Hey there. This is my first guide for league of legends.

I decided to write a guide on Elise in Hunt of the Blood Moon since I saw some comments about how she was lackluster, which totally differs from how overpowered she seems when I've been using her in this mode.

Please give me feedback so that I can improve the guide and know better what to do next time!

Why listen to me? I'm no one special. But here are my last few matches with Elise in Blood Moon (ignore the game where I went IE... I was experimenting :p)

Flash is still a must in Hunt of the Blood Moon. Don't forget to take it!

Gunblade Elise already has great damage output so barrier is probably your best option. It counters burst and ignite, both things you'll be facing a lot of in this game mode.

Other options:
Ghost is a good alternative option for extra engage and juking potential.

Ignite if you feel you still aren't getting enough damage output.

Cons - Squishy early on - Hard to manage CDRs between different forms - Her stun is a narrow skillshot - Only some of her abilities scale well with AP

Pros + Great pick maker + Great scaling AoE with Volatile Spiderling + Can poke with long range + Can become untargetable with a low CDR ability

• Volatile spiderling (W): Huge AoE damage when you're building AP.
  
• Cocoon (E): Creates picks for Elise and her allies. A cocooned opponent can usually be finished by your combo before they even have time to recover.
  
• Rappel (E): Engage then become untargetable while your allies clean up a fight. Or catch up with a fleeing enemy for a final Venomous Bite.
  
• Venomous bite (Q): A finishing move to take out low health foes or finish your combo.
  
• Skittering frenzy (Q): More DPS for demon herald than any other Hunt of the Blood Moon champ.
  
• Neurotoxin (Q): Good poke on full health enemies
  
• Spider swarm (Passive): Yeah! Don't underestimate these little guys. Whether it's blocking a Lee Q or an opposing Elise cocoon, applying on hit effects from spellblade or nashor's or just luckily getting in the way of an enemy trying to click on you, spiderlings are great bonuses to your fights.

Blood Moon basics

If you're not sure how Hunt of the Blood Moon works, there are much better guides than anything I could put together. Go read the riftherald guide or rankedboost guide (yeah, I know they say Elise is bad, but read on).

Read on for some tactics for Elise in Blood Moon.

Early game: picks and team fights

As Elise, after you grab your first 4 abilities, stay in human form, group with your team, put wards down and look to create a pick with your Cocoon.

If a team fight breaks out, keep to the sidelines and poke with Neurotoxin, Volatile Spiderling and auto attacks until you can secure a kill with your Venomous Bite. If you go too deep, use a Rappel and ping for your team to cover you as you get out.

Elise has her ult up from level 1, so you have a movement speed boost, spiderlings and a diverse kit, but remember that you're not tanky yet, so be careful to stay alive. Fortunately your 3 Health Potions help you sustain and the Long Sword aa's will help you poke and take the enemy spirits to get your first demon brand.

Mid game: get and use a demon brand

Get a Demon Brand by killing 3 champs and/or spirits. You lose your mark stacks if you die or recall.

Activating your Demon Brand

As Elise, you have to be extra careful during the few seconds out of combat from the time you get 3 marks until Demon Brand activates because your spiderlings will aggro nearby or champions.

Transform into human form as soon as you get your third mark to suppress your spiderling aggro and get your Demon Brand asap.

How to use your Demon Brand

Once you get Demon Brand, you get all your health back, invisibility until your next aa and an empowered aa.

The empowered aa with your combo + gunblade can one shot almost any champ. Even if you don't one shot them, you should be tankier than other champs and your spiderling aa's heal you, so 1v1 you should be able to finish off your opponent while they get their combo out.

Don't waste it!

Elise has an advantage of using Cocoon without triggering her Demon Brand.

Support your team with invisible cocoons, particularly on low health enemies and wait for a good target.

Try to use your brand on a champ that is doing well, so that you can change the flow of the next team fight and put your team ahead.

Your first stack

To get your first stack, you have a few options:

• Set up an ambush where you can catch out a lone opponent.
  
  Good places to do this are in the enemy jungle, along their route through the mid-wall openings or in your jungle, on the centre side of the dragon/baron pits.
  
  
• Prowl with a friend and set an ambush.
  
  You don't have to go alone. Take a friend into the enemy jungle. One of you kills spirits, and the other stays hidden so that when one or two unsuspecting foes comes along for an easy gank, you'll give them a little surprise.
  
  
• Team fight follow up. After a team fight ends, if
  
  a) you have 1 or 2 stacks and
  b) either aced or have vision of the remaining foes, don't go back to base even if you're low on health.
  
  Go get the remaining stack(s) in the enemy jungle. Demon brand will heal you to full health and give you a free kill afterwards.

Stacking with spirits

Transforming from human to spider form allows you to kill a couple spirits almost instantly. Use your W->Q combo with 1-2 aa's in human form to get one, transform, then W with spiderlings and Q to finish a second.

I don't advise waiting around to get all three stacks on spirits since you're just asking to be picked off.

