I'm going to keep this short, because you probably already know what to build on Lee Sin if you just saw the items above.

How to Itemize on Lee

To start, Goredrinker or Eclipse? The answer might surprise you.

Eclipse deals more damage and is better early. Goredrinker does less damage, but scales better. So, pick Eclipse if you're winning and Goredrinker if you need scaling, right?

WRONG.

Eclipse is your catchup item. You get eclipse, it will help you win duels and take down tankier targets with your team, getting you back into the game. If you're winning, you won't need eclipse because you're already oneshotting everything in sight with the badass combos I'm going to show you.

For abilities, here's what you need to know in very simple terms:

Sonic Wave Is your main DAMAGE tool. It should not be the first ability you use when ganking unless your ally has the CC to back it up. Even if you DO hit it, you'll deal more damage if you delay it due to the execute. If you want to get close to your opponent, use your...

Safeguard is your main MOVEMENT and SURVIVABILITY tool. By putting down a ward, you can use safeguard on it to hop over walls or use it as a pseudo flash or small dash. It's slower than a flash, but more cost effective. This is also why you never use sweeper.

Tempest is your main CHASING and INITIATION tool. Its' slow allows your teammates to catch up, and it stacks with red buff, so if an enemy wants to fight you they better win because otherwise they aren't getting the **** away from you.

Dragon's Rage is your main TEAMFIGHTING and PICK tool. Using it in combos or just for damage are equally viable, and the base damage + scaling on this thing is frankly ludicrous. Get to 6 as fast as possible and abuse the hell out of it, it all but guarantees your Q hitting and pretty much autowins any duels you're in. As a sidenote, you can always autoattack someone after you kick them while they're in the air for some bonus damage.

Lee's ganks fall into two categories; my laner has no CC so this burns flash at best, and the enemy was dead before I even thought about ganking them. Try and focus on playing around your laners who have CC, which means that tanks like Maokai, control mages like Lux and supports like Nautilus are your best friends. Now that you've decided where you want to go, it's time for...

Step 1: Communication. Ping "On My Way!". Then do it again, in case they didn't hear the first time. Then do it a third time. If they don't react visibly, don't go through with it. They're either horribly braindead or (more likely) know something that you don't.

They might be low on mana, the enemy jungler is near, or their laner is able to 1v2. Even if you know you can get the kill, it's better to play it safe than feed over a kill since you can't force your teammates to do anything.

Step 2: Don't use your Sonic Wave unless they're either slowed with both Red Buff and Cripple or they're CC'd. You obviously can go for the wild play of getting the perfect predict, but in 99% of cases you're better off just waiting until it's easier. Besides, you'll get more execute damage if you delay it until you've gotten a few autos in.

Step 3: Ward and Safeguard in. This staple Lee Sin trick has you placing down a ward and then safeguarding to it. The gapclose is usually enough for you to be in range to hit them with your slows and allows your teammate to get closer and either CC them or...

Step 4: Kill them! Auto them down, finish them with a Resonating Strike, electrocute, whatever. What's really important here is deciding if you want your laner to have the kill or if you want to take it for yourself. Your Q execute allows you to control this, so think if you would rather you get the kill, or if you want Kassadin to have that 300g. It's kassadin. Chances are, if you get one gank off there are probably more behind it.

Lee combos fall into 1 of two categories, like his ganks; I can kill this person in half a second or less, and the Insec. Before we begin, let's get two things out of the way:

1. Lee Sin's Sonic Wave cannot be Q-Flashed. It must be Flash-Q. Sorry, ezreal mains out there.

2. Lee Sin's Dragon's Rage will push the enemy away from you at the end of the cast, not the beginning.

This serves as the basis for all Lee combos. So, without further ado, let's get into the staples of any onetrick's toolkit.

The Insec

(From Melee Range) R-Flash Behind your opponent.

That's it.

The crazy, fabled insec is nothing more than kicking the enemy, and before the animation finishes flashing behind them. Since the startup of the ability roots them for a quick second, if you can kick them you can insec them. This is how you stay relevant in the lategame and how you get those sick wombo combos where you kick the enemy support into their ADC, killing them. You can also flash anywhere you want, in order to angle the kick to hit multiple targets.

