Elise is the versatile, high damage and aggressive Spider Queen. She has been one of my absolute favourite champions since her release. Elise is the perfect jack of all trades champion for a proactive Solo Queue Jungler, and she fills that spot as one of the few AP picks available.
Suppose you enjoy an incredibly aggressive and proactive early-game style of jungling, looking to abuse and punish your opponents at every turn with a champion with excellent skill expression and a high skill ceiling. In that case, this is the pick for you.
My name is Corso and I am a Challenger Jungle player from NA who has been actively boosting for 7 years and coaching for 5. Elise has consistently been a part of my three most played champions regardless of the ELO I have played in. She has the tools to proactively dominate the map and the damage to back it up. With a slippery and versatile kit that provides you with all the tools to single-handedly ensure ganks are successful, find picks throughout the match and peel or engage with ease. She is truly the jack of all trades and in a better spot currently than she has been for the past few years.
Elise is a highly mobile, aggressive and proactive champion throughout the game. Although there are different variations of viable Rune paths, you can go. I have found the following to be the most effective from the lowest to the highest tiers of ranked gameplay.
Dark Harvest: Dark Harvest is currently the best option, without a doubt. In previous patches, the tossup between Electrocute and Dark Harvest was due to Electrocute having the more consistent early game damage, and Dark Harvest stacks could be hard to come by in certain matchups. This is no longer the case; the scaling changes for AP ratios to Dark Harvest have the rune come online exceptionally early and scale considerably better than Electrocute throughout the match. Not to mention Dark Harvest can be used on multiple targets during a single fight as the cooldown is specific to each enemy champion. Given the aggressive early play style of Elise, gaining early Dark Harvest stacks should be no issue at all.
Cheap Shot: Cheap Shot is extremely easy to apply and does considerably more damage than what would be dealt from running Sudden Impact. Although Elise can viably run both options because she has the skill-set needed for application, it’s essential to understand how both Runes are applied. Cheap Shot can be used through impaired movement actions, meaning a simple auto-attack with Red Buff, or Elise’s human form E can apply this damage. Elise’s Spider Form Q is the only Dash in her kit which can provide the additional Penetration value from Sudden Impact. Considering her Spider Form Q is some of the last damage applied in a standard combo, the return value on that penetration is awful. All in all, Cheap Shot has considerably higher damage output, and I have tested this numerous times.
Eyeball Collection: Given the highly proactive and aggressive playstyle from Elise, Eyeball collection has incredibly good return value for that playstyle, and you should be able to fully stack it with ease. The additional 30 Ability Power granted from all 10 stacks plus the bonus is an excellent early power spike, and you can feel the difference. This can be stacked far quicker than Zombie Ward, depending on the ELO that you are playing in, simply due to how much vision is actively placed and how much easier, it can be to find kills.
Relentless Hunter: Relentless Hunter is a personal favourite of mine and feels insanely good. However, some debate has sparked about Treasure Hunter as an alternative Rune. I have not found the additional gold in-come to outweigh having an immense movement speed advantage on the map throughout the match. Elise is a high tempo, feast or famine style jungler that excels at constant aggressiveness and a heavy presence on the map regarding ganking. The faster you can transition around the map, find flank angles, or set up for ganks, the more impact you will have throughout the match.
Absolute Focus: This rune is a new addition for me, and I feel it fits the playstyle extremely well. In the past, the standard sorcery Rune Page consisted of Water Walking and Celerity. Unfortunately, Celerity is utter garbage and gives next to no benefit in-game. Absolute Focus, on the other hand, is a Rune that can be activated 90% of the time. Elise has an extremely healthy clear, and you will find yourself actively looking for ganks and pick opportunities with full HP. It is infrequent that you will find yourself with sub 70% HP while preparing and setting up for picks or ganks, giving you a considerable boost in AP throughout the game. I was sceptical at first, but realistically the other options on the sorcery tree are lacklustre at best.
Water Walking: Mobility, mobility, and mobility. As a fast tempo, constantly moving and proactive champion, the added speed from this rune is outstanding. Paired with an early Sorcerer’s Boots rush and the out-of-combat MS from Relentless Hunter, you are FLYING across the map. This added mobility from Water Walking also makes objective fights, river skirmishes and quick map rotations a breeze giving you a massive speed advantage over your opponents.
