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Runes:
Inspiration
Resolve
+8 Ability Haste
+6 Armor
+6 Armor
Spells:
Flash
Ignite
Items
Ability Order
Triumphant Roar (PASSIVE)
Alistar Passive Ability
Threats & Synergies
Extreme
Major
Even
Minor
Tiny
None
Low
Ok
Strong
Ideal
Janna
she can stop ur engages and rely on q flash mainly, pick different support possibly, if theyre lvl 2 in ur minion wave as lvl 1 can trade but dont chase, short trade when her shield is down.
Ideal
Strong
Ok
Low
None
Introduction

Published 4/20/16
updated items and mid game chapter 4/21/16
Updated skill usage, team fighting, when to pick alistar chapters and morgana matchup 4/25/16
updated thresh matchup 4/27/16
Updated braum, elise, and trundle matchup 4/29/16
added ezreal matchup 5/1/16
Updated soraka matchup 5/3/16
updated when to pick alistar and items chapter 5/6/16
Added aurelion sol and maokai match ups 5/7/16
updated when to pick alistar and early game chapter 5/9/16
Updated dragon chapter 5/20/16
updated when to pick alistar chapter 5/25/16
Added katarina matchup, items, when to pick alistar and items chapter 8/12/16
updated tahm kench matchup, alistar runes and runes chapter 8/29/16
Updated leona matchup, masteries, and masteries chapter 9/6/16
updated mid game chapter and vel'koz matchup 9/10/16
Updated when to pick alistar chapter 9/22/16
updated when to pick alistar chapter and added kennen matchup 10/8/16
Updated jhin matchup and when to pick ali, masteries, and items chapter 10/15/16
updated leashing, early game, and baron chapters 10/17/16
Updated when to pick alistar and masteries chapter, lulu matchup, and masteries 11/28/16
updated items and skill order; updated items, the level one before minions spawn, leashing, early game, mid game, late game, and dragon chapters 11/29/16
Updated runes; when to pick alistar chapter 12/9/16
updated when to pick alistar and conclusion chapters 2/18/17
Updated matchups and skill usage to replace old E 3/9/17
updated masteries and skill order; masteries chapter 4/26/17
Updated yasuo and elise matchup; added anivia matchup 4/28/17
updated runes; when to pick alistar and runes chapters, removed masteries chapter 12/13/17
Updated runes and items; when to pick alistar, runes, items, timers, the level one before minions spawn, and leashing chapters; updated morgana matchup; added gragas and pyke matchups 10/19/18
updated team fighting chapter 10/20/18
Updated almost eveything 12/22/21
updated when to pick alistar chapter 7/2/22
Updated when to pick alistar chapter 7/13/22
updated items and mid game chapter 4/21/16
Updated skill usage, team fighting, when to pick alistar chapters and morgana matchup 4/25/16
updated thresh matchup 4/27/16
Updated braum, elise, and trundle matchup 4/29/16
added ezreal matchup 5/1/16
Updated soraka matchup 5/3/16
updated when to pick alistar and items chapter 5/6/16
Added aurelion sol and maokai match ups 5/7/16
updated when to pick alistar and early game chapter 5/9/16
Updated dragon chapter 5/20/16
updated when to pick alistar chapter 5/25/16
Added katarina matchup, items, when to pick alistar and items chapter 8/12/16
updated tahm kench matchup, alistar runes and runes chapter 8/29/16
Updated leona matchup, masteries, and masteries chapter 9/6/16
updated mid game chapter and vel'koz matchup 9/10/16
Updated when to pick alistar chapter 9/22/16
updated when to pick alistar chapter and added kennen matchup 10/8/16
Updated jhin matchup and when to pick ali, masteries, and items chapter 10/15/16
updated leashing, early game, and baron chapters 10/17/16
Updated when to pick alistar and masteries chapter, lulu matchup, and masteries 11/28/16
updated items and skill order; updated items, the level one before minions spawn, leashing, early game, mid game, late game, and dragon chapters 11/29/16
Updated runes; when to pick alistar chapter 12/9/16
updated when to pick alistar and conclusion chapters 2/18/17
Updated matchups and skill usage to replace old E 3/9/17
updated masteries and skill order; masteries chapter 4/26/17
Updated yasuo and elise matchup; added anivia matchup 4/28/17
updated runes; when to pick alistar and runes chapters, removed masteries chapter 12/13/17
Updated runes and items; when to pick alistar, runes, items, timers, the level one before minions spawn, and leashing chapters; updated morgana matchup; added gragas and pyke matchups 10/19/18
updated team fighting chapter 10/20/18
Updated almost eveything 12/22/21
updated when to pick alistar chapter 7/2/22
Updated when to pick alistar chapter 7/13/22
As of patch 12.13,
Alistar is a C tier support in the game. Generally do not pick him. The only time you can pick him is against poke bot lane, but
Sejuani with
Electrocute,
Pyke,
Rakan,
Bard and
Zac are better engage supports. He can be a counter pick to
Rell though but
Thresh and
Janna is better. If you do pick this champion, this guide will help you minimize your chance of losing. He is good at ganking mid with jungler, but your mid needs to be a viable champion to succeed.
Alistar is primarily a roamer since your solo kill potential is low unless your laners burn cooldowns(use skills and miss or use on minions) for example going for a trade when
Janna shield is down or going on the other that isn't shielded.
Right now
Yuumi is the best support and can handle her counters despite her recent nerfs.












