Lee Sin has been historically one of the most played early game junglers, known for his aggression, flashy plays, and the infamous InSec kick. With high damage and tons of mobility, Lee Sin was always an unpleasant sight to see if you were on the receiving end of his ganks. However, players around the globe have begun playing Lee Sin in a more unconventional role; as a powerful solo laner. His strengths as a mid and top laner have proven so great that Lee Sin's most popular role at MSI 2021 is no longer in the jungle, but as a top laner. Why are the pros suddenly playing Lee Sin in lanes? What makes him a strong pick? How do you play him? I'll cover these questions and more in this article.

Why is Lee Sin being played in Solo Lanes?

Lee Sin the Blind Monk has been receiving small buffs ever since Season 9, which gave him significantly more durability and damage, which although intended for his jungle performance, have greatly increased his effectiveness as a Mid/Top laner. But that's not the full story; after all, his play rate Mid and Top haven't been increasing as he received buffs.

He has likely been a strong solo laner for months now, but nobody really stopped to think about whether he should be a solo laner - except for Dopa. On March 28, 2021, Reddit user u/woohyuckl posted a quote from Dopa in one of his YouTube videos:

“The characters that I am keeping an eye on are Xin Zhao and Lee Sin. Not jungle Lee Sin but laner Lee Sin. No matter how I look at it, his skill set seems to be a laner now. Especially top, from how I see it, Top Lee Sin is going to be up soon. People are gonna play it a while and realise that Lee Sin is no longer a Jungle but a Lane”

For those uninitiated with Dopa's name, he is commonly regarded among the League Community as one of the greatest League of Legends players to ever play the game. He is known for hitting Rank 1 on the Korean and Chinese servers at astonishingly high win rates, and in his past, was undoubtedly the best and most effective elo booster. So when Dopa says that Lee Sin should theoretically be a strong laner, tons of players are bound to try it.

Coupled with another buff to his E - Tempest in patch 11.8, and his popularity as a solo lane king grew even greater. With pros adopting an E max build and rushing an early Ironspike Whip, Lee Sin has found a role as a high sustain and high waveclear melee fighter, who is able to get priority for his jungler while still holding his own in a 1v1 against his lane opponent.

Today, Lee Sin is recognized as a great blind pick Top laner, with strong laning, few losing matchups, and all the playmaking potential associated with Lee Sin.

How to play Lee Sin in a solo lane

Disclaimer: Due to the complexity of the mechanics associated with Lee Sin, as well as the age of the champion, this guide won't go very in-depth on how to teamfight and combo with Lee Sin. There are plenty of guides and YouTube videos that would do a better job of explaining the mechanics associated with Lee Sin; instead, we will focus on his trading patterns, itemization, and identity in the game that are unique to Lee Sin as a laner. If you're new to Lee Sin in general, but want to learn how to play him, check out the videos and resources at the end of the article.

Runes

Conqueror → Triumph → Legend: Tenacity → Last Stand is by far Lane Lee Sin's most popular rune page. Pair it with Bone Plating → Revitalize in the Resolve tree, and you'll be ready to duke it out against even the strongest early and late game threats.

Conqueror is the most effective keystone on Lee Sin due to how quickly he can stack it, as well as how well it compliments his playstyle. A Q1 → Q2 → Auto → E1 → Auto →E2 → Kick combo will fully stack Conqueror, after which anyone else unfortunate to get hit by Sonic Wave is going to feel the extra 15 - 36 AD the rune provides. The healing from Triumph allows you to make more ambitious tower dives, as well as sustain longer in teamfights. Because Lee Sin gets both attack speed and lifesteal from his passive and Iron Will, Legend: Tenacity ends up being the best in-slot to cover his inability to deal with CC. And since Lee Sin is a melee fighter that benefits from items such as Sterak's and Death’s Dance, Last Stand provides the most raw damage in-slot when you are in the middle of a tricky fight. In case you didn't know, Last Stand provides the full 11% extra damage when you are below 30% missing HP - which is exactly when the massive shield from Sterak's Gage pops.

Resolve becomes the next best pairing for Lee Sin, due to the synergy of Revitalize with your constant healing and shielding. Especially against ranged matchups, getting more effectiveness out of Safeguard//Iron Will keeps you healthier early and allows you to dominate harder. Bone Plating then allows you to block high amounts of damage in a trade if you play around its cooldown. But if you're playing against ranged champions that poke you often and will proc Bone Plating too early, Revitalize becomes a great option for keeping your sustain high, especially when paired with a Doran's Shield.

