Hey guys, this is my first ever guide and build, and I am not even ranked yet so I understand my credibility is questionable in those regards, but I have been playing Alistar since I started playing. All I ask is that you read, try it, and watch the magic. :) I also understand how incredibly weird that a smite support sounds, but like I said we're headbutting the meta and building all of the health. This build is best for mid to late game. Late game I have managed around 7K health, although spamming Warmogs would give you closer to 8K probably. Anyway, I'll let you read on. Please comment thoughts, constructive criticism, and hopefully praise. :P

So obviously the focus of this build and the controversial part is the choosing of smite. Basically this is used to get CS to begin with and later so that you can build into your choice of jungle weapons with the Cinderhulk enchantment. In addition to this it adds to your teams dragon and baron pressure, and also helps with leashing early game.



The other I use is Exhaust. As Alistar already has a little sustain with his E Triumphant Roar I like to use this because it is wonderful for slowing and reducing damage from an ADC or supports with good peel and poke capability.



Heal is pretty good, but like I said, Alistar has a sustain. The only other reason I would take heal is for the movement speed boost if you want to start real aggressive, or if you want a lot more sustain potential. I will get into game play and further explanation of why I don't use it for the sustain, considering you're expelling the muchly needed mana by using Alistar's E.



I would put teleport above heal in this particular build because it allows a map-wide pressure and for quick recalls at the start of the game. Otherwise, you build movement speed on there enough to put that pressure on reasonably well. This will be elaborated upon later.



Ok, so normally this is an obvious pick for everyone's build, and I constantly get questions like "smite? dude I'm jg". Flash is definitely one of the most important summoner spells, but in this build your ideal is not to need to escape. By mid to late game you should be able to run into the middle of the enemy team, draw out someone's stun, use your ult Unbreakable Will, and then CC the **** out of their team while your damage dealers smash them. Flash is also good to get escapees of the enemy team for the Flash Headbutt combo. If you are fond of this combo then by all means flash is not a disagreeable choice.

As for the others, Cleanse is good but once you get to level 6 Alistar already has his own that makes him an epic tank, so in the end you won't need it too much unless you're up against crazy amounts of CC. Barrier might be good for being even more aggressive than with the heal and getting an early tower dive to Headbutt an enemy out from under tower. I don't think anyone uses Clairvoyance, and I'm not sure I could recommend it for any reason unless you have all of the long-range-ult team mates. Clarity is sort of like heal in that it would be good for sustain, however that is all Clarity would be used for in this case, while heal has another use. In addition my build takes away the need for this anyway. Lastly, Ignite. This is great for aggressiveness and initiating damage for your ADC but I find that depends on your ADC, for say Tristana who wants to get all the auto-attacks on, the exhaust remains the best choice. It is of course entirely up to the Alistar user and how they like to play him, so I'll leave you to do that, but here is how I run our beautiful brute of a cow.

I'll start from the start. Firstly, looking at the whole build you may wonder what the point is of having the Ancient Coin. Well, it just recently got buffed in its gold production capability and the mana regen is really useful for early game Alistar. That basically explains its use, I have never gotten Rod of Ages later than 15 minutes thanks to this, and I generally do that at first back thanks to the sustain it provides. The only time it isn't first back that I get items is because I having a **** game or am up against some serious opposition. Then there is further sustain and warding of course.

Next is Rod of Ages. This gives you a constant increase in scale of power and tankiness while you're building you're other items. Sometimes I need to go back early if an early boost in tankiness and sustain is needed, and I will get the catalyst the protector for that. Following getting this I generally have a choice. Either I will get Sightstone and replace the warding trinket for the oracle lens, because it provides vision, health, and builds into a later item. More often though, I will get the Stalker's Blade because it provides more pressure in exchanges, because you can then smite champions and slow them. This, of course, is built into the Stalker's Blade - Cinderhulk for you're second full item. This provides you with 15% bonus health, and the Immolate passive stacks with your passive, Trample.

If you haven't gotten sightstone yet, and you haven't had much pressure from heavy ganking don't worry about it and just start building Warmog's Armor. After this, if things are going well then you should be about level 12, be nearing 4000 health, and be finding tanking much easier. That being said this build hasn't provided much in the way of armor and MR, so you do take more damage. I generally use Unbreakable Will fairly early in a team fight at this point if the other team is pulling some heavy damage. It makes you ridiculously tanky by making up for the armor and magic resist you haven't built yet. After this I generally get the eye of the equinox, which is you're warding and tanky item. Once you have this you replace the trinket like I said before.

