Elise Build Guide : Rated E for Elise ~ A Comprehensive Guide to Jungle Elise

Introduction

Greetings summoners! CasterMaster here with an official guide. Inspired and helped by some amazing players and competitive gamers, I decided to write a guide that will help carry your solo queue games and wreck faces with this arachnid. is fun to play with huge competitive potential, extreme bursts, deadly ganks and a very interesting concept that will put a big check-mark in everyone's book. So whether you're familiar with or not, take a seat and let me present to you:
Rated E for Elise: An In-Depth Jungle Elise Guide!

is ranged and melee, making her suited for changing her play-style whenever necessary. is a lot like 's which transforms you from a ranged attacker to a melee fighter. Because of this, has access to 7 skills, 2 skills for each key other than her ultimate. Even though can perform in multiple lanes, this guide we will focus her in the jungle. She provides good clear speeds and takes very little damage from jungle camps thanks to her spiderlings tanking all the damage. Her ganks are extremely deadly and will almost always force a or secure a kill on squishy targets if lands, and is very good for catching up to enemies or escaping sticky situations. Later into the game performs much better with items that provide defense since her base damage on her skills are relatively high, allowing you to take on the role of a tanky initiator that can pack a punch. So without further ado, let's dive into the details!

(Credits to TempleWarden for this video, song is "Fortress of Seduction" by Two Steps from Hell)

Why and When

For a jungle , I'd assume you want to play when you need a jungler on your team. Extremely deadly with her base damage and for crowd control, her ganks are unbelievably successful most of the time. Here are some of the reasons why and when you would choose :

+ Competitive Jungler
+ Exceptional Counter-Jungler
+ Strong and Dangerous Ganks
+ Unique Kit and Cool Concept
+ Enjoyable and Fun to Play
+ Multiple Builds and Playstyle

These are some reasons why you may want to play . Of course, everyone has their own reasons but if you're reading this guide I'm sure you already know why you'd want to play her. She is very competitive and skill-shot oriented, since missing her can be very lethal. Nonetheless, she is no easy champion to master and playing her to her full potential requires learning and diligence.

+ Team Requires a Jungler
+ Tanky and Heavy in Damage
+ You Want to Counter-Jungle
+ A Champion that can Snowball
+ Multiple Builds and Play-style

In normal games, you can pretty much play whenever you want so long as you can choose her. However, since she is strongest in the jungle in ranked and competitive play, usually you'd be able to pick her if your team requires a jungler and if she is not banned or already chosen by the opposing team. Regardless, she deals a lot of damage, puts a lot of pressure and can become very tanky with this build as the game progresses.

Pros and Cons

Before we learn about , we need to know her strengths and weaknesses. All champions have strengths and weaknesses. Some have more than others, while some don't have many weaknesses at all. has her own set of strengths and weaknesses, so let's discuss some of her deadly pros and venomous cons:

+ Good Clear Speeds
+ Great Gap Closer / Escape
+ Has a Stun
+ Huge AP Burst Damage
+ Spiderlings can Block and Damage
+ No Mana Costs in

's Q and W in both forms are both reliable sources of damage or damage increments, allowing her to clear jungle camps fairly quickly and dish out a large amount of magic damage to her adversaries. Her E can provide two types of utility; stuns its target for a good amount, enough to unleash her full combo while allows for chasing or making get-aways if minions or monsters are nearby to land to.

- Stun is Skill-Shot Reliant
- Item Dependent
- Can Easily Fall Behind
- Weak when Skills on Cool-down

Like all other champions, has some of her own problems. If is missed, then essentially has no crowd-control until it comes off cool-down. Like most mages, she can't deal a lot of damage when her Q and W are on cool-down. Controlling her and also require some knowledge on cool-downs. Avoid falling behind, as it is quite hard for to regain advantage. Fortunately, one can start strong and end strong if all the right moves are made.

