Welcome to my Lee Sin Guide.
Lee Sin is an Anti-carry, melee-dps, tanky champion, at least that is what I prefer and recommend to build him. In this Guide we will take a tour about Lee Sin's Abilities, Builds and Masteries as well as the playstyle in Early-, Mid-, and Late-Game.

This is my first Guide! Please leave doubts and advices in the comments or give it a PM, if you have any. Also please always remember, that our opinions may differ, so do not just leave a "That's bad" but an "I think that's bad, because...". Also read the whole guide, before maybe criticising stuff, that is cleared lateron. Thank you.

This guide will frequently be updated. Though i will not update it after every single patch!

-Season 3 updated! //19.03.2013

-Masteries updated //19.03.2013
-Summoner Spells updated //19.03.2013
-Items rupdated //19.03.2013
-Item added: Frozen Mallet //17.07.2012
-Playstyle added: W(Sustain)-based Solo-Lane- Lee Sin //17.07.2012
-Item order changed: After the nerv of Atma's Impaler, getting only the Chain Vest prvious to the whole Trinity Force/ Frozen Mallet //17.07.2012
-Changed Skill Tree for jungle: MR>>Health // 28.09.2012
-added MS-Quints // 28.09.2012

I will be using Shortcuts throughout my Guide. Here they are:

CC AD AP AS Apen Mpen HP A MR HP5

- - - - - - - - - -

Crowd-Control (Stun, Snare, Silence, Slow, Knockup/back) Attack-Damage Ability-Power Attack-Speed Armor-Penetration Magic-Penetration Health-Points Armor Magic-Resistance Health-Regeneration per 5 seconds

SPACE

Pros Great Mobility Fast Jungle Quite Tanky Anti-Carry Strong Slow, Strong CC He's blind.

SPACE

SPACE

Cons Not 100% ensured ganks with your Sonic Wave Hard to be jungled without runes If snared unable to use some of his Spells space space

Let us take a look on Lee Sin's Spells:
Red examples will be aggressive use of the Spells.
Blue examples will be defensive use of the Spells.

Passive: Flurry

S

This is an awesome passive, which makes Lee Sin a viable jungler as well as giving him more Damage in Lane. It also restores your Energy and gives you the Ability to use your all of your Spells in a row, when Auto-hitting in between. Try to always have at least one hit between each Ability as long as you are in melee Range. It will add a high amount of Damage to your Damage-Output.

Q: Sonic Wave

S

The Q-Spell of Lee Sin is available for multiple cases to be used. This Skillshot is Lee Sin's first movement Ability. Use it in all cases you may have:

• Chasing. Be sure to land the Skillshot! If you do not, you will be left behind.
• Finishing off enemies. The Resonating Strike deals more Damage based on how much Health is missing on the enemy.
• Ganking. CARE! If you have another way to gank, e.g. just running in to slow with your Tempest, or jumping in with Safeguard, do that. This is still a Skillshot and Skillshots may be failed. I have seen too many Lee Sins failing a gank because they messed up with their Sonic Wave and, by that, told the enemies, that they were waiting int the brush to gank.
• Escaping. Sounds strange, huh? But is still very usefull. Imagine chasing an enemy and suddenly another one is coming from the Brush: And there are no friendly minions to Safeguard to. But an enemy minion running down the lane behind you. Sonic Wave on it and you are safed!
• Detecting enemies/Checking Monster-camps. Use it to check a Brush or the Dragon. Remember: Every Unit hit by it will become visible. Also Minions and Monsters! This is far better then face-checking them.

W: Safeguard

S

This ability is the second movement ability. It got very various uses, while making jungling much easier and also on lane giving Lee Sin much more sustain. Again we have lots of cases to use this spell:

• Ganking. The enemy Champions are located at your own minions, as you are showing up? Dash to a minion and you caught up to them without using your precious Sonic Wave! But remember: If you want to dive a Tower you will not have your Safeguard to get out again!
• WARDS. The free Flash: Place a ward and instantly dash to it by using Safeguard will safe your life, secure a kill, and everything else, a Flash might be usefull for. Do not underrate a Sight Ward- Safeguard-Combo and always have a ward with you.
• Shielding. You can shield yourself by using Safeguard on yourself. Might be usefull in a 1 vs 1 Situation or to keep your Flurry up.
• Escaping. Dashing to any friendly unit will help you getting out of dangerous Situations. To a Minion in the lane, an ally Champion or a Sight ward. Towers are NOT targetable by Safeguard.
• Saving Team-mates. Your Team-mate got in trouble? Your Shield is not strong, but since you are directly next to your ally you might slow with Tempest or even save him by using Dragon's Rage and kick the enemies away.