Basic Fight Winner (Pre-6)

E-AA-E-AA-AA-Q-AA-Q

This is your bread and butter dueling rotation. If someone tries to fight you up close, you can slow them and chase them down. This works very well with the red buff slow.

The Burst

Q-Flash-R-AA-Q-AA-E

And this is the combo that is in every single Lee Sin montage. You can replace flash with a wardhop if the enemy isn't able to stop you, but this will oneshot pretty much anyone at any time. Also remember, whenever you kick someone you can autoattack them on the way out. It's not vastly important, but it's a conq stack and a nice burst of damage.

Budget Insec

Q-Q-E-E-Ward-W-R

For those situations where you don't have flash, you can Q onto someone, slow them, wardhop behind them and ult them into your team. Drains a lot of energy and doesn't work very well lategame, but it saves your flash in the early game and can be the difference between a kill and being called a waste of space.

In-N-Out

Q-Ward-W-R-Flash-Q

This is for that special moment when nobody has the CC to stop you but they'll probably kill you if you stay there. You Q someone, wardhop up to them, kick them into your team and then Q right back out, making a vital pick. Especially fun if you do it over a dragon wall and snipe their jungler while taking the dragon.

Lee Sin games fall into (who would've ****ing guessed!!!!) two categories. I can snowball my laners, and I can snowball myself. In low elo, the latter option is usually better. In higher elo, the former. Here's a good thought process for a generic Lee Sin game. Think about where you want to go, how early you want to be on the map, what you can contest and what champion choices mean for your ganks and your dueling.

I'm playing against champions that can fight back relatively well, so I'm going to buy an emberknife and a refillable potion. Our teamcomp is a Jhin, Yuumi, Kassadin, and a Darius vs. an Ashe, Lulu, Galio, and a Garen. My opposing jungler is a Kindred, so I should start Blue Golem, as while Jhin provides pretty good gank setup Lulu has too much peel and Yuumi can't help this early on. I'm going to 5 camp clear, as most of the lanes aren't too volatile except for top. Then, I'm going to attempt to contest scuttle and look for a gank topside with Darius's apprehend.

Have every move you're going to make before 5 minutes played out in your head. This is how you macro on pretty much every jungler, but on Lee it's extremely important.

If you're struggling with pathing, most of the time the correct choice is to go from either Red-Raptors-Wolves-Blue-Gromp or Blue-Gromp-Wolves-Raptors-Red into Scuttle to get your level 4 spike and then look for a gank. Doing both buffs and gromp isn't as viable anymore due to the EXP changes, but here's hoping they dig our beloved 2:30 level 3 invade strat back from the dead.

Now that you're all stoked about how awesome Lee is, I have bad news.

Lee is not a solocarry champion. He can carry, but doing it alone is impossible. If your teammates are bad, you cannot carry the game in the way that, say, a fed Katarina or Tryndamere can.

And your teammates will blame you.

Forget the insane 500 APM combos, forget having to have every single move in the next 5 minutes meticulously planned out, your mental state is the most difficult part of playing Lee Sin.

So what can you do about this?

You've heard about /mute all, and that's good and all, but if your teammates are mad at you they'll start doing things like taking your camps, setting you up for ganks and then pulling out so that you'll die, or even just inting. These are all mainly low ELO things, but they can happen anywhere and to anyone.

You can't combo if you're mad. You can't make good decisions if you're mad. The most important part of playing Lee Sin is keeping your head high and continuing to improve. Sometimes it will feel impossible, but that's just the jungler's life. In return, you will be rewarded with the most game impact of any role and - let's be honest, that burst combo in chapter 2? Looks sick as **** and everyone will love you for it, even the guy you just dropped.

For the final chapter, I'm going out on a limb here and saying that Lee Sin's toolkit opens him up to play in multiple different ways. Once you feel like you've got the hang of him, experiment with your items and runes. Try Electrocute assassin Lee, Tank Lee, Mid Lee, Top Lee. Find your own way.

I'm not going to tell you that they're better than Goredrinker Conq Jungle Lee (because they aren't lol) but also because figuring out how to play on your own after you have the basics down is flat out the best way to rank up. You'll be more engaged, pay more attention, develop your own habits.

P.S: If Lee gets banned, other champions that play like him include Graves, Olaf, Nidalee (don't play nidalee) and Xin Zhao.