Build Guide by CptJack

Introduction

PLEASE TRY BEFORE RATING. DON'T BE A DOUCHE!

So I've been playing with Lee Sin since he came out. First I want to say no matter what build you try you are going to have fun kicking people in the face. Second I want to say this is by no means the best build, it's just the build I've been doing best with.

That being said this build offers Lee great survivability and good and constant damage. I've tried most normal melee assassin builds and they tend to fall short. This build capatalizes on his W ability's already insane life-steal and kicks it up a notch, and into the face of some poor enemy.

Pros / Cons

PROS
-great survivability entire game
-good constant damage
-great harass
-getting in and out of combat is a breeze
-built in exhaust (E ability)
-pro chaser and last hitter
-can kick people in the face!

CONS
-prone to being focused
-must be hitting people to stay survivable
-cc/silences are very threatening

Summoner Spells

Good Spells

Always useful, whether you use it to quickly defend a tower or port in on a minion inside their base for some ganks.

Another versatile spell can be used to flash away from a gank, or close in for that last hit on teemo.

Awesome against hero's with a heal mechanic, good for early game kills.

Much like flash, good for both escape and chasing down enemies.

Usually considered a noob spell I like it sometimes, can save your life and stop them from getting a kill.

Meh Spells

I always felt this could be replaced by a few wards and so its a waste, but it's an option.

Again it's an option it just doesn't seem to cleanse the stuff I really want cleansed.

It's a great summoner spell. The only thing is that our E ability is basically the same thing, and I feel redundancy is a waste.

It's a good spell but the cooldown is horrendous, and I feel if you defend your tower well enough you wouldn't need an "oh **** button".

Everything else is pretty much useless.

Runes

Greater Mark of Desolation These are the bread and butter of any melee spec.
(I haven't tried attack damage runes with him yet. I think they might give him a little more oomph beginning game since his abilities stack with AD.)

Solves his slight squishiness beginning game.

It's personal preference on which cdr glyhp you choose, I prefer cdr/level.

Greater Quintessence of Desolation Again, makes you hit harder. Nothing wrong with that.
(Again I want to try the AD quints to see if they make a difference.)

Masteries

I've always felt that masteries are not as big a deal as people make them out to be. The masteries for summoner spells are about the most useful ones in my opinion. So really feel free to build him in offense or defense however you want. I recommend you stay away from utility though, because many of the masteries in utility are for mana regen and whatnot, and are completely useless for a manaless champion.

I use 23/6/1 Because I don't like any of the utility masteries, and offensive masteries seem to help me a lot more early game than defensive ones do.

Skills

Skill List
Flurry: After using an ability your attack speed for your next two hits is increased and you restore energy per hit.
This is handy since his abilities have a large energy cost. And it gives him very good attack speed without stacking a single attack speed item.

Sonic Wave / Resonating Strike: Sends out a wave that lets you dash to the enemy it hits.
Your closer/nuke/harass tool. Once you get used to the skill shot this ability becomes very powerful.

Safeguard / Iron Will: Shields you and your target, and lets you activate super lifesteal mode.
This keeps you in the lane, keeps you from getting ganked, saves your laning partner, lets you harass and get out super quickly.

Tempest / Cripple: Aoe damage around Lee and lets him cripple any enemies hit by the aoe.
Built in exhaust? YES PLEASE!

Dragon's Rage: Kicks a target back knocking back the target. Anyone you hit them into will be knocked up and suffer damage.
Ok, this used correctly in team fights is hilariously powerful. Can also be used to save teammates, last hit those pesky yordles, and kick enemies into places they don't want to be (such as right under a turret).

Items

So my core build consists of

With Wriggle's and Bloodthirster and safeguard you can get your lifesteal up to 70% with two items. And Frozen Mallet makes you a little tanky, and slows enemies on attacks making it that much harder for them to escape you. Now I know wriggles is a jungling item, but hear me out. People hiding in that bush giving you trouble? Free wards. Having trouble last hitting minions? Hello Mr Wriggles Lantern's passive. Need more lifesteal? The lifesteal from the item and safeguard in combination with the passive will heal you up to full in one or two procs. The point is I love this item. It's cheap gives you offensive and defensive stats all in one, and keeps you from getting ganked. Late game you probably want to replace the lantern with another Bloodthirster.

Attack damage scales with all his abilities, and his passive gives him good innate attack speed, which is why I tend to shy away from PD and other attack speed items.

Once you've got the core items you usually buy items to react to what the other team is doing.

Other Items to consider:

- : Most Lee guides I see include this, and yes it's a good item, but I dislike it for a few reasons. 1) It has all the mana/caster stats which are completely useless for Lee. 2) While the 150% Damage is awesome, it sacrifices sustained damage for burst, and other items could improve on his abilities more than TF can.
(Note: If you go for trinity you most likely do not want to get frozen mallet because the slows do not stack, and there are other defensive items you can get.)


- : Very powerful item. Feel free to get it once your lifesteal is all set. If you get this you want to get a nice Phantom Dancer, or Ghostblade to go with it.

- : Powerful item, I just feel all the attack speed isn't a great idea with Lee since you could stack some more AD and make his abilities hit that much harder.

- : Everyone knows what this is for. If there are enemy casters resisting Lee's foot to face fighting style, get this.

- : I usually get this, the on hit effect is godly against squishies, the damage is nice, and the attack speed is a nice bonus.

- : If your facing enemies stacking armor, this is a must. 40% of their armor just gone, is really powerful.

- : If the team is stacking a lot of health you might want to consider this and another attack speed item or two. This and a Phantom Dancer will cut through health very quickly.

- : Personally I hate snowball items, but if your doing well enough where you think you can keep up your stacks this is a great buy.

- : If your going for a crit build this is a pretty good item, and its activated ability is pretty op.

- : More lifesteal is always good, but it doesn't add any damage so it's not going to do much for beefing up any of your abilities. The aura is a must in a team fight though.

-Any tank items are purely situational. Buy them as needed, but I do not suggest just buying a Thornmail for example for the hell of it.

Neat Tricks

Safeguard/Ironwill can be kept up almost 24/7 so while laning keep that up and you'll be extremely hard to harass.

You don't want to spam one ability after another. If possible you want to use an ability hit the enemy twice then use your next ability, to maximize the effect of your passive. Obviously this isn't always possible and sometimes spamming the abilities is needed to kill a fleeing enemy.

Sonic Wave and Safeguard can be combined to harass no matter how far under their turret they camp. If you get the hit on the enemy, dash in, hit them, then safeguard out to your teammate/minion. If you coordinate it with your lanemate, this can be hilarious and deadly.

Sonic Wave into bushes will reveal enemies standing around trying to be douchebags. So fire it into bushes if you have any doubts. Even works on stealth characters, so if your chasing an eve and can get this on her as she stealths you can keep beating on her for a bit.

Sonic Wave can be a useful tool for running away as well. If your running towards some minions and are being chased, dash to the enemy minions, and then safeguard to a teammate. Or you can sonic wave jungle creeps through a wall dash to them and keep running.

His ult is like all knockback attacks. It can allow you to get a crazy kill you wouldn't normally get or it can help them get farther away from you. Use it carefully to hit them into bad positions (for them), or into teammates so their entire team takes substantial damage.

Summary

Hope you try and enjoy my Lee Sin build. Feel free to leave commments and feedback.