Right now






















Against range supports, take the runes from this guide. If against melee supports or
Thresh, take
Aftershock
Font of Life
Bone Plating
Overgrowth
Presence of Mind and
Legend: Tenacity.







Buy boots as your first core item for warding the enemy jungle with jungler or warding defensively around mid lane after backing. Your bot partner will play back when you're gone or else you have to tell him to wait at tower. Come back to your bot partner when the minions are gonna hit your tower.
Locket of the Iron Solari prioritized if they have aoe(area of effect) like
Ziggs,
Rumble, or
Karthus.
Thornmail against enemies with healing.
Mikael's Blessing if they have critical cc.
Elixir of Iron when full build or when a dragon soul or elder dragon is happening soon.
Control Ward only for dragons. Better to save money for items.
Frozen Heart against a lot of attack speed champions.
Abyssal Mask against magic and with a magic teammate.
Anathema's Chains is good against melee carries like
Yasuo and
Sylas as your team's crowd control effects will last longer on them.













You should always time the enemy summoners. Do this with ctrl a then ctrl c after typing the timers and later remind your team with ctrl v. You should always time the enemy summoners.
Flash is 5 min, but
Ionian Boots of Lucidity reduces flash by 30s,
Cosmic Insight reduces flash by 46s, together reduces flash by 69s.
Exhaust and
Cleanse are 3 min 30s while
Ignite and
Ghost are 3 minutes.
Teleport can be looked at by holding tab and divide their teleport cooldown by 60.
Heal is 4 min. Buffs are 5 minutes if you dont have vision of their buffs to make use of riot's buff timers.
Dragon and
baron are timed by the game scoreboard.
inhibitor is 4 min.
















You should save


You should use





You can disrupt some dashes. You should keep an eye on channeling enemies to stop them with



Never use


Do not use


Don't

Do not use skills on minions for the sake of farm. Enemies can be nearby and punish your team.
If


You can do

Use



Wards won't be enough as good jungle players know how to get around them. You need to keep track of junglers by their pathing. First know which side they started by a deep ward or on his teammates leashing. Be careful though, as people can fake leash. Ping on the map which camps the enemy jungler should be at and all laners should play accordingly. If you ping jungler is on opposite side of map while your jungler is on your side, you should trade with the enemy laners. If jungler is on your side, then play safe and do not push lane.





