So I decided to revise my Lee Sin guide seeing as how my other one was semi-disorganized and included jungling sections and I don't do that much anymore ;_; so I'm making a guide dedicated to top lane only! I'm also trying to organize it so it's easier to use.

If you would like something added to the guide or have any questions or comments drop them below or at any of these locations:

www.facebook.com/LoLCruzer
www.twitter.com/Cruzerthebruzer
www.twitch.tv/Cruzerthebruzer

For those who don't know me, my old name was Cruzerthebruzer, now I'm playing top for Team Legion under the tag LgN Cruzer. I'm well-known for my Lee Sin gameplay. Some of the videos in this will have the name "Two Yellow Ducks" which is my smurf around 2200 Elo, so the games are all legit as well.

Lee Sin is a mobile tanky bruiser that exceeds in early to mid game damage and peeling into the later game. Personally Lee Sin is the funnest champion for me, and I think he's fun to most people due to the high mobility.

Lee Sin has an incredibly strong laning phase and is a great duelist in lane. When he gets ahead he can punish his opponents, snowball into the mid game and become a devastating force near impossible to deal with.

The Strengths of Lee Sin:

• High mobility with his W [can be used on allied minions, allied champions, and allied wards]
• Gap closing potential with his Q [not the most reliable gap closer, but it does strong damage when targets are low]
• High damage through the early to mid game.
• Strong laning phase due to high potential of 1v1 dueling. [Has sustain, attack speed slow, high damage]
• Strong ability to invade enemy jungle.
• Good peel into the late game.

The Weaknesses of Lee Sin:

• Weaker late game then a lot of bruisers.
• Generally transitions into a peeler [tries to get targets off your allies] in the late game rather than someone who can kill people.
• Will automatically push with E and lots of fighting in lane leaving you open to ganks.
• If he falls behind he generally doesn't catch back up.
• Q is pretty unreliable, it's a harder skillshot to hit and generally there will be people infront of the targets you're trying to hit it with.

8/9/2012 -- Guide released
10/5/2012 -- Changed some items in items section.
10/21/2012 -- Some difficulties changed -- Lowered Darius from 6 to 4 -- Added vs. Darius video
11/10/2012 -- Was readding Irelia and GP match-ups [but they randomly appeared], changed wriggle's in some matches

9/21 is my build for when I'm against someone who either does hybrid damage (e.g. Kayle, Yorick, Kennen, Udyr etc.) or I'm unsure of who I'm going against and it's between a magical or a physical. I'll also run this when they're a hard match-up.

I used to go 15/15, but I think that it's more valuable to finish off the defense tree than get the life steal in the offense tree. The extra tenacity and health is nice as well as the additional movement speed.



This is my build when I know for sure who's gonna be top and I think I can hurt them with the additional armor pen.

There's some variations on this, if you feel you need the additional armor, switch from the armor pen mastery to the armor mastery in the defense tree. Also you can switch the reduce minion damage over to the armor if you want to keep the armor pen. You can also skimp on indomitable and go for Executioner in the offense tree.




Brute Force (+1 Attack Damage per point)

This will be picked up all the time, more damage makes last hitting easier, makes you do more damage to enemy champs and is all around a good choice for Lee Sin and other AD characters.

Summoner's Wrath (Extra effectiveness on Exhaust, Ignite, Ghost, and Surge)

In pretty much every summoner spell combination as Lee top you'll have something that benefits from this. If for whatever reason you don't switch a point over to Butcher for increased minion damage for last hitting.

Alacrity (+1% Attack Speed per Point)

Everything in this row is pretty meh for Lee Sin, Alacrity is the predecessor to the best mastery point for Lee and is the best stat wise for him as well.

Weapon Expertise (+10% Armor Penetration)

I run Weapon Expertise on Lee in every single build. Armor is Lee Sin's biggest weakness when it comes to actively doing damage throughout the game (with the exception of his E damage) this is a huge boost in the damage of his Q, R, and his auto attacks for the cost of one point.

Deadliness (+0.125 Attack Damage per Level per Point)

Honestly I don't know how the numbers break down exactly [for Havoc vs. Deadliness], but I know they're both pretty minor, get Deadliness for the extra last hitting potential.

Vampirism (+1% Lifesteal per Point)

Extra lifesteal is nice to couple with the sustain from your W. This will make your lane staying capabilities that much greater.

Sunder (+2 Armor Penetration per Point)

Armor penetration is very good on Lee due to his high physical damage, definitely one of the better masteries for him.


Hardiness (+2 Armor per Point)

Extra armor is really good against AD lanes and AD junglers and is a tier 1 mastery. Get it if you need armor.

Resistance (+2 Magic Resistance per Point)

Extra magic resist is good against AP lanes and AP junglers and is a tier 1 mastery. If you need magic resist get this.

Tough Skin (Reduces Minion Damage Taken by 1 per Point)

I think getting this mastery is hugely important for trading inside minions. If you auto attack an enemy champion inside of their minions, all the minions will switch targets to you, if you have points in this you take less damage. If you take 1 hit from a full wave (-Catapult), with 2 skill points you're negating 12 damage per creep wave attack cycle.

You might not realize it but creeps are a huge portion of the damage you take when you're trading inside creeps, I think it's hugely important if you plan on being aggressive against enemy champs (which Lee Sin generally should be).

Durability (+1.5 Health per Level per Point)

Extra life is nice, leads up to a good mastery.

Vigor (+1 Health Regen per 5)

This is for lack of a better mastery when going 21 into defense. It's not bad, and is nice when you can't use your W and auto attack or are getting zoned with low HP.

Indomitable (Reduces Incoming Damage by 1 per Point)

Same thing as Tough Skin, it helps negate extra minions damage only this mastery also extends to enemy champion damage. This mastery is pretty effective against dots, but the main reason is for the increased minion damage reduction, you take 24 less damage from 1 cycle of a full minion wave (-Catapult) with both Tough Skin and Indomitable.

