alistar can fit many rolls, he is healer a ganker and a tank. i often see alistar built as a tank, a aura s!ut, or AP, however in my opinion the best way to build alistar is so that he can perform any of his 3 rolls without compromising the others. A hybrid alistar can set up ganks for his team, perform powerful healing, tank for his team and even do fairly high damage. This hybrid style allows alistar to stay benifitial no matter what is going on, on the map, as somewhere always needs a push, heal, gank, or tank.

i will not go too far into my rune choice

magic penetration marks are taken to increase you damage from abilities at all phases of the game.
mana regen seals are taken to avoid runninng out of mana when setting up early game ganks.
ability power quins and glyphs are taken to give alistar a little bit of early game hitting power, in order to get that first blood or heal yourself and an ally a bit more.

i put 21 into utility, because alistar greatly benefits from the reduced cdr, and the mana regen. improved clarity is a must on this build since it stresses the ability to keep your team at full hp and mana no matter what the situation. This also allows you to improve your flash, and take every roamers best freind, greed.

i like having 9 points in attack for the mpen, however many people like a little early game beefyness and take 9 in defense. I recomend you try both methods and see which works better with your play style.

im too lazy to explain in depth but here is what each item is for.

the ring is to give u mana regen for early game heal spaming, and gives u some ap that might be needed for first blood

the boots of mobility are because alistar spends his early game as a roamer and the extra speed while swapping lanes lets him get into position faster.

the philosophers stone is taken because as a roamer ali is often underfarmed, and the regen lets him get back into ganking shape quicker after combat.

the heart of gold lets a low level alistar take a lot more punishment for the possible tower dive or 2v2 gank.

the sunfire is taken because alistar often must walk alongside a target for a period of time as he waits for his cooldowns to come off, and for the survivabilty.

the abyssal septer is taken since alistar beniffits greatly from AP and the MR provides some needed survivability, since the best place to be in a team fight is in the middle of 5 enemies the aura should be effecting most of the opposing team during teamfights.

the hourglass gives enough ap to almost double the damage of his Q and W while greatly improving his healing ability, also the ability to survive an entire enemy barrage like nothing happened is quite useful as aliistar is often focused right after his ult runs out.

omen is an integral part of alistars teamfight iniation. alistar generally wants to charge in from the back, knocking a squisy towards your team, then knocking the other 4 of the oppsing team in the air, right when their team becomes unstunned they will either focus ali or run, if they focus ali he can either use the hourglass or ult, if they try and run he uses omen and ensures his team the kill.

revenge is a great compliment to omen. after omens active runs out and both the enemies and his freinds surround ali he can pop revenge to ensure no one can get away from your teammates or if one needs to run he can swiftly get away.

i like to put 1 into q for the stun, then evenly level w and e, which allows you enoough damage from w to often either gank a lane or force an enemy to go back to base to heal, then e allows you to heal your lane enough to push the tower in the enemies absence.

flash is integral to ali since he needs it to get in position.

i like clarity so that you can gank a lane where your team mates are out of mana. it also has good synergy with alistars heal since often you will have a teamfight where 1 or 2 of your team mates survive and so do 1-2 enemies all at low hp/mana. these situations occur once or twice a game a good alistar can give his team mates mana and heal them so that unlike the other team they can take advaantage of the situation and push for a tower, or often times two

alistar does not lane, he roams, but he must start somewhere until lvl 2 or 3. A lane partner must be able to solo a lane vs 1 or 2 opponents in order to handle the lane once ali starts to roam.

Xin - this combination is a pretty much guarantied first blood. If your xin has either exhaust and ingnite, then at lvl one alistar should knock up an enemy without flash, xin should auto attack once then hit them with 3 talon strike, knocking them up again, and if they survive ignite or exhausting them. your goal here is to give the enemy 0 time to escape since they are constantly stunned. if you decide to wait until lvl 2 alistar should knock them into a wall with his W then knock them up and xin should get into range with his charge.