Do not pick a skill yet until you see your lane opponents in lane, when top laner appears at top to show there is no lane swap, or there is no delay invade. You should defend a choke point safely. If defending raptor area do not stand in bush. If defending mid lane then have vision of both bushes and no need to have vision of their tower. You should use your trinket ward somewhere generally at 0:45, unless you see a group of invaders then you ward where you are escaping to. If you ward in front of them, they can kill it. A delay invade optimally happens at 1:25, so warding at 0:45 at a decent spot to see the invade coming will let your team respond accordingly. If an enemy sees you when you are about to ward, its better to back off and ward a spot that they cannot see even though it is not as deep.
Generally for all lanes, if you have more minions you can go aggressive if your adc follows up and you know where everyone is in the map; but not past the minions if you need your minions to help fight the enemy champs. If there are 10 enemy minions and you have 3 minions just back up all the way to tower as you will get collapsed on by the enemy. Since you will not lose any cs(creep score), you might as well go back to tower anyways. It takes 9 minions as duo lane to get lvl 2 so you should count both minion waves to see if you get lvl 2 first, they get lvl 2 first, or both sides will get lvl 2 at the same time. If they are getting lvl 2 first then you're gonna have to back off far and ping back your partner. If the lane is even then you have to be cautious. Only do short trades when playing aggressive or else you take too much minion damage.
You should watch your lane and your teammates to see if they have the factors of getting dived. The most obvious one is low health. Others are no flash, huge incoming minion wave, and champions missing. If you pay attention to other lanes or yourself, you can warn the possible dive and move your jungler, others can roam to help, or get in a spot for a safe teleport, all to turn around the dive. If none of the responses are available then the possible victim must leave. The duo lane should generally be together when the minion wave is at their tower, or else the enemy duo can 2v1 dive the lonely bottom player. Tell that bottom player to leave or call others to turn the dive around.
Towers will prioritize minions toward the bottom of the lane first. During early levels you can auto once on a full hp caster minion. The caster minions near the top of the lane will most likely get hit by your minions which means you need to auto those more than once or not at all.
Generally you recall when your adc is recalling or dead. Best case scenario is you know where everyone is on the map and you can safely push to their tower if you have more minions or freeze when they have a bit more minions. You can recall before a siege minion wave(which spawns after 2 minion waves during early game), so that by the time you go back to lane you won't miss out on too much cs since siege takes a while to be killed by tower as well as enemies can't push that fast.
If you killed your enemy laners and you do not know where everyone is on the map then you should go to your tower and recall. Do not risk getting killed by their jungler or whoever. If you got a successful jungler to gank you then ask him to push with you unless you are all low enough for a triple kill. After recalling, buy while walking to edge of fountain always until 20 minute mark.
If you killed your enemy laners and you do not know where everyone is on the map then you should go to your tower and recall. Do not risk getting killed by their jungler or whoever. If you got a successful jungler to gank you then ask him to push with you unless you are all low enough for a triple kill. After recalling, buy while walking to edge of fountain always until 20 minute mark.
Warding in the bottom river will help to avoid their bot duo cheese as well as lvl 2 jungle ganks.
Generally let them push level one as you can't do anything.
It takes 9
minion kills for duo lanes to level.
Never trade if you are not full health.
It is ok to take one kill because you want to get your mythic item by third dragon.
Ward mainly when you push to enemy tower and let your bot player know to back off; you can also fake ward by walking to a spot and pretending to ward.
If the mid is missing then you should expect a gank and should back off. Watch for teleports as well as you can't all in unless your jungler and your teleport(s) is ready to help. Get all 3 skills lvl 3 if you expect gank or all in.
After first back run in jungle near mid lane to ward the river bush near mid towards
dragon or to deep ward the enemy jungle that isn't the buff bush. It is best to ward and roam with jungler. Try to ward the
gromp area/
raptor area as that is the easiest after your lane is pushing(preferably under enemy tower), tell your bot player to play back or follow you as you deep ward so he doesn't get 2v1. For warding the
raptor make sure you see the raptor camp to see their jungler. For warding the
gromp you don't need to ward the blue buff bush, just ward over the wall that can see both blue buff and gromp. If you see their jungler and he can 1v1 you or is not scared then you should just back off and ward a spot where he can't see you place since he is preventing you from deep warding. Generally when your jungler comes, you let him show first before engaging since u don't want to die in a 2v2 before your jungler gets to do anything.
As red team, many blue team players
Control Ward their tri bush at bot. It is very risky to take them out without your jungler, so instead you can ward these spots to see an incoming gank from the jungle but not from river.
Generally let them push level one as you can't do anything.
It takes 9

Never trade if you are not full health.
It is ok to take one kill because you want to get your mythic item by third dragon.
Ward mainly when you push to enemy tower and let your bot player know to back off; you can also fake ward by walking to a spot and pretending to ward.
If the mid is missing then you should expect a gank and should back off. Watch for teleports as well as you can't all in unless your jungler and your teleport(s) is ready to help. Get all 3 skills lvl 3 if you expect gank or all in.
After first back run in jungle near mid lane to ward the river bush near mid towards





As red team, many blue team players


Mid game generally starts when a tower dies or when someone gets lvl 6 as they can tower dive. Always ask for help when warding, never ward by yourself unless you know where everyone is.
You should generally be mid with your bot partner. Just get experience and play safe to wait for next dragon fight. This is why late game counter picks are best.
You should generally be mid with your bot partner. Just get experience and play safe to wait for next dragon fight. This is why late game counter picks are best.
Always have a
Control Ward slot. Only use
Control Ward for dragons and barons.
Never get aced as just a siege wave is enough to end the game.
It is ok to lose
inhibitor. Just focus on dragons and protecting nexus towers. Always take dragon over baron unless it's cloud. Always take dragon over towers and inhibitors as well. Do not take base towers if dragon or baron is coming up soon as the enemy will generally respawn in time.
Never get aced as just a siege wave is enough to end the game.
It is ok to lose
inhibitor. Just focus on dragons and protecting nexus towers. Always take dragon over baron unless it's cloud. Always take dragon over towers and inhibitors as well. Do not take base towers if dragon or baron is coming up soon as the enemy will generally respawn in time.
If you have open nexus(no nexus towers) then sit in base until all inhibits respawn.