Blue Smite: I personally am not a fan of Blue Smite on most Champions. Although it provides some added utility and quick burst damage I would still rather take Red Smite. I do however see the benefit in applying a slow prior to trying to cast Elise’s E for an increased chance of it landing. However it is not necessary and is simply a crutch.
Red Smite: Red Smite is undoubtedly the best option, and simply just broken. The bonus True Damage burn applied adds a considerable amount of damage during ganks, teamfights and skirmishes. The real advantage comes from Red Smite acting as a mini-exhaust. The 20% reduced damage received from the smited target is game changing. Given the aggressive and proactive style of play from Elise the return on investment from Red Smite can be seen each and every game. It can be the difference between a successful or failed gank, or a lost skirmish or exchange with a strong opponent.
Refillable Potion: Simply just a necessity. Although Elise can juggle spiderlings during her clear and remain quite healthy. The value of refillable is insane throughout the game and will be utilized far past her first clear.
Stealth Ward: In the vast majority of games, the stealth ward is to be used within the first 50 seconds of the match to forage for information in the enemy jungle, or protect one of the entrances or buffs on your own side of the map. It is then highly recommended to swap to Oracle Lense after a brief reset prior to your jungle camps spawning.
Oracle Lense: As previously mentioned, after a brief usage of Stealth Ward at the start of the match. An Oracle Lense should be utilized for the rest of the game. It has immense value throughout the match and allows you to deny vision around objectives or lanes. It also allows for ganks or invades to be done in a much safer and time efficient manner, giving a clear understanding of what vision the enemy team has on you during the action. Oracle Lense has the bonus effect of granting pseudo vision of invisible or stealthed champions. Such as Shaco during his Q, Akali in her Shroud, or Vayne during her Ultimate.
Sorcerer’s Shoes: These are a must have early rush. I have played Elise since champion release and very little has changed with regards to this early purchase. Elise has a considerable amount of damage early on in the game due to her percentage of max, and missing health damage skills. The early mobility allows you to play the map and maintain an extremely aggressive tempo, paired with additional penetration to ensure you are heavily bursting down your opponents regardless of their early purchases.
Dark Seal: Dark Seal is an optional pickup, but highly recommended. Between the early aggression and large number of ganks that you should be taking part in early-game, the faster you can pick up a dark seal and begin benefiting from the additional stacks the better. Dark Seal stack retention is also rarely an issue, as Elise is extremely slippery due to the use of her Repel, High MS and CC. You can quickly get out of dangerous situations, and still commit to early turret dives or high risk plays without any concern of losing Dark Seal stacks.
Hextech Rocketbelt: This item, however very commonly built, is not my first choice. It is definitely a viable option though and worth mentioning. First and foremost the 5 Magic Penetration bonus per completed item is nothing to sleep on, Elise fiends for Magic Pen and works incredibly well with it. Secondly, the added movement speed and mobility from the active dash is an excellent engagement tool, the damage is nothing to write home about and is significantly less than what you get from Night Harvester. The Rocketbelt dash + MS allows you to quickly close the gap on fleeing targets and potentially find picks or engagement options with ease.
Night Harvester: This is my ideal Mythic item on Elise. The burst damage from the passive combined with the added movement speed bonus per target hit gives you in-sane burst potential, combined with the mobility needed to slide in and out of fights with ease. Your ability to kite goes through the roof, so hit and run skirmishes become incredibly simplistic. Damage can be easily applied from long distances with your human form Q and W, allows for similar engagement options as Hextech Rocketbelt.
While building EITHER of these Mythic items it is absolutely crucial to understand how to purchase the component items. The hextech alternator as shown above is one of the core components to both Night Harvester and Hextech Rocketbelt and it is garbage. The gold value for the stats and passive given by this is not in any shape or form worth rushing. Purchase all other components prior to this as you will get far better stats for the gold invested. This has been something myself and others have personally tested and should be duly noted.
Lich Bane: This has recently become one of my favorite items. The damage output and burst potential is outstanding and it has an insane early spike. With very useful and affordable component items, the two item power spike with Lich Bane and Night Harvester is huge.
