Hey guys! I'm skijmac7, or skijmac2, (friends in-game call me skij) and I'm here today with my first guide ever on my favorite champion, Lee Sin. I hope that before you randomly down-vote, you read my whole guide and please comment with what is wrong before you down-vote, and I will fix it(most likely). Please, also leave constructive criticism and not troll/raging (or SPAM). Thanks and please enjoy my guide! :D

I think that there are many ways to play Lee Sin, but this guide illustrates my favorite way, and a way that I've found effective. I do play ranked matches, but only mid(900's, ik I'm terrible) ELO, so don't try my build in the higher ELO's (1300+) cuz I haven't gotten there yet. I'm working my way up though, and I'll adapt the build as I see fit. I play Lee Sin as a solo-top bruiser, aimed mainly at jumping in fights and disabling a carry and killing another, or perhaps both. The goal is to make the team fight easier for the rest of your team, and therefore gaining an ACE or allowing for room to breathe to get baron, dragon, or to push a lane.

The Pros of picking Lee Sin are:

• Very mobile
• Nice harass with Sonic Wave / Resonating Strike
• Does lots of burst early to mid game, and can get easy kills with jungler.
• Can go gank mid lane and easily feed the AP kills.
• Can fly.
• Can disable the entire enemy team if positioned right.
• Nice slow with Tempest / Cripple even at level 1.
• Epic escapes as all 4 of your spells enable you to escape, not to mention Flash.

The Cons of picking Lee Sin are:

• You have to have good aim in order to chase and harass well with Lee Sin and a thing that helps is smart-casting, which I will explain later.
• Without Warmog's Armor, Lee Sin can be focused down and killed rather easily, but since we get it early this shouldn't be a problem.
• He's blind! (yet he has two spells that reveal the enemy... wth?)

I almost always take Flash because of its versatility in almost any situation. Even though Lee Sin is very mobile with jumps from his Q and W, if there is nothing to jump to, you're out of wards and Wriggles is on cooldown... Flash is a must-have. I do tend to use it for more offensive purposes because I have all of the other escape mechanisms as well.
This leads to the reason behind picking Exhaust as my second summoner spell. It, to me, is rather close to essential, not only for the slow but for exhausting an enemy carry while you focus down another, effectively making the fight 4v5 and quickly 3v5. If the rest of your team can't handle 3 people then I feel bad for you.
Another popular choice (when I see Wukong, for example) and I know I will have to recall a lot or gank mid often, I will take Teleport. It's also helpful if bot tower is dying and your teamates are nowhere in sight. This spell has stopped many enemies from backdooring or taking down towers after a teamfight.
Other helpful spells could be Ignite or Heal, both of which I have used before but I only prefer Ignite if no one else on our team has it and we're against a Swain or Dr. Mundo. Heal has a bit of a long cooldown to be great, although that spell should be left to your support.

I usually go with a few ArPen reds and less AD reds, armor yellows and Mr/lvl glyphs. For quints I go with ArPen as this helps much more throughout the whole game than AD quints might. The yellows allow for early game resistance against other AD solo toppers, and the blues allow for the extra boost to your MR if you don't get Force of Nature or Maw of Malmortius (and an even stronger extra boost even if you do!).

I max Q first for obvious reasons; does lots of damage, enables many kills, and is an unlimited source of harassment. I get his Tempest / Cripple at level 2(or level 1 if I feel like I won't get an easy FB) so I can assist my jungler to get kills (or myself :D). However, I find that his shield levels better and is therefore the skill I max second. However, if you want to have the edge in damage output, maxing his E first (still getting a point in W at lvl 4) is the way to go. Maxing his R is obvious, and at level 11 if you are somewhat fed (2.0+ KD) your ult can finish any squishy with half health or less.

I tend to start with Boots and 3x Health Potions. This allows you to easily outrun your opponent if they didn't get boots themselves, and if you got your Q or E first like I suggest, a first blood is easily attained (and more kills too if they don't get boots soon). That said, Doran's Blade start isn't that bad, but I just feel (and clearly a lot of other Lee Sin guides do too) that Boots x3 is the best way to start.
/ / I then grab a Giant's Belt for the survivability, and move to a The Brutalizer to do a ton of early game damage. Now here, if you catch a really nice streak where you farm it up and have enough for a Warmog's Armor, then go ahead and buy it. However, if you feel like you need to move faster and need Tenacity, go ahead and buy the Mercury's Treads beforehand.**
/ From here you can do lots of things, but I usually go with Atma's Impaler for a nice crit chance/armor/damage boost (damage is higher because of Warmogs) or Phage, whichever I feel like getting.
After that I finish up my Trinity Force and finish with 2 of the following: Frozen Mallet, Maw of Malmortius, Youmuu's Ghostblade, Force of Nature or Bloodthirster.
Alternate!!**
/ I put Wriggles last in the build because if you feel like it, it is a good substitute for Brutalizer if you feel that you like the ward and lifesteal/armor better. Some games I go with the Brutalizer, and some games I go with Wriggles. It really depends on how you feel the item will fit the current situation in game. You can also buy Hexdrinker earlier if you're against Karthus or fear AP carries a bunch :D
Sorry for making this section so lengthy! I like to keep things concise.

your main goal is to jump into fights, (not initiate, you'll die fast) disable at least the enemy carries, and help clean up/chase down enemies after a fight. Remember, if you're playing with teamates who don't see Lee Sin often, remind them (gently) that you can W to them if you're running, and you might just save them later. I've had grudge matches between allies when they intentionally don't let me jump to them... (I just don't save them later!) Another reason why I max W second is that because mid-late game when teamfights and small 2v2 and 3v3's occur, you can easily save teamates with your W (giving them a 300+ shield) and fend off the enemies with your slow and/or kick. You can also intercept projectile snares like Morgana's Dark Binding and even Caitlyn's ult. Remember that you can also jump to Wriggle's wards or regular wards, or even Q to jungle creeps to survive. I can't tell you how many times this has saved me. Also... Even though bots are predictable, playing customs 1v1 against them to practice hitting your Q might be helpful if you find yourself missing a lot when playing. Of course, if you have the patience and nerve to withstand people yelling at you when you miss, you can always practice against people (better). Good luck throwin dem orbs! goes in the direction of your mouse cursor (or on it, for some). It makes your gameplay better overall and reaction times much faster. I smartcast all spells on Lee Sin, although sometimes the W gets annoying as the range isn't displayed, and the E doesn't matter much, but with your ult and Q timing is the key for these usually and to press a button then click where you want it could be the difference between the enemy living and dying. To make your spells smart-castable, go to the ESC menu and go to Key Bindings, unbind whichever spells you want SC'ed, and then scroll down to smartcast Q, W, etc and make them Q, W, etc instead of shift+q, w, etc.

That's it! I really hope you appreciate my guide and give me constructive criticism. I really don't like troll votes/comments, and they won't be appreciated. If you'd like to add me in-game, the acct I play most on is skijmac7, and I'm on quite often. Summer is approaching (yes!) and you know I'll be playing lots over that time. I will usually check in on the guide every night, and if I don't respond to a comment within a week it means I'm out of town and will be back shortly. Thanks again, and happy singing!
Thanks to jhoihoi for bb-codes and tips
4/20/12 Made Guide (recent patch: Hecarim)
4/21/12 Figured out some BBcodes! fixed up some sections (hating the spam riot point comments)
4/22/12 Re-did item section for more eye candy :D still no real comments tho :(