Runes

Domination

Electrocute

Predator

Fleet Footwork

Phase Rush

Here are my runes that I run on . Everyone has their own preferences and runes are designed to help you focus on what you want more. For example, taking armor seals means you want to take less damage from physical attacks. I will discuss below my reasonings. Remember that nothing must be done, it is only advised, and you do not have to agree with my choices.

x9ORgreater mark of hybrid penetration

Greater Mark of Magic or Hybrid Pen

This gets debated by many players. greater mark of hybrid penetrations are expensive, so if you do not have any or do not want to buy any, is just fine. You won't see a great difference. Marks are most useful when it comes to damage, including penetration. Ignoring their magic resistance means your magic damaging abilities will hurt more.

x9

Greater Seal of Armor

As a jungler, you want to take reduced damage from the monster camps. Even though your spiderlings will be taking the hits most of the time, armor seals are one of the best seals you can get and should be taken just for how essential they are in a large portion of cases. Plus it makes you more resistant to the heavy physical damage you may take later on.

x5x4

Greater Glyph of Flat and Scaling M.Res

You don't need a huge chunk of magic resistance early game, just enough to reduce an opponents magic damage so that you won't suffer severe damage. Gaining magic resistance throughout the game helps not fall behind. Some players may prefer to take 9 into either or mix them around. This is purely player preference, and both options are optimal.

x3

Greater Quintessence of MS

Junglers always love a good boost in speed, and is no different. Moving faster means you can get to your jungle camps faster, run to gank lanes quicker and escape or catch opponents you normally wouldn't be able to. Can be swapped for AP quints for more damage if you feel like you want to do so.

Masteries

Here is my standard mastery page for . Spec'ing 21 into offense allows you to deal a lot more damage, letting us build defensive and supportive items for the team. Whether you take 9 points into utility or defense is up to you. It's also totally fine to go 21 into defense and build more damage items since you would lack a lot of damage without the 21 points in offense. Again, this is user preference and is based on your motives. I'll just go over my choices:

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is essential in the jungle to increase clear speeds. is great on since she'll become very defense-heavy and can utilize the 2% increased damage. 3 points nets you earlier cool-down reduction which helps 's poor cool-downs while boosts 's spell damage via basic attacks. , and all help with AP, so more damage. is a great damage boost to lower health targets. helps your basic attacks hurt more and to ignore some opposing armor and magic resistance. Finally we finish with for a very useful damage booster.
Over on the defense tree, is extremely useful for health regeneration from monsters or ganks. is very powerful later into the game once you have a lot of armor and magic resistance through items. Finally, and greatly increase your health for the early game as well as help boost other health items effectiveness. Take 1 point in as it's necessary in order to get enough points in the defense tree for (or you could take instead).

Summoner Spells

Summoner Spells are a very important aspect of the game. What you take decides on what you're aiming to do for the match. If you're one who hasn't unlocked all the summoner spells yet, I'd suggest you do not jungle until is unlocked. and are both effective summoners for those who do not have but should take out for once they're ready to try out the jungle.

Flash

Smite

is important on almost every champion and is a must for its wide range of uses. Chasing opponents, getting away, making sick plays, it all comes down to this skill. is important on every jungler whether you need it to clear camps faster or not. It's extremely useful for securing buffs as well as Dragon and Baron, since it has low-cooldown, very high true damage and is instant.

Teleport

Exhaust

Ignite

These options are very situational and usually can never replace or . However, it may be because of team circumstances or other reasons why you would want to take these. helps set up ganks and later play effectively by ing to wards or minions that are pushing, and can be useful in split-pushing team compositions. can shut down carries effectively for a short duration and increases kill potential through extra damage and healing reduction. proves useful against champions with a lot of health regeneration or life steal such as . In the end, and prove superior for jungling champions due to their uses and effectiveness that they provide. Nobody else will take other than the jungler, so you better make sure you secure the buffs!