Veteran's Scars (+30 Health)

This increases your health as much as a quint does there's not many masteries that do something that significant.

Initiator (+1% Movement Speed When Above 70% Health per point)

Movement speed is really good, helps you get to lane faster, helps you get to help other lanes father, helps you get to dragon faster.

Juggernaut (+10 Tenacity +3% Health)

Tenacity is always welcome, especially for a mastery point. The health is icing on the cake, one of the best mastery points possible.


Havoc (+0.5% Total Damage Dealt per Point)

Havoc is pretty minor I feel, I'd need someone to number crunch the comparison with Deadliness, but 0.5% per point does not seem significant enough to deal with.

Executioner (Increases Damage Dealt by 6% When the Target is Below 40% Health)

This mastery point is good, but I feel like indomitable is more important to have in the defense tree. Your damage from QRQ combos is reduced but your laning phase is amplified greatly by indomitable. Plus you have to use an additional 1-2 points to get to Executioner and they go into near-worthless things. You can go this route if you would like some extra damage and don't feel the need for indomitable.


There's nothing really here that is that great for Lee. The only mastery point that could be worth it is Summoner's Insight. The increased Energy doesn't help that much, it's nice but using 3 points gets you 1/4 of a spell cast (1/2.5 of a 2nd spell)

Most Common Runepage Setups:


Flat Magic Resist against high magical damage, hybrid damage, or AP jungles.



Scaling Magic Resist against low magical damage lanes and jungles.


Greater Quintessence of Strength (+2.25 Attack Damage)

Strongest Quint for Lee Sin. This adds damage to all his damage spells. It scales with his E unlike Armor Penetration (due to the magic damage of E but scaling with AD). These also make it much easier to last hit. I go these quints pretty much every time, but you can consider other options and make up your mind if you don't like the AD quints.

Greater Quintessence of Warding (+4.0 Magic Resist)

Can be effective against AP lanes, AP Jungle, and an AP mid. It helps negate a lot of their damage, I would never suggest these if you're against an AD lane though.

Greater Quintessence of Resilience (4.26 Armor)

Can be effective against AD lane, AD bot, and AD jungler. Helps lessen the burst from champions like Riven and Pantheon. I wouldn't advise these against an AP lane or AP jungler.

Greater Quintessence of Fortitude (+26 Health)

These are ok, I still prefer to do more damage. I don't think I've ever used this quint, but it could work if you plan on getting camped for whatever reason.

Greater Quintessence of Vampirism (+2% Lifesteal)

I haven't personally tried these, but this makes your trading weak if you have to go all-in compared to AD quints or resistance quints. These are good for sustain if you plan on avoiding all-ins (can be hard tho). As I said I haven't personally tried these, but if I saw a Lee with like no +AD I wouldn't be too afraid of them.

Greater Quintessence of Desolation (+3.33 Armor Penetration)

The main issue with Armor Penetration on Lee is that his E is magical damage and doesn't benefit at all from Armor Pen. His abilities also scale very well with AD, I'd mostly just choose AD for damage, you can consider going an Armor Pen page if you plan on getting a brutalizer in lane for additional armor penetration, but generally just go AD.



Greater Mark of Strength (+0.95 Attack Damage)

These are pretty standard. Scales with all of your skills (save for W) and will make last hitting easier.

Greater Mark of Desolation (+1.66 Armor Penetration)

If you want some Armor Penetration, but also want Attack Damage, definitely get armor penetration marks over quints. The ratio of Mark:Quint is higher in Armor Penetration.



Greater Seal of Resilience (+1.41 Armor)

These are pretty much the default on any setup. You're going to be getting hit by the enemy champion for physical damage at some point in the game. Also it reduces damage taken from minions as well as turrets. By far the best runes against AD lanes and/or AD jungles.

Greater Seal of Vitality (+1.08 Health per Level)

These are ok against no AD (on whole enemy team) and no melee harass in lane, just default Resilience on everything imo.

Greater Seal of Strength (+0.43 Attack Damage)

These are okay if you think you're gonna be picking up a lot of kills against an AP lane. They must have an AP jungler, AP mid, and preferably AP top. Seal of Resilience are just really, really good. O__O



Greater Glyph of Warding (+1.34 Magic Resist)

Best against AP jungler, AP lanes, or hybrid damage (udyr, jax, kennen etc.) lanes. I wouldn't advise these against heavy AD teams, or if their only AP is their mid.

Greater Glyph of Shielding (+0.15 Magic Resist per Level)

The break-even point for these to match Greater Glyph of Warding is level 9 and then the rest is gravy. This is good in situations where you don't plan on dealing with their AP mid until later stages in the game, and they don't have an AP jungler or AP top.

Greater Glyph of Resilience (+0.7 Armor)

These are pretty much only good if their team has 0 AP on it.

It keeps getting nerfed, but it's still really, really good. It's the best spell for avoiding ganks, great for setting up kills and allows you to do some pretty tricky things with Lee Sin [such as Flash kicking someone back to your team]. I take Flash every time on Lee.



Good for finishing off targets. Adds to your burst significantly in lane and is really good against heroes like Vladimir and Mundo who have a lot of healing.



Another summoner skill worth looking into. If your other lanes don't have exhaust I feel you should have at least one on the team to try to shut down whoever is doing the most damage on their team. This summoner is also really effective on a lane opponent like Kennen, who you can just Exhaust while they're ulting and negate a large portion of their damage.



Too nerfed to use I think. Heal ignite Lee worked for awhile but it's not that great early anymore and isn't worth losing flash for top lane.



Haven't personally tried Cleanse, but it could probably be good against high CC teams [+cc lane].



Lee's ganks are pretty strong, if you can coordinate them with teleport it can work, the problem with teleport is it makes you easier to duel against in lane, reducing the effectiveness of his laning which is one of Lee's really strong points.

After Lee Sin uses an ability, his next 2 basic attacks gain 40% Attack Speed and return 10 energy each.



