This is my first proper guide, I have chosen Lee Sin the Blind Monk because he is one of the most fun champions to play but also one of the hardest to master. Being one of the most versatile junglers means he can be picked into almost any team composition, although I would advise against picking him in a team that is full ad, especially one that picks Pyke as the support. Though in solo queue it usually doesn't matter and you can get away with 4 AD champions outside of the support.

The beauty of Lee Sin is that he can adapt to any playstyle really and although he is not particularly excellent at any one thing, he is good at a bit of everything. This means you need to know your champions limits exactly and you can only acquire that knowledge by playing him a lot. Although this is true for all champions, it is especially important for Lee Sin.

The fact that he has 2 dashes in his noon ultimate abilities means he can abuse enemies that don't have flash or don't have an escape, and although you don't have any hard crowd control that is easy to use, you should have enough damage to kill most people if they don't have an escape.

I don't want you to play Lee Sin because you watched a montage video of that one sick play that that one pro player did, because you will end up compromising his strengths as a champion by trying to do something that serves no purpose outside of being aesthetically pleasing. Still, that doesn't mean you can't look good while beating down the enemy.

+ Strong early game ganks due to two gapclosers and unique gank paths that can bypass wards.
+ Fast and healthy initial jungle clear.
+ Strong early/mid game dueling with Conqueror and Iron Will.
+ High tempo jungler that can pressure enemy junglers insanely when played well.
+ Very slippery.
+ Very versatile as can play different roles for the team depending on what is needed.


Lee Sin's Safeguard/ Iron Will is a very strong utility spell due to the dash, lifesteal and shield, this can lead to some crazy plays and escapes with Stealth Ward. It also means with Conqueror he can outheal a lot of damage in the early game. His Tempest does magic damage meaning it will always do damage against enemies with no magic resist, and it scales off AD too. With Cripple and Dragon's Rage he has alot of crowd control which will help peel people off your carries in teamfights, however to utilise all this you have to use his spells effectively.



- Hard to learn.
- Combo's are hard to pull off as everything isn't static in game.
- High energy costs and you have to use his autos between spells.
- Requires good game knowledge to carry games to victories from early leads.
- Always gets buffed before worlds, and then gutted afterwards because Rito Games and "Muh Skillshot."

Energy Management

You need to learn to manage the energy cost on his spells. If you use them all back to back it costs 240 energy 3*(30+50).This means you have to auto attack atleast 3 times between to have enough energy, and sometimes you will have to use Dragon's Rage defensively as you run out of energy since your ult costs no energy it is a free disengage. Wardjumping is VERY punishing in this aspect too as the energy isn't refunded and neither is the cooldown. It is also easy to accidentally use Iron Will when wardjumping if you mash w, which will further drain energy.

Runes
R U N E S				Conqueror 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).
				Coup de Grace This is the de facto rune in this row for Lee since executing low health targets works very well with his Dragon's Rage and Resonating Strike which does bonus damage to low health targets.
				Magical Footwear is the choice that every high-elo Korean jungler takes due to the gold efficiency. This is because you get a free 300 gold item, which means you don't have to buy Boots. Additionally they provide an extra 10 movement speed, which means that players in Korea don't actually upgrade Slightly Magical Boots to tier 2 boots. Which means even better gold efficiency. Due to the early game focused, and aggressive playstyle in Korea, the Slightly Magical Boots are attained much earlier than 12 minutes, as the acquisition time is reduced by 45s per kill or assist. This means with 5 kills or assists, the boots will come to you at 8:15.
				Cosmic Insight is the best suited rune for Lee Sin remaining in inspiration as the free 5% cooldown reduction from level 1 is quite powerful reducing the cooldown of Q and E by half a second is actually quite significant in early duels. Also increasing the maximum cooldown cap from 40% to 45% means that you can actually reach the maximum cool down reduction with Skirmisher's Sabre - Warrior, Black Cleaver and Duskblade of Draktharr. Also 15 seconds off Flash and 4.5 seconds off Smite might come in handy every now and then.

