Welcome to the League of Legends Champion Spotlight featuring Elise, the Spider Queen.
Elise is a hybrid between a ranged mage and melee assassin or fighter.
Swapping between her human and spider forms, she tries to single out her prey and take them down with her abilities and Spiderlings.
Let’s start with Elise’s Ultimate, which is automatically learned at level 1, and allows her to switch between Human Form, and Spider Form.
When switching to Spider Form, she releases Spiderlings, deals bonus damage on her basic attacks, and gains bonus Movement Speed, Armor, and Magic Resist.
Elise’s passive is Spider Swarm.
While in Human Form, whenever she hits an enemy with an ability, she will ready a Spiderling, up to a cap.
Upon switching to Spider Form, she releases these Spiderlings to fight alongside her until they die or she switches back to Human Form.
Now let’s talk about her Human Form abilities.
Neurotoxin damages target enemy and deals bonus damage based upon their current health.
The healthier the target, the more damage dealt.
Volatile Spiderling walks to target location, exploding on the first enemy it hits.
If it doesn’t hit anything, it will seek out a nearby enemy or simply explode after a few seconds.
When Volatile Spiderling explodes, it deals damage to all nearby enemies.
Cocoon fires out and stuns the first enemy it hits for a short time.
Now let’s talk about her abilities in Spider Form.
Venomous Bite damages and lunges at target enemy, dealing bonus damage based upon their missing health.
The more injured the target, the more damage dealt.
I recommend taking a point in Neurotoxin / Venomous Bite at level 2 and maxing it by level 13 for single target damage output.
Skittering Frenzy significantly increases the attack speed of Elise and her Spiderlings for a few seconds.
While Skittering Frenzy is active, attacks made by Elise and her Spiderlings will heal Elise.
Taking a point in Volatile Spiderling / Skittering Frenzy at level 1 and maxing it first offers great jungle presence as well as minion clearing in the lane.
Rappel sends Elise and her Spiderlings up into the air, becoming untargetable and revealing nearby enemies.
If Rappel is cast directly on an enemy, she will descend on her foe immediately.
If Rappel is cast without a target, she will remain in the air for a short time, and it can be cast again on a nearby enemy to descend upon it.
Cocoon / Rappel should garner one point early on, but the utility it offers allows it to be maxed last.
When jungling, open up in Human Form and cast Volatile Spiderling.
Immediately switch to Spider Form and hit Skittering Frenzy to take down jungle camps.
When travelling between camps, remember to stay in Spider Form, as the increased movement speed will also help you move around the jungle faster.
When ganking, it’s best to open in Human Form to lead with Cocoon and the rest of her abilities.
Then, activating Spider Form will help you take down your prey with Venomous Bite and Skittering Frenzy.
Saving Rappel allows you to catch up to fleeing enemies.
If you can’t quite catch your prey, feel free to open with Rappel.
After chasing with Venomous Bite and Skittering Frenzy, switching to Human Form will make Cocoon extremely easy to land.
Afterwards, you can switch back to Spider Form one last time for Venomous Bite and the kill.
Sometimes, enemies can tell a gank is coming if you play too aggressively.
As Elise, you won’t have to make those kinds of moves.
Jayce comes down to gank Gragas, and after Gragas tries to escape, Elise heads over in Spider Form, lands Rappel, and finishes the kill with Venomous Bite.
Since you’ll be ganking often you may find yourself running behind the enemy turret to pin him down.
After dealing some initial damage, Elise runs back away from the enemy turret to escape its damage.
Waiting for cooldowns, she comes back in with Jarvan,
landing Cocoon and Volatile Spiderling while staying out of range of the turret to ensure the kill with no casualties.
Because Rappel reveals enemies in the fog of war, Elise is great at initiating or responding to counter-jungling.
Elise is able to descend upon and steal away her own Golem buff and lock up Lee Sin with Cocoon.
Though he initially escapes, Ziggs is able to land the killing blow thanks to Elise’s assist.
Try to stay near the walls by jungle camps. It could save your life.
Evelynn opens up onto Elise, and knowing she can't quite escape normally, Elise just hits Rappel,
reveals the nearby wraith camp, and lands on the other side of the wall, evading a grim demise.
In team fights, Elise’s goal is to quickly burst someone down and then play a bit evasively until another target can be found.
Let’s slow the fight down so that we can see all the action.
Upon spotting Leona, Elise lunges in with Venomous Bite and deals great damage with her Spiderlings as her team picks up the kill.
Now low on health, Elise backs off and switches to Human Form to fire from a distance.
Safely in the brush she lands Cocoon and follows up with Neurotoxin to take out Lee Sin.
Now Elise finds both Evelynn and Graves low on health,
so she hits Spider Form, Rappels up, and drops back down to pick up the kill on Graves with Venomous Bite.
As she runs, a quick Cocoon to the north ensures the enemy Spider Queen can't chase them down.
Another team fight proves the same concept.
In Human Form, Cocoon, Volatile Spiderling, and Neurotoxin deal some initial damage to Lee Sin.
Elise then creates some space from her opponents before she and Tristana turn their attention to Leona.
After landing Cocoon, she switches to Spider Form and pounces with Venomous Bite, picking up the kill.
Even after getting knocked away by Lee Sin, Elise still smells blood and looks for more prey.
Running to the wall, she hits Rappel, finds Lee Sin, and descends for another kill.
I recommend building Elise with a mix of damage, durability, and cooldown reduction.
Here’s an example build that should work well, even for your first time with the champion.
Take Magic Penetration Marks, Armor Seals, Magic Resist Glyphs, and Ability Power Quintessences.
Run 9/12/9 Masteries, with Magic Penetration in Offense, general durability in Defense, and Mana Regeneration and Neutral Buff Duration in Utility.
Take Ignite when laning or Smite when jungling, and Flash.
Open with Boots of Speed, Health Potions and a few Doran’s Rings or a Prospector’s Ring.
Rush a Rylai’s Crystal Scepter and then add Sorcerer’s Shoes and Abyssal Scepter to increase your damage output.
From here start looking to add more durability and cooldown reduction with items like Frozen Heart, Zhonya’s Hourglass, and Guardian Angel.
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