This is a large part of why Lee Sin is such a great duelist, people don't realize it but the energy refund adds up pretty significantly if you can master it in trades you will be well off. Sometimes you have to spam all your skills to get anywhere, but if you can get an auto or two inbetween spell casts, it's a good idea to do so generally. This also increases his DPS significantly cause of the 40% attack speed.

There are times where people are just gonna stand and fight you and you can space out your attacks effectively to maximize your damage with flurry and keep your energy high, but sometimes you just have to use all your abilities to maximize your damage or reduce the damage you take, it's up to you to decide when those times are.



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 10% of their missing health.

Cost 50/30 energy

Cooldown 11/10/9/8/7 seconds



This is a super strong spell on low health targets. The skill shot travels pretty slowly and is pretty easy to juke at max range so consider that. A good combo is to get your E on them before you throw out your Q that way you can land your Q easier because they are closer and they will be slowed by your E.

Benefits of Leveling in Lane:

• Effective against people who can't dodge skill shots well.
• Adds a significant amount of burst against low armor targets.
• Maximizes the damage from your combo.

Negative Effects of Choosing in Lane:

• No sustain compared to W.
• Less utility than E.
• Reliant on hitting skill shots with a slower projectile.

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



Incredibly effective for escaping (ward jumping, minion jumping, ally jumping). You can use this through walls. Using this in lane can sometimes leave you open to ganks (because it is your escape if your flash is down) be careful about using it.




Benefits of Leveling in Lane:

• The shield is good against constant harass (e.g. Pantheon spear you can pretty much nullify, Malphite Q etc.)
• The additional sustain from Iron Will (the second portion of the spell) is massive, and incredibly effective against physical damage heroes due to the increased armor.
• Safest max in lane.
• Synergizes really well with Lifesteal.
• Can out sustain most heroes.

Negative Effects of Choosing :

• No damage.
• Spamming W for sustain in lane leaves you more open to ganks due to putting it on cool down.
• Harder to gank for.

Example of Ward Jumping:


Another example of Ward Jumping:



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



The slow portion is great for peeling (trying to remove Champions off your high priority targets) later into the game.

Benefits of Leveling in Lane:

• Source of magic damage against high armor targets. (e.g. Malphite, or someone with Chain Vest)
• The slow is strong in lane for dueling attack based champions. (e.g. Jax, Irelia)
• Easier to push lane.
• Easier to gank for.

Negative Effects of Choosing in Lane:

• If you're harassing with your E, you will probably be pushing the lane pretty hard, be careful of getting ganked.
• Low sustain compared to W max.
• Lower burst compared to Q max.

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



Strengths of :

• Strong peeling tool.
• Lots of damage especially on low armor targets.
• Scales extremely well with AD.
• Adds a lot of burst to Lee Sin's kit.
• Lots of CC if you hit multiple people with it.
• Lots of burst with QRQ combo.
• Knockbacks into walls act as stuns [the duration of the flight of the knockback still happens even if it's into a wall] so kicking into walls can be a good play.

Hitting Multiple People with High AD [QRQ combo as well]:


I was pretty fed in this game, so I decided to go aggressive, because they were chasing me and they were in a straight line. :)

Example of QRQ combo:


The reason for flashing was to avoid his Q stun and getting close enough that I could execute him with the 2nd portion of my Q. If I would've just activated Q, he would have probably stunned me and killed me.

QRQ combo adds the most burst to Lee Sin, the reason for this is because Lee Sin's 2nd activation of does percentage of the enemy champions missing health. And there's a decent amount of time before you have to reactivate your Q to travel to your opponent, so you can kick them away, travel to them and deal a lot of damage.

RQQ works similarly but it's incredibly less reliable.

Boots 3 pots are my standard open on most tops. The additional movement speed helps you escape ganks a little easier as well as chase/run away from your opponent.



Cloth 5 pots is pretty good against a weaker jungler when you don't expect to get ganked. With cloth 5 pots you can also take a jungle camp before creeps spawn and use that advantage to pressure your lane. (Be careful though, cause they might see you and kill you)



I usually go double dorans because all the stats they give are good for Lee. Damage helps all his abilities (save for W), lifesteal stacks well with his W, and the health allows you to exchange better and escape jungle ganks easier because you're not as squishy. Doran's blades are really strong.



After your double dorans you should consider getting a vamp if you need anymore sustain, you can build this into a or or you can just keep it as base. It greatly helps your sustain in lane, I get this vs. most high sustain lanes or if they don't have enough damage to deal with the high sustain.




Hexdrinker will go a long way against heroes like Vladimir, Rumble, and Kennen. The shield is really strong and on a short cooldown. The MR and AD are great as well. An all-around great item against an AP lane, and I usually get it after laning phase and they have an AP threat as well.





If for whatever reason you're falling behind a heavy AD lane consider getting a Doran's Shield, they're super OP.



Strong against AD lanes due to the high armor, lifesteal, and damage. This allows you to have a ward at your disposal all the time now, allowing more ward jumps and a safer lane. The main problem with Wriggle's is it delays your build, so only get it if you can only dominate your lane with it, or need it to survive your lane. I've strayed away from getting this lately and have been getting a doran's shield against harder AD matchups.



I haven't personally tested much with this. I can see it working against champions like , , and . It's really strong if you ever get the passive when you're dueling you're gonna win that duel assuming you're not super far behind, has a little extra sustain and builds into a strong late game armor item . I need to test more with Warden's Mail before I give my full opinion on it though.



There's only two boots to really consider.



These are really good in lane against AD, or auto attack based heroes. If their team is mostly AD with limited CC consider picking these up. Another thing you can do with these is just upgrade them for lane and then switch them over to when the team fights start happening. This hurts your gold but if it helps your laning significantly it's worth considering!



These are the good to boots for late game. definitely have the advantage early but when team fights start rolling in and your getting dominated inside a single CC, Merc Treads are your friend! The additional MR also helps against AP champions. In lane if you're against an AP you can get an early and later upgrade it to Merc Treads.