Never get aced as just a siege wave is enough to end the game.
It is ok to lose

Never get aced as just a siege wave is enough to end the game.
It is ok to lose

If you have open nexus(no nexus towers) then sit in base until all inhibits respawn.
Only do dragon when 2 enemies are dead or at base & while your team isn't low, or it is a free dragon. A free dragon is when the enemy team is aced, their teleports are down, completely cleared their vision, they're taking top buff, or recalled to base.
If they have
Fiddlesticks,
Nunu & Willump,
Master Yi,
Udyr,
Shaco,
Elise,
Karthus,
Lee Sin, and possibly more(not to mention laners helping out), then you need to keep it warded from a specific lvl onward for a possible sneak.
If the enemy starts dragon, poke them until dragon is half hp, then fight. Poking them makes them disoriented to either finish, run, or fight. Dragon does aoe so if you start it, have one person in the pit to tank it away from team.
Always team fight for the third dragon as everyone would be closest in items. As scaling team, you can give the first two if not safe to contest.
Prioritize dragons over everything else.
If you have dragon soul, instead of starting elder dragon camp the enemy jungle and fight. If playing protection composition, backline hits dragon while frontline zones, then get off dragon if they go in.
If they have








If the enemy starts dragon, poke them until dragon is half hp, then fight. Poking them makes them disoriented to either finish, run, or fight. Dragon does aoe so if you start it, have one person in the pit to tank it away from team.
Always team fight for the third dragon as everyone would be closest in items. As scaling team, you can give the first two if not safe to contest.
Prioritize dragons over everything else.
If you have dragon soul, instead of starting elder dragon camp the enemy jungle and fight. If playing protection composition, backline hits dragon while frontline zones, then get off dragon if they go in.
When securing baron for bait or to take, you want to deep ward and ward surrounding bushes to keep from getting stolen or to get a pick. Do not exclude the tri bush towards top lane.
As red team you want to pink outside the pit and sweep inside the pit.
As blue team you want to pink in the pit near the entrance so that the enemy doesn't kill it over the wall.
Do not stand behind the baron when taking it, since it will do damage to everyone behind it.
As for positioning when taking baron you need to stand outside the pit with your carries. As for ward kills in the pit, support should be the one since support's dmg against baron is least important. When the enemy is in the baron pit, hit the baron to make it hit your enemies. Never use your cc at baron when enemies are around. One person should zone the enemy team if they are coming to stop the baron attempt. Communicate with your team beforehand to finish, run, or turn to fight.
At 20min and onwards you must ward it against sneaks from high objective junglers such as
Nunu & Willump,
Udyr,
Karthus,
Fiddlesticks,
Master Yi, and possibly more(not to mention laners helping out).
Always take baron over inhibitors.
As red team you want to pink outside the pit and sweep inside the pit.
As blue team you want to pink in the pit near the entrance so that the enemy doesn't kill it over the wall.
Do not stand behind the baron when taking it, since it will do damage to everyone behind it.
As for positioning when taking baron you need to stand outside the pit with your carries. As for ward kills in the pit, support should be the one since support's dmg against baron is least important. When the enemy is in the baron pit, hit the baron to make it hit your enemies. Never use your cc at baron when enemies are around. One person should zone the enemy team if they are coming to stop the baron attempt. Communicate with your team beforehand to finish, run, or turn to fight.
At 20min and onwards you must ward it against sneaks from high objective junglers such as





Always take baron over inhibitors.



After using


Late game when flanking, headbutt adc or immobile channel mids like

Don't flank if other lanes are pushing and without

Can't flank when they have glass cannon melee. Be with team at all times and use your skills only on the glass cannon melee. Be next to your carries if more than one glass cannon melee. Tell team to focus them and not the backline. If only one, then headbutt him away from the fight, then zone with

Do not use skills on tanks except when getting stacks for E.
At all stages of the game, whether 5v5 in river or 2v2 in lane, you must tank skill shots for your allies.

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