Items
I T E M S
				Mosstomper Seedling - The most versatile of the jungle items 90% of the time this is the best one as the shield and tenacity are more valuable than the movement speed and damage/slow from the other jungle items.
				Ironspike Whip - For the advanced early cost of 1100 gold you will get attack damage and AOE damage which is something Lee Sin lacks so clearing camps with multiple units is easier. However the main star of this item is the active that gives you 2 stacks of Conqueror when used on an enemy champion. Also Cosmic Insight reduces the active cooldown of this item along with Goredrinker so it has a good synergy.
				Slightly Magical Boots - Since these are free you won't be able to build Boots and will have to wait for the Magical Footwear rune to activate. The aim of this rune is to reward good play an early game aggression which you are good at. It also helps you snowball as it means you can put 300g towards your Goredrinker sooner and not have to worry about buying boots. Slightl Magical Boots are worth 420g as they give +10 movement speed on top of the base 25 movement speed. This means it is totally viable to leave these on their own until later on into the midgame where defensive stats might be more useful. They are added to your inventory for free after 12 minutes, but this is reduced by 45 seconds for each kill or assist you receive before then. So hypothetically if you get 2 kills and 2 assists you can get these boots at 9 minutes and so on.
				Caulfield's Warhammer - Another great tier 2 item which gives you a lot of early attack damage and cooldown reduction. This is usually what you will get on your first buy since the Tiamat nerf. It also has a very versatile build path as it builds out of Long Swords, so you can buy Long Swords if you can't afford Caulfield's Warhammer. Additionally it builds into multiple useful items, Goredrinker as well as Black Cleaver.
				Black Cleaver - This is a very strong item because it gives you a lot of stats that you need in combinationm with Goredrinker giving you a very strong 2 item powerspike. There is never a reason not to build this item and that's pretty much all these is to it.
		AND		Mercury's Treads vs Plated Steelcaps - Whatever boots you choose is dependent on the enemy team comps. If the enemy are full AD then you should take Plated Steelcaps 99% of the time unless you specifically need the tenacity. Mercury's Treads aren't taken for the magic resist they provide but rather for the tenacity. The tenacity that is unaffected are knockups, knockbacks, suppressions, stasis and some special coded abiltiies such as Threshs Death Sentence. If the enemy has a team with a lot of stuns and roots however, Mercury's Treads are ideal.
				Maw of Malmortius - This is the best magic resist item on Lee Sin and you can build it before Guardian Angel along with Mercury's Treads and an MR shard if the enemy team has a lot of magic damage, think [[Elise] jungle with a mage in mid. The damage it give is very strong and the passive shield is insanely good at preventing you from getting oneshot. In addition to this you get additional bonus attack damage and lifesteal when the lifeline passive triggers, making you that much harder to duel for AP enemies.
				Guardian Angel - This item is amazing on Lee Sin as it gives him an extra life, which is even further amplified by the fact that it is a midgame item now for junglers, so you can press your advantage further. Another good thing is that Stopwatch builds out of it, as well as giving copious amounts of AD, and it is more of an offensive item than defensive item since the rework. Having the Guardian Angel effect around you also has a mental impact on the enemy as if you are ahead and get this item enemies will be hesistant to focus you since you will just revive. However it can still save you when you are ahead prevent you from giving a shutdown. It also takes 4 seconds to revive which means your Safeguard will come off cooldown if it wasn't used on a ward or minion, giving you a higher chance to survive. This is an amazing item when ahead and should be bought 3rd after Duskblade. One downside is, that if you are in a game or situation where if you die, your team will lose anyway this item doesn't help so it may be better to buy something that will prevent you from dying in the first place such as Randuin's Omen or Spirit Visage. Also building out of Stopwatch is a bonus.
				Death's Dance - This item is actually very effective at dealing with AD targets while not giving up too much. The passive is very powerful as it lets you draintank with iron will] and [[Goredrinker. I wouldn't build this first over Guardian Angel but as a 3rd armor item when ahead, if you already have Plated Steelcaps and GA, this is a good buy
	Items

Warding totem (Trinket) 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

PASSIVE - Flurry


After using an ability, Lee Sin's next 2 basic attacks within 3 seconds gain 40% attack speed returning 20 / 30 / 40 energy on the first attack and 10 / 15 / 20 energy on the second. Scaling at levels 1/7/13.


TOP TIP
This is very potent during trades, always use it to gain energy back and you will clear camps faster too which combines nicely with Hunter's Machete's passive. Between each spell cast when clearing, use both procs, however at about level 7, when using Safeguard only use the first proc, and then cast Iron Will as it's cooldown is low enough so you always have Flurry up. A lot of the time when you are in a close fight with an enemy you will usually land the killing auto attack first due to this passive.