Ever since they changed it to only lose half your stacks I've put more stock into this. I used to go IE a decent amount because Warmogs/Atmas and Frozen Mallet/Atmas (synergized with the extra crit from IE) were solid builds, I feel like the nerf to Atmas killed it as an early item.

Bloodthirster offers you high damage due to your high AD ratios, high sustain, and if you are able to get it during laning phase it's absolutely crippling to everyone because your dueling capacity and ability to trade due to the high lifesteal is impossible to deal with.



This item is sooooooo good on bruisers. Bruisers that go into team fights tend to get focused down pretty quickly from AoE and their AD carry, with GA you can respawn after the AP has [hopefully] used all their burst. It also has a good chunk of armor. I would consider GA most games.



Me and one of my buddies Sycho Sid used to go Hextech Gunblade pretty much every time we played Lee, but they nerfed it pretty badly. Bilgewater didn't receive nerfs and is the stronger component of the gunblade [for Lee]. Almost every other lifesteal item had a nerf to it's percentage lifesteal except for this one, so it's one of the higher intermediate lifesteal items you can get.

The active on it is really strong as well, especially if you're ahead. I don't get this item too often, but I think it's worth considering against someone like a Vladimir who just tries to run away every time you engage on them.



One of the strongest armor items for Lee (Guardian's Angel is really strong as well). This can debilitate auto attackers whenever they attack, and will increase your ability to peel later into the game, or potentially duel their AD or another auto attack champion. I don't generally like getting in the laning phase too much though due to it weakening your laning phase which Lee Sin can cripple opponents in.



A solid item, but it's really, really expensive to upgrade from a phage and a giants belt, I stopped going this route very often unless it's a 3-4th item..it's hurting due to the nerf to Atma's.



Phage is still a really strong intermediate damage, medium damage increase, health, and phage procs can be crippling to the enemy lane. Get this is you need to be a little tankier in lane.



Maw of Malmortius is one of the stronger items for Lee Sin against double AP team comps. I wouldn't generally rush it unless you're having serious issues with an AP on their team, it's a good 3rd-4th item though. The shield can be a huge lifesaver and it has a little MR on it.



This item will hands down add more damage to Lee Sin than any other item late into the game. Carries start getting GAs, Tanks have Randuins or Frozen Hearts, if you want to do damage deep into late game Last Whisper is pretty required. Last Whisper helps ease the transition into late game for him, but I feel he's still weaker in the late game damage wise. If the person I'm laning against is rushing Frozen Heart, I will consider getting a Last Whisper as one of my first items so I can punish the enemy in lane.



One of the better items in the game against heavy CC teams. This is a good pick-up whenever you need more MR over Hexdrinker/Maw. QSS also gets rid of suppression effects, as well as things like Exhaust and Ignite and is definitely worth consideration if people are burning those on you.



This is ok with armor penetration runes and Q max. It kinda destroys Lee Sins availability to go the E max route because E max isn't great with flat armor penetration stack.



Good for split pushing, good against AD lanes (very good against champs like Darius).



I've underrated this too much for sure. Phage is OP item, and phage builds into mallet and trinity, and mallet kinda sucks and trinity is super op. I get this way more often now, the sustained damage is high and it adds a little more tankiness without the risk of losing BT stacks.




Used to be so amazing, it's probably slightly underrated, but ever since they nerfed the AD on it significantly I stopped getting it because it's too expensive for the wasted AP attribute, if only they would've kept the AD the same and nerfed the AP. Too expensive to buy now imo. (Spell Vamp does work with all damaging spells though, not just not magical ones)




Attack Speed is meh for Lee, and generally you don't get 3 auto's off before you do your high damage spells. It's okay if you're super far ahead, but you'd be better off getting a BT, LW, or IE.

Sample Build Progressions

On low damage teams (with a tanky jungler laning vs. AD):
Open:
Core Lane:
If Armor is Needed: or
If Armor isn't Needed:
Late Game:

The order you build the late game items depends on what you need. If there's very limited threat of AP damage in your game, there's not really a point of getting a early. The will help bolster your health especially coupled with the armor from GA. will increase your damage significantly later into the game.

synergizes well with because if you die once, you don't lose your stacks. Bloodthirster build leaves you susceptible to dying quickly in fights as well so the guardian angel will help you survive the initial burst of a team fight.

Against AP Lane
Open:
Core: 1-2
vs. Double AP or strong AP lane:
vs. Single Weak AP: or
Late Game:

Lee Sin is very strong early game. Both his and can destroy enemies in level 1 team fights depending on how you want to use them.

• is definitely better for a full-fledged level 1 fight, especially if you can get 2+ of their members in it and slow their attack speed.
• is better for when you're just trying to catch one of them out, maybe you have a blitzcrank or something. Also good at closing gaps on a single target without having to burn your flash.

I usually wait to see what's developing before I decide what ability to skill [you can quickly skill using Ctrl+Q,W,E,R when you get skill points] if someone gets caught out alone, I'll usually level Q to quickly close the gap to them while dealing a lot of damage, or if we facecheck a brush and a few of the enemies are there I'll quickly level E and try to hit them with it [if you super lose the facecheck just get out]

Early Game Damage:


Lee Sin is one of the, if not the, strongest early game champions. Each of his skills are effective at dueling in the early levels of the game. You can all-in people relatively soon especially if they overextend too much.

Riven Getting too Overextended:

Mid Game a Lee Sin with a couple farm and decent CS is a power house. Before the ADs get super farmed he can easily destroy them with his E and pain train them down.

Generally mid game people haven't started building GA or Zhonya's or similar items so you'll still be doing lots of damage. Early and mid game is where Lee really shines, if he gets a good amount of farm/kills during the laning phase, he'll be able to dominate team fights with tons of damage, good chase, and good utility. A fed Lee is one of the scariest things for his enemy.

More than likely at this stage you're going to be trying to kill their AP or their AD with your powerful burst, unless your AD is already fed, then you can peel for them if necessary. If you're pretty far behind with limited AD you should consider peeling as well.

