If you need to throw an early ward down on your buffs, standard practice is just to throw one down, recall and buy another one by the time minions start to spawn. Because of GP10s, this isn't bad at all. That's how it's done by the pros. This also lets your ADC get a few early experiences ahead.

Yes, so I was mistaken on the true damage part. I hadn't done the math in-game, and assumed it was sicne it was flat % reduction instead of mitigation, and the few other sources of flat % reduction do counter true damage (true damage meaning it bypasses armor and magic resist). I'll fix that tomorrow.

For the gp10 calculations, I did not miscalculate, but instead assumed all supports would be rolling the masteries for it. That's why I used the word "extra." I based the math off of wards because, while everyone should be warding, in solo queue you run into a lot of people that will say otherwise, plus I just want to get it ingrained in new players / new supports heads that wards win games and they can't ever let up the warding.

I've had the "health vs mitigation" discussion a few times, and personally went in favor of magic resist for a long time. I found myself surviving more with the health. For the stacking, I average 20+ assists on Alistar, so I rarely end a game without full Warmogs stacks.

As far as dying, yes I agree that nobody should be dying a whole lot. However, as I said, if the choice is between you are anyone else on your team, the support dying to save someone else is the best option.

Alternative items, and the reasons why I chose Warmogs over them, is indeed a good section to write, and I'll be doing as soon as possible.



With the mana comments, after laning phase I almost never have issues with mana, and while laning the mana is used almost exclusively to protect the carry or secure kills. For both, I've personally experienced that the added damage of a higher level W is a good measure for this. I've also heard in previous discussion that the %mana health regen from the masteries wasn't that great, but I feel that an extra 9 health regen is never a bad thing.

Increased vision ward I always love, if only because it allows me to get complete vision of river with a single stack of wards. You get almost complete vision without Scout, yes, but map vision and awareness is king, so a single mastery point to increase that by 5% across the board is well worth it.

I do agree that starting with a pink ward is useful, and still myself find myself grumbling when the enemy support lays a pink and kills one of my early wards. However, That extra ward you get by starting with 4 sight wards outweighs it if you need to throw an early ward in your blue/red, or throw an extra one down in your side's lane bush.

For the coding, I was more concerned with getting it to where it could be read as soon as possible. I know it's kind of bland at the moment, and even kind of foreboding, but honestly, if a support player doesn't want to read up on information and various choice preferences, then they're not going to be a very good support and have no business doing it. Players need to educate themselves on new roles, and that means reading. It's a competitive team game with heavy strategy and tactics points. It's not a shooter. You can't afford to just walk into game without reading in-depth guides. Even the ones you disagree with.

Some of the grievances that have been brought up I understand, and would have agreed with you before. That being said, I've found my games going better when I switched to this as my stock build. Somebody criticizing something, pointing out gameplay errors, or disagreeing with something I'm fine with. However, comments of "build or masteries are wrong" are, by their nature, inaccurate, because it's a gameplay choice based off of style and past experiences.

I would like to point out that an enemy carry noticing your faults and attacking you is time that's not spent attacking your carry. It's also a strategy element. If you are built so that someone knows they can't kill you, they'll try to position themselves to not deal with you, leaving you as the last man up unable to really do anything. The main tanky champion should either be a bait into taking some damage, or be someone that does enough damage that the enemy can't afford to not attack. If the tank isn't getting hit, then he has already failed.

For reference, the last two games I played as Alistar ended with scores of 2/0/24 and 3/3/22, respectively. Using this build and play style. Both of those games got a major early game lead in bottom, and both of these games ended with a decisive victory overall.

I'll be editing and modifying the guide to take into account the criticisms provided that I find understandable or constructive, as well as adding in the coding, this weekend.

Thank you all for your comments and votes, both positive and negative. :)

As someone mentioned before, no warmogs, especial as a general build. dont really get your items. appreciate your enthusiam with the wards, but IRL it is not exactly so.

PLease consider your masteries, as well as one point into Summoner's Wrath. Veteran scar always helps a lot . your build seems to me like a very rebel one and i dont understand why .

I know some agree with the gp/10 seals, but I think the Resilience yellow help more than 240 gold in min 20. It givees you an edge agains the support, but you are kinda armorless. so their carry has a good edge.

Regardless, with your rune setup, the reds and blues are perfect, but its a bad start to begin with .

OFFTOPIC : if you want to have fun with ali , grab your 9% HP runes, and go rylai roa warmog and then resistence items. its fun like hell if you get there.

"Thus, you're now getting 15 extra gold every 10 seconds." with your rune page and masteries and items its 17. that is more than you previously calculated, but dont forget pots and other items you buy.

consider zeke's, frozen heart, and EVEN THE LOCKET in some situations where randuin just does not fit the game.

why do you maximize headbutt? the combo( q +w ) really sux if your cd is 10 sec for w and 15 for q. just saying. if you leave headbutt at lvl 1 , and go for Q level 4 , they have THE SAME cd which is awesome. after you got them the same cd, max heal. dont forget you are support not damage dealer. and with ali's low mana regen, and low mana pool, do you think harrassing is a good ideea?

