Alistar Build Guide by aMxlol
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Ability Sequence
Not Updated For Current Season
The masteries shown here are not yet updated for the current season, the guide author needs to set up the new masteries. As such, they will be different than the masteries you see in-game.
Masteries
Introduction
Greetings Summoners!
I'm fairly new to this (Guiding), but I will try my best!
I'm playing 
Alistar for ages, loved playing him in mid before his AP ratio nerf, loved him on solo as pure tank or even did a good job as support on bot lane! Some weeks ago I started playing Alistar as a jungler and noticed that it's the best way of playing him (In MY Opinion!)
Pros / Cons
Pros:
- amazing CC
- tanky
- self-/allyheal
Cons:
- more or less slow jungle
- very mana hungry (Needs a lot of mana(-reg)
- needs a lot of CDR to sustain in a fight
Masteries
0/21/9
Taking points in
Summoner's Resolve
and
Summoner's Insight
for the bonus gold of 
Smite and reduced cooldown on 
Flash
Maxing
Hardiness
,
Tough Skin
(
Bladed Armor
to speed up the jungle a bit) and
Indomitable
for reduced damage from minions.
Rest of the points are set to grand some CDR, movement speed and longer duration of neutral buffs.
Runes
Greater Seal of Vitality
These runes are aimed to get some extra damage (MPen and AP) and tankyness (Health and Armor).
The Flat AP Quints together with the AP per level Glyphs should help to keep your damage on a good level early on and mid- to late game as well!
Health per level are for some better late game tankyness.
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Other viable runes:
More movementspeed is always good on Alistar, but it's not needed at, but if you feel like you need it, take those Quints
Summoner Spells
Picking up Smite as a jungler should be self-explanatory, secure drake/nashor/buffs!
Flash ain't a must have though, you could also use 
Ghost to better chase down enemies or get into position faster, but I prefer Flash, since it's great to initiate on a single target. Just Flash onto it, Pulverize, move around him and Headbutt into your allies...Should result in a free kill for your team in most of the cases! (Also the ability to jump over walls is very nice and can save your butt sometimes.)
I wouldn't use any other summoner spell besides 2 of those 3 (Actually 1 of those 2, since Smite is mandatory in my opinion as a jungler), you just need either Flash or Ghost to position fast, surprise your enemy, close gaps or escape.
Items
Core Items:
Shurelya's Reverie
I start off with
and 3x
for a fast early gank (More about this in the "Jungling" Chapter!)
If your first gank was successful, you'll go back into the jungle and farm a few more creeps and go back to base. You should have enough gold to grab a Philosopher's Stone, 1 or 2
s and a Sight Ward. The Philosopher's Stone will get you some nice extra gold and the health and manareg you get is just amazing for it's costs.
Next item to get is
for the cooldown reduction and extra movementspeed you are going to need in early game. (You can sell them later when you got Frozen Heart and Shurelya's Reverie and buy
instead for more movement speed!)
Get kage's lucky pick next for some more extra gold and also some more AP do never hurt, don't they? (Except for the enemy :P)
Your next item is going to be
. More mana, more AP, nice passive to kinda "burst" some of the enemy's health. Will later be build into 
Lich Bane for bonus movementspeed and mres, but mainly for the stronger passive.
will grand you and your allies some nice bonus stats by buffing your AD, mres and armor.
will get you some more mana and armor, but the important thing is the CDR you get from this item. You will later build it into Frozen Heart for more CDR, armor and the debuff of the enemy's attackspeed.
Now you can either upgrade your Kage's lucky pick into a 
Deathfire Grasp or sell it to get another item! (You should really see what you need most, I can't recommend any item here since it's really situational, but I usually go for the Deathfire Grasp if I ever even get that far!
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Other items I can recommend:
If you feel a little untanky in early game and don't need the bonus AP of kage's lucky pick and don't plan on getting a Deathfire Grasp, you can replace it with a
and build it into
later on.
