Lee Sin has received a handful of buffs in League of Legends Season 11 to try and bolster his presence in the jungle. His Tempest (E) cooldown has been reduced, and the same goes for his Sonic Wave (Q) cooldown. That was on top of buffs late in Season 10 to most of his kit.

These changes have all had an effect on Lee Sin top and mid more than jungle Lee Sin. It only caught on on LoL patch 11.8 after the latest set of changes, but now it’s slowly taking over solo queue.

PROS + Lee Sin is an extremely loaded hero with 7 unique abilities cramped down into 4 buttons. He has two mobility abilities. A shield, a slow, an on-hit effect, a knockback, and burst damage filled in between it all. He plays fast and hard and kills enemies in a blink of an eye + Mobile + Sustainable + High skill cap + Strong throughout the game

CONS - You really need to get used to playing Lee Sin because he is a high-risk, high-reward champion which is most effective when playing ahead through ganks and invades. Lee Sin doesn’t play well on farming games and especially when behind. - Melee - Difficult to master - Lackluster is falling behind

Lee Sin is a principled fighter who channels the essence of the dragon spirit to conjure his fabled burning fists and blazing roundhouse kicks. Lee Sin is a jungler who excels in early game duels. He is extremely strong during the early stages of the game and he uses that to snowball his team into victory.

PASSIVE ABILITY

Furry + Lee Sin gains bonus attack speed and has his next two attacks restore energy. Always attack once or ideally, twice, each time you use an ability. Both when killing jungle monsters or when fighting champions.

Q

Sonic Wave ✦ Lee Sin fires an energy wave in the target direction which damages the first enemy hit and marks them. Lee Sin can then recast Sonic Wave to perform Resonating Strike to the marked target which will make him dash to the target and deal damage which increases the lower the marked target’s health is. ✦ Sonic Wave is Lee Sin’s secondary gap closer. If possible, it is better used as a finisher because it deals more damage the lower the enemy’s HP is. Plus, you can and you should re-cast this ability once the enemy used Flash or their escape tool so you can stay on top of them. ✦ You can use Sonic Wave as your primary engage. In fact, it has superior range, even compared to most champions. But make sure that you will land the ability because you lose half of your damage output if you fail to land this ability. ✦ Think twice before re-casting Sonic Wave because you might land in a dangerous position. Just let the ability go into cooldown if you are unsure of the situation that awaits you on the marked champion. ✦ Use Sonic Wave to move in between jungle camps to optimize your jungle pathing.You can surprise an enemy behind a minion by casting Sonic Wave first then smiting the minion which is between you and your target Champion. ✦ For the purpose of combo discussions later, the first cast of Sonic Wave will be called Q1 and the second cast, Q2

W

Safeguard ✦ W1 Safeguard is Lee Sin’s main mobility and defensive tool. The first cast of this ability allows you to dash to a target location and if there is a nearby enemy on his arrival, Lee Sin gains a shield. ✦ W2 The second cast is called Iron Will and it is an auto-attack reset that also grants bonus magic damage and a large amount of omni vamp. Always attack once before casting Iron Will again to execute a double attack. ✦ Safeguard is best used as your main engage tool because it a safe and sure way to get close to your enemy. You can bait enemy skills by dashing in using Q2, Resonating Strike, then dashing out using Safeguard.For the purpose of combo discussions later, the first cast of Safeguard will be called W1 and the second cast, W2

E

Tempest ✦ Tempest is an AoE magic damage ability that reveals enemies. Tempest can then be re-casted to Cripple enemies which will slow them. ✦ Tempest is a great help in clearing jungle camps with multiple monsters like the Raptors, Wolves, and Krugs. ✦ The reveal on Tempest is great when fighting against Akali and Vayne, which are currently the only two champions who can turn invisible on demand. ✦ The slow of Cripple is great for setting up your Q1, Sonic Wave.

