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In a game of chess after each player has moved once, the number of different board set ups is 400.
After each player has moved twice, the number of possible games is almost 200,000
After each player has moved 5 times the number of possible games is almost 70,000,000,000 (Yes, that reads 70 billion)
Now if we look at League, this number approaches infinity, and it approaches it veeery fast!.

2017- Hence, this is my first guide and I created it in order to show people a way to play a certain champion and not how to improve at a certain position. A lot of things are out of this guide's scope and a lot of things are being left out and sometimes lack in-depth explanation on purpose.


2019- It's been two years since I created this guide and more than a year since I last updated it(patch 8.6). With season 10 and the world championship on the horizon, I thought it would be a good time to revise the guide and help players from all around the world prepare and improve.

Thank you for reading!

(image is approximately 2 years old, but still relevant!)

• Best Alistar In the World according to LSS, last year at least. Second in the picture, only because I got bored of being first and by the time I decided to take a picture I wasn't number 1 anymore. Don't get the wrong idea -2017
• My peak was rank 70 - 2019
  
• 595,359 mastery score as of 27th of March 2018.
• 671,295 mastery score as of 26rd of September 2019.
  
• He is my most played champion since season 4
  
• He helped me climb from Platinum to Master multiple times.

It's worth mentioning that, one of the climbs from Diamond 5 to Masters took place during the ARDENT META!
(Season 7, good old times) -2019

Playing a tank support at that point in time basically meant that you have 10 minutes to somehow establish a lead, which would put your team in a position to close out the game, or you lose. Unless you are a masochist, why would you put your self through such arduous process?
Every game I had to play against the likes of Janna, Soraka, Lulu (The Holy Trinity) paired with either Vayne or Kog'Maw.
Well, as it turned out, although I hated the meta, I really enjoyed the handicap. It definitely wasn't the smartest approach I could have taken, but it served as good practice, especially becauseI play 99.9% of my ranked games solo, and taught me many things, like to ban Janna every single game.

The meta didn't favor me, but that was the least of my problems. Fps drops and low fps in general, high and unstable ping, a mouse that is half the size of my hand, hardware faillure caused by overheating just to name a few. My point here though is that, if I can climb under these conditions,YOU CAN DO IT TOO -2017
(Theoretically) -2019

Quick Flashback
Patch 4.14 was the world championship patch in 2014 and in 4.12 Riot deemed necessary to buff Alistar and they did so by increasing his ultimate damage reduction from 50/60/70% to 70% at all ranks and reduced the mana costs of his Pulverize and Headbutt.
The result? Alistar had 100% ban rate throughout the tournament. Well done Riot, ehem I mean Rito.

Alistar and The Meta
One thing that stands out about Ali-G is his resilience to meta shifts. No matter the meta, Alistar is always relevant. Below is evident that Alistar has been consistently in the top 10 for the last couple of months and even during the ardent meta he had maintained a win rate of over 50% with the only exception being patch 7.18. -2017

2019
I like playing off-meta picks. When I started playing Twisted Fate jungle few years ago, everyone thought I was trolling. Few months later it became meta.
Galio support, same thing, Xerath support, same thing, Zilean support, again, same story etc.

Honestly, this time is no exception. By looking at his current trends, we can agree that he is not considered to be a meta pick and that people don't know how to play him (Yes! That's what it means).

Playing vanguards is not easy. You can't just sit idle and expect to win, you have to initiate, lead, get the action started, so that your allies can follow up. It's a risky and complicated playstyle, but very rewarding.


March 2018



September 2019

Spells
My playstyle is extremely aggresive, I like fighting and closing out games as quickly as possible. It's more fun and it save times. Hence, I always opt for Flash + Ignite

Flash Allows you to close the distance between you and your enemy. It also enables you to execute some combos, which otherwise cannot be done.
Ignite True damage, healing reduction and a higher win rate than Exhaust. Take it and go.


Skills






Beginners:
-Press and or hold Headbutt (depends whether you are using quick cast)
-Press and or hold Pulverize, immidiately after Alistar begins charging towards the target.
-Welp.
Tip: Turn on quick cast for all his abilities. Try holding down Headbutt and spam Pulverize

*Quick cast = Smart Cast: Smart Cast was renamed to quick cast in V3.12 of the game, but many players still refer to it as smart cast



The combo will always work, regardless of how close you are to your target, as long as you are pressing Headbutt and Pulverize fast enough and in a correct order.

Unless you are trying to break free from some form of CC, never use R Unbreakable Will at the beginning of your combo. It telegraphs your intent and gives your opponents time to react.

As of 8.5 "Alistar can now correctly queue up orders other than Q - Pulverize during W - Headbutt " This basically means that your E Trample and R Unbreakable Will activate faster.

For all that matters, before 8.5, during the combo, E Trample and R Unbreakable Will would always activate after the target landed on the ground.

From 8.5 and onwards E Trample and R Unbreakable Will will activate while the target is still in the air.