Skills Summary

Now that 's setup has been covered, now its time to touch on her kit. Unlike most other champions, is blessed with a large portion of skills. This is both good and bad. The bad news is, it requires a lot of crucial thinking to get used to her kit and her combos while keeping track of cool-downs on both and . The good news is, she lacks a true ultimate, meaning her kit is designed to be powerful throughout the course of the match. Let's take a look at her abilities.

Spider Swarm
(Passive)

This is an extraordinary and powerful passive. These spiderlings will aid you in combat and last until they are killed or reverts back to . Even if they die, you can make more by hitting non-allied targets with 's abilities. Very useful for clearing monster camps fasters and allows you to deal a lot more damage.

Tips and Tricks - Spider Swarm

Neurotoxin
(Q - Human)

's first ability in . This is a basic targeted ability that deals incredible damage. It also deals more damage the more health they have, which has great synergy with . We will explain that in a second.

Venomous Bite
(Q - Spider)

's first ability in . Like , the target is lunged upon and is dealt damage the more health they don't have. Using first will deal more damage, so when applying your basic combo, always use first since it will deal the most damage. Finish with , considering it deals more damage the less health they have.

Tips and Tricks - Neurotoxin and Venomous Bite

Volatile Spiderling
(W - Human)

This ability summons a homing spider that blows up after reaching a target or after a short duration. It goes for the closest target, so if minions are in the way, move past them before using this ability. It deals quite a lot of damage if it hits, and with a few tricks or a landed , it isn't too hard to hit this skill.

Skittering Frenzy
(W - Spider)

Free attack speed for and her spiderlings. Helps clear jungle camps faster and helps you deal more damage to whoever you're attacking, since you attack a lot faster. In , 's basic attacks deal additional magic damage, so having increased attack speed certainly helps you dish out more damage.

Tips and Tricks - Volatile Spiderling and Skittering Frenzy

Cocoon
(E - Human)

A simple single-target skill shot that stuns the first target it hits. This is a very precious skill that you don't want to miss since the stun is 's only form of crowd-control (not counting items like or ). Therefore you want to make sure this ability hits the target you're aiming for. The cool-down on this skill is fairly high, so essentially you get one shot with it. If possible, chain this skill with allied crowd-control to ensure it hits. It's also better to wait and focus your accuracy rather than rush it and miss.

Rappel
(E - Spider)

's form of utility. Using this skill allows her to jump into the air, reveal non-allied targets within a radius around her and allowing her to drop to one of those targets or land back to where she originally sprang up from. Extremely high cool-down, this ability is most often used to catch up to fleeing enemies or escape from problems. However, remember you can only jump to non-allied targets, so if there are no non-allied targets in your path of escape, then you can't to safety.

Tips and Tricks - Cocoon and Rappel

Spider Form
(R)

Transforms into a spider or vice versa. In each form has 3 abilities, so it's obvious that one should use up all of her abilities in , allowing them to go on cool-down before switching over to . The cool-downs of each individual skill only affects that skill itself, so if you use and transform into , will be available for use.

Tips and Tricks - Spider Form

Skill Sequence and Combos

Ability Sequence
1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18

Start off with either your Q or your W, depending on what you feel like. / will provide a more sustained start while / will help you kill the big monster faster. At level 3, you should have 1 point in all your abilities. This is when becomes very powerful because she essentially has 6 skills available for use in her arsenal. Max your Q since it has the lowest cool-down of all her skills and is the most reliable damage source. W is maxed second for just about the same reasons. Take a point into your ultimate whenever possible, as the extra spiderling and magic damage in should not be passed up.

For combos, you should always start in . should be the first damage ability you cast. If you can't get a clear shot on , you can throw anywhere where it won't hit anything, since it's most accurate when thrown onto the opponent with . Otherwise, cast towards your target next. Use when you feel most comfortable it will land; whether it be close-up or far away where you are not visible. Once your Q, W and E have been used in , transform and your target. Use to continue applying more damage. is there when your opponent trys to get away or when you yourself need to make an escape, but don't use it randomly without reason. The best time to use is when your opponent attempts to escape with , then you can close the gap without having to burn your own . Do note that once you use , it has a very high cool-down so you won't have any escape other than once you use it.

