She don't have the tool to stay alive AP. My favorite build is :
.
But i try a more offensive build on this patch :
She don't have bad scaling
- For the first build, you can tank way more damage but also dish damage. You are able to frontline with it.
- For the second build make you way to squishy, so you will lack of a frontline unless you have a tanky support and top.
In both scenario, you get outclassed late. Which is fine , because elise is an early game champion.
We can compare her to lee sin. My main problem is that she is more risky (can't ward jump, have to build damage to stay usefull), and fall of harder than lee. Sometime, she can't even use her early game, because she is weaker than other early champion (and weaker than some late champions .. during the early, wat ?)
Basicaly, i think she need a slight damage buff early game, and a bigger one for late. That would compensate the fact that , unlike lee, she can't return a teamfight with a combo. If she is buidling AP, and catch the AD with a cocoon, she should be able to be scary enough to not let it be unattended, since it's pretty hard to land a cocoon in team fights. (and survive long to deal damage)