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Lee Sin Build Guide by

He Can See Into Your Soul - a Lee-sin jungle guide

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4 Comments League of Legends Build Guide Author Cocamo1337

Lee Sin Build Guide By Updated on

Guide Discussion (4) More Lee Sin Guides

Spells:

Flash

Smite

Ability Order

Lee Sin Passive Ability

More Lee Sin Counters

Introduction - Why im deciding to make this guide!

Hello everyone! Cocamo here bringing you a fairly in depth lee-sin guide. Let me start by saying i LOVE mobafire. It has gotten me through the transition of total noob, to someone that actually knows what their doing! But when browsing lee-sin guides, i realized that, despite the fact that there are some amazing ones out there, there all missing certain things. I've debated mentally with myself on many lee-sin issues. Today, were gonna sit down, and really get to know lee!

-Quick note: I apologize for my lack of occasional correct punctuation when it comes to the letter "a". Its broken on my keyboard, and i can only type it because i have it on copy. TL;DR, i cant type capital a's.

Why do you want Lee on your team?

Lee-sin is an incredibly versatile champ. He has the ability to control the whole battlefield. He is majoritively ad, despite his Safeguard/Iron Will scaling off ap, and his Tempest/Cripple doing magic dmg. He can be played as a jungler, or a laner (Solo top or duo bot), and dominates at both. When your in the champion select, and you are thinking about picking lee-sin, ask yourself:

* Do we need a jungler?
* Do we need a solo top or bot?
* Would my team benifet from an ap champion more?

Having said all that, lee-sin fits into a HUGE amount of team comps. He is an amazing anti-carry, and he himself can easly carry if your good enough with him. Just ask Doublelift :)

Lets go more in depth on what we can gain by picking lee-sin

Pros and Cons

Pros

+ awesome jungler
+ amazing counter jungler
+ very mobile
+ by end game, can tank and carry
+ greatly rewards skill
+ can mini stun the whole enemie team with good positioning

space

Cons

- Partially CD reliant
- Susceptable to getting overconfident because your pwning too hard
- Requires fairly high skill cap to play to his full potential
- Jungle route requires him to be dangerously low at level 3

Masteries, Runes, Summoner Spells, and why i pick what.

I go for a 21/0/9 setup. This gives lee-sin the benifet of:

- Gives us some nice extra armor pen, this helps with jungling along with later on.
- 2% extra crit isnt much, but its saved my life on several occasions, and synergizes well with our next mastery...
- Gives 10% extra crit dmg. By end game, you should have (Maybe) and , you'll be critting roughly once every 2-3 attacks, 10% extra dmg is worth it.
- 4% extra dmg, whats not to like?
- This is a grossly underestimated mastery, and has litterally won me games several times. the ability to rez 6-7 seconds faster than your opponent, is something that you can only afford to not take if you never die.
- Possibly my favorite mastery in game, increased exp allows you to get a headstart against your opponent, and means you can gank alot sooner.
and - 15% increased buff duration = 15% longer you can gank with red buff, and 15% longer you get reduced CD's and increased energy regen with blue!

Runes

greater quintessence of desolation: I get only 1 of these, because not many jungle creeps have more than 24 armor (runes + masteries = 24 armor pen), so anything after that is overkill.
Greater Quintessence of Health: I get 2 of these, primarily because as i've been climbing in ELO, i find that counter jungling happens alot more often. This extre 52 health has saved my life several times, and has helped me jungle when i was newer to lee!
greater mark of desolation: Not much to say here. armor pen ftw.
Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist: I like to get these, namely since i play lee-sin very agressive, to do this i need to be very tanky, without sacrificing too much dmg. These glyph's give me a nice chunk of MR, and scale very well through the whole game.
Greater Seal of Armor: Pretty standard jungle runes. Help's with absorbing creep dmg.

Keep in mind, the only real runes i feel are completely nescessary, are the marks and the seals. You can vary on what you use, and i encourage you to find a set that suits you.

Viable Summoner Spells

- absolutely key in any jungle guide. I dont care if some champions can jungle without it, it doesnt mean they should. Smite decreases the time it takes to jungle, increases your safety, and if you do it right, can guarentee that your buffs wont get stolen.

- I use this on nearly all champions, unless they have a built in flash, and sometimes i pick it still. This is the best "Oh ****" spell in game, and when used right can allow you to cover great distance in combo with and . It can also give you that last bit of distance you need to pick off that last enemy for your pentakill ;)

- another great choice. I have switched back and forth in preference between ghost and flash alot, and really i feel it comes down to how you like to play. i like to stay in till im at 200 health, than flash - safeguard to a minion and gtfo of there! Feel free to try out both ghost and flash, to decide which you prefer more.

