Welcome to my Jungle Lee Sin Tanky DPS guide! This is my first LoL guide so please comment and let me know how I did. I really enjoy playing Lee Sin because he's such a versatile champion, he can be played well in any of the lanes or jungle in 5v5, and also shines in 3v3. Some people really hate Lee Sin because they see people play him poorly and they pass him off as a bad champion. One of my friends was exactly like this until I showed him how good Lee Sin can be, and with this build I consistently play a great Lee Sin often carrying while off-tanking with his Maokai.

Here I'm focusing on jungling, however I have put up a lane build which can be used for solo top, solo mid, standard lane and 3v3. (I have tested it in all of these situations)

I understand that there may already be some guides similar to this however I created this build by playing numerous games and finding what works for me not copying from it from someone else.

19/09/2011

Revised Items
Revised Masteries

22/08/2011

Updated Runes

24/07/2011

Added guide

28/11/2011

Updated Masteries
Revised Runes

Greater Mark of Desolation - These help a lot to speed up your jungle and get out to gank. You do a surprising amount of damage when what little armour they have is immediately negated.

Greater Seal of Armor - Makes your jungle/lane easier to survive.

Greater Glyph of Magic Resist - After testing these against my AP/level runes I can say that these would overall be better. They allow you to take some hits from AP champs early in lane or when ganking. I have noticed my shield lacking slightly after changing runes but it wasn't ever incredibly high anyway.

Durability / Veteran's Scars - This works well with Greater Quintessence of Health to give you plenty of health for survivability, meaning you don't have to go back as early as you might otherwise.

Tough Skin / Bladed Armor - If you're in the jungle it's good for survivability and faster jungle times as the creeps hurt themselves.

Runic Affinity - You want to hold onto those buffs for as long as you can when you're jungling and ganking.

Recommended:
Smite - In the jungle of course you want this to get through the creep camps as fast as you can. It also comes in handy when you're taking dragon and baron later in the game, or pushing back tank creeps or even super minions if your team is letting you down. :P

Flash - This is such a good summoner spell that I use for almost every champion. Use it for finishing off ganks, escaping ganks, stealing dragon/baron - the list goes on.

Teleport - If you don't like taking Smite or you aren't jungling, this helps your team a lot. If your lane is going fine you can push back a lane on the other side of the map in just a few seconds. If you die or are forced to go back from your lane you can quickly get back and defend your tower. If you die early in a fight you can sometimes get back into the action or save a fleeing team mate. Again - so many uses.

Alternatives:
Exhaust - Great for escaping and chasing.

Ignite - Great for securing a kill and cutting healing.

Clairvoyance - Vision and knowledge of where their team are is incredibly useful, if you don't have a support with CV already I might consider getting it. Also very handy if they have a jungler to keep track of where they are. Great for checking dragon and Baron late game.

Starting Items:
For jungling I choose Cloth Armor + 5 x Health Potions over Vampiric Scepter or Dorans Blade because Lee Sin doesn't start with that much AD so lifesteal doesn't give him health back fast enough.

For laning I choose Doran's Shield because more max health, armour, and health regen is great to keep you in lane until you get Safeguard/Ironwill, and then you're unstoppable.

Build Order:

This is how I prefer to build my items if I have extra gold I have some preferences to buy certain components for the next item, but you can choose to ignore them.
Example Item --> Example Item
Component Item Builds into Finished Item

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Now I choose if the enemy team has some CC I want Mercury's Treads to counter that, but if they don't have much and have some heavy hitting AD then I'll go with Ninja Tabi.

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Now if the enemy has a fairly even composition I'll go for Force of Nature, because not only does it have great magic resistance but the health regen is amazing. If they are very AD heavy though I will go with a Thornmail.

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This is basically the finished build for quick reference:




On a final note if you complete this item build you can sell Wriggle's Lantern for another item depending on how you feel about the game. I recommend:
Thornmail - If you need to be more tanky against AD.
Guardian Angel - If you find yourself dying early.
Banshee's Veil - If the enemy team has a lot of AP damage and/or CC, like Karthus or Veigar.
Bloodthirster - If you want to do some extra damage in fights and aren't having too much trouble with staying alive.

First off I should make a very important note. Don't spam Lee Sin's skills, you need to use his passive Flurry effectively to deal optimum damage and recover energy. Where possible when you use a skill, auto attack twice then use the second part of the skill. Do this while jungling, farming lanes, fighting - everywhere. There are a few exceptions of course, for example if someone is getting away (provided you have enough energy) you might want to chain Sonic Wave / Resonating Strike and Tempest / Cripple to secure the kill.

