Peeling, a term given to preventing enemies from attacking their targets, is one of the most important yet overlooked aspects of a fight. It is useful in all multi-god fights, whether a 2v2, a 2v4, or a full team fight. While it is one of the primary tasks for supports, any god can and should peel for their allies, and it is also possible to self-peel. Whenever one of your team's carries is under attack, someone should be forcing their attackers away. There are a number of ways to peel, and some things that may seem counterintuitive during a hectic fight, but learning to overcome your instinct and think carefully will make you a much better player.

CONTROL THE CROWD

Many, if not most, gods have some form of crowd control. Crowd control (or CC) gets its name from this very use: controlling the "crowd" that may be trying to attack the person you are trying to protect. While stunning or knocking back is usually the best way to go, roots, slows, silences, cripples, and disarms are all capable of peeling if used properly.

Because of the strength of crowd control, many CC abilities are hard to hit or only work at close range. Thus, you should save your CC for when the enemy gets close enough to almost guarantee a hit. A Neith trying to peel for herself or an ally would ideally not shoot her 1 at max range; at close or mid range, the chance of a hit is much greater, and if she were to miss it would be an utter waste. Note that point-blank range isn't always the best. For gods with cone abilities (like Ymir and Athena), cones are actually harder to hit up close than at mid-range. Furthermore, most enemies are not going to get that close to you. Even with you actively trying to get right in front of them, they might be trying just as hard to get past you (see Body Block, below). Try to hit them at a fairly short range, and fire your CC from an angle so they either get hit or have to stop and/or turn around (effectively doing the same thing: keeping them away).

Once they have been CC'd, that is when you ought to get in their face. If you can get up to them, you can stick to them like glue OR force them to use their own CC or jump/dash abilities. If they do use it on you, then they won't be able to use it on the ally you are trying to protect, which makes it that much easier for your team.

One last note that is pretty obvious but might not be the first thing on your mind when you're in the heat of battle. Don't use types of CC that aren't relevant at the moment. In other words, don't disarm an enemy who isn't auto attacking, don't silence one who has no available abilities, etc., and especially don't pull or push an enemy closer to their target.

ZONE WITH DAMAGE

Some gods, such as Ymir, Thor, and Cabrakan, excel at peeling because they can create artificial walls that block enemy movement. While walls are the only way besides CC to prevent movement in a certain area, anyone with damage has a way to disincentivize, punish, and prevent the enemy’s advance.

One of the most common ways to use damage to force your enemies to reconsider is using AOE abilities with long-lasting (e.g. Anubis 3, Kukulkan 3) or delayed (e.g. Isis 4, Athena 3) effects. By designating an area as harmful, the enemy’s instinct alone might give them second thoughts. Behind every tank is a player, and that player likely has some experience as squishies; even though they are currently playing a tanky god, their immediate instinct is to avoid a Kukulkan tornado. Worst-case scenario, they ignore it and eat the damage willingly. At best, they give in to their squishy inner-selves and turn away.

Kukulkan's Whirlwind (3) and Isis's Circle of Protection (4) are excellent zoning tools.

Very similar and perhaps more effective are abilities that designate a potential for a combo. Chaac’s axe and Ah Puch’s corpses are both harmless to the enemy, but Chaac and Ah Puch both have the potential to use other abilities in conjunction for sometimes devastating combos. In the case of Agni’s 1 and Neith’s broken weaves, these combos include crowd control, even furthering its effectiveness at delaying or altogether stopping the enemy. The benefit of these combo abilities is that they do not have to be used in order to achieve the desired effect. If the enemy turns around to avoid Neith’s weave, for example, she still has her Spirit Arrow to use elsewhere.

While seemingly harmless, most players know that Broken Weaves are dangerous to approach due to the fact that they explode when hit with a Spirit Arrow.

Instant damage (such as skillshots and ground-target moves like Nox’s 3 or Chronos’s 1) is harder to zone with, but even more effective for preying on your opponent’s instinct. It doesn’t even need to be said that Chronos’s 1 won’t scare away enemies after the fact. Its ability to make enemies entirely reconsider their pursuit is very low. However, aiming instant abilities right in front of the enemy will work much the same as the Kukulkan whirlwind mentioned earlier; they either walk into it or take damage, or step out of the way and don’t. But, since the skill only lasts a split second, the enemy won’t have any time to consciously decide whether or not to tank the damage or not. Often, they will back up or move sideways, just slightly, giving your carry (or yourself) a precious instant to get away.

Apollo's So Beautiful (1) and Nox's Siphon Darkness (3) may not be the best long-term zoning tools, but they can delay your enemy or do significant damage in the attempt.

BODY BLOCK

Body blocking comes in two main forms: blocking projectiles and blocking movement. Blocking projectiles is when one god (preferably the tank or whoever has the most current health) stands in front so that auto attacks and single-target abilities such as Ne Zha’s sash or Ares’s chain don’t hit their intended target. It’s not particularly hard to do, although it does require simultaneously watching your enemy and the ally you are trying to protect, which can be quite difficult with the third-person camera since one or the other may be behind you and therefore out of sight (tip: your ally is probably in the direction your enemy is facing; stay directly in their line of sight). The hardest part about body blocking, especially for non-tanks, is that it requires self-sacrifice. While you know that you are going to survive an auto that would otherwise kill your friend, the very same instinct that was mentioned in the last section wants you to stay out of the way of damage, and working against that instinct takes focus and experience.

Blocking movement is normally quite difficult and nearly impossible in many situations. It involves standing in place so that the enemy cannot pass you. That is simple enough, but your opponent will try to move around, and you have to move accordingly. Body blocking in this way works best when you have a wall to either side. By standing up against the wall, they have to go around, taking a wider turn and therefore slowing their progress. What’s more, the only direction they can go around you is away from the wall, so you don’t have to do guesswork to anticipate where they are going to go next. When you are in the open, body blocking requires solid predictions to stay a step ahead of the enemy– if you are simply reacting, they will probably be able to get past you quickly.

CONCLUSION

Often, just one thing isn’t going to accomplish much. Seasoned tanks aren’t going to be dissuaded by a second of CC and they aren’t going to be killed by a single skillshot. The ideal situation, however, is multiple teammates using CC, damage, and their own bodies to continuously slow the enemy’s pursuit or kill them in the process. While it won’t always (or ever) work out cleanly, it’s important to know the techniques so you can guarantee the desired results as best you can. It is also equally important to know the thought process behind those techniques so you can improve on them, adapt, and even come up with your own strategies for peeling. Good luck, have fun, and happy peeling!