In this guide I will show you how to play and build Alistar to an undying supportive tank.

I'm not saying that this is "the best" build, because you will have to adjust your build depending on which champions you are playing against, and which enemy champion(s) that is/are "dominating".

The runes I chose will simply give you armor and magic resistance, which basically means that the damage taken on you will be reduced.

The reason why I chose "per lvl"-runes is simply because you will get a greater benefit from them (unless you win/lose as lvl 6-10...).

I chose to spec 0/21/9. This will make Alistar a stronger tank with more armor, resistance, dodge, hp, damage reduction, and it will also increase you hp/mana regeneration, and extra XP%.

You may notice that Alistar have some mana issues (especially early-mid game). These mana issues will be reduced if you use my choice of masteries.

I chose an extremely defensive build, and this is because Alistar isn't a nuker (unless you go AP / AD which also works perfectly), and I rather build him for support / tank to help my team as much as possible).

As you can see, the build is kind of "tanky", and it's suppose to be that way. I chose two supportive items which will help the team a lot (Cooldown reduction and movement speed for everyone :) ). The CD reduction will allow you to support your team more, and pick up enemy champions more easily.

Also, I chose boots of Mobility. This choice might seem quite weird for many people, but it is excellent when u need to chase, flee or get to a place to gank/teamfight. Movement speed is a stat which improves Alistar a lot!


Thornmail will return 30% of the physical damage taken on you (this item is autohitters worst nightmare), and it also gives quite an armor boost.
Banshee's Veil will block one spell every 45th second, and it also gives health points, mana and magic resistance.
Force of Nature is also a great item which I chose. It will give you loads of magic resistance, health regain and movement speed.


With these items you will achieve:

- Almost 4k health
- 222 armor
- 192 magic resistance
- 400 movement speed (around 440 +/- when boots of mobility is active)
- Return 30% physical damage
- CD (cooldown)-reduction

This will make it extremely hard to kill you, and remember that you also got ulti, which means you're basically immortal. If your enemies actually chooses you as the target, you should really thank them!

I'm always choosing Pulverize in the start as lvl 1,Headbutt as lvl 2 and Triumphant Roar as lvl 3. This gives me all the abilities (except ultimate - ofc) early, and I can stun them for teammates, knock them back, and heal when being harassed.

I'm usually focusing on getting Triumphant Roar up to rank 5 first. This is because of loads of champions are strong harassers, and this ability will make it easier to stay in lane without recalling because of low hp issues. Ranking up Triumph Roar to rank 5 first is extremely important to do when you are solo laning (1v2). Solo-laning works perfectly with Alistar, and you will often get firstblood too (just pick the correct timing when they are trying to harass you at turret, flash out, knock him into turret - and good bye).

Sometimes it might be best to rank up Pulverize first - if your lane is dominating. This will give you a bit extra damage, but it's not necessarily worth it.

I'm always using Ghost and Flash when playing Alistar. This is because an Alistar always should engange teamfights, and sometimes just knock one target out of the enemy turret, which allows your team to nuke this target. without of losing a person.

Ghost is also excellent when you have to chase enemies, or even flee / assist friendly champions who are trying to flee.

I'm actually using Flash mostly in lanes. This is because of Alistar isn't really that quick, and at least not early game. A decent player will back of when an Alistar is running to his direction. It's also extremely nice to sneak up on someone, flash on them, and give a friendly teammate a free kill. Flashing into turrets works too. In many situations you won't have to flash in to the player who is staying on the turret, because they're normally not expecting that a bull will knock them out of there.

This is the Alistar build that I prefer the most. Remember that you might have to change some items depending on which champions you meet, or even just the order of the items.

The build will give you all the stats that you need, and you will also be loved by your team because of your supportive items.

Remember, I am not posting this to help myself - because I already have a build which works excellent, but I'm posting this to help other players who are wondering about how they should build Alistar.

Feel free to leave a comment if you have something on your mind (for example questions or if you think something should be changed).


Grazu