THIS GUIDE IS UNDER MODIFICATION AS OF THE RECENT PATCH, EXPECT AN UPDATE SOON.

Hello and welcome to Caucheka's guide to the tanking to support Lee Sin.

Above are several different builds following the guide.

And I didn't know where to put this so I'll just leave this hear but am I the only one annoyed that Lee Sin, the Blind Monk, isn't immune to blinds? Sure there's only 2 blinds in the game but still...

I'll start by going over the basics of Lee Sin before getting down and dirty with what makes my guide unique.

There are two things that make Lee Sin a unique character. The first is being the only non-ninja champion to have energy. The second is that his 3 basic skills are actually 2 skills combined, and after casting the first one he can cast the second one for a brief time.

Sonic Wave/Resonating Strike is Lee Sin's first skill.
With Sonic Wave, Lee Sin projects a discordant wave of sound to locate his enemies, dealing 60/90/120/150/180(+0.8 per bonus attack damage) physical damage to the first enemy it encounters. If Sonic Wave hits, Lee Sin can cast Resonating Strike for the next 3 seconds.
With Resonating Strike, Lee Sin dashes to the enemy hit by Sonic Wave, dealing 60/90/120/150/180(+0.8 per bonus attack damage) physical damage plus 10% of their missing health.

Safeguard/Iron will is Lee Sin's second skill.
With Safeguard, Lee Sin rushes towards a target ally, shielding them both from 40/80/120/160/200(+0.8 per ability power) damage. If a shield is broken, half the energy cost is returned. After using Safeguard, Lee Sin can cast Iron Will for the next 3 seconds.
With Iron Will, Lee Sin gains 10/15/20/25/30 life steal, spell vamp, and armor.

Tempest/Cripple is Lee Sin's third skill.
With Tempest, Lee Sin smashes the ground sending out a shockwave that deals 60/95/130/165/200(+0.6 per bonus attack damage) magic damage and reveals enemy units hit. If Tempest hits an enemy, Lee Sin can cast Cripple for the next 3 seconds.
With Cripple, Lee Sin cripples nearby enemies revealed by Tempest, reducing their movement and attack speed by 30/37.5/45/52.5/60% for 4 seconds. Movement and attack speed recover gradually over the duration.

Dragon's Rage is Lee Sin's ultimate skill.
Lee Sin performs a powerful roundhouse kick launching his target back, dealing 200/400/600(+1.5 per bonus attack damage) physical damage to the target and any enemies they collide with. Enemies the target collides with are knocked into the air for a short duration.

Flurry is Lee Sin's passive skill.
After Lee Sin uses an ability, his next 2 basic attacks gain 50% Attack Speed and return 10 energy each.

Flash is without a doubt one of the best summoner spells that you can take on Lee Sin. whether you use it to escape over a wall, get closer to allies so you can safeguard to them, or used to place yourself to get a better kick from dragon's rage, flash will be what you need.

Ghost is probably my second highest recommended summoner spell on my list. However, my builds already incorporate a lot of ms, so I would only consider this one if I wasn't planning on taking boots of mobility.

Cleanse, what could i possibly say that's bad about it? it is good on anyone who feels like the enemy team might have a little too much cc (and they always do). However this would be more suited towards a damage oriented Lee Sin, as he would be the target of cc more than tank Lee Sin.

Teleport is another summoner spell that has many practical uses, but as I have already mentioned the high ms this build tends to generate, it would probably be better off with a different summoner spell.

Smite deserves a mention, as with nearly all champions who have some basic ability to jungle. However, this guide focuses on laning Lee Sin, and as such I will not be going into detail about his jungle route. Feel free however to check out some of the other Lee Singed guides posted on this website if you need your fix of jungling Lee Sin.

Ignite and Exhaust are not the optimal summoner spells for this build. you may take them if you so desire but I would tend to stay away from them, especially ignite, as they are better suited towards the carries.

