Jungle roamistar is an excellent addition to just about any team. Simply put, an excellent alistar can get mediocre players fed, and can be the difference between roflstomping your opponents, or having your team be embarrassed.

Runes are pretty straightforward, you need to be fast, and you need to hit hard.

Masteries are pretty standard mage masteries, with a point in improved smite

I do these instead of "tankey" masteries, because your ult is an auto-tank, and because I'd rather die one more time, than miss that flash-pulverize-headbutt on that ashe/corki/malzahar that almost got away...

Boots + one health potion + one ward to start, then you want to rush boots of swiftness. After that, it's really whatever your team needs, shurelias reverie is always good (gold per 5 for a while + cooldown + speed boost) , frozen heart is great on alistar (cd + armour + mana), if you need more damage output, a sheen is excellent, if there is an amumu or sona or veigar (someone with a hardcore stun) I personally don't like to give up my boots of swiftness now that there are alternatives, so I like to get a miracle or possibly a moonflair spellblade for a bit of tenacity.

Skill sequence is pretty standard... you want to level both headbutt and pulverize because it reduces the cooldowns, unless you're building an AP alistar, your heal doesn't do much of anything... +40hp probably wont save anyone, but a good headbutt/pulvurize getting off cd a second or two earlier certainly will.

Start at double-golems, and have a teammate leash quickly and leave, smite one golem, then headbutt the other and use your health potion. After that just punch away until he's dead, and you'll have level 2.

At this point you want to look for an early gank.

Be sure to tell your mid carry you gank VERY EARLY, so that they don't push the lane.

Please Note: A successful gank doesn't neccecarily mean a kill. Burning a flash or ghost, or simply getting their health lower, and putting pressure on a carry can mean your carry will win the lane, or get a kill later, because their flash was on cd.

If (after taking golems) there is no reasonable gank opportunity, place your ward wherever you see fit, and continue to wraiths and then wolves

At this point there is almost always a gank oppertunity... if not, then tell your team that they need to stop pushing.

Alistar is not meant to sit in the jungle and farm... (like say... warwick)

Alistar is a crazy ganker level 2, and you need to take advantage of that.

To set up a gank, tell your teammate(s), ping, run or flash out of the bush, pulverize, move behind them, and then headbutt them towards your turret

After this you have 2 options...

You can either run to them and punch them.

or..

You can corral them in, and wait for your headbutt/pulverize to come off cd

The former if their low health, or if you are pretty sure you wont get the kill

The ladder if their higher health, BUT they were playing too agro, and you just headbutt them almost into your team's tower.

Alistar is excellent in a teamfight, and he is very much an anti-carry

Ideally a teamfight would go like this...

Your tank initiates however that particular tank does it (chogath knock-up, jarvan ult, amumu ult, etc.)

You flash into their squishy carry (ashe/corki/malzahar) pulverize, and then headbutt them back into your team.

You wait just a moment for their team to (stupidly) blow all their cc on you, then you ult (which cleanses the cc), shurelias, which gives your whole team an epic speed boost, and walk out of there like a boss while your team melts that squishy dps carry, and uses THEIR cc.

Naturally every teamfight wont go this perfectly, but you'd be surprised how many will.

Th

Alistar is one helluva champion, and his cc is nothing short of hax.

Focus the Right Person at the Right Time

It hardly matters that their caitlyn/ashe/corki/malzhar is 7-0 with 200cs if you can cc her at the start of a teamfight and your team can melt her before she does any damage

Wards

Wards win games, and they pay for themselves over and over again, 75 gold will prevent a gank, and then get you a kill, and with all the assists you'll be getting, you'll have plenty of money for them.

Gank

Alistar is not warwick. He does not sit in the jungle and farm until he's level 6... he's all up in the other team's business at level 2. He gives your team insane map control, and feeds kills to your carries. He makes sure that noone overextends unless they want to pay dearly. But most of all he creates fear.

Support / Off-Tank

Alistar is a tank, that can build support. His ult auto-tanks, so yes, an alistar tank with warmogs, force of nature, and thornmail is essentially unkillable, but if you play more of a support role, you can give that 7,000 gold to your carry, support with shurelias / frozen heart, and still be VERY tankey when you ult.

Win

If you play a good alistar you can have mediocre players get kills on even the most experienced veteran players, and you can give your team a huge gold and exp advantage. In short Alistar pwns, he just pwns.