My history with Lee Sin started when he was free to play. I tried him out at couple of games and stated to my friend that "he is a ****". I forgot about him for a while.
Few weeks later I saw couple of movies a YT where he was played as Solo Top and Jungle. I was amazed how he excells at both roles. After digging through guides I found that Lee is a champion with high skill-cap. I understood why he seemed to me a **** at first glance. So I decided to give him another shot and just learn hard how to play and master him. After 3 months I think I'm quite good at Lee (not stating that I'm pro) and I want to share with you my point of view and my idea of playing Lee Sin in both jungle and solo top.

PROS:
- Good sustain at top lane with your W
- Good DMG early game

- Fast jungle
- Great at counterjungling
- Incedible Ganks

- Amazing mobility due to Sonic Wave / Resonating Strike and Safeguard / Iron Will
- Soft-CC - slow from Tempest / Cripple
- Game Changing if played correctly


CONS:
- DMG falls off in mid-late game if not build correctly
- Needs a lot of practice to hit Q
- If you fail early game you will have big trouble to catch up later

I go with mix of AD & ArP runes. AD for boosting early game DMG and ArP to help mid-late game when opponents build more armor. It's also viable to go strict AD or Arp.



Flat Magic Resistances for little sustain vs AP ganks. It also helps a bit in late game as we don't build strict AP and Armor. You can also go with Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist if you feel you don't need flat MRes early game.


Obvious choice for me either for Solo Top or Jungle. More armor = less dmg from creeps and opponents. I really don't see any other as viable choices as these.




Boosting early game DMG with AD runes helps a lot in getting early kills. You can also go with Greater Quintessence of Health for little bit more sustain early game, Greater Quintessence of Desolation for more late game DMG or even Greater Quintessence of Movement Speed if you feel like you're too slow. It's rather personal choice that needs to be tested personaly by you.

As solo top I use 9/21/0 masteries. I feel that playing this lane is more about Sustaining harrasement and farming creeps than beeing aggresive. Of course, it's always matter of our opponent but in most cases you will both have some sustainability and you will need a gank to get a kill. But also opposed champion does need it.

If I'm jungling I go 21/9/0. I do this, because Jungling is nearly all about ganking. If you want do gank succesfully you need to deal a lot of DMG in short time. You won't be focused so much when you jump out of the bush as person ganked rather runs back than fight back. And there is nothing more annoying than seeing ganked champion that hides behind his turret. So going 21 in Offence is making your ganks more deadly. I also put I point in Summoner's Resolve as 10 gold when you use Smite is always nice.

Smite - Jungling MUST - never believe anybody who states that you don't need Smite. It helps you in jungle, speeding you up. It opens a lot of possibilities to steal Buffs, Dragon or even Baron Nashor.

Exhaust - very good spell for Lee Sin. I take it for jungling as it helps a lot in ganks. Throwing Sonic Wave / Resonating Strike, slowing them with Tempest / Cripple and than hitting them with Exhaust followed with second Sonic Wave / Resonating Strike is always enough to secure a kill.

Ignite - in solo lane I'm rather going with Ignite. You have to take in account that when 1v1 on Top you face an opponent that have a sustain and in most cases some form of selfheal. You also selfheal yourself. So, when you cut it with an Ignite you have the advanatage. And you have your little Exhaust using Tempest / Cripple.

Flash - great spell that can save you or secure a kill many times. It's always amazing when you can Flash behind somebody and Dragon's Rage them into a tower.

Other viable picks:

Teleport - good spell that makes you able hold your lane forever. It's also very usefull in mid-late game as it helps you set up better ganks, get fast to the other site of map to defend a tower etc.

Ghost - only if you don't like Flash.

Cleanse - when you face heavy-CC team.

I'm leveling Safeguard / Iron Will first for a greater sustainability in lane. It gives you nice shield, spell vamp, life steal and armor. It also helps you in quick retreat in case of a gank. Next comes Sonic Wave / Resonating Strike for more DMG. Lastly Tempest / Cripple as the most needed part of it is the slow not the DMG. Always remember to level up your Dragon's Rage at 6, 11, 16.



