Alistar Build Guide by Raxacolyte

Introduction

Hello, I am Raxacolyte (The support player) for Newegg Gaming and I am here today to bring to you a full guide and inside look into playing the support Alistar. Alistar is a great utility to have on the field of battle and in my opinion is one of the strongest supports in a laning phase.. In this guide I will explain why the masteries/runes/build is the way that it is and how to fully support your lane partner and your team. Thank you for visiting our guide via mobafire and GLHF![/u][/color]

Overview

Strengths:

Lane Heal
AoE CC
High Base Stats, Very Tanky

Weakness:

Melee Support

Masteries

Alistar masteries are pretty simplistic. Obviously building tanky is the way to go, so maxing out both Resistance & Hardiness is great start. Now having Alistar already starting with high base stats, adding some scaling to his health per level, as well as added health regen, and some extra base starting health helps for a comfortable lane phase. Moving down the tree you'll notice we also picked up some movement speed through Initiator . Having that extra movement speed helps to gain better position for moving the opponents around or having to harrass/defend the lane (Seeing as we're a melee support, we need some speed). Finish off the defense tree is pretty self explanatory so lets move on into the utility tree. Summoner's Insight is obviously going to help with having a reduced cd on Flash & Clairvoyance and Alistar is gonna need some mana, so lets throw him a bone and give him some scaling mana as well as mana regen. Alistar can go through mana and is pretty starved. So having that added mana regen is a definite plus!

Runes

Greater Quintessence of Gold x3

Gp10 added with GP10 in your masteries as well as the items in your build keep you generating massive amounts of gold to fully support your team with Sight Ward, Vision Ward, Oracle's Elixir while creating your appropriate build. These quints are very useful but there are various types of rune builds you may use. Remember this is basic build.

Greater Mark of Armor x 9

Armor..Armor...Armor.. Armor... It is truly a must have. Not only does it keep you in lane longer, but you can actually turret dive to enable your carry to reach for a kill pretty early on with that Heart of Gold

Greater Glyph of Magic Resist x 9

This extra added MR gives you more of a defensive edge against certain carrys (Because their ability may be AP based) or the opposing support. Making sure you can stay in lane to support your carry is a must.

Greater Seal of Armor x 9

Same concept as the Greater Marks. See above!

Ability Sequence

Using this ability sequence it gives alistar the chance to knock up opponents giving your laning partner either an offensive advantage to get some early shots in without fear of reprisal or defensively to create a stall time for your partner to get away safely. Starting with 1 w however will really help you push around or position your opponents how you want. Having the E helps maintain the lane, HOWEVER... I like using my e for something else sometimes. When alistar has his Triumphant Roar off CD and the enemy is trying to farm minions, I will purposely pop my e last second to screw up the opposing teams carry last hits. So lets say he looks like he might be going for a last hit on a creep. I'll heal it with e last second and many times the creeps end up eating that minion before he can try and last hit it again. Its pretty funny!

Summoner Spells

The summoner spells adjust accordingly so please use your discretion on choosing summoner spells. My reasoning behind choosing Flash, Clairvoyance as a suggestion to you is because of..


A) You could never really go wrong with a flash as it can be used offensively and defensively.
B) Clairvoyance means extra map awareness. This will open up the game a bit more for you team.
C) When you need to ward without face checking, or when you have no vision at baron/dragon and you need that immediate vision, or when your team is doing a short chase on a kill and there are bushes present and your teammate needs that extra vision.. and much much more.

These spells are pretty basic for all your support champions, and you'll even notice in my other guides that I have chosen something else. In my opinion, flash and cv on alistar is a good standard choice.

SITUATIONAL:


If you plan to play a really aggressive lane, or your team will need an exhaust for various reasons, then this will be the choice for you. Many times CV might not be a useful spell just despite the fact your team may be lacking elsewhere. Being the support it is our job to pick up the slack and support our team.

Warding/CV

WARDING

CLAIRVOYANCE

Item Build

The starting items in this build are pretty universal for ANY support champion.

