Summary
Items
Lee Sin is a bruiser that inflicts very heavy physical damage, especially at the beginning of the game. Fortunately for his opponents, the longer the game goes, the more Lee Sin loses power and impact. You need to buy items that give you maximum power at the start of the game without sacrificing survivability.
Early game
Like any character who inflicts heavy physical damage, start with Hunter's Machete and Refillable Potion.
Boots
Generally speaking, you'll be taking defensive shoes, Ninja Tabis against a mostly AD team or Mercury Threads against a mostly AP team or one that has a lot of control spells. But when you play a game in which you have a huge lead (5/0/0 for example), don't be afraid to consider Boots of Mobility in order to maximize your lead over the entire map.
Core items
- Improved Skirmisher's Saber with the Warrior enchantment is vital on Lee Sin. With attack damage, reduced cooldowns, and an active that boosts your ability to win duels, Lee Sin becomes very difficult for opponents to deal with.
- Black Cleaver, which similarly amplify your damage and survivability by giving you a significant amount of cooldown reduction. With these two items alone, Lee Sin is probably one of the strongest duel champions.
- To complete the list, Guardian Angel. With attack damage, armour and a liability that brings you back to life, ensure maximum impact in team battles: engage on opponents' carries, kill one, die and come back to life. The time you take to resurrect should be enough for your allies to make sure you don't die directly.
Situational items
- Maw of Malmortius is the choice to be made when you need magic resistance; with the proposed build you do not miss points of life, but Lee Sin desperately needs damages to be useful to his team. Maw of Malmortius is the default choice since you already have Dead Man's Plate in your inventory.
- Sterak's Gage is the option to take if you don't need so much magic resistance for your last item slot.
How to play Lee Sin?
Passive - Flurry allows Lee Sin to gain attacking speed all the time. By alternating one spell and two automatic attacks, enjoy higher attack speed throughout the game.
Level 1: Send an automatic attack then Q - Sonic Wave followed by two automatic attacks, then apply Q - Resonating Strike, trying, if possible, to cancel the animation of each of your automatic attacks to optimize your damage per second.
Level 2: Now that you have W - Safeguard, continue to alternate your spells and auto-attacks by adding it in the rotation. W - Safeguard >aa*2> W - Iron Will > aa*2> Q - Sonic Wave > aa*2> — Q - Resonating Strike and so on.
First Back: Try to back with at least 1100 gold to buy Skirmisher's Saber, Boots and at least one Control Ward.
Match-ups
Tips & Tricks
- To destroy a Control Ward, quickly, use E - Tempest to take advantage of Passive - Flurry. It is important not to use another spell because, if you need to escape, Q - Sonic Wave or W - Safeguard will be your primary tools.
- It is essential to use Passive - Flurry to manage your energy, the first automatic attack after a spell gives you back 20 energy points, while the second only 10. So when you're in battle against a champion, don't be afraid to alternate your spells with only one automatic attack between them.
- You can cast Q - Sonic Wave towards an opponent and, with the help of Smite, kill a possible obstacle like a minion or a jungle monster. There's no better way to surprise your opponents.
- You can use Flash during the animation of R - Dragon's Rage. If you jump on an enemy champion, instead of using Flash behind him and then R - Dragon's Rage, start directly with your ultimate and use Flash wherever you want during the animation. This way, your opponent will have much less time to react and your combo will be unstoppable.