R

Dragon's Rage ✦ Dragon’s Rage is a heavy single-target nuke which knocks your main target away and also damage and knocks up all enemies who collide with the main target. You can sneak in an auto-attack during the animation of Dragon’s Rage. ✦ Dragon’s Rage has three main uses - To Burst down an enemy champion: Dragon’s Rage deals an amazing amount of single target damage and is a viable weapon to quickly kill off the enemy’s priority carry. Burst Combo 1: W1 + AA + E1 + AA + W2 + AA + E2 + Q1 + R + AA + Q2 + AA Burst Combo 2: W1 + AA + E1 + AA + W2 + AA + R + AA + Q1 + Q2 + AA - To do an Insec play: Insec is the Pro Player who made this combo famous. It is using Dragon’s Rage to knock the enemy back to your team. Insec Combo 1: Q1 + Q2 + W1 (to enemy’s back) + R + Flash out Insec Combo 2: W1 + R + Flash (to enemy’s back, must be done quickly) + Q1 + Q2 - As a counter initiation to knock up the enemy team: Direct your Dragon’s Rage target into the enemy team. An arrow will be visible when targeting the enemy. This is extremely powerful as a counter initiation against good tank initiators like Malphite or Alistar because it will deal a portion of their HP as damage to enemies they collide with.

Conqueror Lee Sin is a fighter so he wants to get in enemies face and attack constantly whilst also using his spells. This means he can get stacks pretty fast, which allows him to get more damage on the enemies, is the best keystone rune on Lee Sin because he can stack it very quickly as each part of his Q and E can proc it as well as his auto attacks. The healing is indispensable in early duels and he greatly benefits from it. Do not underestimate your duelling power if you have this fully stacked. Triumph Is one of the best single runes in the game, and whenever anyone runs precision this rune is always taken and there's a reason why. In early skirmishes and ganks this could save you from an Ignite as well as in teamfights it can heal you from numerous targets. The extra 20g is also useful early when building Long Swords and Control Wards. Legend: Alacrity Will let you clear better as the stacking attack speed will build up over the course of the game. This will also make you harder to duel in skirmishes against the enemy jungler, and push towers and other objectives faster as it increases your DPS. However it won't be as good for bursting targets as it doesn't benefit burst damage at all. Taking this rune also lets you get a 3rd auto attack between Sonic Wave and Resonating Strike. However consider Legend: Tenacity if they have a lot of hard crowd control spells that aren't knockups or knockbacks (3+ non ultimate stuns/roots/fears/taunts/binds/snares/charms).Last stand Deal more damage to champions while you are low on health Last Stand Last stand Deal more damage to champions while you are low on health. Bone Plating Bone Plating After taking damage from an enemy champion, the next 3 spells or attacks you receive from them deal 30-60 less damage Revitalize Revitalize Heals and shields are 5% stronger and increased by an additional 10% on low health targets Attack Speed Offense 10% Attack Speed Adaptive Force Offense 9 Adaptive (5.4 AD or 9 AP) Shield Flex 6 Armor

Goredrinker

Black Cleaver

Sterak's Gage

These are the 3 core iteams that are most suitable for Leesin Top+Mid at the moment, it is trusted by many gamers

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Death's Dance : Build on champions who need sustain in skirmishes and in team fights.

Spirit Visage : Purchase this item if you need magic resistance and have a built-in heal or shield.

Chempunk Chainsword : Grievous Wounds is really overpowered this season, and most teams have some sort of healing, on top of how basically everybody is using Ravenous Hunter this season. It gives you good Attack Damage, some bonus Health and a solid amount of Ability Haste.

Ravenous Hydra : Good for skirmish heavy champions.

Randuin's Omen : Good on champions who are tanks.

Dead Man's Plate : This item is actually very effective at dealing with AD targets while not giving up too much. The passive is very powerful in combination with Duskblade of Draktharr. If you have winning lanes and they have a lot of AD damage and you are required to peel and survive a bit instead of being an assassin this item is very useful, although this item is much more situational.

Guardian Angel : Is really nice because it literally gives you another life. Lee Sin really appreciates the base stats as well, with 40 bonus AD and 40 armor helping out both Bruiser Lee Sin and Assassin Lee Sin builds.

Gargoyle stoneplate : This item is really strong this preseason, and it has great stats, such as high defenses and Ability Haste. The passive helps you stay alive in a fight even longer, and the active helps out even more by giving you a gigantic shield.

Serpent's Fang : If you're an assassin and the enemy has a lot of shields, pick this item up to make destroying their shields easier.

Serylda's grudge : This item is very good on Lee Sin, allowing you to actually damage tankier targets, as well as catch up to a fast opponent with the slow on its Bitter Cold passive. The 45 Attack Damage is very nice, and 20 Ability Haste is extremely valuable on Lee Sin.