E: Tempest

S

This Spell again will help you in the jungle by reducing the attack-speed of the Monsters. It makes you a good anti-carry because of the AS-Reduction as well. Tempest helps you a LOT while ganking lanes: A good slow and, attatched to it, the AS-Reduction will give your ganks the strength to maybe even kill the enemies. Also it helps against invisible Champions: Tempest will turn every Unit visible, which has been hit by it. Use it in Akali's Twilight Shroud or to get an Evelynn or Shaco out of their stealth.

Ultimate R: Dragon's Rage

S

Whatever it shall be: This ability helps everywhere. If used correctly! It provides a strong Mass-CC in combination with a Knockback. Only the targeted enemy will be knocked back, not the Units hit by the target. Those will only be knocked up. But they also take the WHOLE Damage of your Ultimate.

• Get them in your Tower! You want some extra Damage on top? Try to kick them in your Tower to make it hit them.
• Ensure a gank. You are cared about your enemy to come out of your gank easily? Right after comming in the gank, try to kick them in the direction of your allied half and you will have less cares about a success.
• Massive Damage and CC! In a team fight, this single spell may deal tons of Damage. If you are able to hit the whole enemy team, this will give your team a great advantage!
• Break channeling Spells. Like every Stun, Knockup or Silence, this spell will stop channeling spells like Nunu & Willump's Absolute Zero or Katarina's Death Lotus.
• Safe Teammates! Your ally is beeing chased? This spell is going to give a simple stop to the enemies!

Ok this is quite simple over all. In jungle and on Solo-Lane your priority will be Sonic Wave. In Duo-Lane your Tempest will work better to deal damage and CC the enemy.

Jungle- Lee Sin

Solo-Lane- Lee Sin

Jungle- and Solo-Lane- Lee Sin do target a single target on going in and want to stack up maximum Damage on this target. Therefore skilling up Sonic Wave first.

(W-based) Solo-Lane- Lee Sin

Skill Tempest twice for some more slow, the rest is done by your Phage/ Frozen Mallet.

Ok. Now coming to the Summoner Spells we will have different Opinions. More than two Spells are viable for Lee Sin. In my point of view there are four really efficient Spells:

• Smite is a must have for Jungle- Lee Sin. Every Jungler should have Smite. Not only because it makes your jungling faster, but also to secure or steal Dragon or Baron.
• Exhaust helps in lots of situations. Its Slow can be used to secure a kill or escape Chasers. The Damage-Reduction is usefull if used on big Damage-Dealers in a team fight or in a 1 vs 1 Situation.
• Ignite helps against any Champion, that got Life-Steal, Heal or strong Life-Regeneration. Not a spell exspacilly for Lee Sin but it should be at least one time in the Team, so get it if you see no one picking it.
• Cleanse is a very usefull Spell, but hard to be handled with. If you are able to use it correctly you might either pull out some CC-Ability from the enemy and counter it or use it to escape dangerous situations. Therefore do not forget the Sight Ward- Safeguard-Combo, if needed.

• Flash is usefull in lots of situations. But since Lee Sin has already lots of great Movement-Abilities like his Safeguard he does not necessarily need this spell. If you still want it, feel free to take it. Exspecially in the Duo-Lane you might have some use for it. Also for the W-based Lee Sin this spell becomes more interesting due to the way of playstyle. He will be in the need to give a Flash, where the other playstyles would just bring up the whole Damage to finish the enemy.
• Ghost: Some Movement-Speed is always nice, but since your Tempest and Frozen Mallet slow hard, it is not necessarily needed as well.
• Teleport is a nice Spell over all. Fast map movement is surely a good thing. Though it might be worth more on some Tank.

• Clairvoyance: Are you a support? No!
• Heal: Other Spells have a better effect in the same Situation.

• Revive: Sense?...Wanna be revived to defend after a lost Team-fight? SOLO? Trolling :P
• Garrison: Ummm... in Classic? :D
• Clarity: Mana- Lee Sin FTW!

Coming to the Runes i will begin with the

Jungle- Lee Sin and Solo-Lane- Lee Sin

• Greater Mark of Desolation: These gonna give Lee Sin the power to get through jungle efficiently and some Armor of the Champions as well
• Greater Seal of Armor: These will give him comming out of the jungle with more health as well as giving him tankiness.
• Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist: These will make him tankier against mages in mid/late game. Early game he does not need that much MR.
• Greater Quintessence of Strenth: These will fasten his jungle and give him more Damage-output (Do not forget: His spells scale with bonus AD).

Duo-Lane- Lee Sin

• Greater Glyph of Magic Resist: These will help you a little more in the very early Duo-Lane to take not that much (If you are fine with 9 Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist, do not pay too much Attention on the Difference)
• Greater Quintessence of Health: These are going to help you in the Duo-Lane untill you got tanky enough to handle with the higher amount of Damage coming in the Duo-Lane.