While jungling I put Sonic Wave / Resonating Strike over Safeguard / Iron Will just to maximize your overall DMG during ganks. Other stays same as above.

This passive is usually overlooked by players. But cleaver usage of this makes your life easier and you attacks more efficient. It helps maintainig your Energy. It's very important to use this while jungling because you clear it faster that way.


Deadly skill which makes you who you are. Its usage is the most important factor that divides avarage Lee Sin from great Lee Sin. It's a skill shot that you need to hit to utilize the second part of it. When you miss it - you loose a big chunk of your DMG.


This is lifesaving skill. It gives nice shield and sustain stats. It lets you jump in to your ally, jump out of the fight, jump through the walls to Wards. It allows you to poke someone and quickly get back. It gives a lot of different opportunities and can annoy your opponents big time.


It slows down your enemies and cuts their AS. This is what makes it such a great spell. It also deals some DMG. But the main part and the most important is the Slow. Always use it when you're near the enemy as it needs to hit them fist time to apply the second effect. It also reveals stealthed units. That's why Akali hates fighting against Lee as her Twilight Shroud becomes useless against him.


Your Ultimate skill is gamechanging. It kicks your enemy in a straight line, knocking up any other enemy champions in it's patch. So it's a big CC. It's hard to land it at right angle but when you achieve this it's very rewarding.

Main idea of playing Lee Sin is to build him as an offtank. You can go pure AD/AS build but you will have no sustain and won't be able to execute your combo because you will be quickly killed.

Laning

Starting items:

Boots + 3x Health Potion or Cloth Armor + 5x Health Potion

It depends of who are you laning against. If it's strong early game AD champion like Renekton or Garen I suggest going Cloth+5 to cut down their DMG. If it's someone who throws at you skillshots that you need to avoid like Kennen or someone that relys on farm like Nasus I'd go with Boots+3 for better mobility.

Early game:

Wriggle's Lantern and Mercury's Treads

Wriggle's Lantern is an item that in 99% cases makes you stay at you lane forever. It gives Armor, Life Steal and DMG. Mercury Treads are nice boost to MR and gives you Tenacity. If you're stunned you can't do nothing. So Tenacity lets you do something.

Mid game:

Giant's Belt, Atma's Impaler and Warmog's Armor.

My next choice is Giant's Belt. It gives you nice boost to HP so you can stain in fight for longer and outsustain enemies. And it's a part of Warmog's Armor or Frozen Mallet. Than I buy Atma's Impaler. I know that's the point that many would like to argue about. I go this way, because going Warmog's Armor first makes you fall behind in DMG very badly. That's the main problem with Lee Sin. His DMG in mid-late game is not so great and Atma's Impaler helps it a lot.
Next item is of course Warmog's Armor or Frozen Mallet. It depends. If you feel like you can't catch anybody, enemies are always runing from you - buy Frozen Mallet. If not - go for Warmog's Armor.

Late game:

Force of Nature and Trinity Force

Next item to buy is Force of Nature. It's the massive boost to your MR and the speed buff os always welcome.
If the game lasts so long that you can afford next item I'd suggest Trinity Force. It's nicely boosting your DMG, Survivability, Movespeed ets. It's very nice item if you can afford it. Last item that you can buy after selling Wriggle's Lantern is really a personal choice - Madred's Bloodrazor is very expensive but makes you hit like a truck. Even tanks will be scared off you. You can also go for Last Whisper to cut the Armor of your opponents. It's like an open spot for whatever you feel would help you. You can even go with Guardian Angel. Enemies will pay attention to this bug shiny bubble floating around you thinking "Don't focus him, he will not die". And when they let you attack they are dead.

Jungle:

Starting items:

Cloth Armor + 5x Health Potion

You start with Cloth Armor and 5x Health Potion. It makes creeps hit less, it makes you stay longer in jungle and attempt to gank with more health left. Easy as that. Other things stay as on Lane because later in game you are it's less about jungling and more about teamfights and ganks.