Items

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The items are what defines 's role. Building damage means you're more prone to being ripped into pieces faster. Based on the current meta, we want to be building a relatively defensive and supportive spider so that our carries get to do all the damage for us while we keep them alive or take out theirs. Let's take a closer look the build.

x5
Machete + Potions

x3
Elixir + Potions + Ward

x2
Doran's Ring + Potions

Most of the time you'd want to take with potions for insanely good clear times. The s will allow you to recover health from camps but usually from gank or countering attempts. is more of a balls-deep move that is greatly effective for counter-jungling and dealing a lot more damage in ganks. is also a decent option to start which gives a good mix of mana sustain and damage output but with less s to spare. Any option that doesn't start with will delay your if you ever intend to get it. For trinkets, start for ganking and lane camping or for counter-jungling and map vision.

Sorcs + Spirit Stone + Ward(s)

Ancient Golem OR
Spectral Wraith

Aegis of the Legion

On your first back grab and . If you can't afford them both, just get a and work your way to . This helps increase your mobility, clear speed and damage with magic penetration. As a jungler, moving around the map quickly and efficiently is very important. Remember to buy Stealth Wards every time you recall if you have the gold. It helps provide vision in needed locations so that you can secure kills, warn allies, etc. Eventually you'll want to turn that into either which provides health and cool-down reduction for durability or which provides more damage that really isn't necessary unless you and your team are in a huge lead. Get quickly to help boost your teams effectiveness in skirmishes and fights or for more damage in ganks.

Locket of the Iron Solari

Haunting Guise

Giant's Belt

Finish your / when possible. This will definitely make a huge impact on your allies by giving them an additional shield for survivability in any situation. During the mid game, you can opt for a for additional health, ability power and magic damage to become more threatening with your abilities. You can also choose to go for a which you can later on build into for damage, durability and slows on all your damaging spells. Works great with 's passive.

Liandry's Torment

Abyssal Scepter

Frozen Heart

Oracle's Lens

Complete your if necessary into a for even more damage and health. This is not always necessary if you have other options you would like to finish first. An not only boosts your own damage, but reduces enemy magic resistance so that other magic damage dealers on your team may inflict more pain! Don't forget it also grants magic resistance to the wearer so you can take less magic damage. Finish off with to reduce cool-downs, boost armor, obtain more mana and reduce the attack speed of your foes. Extremely great item to reduce the effectiveness of your opponents whose main source of damage is basic attacks. For enchantments, or are your best options. Alacrity helps you boost your movement speed in general so that you can stick to your targets while Homeguard is effective for defending the base or for quick recoveries.

is almost always a must on , with the stats it gives. Health, ability power, magic penetration and a devastating passive. Some players may just stick with and sell it later in the game if they don't feel like continuing onwards.
has great synergy with and provides substantial health, ability power and a useful passive that gives more crowd-control to help her team out. Exceptionally powerful.
grants magic resistance and ability power, meaning more damage coming from you and less magic damage taken. Emits an aura that reduces opponents magic resistance, so even more magic damage coming out from not just you, but your team as well!
provides a huge amount of ability power and a decent amount of armor. For players looking for more damage because their team isn't doing enough, they may consider this one. Its active is extremely useful if used correctly, otherwise the opposing team will just run straight through you and annihilate your team.