• Get some more AD since your Damage will mainly base in Auto-Attacks and your sustain will be stronger due to higher ammounts of life stealed.

• Feel free to take some Greater Quintessence of Movement Speed, since MS will both: speed up your jungle and allow better ganking.
• Also you might try out to switch your Marks a bit. Try to find out, which way you feel to deal your damage best. This will impact both: Early- and Late-game!

Coming to the Masteries:

Jungle- Lee Sin and Solo-Lane- Lee Sin

Offense will give you the needed Damage Bonus and the 9 Points in Defense will give you already some Tankiness.

Duo-Lane- Lee Sin

9/21/0 instead of the 21/9/0. But still I think you should choose, whatever you feel more comfortable with.

This is where it becomes interesting. I have quite a simple Core build.

• Wriggle's Lantern will give you great sustain in the jungle and on the lane. Also you have your first A and a free Sight Ward also usuable for your Safeguard.
• Mercury's Treads or Ninja Tabi. This belongs on the enemy team. Much CC and average magic damage? Then go for the Mercury's Treads. If they have mostly Attack-Damage coming in you also may decide to get Ninja Tabi instead. But remember: The Mercury's Treads is the only item providing you MR in Early- and Mid-Game!
• Frozen Mallet. Much HP. Also a great slow. Makes you very strong for ganking and chasing while providing a lot of sustain.
  Black Cleaver. Your primary damage source. Also granting Armor reduction on your target. If doin not so well, you might by it later and first go for defense.
• Chain Vest or Negatron Cloak. Decide: What is the primary damage of the enemy team? Go for the resistance, to make your HP from Frozen Mallet effective.

• These Items you should have completed, when leaving Early-Game.
• Decide, which boots might be better. Most games this will be Mercury's Treads.

Ok this is, where it becomes very situational. You should get some more Health and Resistances for Late-Game. Some more AD would be nice, but is not necessary. Your Damage comes from surviving long enough to deal constant Damage. To grant this you should look out for some Items, that fit in your Situation.

• Mercurial Scimitar will help against an extreme CC-Team, always killing you before getting out of CC. This might be needed very seldom, since you have 35% Tenacy from your Mercury's Treads.
• Maw of Malmortius gives you MR and some AD. In combination with another Health-Item awesome against a Magic-Strong-Team.
• Runic Bulwark. You are not the one in the Team to buy this Item, but if your Team does not manage it to buy one, do it. It is too important to be left away.
• Banshee's Veil should not be your first choice. Look, whether a Mercurial Scimitar or a Maw of Malmortius doesn't do it better. Depends on the enemy Team. Mana-stats wasted.
• Atma's Impaler is a great Item. Grants A and at the same time AD depndent on you max. HP. Strong Item.
• Randuin's Omen. Your Team keeps dieing to a fed Tryndamere? This will help with A and a nice Aktive plus a slowing Passive. In combination with your Tempest their AS and Movement-Speed will sink to 0.
• Sunfire Aegis grants some HP and A. The passive only becomes really strong in longer fights. Though an effective Item. (Don't forget: It's stacking with Atma's Impaler.
• Warmog's Armor. This is not very favoured by me. Though it has a very high amount of health, which will awesomely synnergize with your Atma's Impaler. But this Item has NO Resistances of any kind, so watch your A**.
• Blade of the Ruined King. Sell your Lantern at the End for either this or the next Item. Decide wisely: Which Item is more effective really comes to their team and playstyle. This one might be more effective against a tankier team due to the Passive. Or a team, which never builds real clusters.
• Ravenous Hydra Might be more efficent against a team, which stays very close to each other. On the other hand it gives you a good burst, which can be used to deal high damage on a smaller group of enemies.

Ok here we are going to split up into the different Phases:







Laning in a Duo-Lane or in a Solo-Lane is pretty much the same playstyle for Lee Sin.
Your basic wish is to get lots of Last-Hits, so do not forget to get every Last-Hit you can take.

You also have a very simple harassing Combo:
Jumping in with Sonic Wave, then dealing your Damage, and after it try to Saveguard to your minions, to prevent taking Damage.
Your Combo will look like this:







Okay. This is another way for Solo-Top- Lee Sin:
Your W will give you lots of sustain. Your harrassment will be based on Auto-Attacks. Though your harrassment combo will not change very much. Choose this way of Solo-Top-Laning if you are having troubles surviving in your Lane, though this shouldn't happen very often ;)





Not that easy with Lee Sin, but quite much possible and very efficient. To get maximum Damage, you will use your passive to full capaticy. This means when comming to a Monster-Camp you will go this way:


Try to use your abilities instantly after an Auto-Attack, to get maximum AS from your passive.

