User blog comment:Willbachbakal/(Champion Rework) Elise, the Spider Queen/@comment-7709681-20141217042044/@comment-1330314-20141217045557

Yeah, the Human Q I took from similar leash mechanics, but in the end I think it was the best option out there: I needed a poison skill that debilitated Elise's victim, but one that worked differently to her W and E (those were already set at the time), so not just another skillshot or a ground-targeted ability. I felt the idea of Elise constantly staying close to her victim as she poisoned them made sense, and decided to turn her current point-and-click Q into a point-and-click Q with a bit more gameplay, risk and power.

The webs are basically the visual repesentation of Elise building her lair, and I think there are a lot of things it can do besides the slow:
 * They reveal enemies who walk on them, so work like disposable wards anywhere in the jungle.
 * They implant eggs into the champions who walk on them, so in combination with the reveal you can catch your prey by surprise and jump them from out of nowhere to burst them down.
 * They let you Rappel onto them, so if you get caught in a bad position you can always Rappel to safety by landing on a pre-placed web, consuming it in the process.
 * The very act of placing them in front of your opponent's eyes is enough to deter them from passing across a patch of land once the web becomes invisible, as walking across the web gives you, Elise, a chance to initiate a deadly Spider Form burst combo on them. This can also let you manipulate enemies into using other pathways or staying around for too long.