The first two items were discussed already in the Damage section, so we can skip those.
is an extremely great item on , and can replace when needed. It gives a good amount of both health and armor, while slowing the attack speed and movement speed of any champion who dares land a basic attack on you. Activating this item also reduces movement speed of non-allied champions around you, meaning you can potentially slow their entire team if you're in the center of them. Also works great with .
should normally only be taken if your opposing team deals relatively equal amounts of both physical and magic damage. This item is extremely poor against team compositions with health shredding items or abilities. However, it gives the most amount of health in the game and combined with and your other resistances, this choice is exceptional.
is a fairly iffy item choice, and usually wouldn't be taken despite it dealing magic damage to surrounding targets because it only gives an decent amount of health and armor. It's not the best choice for when it comes to health or armor, since is a better choice.
gives a decent amount of health, but not the real reason why we buy it. A support item on a durable champion means its aura will be hanging around a lot longer than if it were on a squishy support.

Apart from the already discussed items, is an ideal item on which is why its very generic. Not only does it give unreal amounts of armor and cool-down reduction (the mana is alright I guess), the unique aura reduces the opponents attack speed by a huge amount! Since it's an aura unlike 's passive that requires an opponent to land a basic attack on you, its very effect on teams that deal a lot of physical damage and require a lot of basic attacks for damage output.
should only ever be gotten if the entire opposing team is physical damage. Not only that, each of them have to be doing a good portion of damage in order for to be super effective. Otherwise, this item is an alright choice.

gives a good amount of magic resistance as well as health. It also provides a spell shield onto its wearer, making it a very good item to deal with nasty abilities. However, most players that are anything above decent can play around this, so be warned when getting this item.
is a very overlooked item. With the stats it gives and its cost, its a really good item early and mid game. A decent amount of ability power, magic resistance and even movement speed. The items active is also very good for hunting down prey or scouting the area. Definitely an effective item, but falls off later into the game. If you get this item and you hit very late into the game, consider selling this for something else.
is also a great item to get on . The health it provides is exceptional, along with good amounts of cool-down reduction and magic resistance. The unique passive on the other hand does not help much, other than which makes a difference. Even so, this item deserves some mention for the other stats it gives along with the magic resistance.

Damage

Health

Armor

Magic Resist

Gameplay

After going through all the setups for , let's look at her gameplay. This is the most important section for learning how to actually play .

On , if you are not invading, start either Ancient Golem or Elder Lizard depending on play-style. Ancient Golem is the standard start as you want more mana regeneration and cool-down reduction to clear the monster camps faster. Starting Elder Lizard is not usually recommended unless you're going for more damage on your ganks and your counter-jungling. Remember to constantly check your allies and their laning phase as it's very important that they perform well. For example, if you see a lane that is losing on your side, you'd probably want to go help them out. Even if they are doing well, watch out for the enemy jungler and predict where they'll gank. This is where s and s can be very helpful. Otherwise, are great for babysitting a lane.

Move yourself backwards in order to have the spiderlings take the hits.

After gaining levels and building items, remember to focus on the primary objectives: Kills, Turrets and Dragon. Kills are obvious. Turrets and Dragon give a huge amount of gold for your team, so being able to take objectives will most certainly help the game. Remember to constantly buy wards. As a jungler, giving vision to your team is definitely of utmost importance. Warding areas such as dragon, baron, tri-bushes and outside the wraith camp are great areas that people go by a lot. Pay a lot of attention to bottom lane, since it's closest to Dragon and forcing your opponents to or killing them allows for an easy Dragon setup without much competition.

What comes in the late game that is new includes Baron and Major Team Fights. Of course, team fights can occur any time during a game, but most of the major ones that will decide the outcome of game will happen when players have ridiculously high death timers (which is late into the game). Team fights will be discussed in the team fight section. The important of a team fight however is not just the outcome of it, but what you do after as well. For example, if you ace the enemy team with three players still relatively healthy, don't go back and buy items! Use this time to push down lanes, destroy turrets/inhibitors/nexus, and/or take down Baron. As a jungler, again, remember to have wards on key locations. Avoid getting caught by the enemy team and use or to remove opposing vision of key locations. Eventually you may find the opportunity to start a major fight and with any luck, your team will come up on top and win the game.