My jungling route looks like this:

1. Starting at Wolves ||Save Smite
2. Going to Wraiths. You will hit lvl2 ||Save Smite
3. Red Buff ||Use Smite
4. Double Golems. You will hit lvl3.
5. Wraiths. You will get back lots of Health here.
6. Gank. You will have to look out for a possible gank. If needed wait for the enemy lane to push and tell your mates, to fall a little bit back in lane, so the enemies do push. (Do not wait too long, else your Exp-lack becomes too big)
7. Wolves. Since nothing else is respawned yet.
8. Blue Buff. You do not really need it. The Mid-Laner will be thankfull for it.
9. Gank Top-Lane. As soon as the Mid-Laner is already at Blue Buff he might come with you.

Actually, there are many ways to jungle Lee Sin. This is just an opportunity.

As you sometimes have to take over Lanes for the others, your play-style in that lane will be the same as Solo-Lane- Lee Sin.






Your ganking abilities are good. There is only a lack at getting in the enemies.
Ok, you have your Sonic Wave. BUT: Sonic Wave can be failed as it is a Skill-Shot. And then the enemies are warned and flee and you cannot slow them.

So try to simply run up to the enemies, if the lane is pushed enough to reach them like this, or use Safeguard if the situation provides it. If nothing else helps you can for sure try your luck with Sonic Wave.

As you reached the enemies, you want to slow them as fast as you can. And, therefore you might even ignore the 1Auto-Hit between Tempest and Tempest. After they are slowed, you want to keep your Flurry up. For this use your Safeguard, if not used to initiate. Also use your Sonic Wave now, since your directly next to them and have a pretty much 100% chance to hit them. Overall it looks like this:


This of course is adaptable to every situation: If you are sure, you do not have enough time, to deal so many Auto-Hits, leave Safeguard behind and go ahead to your Sonic Wave-Combo.
Remember: A gank does not have to be a kill, it shall provide Lane-Domination. Do not push the Lane after a gank, else you will destroy the Domination granted by it.












As soon as reaching Mid-Game, your build should own a Wriggle's Lantern. It is your job to ensure the Dragon not to be killed by the enemies. Simply place a Sight ward in front of it and it is protected.

Other good spots for Sight Wards are here:

• Blue Spots: At Blue Buff and Red Buff on your side, to protect them from the enemies to be killed (Counter-Jungling)
• Red Spots: At Blue Buff and Red Buff on the enemies side, to protect yourself when Counter-Jungling.
• Purple Spots: At Dragon and Baron to protect them.
• Green Spots: To protect the lanes from being ganked.
• Grey Spots: If your front Towers have been destroyed, protect your lane here.

Team-Fights in Mid-Game are awesome for Lee Sin. He now provides enough tankiness to rush into 3 enemies and deals great Damage or even insane Damage, when used Dragon's Rage correctly. His strong CC gives also advantages in the Team-Fight.

You are one of those to initiate a Team-Fight in Mid-Game. (Only if you are able to tank them yet. If you got by some reason underleveled/-farmed you will have problems to deal with that job and better wait for the Tank to initiate)

As Jungle- and Solo-Lane- Lee Sin your Damage will focus on the enemies dealing high Damage, while Duo-Lane- Lee Sin will deal much more Area-Damage on the whole enemy team.








Late-Game looks pretty much the same for every playstyle of Lee Sin. As everyone got full Item-Build you will not anymore initiate Team-Fights, because the Damage will take you out too fast though you are tanky. Of course you will initiate on an enemy running out of his team and being completly out of position, but you will have to be more carefull then in Mid-Game.

Now you will wait for the Tank to initiate the Team-Fights. Once he ran in, you will come in as well and try to kill the enemy carries. If you get the oportunity to Knock up the whole enemy team with your Dragon's Rage, do it. Do not think 'uuuh I have to safe it, so I can escape as I am getting low'. Even if you die, the Damage + CC will give your team such a great advantage, that it is mostly unpossible to loose the fight. But still care about not saving the enemy carries with it.

DO NEVER FACE-CHECK IN LATE GAME! You will die before doing anything, if the enemies are hiding in there, leaving a 4 vs 5 Situation, which is a more or less secured Victory for the enemies.

DO NOT CHASE TOO FAR! It splits your Team up, making it an easy Win of that fight for the 4 enemies left.

And do not forget: A single mistake may lead to a Defeat in Late-Game.

Since this was my first Guide, i want to thank some people for their work on Mobafire:

Jhoijhoi for his awesome Guide on Guides. Also for the banners, I integrated in my Guide.

Also to everyone leaving a comment on what i could do better in this guide ;-)