My Opinion: Lee Sin

Lately as a jungle main, I have seen Lee Sin shift around in the ever-changing meta. Most people see him as a bruiser who gets a few damage items and finishes tank. Others see him as a full on tank because of his base damage. However, in this new Season 6, I see him as an assassin.

New items, item changes, and general itemization have completely reworked Lee's ability to scale into the late game. Obviously, most people get the Warrior Enchantment on a Tracker's Knife because of the AD and CDR on the enchantment along with 2 wards to dash around with. After that, it tends to be Black Cleaver into Deadman's Plate, and straight tank thereafter. After experimenting, I have found out that this build tends to fall off late game because many other champions scale significantly harder than the blind monk. Unfortunate. Not wanting one of my favourite junglers to be considered useless, I experimented with an AD Assassin build.

The build consists of Warrior Enchant on Tracker's Knife and Black Cleaver, as these both scale well with Lee Sin's abilities. Straight off of a pair of boots to keep up with my targets, I get Death's Dance and Youmuus (Death's Dance for sustain, Youmuus for armor pen and ability scale). This build scales Lee insanely hard into the late game. His ultimate does tons of damage [:^)]. His Q is more than just a gap closer and execute; on it's own, it becomes a burst attack. His E is an AOE shred. He continues to one shot squishies, yes, but it is more guaranteed to close the kill when the ult does well over 1k damage on it's own, making it much more reliable as an execute attack rather than a disengage or an execution setup.

Now begs the question- how much does he sacrifice for this damage? Well, it is a given that he is no longer as tanky, meaning diving turrets is a tad more difficult and his ability to survive a team fight becomes more reliant on dead enemies and strategic mobility. It also means Lee Sin can no longer initiate team fights as a front line. Instead, he follows up the front line.

Currently, I don't know the required skill level to effectively use this build. Perhaps it requires knowledge of what an assassin can do to to enemies, or maybe the knowledge of the champion itself and what they can and can't withstand, or maybe just the ability to land a Q-Q and land them in the E-R [:^)].

Side note: There are more items you can build with this. Maw of Malmortius is an excellent option, along with Duskblade of Drakthar if you've gotten that far ahead and you see it as a viable pick. Just keep in mind that the itemization revolves around Lee being a caster assassin; auto attacks are existent but don't have nearly as much output as his abilities.

I've supplied one match history. That will definitely not be enough to support that this works to the fullest, especially since the enemy team got decimated early on, but I may add a list of links in the future. Now, back to to Rift!

Like the idea of the build? Dislike it? Think I jacked someone else's idea? Think this idea is completely stupid and I'm a troll? Leave a comment with your opinion. :3 I'd love to hear other's views on the idea of an assassin Lee Sin. ^_^