Zonya’s Hourglass: This is a must have core item, I would either build this directly after Night Harvester depending on the game state, or as a third item after Lich Bane. Regardless if you are ahead or behind, the utility and safety that comes with a Zonya’s is unmatched. This allows you to continue playing aggressively with minimal risk of giving shutdown gold, or losing Dark Seal stacks.
Void Staff: Void staff is an absolute necessity, with the changes to durability and the high value against multiple AP comps with items such as Force of Nature and Maw of Malmortious picking up a 4th-5th item void is key.
Rabadons Deathcap: By the time you reach this stage of the game you can be getting well upwards of 600AP upon purchasing a deathcap. The alternative heavy AP options are nowhere near as cost effective and you will immediately see the increase in damage output. At full build with a Rabadons you can spam your human form W on sieges and absolutely chunk opponents.
Morellonomicon: In my personal opinion this item is worthless. Elise does not necessarily apply healing reduction well, and you are already playing on a low-economy style jungler. Any delay in your core build of Sorcs/Mythic/Lich Bane/Zonya will make you feel incredibly useless and lackluster in the mid-game.
Shadowflame: Situationally this item can hold incredibly high value. Into team compositions with multiple shield users a Shadowflame purchase prior to void or before deathcap can be excellent. Although this is extremely situational and is not something that I have extensively tested.
Rylai’s Crystal Scepter: This item is hilarious. An item that I heavily utilized even as an essential core item for YEARS up until recently. It does however still hold a place in my heart as one of the best utility, and most enjoyable items to play on the champion however weak it may be in it’s current state. Rylai’s allows for insane kiting, combined with the added mobility from Night Harvester you can be nearly untouchable, and simply run down targets that have zero chance of escaping.
Spider Queen: While in human form Elise is granted a single spiderling for every spell that is cast that hits an enemy. The amount of spiderlings stored and available for Elise increase based on level. While in Spider form, Elise and her spiderlings do additional AP damage and heal her per attack. This scales with ability level.
SPIDER FORM / HUMAN FORM TRANSFORMATION:
(R)Spider Form/Human Form: This acts as Elise’s ultimate ability, allowing her to transform between both forms. While in Spider form Elise gains 25 Movement Speed and unleashes all of her stored spiderlings to assist with her Spider Form abilities and fighting. While in Human Form, the Movement Speed bonus is lost but Elise becomes a ranged champion and is granted access to her other set of skills.
(Q) Neurotoxin: A long ranged, single target ability that does damage based on the target's current health. This skill should be used at the start of your combo on players and monsters to maximize damage.
(W) Volatile Spiderling: This is a very high damage AOE spell that works in a unique way. Upon casting W in a certain direction, it will heat seek its way to the nearest champion and navigate around terrain. It is important to note that this spell will cast immediately upon hitting minions or champions, so during a gank or fight if your opponent is hiding inside of a minion wave it can sometimes be helpful to simply walk directly onto them prior to casting.
Additional Note: Elise Spider Form Q pulls ALL spiders to the target location, including her human form W. This can be used to your advantage to bring your human form W over walls, from long distances after flashing or repelling, or to quickly burst a champion.
(E) Cocoon: This spell is the bread and butter of elise, the pillar of all success. This fast moving skillshot can be used to stun your target, allowing for easy picks, successful ganks and reliable disengagement from fights. In the majority of cases, if your E lands the gank will be successful - if it misses, not so much.
Additional Note: You can NOT cast E and then Flash, your skillshot will cast first and emanate from your pre-flashed location. A successful landing of your E also provides Standard Sight, revealing targets who are in fog of war, or brushes. NOT Stealthed.
(Q)Venomous Bite: Opposite of Elise’s Human Form Q, this ability deals damage based on the missing health of your opponent. It also acts as a mini-lunge, so it is important to understand how that interaction will fare against certain opponents such as Poppy W, or Taliyah E. This skill should be utilized at the end of your combo, or while camps are on lower HP.
Additional Note: This skill can be cast and applied over very short walls or barriers. If an opponent flashes or dashes once you can cast the spell and the animation is in motion the damage will still be cast. ALSO, Venomous Bite brings ALL spiderlings to the target location, both the small ones that accompany you in Spider Form AND your human form W.
