
What is Peeling in League of Legends?
You might have heard the line “peel for me” in your LoL matches and wondered what the person meant. The peel meaning in LoL refers to the action of protecting another member of your team from the enemy.
Peeling is essential for keeping your carries alive, as enemies set their eyes on ’em, and target the largest threat. Carries tend to avoid defensive items as there is an exponential increase of real damage output when focusing on a strict Ability Power (AP) + Cooldown Reduction (CD), or Attack Damage (AD) + Attack Speed (AS) + Critical Strike (Crit) build path. For these reasons, carries are regarded as glass cannons, who have high damage output and low damage resistance, making them prime targets.
LoL peeling is an essential skill if you wish to climb in the LoL ranking system, as it is, after all, a team game. It ensures your backline, consisting of high damage carries, can stay alive. Thus, maximizing total damage output in fights.

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How to peel in LoL?
There are two methods of peeling in League of Legends; offensive and defensive.
As the saying goes, the best defense is offence. Attacking the enemy backline may be a viable option in peeling for your carries. When you target enemy carries, your opponents are pressured into two scenarios, to counter engage on your team’s carries, or engage on you to protect their own carries. If they engage on you, you attract their attention, abilities and overall damage output. The more damage you attract in such situation, the more successful you are in peeling, as that is damage that would otherwise have been targeted towards your carries.
Peeling can also be done by standing near your own backline in a defensive position. Such a role will involve tanking/running into skill shots directed at your carries. You will also be tasked with using crowd control (CC) and focusing damage on nearby enemies approaching your backline/ally you are protecting.
Given peeling is directly linked to absorbing damage, the easiest way to increase effectiveness is to simply build defensive stats.
Higher health, magic resistance and armour will extend your survivability, and hence your ability to absorb damage to peel for your carries. Knight’s Vow is a great item if you wish to peel for a particular member. By binding it to an ally, 12% of damage taken by them will be redirected to you. Locket of the Iron Solari would grant an instant shield to allies when most needed and is another peeling item.
Who should peel on LoL?
LoL peeling is commonly done by tanky champions, most often seen in the top, support and jungle League of Legends roles. This is because the League of Legends meta calls for most games having an AP carry in the mid-lane, and a ranged AD carry (ADC) in the bot lane.
The general rule in peeling is to protect those that can do more damage than you. For example, if you end up feeding as an AP mid laner, a good strategy is to peel for your ADC by saving your damage and crowd control for potential assassins looking to engage. Didn’t know about peeling before reading this, check out how much time spent on LoL you have wasted.
Best champions for LoL peeling
- Leona
- Thresh
- Nautilus
- Maokai
- Dr. Mundo
- Rammus
Champions with multiple hard crowd control / immobilisation abilities are the best peeling picks, as they prevent the enemy from attacking and reaching your backline. The best team compositions will be able to balance between peeling champions, and high damage carries. Champion select, especially in the competitive scene is a major determinant on whether a team wins or loses. Live betting post champion select is a prime way to beat the odds and make a profit.