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Mathematically correct Alistar?

This is NOT a "Feast or Famine" guide. You won't fall behind any more than you would fall behind as any other top laner, and neither does it revolve around playing safely under turret and farming, waiting for someone to dive you so you can CC them to death. This build focuses on aggressive play, forcing trades whenever possible and bursting down all sorts of opponents, including tanks, while also being tanky yourself. Think AP Malphite!

RUNES

RESOLVE:

Grasp of the Undying:

Procs every 4 seconds - roughly every 1 auto attack for Alistar - which happens right after an engage combo (e.g. using W, procing stun then auto attacking once).

Demolish: Self explanatory. Font of Life does not heal you, and no one other than you is toplane. You heal using your passive anyway! Shield Bash is a waste, since there are no shields on Alistar.

Bone Plating: A good pick if your opponent has burst damage (Fiora, Darius, Lee Sin) or if you don't know what you're doing. If you prefer to play safe and farm under turret, you can pick Second Wind.

Overgrowth: Hands down the best rune. Makes you tanky by farming and roaming. What else is there to say?

DOMINATION:

Cheap Shot: Free True Damage on all of your abilities! Swap out for "Taste of Blood" for a healthier and safer lane. Falls off late game, but gives the much needed burst early game.

Ravenous Hunter: Healing by attacking, and that's basically it. Any amount of sustain is good.

COMBOS

AA > Q > AA

Deals about 220 damage lvl 2 (with Ring) and secures a stun - that's a lot of damage! A good and safe harassing ability, but mana costly (Q costs 65 mana at Lvl 1) and has a long cooldown, making it not worth spamming for.

E > AA > Q > AA > AA

Deals a whooping 504 damage lvl 3 and lands two stuns. Couple this with a W disengage and you send your opponent crying with 100-200 HP under his turret. Congratulations!

W > E > AA > Q > AA > AA

Deals 567 damage, but pushes the opponent away from you, which can be bad if they're ranged or have ranged attacks (Urgot, Darius, Quinn). Nevertherless, you still pull off insane amounts of damage lvl 3 and most likely secure a kill or flash if you threw the opponent towards your turret.

W > Q > E > AA > AA > AA

If you're engaging on an enemy but can't W into him, W into the nearest enemy minion and Q immediately. The W won't affect them, but now you've effectively gap-closed and can proc Cheap Shot and any on-hit items you have off the Q stun, then proc E stun right after - and burst again!

Q > W

A great disengage. You knock your opponent up and send them flying away from you, procing any on-hit effects you had and dealing hefty damage for saving yourself.
* This is not the "500+ AP disengage" you're looking for. 500+ AP disengage is your W alone!

ABILITIES

Your Q is powerful enough on Rank 1 and ranking it up only costs you mana and gives barely any cooldown reduction (about two seconds). It's a good harassing ability though.

Your W is a super utility-only tool. Nothing more about that.

Your E at Rank 3 costs 70 mana, while your Q at Rank 1 costs 65, therefor, it's not worth maxing Q first, because it's a skillshot anyway that also eats away your mana and has much longer cooldowns. E also waveclears much better than Q and deals more damage in general. E procs Luden's Tempest better and sets up more combos.

STRATEGIES

Try to play as aggressive as possible - force bad trades and don't be afraid to throw out a W here or there. Alistar's passive lets him heal back damage by just being around dying minions and refreshes automatically when an enemy champion is killed or assisted by him.

If you're ganking, make sure to save your W to knock back the enemy into your side of the lane or to secure an engage kill. Your W has insane range and your goal is to abuse that. If they're running away low on health, that's your cue to W and kill them. But, if you fail, you might have just knocked them across the lane and helped them get away. Worth the coin flip? You decide.

If you're getting ganked, just W to some minions on your side on the lane or W the enemy ganker. They can't get you when you're too far away to gank! Try not to engage 2v1's, because you'll definitely lose. Your CC is great, but your cooldowns are also long and you don't deal enough damage to one shot anyone just yet. Play it off cool and back if you have to.

THINGS TO REMEMBER

Your Q always comes down in front of you, not where you point your mouse to.

You don't have to be right in front of an opponent to knock them back with W. You can do it from the side, barely wedging in front of them and it will have the same result.
You can (and should) W on minions to engage ganks or fights. If you W the opponent champion, you just knock them away from you and break your combo chain. It's perfectly fine to do that when W'ing into walls, though!
You can W across the lane over enemy minions to evade ganks or escape bad trades.

Your E does not give you a MS boost. The running animation is a lie!
It's great for catching enemies if you have Rylai's, because they will be affected by the AoE circle surrounding you.

Obviously keep in mind proper toplane strategies such as Wave Management and Warding.

EXTRAS

This is where I would put videos of above combos and strategies, but I need video URL's for that, which require me to get video hosting first. Bummer!

Item Set:

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