The term peeling means just what it sounds like, trying to remove targets from your high priority targets.

Lee Sin's assassin abilities fall off pretty significantly late game unless you're ahead. At this stage you should transition into peeling for your AD carry as they scale incredibly with items and protecting them will increase your teams overall damage output by a large margin.

Ways to peel:

• W to allied AD carry, EE to slow the speed of the bruiser that's attacking them allowing the AD carry to kite more effectively, and significantly reducing the damage the enemy is doing to them.
• W to allied AD carry, R to kick them away letting your AD escape, possibly even after the enemy has used their only gap closer so they will have a hard time re-engaging on the AD carry.

Lee Sin is also good at tanking Baron especially with a and a few points in be careful for Baron's debuff if/when the enemy comes though, it's pretty crippling.

Difficulty:
3.5/10

Skill order:
>>>

Playing the Match-up:

• Careful of her Q auto, or QE combo, it does a lot of damage.
• Best time to engage is when she uses her Q to last hit a creep so it's on cooldown.
• Pay attention to her energy bar, if it's low try to force a fight.
• E her shroud to reveal her and you can burst her down.
• Hexdrinker will help significantly reduce her burst.
• Just because you can reveal her in her shroud doesn't mean she can't still do a lot of damage.
• If you need more sustain against her, pump some levels into W.
• 15 AD/13 Armor/12 MR
• 19/11 or 18/12

Difficulty:
2.5/10

Skill order:
In this match-up if I notice they're getting a lot of armor:
>>>

If they are not getting armor
>>>

Playing the Match-up:

• Pretty boring lane you'll probably just be farming up for a large part of it.
• Once you get a few levels you can start harassing him, but be wary of jungle ganks, Cho is pretty easy to gank for. If the jungler comes try your best to dodge rupture.
• Careful for his sudden burst at 6.
• If you need more sustain pump W.
• 15 AD/13armor/12 MR
• Either 9/21 masteries or 18/12 with MR.

Lee Sin vs. Cho'Gath


Unfortunately I forgot to use my CUT button before the game so the highlights split it up, and there's 30 seconds left in the game above. :(




Difficulty:
5/10

Skill order:
>>=

Playing the Match-up:

• Good Corki's will punish you early game, so be prepared to have to give up some farm due to their heavy harass.
• Once you get a few levels in W you can start sustaining his harass but careful of his burst it's deceptive.
• Corki has advantage early, and scales into late game pretty hard. Try to push your advantage once you hit around level 6, assuming you're healthy enough to do so.
• Call for ganks if you need them, Corki will probably be pushing due to attacking you often.
• 15 ad/13 armor/12 MR runes
• 9/21 masteries

Difficulty:
4/10

Skill order:
>>=

Most Darius' stack armor against Lee Sin, if this is the case level E instead of Q 2nd.

Playing the Match-up:

• Be careful of him stacking his passive on you (it's a dot that stacks every time he hits you with his Q, W, or autos)
• He does a lot of damage at 6 if he gets 5 passive stacks on you be careful!
• Super easy to gank
• Sunfire is op!
• Use your W to heal off minions, try not to get harassed down too much.
• Try to avoid fighting him until you have a significant health advantage.
• Darius usually pushes by using his Q on you, let the jungler know when they is happening as Darius is really easy to gank due to his no escapes.
• 15 AD/13 Armor/12 MR MR helps against his passive.
• 9/21 Masteries to help with his mixed damage and extra tankiness.

Difficulty:
1/10

Skill order:
>>=

If you need more sustain level W. If not level E for more killing potential.

Playing the Match-up:

• Lee Sin has the damage to kill Fiddle while he's draining [with ignite up].
• Only real threat in this match-up is strong jungler presence, Fiddle is easy to gank for due to his long fear and the silence.
• When he hits 6 he will probably try to sneak into the brush to Ult you, be careful of that.
• If he does Ult you, try to either W away to a minion, kick him away, or immediately flash out.
• Your ult interrupts the channel of his drain, use that to your advantage.
• Hexdrinker and Merc Treads are phenomenal in this match-up.
• QRQ ignite combo will destroy Fiddlesticks.
• 15 AD / 13 Armor / 12 Magic Resist
• 19/11 masteries

Difficulty:
3/10

Skill order:
>>>

Playing the Match-up:

• Whenever she activates her attack speed buff, counteract it with your attack speed slow.
• W will offer more sustain than her passive will.
• Ninja Tabis are really good against Fiora, especially if enemy team isn't CC heavy.
• 15 AD 13 Armor Scaling MR Blues (assuming you're not against AP jungler, if you are flat MR is fine)
• 19/11 or 18/12

Difficulty:
2.5/10

Skill order:
>>=

W completely shuts down Gangplank your sustain is super high with it, and he won't be able to do any damage to you.  Level E before Q if he stacks armor.  

Playing the Match-up:

• Careful in the early game!  It's the only time Gangplank can kill you!  If he hits you a couple times be wary of him chasing you down with his passive slow+dot, it does quite a bit of damage.
• Once you get level 5 he should be doing almost 0 damage to you because of the strength of your W, try to shield his parlay's that go towards you.
• Wriggle's will further dominate this match-up for you due to the armor, sustain, and damage.
• 15 AD/13 Armor/Scaling MR (assuming not against AP jungler if you are Flat MR is fine)
• 19/11 or 18/12 masteries

Difficulty:
3.5/10

Skill order:
>>=

W completely shuts down Garen, and he doesn't scale that well unless he gets a lot of kills in lane.

