LEE SIN BUILD GUIDE

 

Introduction

Lee Sin is an extremely aggressive early game jungler. His movement speed slow, high early game damage and two gap closers make for an extremely scary early game hero. While he clears camps fairly quickly, Lee Sin's main strength lies in his ability to gank extremely well and counter jungle.

What is important to note about Lee Sin is that since he is forced to build tanky, his damage falls off vastly lategame. To make up for this, you need to snowball your lanes. This is one of the reasons I play more Jungle Lee over top lane. While he can definitely carry, he cannot 1v5. You want to abuse your early game dominance to put all your lanes ahead.

 

Summoner Spells

Flash
Smite

Explanation:
The reason I choose Flash over Exhaust is because while Exhaust is really strong early game for ganks, its use lategame is not as strong as Flash. Flash allows you to make big plays and allows you to be really ballsy. That said, Exhaust is definitely a strong option. Think of it like 6 pooling in SC2. You might pull off that early aggression and win but if you don't capitalize, your lategame economy will suck ass. And you don't want to be a cheeser, right? All jokes aside, it's just preference.

 

Early Game

Pick a jungle path and start looking around the map for ganks. If you ever watch my stream you'll see that I constantly look at all 3 lanes to see if any action is going down. This lets me see if the lanes blew any summoners. If a lane blows  then I know for certain that I can gank that lane with ease. It's also good to look for summoners such as ,  and . You won't always see all the action so make sure to ask your lanes if any summoners are blown when you try to gank.

Another important part of ganking is knowing where  are. Generally, in the first 4 minutes of the game the only lane that will have wards will be bot lane. Since supports usually start off with 2 or 3 wards they will ward early. Top lane and mid lane is usually wardless (check their inventory, if they started with 1 potion then they probably warded before they got to lane.) Later on, when solos start to shop and buy wards then keep an eye out for when they leave to ward. Just like knowing if any summoners are blown, knowing where wards are saves you from wasting time sitting in a lane brush that they have vision of.

You can bypass wards by either using  on a ward that is over a wall or you can  onto a jungle creep. If you're purple side and you want to gank and overextended bot that have river, tri-brush and the lane warded then you can enter their Jungle and  a Golem to get across. Or if you know that tri-brush is warded but not river and you're in their jungle then you can  dragon and gank bot before they even expect you to be there. When playing  make sure to be creative!

If you get in position to gank you usually want to  onto a minion that the enemy was close to and then double tap  and try to get autoattacks off. Tag them with  when you are sure to land it and if their flash is up then wait a little before you activate the second part of . If it's down you can activate it fast and just keep slowing with red buff autoattacks. There's so many variables when it comes to ganking that I can't tell you the perfect way to pull off a gank but I'm sure after some games you'll figure it out.

Watch here as I tag  with  and wait for his .

 

Skills

Passive: Flurry
After Lee Sin uses an ability, his next 2 basic attacks gain 50% Attack Speed and return 10 energy each.

Explanation:
Using your passive properly is very important in the jungle. You want to autoattack twice before each spell cast on your first two. Once you have 3 skills you still want to space out but you can autoattack once between one of your spells and still get enough energy to keep casting more. It's a bit hard to explain so just play around with it. In teamfights it is very important to do this whenever you get the chance because you don't have the luxury of being able to autoattack everything since you'll be running around peeling and repositioning.



Q: Sonic Wave / Resonating Strike
Sonic Wave: Lee Sin projects a discordant wave of sound to locate his enemies, dealing 50/80/110/140/170 (+90% of 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.

Resonating Strike: Lee Sin dashes to the enemy hit by Sonic Wave, dealing 50/80/110/140/170 (+90% of bonus Attack Damage) physical damage plus 8% of their missing health.

Cost 50/30 energy

Cooldown 11/10/9/8/7 seconds

Explanation:
You level this skill at level 1 so you can do a big camp really efficiently by Q smite Q'ing it for maximum damage. You max this skill first for some extra damage and because the cooldown goes down which gives you more potential to make the big plays. It helps you stick onto people even after they flash. A great tip is when you're ganking you want to  them before you think they will Flash and wait to use the second part of  and most of the time they will flash even with  still on them. After they flash you close the gap and they're dead. Another thing to note is that (the second part of this spell) does extra damage based on how much HP the target is missing. This means that if you get the chance, you want to use it last. When you're doing objectives get in the habit of Q smite Q to maximize your burst damage on buffs.




W: Safeguard / Iron Will
Safeguard: Lee Sin rushes towards a target ally, shielding them both from 40 / 80 / 120 / 160 / 200 (+80% per Ability Power) damage. After using Safeguard, Lee Sin can cast Iron Will for the next 3 seconds.

Iron Will: Lee Sin's intense training allows him to thrive in battle. For 5 seconds, Lee Sin gains5/10/15/20/25 lifesteal, spell vamp, and armor.

Cost 50/30 energy

Cooldown 8 seconds

Range 700

Explanation:
Is awesome because it is so versatile. Defensively, it allows you to save people from dying with the extra hp from the shield and by allowing you to come to their side and fight. You can also use this to escape from ganks by W'ing to an ally, a creep, or even a ward. Offensively you can use this to close the gap on people allowing you to slow them with  which guarantees a free  land. You can safeguard to a creep when ganking a lane when they're last hitting which brings you into melee range to combo with your spells and slow with your autoattacks (when you have red buff or phage).

The second cast of safeguard, Iron Will, gives you lifesteal and spellvamp. This makes you great at 1v1'ing, sustaining, and even allows gaining HP from smiting. I max this second because while it doesn't go down in cooldown per level, it increases the shield and the stats gained. And when you start leveling this it is the perfect time for you to transition from an early game aggressive playstyle to a lategame tank style, at around level 11-13.




E: Tempest / Cripple
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.

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.

Cost 50/30 energy

Cooldown 10 seconds

Range 450

Explanation:
Is great early game AoE damage and great at shutting down the aspd/movement speed of people in teamfights. Most importantly it helps you slow down targets when you're ganking. It's also useful for getting some farm because Lee Sin's farm is awful.


R: Dragon's Rage
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.

Cost 0 energy

Cooldown 90 / 75 / 60 seconds

Explanation:

One of my favorite skills in the game. , while being a fairly strong nuke, is great because of the displacement it allows. You can combo this with  and  to get behind your target and kick them into your team. You can also use a ward and safeguard to get behind your target and kick them. I could go on and on about different ways you can use this skill but what's important to know is that this is a very strong displacement skill. An important thing to remember is that this skill knocks up and damages enemies that are hit by the target that you kicked. This is rare but you can sometimes be able to hit 3 or 4 enemies with this ability.