Blogs
The Power of Jungle Elise In Patch 5.14
Elise, a champion that hasn't been a popular pick at all in season 5, has seen a resurgence in popularity and a sharp rise in win rate after the most recent patch. As of right now, Elise stands with a 53.9% win rate *, a massive increase over her win rate prior to 5.14. Let's discuss the changes to her kit and why she's suddenly looking to be a contender as one of the top junglers.
In the latest patch, Elise received a buff to her stun duration on her E. The increase was significant for two reasons. One, Elise has a higher stun at rank 1 (1.6s vs 1s prior to patch 5.14). Two, Elise no longer needs to max E, allowing her to max W second which increases her clearspeed and her damage in mid game skirmishes. Elise also received a large buff in the form of her Spiderlings. Elise Spiderlings now do magic damage instead of physical damage. In addition, the AP ratio was increased by .05 and the Spiderlings now have increased movement speed. Overall, this resulted in a much stronger Spider.
Finally, the latest buff to Elise was a change to the way Runeglaive functioned. Previously, Runeglaive converted physical damage to magic damage and dealt AoE damage to players as well as monsters. This patch, however, Runeglaive no longer does those two and instead deals double damage to monsters. This makes Elise's clears even faster, allowing for more effective farming.
Overall, Elise is now not only dishing out insane damage in the mid game, she's a more powerful skirmisher early game due to the buff on her cocoon and her increased damage with her Spiderlings. This also increases the pressure she can apply early game, allowing the Spider Queen to make a return to the stage.
Let's go over the pros and cons of Elise jungle.
Pros
- Very healthy clears. Can clear entire jungle without falling before 50% health in first clear. No need to use potions. Requires juggling of aggro with Spiderlings. Runeglaive makes clears even faster.
- Incredibly strong early gank pressure with 1.6s stun on rank 1 cocoon. Can dive effectively early as well with Rappel.
- High damage early due to % health damage. Synergizes well with Liandry's and Rylais.
- Powerful neutral objective control with % health damage. Can solo Dragon very early (level 4-5).
- Scales a lot better into the mid-late game due to itemization buffs.
Cons
- High skill cap. Elise has a unique kit and it can be a bit awkward to get used to.
- Reliant on skillshot in skirmishes. If you miss the cocoon, especially when behind, you're going to be hard pressed to win a lot of fights.
- Melee AP champion. You're required to get close and, for the most part, her builds make her very glass cannon. You can get CC locked and killed very easily if you're not careful.
- Still falls off late game. AP ratios aren't that great and deals mainly single target damage. Becomes more of a cocoon bot later in the game.
Let's look at some builds that Elise players should use when jungling.
This build is the most popular build in platinum and above*. Due to Elise not having the highest AP ratios, magic penetration is incredibly powerful on her. Liandrys and Rylais were both buffed in patch 5.13 and the two items synergize well. This results in an incredibly high DPS build. The Frozen Heart is great for the mana and the 20% CDR. The Abyssal is the flex item if you need MR/have multiple AP threats. You can go Void Staff instead though and it'd be very effective.
This build currently has the highest win rate in platinum and above*. This is the same build as the build listed above except with Frozen Heart replaced with Zhonyas. This goes off wanting to do less spell rotations and rather just bursting someone down as well as having the safety of the Hourglass. Again, you can replace Abyssal with Void depending on the game's circumstances.
This build is for people who are looking for a more CDR focused build. Assuming you have at least 10% CDR from runes and masteries, you'll hit 40% CDR with this build. There's still some damage involved due to the penetration on the Sorcerer Boots and the Liandry's but it's nowhere near as devastating as the previous two builds. This, however, is a fairly solid build if you're the only tank on your team. The Randuin's can be swapped out for another item depending on the team you're against.
For the most part, you'll want to go the more AP builds if the opportunity allows. Currently, Elise does a ridiculous amount of damage in skirmishes and catching anyone but the most tanky of targets should result in a quick kill. The tank build still deals a lot of damage and compensates by being a cocoon bot similar to Season 4 Elise but it's probably better in a competitive environment rather than in solo queue.
As of now, I believe that Elise is one of the most powerful solo queue junglers in the game after the buffs she received this patch. While she does have downsides, her single target damage is absurd and you can annihilate enemy champions with nothing more than your Spiderlings. Thanks for reading!
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