Lee Sin is one of the strongest, if not the strongest jungler in the game right now. His counter jungling prowess, skirmish strength, mobility, and great ult give him all the tools a jungler needs to dominate a game. He is however one of the hardest junglers to play, given that he has six spells and so many small interactions, combined with a skillshot Q and one of the hardest ults to use in the game. Great Lee Sin junglers are quite rare for this reason, but seeing it executed properly is truly a sight to behold!

Check out my Lee Sin in action:

Pros

1. Insane mobility
2. Very strong counterjungling
3. Great ganks, particularly post 6
4. Extremely strong skirmish potential
5. If played right, insane youtube-worthy plays are a common occurrence

Cons

1. Extremely hard to play
2. Weak CC
3. Must build tanky to be effective in high level play
4. Recovers poorly if behind

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Greater Mark of Attack Damage Greater Seal of Armor Greater Glyph of Magic Resist Greater Quintessence of Attack Damage

The runes are pretty standard for any jungler with sustain.

I don't like armor pen anymore since you're playing more of a tanky champ mid-game. AD does more early, especially helpful when clearing jungle.

Armor yellows are standard on all junglers and almost all champs as well - they are just too efficient.

MR blues are also standard, no other runes really keep up in efficiency. I get flat instead of scaling since early game is extremely important for Lee.

Machete/5 is the standard jungle start. No reason to go any different on Lee - machete is just OP for jungling.



You definitely want to have at least madred's razor on first back. Upgrade to Wriggle's Lantern and buy Boots after that, depending on how much gold you have (900 = buy wriggles, less = buy boots). Grab Mobility Boots and Sightstone afterward. Lee Sin is an aggressive, mobile early game jungler and these items are key for taking control of their jungle.

From there, Locket of the Iron Solari is the most solid defensive items you can buy in current meta. If they have no magic damage, you can skip Locket of the Iron Solari and start on your Sunfire Aegis early.


Sunfire Aegis and Frozen Mallet are important on Lee Sin to prevent him from going into obscurity late-game. We built all tanky items early/mid game, so our late-game items need to contribute some damage/utility, or we just get ignored.

Last Whisper, Blade of the Ruined King, and Mercurial Scimitar are situation pick-ups. If the enemy is stacking armor, get Last Whisper, otherwise get Blade of the Ruined King for damage. Mercurial Scimitar is really a 6th item meant for if you're getting targeted by heavy CCs.

Note that there is a build running around that began in Korea where you start with Doran's Blade and build into 1-2 more Doran's Blade and Sightstone. If you do this, you need 6% lifesteal quints and do 21/9/0.

Smite/Flash is standard on most junglers, and is crucial on Lee Sin. You need it to make a lot of ridiculous plays, most notably q->q->flash R into your team.

Note that your skill sequence almost doesn't matter at all after the first 3 levels. Q and E both scale pretty well, so you can really pick whichever one you want. I'd get 2 points in W though, as 10% lifesteal is ideal. Q is better at level one since it's better in almost all level one fights, as well as clearing the first buff faster. Just wait until the golem/lizard is at ~800 HP before shooting it, so that the second half does maximum damage.

Generally, you're going to want to get a smiteless leash from your ad/support lane. AD can stay for like 1 hit then support can just stay until it's dead because support doesn't need to be that early to lane. So if you're blue side, start red - if purple side, start blue. Note that this can change if level one shenanigans go down.


(Purple) Blue -> Red -> Gank top (or wraith, if top is warded)
(Blue) Red -> Blue -> Gank top (or wolf, if top is warded)


Always be aware of enemy starting wards, always be asking your lanes where wards are so you can look for potential sneak paths. Lane ganks are also possible once you hit 3, so keep that in mind. Just Safeguard / Iron Will to your ally then Tempest the enemy and your Sonic Wave should be easy to land, making it a clean kill.


Another thing you can do is look to counter-jungle early, especially vs junglers like Amumu, Maokai, etc. If you do that, get your smiteless leash then run to their second buff. For example, if they started blue, you run to their red ASAP after getting your smiteless leash. If they're doing it, engage when the buff is at ~800 health so they can't finish it and walk out - they have to give it up. If they aren't, just wait - they'll be coming, and they will face check you. Make sure you let your team know what you're attempting, and keep an eye on enemy lanes also. You don't want to get stuck 1v3.

You basically can do one of two things in mid-game:


Buy a pink ward or get your support to, pink it, go do a camp, then come back and solo it. You need Madred's Razors + 1 item. Get your lanes to come if they can, but you don't need them if you're not interfered with. This is mostly because of Iron Will being OP in 1v1 fighting.