At this point, if I'm tanky enough to survive team fights really well, I will go for movement speed. Most people might go Ninja Tabi or Mercury's Treads, which are great items if you need the tankiness. It is not often I need that much more tankiness at this point though. Therefore I generally pick Mobility Boots. This great for providing support across the map more easily, and if you get to low health and can be untouched for long enough, the passive kicks in and sends you flying so that you definitely won't get hit which allows the health regen passive on Warmog's Armor to start. The best part about this is that the health regen works on percentage health, so you regenerate your 4K or more health in a matter of seconds.

Now you have all of the tanky choices for late game. I have laid these out as Magic Resist and Armour separately because tanking is very dependent upon your enemies' builds. You want to counter their AP with Magic Resist and AD and Armour Penetration with Armour. In the case of heavy critical strike in the oppositions build I would highly recommend Randuin's Omen because it reduces the damage a critical strike does and provides further health and even more armor. In addition it has a nice active and passive which will help in team fights as well. Other than this I generally go Guardian Angel because no one hates a tank more than when you have to kill them twice. The active on Zhonya's Hourglass has a similar affect on the enemy team and if timed right will mean Warmog's Armor will restore your health while your untouchable. As for the rest of the items I leave it to you to judge what your team will advantage from best, there is no one right build for supporting or tanking for your team, but the options I provide there cover most situations I can think of. I would love to hear suggestions though.

I have two main skill sequences. I have put up the top my main one, but here is that one and my other, as well as an explanation of why I go each.

Sequence 1
Sequence 2
As you can see the difference is in the increase of either the E or the Q. Generally I go the E because it makes sure my sustain scales to a degree with my total health. Otherwise, if you need the extra damage on your CC then increasing [pulverize] helps as well, although the CC of it doesn't increase. This is not a strict rule to follow, every game is situational for a tank support. It is dependent on both yours and your enemies team.

Unfortunately I have not got enough IP and am not level 30 yet, so I have not finished my rune set yet. This is what my aim is though once it is done. It is designed to increase my percentage health even further, adding another 9% to the 15% from the Stalker's Blade - Cinderhulk, making a total of 24% bonus health once that is built. Those who can afford to try this out, let me know how it goes, otherwise this will be updated once I have found out myself.

I will let you know what I am currently running it with so that you can see that the build itself works without the runes suggested here. Having transitioned from other champions when I first started playing and trading up from tier 1 slowly towards tier 3, I currently having CDR, AP, Health, and Magic Penetration as the stats boosted in my, mostly tier 2, runes. I would suggest the runes above though to reach the full potential of this build.

To begin my explanation of my masteries I once again need to acknowledge that I am not level 30 and don't have full masteries.

To start with, in the Ferocity page, I have picked Sorcery and Feast for extra poke damage and sustain. While Wanderer and Secret Stash provide further sustain capability and movement speed which this build generally lacks.

Lastly, and most importantly the Resolve page. This has the most points in it because, of course, this is a tanky build. Firstly, picking between Unyielding and Recovery was a little tough because this build can work well with either, but it does not focus on armor or magic resist which is why I went with Unyielding . Explorer then attempts to further make up for the movement speed lost in this build, helping escape to get the passive on Warmog's Armor to work. Next, as this focuses on health, I added a further 4% bonus health with Veteran's Scars , which at full build and runes gives 28% bonus health. Following this there is some health regen, which increases at 20% health remaining, helping even further to allow survival for Warmog's Armor to start max regeneration. The next is an important choice as well, because Alistar can benefit from either and his ult provides an alternative to each. I chose Swiftness in the end because the ult removes CC applying at the time, while this makes sure any after that don't last as long. The final point went into Strength of the Ages which eventually builds your health by another 300 just by being near the death of siege minions.

To summarise this guide/build I am just going to say have fun and when tanking watch the other teams item choices. Otherwise, go out and headbutt the Meta with a smite support and confuse everyone. You will not regret it.

If you have any questions, criticisms, suggestions, ideas, or ideally praise, just comment and I will try and respond as soon as possible. :) GLHF Players!