(W)Skittering Frenzy: This skill works as a passive attack speed buff for your spiderlings, and when activated provides an additional attack speed steroid for you and your spiderlings. This skill is most effective when used as an attack reset, and you can massively increase your damage output by autoing and then casting W instantly to allow for an instant application of followup auto-attacks. Similar to auto-reset interactions on champions such as Nasus, Rek’sai, Riven and Garen.
(E) Rappel: Rappel is Elise’s get out of jail free skill, as well as an excellent gap closing ability. Rappel allows you to become completely untargetable, and drop down on Enemy Champions, Minions, Visible Enemy Wards, Plants, Vision Cones and all Jungle Creatures including Baron and Dragon. Rappel drops turret aggro and is an outstanding tool for turret diving or stalling during fights. If you Rappel down onto an enemy player within 1 second of casting the spell, you will have an increased passive steroid - this effect however is negligible and I would not recommend starting most engagements in Spider Form in this fashion.
Additional Note: It is very important to understand what damage will still be applied to you while Rappelling. Any sort of channeled ability such as Fiddlesticks Drain or Karma W, Ignite or Zed Death Mark will still be maintained on you as you repel, and damage will be applied accordingly. This skill makes you untargetable, not invincible. If a Karthus player is channeling Requiem and you reppel prior to it casting, you will not receive damage. However if a Zed player casts his ultimate on you prior to you repelling, the damage will still pop while you are untargetable and in the air.
At level 1, starting with your W has multiple uses. Firstly allows you to forage out bush locations for enemy players and safely check for potential invaders. More importantly, this skill provides you with the greatest damage possible while clearing your initial camp. Due to the high damage output in Human Form and the ability to utilize the Spider Form portion as an auto-attack reset and Attack Speed Steroid, this is the fastest skill to start with for an optimal clear.
Regarding skill maxing, the damage output and low cooldown provided by your Q in both forms is unmatched and therefore is prioritized, followed by a W max for the same reason. Putting points into your E is the lowest priority due to the skill's long cooldown and minimal improvements with multiple points applied. Most fights in the early stages of the game are so short that you only get a single rotation from your Human or Spider Form E.
The standard fast Elise combo that should be utilized on the majority of ganks bushwhacks and picks is as follows.
HUMAN FORM: E (auto if possible) W Q > SPIDER FORM Q (auto if possible - but not always the case) W > Transition immediately into kiting and orb walking with the target or disengaging potential threats.
With this combo, it is important to understand that the likelihood of success follows hugely on your landing the Cocoon, especially on picks or during ganks. Once you have cast your Human Form W, your Q will land before the Volatile Spiderling and changing form and immediately casting Q in Spider Form will pull the Volatile Spiderling directly onto your target for significant burst damage. In most realistic situations, you will not have ample time to stagger your spells in a way that maximizes the ideal percentage HP damage output on both of your Q casts. In any case, speed is key in this exchange. The entire combo without mending in auto-attacks for maximum DPS can be done in under 1 second once practised fluidly, and your spacing is correct.
In the game's later stages, when you have a Zonya’s Hourglass completed and a significant amount of AP, your damage from spiderlings is amazing. An excellent trick while diving backline targets or getting into sticky situations is to ensure you Q and auto a target in Spider Form just prior to casting Zonya’s Hourglass. During your stasis, the Spiderlings will continue to attack that target dealing HUGE damage. This can be absolutely game-changing, and in late-game fights, I have had this simple trick kill multiple backline targets purely from the Spiderling damage.
It is always important to remember that during ganks if you can get a deep enough flank on the target, many people will attempt to use the minion wave to block you from casting your E or simply look to juke and dodge as they are moving to escape. BE PATIENT. You can get an auto, Q and W while still in human form and kite them like a ranged champion until they have zero choices but to flash - allowing you to easily follow up and land your E without risk of it being dodged. That being said, if a target is low HP and you have them completely flanked, don’t even waste time trying to cast your E. A lot of experienced laners will commit to killing their lane opponent and suicide 1 for 1 during the gank, if that looks to be the case just throw your entire combo without your human for E and burst them before they are given the opportunity. Obviously, this is all situational, but I find it becomes a habit for Elise players to feel utterly reliant on landing their Human Form E during ganks. It can lead to disaster or less favourable trades.
