The idea behind this build is thematic: There are three terminal cold-themed items, each of which causes slowing effects. Each is also potentially useful on a tank. Thus, I've started to try to build ALICE - Alistar Ice.

Alice slows attack speeds by 20% in an aura. When Alice casts a spell, nearby enemies slow by 15% and take damage. When Alice punches an enemy in the face, it slows even further - by 40%. Alice also has enough durability to fulfill the tank role reasonably well.

Alice is one cold son of a cow. And just like the boy named Sue, he's got a name that has given him plenty of practice fighting.

This is a fun romp-and-roam build, a solo top rather than a support Alistar; this is an expensive build that requires heavy farming and a long game to come into its own.

Alice is a thematic build. Unfortunately, the items overlap a little; Frozen Mallet's slow replaces, rather than stacks, with Rylai's Scepter, and the Scepter's slowing effect mainly has effect through Alistar's passive. Rod of Ages is in many ways a stronger item than Rylai for this reason, but just isn't as fun or as interesting.

Alice is also very much a mixed Alistar build. Cooldown reduction isn't maximized, ability power isn't maximized, and durability isn't maximized.

The build is fairly expensive. In order to really have Alice, you really have to have that ice, and diamonds don't come cheap.

The thematic element is my main pitch for this build: Managing to get mileage out of all three ice items when usually a champion will only have at most one has got to be worth some extra style points.

The core of this build is items. I'm a little fuzzy on what the best order to get items in is; in general, my goal is to purchase what I can afford whenever I find myself needing to get back to base. It's worth noting the list of basic ingredients:

• 3 Cloth Armors
• 2 Ruby Crystals
• 2 Giant's Belts
• 2 Regrowth Pendants
• 1 Null-Magic Mantle
• 1 Negatron Cloak
• 1 Chain Mail
• 1 Sapphire Crystal
• 1 Amplifying Tome
• 1 Blasting Wand
• 1 Longsword

An inexpensive substitution for Force of Nature is Spirit Visage. With cooldown enhancement, health, a little magic resistance, and a buff to your self-heals, Spirit Visage is a good - and cheap - Alistar item. In that case, your list is slightly simpler:

• 3 Ruby Crystals
• 3 Null-Magic Mantles
• 3 Cloth Armors
• 2 Giant's Belts
• 1 Sapphire Crystal
• 1 Blasting Wand
• 1 Amplifying Tome
• 1 Longsword
• 1 Chain Mail

The core three items to make Alistar into Alice are Frozen Heart, Frozen Mallet, and Rylai's Scepter. I recommend Frozen Mallet first; the health bonus goes a long way at low levels, and being able to just whale on someone as you chase them is especially nice early on. Next I would take Frozen Heart for the durability, and finally Rylai for advanced crowd control. To build just those items, you need:

• 1 Ruby Crystal
• 2 Cloth Armors
• 2 Giant's Belts
• 1 Sapphire Crystal
• 1 Blasting Wand
• 1 Chain Mail
• 1 Longsword

Build Mercury's whenever is convenient in there - I sometimes build Mercury's before I start on anything else, but if I'm not getting much CC or magic damage heading my way, I might put it off a while. It's fairly easy to substitute other items; Aegis and Spirit Visage are good (and fairly inexpensive) generic choices that build naturally out of the ingredients you'll have on hand already. The basic ingredients for Sunfire Cape and Thorn Mail are also all included on the ice item ingredient list already; if you're fighting an AD-heavy team, consider that pair on your road to Alice.

In a game that you expect to be a drawn-out slugfest, you might build directly to Warmog's Armor + Force of Nature. For an aggressive ganking build, use Force of Nature + Lichbane/Triforce to give you good movement and more damage output.

If Alice is the off-tank, rather than the main tank, Lichbane + Rod of Ages will put your AP at 240 while keeping a reasonable amount of defense.

Finally, in the rare event that the enemy has no duration crowd control spells of any note, or in the somewhat more likely event that Vayne is your main threat, consider switching out Mercury's for a pair of Ninja Tabi or higher-speed boots (Mobility or Swiftness). Tenacity is otherwise too good to pass up for a character built for sustained close combat - Alice can't slow people down with the Mallet and Scepter unless Alice is quite close.

Take Pulverize + Head Butt as the first two skills, and then work on maxing out healing skills. The crowd control of those two spells is more important than their damage, and that crowd control isn't enhanced much by leveling the skills.

I can't claim to be the world's best Alistar player, but he's been one of my better champions, and I've been winning more than losing. For a more "serious" build, one which fits better into the cookie-cutter of ranked play, check out my other Alistar guid.

If sharing this build helps me make it more useful, or inspires someone else to have a fun time building an Alistarcicle, then it was worth writing it up.