Summoner Spells

Your bread and butter is Flash and Teleport. Teleport allows you to maintain pressure in your lane with good bases, as well as ensuring you don't lose tons of CS if you make a mistake or die early. Later in the game, Teleport is absolutely crucial if you want to catch waves on the side while objectives like Baron are up, or if you want to have any split push pressure at all.

However, if you're playing Mid Lee Sin, you can occasionally take Ignite if playing against champions with strong innate healing in their kit. Sylas, Ekko and sometimes Vladimir are examples of champions where Grievous Wounds becomes extremely valuable to gain early leads and kill your lane opponent. It also removes the need for you to have to spend 800g on an early Executioner’s Calling. Despite the benefits of Ignite, Teleport still usually ends up being more useful, as it also provides a safety net if you fall behind.

Laning

Lee Sin boasts a strong early game, who if allowed to get any kills, will be able to snowball his lead against almost any other champion.

As mentioned earlier, Sololane Lee Sin benefits from an E max playstyle that offers strong waveclear, especially once you've bought an Ironspike Whip. This may sound odd, as jungle Lee Sin maxes Q first. The strength of E max is twofold: Firstly, it gives your waveclear more oomph, which is important for securing priority in your lane. If you have the option of quickly shoving your wave on command, you can easily set up dives on your lane opponent with your jungler, move to scuttle crabs and roam to other lanes, without missing a large amount of CS. Secondly, it allows you to take short, noncommittal trades, while still having the damage to hold your own in an all-in. Whereas with Q max you can only trade if you manage to hit Sonic Wave, you can poke your opponents through the wave with Tempest, which when maxed, starts to really hurt. Moreover, Tempest does magic damage to enemies hit by it, despite it scaling with 100% physical damage. So armor items such as Plated Steelcaps and Bramble Vest become much less effective when your main trading tool is actually magic damage.

Your starting item choices come down to Doran's Blade or Doran's Shield. Doran's Blade is great for taking advantage of enemies that you can consistently trade with, as it offers you a great blend of durability and damage. Generally, this is your item of choice.

Doran's Shield is much better suited for ranged matchups, where your control of the lane early on is a little more limited. Doran's Shield, combined with your lifesteal from Iron Will will allow you sustain the poke of most mages or ranged champions, until they run out of mana and have to base.

Level E → W → Q for strong short trades and wave control, allowing you to push the wave at your leisure and chunk out your opponent. Alternatively, if you have a spicy level 1 and you think you can get a solokill, E → Q → W gives you more damage earlier to cheese a quick kill.

Against ranged champions, such as Orianna or Gnar, going W → E → Q or W → Q → E along with Doran's Shield & Second Wind provides plenty of safety in the early levels. In general, you need to wait until you're level 3-5 to effectively trade against most ranged or poke lanes, so with this start you play to collect CS with the safety of your W, and stay healthy with Doran's Shield sustain.

When shoving waves or trying to take towers, make sure to weave spells according to your autos so that you keep up the attack speed from Flurry. Lee Sin is one of the best champions for taking plates due to Flurry, so make sure you're using it properly.

Also do your best to keep at least one ward available at all times, whether it be a pink ward or your trinket. Having the option to wardhop (W - Safeguard to a ward) at all times allows you to make tons of creative plays, and is one of Lee Sin's most impactful mobility options. Your jungler is coming for a gank? Don't rely on hitting Sonic Wave to set up the gank; instead, wardhop directly to your opponent and use the slow from Tempest//Cripple to set up the gank for your jungler, or InSec (Dragon's Rage → Flash) the enemy directly toward your jungler. Enemy jungler is coming to gank you? Wardhop easily allows you to dodge any skillshot, and when combined with the slow from Tempest//Cripple and the knockback from Dragon's Rage, Lee Sin proves to be a difficult champion to lock down on a gank.

Perhaps one of the least appreciated uses for Lee Sin's wardhop is as a zoning and trading tool. Wardhopping is a great way to catch your opponent off guard, and earn yourself an extremely favorable trade. If your opponent has just used a valuable cooldown, and is backing off, a well placed wardhop can allow you to force a trade when followed up by Sonic Wave / Resonating Strike or Tempest / Cripple. The best part about this? The ward will remain there once the trade has finished - meaning that you can reuse that ward over and over again to force trades or get solokills onto your opponent. In other words, by keeping a ward in the middle of the lane, you can effectively zone your opponent by threatening a wardhop at any time.

