Alistar is one of the first tank supporting characters people learn to play, even though they don't understand his roles pretty much just yet.
There are few ways of playing Alistar of which we will show you only one that is the most useful.
Advantages when playing Alistar are that he can heal almost whole his lane. You can heal all of your allies as well. There is no other support who can do this, except Karma. You can also rely on his pushing skills and his disabling champions combo. He's also good because he can be the ultimate tank thanks to his ultimate.
His disadvantages are that he's hard to be played well; whatever you might think, he's not that easy at all. Another of his grave disadvantages is that he uses a lot of mana. He's not too mobile, as well.
Summoner spells:
Flash is good spell for Alistar because it helps him initiate better.
Exhaust is your main spell pick. With it you can completely irritate enemy carry and make him unable to do a thing.Alternative ways for flash:
Teleport can help you help your allies in all the lanes.
Clarity - Since Alistar eats mana, literally, this is not bad spell to carry with you.
Clairvoyance - You are the support and this is in a way supporting spell.
Promote - Alistar's one of the attributes is 'pusher.' With this spell you can push even more effectively.
Smite - If jungling .Skills:
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Trample (Passive) | Whenever Alistar casts a spell, he gains Trample for 3 seconds ignoring unit collision and dealing 10-23 (+10% ability power) area damage per second (double damage to minions and monsters) |
Explanation: When you are surrounded by enemies (minions specially) you can hit any of your spells and they won't block your way. Furthermore, this is the passive ability that makes you the great pusher.
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Pulverize | Alistar smashes the ground, dealing 60/105/150/195/240 (+50% of ability power) magic damage and tossing all nearby enemy units into the air and stunning them for 0.5 seconds. Cooldown 17/16/15/14/13 seconds Cost 70 / 85 / 100 / 115 / 130 mana Range 365 |
Explanation: This is the spell that can knock in the air and stun all the enemies, minions or monsters. When fighting, this is your key spell as it can stun multiple enemies.
Note of caution: Enemies are in air for about a second, second and a half, but once they hit the land they are stunned for a half a second.
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Headbutt | Alistar charges at an enemy and rams them dealing 85/130/175/220/265 (+70% of ability power) magic damage and knocking them back (does not stun). Cooldown 14/13/12/11/10 seconds Cost 80 / 90 / 100 / 110 / 120mana Range 650 |
Explanation: Headbutt is the spell to be used in three cases. First one is after the Pulverize go in front of your enemy and kick him back to your allies / tower. Another one is to initiate. Third, and the last one, is to save yourself or your allies by knocking allies back.
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Triumphant Roar | Instantly restore 60 / 90 / 120 / 150 / 180 (+20% of ability power) health to himself and half of that value to surrounding allied units. Cooldown ticks down by 2 seconds each time a nearby enemy unit dies. Cooldown 12 seconds Cost 20 / 30 / 40 / 50 / 60 mana Range 200 |
Explanation: You want to spam this spell whenever it's out of cooldown. It heals your allies and your minions. Furthermore, its cooldown gets reduced with every enemy who dies (minions count in that, as well). There are two strategical ways we love and this is why we like having Alistar in our team. First one is, as we said in introduction, that he can heal everyone, there's no limit to number of allies he can heal, and he heals minions as well. You can cast it to heal multiple allies at the same time. Another good thing is to irritate enemy AD carry if you have quick reflexes. This is why Alistar is not easy champion. Once you see enemy sending his basic attack to last-hit and kill the minion, heal that minion so he doesn't get the kill. After few successful times preforming this tactic, farm between two AD carries will be drastically big, and you want that.
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Unbreakable Will | Alistar gains 60 / 75 / 90 physical damage, and takes 50/60/70% reduced physical and magic damage for 7 seconds. Cooldown 120 / 100 / 80seconds Cost 150 mana |
Explanation: This spell can make Alistar ultimate tank because he's hard to kill due to how much damage he can reduce. He can also be played AD because of the physical damage he gains thanks to this spell. Because of the long cooldown, try to save it for hard situations.
Building:
Starting:
Note: It doesn't matter if you are jungling or not, this is always the way to start.
Boots of Speed, 3 health potions
Early game goals:
Philosopher's Stone
Get this item to obtain more gold.
Rod of Ages
Even though you are not AP champion, go for Rod of Ages as it gives you health, mana and ability power you can use early on.
Middle game goals:
Frozen Heart
It'll help you against enemy AD carries and will give you the mana, as well. With Rod of Ages and Frozen Heart you will not have mana problems anymore.
Sheen
This is the item you don't need early on. You can get it after Philosopher's Stone if you are jungling, though.
Mercury's Threads
We see some people going for Ionian Boots of Lucidity when playing Alistar. That's not too bad, but we strongly recommend you to buy these shoes. It will provide you with magic resistance and tendency you need as a tank. We feel Ionian Boots of Lucidity are only good if you are going to play AP carry with Alistar which we are great opponents of.
Shurelya's Revery
You usually obtain this item earlier as a support but with Alistar you won't need it earlier. Depending on how fed you get you will get this item in middle or late game.
Late game goals:
Randui's Omen
You'd usually like to be able to make enemy's AD carry(s) a living hell. With everything you've obtained by now, you will have a lot of health and armor.
Note of caution: Get Randui's Omen as your fifth major item only if enemies are having problematic AD carries. If that's not the case, get it as sixth item.
Force of Nature
We like this item on Alistar because it gives him more movement speed and health regain per 5. It also provides him with magic resistance. Thanks to this item, he can stay in fights even longer and he won't be needing any likeliness of Guardian Angel or Zhonya's Hourglass abilities.
Note of caution: Get Force of Nature as your fifth major item if enemies are having problematic AP carries or if the enemies have no problematic AD carry. In any other case, get it as sixth item. You need to sell your Sheen to make room for this item, though.
Note: You don't need to change pretty much a thing in your build. This will secure you from everything that's coming your way. You do not need any of the other items in the game.
Tips and Tricks:
We told you the most tips and tricks in the text already, but there are few left out.
When you are playing Alistar, the hard thing to learn and do, and that makes the good Alistar, is how to initiate with 'w' skill. You can use it to close to your enemy but in 'flight' you can cast your 'q' spell and he'll halt his 'flight' to target because he'll slam the ground. It's hard to learn when to do that, but we will help you. Once you come in about melee attack range you should cast your 'q'. You need to have quick reflexes though. Practice it on minions in custom games. Once you've practiced it feel free to use that technique in normal game. Until then, don't try it out because many of your allies may be angry on you.
Jungling is not too hard to do with Alistar, it's pretty much regular, but when ganking, don't do what most junglers do. You shouldn't come from river's way. Go through enemy jungle and jump the enemies from their backs (the one gap close to their turret). Walk to them and use 'w' to send their carry close to your teammates. Walk to him and finish him off. Let support survive. If you are ganking middle lane or top lane, you'll kill that only one guy standing there, and no one will be left to live. To go back on bottom lane again. If the enemy carry have gap closing / gap reducing abilities, like: Tristana, Ezreal, Graves, after landing your 'w' don't walk to them for the kill. Be constantly in front of them. Don't let him / her come to their turret. If they even somehow come near, use your 'q' ability to stop them.
We hope we've been helpful once again! Comment or send us any remarks if you have!
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We wish you all the best on the fields of justice!
Troll Patrol
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