- This spell.......i dunno. I just feel like with trinity force, cripple, and red buff, its a bit overkill. If you wanna play total rambo, with no main escape mechanism, go ahead. I suppose nobody will ever be able to get away with the abundance of slows :P

- While im fond of this spell on alot of characters, i dont think i've ever gotten it on a jungler. Maybe if your really pro with lee, and feel like you can risk no escape mechanism for that bit of extra burst when ganking, go right ahead. Dont say i didnt warn you xD

- I suppose if your still really new to lee, and arent confident about your jungling. This is not a spell i recomend, but im not going to include it, as i can see it being usefull in some scenario's.

I dont feel like i need to talk about the non-viable summoner spells, mainly because there pretty much all the ones you've seen in other guides. They should all really be obvious.

Ability Explanation, Sequence, and how to use em!

Ability Explanation

Flurry: Essential for lee-sin's early jungle. Make sure to time your skills, and the follow up skills, between two basic attack's each, so you can get the most out of this passive.
Sonic Wave / Resonating Strike (Q): This is lee-sins bread and butter skill. It allows him to close massive distance, and do massive burst at the same time. Once we get a point in E and W, we put priority into this.
Safeguard / Iron Will (W): This skill is incredibly versatile, and with correct ward placement, can be used to cover insane amounts of ground. This in combo with Wriggles (or bloodthirster) gives you insane amounts of lifesteal, that will heal you back up to full within several seconds of beating on creep waves.
Tempest / Cripple (E): This skill is nice mainly for the slow. It also however has some nice situational counters, like being able to see stealthed units that are hit. This counters akali so hard in lane, its amazing.
Dragon's Rage (R): This skill is another one of those easy to learn, hard to master type's. This knocks the enemy way back, so if you can while ganking, try to kick your target back if they try to run. This will take some practice in positioning.

Ability Sequence Order

We take at level 1 because its nescesary for our jungling route. The exact same with at level 2. Once we hit level 3 though, we put main priority on our , as this is what allows lee-sin's ganks to be so godlike. If im not mistaken, this is the 2nd largest gap closer in game, right behind nocturne's . The base dmg on it is pretty broken (in my opinion anyway) the ratio (even after the nerf) is amazing, and on top of that, it does 10% of the enemie's missing health in bonus dmg! after we get maxed in sonic wave, it comes down to personal preference. If it seems like alot of lanes are still in their laning phase, i suggest putting more points in tempest. This will allow for your ganks to be more effective. If the laning phase is over, i tend to put priority in safeguard. There tend to be alot more small duels going around in this phase, so being able to have that solid edge over everyone else is KEY! Leveling this up will also allow you to stay around without going B significantly longer. I've had games that were 40 minutes long, and i've only gone B maybe once or twice. Im not saying you should save up 6000 gold before going back, but keep in mind that after a skirmish breaks out, and you have 1/3rd health, you should be able to regain all your health fairly quickly off a nearby creep wave. Level up the skill you didnt level up afterwards, putting points in your ult at 6, 11, and 16.

TL;DR

> > >

Tips & Tricks

* Lets say your attempting to do dragon on summoners rift. The dragons at 1000 or so health, but you see enemie's approuching. You can quickly than smite the dragon, than use to place a ward over on the other side of the dragon lair, and to safety. This has saved me SO many times. Carrying a ward is always a life-saver when used effectively

* This is just a little trick to maximize quick dmg. When your in a skirmish, try to hit the enemie with tempest to slow em down, get up close to guarentee you land your Q, than once you do, kick em back. This means that once you follow up on your Q, the 10% bonus dmg will be maximized. Early game, i would be VERY surprised if the enemie carry doesnt die from this combo.

* Your ganking any lane at level 6. You land your Q, but they've run far enough so that you know if you follow up on your Q, you'll be taking turret shots. If you think you can, quickly flash in front of them, kick them back, and THEN follow up on your Q. This has saved me plenty of kills.

* Whenever you play lee-sin, you should be constantly thinking about possible escape routes that you can to. Try to place wards strategically, so that they can be effective as both wards, and "oh ****" buttons.

* This requires a higher skill cap than alot of the other ones i've listed, but it can make you feel so godlike when pulled off. Lets say your pushing a lane, and get ganked by 3 or so people. Notice the closest enemy minion, to it, to your closest allied minion in front of you, than contenue to flash out if you need to. This covers massive distance in very short amounts of time. However, its very situational. You can also do this with jungle creeps and wards. Keep this in mind.

