After building The Incredible Regenerating Minotaur (TIRM), I thought I'd give AP a try. I liked it.

These two builds start out similarly and have a fair amount in common.

I think Tanky AP Alistar is a little more useful, and has a bit more swagger and presence than The Incredible Regenerating Minotaur.

What you gain:

* Pushing ability
* 1v1 threat, especially tower diving vs weakened foes
* Heal power
* Spammable slow
* Just a little bit extra all around
* Harder to be ignored by enemies
* A real presence if overfed
* Better able to pick up some slack when you don't have enough good players
* Better in smaller fights, 3v3 or smaller

What you pay for it:

* No more passive healing; in particular, heal rate drops dramatically while OOM
* Mana conservation becomes more important; sustainability drops a little
* Total life recovery rate while spamming Triumphant Roar isn't quite as good as TIRM, but it's close
* Slightly harder to play
* Not as much armor/MRes as TIRM (now that Randuin's Omen has been buffed up a little). But sort of close
* Not as sturdy in large fights, 4v4 or larger

Overall, it seems to be a more-than-fair trade. If your team is extra squishy, TIRM is probably more appropriate, but if your team has some bulk, AP Alistar and a tanky DPS can tag team for the duties.

My feelings about summoner spells are roughly the same as in the case of TIRM, too. The only difference is that TIRM is slightly more defensive and relies more on Fortify for incidental kills, while this build is slightly more offensive and has slightly better odds of building up a wave of minions, plopping Rally, and successfully harassing foes away.

Exception: Clarity might be an alternative to Teleport. In TIRM, you have passive healing, but this build needs mana to heal. With proper rationing, I feel like Clarity still isn't quite necessary in this build, either.

Nice starter item. Because of Triumphant Roar, we can use that 5 MP5 as if it were 15 HP5. Or you can just use it to Pulverize. It's up to you. Characters who have heal spells with good mana scaling can do that. Also, 15 AP might be just enough to get a kill or two in the lane.

philosopher's stone Adequate MP5, helpful HP5, 5 GP10. Try to rack up 800 gold or more on your first trip out.

Of course you'll want to upgrade these, but I'm going to leave the choice of item and the timing situational. If you get Berserker's Greaves, your teammates will want to shoot you. I sort of lean toward Sorcerer's Shoes for this build.

CDR and armor are needed, since your team understandably expects you to function as a tank. Mana helps, too.

Has some nice MRes. You can take Rylai's Crystal Scepter first, but not if magic damage is a threat.

Synergizes with a well-chosen Headbutt. It's such a nice gank tool that you might want to take it before Glacial Shroud, if you want to play aggressively and you have a team you think can capitalize on it. I'm considering this for the main build.

Getting close to the end. Synergizes with the passive on Rylai's Crystal Scepter when you want to escape ( Headbutt and/or Pulverize when you want to run), or conversely you can use Triumphant Roar and then activate Shurelya's Battlesong when you want to get in Pulverize position.

Just a little extra to keep you alive in those melee 1v1s until help arrives. NOT redundant with Rylai's Crystal Scepter! Read carefully; they complement, not overlap.

or - The former if you're overfed and/or you took Sorcerer's Shoes; the latter otherwise, especially if the enemy stacks MRes. This is an icing on the cake item. I didn't get this far on my test run.

Situational:

Your last item can be changed for more tankiness. Guardian Angel, Aegis of the Legion, Force of Nature, whatever. Between Abyssal Mask, Rylai's Crystal Scepter and Frozen Heart, you might be annoying them enough between cooldowns that you'll just want to go with survival items. If your team's DPS is lagging behind, going for damage to push it a little farther might help.

Spirit Visage works nice with philosopher's stone and Triumphant Roar and your AP. It's cheap, and it's a solid choice for CDR in place of Glacial Shroud/ Frozen Heart when magic damage is your main concern.

Once you have Rylai's Crystal Scepter, you have a fairly good pseudokiting vs melee combination for harassing/counterharassing.

1. Let them come to you
2. Pulverize
3. Trample and right click until they wake up
4. Headbutt them away
5. If enemy minions are about, farm a little. Use Triumphant Roar to heal and renew your Trample
6. Retreat or chase a little as needed
7. Repeat

Of course, this can only go on for so long, so be map-aware. You can run away for good after (4), or headbutt them toward incoming help after (2), depending on circumstances.

This works on AI. Humans learn, unfortunately, but at least the *threat* of a cycle like this should keep them from engaging too much in the first place, 1v1.

You have enough power to hurt squishies, but of course be careful and know whether they can one-shot the remainder of your health with a bear drop or not. Sometimes it pays to get aggressive in 1v1 with a squishy, but be sure they're really alone first.

Save those Headbutts for when you *really* know it's a good move. Spamming is no good.

If you have 50 seconds left on Teleport cooldown, can you hold out? Maybe Trample farm a little? Contribute just enough to give your team the edge somewhere? Then do that.

8/7/33 vs intermediate AI. Massive win. Teammates were awesome, though. Never got the 6th item, though. :(

For Alistar, 8/7/33 is almost like 33/7/8 on a carry. Trust me.