Many players swear that Lee Sin is an unlimited champion. He’s been one of the best jungle picks in all metas throughout the years. And honestly, you can build Lee Sin however you like – a fighter, a tank, an AP support, or as an assassin.
However, if you really want to carry games, the best build for Lee Sin in season 13 of League of Legends is the lethality build!
If you’ve never tried to play lethality Lee Sin in s13, I’m here to prepare you for it. In this guide, I’ll talk about the necessary runes and items you’ll need to be a one-shotting machine with this champion.
However, I’ll start this guide with some practical tips on how to play and win games with the lethality Lee Sin build.
So, check them out first before copying the runes and items below!
And check this video if you want to see how I play lethality Lee Sin mid!
How to Play Lethality Lee Sin – Build Breakdown
The standard build for Lee Sin in season 13 is pretty tanky. It consists of fighter and tank items that allow Lee Sin to heal himself and fight endlessly. However, this is NOT the case with lethality Lee Sin.
The lethality Lee Sin playstyle has one clear strength – one-shot an enemy champion. And when I say one-shot, I really mean it. The damage of lethality Lee is so high that he can quickly slay anyone in the game, even tanks.
You simply need a proper combo and even Ornn can be executed in a matter of seconds.
But because you get so much armor penetration, damage, and ability haste, you lose all survivability and tankiness. In other words, you can’t expect to survive prolonged team fights with this Lee build.
You must understand that your best chance of winning is to quickly assassinate an opponent and turn the fight into 5v4 early on.
If you play lethality Lee Sin on lane such as mid, make use of his mobility and take advantage of his early game damage.
Basically, you can trade with your opponent as early as level 1 or 2. Just dash in with your Q, activate Electrocute for extra damage, and quickly return to safety with W. And if you have Ignite, you can also go for a kill.
Sitting in a brush and waiting for an enemy to one-shot them is a great tactic for lethality Lee Sin. Because you have so much single-target damage, you can take red wards and camp a brush for the enemy jungler or laners.
And depending on the enemy team composition, you can repeatedly get kills this way and feed off of that.
And that’s playing lethality Lee Sin in s12 LoL in a nutshell. However, there are many different things that can influence the success of this build, so it’s best to understand how the different runes and items work and come together.
Read Also: Top 15 Best Off-Meta Supports
Lethality Lee Sin – Runes (Explained)
- Electrocute
- Sudden Impact
- Eyeball Collection
- Ultimate Hunter
- Triumph
- Coup de Grace
ELECTROCUTE is simply the best offensive keystone for all assassins, including the Lee Sin. Electrocute increases your burst by dealing bonus damage after you’ve struck an enemy champion 3 times in a row.
Lee Sin has many ways to proc Electrocute (Q+Q+AA, Q+Q+E, Q+E+AA, etc.). However, since the best mythic item for lethality Lee Sin is Prowler’s Claw, you can activate Electrocute even sooner.
Additionally, your Eleectrocute will deal more damage because of the Prowler’s Claw active. So, always take Electrocute on lethality Lee Sin!
SUDDEN IMPACT is a rune that perfectly fits Lee Sin’s playstyle. It grants him bonus armor penetration any time he dashes with his Q or W. This rune can always increase your damage done, especially in the early game.
Sudden Impact has only 4 seconds of cooldown. In other words, you get additional armor penetration each time you attack your opponent with Lee Sin’s Q.
EYEBALL COLLECTION is the most useful rune in the third row of the Domination page in most situations. Basically, it increases your AD as you collect stacks from champion takedowns.
And at maximum stacks (10), you get a total of 18 AD. This is actually pretty good in the early-mid game, so it’s worth taking.
ULTIMATE HUNTER is another important rune if you want to play lethality Lee Sin. Its only purpose is to lower the cooldown of Lee Sin’s R as much as possible so you can use it more frequently and create plays around Summoner’s Rift.
Although the lethality Lee Sin build has so much damage, the main source of damage for Lee Sin is his ultimate – Dragon’s Rage.
Having this ability on a 20-30 seconds cooldown is crucial because it will allow you to one-shot anyone on the map.
TRIUMPH is a great rune for Lee Sin, especially the lethality playstyle. It restores 12% of your missing health when you get a kill or an assist after a 1-second delay.
And because the lethality build offers no self-healing, having Triumph is actually pretty helpful.
Triumph can save you in so many different situations, especially clutch team fights. So, I recommend you always have this rune in all of your games.
COUP DE GRACE is the last rune you need to pick up on lethality Lee Sin in LoL s12. Basically, Coup de Grace allows you to deal 8% more damage to enemy champion below 40% HP.
In other words, this rune increases your burst potential and helps you secure more kills overall.