Akali will have very hard time with you. She losts her escape mechanism Twilight Shroud. And pre 6 lvl she can't chase you. Also she is very squishy early game and without proper runes she has no sustain. Punish her hard in lane and she will be ****e late game.


Cho'Gath is a farmer. Big, red farmer. You have to harras him to death so he won't be able to farm. Jump, hit him couple of times and jump back. He eventually will go out of mana if he tries to fight back. But be carefull because he can silence you, knock you up thus making you vulnerable to ganks from his jungler. Also remember that past 6 lvl he can eat a huge chunk of your HP with his Ult Feast so never approach him with low HP because it's one shot death.


Dr Mundo is very annoying laner. If he succesfully throws his axes you will feel them badly. Also, past 6 you simply cannot kill him alone. He goes where he pleases and on his Ult Maximum Dosage he is just unkillable. Always take Ignite against him.


Preety easy match-up. She is squish as hell and her passive is not oh so great when it comes to real 1v1 fight. Be carefull though with harrasing her as she can fight you back quite succesfully especially past 6. Her Ult Waltz Dance is very annoing and she often tries to use it to secure kills. Remember that she finish her ulti at the place where you stand so if she jumps at you with Ult, you jump back to your tower.


Gangplank is mostly hated because of his constant harrasement with Parrrley and annoying crits with it. Besides this, he can't really do nothing. You can eat part of his DMG by activating Safeguard / Iron Will at the right time. The main idea is to punish him every time he want's to Parrrley us by Sonic Wave / Resonating Strike to him, hit him with Tempest / Cripple and get back. If he's unlucky and don't crit - yoi will win every exchange. Just remember, that he can remove your slow from Tempest / Cripple by using Eat Oranges and after 6 he can secure a kill with his slow from Cannon Barrage.


Garen is a champion that you can outplay really easily. Just Safeguard / Iron Will out of his Spin-to-Win Judgment and don't let him heal through his Perseverance. Be careful with his Ult Demacian Justice as he can one shot you when you are low a health.


After her nerf she's not holding her line as it was before but she's still quite good pick. You need to remember to carry an Ignite with you so you can cut her Hitten Style healing when you decide to 1v1 her. It's rather fair trade and more a matter of skill whhen you lane against her.


He is one pain in the ***. His Demacian Standard followed by Dragon Strike and autoattack with Martial Cadence can hurt you badly. Your advantage is that you can easily escape his Cataclysm by using Safeguard / Iron Will. But it's a hard lane anyway.


This guy makes me rage every time. He constantly harrass you with his Thundering Shuriken, when you're trying to set up a gank with your jungler he runs away with his Lightning Rush and all these stuns he applies makes him very strong opponent that you have to deal with. I'd suggest playing safe and just farming creeps.


Very duarble opponent that is just laughing at our attempts to harras him due to his Granite Shield. He is also building big ammounts of armor so he is really untouchable. You need a good gank to kill him at lane. And be careful as he can also deal some nasty DMG to you.


Maokai is rarely seen at solo top and I'm glad. He can outharrass you with his Sapling Toss and heal you DMG with Sap Magic. As with nearly all solo tops with ranged harrass - quite hard to deal with.


His Iron Man makes us put more effort to hurt him, but remembering to avoid our creep groups and not trying to 1v1 him to death he is very beatable and if he gets underfarmed he can't do nothing lategame.


Farm, farm, farm. All his gamplay is about farming last hits with Siphoning Strike. Puch him away every time he tries to farm and you will be ok and he will be screwd.


If she's going AP - it's easy to beat her down. Her spears are easily avoidable in lane and that's really only skil that you have to worry about. Just keep in mind that she has her Primal Surge / Swipe so she will heal back your DMG. Try to catch her low on mana.

AD Nidalee is onthe other hand quite hard to deal with. She will harras you with her autoattacks and after 6 she can jump to you and eat a bit of your HP with Javelin Toss / Takedown. Play safe!


This guy is scary at start as every 1v1 you will hurt a lot from his Reckless Swing. It's a true DMG skill and you can't help yourself with armor, only more HP. He also hits harder when he's low on HP due to Berserker Rage and if played right he can constantly harrass you with Undertow. Be very very careful when you decide to 1v1 him in close combat as he is more deadly than you might think.