Fortify is the last summoner spell I find worth noting, as its improved form is buried deep within the defensive mastery tree. A useful summoner spell for defending turrets from enemy champions, and especially useful for large minion waves, more so if you have the improved form.

Clarity, Clairvoyance, Heal, Revive, and Rally are all bad summoner spells for this guide. I feel as if they are self explanatory but if you desire an explanation I will add it later for the requested summoner spell.

Without a doubt the best set up for masteries is defensive with at least 8 points in utility.

I do not see anything worthwhile in the lower levels of the offensive tree for me to use in this guide. you are still free to use whatever masteries suit you best, but i wouldn't use them. the only notable ones are Plentiful Bounty and Cripple, but i already covered that earlier.

In the utility tree, you almost always want 8 points to grab the increased experience gain. other notable masteries in this tree are the improved form of ghost and teleport( Haste and Spatial Accuracy ), and the mastery Greed .

Lastly we'll cover the defensive tree. Obviously you need 20 points to get the ever so great tenacity, but other notable masteries include Hardiness , Resistance , Veteran's Scars , Nimbleness , and if you're taking cleanse or fortify, Willpower or Reinforce , respectively.

Runes are listed in the order of which i would recommend them. I will discuss energy runes after the list.

Marks:
Armor Penetration
MR or Armor (no preference.)

Seals:
Dodge (especially if you have nimbleness)
Armor
Armor/level
HP/level

Glyphs:
MR
CDR
MR/Level

Quintessences:
HP
Dodge
CDR
Armor or MR (no preference.)


There's really nothing I can say about energy runes. I don't really have enough ip to go out and buy runes to experiment for my builds. That, and I don't really think that it would make enough of a difference.

At the start of the game, I prefer to grab a Cloth Armor and 5 health pots, which allows you to eat quite a bit of harass if they decide to harass you, plus the Cloth Armor is upgraded to the main core item of this build.

On your first trip back you should upgrade the Cloth Armor to a Heart of Gold, and if you can buy a pair of boots, and a couple potions if you still have the money.

As for what to upgrade your boots to, I have a few choice boots...

Mobility Boots would sit at top of my recommended list, it gives some crazy movespeed and allows you to quickly travel between lanes and through the jungle if you need to. Having a high movespeed also helps for initiation and positioning inside a teamfight.

Boots of Swiftness would also be highly recommended, while it might not give as much ms as boots of mobility, it gives a constant ms boost, unlike the partial one from boots of mobility.

Mercury's Treads are good boots that give you a little boost in your magic resist, plus the nice unique cc reduction.

Ninja Tabi are superb if you are running dodge seals and/or quints, along with the nimbleness. these boots aren't as fast as the swiftness/mobility boots but the nimbleness bonus should definitely make up for that.

Ionian Boots of Lucidity would be my last recommendation for boots, if you are running this build more towards support than tank, as the 15% cdr is a great bonus.

After boots, regardless of choice, the next item up is a Negatron Cloak and 2 regrowth pendants, in no particular order. After you have those 3 items, upgrade them to a Force of Nature.

I start with a point into Sonic Wave / Resonating Strike, which gives you a minor harass, and if the enemy is a little too aggressive you can use it to last hit a minion or two. At level 2, 4, and 5, put points into Tempest / Cripple, as it is a great skill to use on large minion waves, plus the extremely powerful slow helps grab kills/assists if someone comes to gank the lane. And lastly, at level 3 you should take that first point in Safeguard / Iron Will, as you should always have 1 point in everything by level 4 at least, and this is the second skill this build focuses on.

After hitting level 6, and obviously taking that point into Dragon's Rage, i prioritize Tempest / Cripple, followed by Safeguard / Iron Will, and lastly Sonic Wave / Resonating Strike, taking a point whenever possible into Dragon's Rage, obviously.