Ganking is both very simple and effective. The first thing to point out is : DO NOT MISS THIS SKILL! It is a huge stun and will basically decide how the gank will work out. Take as much time as you can to aim this skill, and like what was said before, even if you have to walk up to melee range to ensure it hits, do so. Always start with following up with towards your target. Switch into and follow up with and . Only if they /use an escape ability, as it doesn't deal any extra damage anyways. With a bit of practice and skill-shot aiming, your ganks should work out very well majority of the time.

Remember not to be seen by the opponent you're ganking and time your entry well.

Landing your Cocoon is crucial in ganks, and unleashing your combo will rip your targets health.

As for team fights, making sure you start one correctly is a key fact. Obvious reasons for why you'd want to start a team fight is if you know you have two or more ultimates available in your team to use, your team currently out-numbers what they have around, or your opponents are severely clumped up or out of position. Do remember that your opponents may also start the fight, and that you may not be the one to start a fight on your team. does not have any area-of-effect crowd-control abilities, so she's quite lackluster in team fights. However, with items such as , /, or , you can make that up easily. Your goal in a team fight is to stick to the enemy carries and deal as much damage to them or help peel off enemies from your own carries, depending whether your opponents carry is more scary than yours or vice versa. Most of the time you'll want to be sticking to your opposing carries as your combo will devastate their health bar. Because has such great base damage, with only a few ability power items and a lot of magic penetration, you will be dealing a lot of damage to their squishies while being very durable for your team.

Protecting your carries or removing the other teams is key to success, so even if you die, if your carry is still alive and hurting then the team is in a good position.

An example of sticking onto your opponents carry.

Elise Videos

A lot of people (including myself) learn best through watching instead of reading. This section allows you to witness 's potential and impact in a game. So now let's stop reading and start watching.

To start off, this is probably one of the most fundamental videos for learning how to play , with a replay of KT Rolster Bullets KaKAO in a solo queue high-leveled match. Click the spoiler below for an in-depth analysis of his decisions during the video.

Video Analysis #1 - KT Rolster Bullets KaKAO

Here is a replay of SKT T1 Bengi playing in the Korean Challenger tier. The previous video was a simple snowball and in this game we find that Bengi is able to make a comeback even after starting the game behind. A good point of this video is that you can only see 's team on the replay, so you don't know where the enemy players are at all times, making it realistic to learn from.
Do note that this video is not up to date as it is a Season 3 video. Watch mainly for gameplay!

Video Analysis #2 - SKT T1 Bengi

Conclusion

I just want to say thank you all for supporting me! It wasn't easy making this guide, and I for sure have to say that this has been one of the most difficult yet beautiful guide I have ever created. It has been a great learning experience for myself, and definitely had to endure a lot of pain through making it this far. Promising not to give up even at the worst of times. In the end, I have to say I am very satisfied. As always, remember to leave comments, complaints, concerns and opinions in the comments so that I can improve the guide. Being helpful and inspiring is a huge dream for me, and I do hope that I can continue on being as helpful as I can be!

LOG

December 28, 2013 - Guide Released
January 11, 2014 - Added the Elise Videos section, included images in Gameplay and updated items

Rated E for Elise ~ A Comprehensive Guide to Jungle Elise

Rated E for Elise ~ A Comprehensive Guide to Jungle Elise

Recommended Items

Spells:

Smite

Flash

Items

Ability Order

Spider Queen (PASSIVE)

Neurotoxin / Venomous Bite (Q)

Volatile Spiderling / Skittering Frenzy (W)

Cocoon / Rappel (E)

Spider Form / Human Form (R)

Introduction

Why and When

Pros and Cons

Runes

Runes

Masteries

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Summoner Spells

Skills Summary

Skill Sequence and Combos

Items

Click on the stars above to view those options!

Gameplay

Elise Videos

Conclusion

LOG

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