Alistar Support Build Guides - Runes, Items, Abilities & More - Patch 14.21

Greetings fellow support players, welcome to my Alistar guide! Since I started playing in season 2, I picked up Alistar and never let go. At the moment I have around 300k mastery points in Alistar and I would like to share my knowledge and experience with you guys! I really appreciate some constructive feedback and I do want to know what you guys think of the information or the guide layout itself. If you have any personal questions feel free to ask them aswell!

This guide has been written and checked by me. If you have any additions feel free to contact me. I am planning to update the guide every patch to keep you guys up to date on the newest builds, strategies and matchups. For other Alistar questions check out the AlistarMains reddit!

Alistar is a strong melee support that is really good at teamfighting and locking down targets. Your engagement power is not limited to a single champion, like champions with a hook, but your engaged players can hit all 5 enemies. This will lead to some montage moments, but more importantly it leads to great setup for your team to win a teamfight.

I hope this guide will make you play Alistar with the same enthusiasm as me, so let's Headbutt right into it!

a. Strengths

• Bread and butter engage tool.
• Strong ult for front lining.
• Passive will help sustain in lane.
• Great teamfighting potential.
• A lot of roaming potential.
• Can change a losing game into a winning game in a single engage.

b. Weaknesses

• Unable to play lane before level 2
• High cooldowns early game.
• Difficult to disengage.
• Short engage range.
• Difficult to lane in ranged matchups.

• During the laning phase, stand close to your ADC at all times. With good positioning, you can threaten an engagement onto the enemy even if you don't intend to engage. Stand next to or slightly in front of them at all times.
• Look to set up death bushes before a major objective like the Dragon or Baron spawns. Sit inside a bush and ambush the enemy when they walk past with your Headbutt W > Pulverize Q combo. Once an enemy is dead, take the objective.
• Once you've engaged in a team fight, retreat and protect your ADC. Do not leave them hanging alone against the enemy frontline. Your goal is to engage and then fall back to help them.

• Basic: Q + Flash
• Medium: Q + Flash + Insec W
• Medium: W + Q
• Medium: W + E + Q
• Hard: W + E + Flash + Q

• Alistar builds guide:

1. Early game

• Your goal is to hit level three as quickly as you can. Once you unlock your abilities, you should be on the lookout to all-in the enemy whenever they extend beyond their safe zone.
• If the enemy laners are playing safe, you should roam around and see if you can make plays elsewhere. The roaming becomes a mandatory thing once you get your boots as Alistar roams are very powerful.
• During an all-in, always make sure you Pulverize Q the most important/most mobile target when possible. Always try to call your Jungler before you crash a huge wave into the enemy tower as you can set up a tower dive with your Ultimate.

2. Mid game

• Keep roaming around and invading the enemy Jungle regularly. Drop deep wards whenever you get the chance and try to keep track of the enemy Jungler. You should always backup your Jungler while they are busy invading.
• During objective fights, always try to get a multi-man knockup when you can. If such a thing is not possible, focus the enemy Jungler and do whatever you can to keep him out of the objective pit. This will let your Jungler Smite the objective peacefully.
• While warding, keep looking at the map and see if you can flank the enemy and dive them under their tower with your Ultimate. Only do this if your team is in a position to follow up, and displace the enemy carry with your Pulverize Q.

3. Late game

• Keep looking for picks when possible, especially in the side lanes when the enemy carries are trying to catch the waves. Try to sit in the enemy Jungle when possible as it can let you flank the enemy when they push up. You will also be able to catch out the enemy Support while they are warding.
• Due to your short Ultimate cooldown, you should try to instigate as many tower dives as you possibly can. Your goal at this point is to all-in the enemy carry/carries, and then move back to your carries while peeling for them. Keep the turret aggro on you if you have it big, but drop it once you start getting low.
• With your kit, it should be really easy to secure picks before major neutral fights. Do your best to play around with vision and set death brushes when possible. If you manage to take the enemy Jungler out before a major fight, your Headbutt W and Pulverize Q should allow you to zone the enemy carries out while your team takes the neutral objective.