After the Force of Nature, the next core item on the tank build/set up is a Sunfire Aegis, as tank you will be in the middle of battle, combining that with Tempest / Cripple deals great damage, especially since its hard to run with the powerful slow of cripple. Plus it also gives you a nice amount of health to make the Force of Nature oh so much more worth it.

The final item that is core on the tank side is a Randuin's Omen, which gives great stats, along with the aoe slow. Which, when combined with the slow from Tempest / Cripple, is a whopping 75% movespeed reduction. I don't think your enemies are going to be able to get past you to your carries when they can barely move.

After that, there are several other items that can fill the last two spots, depending on the enemy team.

Somehow, Master Yi is still killing you.

While this build has a nice amount of armor already from the core, you can never ever have too much of one stat. The following items I recommend for enemy teams who deal physical damage.

Obviously, if the enemy carry just won't stop killing you, nothing would be better for their squishy *** than a thornmail. It is reasonably cheap at only 2000 gold, and it gives the most armor out of any item, plus those squishies will kill themselves like they should because they are fighting Lee Sin, the Blind Monk.

Yes, I know that you won't be earning the benefits of the 500 mana this item carries, but the 99 armor is really what we're here for. well, that and the whopping 20% cdr. and the as reduction aura is really nice as well, about 70% attack speed reduction when combined with cripple.

Oh, he's ap Master Yi

As I mentioned with the frozen heart, the mana is useless on this item. But once again the other stats of this item more than make up for it, in this case its the 50 MR and the 45 second cd spell shield.

another recommendation for MR would be the QSS, probably one of the most under rated items in the game. The active ability on this item is very useful against hard cc teams, and since it's a built in summoner spell, you can take something other than cleanse.

I'm not dieing. What should I build?

theres no problem in taking a few items that increase your damage output, especially if they also have nice tanking stats like:

Atma's should most definitely be on your list. It works great with the armor if the enemy team is doing mostly physical, plus the increased attack damage also gives you more damage with your skills, which have nice ratios.

Another damage item that is really effective on a tank, frozen mallet gives a little damage boost while also boosting your health by a great amount, making it an atma's best friend.

General tanking items that always work

And of course we come down to a few items that work with anything, so they have their own category.

Guardian Angel is a great tank item, giving a nice bonus to both armor and MR. The passive is also one of the best item passives in the game.

Aegis is another universally good tank item. While I prefer it more on a support than tank, the armor, health, and MR are really great on Lee Sin, along with the aura.

I feel like i should mention spirit visage somewhere. The health and MR bonus is nice, along with the cooldown and the passive. The passive especially if you have a force of nature. That being said, I don't really think it works that well on Lee Sin.

Now that we have everything else out of the way for tanking, lets talk about what you should be doing in teamfights.

If you are the one initiating, the best thing to do is to use your high ms to charge in out of nowhere and Dragon's Rage their carry into your team. followed by a quick Tempest / Cripple and popping Randuin's Omen to keep the enemy team back while the rest of your team kills their squishy. lastly after popping Randuin's Omen, you should Safeguard / Iron Will to an ally to keep yourself alive and/or help take down the squishy thats surrounded by your team. If you don't use Safeguard / Iron Will to get out of there, you might find the rest of the enemy team focusing you because its suddenly 4v1. That is what Cleanse/ Quicksilver Sash is for, if you took them.

If you are not initiating, then Dragon's Rage would best be used to disrupt the enemy team, seperating the tank/supports from the carry if it isn't already dead. Once again using Randuin's Omen and/or Tempest / Cripple to keep the enemy team back away from your squishies, along with Safeguard / Iron Will to protect them.

As for Sonic Wave / Resonating Strike, the best use would be to dash to an enemy trying to get to your squishies and then follow up with Tempest / Cripple or Randuin's Omen if you havn't already used it.

That has been my guide for Lee Sin, the Blind Monk. I hope you find it very effective in your usage of Lee Sin, the Blind Monk.

Don't be afraid to comment or ask questions below.