League of Legends is, for the most part, arguably still a skill-based game. Sure, you can certainly say that composition and item builds are a big factor. But those are just cogs in what ultimately make up the cohesive technical gameplay, which in fact, are still part of the strategy.
Still, we can’t ignore that certain skills are excellent for more common situations than others. A well-coordinated team truly is a sight to behold, especially in higher-ranked games. On that same note, a peeler who can cause chaos within a well-positioned, tight-knit team is also fun to watch. Wouldn’t you agree?
What is Peeling?
To make it simple, the act of peeling is a fancy way of saying you need to keep your damage dealers alive. In most cases, peelers are often tanks or supports, so the damage dealer is often the ADC. Of course, this varies from game to game. To some extent, any champion can peel. With a few item optimizations and gearing towards that role, sure, it’s doable. It is important to note, however, that some do it greater than others.
Best Peeling Abilities in Game
With Season 12 well underway at the time of this writing, we’ve seen the meta shift towards an even greater preference to assassins. These can spell trouble for your carry in most cases, because assassins are usually mobile, bursty damage dealers who often have tools to enter a clash in a variety of directions. In fact, the best assassins aim to slip past the rest of your team in order to eliminate your main damage dealer.
Here, we’ve compiled a list to give you an idea about what the best peeling abilities are in game. A peel skill could be amazing but have an agonizingly long cooldown. It could also have certain conditions that need to be met that are difficult to achieve in the heat of a clash. Due to several factors that can contribute to how objectively good a peel is, the order here may be interchangeable with what you value most, such as how frequently you can use it or how effective it is in a given situation.
However, the skills in this list loosely have a combination of the above factors in mind. We also considered how well it synergized with the skills the champion using it has. Let’s have a quick look at some of the best peeling abilities in the game:
(Quick disclaimer, we did not include skills like Lissandra’s Frozen Tomb or other similar self-cast abilities despite it being one of the best peels for the purpose of this article)
1. Monsoon
This ability, in my opinion, is one of the best peels in the game, even when you don’t count Janna’s kit as a whole. She is one of the best peelers overall because her kit is designed to keep enemies away from your carry.
Monsoon works a lot like Gragas’ Explosive Cask. After enemies are pushed away, it also has a persistent healing effect which allows allies within the area to recover quite a significant amount of HP. You can think of Monsoon as a fight reset. It repositions enemies and heals your allies.
Also read: TFT Slow Rolling
2. Divine Judgment
This is the skill that basically allows Kayle and her allies to go full-on Rambo mode just like Tryndamere’s Undying Rage. It’s pretty simple. It makes your ally invulnerable for 2.5 seconds. It also has some built-in damage for opponents caught around the area. This basically forces them to retreat from the damage, since they won’t be able to dish out their own because of the invulnerability anyway.
3. The Box
Thresh is right up there along with Janna in the peel-tier ranking. The Box basically puts his opponents in – you guessed it – a box. It forces opponents caught within it to either stay in the box and risk getting targeted, or leave the box and be “slowed” for 2 seconds.
While we do refer to it as a slow, 99% is basically a root in terms of effectiveness. When you count in his Flay that can manipulate movement within the box, it’s no surprise this ability made it on this list.
Also read: TFT Set 5 Shadow Items
4. Wild Growth
Lulu’s ultimate is iconic in the sense that it gives allies bonus HP, which means that Grievous Wounds and Ignite won’t affect the targeted ally. It also knocks up enemy champions near the targeted ally, so it’s pretty neat against bruisers who stick to your carries or melee assassins who can just jump on your carries and burst them down.
5. Petrifying Gaze
This ability is Cassiopeia’s bread-and-butter skill. It is what makes her who she is. When activated at the right time and with good positioning, it can absolutely turn the tide of any fight. Any opponent facing her is stunned, while those with their backs turned are slowed.
Either way, it severely limits enemy movement and forces them to re-evaluate engaging in the first place. The downside is the long cooldown and its effects not being immediate. For the former disadvantage, at least, the latest seasons have introduced various items that remedy that.
6. Shadow Dash
Even without Stand United, this skill is amazing. It allows Shen to potentially taunt multiple enemies, is fairly spammable, and doesn’t cost mana. Realistically, Shen is able to use it multiple times in one drawn-out fight.
Also read: Can You Get Banned for Leaving a Game in League of Legends?
7. Chronoshift
The reason why Chronoshift didn’t rank higher is because of how opponents will react to it. On that same note, you can also say the versatility is also its strength. Not only can Zilean cast it on any ally that needs it, but it also dissuades opponents from attacking the affected champion. Let me explain.
Compared to Divine Judgment, Chronoshift doesn’t actually make you invulnerable. In fact, if they burst you down immediately, all it gives you is a second wind. The time resurrecting for 2 seconds could have been used to inflict some damage.
However, the buff itself lasts for 5 seconds. In that 5-second window, opponents have less incentive to attack the marked ally because they know he will resurrect anyway. Their time would have been better off used to target non-affected champions. Depending on the situation, this gives them a dilemma. They either have to kill the champion twice, or ignore the champion for 5 seconds and focus on another champion.
Final Thoughts
Condensing all the skills in League into a top 7 list was no easy feat. Some skills certainly deserve a mention, like Veigar’s Event Horizon or Lee Sin’s Dragon’s Rage. But if we were to make a list of all that, this list would be several times much longer. Do you think there are particular skills that deserve to be on this list? Let us know in the comments below!