Aegis of the Legion could also be replaced by a
if you're feared of getting bursted instantly when you approach somewhere. (But usually you don't need it, since Alistar is naturally tanky already)
If you feel like you need more mres, you should replace Aegis of the Legion with a
! This item works well with Alistar since it grands massive healthregen but also some more movementspeed.
works good with Alistar as well. You get health and armor. It's passive is similiar to Alistar's own passive, Trample, and those 2 deals some great damage to surrounding enemies.
In case the enemy got some heavy amount of phys damage champs, like 
Tryndamere, you should go for a
. Combined with Unbreakable Will, champs like Tryndamere should kill themselves when they attack you :)
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Some items you really should NOT get:
Zhonya's Hourglass - Well...you are most likeley going to be the main tank of your team, so making yourself untargatable is just...bad. Enemies will ignore you and run straight at your carries...No, just no!
Quicksilver Sash - Unbreakable Will removes all CC on you already, so why would you?
Abilities
- Alistar smashes the ground, dealing 60/105/150/195/240 (+0.5) magic damage and tossing all nearby enemy units into the air, stunning them for 1.5 seconds.
Cost 70/85/100/115/130 Mana
Range 365
One of the strongest abilities in the game in my opinion. It stuns all surrounding enemies allowing you to position correctly to set them of for an easy kill. Max this by level 9, since to reduce it's damn high cooldown to use it more often to stun your foes.
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- Alistar charges at an enemy and rams them, dealing 85/130/175/220/265 (+0.7) magic damage and stunning them while knocking them back.
Cost 80/90/100/110/120 Mana
Range 650
Kick your enemy around like a ball...Works well with Pulverize, check out the "Skill Sequence" chapter for more information! Max it by level 13 to reduce the cooldown and to max. the damage.
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- Restores 60/90/120/150/180 (+0.2) health to Alistar and half as much to nearby allies. Cooldown is reduced by 2 seconds each time a nearby enemy unit dies.
Cost 20/30/40/50/60 Mana
Range 575
Healing yourself and surrounding allies...The heal isn't the strongest in the game, but it keeps you alive and can save a lot of butts. 1 point on level 4 should be enough to help you to stay in alive while jungling and to regain some of the health you lost during a gank. Max it last.
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- Removes disables from Alistar, and Alistar gains 60/75/90 Attack Damage and takes 50/60/70% reduced physical and magic damage for 7 seconds.
Cost 150 Mana
Range 1
Reduces all phys and magic damage you take, removes all CC on you and buffs your attack damage. This is a nice ability to dive and tank turrets or to initiate a fight and stay alive and hurt a lot during that fight. The AD buff works well with Sheen for a nice burst as well.
(Important!: It doesn't reduce the damage you get from true damage sources, like 
Irelia's 
Hiten Style!!!)
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(Passive) - Each time Alistar casts a spell, he Tramples nearby units for a few seconds, dealing damage to units he walks over.
AoE damage to enemy minions, champions and turrets. Nice to push a lane and damage enemies in a fight.
Skill Sequence
Ganking from behind:
R Unbreakable Will -> Q Pulverize -> W Headbutt -> E Triumphant Roar
Kicking in the front door:
R Unbreakable Will -> W Headbutt + Q Pulverize -> E Triumphant Roar
Towerdiving:
Flash in -> Q Pulverize -> R Unbreakable Will -> Move around enemy -> W Headbutt -> E Triumphant Roar
Make sure to position correcty for your Headbutts, so you're kicking the enemy INTO your allies instead of AWAY from them! ;)
Also try to spam your Triumphant Roar as much as you can in a fight to keep your passive Trample alive, it's AoE damage is always nice and sometime does the last tick to finish off any enemy!
When you are diving a turret, make sure that you get the turret agro by landing the first attack, which should be your Pulverize. After that instantly activate your ultimate Unbreakable Will to reduce the damage you get from the turret and simply Headbutt the enemy you just hit up with Pulverize into your hungry allies to feed them!