Haven't been playing versus a lot of Renektons these days [suppose due to his weak late game] so I can't really help you with him. I'll update later when I get more experienced in laning against him.


Scary lady. Her combos are deadly as hell, she can stun you and has a shield. It's quite hard lane and your skill is the most important factor in this match-up.


Underestimated solo top champion. His constant harras with Flamethrower is really painfull when you try to last hit. Laning against him is all about good timing between his skills.


I didn't play enough games against Shen in solo top to tell you more about him. But he is scary after his rework :)


Same as above.


His Cryptic Gaze is nasty. His [Death's Caress]] is nasty. His Ult Cannibalism is nasty. He is a nasty champion and I really don't like to play against him as he is hard as hell to take out of the lane and he can shut you down so easily. He also can arrange amazing ganks with his jungler if you're not careful enough.


His DMG is greater than yours. But he has got low sustain in lane. And his Ult Shadow Assault loses its main part - Stealth due to your Tempest / Cripple. He is quite easy, just don't be overaggresive.


1. Ignite 2. Ignite 3. This champion is known as the most annoying and OP-called champion among all of them. It's due to his BIG crits and Undying Rage. But, moment of truth - he is annoying, yes. But he's not OP. Tbh he is not so great pick for solo top. Yes, he can run from you with Spinning Slash, he can heal a bit with Bloodlust but he is weak solo top champion. Playing him summoners usualy play very aggresively. And that's your chance. Make him think he can kill you at your tower with his Ult. Slow him with Tempest / Cripple, Ignite him after 2-3 secs, jump back with Safeguard / Iron Will and watch him BURN! No, seriously, he is easily outplayed.


This guy is probably one of the hardest match-up ever. Every time you try to harrass him he stuns you with Blazing Stampede, hit like truck with Wilding Claw and back off with Iron Mantle. He has sick sustain, huge DMG, stun every 6 secs. You have 2 dashes, slow and knockback. I think it's a hard match-up because it's all about skill in 1v1 on lane. Play smart and don't let him stun you right before a gank from his jungler.


Vladimir is all about great sustain, range harras and beeing at the same time very tanky due to his HP from his passive Crimson Pact. It's a hard lane that you need to play rather defensively and count on good good gank wich is also very hard to execute do his ability to run away with Sanguine Pool.


This guy is quite tanky but I think about him more like tanky DPS than offtank. He can hit you hard, throw you back with Thundering Smash and slow with Sky Splitter. And his passive The Relentless Storm will make you rage a lot when you will try to last hit him to get a kill. But it's a rather fair match-up with a little advantage to Lee Sin due to his mobility.


One hell of a solotop champion. He can heal constantly, has a quite nice range on Hungering Strike so he can harrass you with ease and after 6 his Ult Infinite Duress is amazing initiator/finisher even under your turret. It's a hard hard lane for Lee but doable.


He has much lower sustain than you but his DMG is better. He can dash with Nimbus Strike, hit Crushing Blow and escape with Warrior Trickster and you can't really avoid that due to the speed of this combo. You just need to outsustain him and catch him offguard when his Warrior Trickster is on CD.


Quite underplayed champion. Probably due to his not-so-strong late game. But on the lane he is a bully that is really hard to push away. He will constantly harras you with his Ghouls and you can't really help it. Just play safe and wait for your jungler to help you.

Jungling with Lee Sin is very viable. He is called by some a "Tier God Jungler". He has decent speed of clearance, amazing mobility and extraordinary ganks.

There is one main thing that you have to learn when you jungle with Lee Sin. Always make use of your passive Flurry. What does it mean?

Example:

Hit E once, make two autoattacks, then cast E second time, two autoattacks, self-cast W, two attacks, cast W for the second time, two autoattacks, so on, so on.