, x2, ,

Starting with the Faerie is pretty self explanatory, having that added mana regen comes a long way when trying to stay in long as long as you can allowing your carry to farm as much as he can. Sight Wardx2 is also a nice way to start the match, you're able to get vision on the map which creates a safety net for you and your team. Vision Ward is also a definite must. (Example: Its about 9 minutes in and their support or jungler has warded infront of dragon. You as support can now counter ward that dragon and eliminate their vision on that part of the map which in turn.. gives you a huge vantage point for taking dragon)) In the end these things are a must have to start! {Buying wards and things like oracles throughout the game are a huge part of helping your team succeed to victory. You should be picking these things up along they way while building your builds.}

EARLY GAME

These two GP5 items are a must! With the Philosopher's Stone it gives you that nice health regen ontop of that already needed mana regen with an added bonus of Gold per 5. The Heart of Gold is always a must have for multiple reasons. 1) More GP5 2) Gives a nice health boost with all that extra defensive masteries and runes you started and creates more saftey for you as a gamer. These two items are always a must right away!

MID GAME BUILD

OR


With these boots and a shurelya, you give yourself and your team a pretty good advantage for escape or to get in on a kill faster. Reason for the cool down reduction boots is pretty obvious, that heal on alistar can really help when it comes to pushing lanes hard and being able to spam it quicker enables it further. As for the Shurelya I have personally used this very aggressively on Alistar. You can actually get infront of someone and knock them toward your team, and when they try and passback through or try and escape you have your knockup ready to go. This makes for a pretty deadly combination. This is also great for immediate escape for your team. Extra mobility is a huge gain.

SITUATIONAL

HP is by far the best stat for Alistar. While being tankier he will be able to put out decent amounts of damage at the sametime as pushing a lane harder when that times come for it.


Having this item for added resistances is always nice for your team and yourself since you will be doing some engagig in team fights. Honestly I almost always pick this up just because if really does give your team a pretty strong advantage.



These items are fully situational. Having a Zeke's Herald gives you an increased amount of cooldown reduction while giving your team increased attack speed and some lifesteal, how could this not be a decent item to get? Well, now lets take a look at the Frozen Heart. Pretend the opposing team has some pretty strong AD with AS and a AP spammer, then I would pick up a Frozen Heart for sure to decrease their attack speed and reduce your cooldowns while giving yourself some more armor so you can really engage hard for your team to progress foward. The Randuin's Omen is also one of my favorite choices, but it is still situational. With an Alistar in your face first jumping you, OR even chasing after you for that matter you sometimes want to try and kite or throw an attack off.. having a Rand omen will only slow them in the process thus allowing you do catch up and position them using your abilities. The added health is also a huge increase seeing as HP is the best stat on alister, plus the increased armor and sustain. The activate ability on this is okay but it also has a 60 second CD and Frozen Heart does not.

Many times you'll notice (If you watch our stream) I'll actually get very aggressive and toss on some boots of mobilitiy With this increased movement speed it makes for great initiation on a team fight and being able to seperate/CC one target for a decent amount of time while your team picks apart their targets. This has lately become a favorite item of mine.

Skill Breakdown

[
This passive ability is pretty dirty if you really think about. This guy is able to engage a fight, tank a bit and do aoe damage to everyone around him added with a sunfury cape. Talk about a nice passive for a support?

[
So, you get close range aoe knockup & a stun? Thats two forms of cc in one spell. Alistar is just a boss support.

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



This ability is so nice to have for helping position or saving an ally from danger. Abilities that you can utilize in two ways are also always a huge place. That is why is love Alistar so much.

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



This is such a nice ability for pushing your lane. Each time your carry kills a minion it reduces the cooldown of the ability thus allowing you to spam heal. Which in the end actually makes this a pretty good heal spell. =Please avoid using this heal if you do not wish to push the lane=

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



In team fights this is another reason why Alistar is such a dirty support (I mean dirty in a good way =p). This guy can engage a fight, reduce all the damage he takes in while getting an AD bonus and being able to CC during all this. Alistar is once again, such a boss.

