Talk:Elise/@comment-148.244.157.2-20121023190553/@comment-3275908-20121024085450

She's actually very decent at top lane. Being able to switch between ranged (even though not as long as some mages) and melee is a very strong mechanic. Mid lane, yeah, I can see her not be viable except maybe as a counter-pick against some sort of champ (she is an assassin and there are plenty of assassins that can mid; Talon, Katarina, Kassadin, Akali, etc.). Great pick for the jungle due to her ridiculous gap-closers.

As a human, her Q may be short, but that's because it's such a fantastic poke. Her E is great at giving a little breathing room if she gets caught off-guard by a gank, or is a great initiate if she can nail it. Her W is extremely tricky, but it hurts when it does hit a champ (not to metnion clears whole minion waves mid-late game).

As a spider, her Q is a great finisher and gap-closer. As mentioned, her W gives pretty decent sustain and damage output, I would say on par (or close) to Irelia or Olaf. Also, the spiders deal physical damage while Elise's abilities do magical damage, so defending against it will be very difficult. Not to mention it's a must-have in the jungle. Her E is the ultimate gap-closer OR a tower diver's worst nightmare, being able to disappear and become untargetable for 2 seconds is huge (that's at least two tower shots).

I think her biggest weakness, as mentioned, is sticking to a champ once she has initiated. She has near zero mobility except for the gap-closers, but you would use those at the beginning of the fight. You could possibly switch back to human form, throw the E to stun, throw your Q and W while the R refreshes, switch back, and Q again, but that's a stretch since you have to hit the E.

Rylai's can be only so helpful since the item only procs on ability damage (and the spider form only has one damaging ability), so you need to rely on the human form's mediocre range to try and slow them. I almost want to say go Trinity Force, but would that deviate from her AP ratios too much since she doesn't need more than half of what TriForce gives? And she wants the red buff bad, but so do AD carries. Quite a conundrum.