Keep in mind, R Unbreakable Will has priority over your other skills and can disrupt your combos if executed immidiately after some skills. To avoid that, if used after W Headbutt and Q Pulverize make sure you introduce slight daly while Alistar is charging, it will during the charge and immidiately after Q Pulverize will result in a failed combo. This is because R Unbreakable Will takes priority over your other skills causing it to execute first knocking the target away as a result.

-2019 Quality



If you have mastered the basic combo, but you are struggling with using Flash before your combo, try this.

-Create a practice tool match with some bots
-Spawn some dummies
-Move your cursor on top of the the dummy you want to engage on
-Then flash
-Then do the basic combo
-Then try to repeat faster
-Finally, lane against a bot and imagine that you are playing against a real oppoent. Try to catch him off gaurd with the combo.

Don't worry if you don't get it right the first time, you can't imagine how many pros fail the combo on daily basis, and they practice all day. Don't rush it, the key is precision and correct sequence of execution of the skills. As long as you are using both, the combo should work every time.
(Unless there is a bug, in that case you can blame Riot).

This one is a lot easier than it looks. All you need to do is aim your W Headbutt, and then SPAM! Q Pulverize and Flash

Skill Leveling Order

Q Pulverize-> W Headbutt -> E Trample. Whenever possible, level up R Unbreakable Will

Q Pulverize has the highest damage of all skills, assuming you hit at least two champions with it, it can be used as a wave clear ability, it can be useful in early invades and the most obvious, its an AoE knock up.

Unless your goal is to do as much single target damage as possible or if the enemy team has many assassins for example, which you need to keep off your carries, I would max Q Pulverize first

Maxing W Headbutt second is what I usually (and 99.9% of players) do, not just because of its damage output which is vital early in the game, but because it enables you to disengage or gap-close more often.Don't forget, W Headbutt can also be used to escape

TBCrusher's Best SoloQue Rune Tree Award (TBSRTA)

	Perhaps, the most broken rune ever. For those who don't remember, it also used to scale with AD and AP and had a 20 second cooldown as opposed to 35.
	It recently got buffed and with the addition of turret plates, it can yield a lot of gold.
	It can mitigate a lot of damage, especially useful during all-ins. TANK POWAAAA
	Synergizes well with Alistar's Passive Triumphant Roar, which don't forget heals for double the amount to allied champions and with & UTILITY TANK POWAAAA!
	Flash every 20 secs. Naisuuuuu!, I ll take it
	I love this one because it helps me buy mobility boots faster. That's it pretty much.

Alternative rune options for the rune tree above

	I played with it twice by accident and I was regretting it every second of the game. It has 70!!!!!! seconds cooldown at level 1, A MINUTE AND ALMOST A HALF!. Do you realise that, as soon as the game starts and until the first dragon spawns, you can use it at most around 5 times. It's counter-intuitive and incompatible, if you want to play engagers
	No.
	No. You can't even proc it.
	Good for PVP and long team fights.
	You can swap it with and use Wolf's rune page. Very good against heavy cc teams
	You can take it but I prefer Second Wind Alistar is weak to poke damage early on and Second Wind helps with that. Unbreakable Will will be more than enough to keep you alive.
	This is a trap for most supports! Do not take it Mobility is very important and especially for Alistar. No boots until the 10th 12th!!! minute is no no for me.
	You don't need no bisquits to help you make it through laning phase.
	Not worth taking it with the above rune tree The cooldown reduction is trivial. At best you will be saving a 0.85 seconds from your at level 1

Skills with 0% CDR
17 / 16 / 15 / 14 / 13s
14 / 13 / 12 / 11 / 10s
12 / 11.5 / 11 / 10.5 / 10s
120 / 100 / 80s

Skills with 5% CDR
16.5 / 15.20 / 14.24 / 13.30 / 12.35s
13.30 / 12.35 / 11.40 / 10.45 / 9.45s
11.40 / 10.93 / 10.45 / 9.97 / 9.50s
114 / 95 / 76s

Skills maxed out with 40% CDR
7.8s
6s
6s
48s

Skills maxed out With 45% CDR
7.15s
5.5s
5.5s
44s

Summoners Spells with 0% CDR
300s
270s
210s
180s

Summoners Spells with 5% CDR
285s
256.5s
199.5s
171s

Summoners Spells with 20% CDR
240s
216s
168s
144s

Summoners Spells with 30% CDR MAX
210s
189s
147s
126s

I prefer and recommend them more than any other pair of boots in the game.
Movement speed 330 -> 445 = 4,5 Teemo / sec.

Ionian Boots of Lucidity
You don't need extra cooldown reduction. Alistar's mana pool at level 6 is 429. A full combo (ultimate activation included) costs 290 mana leaving you with 139 mana which is barely enough for + It's more about timing than frequency

Ninja Tabi
You don't need the extra tankiness. The enemy team is not going to focus you and they shouldn't really. if they do, your ultimate is enough to keep you alive. Plus, even if you become tanky to the point where "nothing" can kill you, you still lack the damage to solo kill champions, which is why I believe opting for a more utility oriented build that focuses on positioning and timing better suits Alistar

Mercury's Treads
You don't need the extra magic resist and tenacity. On cast, Unbreakable Will cleanses all crowd control effects. All you need is good timing.