Turret Diving is one of the EASIEST things you can do as an Elise player by utilizing your Spider Form E to drop turret aggro after a kill. While looking to set up and execute turret dives it is CRUCIAL that YOU take turret aggro first, and not your teammates. Look to throw a Human Form auto-attack or a Q before looking for the E stun. Landing your E does not trigger turret damage as it is a non-damaging spell. If your teammates jump the gun and pile onto your opponent after your E is landed, in many cases they will pull the turret aggro first. It’s also important to note that if you Rappel under turret and you have NO friendly minions. If you wait out the timer and land within turret range, your Spiderlings WILL land first and soak turret shots. There is no need to panic, flash, or waste an hourglass - you can get out incredibly quickly in the majority of cases.
While transitioning around the map, moving in Spider Form grants you additional movement speed and should be done while transitioning between all Jungle camps and from Spawn to the map after basing. THAT BEING SAID. For the bulk of your combo and to have good response time and fluidity while playing aggressive it is paramount that you move through the River, approach all ganks, and check for vision WHILE IN HUMAN FORM. The cooldown for switching forms will not allow you to properly burst or kill a target out of position if you switched from Spider Form to Human Form, E W Q. You will have multiple seconds of waiting time to get back into Spider Form, causing you to miss out on these opportunities.
Now it goes without saying that Jungle clearing and pathing variations are going to change from game to game, and nearly always be situational. That being said, it’s extremely important to understand that while playing Elise your ability to AOE clear multi-monster camps is horrendously slow and unhealthy early on in the game. That paired with the fact you want to be on the map applying pressure as soon as possible, you are left with two IDEAL options if you are actually presented with gank opportunities.
Those options are RED > BLUE > GROMP, or BLUE > GROMP > RED. Clearing these three camps will ensure you hit level 3 in a timely manner so that you can begin applying pressure on the map. Due to the fact Elise has an incredible single target and percentage of health damage, these can be cleared quickly and healthily.
During your clear, I would advise tanking the camps for your spiderlings to keep them alive as long as possible to maximize your DPS. When the camps are around 400HP, you can allow your spiderlings to tank and regenerate/lifesteal back a significant portion of your health. Then when you start your next camp in Human Form you will immediately restore the lost Spiderlings.
To maximize clear time, I would suggest that during that camp, you choose to smite (In almost every case this would be gromp). You should smite before switching into Spider Form, but not before Qing in Human Form to maximize your damage. If you have any concerns of a potential invade or contest at your group, save the smite to secure the camp.
Elise is a fantastic solo queue Jungler. With excellent damage and utility for skirmishing and an aggressive ganking playstyle, she can take over the map easily and shut games out with ease. That being said, although Elise has few necessarily “bad” matchups, certain playstyles and team compositions can put her in an awful spot.
In terms of jungle-on-jungle matchups, the issue you can run into is when facing extremely strong power farming Jungle champions that can simply out farm you while not being threatened by your invading. Champions such as Udyr, Rengar, and Zac to name a few, can itemize extremely well against Elise and escape her with ease while farming at an accelerated rate. If you are unable to find a way to snowball the game due to your slow clear speeds and feast or famine playstyle, you will quickly fall behind and become very irrelevant.
Elise does exceptionally well against assassin and bruiser picks. Champions such as Rek’sai, Xin Zhao, Qiyana, Kha’zix to name a few, are completely shut out and struggle immensely against her. Elise has a fairly reliable time landing her Human Form E on these champions when they play aggressively; she can itemize well into them and has high burst damage. Not to mention Elise is incredibly slippery and hard to lock down; paired with a Zonya’s Hourglass, you can stall out these champions in team fights while making it nearly impossible for them to play the game. It’s important also to note that Elise’s Spider Form Spiderlings prevent Kha’Zix from ever isolating you, allowing you to dominate him in small skirmishes and 1v1s throughout the game.
I personally would NOT pick Elise when I have fairly AP heavy team compositions to prevent my opponents from easily MR stacking as a response to our picks. As mentioned previously, Elise can struggle if unable to find a lead and can be out-tempoed and farmed by champions such as Udyr. If your team is picking very low priority, inactive early game champions that are hard for you to play around or coordinate ganks with, then it may be a good idea to avoid picking her in that game. The last thing you want is 3 inactive and useless lanes while actively trying to force and find fights in the first 15-20 minutes of your match.