Playing the Match-up:

• Don't underestimate his early game damage.
• If he runs at you with a silence in the early game, just W away to safety.
• Once you get a few ranks in W, try to WW as he's coming to silence you and attack him while he's spinning on you, you should come out ahead, if not, try again at level 7.
• Wriggle's is good in this match-up as Armor generally shuts down Garen.
• If you're losing a Chain Vest can go a long way.
• 15 AD/13 Armor/Scaling MR (assuming not against AP jungler if you are Flat MR is fine)
• 18/12 or 19/11 Masteries

Difficulty:
3/10

Skill order:
>=>

Playing the Match-up:

• Hecarim is not scary in lane, just be careful of ganks because his ult can help make the gank successful.
• Your sustain should be more than his damage.
• Easy match-up, can make either E or W work out well. (Or Q if they don't go armor)
• If you need sustain get more points in W.
• 15 AD/13 Armor/12 MR
• 9/21 is safer, but you can go 18/12 or 19/11.

Difficulty:
7.5/10

Skill order:
>>>

Irelia is one of the hardest match-ups for Lee, E helps for sure to negate her true damage somewhat, but if she stuns you before you get your double E on her you're gonna take a lot of damage.

Playing the Match-up:

• Try to get your E on her when she activates her W.
• She does a lot of damage and if she plays it right she should out damage you, your sustain is higher though but be careful she's scary.
• 15 AD/13 Armor/12 MR
• 9/21 Masteries are safest.

Difficulty:
4/10

Skill order:
>>=

Playing the Match-up:

• Careful of his burst damage he hits really, really hard if he can get all his spells on you.
• He's pretty easy to gank for due to the knock-up and lock-in.
• Wriggles is good in this match-up.
• 18/12 or 19/11 Masteries
• 15 AD/13 Armor/Scaling MR (assuming not against AP jungler if you are Flat MR is fine)

Difficulty:
4/10

Skill order:
>>>

Playing the Match-up:

• Early game he'll probably try to harass you out of lane.
• W is a great tool against him as his harass is a good portion physical so the armor from Iron Will will aid you.
• Once you get your 3rd or 4th rank of W he won't be able to damage you very much and you can start harassing him.
• Doran's shield/Tabi's do a lot of work in this match-up. Wriggle's is also solid, but tabis and vamp should be plenty.
• 9/21 is safest, he has mixed damage and strong harass.
• 15 AD/13 Armor/12 Magic Resist

Difficulty:
6.5/10
Skill order:
>>>

Playing the Match-up:

• Vastly outscales you later into the game.
• He's weaker early game.
• Mixed damage so you want 13 armor/12MR from runes and 9/21 mastery page.
• If you need more sustain pump W, but it's hard to sustain against him cause he'll burst you down pretty quickly.
• E slows his attack speed significantly and his damage mostly comes from auto attacks.
• 9/21 Masteries
• 15 AD/13 Armor/12 Magic Resist

Lee Sin vs. Jax (Playing on smurf 2200~ elo) If I remember right I played really poor mid game, but the match-up is there. :P




Difficulty:
6.5/10

Skill order:
>=>

Playing the Match-up:

• If he ults your QRQ combo it can cripple a 1v1.
• is pretty debilitating for Kayle.
• Careful of his early game damage, it's really, really high.
• Wriggles will help you sustain her damage.
• Once you get a few levels of and you can out exchange her; however, you're susceptible to jungle ganks cause you gotta super extend to get close.
• 9/21 Masteries
• 15 AD/13 Armor/12 MR she does a decent portion magic damage.

Difficulty:
3/10

Skill order:

>>=

W is incredibly good against Kennen, you can pretty much auto attack creeps while spamming W and take 0 damage. His harass is pretty minor when you have a large shield. You can abuse him out of lane after a few levels of W.

Kennen is one of the champions I get Exhaust against, and you just put it on him when he ults in and it negates a lot of his damage.

Playing the Match-up:

• Utilize the strength of having your shield.
• You out damage him by a lot even with W maxed.
• You out sustain him by having W maxed.
• Try to do short skirmishes in which you dwindle at eachother's health, then heal back up with your W. Then reengage until you get to the point where you can kill him.
• 9/21 and 19/11 both work.
• 15 AD/13 Armor/12 Magic Resist, he does balanced damage.

Difficulty:
6.5/10

Skill order:
>>=

Playing the Match-up:

• Incredibly hard to all-in due to her ult.
• Her ult acts as a heal when it wears off she doesn't lose the HP she gained from it (just the max)
• Ult is unigniteable.
• Try to just sustain against her using W.
• Careful of her harass early game, it's deceptively strong.
• 9/21 Masteries
• 15 AD/13 Armor/12 Magic Resist

Difficulty:
3.5/10
Skill order:
>>>

Playing the Match-up:

• Malphite will almost always stack armor against you. E is magic damage, utilize that and punish him in lane, it will also make it hard for him to last hit.
• You have superior sustain to Malphite even with limited levels in W, you can out sustain his harass, and damage him back.
• With E maxed it's relatively easy to gank Malphite.
• Scales better later into the game than Lee.
• 9/21 Masteries, 19/11 isn't nearly as effective due to Malphite stacking armor.

Difficulty:
1/10

Skill order:
>>>

You could consider leveling E if he has super heavy armor runes and masteries or goes an early chain vest.

Playing the Match-up:

• You outsustain him.
• Impossible to die to him.
• Try not to let him farm freely by punishing him every time he comes to last hit.
• If you guys are both low and he hasn't used his ultimate be careful it gives him a lot of health.
• Careful against strong junglers Nasus can slow you significantly, if he slows you and the jungler is coming W away to minions if possible.
• 19/11 Masteries
• 15 AD/13 Armor/MR Scaling or Flat MR

Difficulty:
?/10

Skill order:
>>>

Double E whenever he puts his shield on so he doesn't get many auto attacks off.

Playing the Match-up:

• He does considerable damage with his shield up, but once it's down it's really low, so try to burst it down or just avoid fighting when it's up.
• His CC is really high so be careful of getting ganked, especially by high damage junglers.
• Don't underestimate him I think he's pretty underrated top lane.
• 9/21 Masteries
• 15 AD/13 Armor/12 MR, does mostly Magic Damage.

Difficulty:
5/10

Skill order:
>>=

E or Q is preference.