MF - miss fortune is an excellent laning partner due to her high damage slow, however unlike Xin this combo does not have enough dps to kill at lvl one. I would recommend waiting until level 2 so that alistar can use his 2 to knock an enemy into a wall then immediately knock them up. Mf should have time to get in 1 or 2 auto attacks or maybe a double up, but the most important thing is that as soon as the 1.5s stun ends mf must cast make it rain in order to slow and damage your almost dead opponent.

what is my role as a roamer? well its pretty simple, your job is to evenly assist your 3 lanes in the following ways:

Ganking - to gank a lane alistar must come in from behind your enemy then headbutt them into range of a teamate. When your target tries to run you must cut them off and knock them up with your Q. Make sure to stay right next to your target so as to deal trample damage, while staying positioneed for another headbutt if the target it threatening to escape. Often times a sucessful gank will lead to a turret push.

Turret pushing - Alistar has 2 tools which make him an excellent tower pusher, heal and trample. heal allows you to prolong a push by healing you allies and minions while dealing the tower damage due to trample. when i push towers during the laning phase i like to spam my Q and E for the trample and so as to keep their minion line from pushing back. however i keep my W cooled down in case it is needed for a speedy get away.

Healing - this is pretty explanitory. go to a lane where your team mate is low on health and start spamming E. This is one of the reasons why you take clarity, alistar can bring a freindly champ from 25 percent health and no mana back to full health and full mana in lless than a minute.

Defending - If a freindly champion needs to go back to base or dies leaving an undefended lane, then this is the perfect chance to get some much needed farm and xp as alistar.

What are my priorities? in most cases your priorites are turret pushing>defending a lane where your ally has died> ganking> healing> defending a lane where your ally needs to buy. thats not to say there arent exceptions to this rule, everything is situational.

What lanes should i gank? look for 3 things, does my opponent have flash? does my ally have enough dps or stun to pull this off? has the target pushed the lane? if your target doesnt have flash and is pushing a lane against a dangerous ally, then make haste and gank that careless fool.

What towers should i push? generally what you are looking for here is a lane your ally has pushed in which your opponent does not have enough health to defend from a tower dive. (more on tower diving later)

What lanes should i heal? often i find myself in the sitatuon where all my allies are at low health and i have to decide which one should be healed. first priority is any lane which is pushed to your tower since the game is about defending towers, and nothing else. you should also see if any of your team mates need to buy anyways, in this case healing someone who will not immediately be going back to base is a far better bet. So what if all your lanes are pushed and no one needs to buy? well mid>bot>top.

where should i defend? anywhere that needs it,

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Really?...a section on tower diving....but only noobs tower dive. FALSE a good alistar tower dives not to get kills, but to get turrets. before you tower dive ask yourself, is my ult up? will we be 75% certian to get this kill? do i have enough damage in lane to do significant damage to the tower? if the answer to any of these questions is no then DONT DO IT, unless it is 0% risk.

so the answer to all those questions was yes? your not lying are you? you dont just want to tower dive to show that ezreal who the boss is right? ok i belive you. well then you should know how to tower dive. your first step is to make sure yout ally pushes the lane. then you must get behind the tower and headbutt your opponent towards your ally, remember not too pop ur ult until the target either applys CC in which case u can use ur ult as a clense, or when the tower starts hitting u. your target will either try and run away past your ally or run away back through you. should they run past your ally go towards them just long enough to lose tower agro, then push the lane, let ur ally deal with them while they get the tower. should they run back into the tower for defense, knock them up with ur q and finish them off, NOTE DO NOT LEAVE TURRET RANGE OR UR SQUISHY TEAM MATE WILL GET THE TOWER AGRO AND DIE.

this same formula works for late game teamfights when you are looking to pull of a 5 man tower push. however your targeting is a little different. in this case ask your self if your team could kill their tank if u knocked him towards them. if the answer was yes then knock him out to them and immediately pop omen to keep their team mates from rushing to the rescue. Why their tank, wouldnt a squishier be an easy target? well sure but a 4 man team with a tower can still easily defend from a 5 man team as long as they have someone who can stand in front. if you take out their tank they have no way to initate a fight and most likely must abandon their tower.

NOTE: MAKE SURE TO TELL TEAM MATES IN ADVANCE THAT YOU ARE ONLY GOING IN FOR 1 KILL THEN BACK OUT AGAIN. DONT START A 5V5 TEAMFIGHT UNDER AN ENEMY TOWER.

most of the choices in this build are a bit more complicated then is explained atm, i will be putting in a section explaining how to...actually play alistar