In case you dive a turret from behind, use your Headbutt first to kick the enemy into the direction of your allies, activate Unbreakable Will and try to cut off his escape with Pulverize ;)
Gamephases
Early game:
Your itemgoals for early game are:
- philosopher's stone
- kage's lucky pick
- Ionian Boots of Lucidity
- Sheen
Since you start off with Boots of Speed, you can go for an early level 2 gank on either top or mid lane. If your teammate or you don't **** it up, it should be a really easy firstblood, since Alistar's CC is massive on level 2 already. Head back into your jungle, clean some camps and gank the lane you didn't gank first (If you ganked top first, go for mid now and vice versa) to get a kill for another of your mates. (Seriously, don't take the kills for yourself...Take them only when you see that the enemy is going to survive.)
Clean some more camps in jungle and go back to base. You should be able to get a philosopher's stone by now.
Repeat the above and gank bot lane 1 or 2 times if possible until you you have the 4 items mentioned above.
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Mid game:
Your itemgoals for mid game are:
- Aegis of the Legion
- Glacial Shroud
- 
Kindlegem / Shurelya's reverie
You should now be a bit more tanky and can gank bot lane more often, since you are able to surprise the enemies from behind now.
You're also able to tank dragon now and should grab it with the help of your teammate from botlane.
Since you got a Philosopher's stone and Sheen now, you are not that dependent on the blue buff anymore, give it to your AP carry whenever it's up!
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Late game:
Your itemgoals for late game are:
- Frozen Heart
- Lich Bane
- Boots of Swiftness
- Deathfire Grasp
The laning phase should've ended by now and you are the main tank of your team. Even though, try to stay hidden to catch one of the enemy carries out of position (Either their AP or AD carry)...Your amount of CC and your tankyness should be enough to pin him down until your team can take him down, or make him waste Flash.
If you don't want to stay hidden, you can also chose to stay with your team. Your main task is to protect the carries of your team. Alistar excels in this job, since he can just Headbutt enemies away or if someone tries to just walk through you, you simple hit him up and stun him with Pulverize.
Since your team is with you, engage a fight whenever you're able to disable one of the enemies carries!
During fights stay close to your allies and spam your Triumphant Roar to make them survive longer, deal more damage and finally ace the enemy team. Now, grab your AD carry, rush to the next enemy turret, activate Unbreakable Will and tank the turret so your carry can take it down easily.
How to gank / Junglepaths
I guess this is the most important part of the guide.
You start at wolves, hit them up with Pulverize and let your allies hit them a few times to finish them off faster. Head over to golem and let your AP carry pull it, finish it off with smite and instantly run to top for your first gank. Try to approach from behind and Headbutt the enemy into your teammate, if he tries to Flash over you before you Headbutted him, just hit him up with Pulverize and move around him to Headbutt back into your mate ;) (Let your teammate get the kill, only take the kill if you really NEED TO!)
Wolves should've respawned by now, get them and go back to base and get your first items.
Here's a video to show how a successfull gank should look like:
/league-of-legends/ability/headbutt-19
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Actual Jungle Paths:
If you start as Blue, your first gank should be top. You could do the same when you're Purple (Ganking bot first, instead of top), but the river is probably warded already and top is too far away to reach it fast enough ;)
Now you may ask, why I don't gank mid as Blue, too...Well, the lane I'm always worried to lose is top lane, but if you feel that your top lane is winning already, you could gank mid as well on level 2, just do it like you would as Purple.
My 2nd gank as Blue shows bot, but you could also gank mid at this time. (Approach from Purple's blue ;))
You should gank mid actually if your bot lane is pushing like ****, since you are not tanky enough to either towerdive them, nor to run through the enemy turret to surprise them from behind.
Summary
This is it, my first guide!
I hope I didn't miss anything, but in case I did, leave me a comment below and tell me what is. I'll try to add it ASAP!
Looking forward to your guy's feedback! :)
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