Overview

Knowing how to correctly teamfight is possibly one of the most important things in League of Legends. Many games can be decided in an instant during a teamfight at any stage of the game. Understanding your role as a toplaner in these fights is key to your success. This guide will explain key ideas such as peeling, diving, and zone control. It will also explain how your itemization choices can affect your role in a teamfight.

Peeling vs. Diving

Most toplaners are melee fighters who can perform two basic roles in a teamfight; they can serve as a peeler or diver. Peeling is the act of defending your backline (marksman and midlaner) from the enemy frontline who will generally be hard engage tanks like Zac or high damage bruisers like Vi. Diving is the act of going past the enemy frontline and trying to kill the enemy backline. To understand which role you must fulfill on a team, you must first know how to analyze a fight. A majority of the time it is better to peel than to dive. Your backline will likely do more damage than you can and only needs some form of crowd control to survive the first couple seconds of a teamfight, which is where you come in. Diving is recommended in two scenarios: when the enemy backline has long range and can hit your backline even if you are with them (poke mages and long range marksman) or when you simply cannot peel for your backline because of a very high damage threat like an assassin. In these times it is best to dive the enemy backline and try and trade kills and clean up after the first couple seconds of the fight. Generally, if you can kill the enemy backline before your own backline dies, you will win the fight.

Zone Control

Besides peeling and diving there is a third option in teamfights that incorporates both styles. The act of zoning is generally performed by a tank or a very durable bruiser. Zoning involvesr diving the enemy backline and not necessarily trying to kill them but instead forcing them as far away as possible from your carries so they cannot deal damage effectively. An example of this can be seen in the Gravity vs Team 8 game linked below. In this teamfight, Gravity player Kevin "Hauntzer" Yarnell is playing Maokai who is an extremely durable tank. He is able to zone out the backline of Team 8 which allows his team to kill the frontline of Team 8 which dove. With the large amount of pressure Hauntzer applies, it was very easy for his backline to shred apart the enemy tanks.

Here you can see Hauntzer zoning the backline of Team 8 out of the team fight preventing them from having any impact on the fight. Video

Offense Can Be the Best Defense

When you think of high damage toplaners like Fiora and Irelia, many players believe they have a binary role in team fights, which is to try and burst the enemy backline as fast as possible as divers. However, high damage threats are also very good peeling for their backline. For example, Fiora has no hard CC besides a conditional stun on her Riposte. What she does provide, however, is an easy way to kill a diving tank through Max Health % true damage and the largest area of effect heal in the game through her ultimate Grand Challenge. High damage toplaners are generally better off going for a dive but in the situations where it would be more valuable to have an extra peeler, don't hesitate to do so.

Tanky champions that are usually suited to a peeling position such as Shen can reverse positions and be a very competent diver. While Shen is usually unable to solo kill a carry he has the unique ability to enable another diver on this team. Through smart use of his ult Stand United, which provides a large shield and teleports him to his target, followed by a Shadow Dash along with his Spirits Refuge, which stops any auto attacks from hitting him and his allies for a short period of time, Shen can let his more damage oriented teammates easily kill the enemy backline and prevent them from taking almost any damage while providing the CC needed to lock down the targets.

How Itemization Can Affect Your Role

A perfect example of a champion who can fulfill the role of either a diver or peeler is Darius. Darius is able to shred tanks with his high armor pen and can kill low health backline targets with his base damage just as fast. Darius however, relies on certain items to fulfill these tasks perfectly. If you plan to dive as Darius, it is recommended that you get a Dead Man's Plate, which gives you a high amount of movement speed which allows you to engage. If you are peeling as Darius, it is recommended that you get a Randuin's Omen, which provides a large area of effect slow that makes it even harder for the enemy to reach your backline. Realizing your role in fights before they happen will allow you to itemize accordingly.

Conclusion

Teamfighting correctly is key to winning at all stages of the game, understanding your role in teamfights is just as large a part of that. Almost any game is winnable if you can out teamfight your opponent. My name is Alex and if you have any feedback or questions you can add me on NA- Alexmanpersonguy. Thanks for reading this article.

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