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

Gamer Dictionary

Gamers dictionary

Kite

In computer games the word kite is used to name the ability to keep your enemies away from your team mates with force. The players who love range champions should learn how to kite anyone at any time.

Disable

The word disable is used as a whole for all kinds of spells that get you out of order. As disable are considered spells that: Stun, Slow, Fear, Suppress, Hold, Silence, Lift up, Blind and the summoner spell Exhaust itself.
Stun, Fear, Suppress and lift up are considered as hard Disables, as you cant do anything during their effect.
Slow, Hold, Silence, Blind and Exhaust are considered soft Disables, as you can take some action during their duration.

Positioning

As you'd suggest this means how someone is positioned to the enemy. Positioning is very important for every champion.

Creeps

The word creeps is often used as a replacement for the word Minion in LoL. Just a little habit from the good old times in DotA.

CC = Crowd Control

Crowd control includes all the disables, but it also includes some other things that can control the enemy. Apart from the disables CC includes: Pushbacks, Artificially created walls, Flings, Grabs. Sometimes the soft Disables are referred as CC.

AP = Ability power

Ability power is the stat in LoL that gives bonus damage to your magical spells. Its almost always abbreviated as AP.
Often AP or APs is used for champions that use ability power to boost their spells. With two words casters.

AD = Attack damage

Attack damage is the stat in LoL that tells you how much damage you will deal to the opponent with auto attack. Lots of abilities also take direct bonus from the attack damage as well. Its almost always abbreviated as AD.
Often AD or ADs is used for champions who are specialized in auto attacks.

CD = Cooldown

The time that spell needs to recover after being used, and be ready to be used again. Almost always abbreviated as CD.

Push/Pusher

Push is used to indicate when your creeps are pressuring the enemy creeps and towers. People usually push, when the enemy is back to the base, in order to destroy the tower.
Pusher is word for champion who has the ability to kill masses of creeps fast, pressure the tower and eventually destroy it.

Ultimate

Term used to name the last spell of every champion. Hotkey R.

Channel

In almost every game, there are spells that requires you to sit still in order to work. They require your champion to actually "do the spell" while sitting, or to "complete the weaving of the spell" in order to work. The process is usually named channeling in every game.

Interrupt

Its meaning is the literal but for spells. To interrupt a spell means to stop it while its being channeled, or to stop someone flying in mid air.

Farming

The ability to last-hit creeps. The difference between last-hitting and farming, is that farming means your ability not only to last-hit, but to last hit under pressure. Also it means your overall gold earned from creeps.

Engage

To engage means to clash with the enemy team in direct battle. To engage means to start frontal battle with the enemy team.

Harass

Harass means to deal discontinuous damage to the enemy. You throw few spells at the enemy without engaging? You drop one or two hits at the enemy avoiding engage? Then this means you are harassing.

Charge

Some spells need time to form in order to do something. These spells are charging spells. Some spells need to be channeled to charge ( Nunu's Absolute Zero).
Charge is also used for spells that allow your champion to jump quickly at enemy champion.

Carry

Term used for champions dedicated on doing damage. Usually they die fast if the enemy targets them, but if your team manages to keep them alive they can kill the whole team.

Initiate

To initiate start a frontal battle. Champions who has abilities, that can initiate a battle, in a way, so it can be in your favour are called Initiators.

Teamfight

Fights where the both teams engage in direct 5v5 battle.

Mana hungry

When your champion needs mana, a lot, and suffers from lack of mana often, its called to be mana hungry.

Summary

There are many things you can learn by just reading a couple of guides or playing many games over and over and picking up the small things on the way. Everything takes time and a bit of patience. Through using the basics in this guide I hope it teaches you the ropes on how to support your team to victory. Eventually I will be getting a video up on here for all to see. However I have many more support guides to write so I will get the videos done on each guide shortly. Thank you for visiting a Newegg Gaming guide here on Mobafire and we hope this helps. Thank you!