Q (First Cast) - Sonic Wave

ACTIVE: Lee Sin shoots a wave of sound in a line, dealing physical damage to the first enemy it hits and granting true sight (revealing invisible and stealthed units) of it for 3 seconds. If Sonic Wave hits, Lee Sin can cast Resonating Strike within the next 3 seconds.


Q (Second Cast) - Resonating Strike

ACTIVE: Lee Sin dashes to the enemy marked by Sonic Wave, dealing physical damage, increased by 0% - 100% (based on target's missing health).


TOP TIP
I always max Sonic Wave/Resonating Strike first, however I take it at level 2. One tip is after doing red buff, use Sonic Wave over the Krugs wall on the large krug. Then wait for it to walk away from the wall a bit and Resonating Strike in. Keep the Large krug between you and the small one to avoid taking damage from it. Resonating Strike is an execute, so you want to put as much damage into the enemy before using it. Always try to start a fight with this, that was as the fight evolves and plays out it will come back off cooldown, giving you an escape tool. You lose a lot of power if you miss Sonic Wave, so usually it will tell you whether you should fight or not. Do not hold onto Sonic Wave for too long or you will usually lose the fight.


W (First Cast) - Safeguard

ACTIVE: Lee Sin dashes to a target ally. If the ally is a champion, they and Lee Sin receive a shield that lasts 2 seconds and Safeguard's cooldown is halved. Lee Sin can activate Safeguard on himself to receive the shield, and can cast Iron Will within 3 seconds.


W (Second Cast) - Iron Will

ACTIVE: For 4 seconds, Lee Sin gains bonus life steal and spell vamp.


TOP TIP
I take this at level 1 because as well as being a shield to yourself and an ally. It could save them from ignite or let you catch up to an escaping enemy. In addition to this Iron Will gives you spell vamp and lifesteal which will help you sustain in the jungle, especially in the early stages. You can also jump to wards to get away however this is tricky for beginners because it requires a 5th move (usually under the thumb; 'C' or 'V' for me). Remember that the cooldown isn't halved if you don't dash to a champion as is the energy cost, so be wary of this. Be careful to also not accidentally cast Iron Will as this will further drain your energy. Also be careful when using this in combat on yourself, as it counts as a dash even if you self-cast Safeguard. This means if you are mid attack animation, it will cancel which can lose you a duel, so always try cast it after an attack has landed. For the same aforementioned reason, you cannot self-cast Safeguard when rooted. Iron Will combined with Conqueror will let you outsustain a lot of champions in the early game such as Vi and Jarvan IV, and survive bursts from Rengar and Gragas. Do not underestimate the combination of the two.


E (First Cast) - Tempest

ACTIVE: Lee Sin smashes the ground, dealing magic damage to all nearby enemies and granting sight (hidden i.e. in bush, but not invisible or stealthed) of them for 4 seconds. If Tempest hits an enemy, Lee Sin can cast Cripple within the next 3 seconds.


E (Second Cast] - Cripple

ACTIVE: Lee Sin cripples all enemies marked by Tempest, reducing their movement speed. The movement speed recover over 4 seconds.


TOP TIP
This is AOE damage, take this at level 3 for stronger gank potential as well as being able to keep your passive Flurry procced more often. This spell has to hit an enemy to be able to use the second part, Cripple. This spell is good for trading or for kiting/catching opponents. It is also good for peeling your enemies off your carries. Another thing about this is that it does magic damage so enemies need Magic Resistance to defend themselves which is pretty good as it stop them building pure armor. Finally, during early ganks you can Sonic Wave- Resonating Strike- Tempest to quickly activate Electrocute if you take that instead of Conqueror. Sometimes you should Tempest+ Flash to catch opponents off guard and giving them less time to react.

R - Dragon's Rage

ACTIVE: Lee Sin launches a powerful roundhouse kick, dealing physical damage to a target champion and knocking it back 1200 units over 1 second. Enemies the target collides with take the same damage and are knocked airborne for 1 second.

