Hello everyone and welcome to my first ever guide posted on Mobafire. Just to be clear here, this is NOT my own created build, but rather a build that I sniped off of Colbycheeze's website. He made a video using Alistar and being that there aren't very many good builds for Alistar available to us on Mobafire, I decided to re-create his work. Much thanks goes out to Colbycheeze!

Marks:

The marks chosen for Alistar cater specifically to the fact that Alistar is going to be played as an AP champion in this guide. I feel that the Greater Mark of Magic Penetration is the most superior choice when playing Alistar this way as they directly improve his ability to dish out damage with his Headbutt + Pulverize combo.

Seals:

If you've played Alistar before, you know that he has some definite mana issues in the early and even mid-game area of play. Using Greater Seal of Scaling Mana Regeneration will keep you in the lane longer, enable you to harrass more, and even free up a summoner ability instead of using Clarity. By using Clairvoyance rather than Clarity, you give your team a significant advantage on map control and scouting ability.

Glyphs:

AP, AP, AP, and more AP! The more AP we can get on Alistar the better and Greater Glyph of Scaling Ability Power provides the most of it. Late in the game, you're going to be a force to be reckoned with and I've even seen Alistar take out 3/4+ of an enemy's health with his devastating Headbutt + Pulverize combo.

Quintessences:

Please read the above paragraph on glyphs and then re-apply those words to this section!

Running this 9/0/21 mastery setup allows you to pick up as much mana regeneration, ability power, and cooldown reduction as humanly possible. I've tinkered with a lot of the other mastery builds offered by other Alistar guides, but have found this one to be truly dominant.

The items listed in the sequence build are in the exact order that I buy them. However, if a situation presents itself that I have only a small amount of gold and not enough for the item I really want, I'll most certainly grab some of the cheaper items in the sequence that build into something I generally purchase further down the road.

In some games, I do pick up the Lich Bane before I get the Rabadon's Deathcap.

Don't forget that you're playing Alistar in a DPS/stun role with this build. Having said that, I put training my Triumphant Roar to near the end of my build. The healing on it in the early and mid-game just isn't worth the skill points at that time and they are better used in the Headbutt and Pulverize talents. Your Triumphant Roar definitely becomes more viable once you're pretty deep into your build though, and that's when the points should be spent in it.

Basically, don't take your Triumphant Roar until it's worth it....once you have some AP to push it forward.

As previously stated, using the seals to gain mana regeneration freed up a spot in my summoner abilities. Because of this I have a little playroom on my second summoner skill.

Flash

Flash is a must-have for Alistar. Being able to initiate a team fight with your Unbreakable Will and then Flash behind the carry is phenomenal. Just Flash behind the carry and Headbutt + Pulverize him into your team and watch him fall over. Once you perfect this, you're going to be loved by every team that plays with you.

Clairvoyance

Let's face it, it's rather difficult to farm gold with Alistar. It takes PRACTICE. and until you can farm gold more easily, I feel that Clairvoyance is the summoner spell to take.

Sight Wards and Vision Wards cost money and it's hard enough to farm our your build without buying them let-alone having to spend 75-150 gold on wards every single time you go back to the Nexus. By picking up Clairvoyance, you limit your necessity of buying wards by having an amazing scouting ability on a really short cooldown. You should still be contributing to your team by buying and placing wards when it's convenient, but even without spending all that gold, you are a credit to the scouting of the team.

Ghost

Ghost is definitely a viable summoner spell should you so choose it. It gives Alistar, a relatively slow-moving champion, a bit of a speed boots when getting away or chasing down the enemy team and getting behind someone to Pulverize and Headbutt them.

Other input on summoner abilities that you have found to be effective is much appreciated and encouraged and I'll do my best to include your thoughts into this guide as well.

AP Alistar should probably be kept to pubstomping in normal games for now. He's not that viable in ranked games and needs some much-needed love from Riot before he comes anywhere close to being a viable ranked character. There are just too many other AP characters that do Alistar's job better than he does.

I don't doubt that many of you play Alistar really well in ranked and probably play him better than I do, but in my opinion, there are better AP characters to play in a competitive ranked game environment.

Alistar is incredibly fun to play and most enemy teams really don't expect an Alistar to dish out much damage when they face him. Even if you're just playing Alistar 4 t3h 1u1z, you'll be pleased. He's a lot of fun and can really get under an enemy team's skin.

If any of you have any comments, questions, tips, or if you see anything I left out of this guide, please feel free to leave a comment down there and hit me with a vote.

If you feel the need to downvote my guide, please leave a comment without voting and at least give me a chance to address the issue you have with it. Who knows, you may even be right. If I feel you are, I'll be more than happy to click my edit button and fix this guide accordingly.

HAPPY HEADBUTTING!!!