Maw of Malmortius : The Lifeline passive on this item grants you some extra survivability, as well as the 50 bonus magic resistance, 50 AD and 15 Ability Haste being very nice on Lee Sin. Sterak's Gage is a better item in general, but Maw is most likely being buffed soon, so you should watch out for it in the future.

Mercury's Treads are excellent into CC team comps, like Maokai, Morgana, Thresh, Cassiopeia, Ryze, ....

Plated Steelcaps are good into high physical damage team comps, specifically those with mostly auto-attack damage champions. Just remember that some champions will do heavy mixed damage on hit with their items, as Ninja Tabi do not block on-hit damage like Wit's End and Guinsoo's Rageblade.

Ionian Boots of Lucidity are nice in the early game, as you want to have as much Ability Haste as possible, and you can have extremely low cooldowns on Lee Sin if you stack Ability Haste. If necessary you can sell Ionian Boots for defensive boots in the later stages of the game.

Warding totem : This is the best trinket to start with, the reason for this is that you can protect your jungle while giving yourself another escape or gap closer with the Safeguard/ Stealth Ward combo. Another key thing is that if you upgrade it to Greater Stealth Totem which can potentially act as a sighstone and therefore buying you an extra item slot for something of your choice. Do this if your toplaner or midlaner take Sweeping Lens

Oracle Lens : Not as popular on Lee Sin since the removal of Tracker's Knife, and I would say it is very situational, as you will need the ward jumps from Stealth Ward more, and vision is harder to come by with the removal of Sightstone as well, so for this reason I'd rather keep Stealth Ward

STYLE PLAY - Lee Sin excels in lane and the early game. This has always been Lee Sin’s strong point in the jungle, but it’s even more obvious in lane. He basically can never lose trades between his Safeguard (W) sustain, his E attack speed slow, and high early damage. - He has tools for basically every matchup. E does great damage early and is on a low cooldown, so you can always get a good base off - He has a combo that is hard to avoid ⁠— R guarantees Q, so he can one-shot squshies with lethality. He can take points in W in hard lanes for sustain, and can max E for short trades - E max has been the pick of the bunch, as its damage and ease of use in lane helps shove waves and win trades. Q max second can help with engages and finishing off low-health targets as the game wanes on. - Lee Sin is one of the best picks in the top lane and is incredibly flexible. He has two build paths: Full Lethality Lee Sin or Tanky, Sustainable Lee Sin. In my case, I strongly agree going Tanky Lee Sin. He might won’t do as much damage as he used to with his original Lethality build, but he can be a tanky frontline who has Shield, Vampirism, Health, Armor and Cc to help him survive as long as he can.

EARLY GAME - Depending on the opposing champion, you can start any of Lee Sin’s basic abilities. The most common one to start off with is your Q since this is mostly used when you can force an early advantage against a weak laner or most melee matchups. Since Lee Sin operates on energy, you can also sometimes play for attrition against champions that are fueled by mana. - One quick tip when considering your Sonic Wave ability is that the cooldown begins when you first activate it and not when Resonating Strike completes. This means you can potentially set up favorable extended trades by using Sonic Wave right before it times out, potentially getting off two Qs in one skirmish. - If you’re against an even matchup and need to push up the minion wave quickly, starting with your E can turn the lane in your favor. - In an unfavorable lane matchup, like against ranged champions with consistent poke and the ability to dodge your Q, you can start W to absorb auto attacks with a shield and sustain through the lane.

MID - LATE GAME - Similar to your laning phase, most of the advantages you’ll try to get in the later stages of the game will be through taking a lead and never giving your opponents a chance to slow the game down. Getting your Mythic item, whether you go Goredrinker or Prowler’s Claw, will allow you to look for fights due to your absurd damage. - While solo lane Lee Sin is better when games don’t last too long, you can still bring value to a teamfight thanks to your ultimate. Being able to perform ward hops and Dragon’s Rage Flashes at a moment’s notice will be imperative to playing Lee Sin. Aside from having the ability to perform his combos, understanding when to go for them and which combos to use is also another key to finding success with this champ. - You should look for ways to Insec people back to your team during the mid and late stages of the game, not just split push as a top laner. This strategy is particularly useful if you know a specific carry has previously wasted Flash, since they would be more vulnerable to your kick. - The best way to understand these timings is to just play Lee Sin more and practice him. This allows you to get used to the flow of both micro (combos or flashy mechanics) and macro (knowing where to be on the map and when, and which items and runes to go for) play. And the more you play, the better you’ll become.