COLLISION DAMAGE:
175 / 400 / 625 (+ 200% bonus AD) (+ 12 / 15 / 18% of kicked target's bonus health)

TOP TIP
This is a nuke of an ult which scales double your bonus attack damage, it can be used to defend yourself or kill an enemy but most importantly in the early game to set up ganks and kills for your teammates. The Q-R-Q combo is you landing Sonic Wave on your enemy, you then kick the with your ult, Dragon's Rage and subsequently catch them again with Resonating Strike. It is also a knock-up and disrupts teamfights as well as damaging all enemies behind the kicked one for the same amount + 15% of the kicked players bonus health. Due to the low cooldown of this ability don't be afraid to use it liberally to disengage or save yourself if you see a fight turning sour. Alternatively, if you have Conqueror stacked fully you can gain a lot of health and deal a lot of damage if you hit multiple targets with Dragon's Rage.


Source from lolwiki as of 11.01.2018 and patch 8.1

Red Side
•Start at Blue Sentinel and move onto your Gromp after. Then go to the Greater Murk Wolf and you will be level 3. This will give you a quick clear so that you can gank a lane before finishing a full clear or doing Rift Scuttler.

•Start with your Safeguard and auto the Blue Sentinel then Safeguard so that you use shield the first auto from the camp.

•Attack the camp twice to consume Flurry, then use Iron Will while kiting the camp backwards.

•Following the Blue Sentinel clear, Sonic Wave the gromp and proceed to weave 2 auto attacks after each spell cast. Smite the Gromp before using Resonating Strike unless you are playing against Kindred or Nidalee as they can try invade you on your second camp.


Blue Side
•Start at Red Brambleback and move onto Ancient Krug after and use your Tempest to damage it once, then save your second Tempest cast to clear out all the small krugs in one go. Then go to the Crimson Raptor and repeat the process.

•Attack the camp twice to consume Flurry, then use Iron Will while kiting the camp backwards.

•After getting level 3 check the nearby sidelanes (mid and bot) to see if one of them is gankable, if not continue the full clear. You can also use the lane states and champion health bars to predict a gank from the enemy jungler.


TOP TIP
When you are fighting the enemy jungler or even considering it, take a glance at your minimap and see which lanes are pushed and have priority, depending on this, it will determine who's laner will turn up first. For example if mid is pushed to the enemies turret, your laner should come help first, if the enemy laner starts moving over it may be worth just leaving the trade. Which would be a misplay from both midlaners as the enemy midlaner is losing xp to help his jungler, and the ally midlaner would not come even though his lane is pushed. If your laner is pushed in and can't help consider just leaving as soon as you see the enemy laner go missing. This will avoid a lot of early deaths and flaming at ally laners; TRUST ME ON THIS ONE.

Early Game, 0-10 minutes:
-Shut down carries
-Get kills/assists
-Give blue to mid
Mid Game, 11-25 minutes:
-If you are ahead you can pretty much 100-0 any non-pure tank champions, which you can use especially to kill squishy midlaners and adc's farming sidelanes or walking through unwarded jungle areas.
-Start building Health, Armor and Magic Resistance if you are behind and start playing like a second support especially if you have a fed midlaner or adc.
-Move around the map as much as you can with all your bonus movement speed, take objectives such as dragon
Late Game, 26+ minutes
-Initiater
-Tank/Offtank if someone like Shen is in top
-Peeler>Save carries

In teamfights go straight for their ADC/Mid. They are your primary target, if they are someone like Kassadin or Talon who get quite beefy try to zone them out. Remember to lay out your moves equally apart so that you get maximum benefit. Use Randuins omen at start and then your Tempest Cripple about 3 seconds later, this will give the enemy a slow that lasts 5 seconds.

Sonic Wave
1. Has a very wide hitbox so it travels further than it looks, use this to your advantage.
2. Reveals enemies which are stealthed such as Shaco and Teemo
Resonating Strike
1. Will follow an enemy an indefinite length across the map, this means that it will do the same thing as Vi ult. If you are traveling towards them you will hit them if they flash or jump or anything. The only way this can be stopped is by being hit with a displacement ability. Which also negates the damage.
2. It does damage based on how much health the enemy is missing, this is why Q-R-Q is such a good execution combo. In the jungle try to go Q-AA-AA-E-Q for most damage possible.
Or w-aa-w-Q-smite-aa-aa-e-q, for a fast sustained clear of big buffs.
Safeguard
1. Gives a small shield on cast, this will give a shield to an ally but not to wards,you can jump to wards though and other targetable objects such as Demacian Standard and Dark Passage.
2. Using this on a non champion target will not refund energy and cooldown, unless it is Dark Passage as this counts as you Safeguardng to Thresh.
List of things you can Safeguard to:
-Yourself
-Any allied champion in range
- Stealth Wards
- Demacian Standard
- H-28G Evolution Turret
- Jack In The Box
- Cell Division
- Dark Passage
- minion
- Warrior Trickster
- Mimic
- Hallucinate
- Maiden of the Mist
- Mist Walker
- Noxious Trap

(Also note all the non champs can be teleported to.)