Playing the Match-up:

• One of the most annoying early game champions in the game due to her constant harass with auto attacks.
• If you die early to her it's just going to super snowball into her favor.
• Consider Wriggle's in this match-up.
• Level W because her burst damage on her Cougar is physical damage.
• Once you have a decent amount of ranks in W you can start trading more effectively or shrug off a lot of her harass.
• Try to not get too low once she has Cougar because her Q does percentage damage based on how much health you're missing.
• 9/21 Mastewries
• 15 AD/13 Armor/12 MR

Difficulty:
2/10
Skill order:
>>=

Level E over Q if he's stacking armor.

Playing the Match-up:

• You have heavy sustain with your W.
• Be wary of ganks Nunu's iceballs can make them easy to execute.
• Get some MR and he doesn't do anything.
• Nunu doesn't scale very well into late game because he only has 2 ratios (he does help the carry do more damage though)
• Consider Hexdrinker if you're getting harassed out of lane.
• Vamp is good for sustain ontop of W if you need it.
• 19/11 Masteries
• 15 AD/13 Armor/12 MR

Difficulty:
6.5/10

Skill order:
>>>

Playing the Match-up:

• His ult shuts down your , if he ults and you can't kill him, try to W away and reengage when his ults down and you can utilize your .
• If he E's you try to damage him back while it's on cool down.
• 9/21 Masteries
• 15 AD/13 Armor/MR Scaling

Difficulty:
3/10

Skill order:
>>>

Playing the Match-up:

• The only time he can really do anything to you is before you get armor, be careful in the early stages (unless he overextends then just kill him).
• Your W is incredibly debilitating to Pantheon when you get a few ranks, you can outsustain his harass until he runs out of mana, and the second activation of your W increases your armor by a considerable amount.
• Consider a wriggle's/dorans shield in this match-up for further domination.
• 19/11 or 18/12 Masteries.
• 15 AD/13 Armor/MR Scaling

Difficulty:
4/10
Skill order:
>>>

Playing the Match-up:

• Early on in the game she's pretty annoying cause of her high burst, once your W is ranked you can out sustain her mana pool.
• She vastly outscales you so be careful of letting her freefarm. Try to harass her once you get a few levels of W.
• 9/21 Masteries
• 15 AD/13 Armor/12 Magic Resist

Difficulty:
3/10

Skill order:
>>=

E or Q depending on preference, E preferred against high armor.

Playing the Match-up:

• If you lose this match-up it's going to be early on in the game, BE CAREFUL EARLY he does a lot of damage.
• Once you get a few ranks in W, double W he's burst and attack him back.
• Careful at 6 he gains a lot of damage and health with his ultimate.
• 19/11 or 18/12
• 15 AD/13 Armor/Scaling MR

Difficulty:
5/10

Skill order:
>>>

Playing the Match-up:

• Try to get Iron Will (double W) up before she bursts you.
• Don't fight her straight up when she has ult on, reengage after it's down.
• Effectively trade and then lifesteal back up, Riven has limited sustain and you have high sustain with W.
• Wriggle's is strong in this match-up.
• 19/11 or 18/12 Masteries
• 15 AD/13 Armor/MR Scaling

Difficulty:
3.5/10

Skill order:
>>>

Playing the Match-up:

• Try to utilize your QRQ combo.
• If they're running from you that's good, he's doing very low damage due to his flames shooting infront of themselves.
• Hexdrinker is effective in this lane.
• 18/12 Masteries
• 15 AD/13 Armor/12 Magic Resist

Difficulty:
4/10

Skill order:
>>>

Playing the Match-up:

• Careful of ganks his taunt makes it easy to pick up kills with jungler help.
• Don't underestimate his damage it's pretty high.
• With a few ranks of W you out sustain him.
• Make sure to push hard whenever he teleports to other lanes.
• Double Dorans Vamp and either Mastery Page with 15ad/13arm/12mr.
• 9/21 Masteries
• 15 AD/13 Armor/12 Magic Resist

Difficulty:
?/10

Skill order:
>>>

Playing the Match-up:

• Don't underestimate her damage, it's pretty high especially if she auto attack resets with her Q.
• Can out sustain her with W just don't fully engage cause she has a decent amount of damage.
• Wriggle's is a good choice here
• 9/21 Page for extra MR and Armor
• 15 AD/13 Armor/12 Magic Resist

Difficulty:
4/10
Skill order:
>>>

Playing the Match-up:

• Hexdrinker goes a long ways.
• If you get ahead of him, just pump skill points into E and keep killing him.
• If he goes double gp10 you can win every exchange.
• Careful for ganks the fling and puddle can hurt you a lot especially if you just used W to sustain.
• Careful for catalyst procs when engaging.
• 18/12 Masteries
• 15 AD/13 Armor/12 Magic Resist

Difficulty:
1.5/10
Skill order:
>>>

Playing the Match-up:

• W completely shuts down Talon. The shield is enough to negate his Rake damage and the Iron Will portion is super strong against him as well.
• You can go Wriggle's but don't necessarily need to, if you need more armor or sustain it's fine.
• Armor shuts down Talon, Sustain shuts down Talon, Lee's W has both.
• 19/11 Masteries
• 15 AD/13 Armor/Scaling Magic Resist

Difficulty:
4/10

Skill order:
>>>

Playing the Match-up:

• It's really hard to hit him with Q because of his speed.
• You can all-in him early and get a kill and he will feed you.
• Ganks are effective early on him.
• W will help sustain his damage.
• Get either Vamp Scepter or Wriggle's Lantern
• 9/21 Masteries
• 15 AD/13 Armor/12 Magic Resist

Difficulty:
I only remember playing against this once and I have the video.
1/10
Skill order:
Any level E if he's stacking armor (which he probably will be)

Playing the Match-up:

• I don't know what he could possibly do to you to kill you, and you can kill him so.. have fun.
• 19/11 Masteries
• 15 AD/13 Armor/Scaling MR

Difficulty:
3.5/10
Skill order:
>>>

Playing the Match-up:

• Get additional points in W if you need more sustain
• Wriggle's Lantern is good against Tryndamere
• The E slow is debilitating to Tryndamere, get your 2nd proc on E on him and then engage. Back out when his attack speed recovers, then repeat.
• Careful with E it will pretty much auto push your lane.
• 19/11 Masteries
• 15 AD/13 Armor/MR Scaling

Difficulty:
7.5/10

Skill order:
>=>

Leveling W or E based on if you need more sustain or damage.