Late game: Elise the slayer of Heralds and men

There are very few champs that can put out solid DPS on Herald in this assassin game mode. With your spiderlings as tank or damage, spider form W and on hit effects from Gunblade or Nashor you will be able to heal up while dealing strong damage to Heralds with your team.

In the end game, you should have 663AP, that means

• 180 magic damage + 22% of foe's current health from Neurotoxin
• 790 AoE magic damage from Volatile Spiderling
• 220 magic damage + 26% of foe's missing health from Venomous Bite
• 448 magic damage from Hextech Gunblade

Remember you are gaining back 15% health for all damage dealt from gunblade, and have +800 health from Rod of Ages + Liandry's Torment (+1100 health with Everfrost).

Happy hunting!

Why Hextech Gunblade and Rod of Ages?

a) Gold Efficiency
b) Difficulty of enemies stacking MR in Blood Moon.

Remember that Hunt of the Blood Moon equalises your income and exp. You can't pull ahead or fall behind throughout the game, and you want to build bursty items to take advantage of Blood Pact (50% cooldowns buff).

is cheap AP with a sweet active that gives you another AP scaling attack.

I find getting Hextech Revolver first gives you a nice powerspike, but completing your Rod of Ages before your Everfrost is an earlier and stronger power spike as your first complete item. Once you have both up, with the gunblade active you will be very strong.

Rabadon's Deathcap is a must to get the 65 AP just from it's passive and your core items and runes.

Your last 2 items should be chosen based on your situation:

• Liandry's Torment with its magic pen, health and burn is a great item that synergies well with Elise.
• Luden's Tempest with it's AP and movement speed and passive's AP scaling damage is a good choice for burst and map presence.
• Zhonya's Hourglass can be good if you're getting targeted, but Elise already has her Rappel, so I rarely take it.
• Nashor's Tooth is definitely good on Elise and enhances her DPS. So take this if you're behind in points and need quick heralds or if you find yourself needing auto-attacks to finish foes.

Why not void staff or more MR pen items?

With limited MR items in the store, most champs will only have 30/53 MR from their base stats. You should already have around 45 flat pen from Greater Mark of Magic Penetration+ Sorcerer's Shoes+ Liandry's Torment+ Precision, which makes further further pen only marginally useful.

Hextech alternatives

A lot of people like taking Hextech Rocketbelt. It's in Elise's recommended items, after all. DO NOT TAKE THIS ITEM, it gives worse stats, less damage on it's active and a jump that is not needed with your rappel on quick cooldown. It's neither good to get you ahead of the curve (only 94% efficient), nor is it good in late game (smaller item), nor does its passive do as much with your AP build.

If you're new to Elise, then here are some of her basic combos:

Stun and finish

Use this combo when you are setting an ambush. If you don't land your Cocoon, you might want to run away or Rappel if you have a nearby target (such as an enemy ward or spirit) or a friend to help you nearby.

Use Everfrost last so that, if they are still alive and try to run, they are slowed and you can catch them, perhaps with the help of your Rappel or Flash. Stay in spider form, since you and your spiderlings do more aa damage.

Catch up and nuke

Use this when you are with your teammates and want to engage a champion that's out of place. The volatile spiderling will follow the nearest enemy target and deal AoE damage, so try to get more than one champ caught in its damage.

Catch up and finish

Use this to chase a low health foe.

Poke

This is a common set of moves (not necessarily in this order) you'll use to poke at the other team if there aren't any hard engages. Save your cocoon to stun an enemy that dives your back line or is out of place.

So if this build is so great, why not play it in ranked?

This build is meant specifically for Hunt of the Blood Moon. Hunt of the Blood Moon is actually significantly different from your normal games. The lack of MR itemisation, the generally squishy champ selection and the need to burst and stay relevant with quickly rising, equalised levels makes optimising the build totally different from other modes.

Elise is usually a snowbally champion who is strong early and should be helping out by maximising her early game relevance. RoA and expensive AP items just don't help with this, nor do they work great with her fairly long cooldowns and single AoE. Sure, AP can be great in late game on Elise, but if you're playing Elise right, she should have snowballed her team by then, which you won't do farming jungle creeps.

Then what about URF? quick cooldowns make it similar to hunt of the blood moon right?

Well, the itemization in URF is not limited, nor is the champion select. That doesn't mean you shouldn't build some more AP in URF, it can be a good idea, but it's still situational. A Haunting Guise and Rylai's Crystal Scepter can go a long way in URF. Remember that RoA stacks slowly in URF, so it's also not so relevant. Elise just isn't the best scaling champ, so in late game, rather than trying to be an AP assassin Elise, you would be much better off having some tanky items, magic pen and still a good amount of AP letting you put pressure on the adcs (who are weak early but scale really well in urf) both early and late.

Also, don't forget that with a lower AP build, Hextech Rocketbelt is much more relevant than in this Blood Moon build. With it's CDR, it's low price tag and it's jump, Hextech Rocketbelt should be your preferred hextech item outside of blood moon mode.