* Lee-sin is an amazing baron nashor buff stealer/securer. When baron is at 1500 health, toss out your Q, smite, and follow up! Because your Q does 10% of the targets missing health, you do roughly 1k extra dmg. I've stolen baron many times with this, and even gotten out safely because i placed a ward right outside barons lair!

* This is the final one. It takes a very high skill cap to pull off consistently. Lets say your in a teamfight, and you just bursted down....., but he flash's off. He's running away, and your trying to catch him, waiting for your Q to come off CD. Suddenly their irelia comes and starts beating on you. Well hey, you just got a projectile to finish off your target with. Kick irelia into talon, and you just scored your kill. This is so hard to pull off, its not even funny. I've played around 150-200 Lee-Sin games, and its still hard for me to pull this off. You need to know how far your kick can go, know how fast it travels so you can lead your target with it, and be able to get solid positioning within seconds. Master this, and you'll climb the ladders of ELO. This trick goes hand in hand with using your ult to kick, and mini stun the whole enemie team.

Quick note, i will absolutely take suggestions of other tricks that i have not listed. Just PM me, ill try it out, and decide if its viable to put here or not.

Jungle Route

This is the route i take when jungling. Despite how it seems in the video, i generally end up fairly low health after the double golems, first time around. Be VERY carefull around this area, as you are very susceptable to getting ganked. Pretty straight forwards otherwise.

Items, and why i get what.

Item Sequence

Potential Starting items

- This is my prefered starting item. It gets you through the first 3 camps, and gives you just what you need so that rarely do you ever have more, or less than what you need. The reason i prefer this over cloth armor, is that i find with armor seals, due to diminishing return, the lifesteal is more effective for sustaining health.

- This is also a good choice, i just prefer the scepter.

Early Game Build

This is what you should shoot for by the 20 minute mark. Its surprisingly potent, you should have 80'ish MR, and around 110 armor.

Mid Game Build

This should be your goal by around the 30-35 minute mark. Right now, you have the role of a tanky burst assasin. You dont have the resist or health quite yet to go full rambo mode, but your getting there.

Late Game Build

This is roughly what you should have at 50-55 minutes. If the game is still going, you should be kicking some searious ***.

Final Build

This is your final build. I generally dont get this far, but when i do, you can expect to be wrecking some searios face. Once you finish Guardian, sell your wriggle's for the bloodthirster.

alternative items

This is a list of items that you can get to deviate from the set build. Naturally, there are certain games were you have to adjust to the team your against. Here are some items that i feel synergize well with lee-sin, while offering things that other builds dont.

- This item is GROSSLY underestimated on lee-sin. Its amazing in solo queue. Gives your whole team bonus dmg, armor, and MR. It gives you personaly more armor, MR, and health. The health also synergizes well with atma's. This item is INCREDIBLY cost effective. I generally replace guardian with this. I get it if i feel like im not gonna be able to completely carry.

- I get this if im just totaly dominating the game, and enemies are constantly getting away. This has some pretty good synergy with atma's. I replace trinity force or wriggle's lantern with this item.

- This item is surprisngly good, and is a great replacement for guardian's angel. I generally get this if i feel im gonna have to take on the role of the "Tank-carry". Try to decide early if you want to get this, so you can get the GP/5 benifet from .

- I get this if i need to do more dmg to other tanks/tanky anti-carry's. Gives a nice spike of end game dmg. I replace bloodthirster with this.

- This item...is a bit...well i find it hard to work into my build. I kinda feel like with the amount of resist you have, in combo with the massive dmg/lifesteal, getting warmogs is trying to fix something that isnt broken. Having said that, warmogs is a great item for lee, and synergizes incredibly well with atma's. Get this item if you feel like you want to deviate from the build, and find out whats best for you.

Summary

Well guys, thats it! Lee-sin is an incredible champ, and i hope this guide has helped you learn a thing or two about lee-sin. Im very open to constructive criticism, so please, criticize away. Like this guide, and +rep me if i was helpfull, as i am slowly trying to become a force to be recconed with here on mobafire. Later! ^_^

Credits

For the most part i did this on my own, but i would REaLLY like to thank JhoiJhoi for her guide on "how to make a guide". Its helped me turn this giant wall of text into something thats slightly entertaining to look at. I strongly encourage everyone that liked this guide, to go out and check some of JhoiJhoi's guides. Heres a link to JhoiJhoi's guide to making a guide.

I would also like to give a small thanks to stonewall for allowing me to use his video of his jungle route, as i was too lazy to make one myself.