Opinions on how to improve Elise from someone new to her.

So a couple weeks ago when I saw Elise's new Blood Moon skin I thought she'd be a great champion to give out a try. Being a new Elise player, I'm not familiar with how she was to play pre-nerfs, BUT I do think she's very fun champion to play currently. My lack of knowledge regarding her previous kit allows me to take a more objective look at her current state.

Both of her forms provide her with unique and interesting abilities. Whether you're making cocoons or rappelling onto prey, you feel like a spider queen devouring little insects. After playing her for a bit, I understand how her abilities require a lot of skill and without that she's difficult to excel at. So, I am by no means insinuating that my poor performance with her is exclusively due to a lack of identity and nerfs. That being said, there are so many things going on with her kit that she would benefit (as many people have already mentioned) from a more narrow focus.

She gains minor heals from one ability, she can do % health damage, she can stun a foe for an eternity, she has little spider followers, there's a lot going on with her without a clear idea of what she's supposed to do. My first instinct is that she's supposed to assassinate squishies, yet with little CC and damage her ganks fall flat compared to many other junglers.

Many guides have her build tanky, yet I fail to see the value in such a build for her. She no longer gains bonus armor/MR as in previous forms and she has no innate means of building more. Sure skittering frenzy allows for some hp gain, but with such a low duration its not nearly enough to sustain her in a teamfight.

In my opinion, refocusing her as a pouncing spider assassin is an effective plan. The theme of this kit would be to ensnare and pursue relentlessly. Since her clearing ability is lackluster, focusing her further into ganking would make her a more effective jungler. She's got eight legs, she should be able to leap a little farther than the average person. Her comments on how fast two legged people can run are ironic given her slow pace.

First of all, increasing the distance of her venomous bite allows for more effective ganks. The current leap distance is effective for closing the gap when targets are just barely out of melee range, yet beyond that it is not very helpful. With the slow execution of rappel and unreliability of cocoon, an increased leap distance would allow her to stay on her targets.

Secondly, I suggest adjusting the speed and/or width of her cocoon. The cocoon skillshot moves far too slowly with its narrow width to be landed consistently and the long stun duration is no excuse (that could be adjusted as well). If Elise is chasing you in human form, you know she's most likely about to shoot a cocoon at you, which can be avoided with a simple change of direction or even by getting behind a minion. Not using a dashing ability, not using a movement speed boost, not even a flash, a simple change of walking direction is enough, which is sad to see considering her lack of any additional CC. increasing the speed would make it more difficult to fake out, while increasing the width would allow for less accurate shots to still hit their target. Increasing both may be OP, but having neither along with the fact that minions block it makes for a lack luster skill shot.

Third (and finally), I see no reason why she shouldn't be allowed to rappel wherever she wants within her rappelling radius, its unrealistic. Her escape route/attack route is limited to whatever targets may be in front of her, thus making her escape and advance plainly obvious to anyone she's chasing or being chased by. The slow execution of the ability also leaves plenty of room to escape while she's rappelling down. If you see Elise go up, you know she's most likely rappelling down to your champion. Allowing her to rappel wherever she wants instead of rappelling only onto targets allows her to close gaps and escape when her cocoon is down or when facing multiple champions, while also adding a measure of skill in placement determination.

Elise is a wonderful champion and I will continue to play her, but she feels like she has so much potential to improve. She's supposed to be a spooky spider queen from the Shadow Isles, yet many times I'll miss a cocoon and stand around awkwardly trying to land a neurotoxin.

Please provide me with any feedback, improvements, or corrections you can come up with. This is my first time posting so any feedback would be helpful. I would also love to see how other people think these ideas can be changed or improved. Elise deserves more love than she's gotten in the past few patches. Thanks for your time.