Playing the Match-up:

• One of Lee's harder match-ups.
• Try to engage on him early and possibly get a kill, careful for jungler presence though.
• If you snowball early you can generally punish him.
• If he stacks armor E is worth considering, if you're snowballing E is good to stop him from attacking you.
• Go 9/21 masteries as Udyr's Tiger Stance actually does Magical Damage despite scaling with AD.
• 15 AD/13 Armor/12 Magic Resist

Snowballed this game early and pressed advantage hard, if you can't get something like this to happen Udyr will become too tanky to deal with and will still do damage.




Difficulty:
4.5/10

Skill order:
You can max whatever here. I usually get a couple points in W to sustain against him though. If he's stacking armor start prioritizing E, if he's not and you can land a skillshot level Q.

Playing the Match-up:

• He's pretty squishy utilize this for damaging him.
• Abuse him early if possible.
• Careful of getting ganked by jungler, if Vlad gets ahead he gets a little mean.
• Hexdrinker is very good in this match-up.
• Vlad scales so hard so don't let it get too out of control if you can help it.
• 19/11 Masteries
• 15 AD/13 Armor/12 Magic Resist

Difficulty:
?/10

Skill order:
>=>

Playing the Match-up:

• I haven't played this match-up so it's hard to comment. Voli usually pretty strong in lane though.
• If you need more sustain max W, if you can kill max E.
• E will cripple his damage because he's primarily auto attack based.
• 9/21 Masteries
• 15 AD/13 Armor/12 Magic Resist

Difficulty:
3/10
Skill order:
>=>

Playing the Match-up:

• A lot of Warwicks will go heavy armor against you and just out sustain you, but to counter that max E and you will do a lot of damage to him.
• Consider a couple points in W before maxing E (evaluate if you need sustain)
• You can push him to turret and roam (dragon, gank mid, gank jungle, take jungle), he doesn't have a good way of pushing back.
• A null-magic will hurt his damage by a bit.
• 19/11 Masteries
• 15 AD/13 Armor/12 Magic Resist

Difficulty:
2.5/10
Skill order:
>>>

Can transition to Q if you find yourself not needing anymore sustain/armor against him. (Usually happens rank 3-4)

Playing the Match-up:

• 3-4 Ranks of W and then laugh at his lack of damage compared to your sustain.
• Double Dorans Vamp or Dorans Wriggles is good.
• Bully him out of lane.
• 19/11 Masteries
• 15 AD/13 Armor/12 Magic Resist

Difficulty:
?/10
Skill order:
>>>

Playing the Match-up:

• Haven't played the match-up, but Xin gets crushed by attack speed slows.
• E makes him much easier to gank because of the high slow, and xin is already susceptible to ganks.
• If you need more sustain level W.
• 19/11 Masteries
• 15 AD/13 Armor/12 Magic Resist

Difficulty:
5/10

Skill order:
>>>

Playing the Match-up:

• Careful of ganks, if he gets ahead it can get ugly.
• Try to sustain off his ghouls with Iron Will
• Get Wriggle's or Vamp.
• It gets to the point where he just does 0 damage to you assuming he doesn't get kills.
• 9/21 Masteries
• 15 AD/13 Armor/12 Magic Resist

I personally use Shift + Q,W,E,R to smart cast rather than rebinding all my keys it's a matter of preference and you can rebind your keys if you want to.

The default for self casting your W is Alt + W. You can change that in your key bindings settings as well, but I wouldn't change it to the default because you need to use your W on allied creeps, allied wards, and allied champions to be effective.

You can setup your hotkeys to smart cast items if you would like, I personally don't because I've been playing since before smart cast and I've always just used Shift + whatever button to smart cast if I need to.

Mastering Ward Jumping is important

Wards have a slightly shorter range than Lee Sin's HOWEVER you can place wards at a greater distance over terrain and will be unable to jump to them.
Example:


Also warding important vision locations will make your wards not go to complete waste.
Example:


There's multiple reasons why placing a ward in this brush to jump to is good. It goes over a wall, it's a common gank route for the enemy jungler, you finish inside a brush (so they lose vision of you), and warding gives you vision to see if anyone is coming from either direction so you can decide which direction to go after the jump.

If you can't ward somewhere that's common, but the ward jump will save you definitely still use it.

Ward jumping can also help you close a gap to kill someone as it can act as an additional flash.

Be careful when you place your ward that your is actually off cool down, even I occasionally even ward too early and stunt my ward jump to a super short distance.

This is copied from my other guide.

Here's a section that really has nothing to do with Lee Sin, but will help you gain elo without wanting to pull your hair out.

If you are blamed, even if it's not your fault, either don't say anything or ignore the person. A lot of people attack just to get a rise out of you or to justify their poor play. You fighting back won't get anything done, and it makes you look stupid.

If you criticize someone at all make sure it is constructive! Most the time even constructive criticism gets a negative response so be careful when you use it. If they attack you for that, ignore it, don't get flustered, and don't offer that person advice ever again.

If you lose a game, it's not a big deal, no need to spout off "Well my team this, my team that, bla bla bla bla" you lost, get over it, requeue and play better.

Make sure you realize your mistakes! Too many players are way too concerned about how poor their team did and don't even notice that they made mistakes, this is unacceptable to people trying to improve. You cannot improve if you don't know what to improve on.

If you want to troll, don't queue for ranked, better yet, don't queue at all and possibly go rethink your attitude.

Following all these guidelines will surely boost your Elo, and I know, you're only low elo because your team sucked (everyone's been there), your internet is bad (everyone's been there), but you're the perfect player.

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