This is my first guide that I have actually put effort into, I hope you like it and that you have learnt something, please leave some feedback and feel free to add me (EUW>EpilepticRabbit). I am pretty good at Lee Sin and have a youtube account too called 'tradtrad100'.My Channel with some plays. Check me out on twitch too user is same as In game name. I don't stream much though.
Ummmm.. thats it guys I hope you liked the guide.
P.S don't forget to like and leave feedback. There's also a link to my top lane trundle guide http://www.mobafire.com/league-of-legends/build/an-in-depth-guide-to-trundle-gold-standard-374463

Hawkken - BBCoding guide helped a lot
turboooo - Constructive criticism on guide
Psiguard - Moved guide into General
Foxy Riven - Table's guide

1 Million Views:

Thank you everyone for showing support to the guide, and over the years, from when I recommended blade of the ruined king on Lee Sin, to now where the guide consistently stands in top 3 Lee Sin guides in updated versions. I am pleased and proud to announce that my brainchild has reached one million views over the 7 years that I have been updating this guide. With some of my other guides reaching into multiple hundred thousand view counts, I am glad that this is the one that breaks the one million barrier as it is definitely the one I have put most thought, effort and individuality into.

10/9/14 - Added some tags, items being changed.
14/9/14 - Updates Runes and Masteries.
15/9/14 - Updated Items and bettered some of the coding.
16/10/14 - Updated Items.
24/12/14 - Added jungle routes, fixed more coding.
13/02/15 - Updates jungle items, and runes, masteries, notes, and explanations, fixed some coding. Also removed Last Whisper from the build and added new
recommended items.
15/02/15 - Added Summary Section updates runes and their layout.
30/03/15 - Remastered some items and changed some descriptions in the item section
13/04/15 - Added Trinket Section
27/04/15 - 100k views!!! THANKS EVERYONE.
1/06/15 - Updated runes, masteries and items for 5.10, also added link to champion.gg. Also added "When to Pick Lee" chapter.
15/06/15 - Fixed some spelling mistakes, still some to be hunted out though.
02/01/18 - OVERHAUL FOR SEASON 8
19/07/18 - Mid Season 8 (8.14) rune update, champion patches applied to spells, improved clarity of spoilers. Removed incorrect item set and updated recommended items.
20/07/18 - Complete rework and overhaul of matchups for (Lee,J4,Gragas,Eve,Kha,Sej,Heca,Vi,Ivern,Zac,Rengar,Kindred,Warwick,Shaco,Kayn,Amumu,Nidalee,Trundle,Fiddlesticks,Graves,Nocture,Volibear,Rek'Sai, Master Yi)
13/02/19 - Added Xin, and updated Rengar matchups.
13/02/19 - Updated for Season 9, patch 9.3 (after spellthiefs Hotfix), changed jungle paths, updated rune recommendations, and items.
11/09/19 - Updated for mid season 9 with Conqueror update, item update and rune update.
15/09/19 - Added rune shards, cleaned up summary, changed recommended items and item order, changed early game and final builds. Added headers in banners for main sections. Removed old and irrelevant items such as Titanic Hydra. Better explanation of situational items.

12/10/19 - Cleared up jungle path with bullet points.
18/11/19 - Changed Domination to Inspiration, and updated rune explanations and choices.
28/11/19 - fixed typos and old runes in icons
15/02/20 - Updated season 10 route, and added map.
28/03/20 - Updated and added matchup threats for Nunu, Kayn, Volibear, Sejuani, Gragas, Elise, Rek'Sai, Evelynn, Warwick.
30/08/20 - Removed outdated items such as pink ward and Yorick's old ghouls.
21/02/23 - Updated for Season 13 (Jungle path image still outdated.