Every lane is ganked differently, so I'll split them into three sections:


Usually you don't want to gank top after level 6ish because it's the hardest to kill, and the enemy can take dragon if you go top. If you do happen to find yourself there, try to get behind them then lead with Dragon's Rage, walk (not Safeguard / Iron Will, not flash) for Tempest, then hit easy Sonic Wave to follow them.


Never gank mid from a side brush. Always come from the blind spot behind them (between S brush and banana brush). You will usually want to initiate the gank with Flash -> Dragon's Rage or Safeguard / Iron Will->ward-> Dragon's Rage. Mid lane is shorter than top lane so you have to use these abilities to get in proper position. Try to land your Sonic Wave while they are mid-air from Dragon's Rage.


There are two types of ganks bot - dives and lane ganks. Never come from the river, it's ALWAYS warded. When you dive, it should be when you have a big wave on their tower, and they are slightly chunked. Just walk up, use Dragon's Rage-> Sonic Wave-> Sonic Wave, drop tower aggro with Safeguard / Iron Will, and let team finish them off. If it's a lane gank, your lane has to initiate. Join the fight with Safeguard / Iron Will into Sonic Wave. Sonic Wave should be easier to land since they are midfight / slowed or stunned.

Late game is about team fighting. Always stay with your team; your wave clear kinda sucks and you don't need the farm as much as allies anyway. There are two ways you can start a fight:

1) Flash -> Tempest -> Tempest -> Safeguard / Iron Will to safety. Only do this if you're sure your team can follow up as it puts you in a dangerous position and uses flash. It is a nice setup if you have good followup, though.

2) Sonic Wave -> Resonating Strike -> Flash -> Dragon's Rage. Flash can be replaced with Safeguard / Iron Will to ward. This kicks an enemy toward your team obviously. Look to land it on unsuspecting enemies that don't have flash. Again, careful when doing this as it puts you into a dangerous position with flash down.

If the enemy team initiates the fight, don't try to pull off any of these techs. Instead, protect your AD with Safeguard / Iron Will into Tempest. You don't want to "zone" the enemy team by dying to them. You need to survive to the end of the fight since you can turn won fights into objectives, or aces much better than most other champions.

If you do all of the above perfectly, you will be a pretty good Lee Sin player. But, you will not be the God of the Jungle. Mastering these techs so you can execute them flawlessly in any situation will. There are very few players that can do it all perfectly (And I don't think I'm one of them). By flawlessly I don't mean do it when you have time to think. I mean execute it mid-chase after like 4 ults go down and everything's chaos. Anyway here they are, starting from the easiest:


You'd be surprised how few people know how to do this. It's pretty simple, you put a ward and then you Safeguard / Iron Will to it. Takes some practice, but this should be second nature to you if you want to be the best Lee Sin.


Not exactly a tech. But extremely important to understand when Dragon's Rage will kick them over the wall or into it, as it can mean the difference between a kill and a death, or a kill and an escape, etc.


This was described earlier. This is pretty hard to execute properly, but when it happens there are few things more satisfying than watching the enemy ADC or AP fly toward your team.


This one is the most deceptive of them all. Very hard to know exactly when you can do this as it requires extremely good team fight sense, and a team to follow up. Basically this slows whoever you hit, and puts you out of danger. But, it is using your flash for just slowing, so make sure it's worth it.


Lee Sin's second Q hit does a % of the enemy's HP, so it's really strong when trying to outsmite. Smite while your second Q is in the air, and time it so you hit both at about 900 HP on the dragon/baron/red/blue/whatever (Actual number depends on your level/AD, obviously)


This is a neat little trick you can use to get a quick heal during fight/chase/w.e. Safeguard / Iron Will gives you spellvamp, and Smite works with spellvamp, so you can heal yourself for ~100 if you execute this. Definitely try to do it every time you are killing a buff, and look for chances to do this during fights.


This is your bursty combo. It also happens to land you right next to them after it's executed, so that's convenient as well. You can Flash for position on this one, since it's pretty hard to escape if you kick them in the right direction. Whether to use Sonic Wave or Dragon's Rage first depends on which is easier to hit - if they are melee then Dragon's Rage makes them not able to dodge Sonic Wave, so I usually do that.

I hope you all have enjoyed my Lee guide! Lee sin is probably the best jungler (and definitely the most fun) in the game right now, and takes a lot of practice to learn. I hope this guide will help you in your endeavors! Here's an embed of my stream! www.twitch.tv/yodatv