Health damage is mitigated by ult, but not true damage. thats why its true damage.

I fully agree with your summoner spells section

And as an alsitar player, if you are getting your build full you are probably doing something wrong.

Hope my criticism was constructive. " We all can always play better. And we all will always make some mistakes in a game." good job and keep it up :)

I disagree with the upvotes above...

There's quite a few things wrong in your guide, tbh.

Your masteries are wrong in some places. You shouldn't need Good Hands because you shouldn't be dying anyway. You'll need mana more, so you should really take points into Expanded Mind and Meditation instead. Scout is pointless. You don't actually need the minuscule 5% increase. Awareness and Sage aren't really necessary. Put some points into defence (maybe up to Veteran Scars . It is good for that early tankiness]]) and also put a point into Summoner's Wrath for Exhaust.

I don't agree with your skill sequence. I think you should prioritize making plays through Pulverize, since that is a better and much more preferred CC than Headbutt, so getting the CD on that is more important. My order would be R>Q>E>W.

Alistar is banned a whole less in ranked in recent times since the nerf to AP Alistar and there are better bans to make than a support Alistar (like a Blitzcrank). He's not an uncommon ban, but he's not exactly an instaban.



This is a common misconception. The reality is that EVERYONE should be warding, not just the support - you already say this. I never get this argument. As support, you have the lowest gold income due to the lack of farm and then you have to spend all your money spamming wards? 2-3 wards max every time you recall is enough. If your ADC also gets 1-2 wards as well in between each recall, then you really only need 1-2 wards yourself to cover all the bases. You benefit your team just as much getting support items as you do warding. Warding is important, I don't deny that, but thinking of a support as only 'a heal-slave, ward factory and bodyguard' to the ADC is just a misconception. There's so much more that a support (especially Alistar) can be. Also, everyone should be warding the entire game until they've filled up all 6 slots. Then and only then does it remain to the support to ward the entire map (and then not even then - the jungler can leave a slot for wards).

Disagree with the Faerie Charm and 4 wards start. Take a Vision Ward for de-warding. You'll establish dragon control and remove their ability to foresee ganks from the river from your jungler.



HP is actually the worst defence stat. I'll also tell you another one of the biggest counters to magic - MAGIC RESIST. Grab an Abyssal Mask if no one else is.



The point of true damage is that it is unmitigated by ANYTHING. Your ulti don't do squat against true damage. At least know what your skills do O.o.

No consideration for Frozen Heart, Zeke's Herald...? These are good items for maximising the impact of your ADC/minimising the impact of their ADC. Zeke's Herald is a killer when paired with champs like Kog'Maw and Draven. I think you should write a section for Alternative Items.

Now my biggest grievance - Warmog's Armor. This item requires farm, kills or assists in order to maximise it (forgetting the fact that it's a 3K gold item which you won't ever get unless you get a lot of assists or wait a VERY long time for your GP10s to work). Now, since you shouldn't really be farming that much and you can never guarantee kills and/or assists, you actually have no guarantee of maximising your Warmog's Armor. As i've already mentioned, health is also one of the worst defence stats, because it is only as good as your resistances. If you lack armour, their ADC will deal close to true damage to you. If you lack magic resist, they'll deal close to true damage to you. Your ultimate won't always be readily used either. You get enough health from Shurelya's Battlesong, Randuin's Omen and Aegis of the Legion. If you want more health, you can also get some in addition to some magic resist in the form of Banshee's Veil.

Your teamwork section is mostly good, though.

But holy ****, dude. Put in some coding. Don't publish a guide if it isn't finished for presentation.

An excellent build bro, but the guide doesn't look so well because of the bb coding lack... Please, put some pics an a lot of colour cause the text alone will push away people who view your guide!!!
Anyway a +1 from me for a really good build!!!

Good luck with coding. I really think this guide has potential since the build is very viable. See you on the Field sometime...

My +1 from before

Pros of your guide
-great content,really useful
-items work well together

Cons
-lacks bbcode
-your non avarice seal is fairly useless on its own

All in a all a good guide +1

Thanks for the post and consideration. I intend on making the guide prettier eventually, I just wanted to get it written and out there first.

Hi,

The guide has some items i havent considered; I always get MR and Armor, kind of always pass on health. I will try the items to see; but there are some things i dont agree with, namely the masteries. Sage, Strengh of Spirit and Scout seems like a waste. As Alistar i play 0/16/14, but heck that's me; but dunno i dont quite like the utility tree that far, Alistar doesnt get that much mana to have a decent Strnegh of Spirit; to be honest dunno how much is 40 bonus exp, but if u have already the 5% extra experience, ud be hittin 18 soon.

And on the other hand, I might be wrong, but headbutt and pulverize 1st are a bit dangerous unless ur companion is agressive aswell; but i havent tried this so can't tell. Most of the time i just get heal, and sometimes i just get Pulverize 1st.

Anyways, ill try this thing, and if it works, upvote for you.

(Oh, dun wanna sound too critic, but since u put lot of effort writting a LOT, might as well put icons and aesthetic stuff)