It's been months since Lee Sin's release and most of the playerbase still doesn't know what to think about this champion. The main reason behind this is simple: Lee Sin has a steep learning curve. I'd go as far as to say that he's the most difficult champion to play at his maximum potential. There's not a lot of people playing him, and there's even less who can play him well. That said, I also think he is the most fun, and definitely the most stylish, champion to date.

But just because he's difficult to play doesn't mean he's underpowered. No, Lee Sin is actually a very powerful champ. I'd consider him "sleeper OP." His difficulty is his true disadvantage, and once you've overcome that through practice you're left with a highly mobile tanky DPS that cleans house.

EDIT: So it seems now people are starting to realize that Lee Sin is pretty darn good! Riot has since nerfed the damage scaling on some of his abilities and lowered the range of Safeguard, but these are minor nerfs and Lee Sin still rocks.

I prefer jungling with Lee Sin. In my opinion he is one of the best junglers in the game. He jungles at high HP, he clears fast, and his high mobility lets him escape ganks and counterjungle well. But biggest reason? Insane ganks at level 2! That's right. At level 2, with practice you can get an easy first blood and start snowballing hard.

Lee Sin is also a good laner though! He has superb harass skills that let him dash in, attack the opponent, and dash back out. With an unlimited energy bar, you can be hyper aggressive in the lane, and you even have lifesteal to heal back any damage you take! Because of this, I will also discuss laning in my guide. It's more brief just because laning is a lot simpler than jungling in general.

I go for flat AD quints and marks, flat armor seals, and flat magic resist glyphs. This gives you an incredibly fast jungle clear time while giving you a tanky advantage during your early game ganks.

Standard Jungle: 21/0/9 again nothing special

Standard Laning (more sustainability): 21/9/0

Jungling: Flash and Smite. Standard, self-explanatory.

Laning: Flash and Exhaust. I choose Exhaust as my secondary summoner spell when laning because it helps secure kills, helps you run away, makes it easier to position a perfect Dragon's Rage, and it's one of the best summoner spells for team fights as it completely shuts down enemy AD carries.

Lee Sin is versatile when it comes to his jungle route. You can start at double golems, or wolves, or wraiths, depending on where you want to finish when you're ready to gank.

Honestly, I think Lee Sin is best played attempting to gank at level 2, so I start at either double golems or wraiths. Wraiths if you want to gank middle lane. Double golems if you want to gank bottom/top (depending on side). Pick the lane you feel will be easier to gank. If an enemy doesn't have Flash, go for that one! If an ally has a reliable CC, like Taric's / Sion's stun, that's another good lane choice.

Start with Tempest, use Smite on the big wraith / whichever golem, ding ding you're level 2, put a point into Resonating Strike. Everyone else is still level 1. Go over to the nearby lane and gank, leading with Resonating Strike and immediately following up with Tempest + Cripple. Be ready to use your Flash to chase after the opponent when he pops his Flash. Stupidly easy first blood.

THIS IS IMPORTANT! You MUST be careful to take advantage of your Flurry passive, ESPECIALLY when jungling. At level 1 and 2, make sure you're using both Flurry autoattacks in between both parts of your W and E. At level 3, start double activating your W, but keep spacing out your other skills with two autoattacks so every autoattack has a 50% speed boost.

When ganking a lane, you want to always close the gap with Safeguard / Iron Will to an allied champ/minion adjacent to your target if possible. Otherwise, just close the gap with Resonating Strike (Q).

Example Jungle Gank: Play Video /league-of-legends/ability/safeguard-iron-will-371

Jungling: Cloth Armor + 5x Health Potion to start. After 700g go back and get [Madred's Razors]. Follow up with Wriggle's Lantern and Mercury's Treads.

Now is where your itemization diverges. The top item build is just a generalization, what you should really be doing is customizing your build according to your specific game. Survey the game after Wriggle's. Who are the main damage dealers on the enemy team? Is it mostly AP, mostly AD, or mixed?

If most of the heavy hitters are AP, I HIGHLY recommend getting Hexdrinker after boots. It's such an underused but amazing item for AD champs that need MR. Don't believe me? Here is just one example of how useful an early Hexdrinker is: Play Video /league-of-legends/champion/annie-1 DPS Lee Sin:
Wriggle's Lantern
Mercury's Treads
The Brutalizer
Trinity Force
Bloodthirster
(more Bloodthirster / Youmuu's Ghostblade)

Armor Lee Sin:
Wriggle's Lantern
Mercury's Treads
Frozen Mallet
Aegis of the Legion
Atma's Impaler
Sunfire Aegis
Randuin's Omen

MR Lee Sin:
Wriggle's Lantern
Mercury's Treads
Hexdrinker
Frozen Mallet
Force of Nature
Aegis of the Legion



Laning: I like starting with Doran's Blade and getting a couple more early. They're amazing on Lee Sin and give you a great early game that can snowball.

Laning Lee Sin:
Doran's Blade
Doran's Blade
(continue with an above build minus the Wriggle's)

Some tips:

- Make sure you're using your Flurry passive. Sometimes you have to mash buttons, but if you don't throw in autoattacks in between some abilities then you'll run out of energy fast. Example: Q + Q to dash to a target, E + E to slow him, then autoattack twice before using W.

- Be sure to keep up your Flurry when working towers. It doesn't matter if you're sending Sonic Wave at nothing. Also, Safeguard the minion being attacked by the tower, it gives you a bit more time.

- Lee Sin is one of the best 1v1 champs in the game. This is how you make him shine in a fight to the death where the opponent foolishly is standing to fight: W+W, E+E, Q, autoattack x2, R, Q. Massive damage.

- Dragon's Rage is best used like Alistar's Headbutt, to position your opponent. [Flash] ahead of the target and then R him backwards into your team/tower. Save your ally from a gank by Safeguarding to him, R'ing his pursuers back, and retreating
Example:

- Q and W are useful for escaping through walls or just speeding up travel

- In team fights, the most reliable use of your Dragon's Rage is knocking back a melee carry away from your squishy ally

Just illustrations of concepts I've touched on. I'll add more later.

Using Resonating Strike / Safeguard / Iron Will to escape a 1v5 and Baron: Play Video /league-of-legends/ability/dragons-rage-373 Play Video /league-of-legends/ability/dragons-rage-373 Play Video /league-of-legends/ability/safeguard-iron-will-371 Play Video