Some extra tips: Ironspike Whip's active, Crescent, complements Lee Sin's aoe on Tempest, so much so that at 3 points into Tempest, a Tempest → Crescent combo will instantly kill all the caster creeps of a minion wave. So if your opponent likes to hide behind their casters to dodge Sonic Wave, you can surprise them by just removing them from the equation entirely.

Resonating Strike, besides allowing you to dash to your enemy, will also deal more damage based on the target's missing health. Thus, if you don't need to use it to gap close, delaying your Resonating Strike to use your other spells will allow you to get better trades, and potentially snag kills you wouldn't be able to otherwise.

If you land Sonic Wave on the opponent, you can delay recasting Resonating Strike in order to decrease the cooldown of your next Sonic Wave. The cooldown of Sonic Wave decreases even while the recast, Resonating Strike, is available.

Itemization

If you're relatively even or ahead of your lane opponent, look to pick up Ironspike Whip as soon as possible, then build into Goredrinker. If you need some defensive items, Plated Steelcaps or Merc Treads are solid boots for Lee Sin. You can also consider a Bramble Vest or Spectre's Cowl if you've really fallen behind in your matchup.

Goredrinker is the best mythic item in-slot for Lee Sin. It provides a great blend of AD, Ability Haste and Health, not to mention its incredibly impactful active Thirsting Slash, and a Mythic Passive that provides 5 Ability Haste with each legendary item purchased. Furthermore, it builds out of Ironspike Whip, which as mentioned above gives you the option to clear waves much quicker than you could otherwise.

Sterak's Gage is a solid second item, especially if you've taken the Last Stand rune. It offers you even more healing, a massive Lifeline shield, all while still providing you plenty of AD.

Black Cleaver is a great second or third item, which offers much less tankiness compared to Sterak's Gage, but increases your effectiveness against tanks on the sidelane. If your team is full AD, consider picking this up second instead of third.

Death's Dance is another excellent 3rd item option, a much more defensive option than Black Cleaver. Its passive, Ignore Pain can save your life in a lot of situations, and the item generally provides a good statline.

If the game has gone long enough that you need to consider your 4th and 5th items, Lee Sin can do well with almost any combination of tank or bruiser items. Thornmail, Guardian Angel, Randuin's Omen, Spirit Visage, Chempunk Chainsword, the list goes on. Whatever you feel like you need, you can pick up.

When do I pick Lee Sin?

In solo queue, Lee Sin top does great as both a blind pick and counter-pick. With creative playmaking, he can fit many niches for your team composition, whether it be as engage, a tanky meatball, or a backline threat. If you're confident in the champion, Lee Sin is a versatile and strong pick in the meta.

The same can't be said for Lee Sin mid, however. Due to the shorter lane, Lee Sin has a harder time punishing his lane opponent, and oftentimes the source of magic damage for a team composition comes from the Mid laner. Champions like Syndra or Heimerdinger can match or neutralize his early aggression, making him considerably weaker and less effective. He still works great as a counter-pick to weak or low range mages and assassins, but be wary that he is not as universally effective in the midlane. His biggest strength Mid is that, after Ironspike Whip, you can easily clear waves mid and roam to other lanes.

In a competitive setting, Lee Sin's versatility allows him to be picked very early in the draft as a flex pick and as a strong laner. Teams like C9 at MSI have been picking him as early as B1 or R1/R2, with the idea that Lee Sin will almost always guarantee them a winning top or mid matchup. Even if the enemy counter-picks the Lee Sin, he is often still safe enough to absorb jungle pressure and play a weakside scaling style. So if your laners are able to play Solo lane Lee Sin, making your draft strategy to first pick it every game is definitely an easy way to come out of the draft with an advantage.

Conclusion

That covers just about everything about Lee Sin’s unique role as a solo laner! To recap, due to numerous buffs over the last few seasons, plus a bold claim about the blind monk from Dopa, Lee Sin has claimed his throne as one of the strongest solo lane picks in S11. With his strong sustain, dueling, and waveclear, Lee Sin might just be what you need to climb the ranks this season.

If you need to learn some of Lee Sin’s combos and mechanics, these following videos may help you:

Good luck on the Rift!