TFT Set 12 Guide: How to Play Elise Hero Augment – Spider Queen

 thatTFT Set 12 brings a new hero augment, Spider Queen, which transforms Elise from a frontline tank to a damage carry! This augment requires the player to make unique game decisions in order to be successful which we will be going over in this article!

Augment Background

Spider Queen has been a strong performing augment most of the set. Originally Elise was played with Syndra, but post Syndra nerf she still has other strong ways of playing her and top 4ing or even winning lobbies.

Elise and her team’s high health based tankiness work as a damage check to a lot of comps such as Veigar, Ryze, and Ahri. Her match ups into these comps are part of the reason why she is so strong, so be sure to consider this augment when those comps are in the meta!

Spider Queen

Gain a 2-star Elise. Your strongest Elise’s Ability no longer stuns, but poisons her target and the 2 closest enemies with bonus damage over 3 seconds.

Augment Selection

The best time to select this augment is when you already have multiple Elises from your creep round so you will easily hit Elise.

However, a good Shapeshifter opener with units such as Shyvanna, Jayce, and Nomsy can also work. Currently, this augment is strong enough where just an Elise 2 from the augment plus a Shapeshifter will get the job done especially if you have a slammable item.

Speaking of which, if you have a slammable item for Elise such as Bloodthirster or Archangel, that makes this augment much better as you can ensure you can get Elise’s best in slot (BIS) items.

How to Play the Augment

Now that you have selected Elise’s augment you want to make sure not to level as you are looking to make sure you get 3-star Elise. You will want to aggressively save gold in stage 2 while picking up Elise and shapeshifters you see.

Once you hit stage 3-2 after Kruggs you will want to roll to 35 gold and pick up the one cost units in the comp. After that, you will want to econ to 50 gold and slow roll at 50 gold. The exception is if you are one Elise off of Elise 3-star. This is due to the fact that you get a massive spike with Elise 3 so it is worth losing some economy as you will save a massive amount of health.

Itemization

The general recipe for a good Elise Carry is: Healing Item, Health Tank Item, and a Damage Item.

Elise becomes a carry with this augment while tanking a lot of damage as well due to being a Shapeshifter. This makes her build a hybrid of damage and tank.

First, she wants a healing item. The ideal item is Bloodthirster. Hand of Justice will also suffice although Bloodthirster is ideal.

Next, she wants damage. The best and most common is Archangel; her fights go long, especially in the late game as she out tanks comps and scales up the Archangel. Rabadons, Crownguard, and Ionic Spark can also work. The most important part is having some type of Rod item to give her damage.

The final piece of the puzzle is Warmog’s Armor. Warmog’s works well with Shapeshifters and is almost non negotiable. Gargoyle and Redemption can make up for missing Warmogs, but you really want Warmogs to get her full power. It consistently performs as her best item.

TFT Spider Queen Team Comps (Elise Hero Augment)

There are two main comps for this Augment – both are based around Shapeshifters but have different secondary carries.

Jayce Nomsy Elise Team Comp

In the first comp, you can also pick up Nomsy to go along with Shyvana. The comp is based off rerolling Nomsy, Jayce, and Elise. You want to play this comp when you have multiple Jayces and Nomsy’s while rerolling for Elise. However, if you get Elise 3-star and are far away from Nomsy and Jayce 3-star then I don’t recommend continuing to dig at level 5 for these units as instead you can push levels to cap your board with stronger Shapeshifter units such as Briar.

However, if you hit Nomsy 3 and Jayce 3 then you will want to push levels to add additional shapeshifters onto your board. Your board might look something like this:

This is a board I won with Spider Queen while rerolling with Jayce and Nomsy. Nomsy is an Attack Damage Carry, but does really well with holding Statikk Shiv for Elise and is why he has it despite being an AD Carry. Nasus is the main tank. However, you first want to itemize your your 3 star units. Jayce is a AD Bruiser so he also likes healing and damage. Because you are rerolling for multiple 3 star units you also want to play this when you know you will have access to a lot of items. An item-less 3 star unit does not do much and is often a waste of gold.

The final unit of this comp is Smolder as he gives 3 Dragon and allows Nomsy to get a nice power spike.

Elise Varus Legendary Team Comp

Let’s take a look at another version of the comp you can play if you don’t want to reroll Nomsy and Jayce. This comp will often be a higher cap than the 3-star 1-costs. This is what you want to play when you hit Elise before the other 3-stars or will have limited access to items.

This game I played 6 Shapeshifter with Nasus main tank and Varus secondary carry. Xerath I added at the end because I had a lot of gold to use, but generally you won’t have Xerath like I do here. This was another first place board, so it gives an idea of what your board might look like to win out. It has 6 Shaapeshifter plus Blasters Varus and Smolder. Varus works well as he is a Pryo to go with Nasus and he is a solid 4-cost carry to help with damage.

Tip: You can cheese by putting Varus in the 3rd row so that he snipes the back line. With a massive front line that 6 Shapeshifter provides, he can usually be kept pretty safe despite not being in the 4th row.

One downside of this particular board you might notice is that I don’t have Shred. There is no Ionic Spark or Statikk Shiv. Those would be the items I would prioritize the most for my next item if I had the option. Generally, you want to get Shred pretty early or in the middle of the game, so be on the lookout for making those items!

It may look like I don’t have anti-heal either, but with Shyvana and Smolder I do have some heal-cut on the board! If you don’t have Smolder and instead have to play another Blaster, it will be important to have some heal-cut on your board as a lot of comps have a lot of healing whether it be in the form of the trait themselves such as Preserver or the number of Bloodthirsters in this set.

Your level 8 non-legendary board might look something like this:

Elise Varus Level 8 Team Comp

[Link to Builder]

Jayce becomes Briar and Hwei becomes Smolder for higher capped board. Jayce can hold Briar items if you have them, but should not be prioritized before Elise and Varus.

You will want to make sure you have 6 Shapeshifter in at all times from level 8 on. This makes sure that Elise is tanky enough to do damage while her and the team’s high health tanks damage. 

You play Jayce until you hit Briar. If you have a lot of items, Jayce can carry Briar items until you hit Briar. However, typically Varus will be itemized before Jayce so you may not have many Briar items. Blasters are your backline for damage. Hwei can be played until you replace him with Smolder for a higher cap.

In Conclusion

Spider Queen is a fantastic augment that is fun as it transforms Elise into a tanky, damage-dealing beast of a unit. She will eat through teams and her poison hitting multiple enemies even gives her backline access at times which should not be overlooked! Be sure to try it out!