There are several viable routes that you can go with:

I. Wolves - rather passive play

1. You start at Wolves camp with Tempest / Cripple. Kill the big wolf first, than little ones.
2. Go to Wraiths. Same as above. Big->little. You will get lvl 2. Now, if there is a chance to early gank, put 1 point into Sonic Wave / Resonating Strike. If not, go with Safeguard / Iron Will.
3. Kill the golems.
4. Go back to Wraiths.
5. Wolves again.
6 Start the Blue Buff and give it to your AP mid.
7. Clear the Red buff also clearing all the camps on your way.
8. Gank, Gank, Gank!

II. Wraiths - aggresive approach

1. Start with Wraiths as soon as the timer hits 1:40. Clear it fast with help of you mid champ.
2. Get a leash on the Red Buff from your mid. You will hit lvl 2. Put a point in your Q and surprise them with early and deadly ganks.
3. If there is no chance for Ganks, do the standard route and give the Blue Buff to your AP mid.

III. Counterjungle start

1. Start at their Wraiths. Kill the big one and 2 small, leaving one so the camp won't respawn.
2. Head to their Red Buff. It should be already there. Now you have 2 possibilities. You can clear it fast and run away to gank lanes or you can wait in the bush past the Red Buff and wait for their jungler to get first blood and red buff. After either way head back to your jungle and do the standard route.

This route is very rewarding, especially when you can kill the oposed jungler. This way I achieved first blood in 2-3min into games a load of times. But there are factors that you need to consieder before you try it:

1. Is the enemy jungler starting with Blue or Red. - if Red it's obvious you can't get him there.
2. Is the enemy jungler fast and can catch you off guard. - Example is Udyr. He can clear camps very fast and can even catch you at wraights if he start from wolves. Opposite is Amumu. He needs to clear blue first every time and he is quite slow at jungling.
3. Who is your opponent. - there are junglers like Trundle or Udyr that can eat you alive if you engage them to soon.

The perfect situation is when the enemy jungler starts the Red Buff and he gets low on HP. You can Smite steal the Buff and kill him very quickly.

If you're succesful and kill the opponent, always run away because there is a chance that there might be enemies coming from their lanes.

Sonic Wave / Resonating Strike is your main damaging skill. There are some tricks with it that can improve your game.

1. Use it to run away - every one of you have faced a situation when there are enemies that are chasing us through the jungle. In right circumstances you can run away safely. Just try to hit neutral minion camps through the wall and jump to them. You're safe, you can breathe again.

2. Sonic Wave / Resonating Strike has an amazing scaling with missing HP. So, the lower your enemy is, the bigger DMG you will deal with the dash. It is very good idea to mark someone with Sonic Wave than deal some DMG through Tempest / Cripple or Dragon's Rage an than dash to them. Overall it will give you more DMG dealt than just hitting Q twice.

3. When trying to gank, sometimes it's better to keep your Sonic Wave / Resonating Strike for runners. Better idea is to Safeguard / Iron Will to your creep near the enemy or even Flash to him, deal DMG and when he tries to run you chase him with your Sonic Wave / Resonating Strike.


1. Safeguard / Iron Will gives you not only a shield. It gives you amazing mobility during the fight, running away or chasing someone. Use it as a gap closer aften instead of Sonic Wave / Resonating strike.

2. Safeguard / Iron Will alows us to make amazing moves with our wards. It's called "Ward jumping". You can trow your ward over the wall and jump instantly to it. It helps running away or chasing someone. The best move is when you can throw a ward at someone's back, Safeguard / Iron Will to it and Dragon's Rage them back. Many times, when my enemy pushed lane too hard and is at my tower I leave a ward right behind him. When he forgots that it is there, i can easily kick him right at my tower gaining an easy kill.

Lee Sin is very rewarding champion if played correctly. But he needs a lot of practice to be mastered. He is also very team dependant as he needs them to set up ganks or make a gank. Further into game you are more like one-man-army-killing-machine. But to achieve this you need good early game. I still learn new things about Lee Sin and still I have great and bad games. It all depends on a lot of circumstaces. But, don't give up! Master him and ppl will love you.

Sorry for any language mistakes, english is not my native langiage. I hope you will enjoy my guide and learn something usefull. Comments are very welcome. Good luck.