I choose to take one point in Safeguard / Iron Will first to help survive the first few levels in the jungle without taking too much damage. Next I get 2 levels in Tempest / Cripple before 1 in Sonic Wave / Resonating Strike. I do this because the AoE damage is so good for clearing jungle camps and doing damage in ganks. The slow is also instrumental in Lee Sin's ganking ability. You might think you need a level in Sonic Wave earlier which can be very handy to chase down the first gank or initiate. If you are playing in a solo queue then this is probably a good idea, but I usually play premades where I can tell my friends to overextend a little bit so that the enemy starts going for him. Then I'll Safeguard to him and hit the Enemy with Tempest/Cripple. This usually gets at least 1 kill, sometimes 2. (Note: you can also Safeguard in to creeps to initiate a gank if the champion in lane is ranged or squishy.

I play a pretty loose jungle, I'm only really strict on the starting route up to Red Buff. After that it's basically take what you can in the jungle between ganking the lanes and taking towers. Here is how I like to do it:

I get my starting items, Cloth Armor and 5 x Health Potions and move into position at my wolves. When they spawn I Safeguard myself, auto attack twice, use Iron Will, auto attack twice, and drink a Health Potion. Follow the pattern of use a skill, 2 x auto attack, use the second part of that skill, 2 x auto attack to get the most out of Flurry. Then I go over to my Wraiths and Smite the big one. Assuming you have the Awareness Mastery you will get a level here, so put the skill point into Tempest / Cripple. Finish off the smaller wraiths following the standard Lee Sin attacking pattern, this time using Tempest after Iron Will. I go over to the Golems, pop a Health Potion and kill them. Now I go for Red Buff. Start attacking the Lizard, using Smite to kill it. If your potion from Golems wears off during the fight pop another one. After killing Red Buff it's time to gank. If I'm kind of low on health I pop another potion and get into position for a gank. If the enemy are pushing up to your tower come from golems and safeguard over to your creeps or team mate to surprise them. If they are fighting near the river come from the river bush. Now I sometimes stay and lane for a while so my team mates can go back and buy items, so that their lane experience and gold isn't going to waste. Once they are ready to take back their lane I make sure I have enough gold and recall. I try to buy my Madred's Razor and Boots, but it's ok if you don't have enough gold for the boots. Now I can return to the jungle, taking wolves and Blue Buff. If this lane needs a gank I'm here ready to, but if they don't then I move over into the enemy jungle, taking their Golems, Red Buff, and Wraiths. I try to gank mid if I can, and try for the enemy's Wolves and Blue Buff. From here I would have enough gold for Wriggle's Lantern and Mercury's Treads, so I go back and get it, and maybe start building Warmog's Armor. I usually solo dragon at about level 10-12, but it is possible to do it earlier (the earliest I've tried is 8).

From there just play it out, help the lanes that need it and reinforce the lanes that are doing well. Remember you can tower dive very easily to get a kill as long as you have a team mate that you can Safeguard to and they don't have an easy stun or taunt.

With my build your role as Lee Sin is Tanky DPS. As a jungler you need to communicate with your team firstly to make sure they realise you are jungling from champ select and you have a suitable champion for top solo. If the timer is ticking down and you don't have a top solo it's on you to change to lane. As usual with jungling you need to let your team know when you are coming for a gank, help the lanes when they need to be pushed or a tower is about to get taken (yours or theirs).

By the time you have your Warmog's Armor you should be able to take on almost anyone on the enemy team 1v1. You should be taking dragon, getting buffs for your team and helping lanes take towers. In situations where you might have a team fight you should throw a few Sonic Waves at the enemy, trying to hit their carries. When your team is ready and you land a Sonic Wave, Resonating Strike in to initiate the fight. I usually Safeguard / Iron Will myself, trying to do enough damage to take out a carry with Tempest / Cripple and Dragon's Rage. If you can try to position yourself so that you can use Dragon's Rage to knock a carry through their team towards your team so they can finish them off. If you find your team is losing the fight or you are losing health fast try to Tempest / Cripple to slow the enemy team and Safeguard out to a team mate or creep.

Here are some results from my recent matches since I have finalised my build:

12/1/11 (3v3 ranked)
6/4/10 (5v5 premade normal)
9/5/10 (5v5 premade normal)
15/7/16(5v5 premade normal)

Please play some practise games to learn how to use his skills effectively and if you think you can manage play a few normal games with my guide and let me know how it goes. Just remember Lee Sin is not for everyone but for the people who have the patience to work him out he can be an incredible asset to the team.

Please vote and comment and let me know what you think!