Read Also: Full Lethality Renekton Build Guide
Optional Runes for Lethality Lee Sin
Even though this is your bread and butter rune page for Lee Sin, some optional runes should also be considered, especially in certain situations.
For example, First Strike is a fantastic keystone for one-shotting an enemy champion. It allows you to deal 10% more damage for 3 seconds and grants you bonus gold.
Of course, if you decide to play with First Strike, I’d recommend you get Sudden Impact and Ultimate Hunter from Domination as secondary runes.
Another great rune for lethality Lee sin in season 13 of League of Legends is Dark Harvest. This is a scaling keystone that gives you so much damage in the late game. And it works perfectly with Galeforce’s active.
And lastly, you can always go for Bone Plating and Overgrowth from Resolve. These runes will help you survive the early game, especially if you’re playing Lee in a lane and not the jungle.
Read Also: How to Do Lee Sin InSec Kicks in LoL? (Step-by-Step Guide)
Lethality Lee Sin – Items (Explained)
- Prowler’s Claw
- Axiom Arc
- The Collector
- Edge of Night
- Serylda’s Grudge
- Ionian Boots of Lucidity
PROWLER’S CLAW is the best lethality mythic item for Lee Sin in s12. Not only does it grants AD, ability haste, and lethality, but it also has an active that makes Lee Sin one of the best assassins in the game.
When you activate Prowler’s Claw, you dash behind the enemy champion, dealing a bit of physical damage in the process and increasing your damage done to them by 15% for 3 seconds.
And it doesn’t matter which combo you perform after using this item because your damage will be too high anyway.
My favorite combo is Q + Prowler’s Claw + R + Q + E.
Prowler’s Claw also gives you the opportunity to kick an enemy back to your team.
In other words, Prowler’s Claw is a much easier version of the “InSec” kick because you always end up behind the champion after using it. It has only 90 seconds cooldown, so every minute and a half you’re ready for a kill!
AXIOM ARC is the second item I want you to get when you play lethality Lee Sin. As I explained above, having Lee’s R available every 20 or 30 seconds is really broken because it deals so much damage.
Axiom Arc significantly lowers the cooldown of your ultimate upon champion takedowns. And combined with all this ability haste, it almost turns Dragon’s Rage into a basic ability.
So if you want to make plays and always have kill potential with Lee Sin, get Axiom Arc!
THE COLLECTOR is another lethality item that fits this whole playstyle really well. It grants you a bit of attack damage, a bit of critical strike chance, and a bit of lethality.
However, it automatically executes enemy champions below 5% HP when you fight them, so it helps you secure more kills per game overall.
EDGE OF NIGHT is my personal recommendation when it comes to defensive lethality items for Lee Sin. This item gives you a spell shield that blocks the next projectile or single-target ability cast on you.
And because there are so many abilities that you need to dodge in each match, Edge of Night helps out a lot.
On the other hand, this lethality build makes Lee Sin extremely squishy, so you need a bit of defensiveness. Edge of Night can help you perform your combo and eliminate an enemy champion without being stopped.
SERYLDA’S GRUDGE is the best late game lethality item for Lee Sin. It grants 30% armor penetration when completed, allowing you to one-shot even tanks.
It also slows your enemies when you damage them, allowing you to kick them much easier.
IONIAN BOOTS OF LUCIDITY are the boots that go perfectly with lethality Lee Sin. For a price of only 950 gold, you get increased movement speed and 20 ability haste.
In the early game, this is really powerful, so you should always pursue it.
But if you need more tenacity or armor, Mercury’s Treads and Plated Steelcaps are good options too.
Read Also: Lethality Volibear Build Guide
Optional and Situational Items for Lethality Lee Sin
As with the runes, there are plenty of items that work fantastically well for Lee Sin.
For example, Eclipse is my recommended lethality item for this playstyle if you’re facing tanks or you need extra survivability. Similarly, Galeforce can help you chase down mobile enemies and execute them from afar.
And lastly, Duskblade of Draktharr can be the most powerful lethality mythic item for Lee if you don’t like using Prowler’s Claw.
On the other hand, if you need to combat shields in League of Legends, Serpent’s Fang is the item to go for. And if there are many tanks in the game, countering them with Lord Dominik’s Regard is always an option.
Read Also: Lethality Aatrox Build Guide
Conclusion
Playing lethality Lee Sin in LoL s12 is tons of fun. I’ve played over 300 games of Lee Sin this season, and over half of them were with the build you see above.
Quickly dashing to enemies and one-shotting them with Prowler’s Claw is so powerful I’ve carried many games, even in high elo.
And that’s all there is to it! I hope this guide was helpful to you! You can always browse Runetarium for similar guides on your favorite champions!
Good luck and have fun!
