Please, Nerf Alistar.

Before I get started talking about why, I want to give some context on my experience with Alistar.

• Alistar has been my main since Beta. I was one of the Top 500 / Master Beta Testers.
• I am currently Diamond V (was Diamond IV 100 LP a few days ago before a string of bad games.)
• I currently have over 100k Mastery points with Alistar (155 ranked games this season)
• He was my most played last season (83 games, didn't play much.) and 3rd most in Season 3 (when his ult was in a terrible state early game.)
• I made a thread last year before the Alistar buffs with recommendations for the upcoming rework we were told he was going to get some day.

Now, why do I want him nerfed?

To be specific, I want his ultimate nerfed (and possibly his CC durations tuned down.)

As it stands, his ultimate's 70% damage reduction turning him into a nigh invincible god for half a team fight holds him back from getting any actual power in his kit. Take a look at tanks like Maokai and Gragas who bring similar CC power to a team, but are also allowed to give the team waveclear and damage. Both of these champions have % damage reduction abilities on their kits, but on nowhere near the same level as Alistar's.

As someone who loves Alistar's impact being tied to his positional prowess, I hate that my ability to contribute to a team still relies almost entirely on my team's ability to do damage. All I bring is CC. Sure, it's strong CC, and Alistar's QFlash -> Headbutt combo is one of the strongest forms of engage in the game in terms of isolating a priority target. But if my team's behind or fails to follow-up on my call when I make a play, I'm shit out of luck in terms of securing that kill. Because I have no damage. Because I take no damage.

What's wrong with Alistar's ult?

In its current form, Alistar's ult has two problems: If his team is ahead, he's free to use the ultimate early, making him feel like an insurmountable tank. If his team is behind, then he's forced to ult reactively after receiving a large amount of burst, tragically reducing the amount of damage he can mitigate. It's an ability that is snowbally based off the pace of the game.

How would you change Alistar's ult?

I would personally reduce the damage reduction to 25 or 30%, and replace the remainder with a temporary Flat HP+Size+Range increase such as what Nasus/Renekton get when activating their ultimate. This would allow Alistar to ult reactively and still have a buffer of HP where incoming ignites or true damage sources don't just immediately delete him, while also making Alistar able to be taken down or killed when his team is ahead. It would also keep his tower dives from feeling like there is no room for counterplay, as he would actually be taking some amount of damage from the turret.

Overall, the change would be a net nerf (but would feel better when being used from behind or in situations where you have to ult in response to a large amount of burst.)

Where would you give Alistar power after this nerf?

First off, the idea that Alistar should never be in the jungle "because of how strong a jungler he was in S2" is a huge fallacy. His jungle power relied on a Level 2 gank pathing immediately after clearing a buff.

• Back in Season 2, players did not ward at the start of the game. Most players did not even buy wards at the start of the game (this trend started in S3 with the Faerie+ward starts and later just ward+potion starts). Now, players have wards for free as of Level 1 and can get vision of an early Alistar gank.
• In today's jungle, attempting to gank immediately after a buff not only puts you behind the enemy jungler in experience, but it also opens you up to being counterjungled heavily. Most junglers these days understand that when an enemy jungler shows on the map early, you can starve them of experience by taking away their camps.

Combined with the increased risk of Alistar's early ganks being spotted by trinket wards, there are enough tradeoffs that he should be allowed to clear the jungle...so, with that said:

I'd immediately move power back into his passive and Q's early game damage. Q's rank 1 damage is pathetic. Alistar's passive is even more pathetic, and essentially only useful for softening ranged minions in the support role to make sure 1 Tower shot + 1 ADC attack will kill them. In fighting or tower sieging, the skill is not useful at all.

• Buff Q early damage curve.
• Allow Alistar's Passive damage (and maybe E healing) to scale with his Max HP. This encourages him to build tanky, and will increase his power while his new ultimate is active. The E Healing would not be the first max HP-scaling heal in the game: See Shen.
• Give Headbutt the treatment most other Pure Tank champions' W skills have: Target %Max HP damage scaling. Maokai Twisted Advance has it, Gragas W empowered Auto has it. You can even potentially find a way to make the WQ a damage tradeoff by making a WQ combo cut out the W's damage.
• Potentially change his abilities (minus passive) to deal physical damage, encouraging him to utilize Armor Penetration more often. Back in the early days of Cow, when Sheen/Trinity Cow were a thing, Armor Pen was the common choice for his Reds. Nowadays, he's shoehorned into going just pure tank, because his lack of damage means he doesn't have much kill pressure early.

So please, Riot, As an Alistar main, I beg you:

Nerf Alistar's ultimate, so you can give him some real power in his kit somewhere.

I may be a Janna/Alistar main, and I may be the type of player who often wins games by setting up damage dealers to do all the work.

But sometimes I want to feel like my champion can do something else.