Boots of Swiftness
You do not need +55 movement speed from, you need +115 movement speed from Mobility Boots. Always build against slows Janna Zilean etc.

Berserker's Greaves
Unless you are playing top, the again if you were playing top you wouldn't be here, so no.

Sorcerer's Shoes
Only if you play Alistar mid
Ahh... Good old days, it must have been season 3 or 4 when I used to play Alistar mid with Sorcerer's Shoes Deathfire Grasp Lich Bane Void Staff. It was really fun, tons of damage!


Legacy Phreak



Don't upgrade from targon's brace until later in the game.
Feel free to rush it, if you know you won't be able to roam.

Mobility, health, mana, cooldown reduction, armor, AoE mega slow and an 100.13% gold efficiency which scales to 211.92%[/color] while activated.
Yes, I ll take it. It has everything I need stat-wise and an active that makes you unkiteable, I mean 75% movement speed bonus? Sankyuuu

Classic example of me being a one man army.
Things to notice in the clip:
1) FPS
2) Game length
3) My team's overall kill count
4) My KDA: 12
5) My kill participation
6) The enemy team composition

These items provide you perhaps with two of the most powerful and influencial active item abilities in the game.

Locket of the Iron Solari has a base gold efficiency rating of 76.36%. Assuming you make full use of it's active ability, it's efficary rating can increase up to 3800%! approximately.
Strong against assassins and heavy Aoe burst damage champions like Karthus and Orianna

Redemption is 107.94% gold efficient, while inactive and can reach approximately, wait for it... 7600%!!! gold efficacy.
It provides a nice AoE heal for your team and a nice true damage for the enemy.
Did I mention that, it's ability has 5500 range which is the equivalent of 550 Teemo lined up.
Note that the active ability has 2.5 seconds delay and can highly influence the movement of your allies and your enemies, so use with care


Q:Which one should you build first?
[locket of the iron solari]
The stat bundle in combination with your ultimate will make you unkillable during teamfights and given the nature of solo queue, the instant casting time of Locket of the Iron Solari will be more useful and will have a bigger impact than Redemption

The 6th Item
Up to you. Aassess the game, use critical thinking and build accordingly. Don't be afraid to think outside the meta. Sometimes, the most crazy things are the things that make the most sense.

Also, don't forget to buy Control Ward, Elixir of Iron and change/upgrade your trinket

We finally made it to the gameplay section. By now, you should know what runes to pick, what summoner spells to choose, what items to build and what skills to level up first.

Below I will cover some fundamental tactics, assume you are blue side S and pay attention.

Early clashes and invades have become very popular in the current meta. To defend against that, you should aim to cover all jungle entrances to your half side of the map.

Example
As we can see, all jungle entrances are covered and there are no blind spots


Now, this how usually the map looks at 1:40
But don't let your gaurd down. Delayed level 1 invades are not unusual.

Next, help your jungler kill the camp, you can tank 1 hit if you want, but no more than that! Make sure you get back to lane by around 1:50, otherwise you might miss exp

As Alistar you should play for levels 3+. You want the lane to be in a state which gives you plenty of room to fight and kill. But how do you achieve that?

If you are playing against a ranged support like Lulu or ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) Soraka, you don't have to do much early. Naturally, they will try to harass you as much as possible at level 1 and as a result the lane will push towards you. This is good!
Your next step should be to try and freeze the minion wave

Example

If they keep pushing, your jungler can gank. If your jungler doesn't gank, you can fight.

Hint: If an enemy champion is very close to your tower, you can Pulverize + Flash, walk around them and use Headbutt to knock them into your turret

Q:Why flash first?
-Because you don't want to give your opponent any time to react and + is slower than + . Try it



Also, make sure you are not far away from them when you flash in because you will end up in front of them and you won't have time to walk behind them. Ideally for a tower play, when you flash you want to end up slightly behind them or at least "on top" of them (same spot).

Post level 3 and depending on your adc, you can start looking for fights.
Your damage and mpore importantly your CC will win you most trades.

Example



Rule of thumb: The more people you CC, the better


When you hit level 6, you are in a position to tower dive. Unbreakable Will, makes you ultra tanky, but don't forget to ward, because if the jungler shows up you will die.

Keep an eye on mid lane. If the enemy mid laner is pushing and his Flash is down, you might want to pay him a visit.

Risky, but don't forget about top lane.




In later stages of the game, depending on the team compositions, your job is to:
A)Engage and tank the evertything.
or
B)Peel and tank everything.
Either way you tank.

There is no running away from damage,damage is your friend.
Every second they spend on you, they don't spend on your carries.

Ward!

Make sure to follow your team at the later stages. Rotations end at around 22-25.

Big thanks to jhoijhoi.
Her guide on how to write a guide was really helpful.
Link

An even bigger thank you to everyone who has read my guide. On it's initial release date back in 2017, it was the most popular and highest positively voted guide on Alistar and surprisingly it still remains as one.

Finally, I spent a lot of time revising the guide and if I missed something or you would like me to add more, please let me know in the comments.

For more, please visit:
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