Elise deals bonus magic damage with her autoattacks and gains 10 movement speed as well as bonus armor and magic resistance.
SPIDERLINGS: Spiderlings deal physical damage and take reduced damage from multi-target abilities. The maximum number of spiderlings is increased with Spider Form's level.

R Human form
ACTIVE: Elise transforms into her human form, granting access to regular abilities.

There are a few funny things you can do with Elise and her quite original kit.

Rappel can be used as both an escape tool and engage. By targeting an enemy minion/neutral creep when getting ganked you can get out of a lot of bad situations.

If you cast Volatile spider in human form, quickly swap into spider form and use your venomous bite on a target, you make the Volatile spiderling dash towards your target as shown in the video below.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hHG_wU-HPo

Remember to use your Q's according to the targets HP. The higher current HP your target has, the more damage will your Q in human form do. Venomous bite acts as an execute and will deal more damage if you target is low on HP.

As I've mentioned before, Elise wins almost all meta toplane matchups. There are very few champions in the current meta that can deal with her constant poke. Also, she has 2 abilties that scales of your hp, so those pesky hp stacking tanks won't be a problem for you.

She acts as a counter to a large number of champions such as Jax, Darius, Olaf, Shen, Riven and many more. She completely shuts down all of the game melee and short range bruisers top. She is also a good counterpick to Irelia, even if Irelia starts winning this matchup as the game progresses.

tl;dr you can generally firstpick Elise top and not be countered by anything except some AP carries. If your enemy pick a squishy AP carry top, just make a lane swap and you should be good to go.

Elise's greatest strength and why she's considered a pubstomp at lower Elo's is because of her ability to completely dominate and shut down the enemy toplane.

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She has constant high damage poke with her low CD and low cost Q (which got a small nerf in a recent patch), hard CC to lock down her opponent for ganks, a great escape tool and sustained damage in spider form. She's in many ways an improved Nidalee (even if Nida has some strengths that Elise doesn't have).

Basically, if you're against a melee constantly, try to constantly hit them with an auto + Neurotoxin to bring them low enough for you to jump onto them and hopefully score a kill. You should refrain from using Volatile Spiderling too much. Using it too often will drain your mana and push the lane, making you easier to gank. Don't use it unless you need to quickly push the lane when backing or you're csing at turret.

Your role in teamfights varies a lot from game to game. It depends a lot on which buildpath you choose and what would benefit your team the most. And as I said, Elise is pretty weak lategame so try to finish the game as early as you can.

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Does your team need someone to soak up damage? By all means, rush an early Sunfire cape and just try to assassinate the enemy carry by dropping on top of him with your E. Does your team need a high damage skirmisher? Go with the good ol' Magic penetration build and just blow up enemies that are out of position. Remember to never underestimate the damage output of your enemies. Before you know it, you might get blown to bits in an instant if you don't play your cards correctly.

If you're building her as a squishy assassin, try to sit in the edges of the teamfight and constantly poke in and out with your Q/W/E combo until an enemy get low enough for you to jump onto with your Q and kill them. Your next step should be to reposition yourself using rappel and find another high priority target.

Elise has a great laningphase and has an easy time scoring frags that most champions can't. Abuse this strength.

Your lategame is weak. If you believe that the enemy team has a stronger lategame, try to stop them from reaching late.

Elise has a fairly high skillcap with a wide skillset. Play her a lot to be able to use her tools to the fullest.

Don't shy away from some of the more unorthodox items in the shop. Shurelias on Elise might just be a good choice in some situations.

Elise is a viable champion not only in the toplane but in the jungle as well as the midlane. Play her in many different positions to master her.

This is as I said my first guide here on Mobafire. The format is very new to me and I know that there's a lot of things to improve. Would be swell if you could help me with those things :)!

Anyways, thanks for taking your time to read this short guide!