Weird Alistar Build Path!! Can It Be Meta?? (Alistar Setup [Runes, Summoner Spells, Items])

NOTE: I'm Hardstuck Silver 5 (Luckily, it's Pre-season) [IGN BradNo: NA].

NOTE: Before you comment about this, tell me if you read it all the way through or not.

RUNES (MAIN):

• Aftershock: This is a MUST on Alistar because it synergizes with his Ultimate. Not only do you get MR and Armor, but you also get reduced AP and AD damage if you chain this well with your Ultimate.

• Shield Bash (If the Enemy Team is balanced in terms of AP and AD or the enemy team is mostly AP): This will come handy on Alistar if you follow my build path. That being said, this is useful later in the game. If you do get a shield, this gives you MR and armor, which goes well with the rest of your kit.

• OR Front Of Life (If the Enemy Team is mostly AD): The build path will not require a shield if this is the case, so you will take this in place of Shield Bash

• Conditioning: This goes well with Aftershock. It gives you the extra MR and Armor that you may need in teamfights. It also gives you a percentage of MR and Armor based off of how much MR and Armor you have.

• Overgrowth (I take this): I would recommend this to you if you want to extra health from laning phase. You want all the health you'll you can get with your build.

If you are taking Shield Bash: https://gyazo.com/7ee4c292a1dc2a85b17fb6888cd5a408

If you are taking Fort Of Life: https://gyazo.com/ec09973c5854537682a43fbe3913d809

RUNES (SUB NOTE):

• NOTE: The rune system was updated. How it was before is you would get special stats from the second class you choose in combination to the first class you choose. I will use a real example: Resolve + Inspiration (The secondary I take) would give you scaling health (I believe it was 30 - 270). This was removed and replaced with the third part of the rune section. This is a good thing for creativity (IMO). Now you can take whatever secondary class you want. I will go over, briefly, what you can take in each Secondary Class.

RUNES (SUB PRECISION):

• Triumph: This is good for you if you want to stay in fights longer.

• Presence Of Mind: This gives you more mana for teamfights and refunds your ultimate cd. This will give you the ability to force more teamfights.

• Legend: Tenacity: This helps if the enemy team has lots of cc that prevents you from staying in the middle of the teamfight.

RUNES (SUB DOMINATION):

• Zombie Ward: Take this if you want more vision of the map.

• Ghost Poro: Take this if you want longer and more focused vision of a specific area of the map.

• Indigenous Hunter: This will help reduce the cds of your items, making them more likely to be up in teamfights.

• Ultimate Hunter: Similar to Presence Of Mind, this helps keep your Ultimate of cd so you can force more teamfights.

RUNES (SUB SORCERY [What I use to take]):

• Nullifying Orb: This is good against teams with lots of magic damage. It will help you stay in teamfights longer.

• Nimbus Cloak (What I use to take): This is REALLY good in combination with your ult when are ccd. REMEMBER: your ult is a QSS/Cleanse. If you ult when you get ccd, this will allow you to gap close onto the enemy if they are running away. It also prevents unit collision, making it a mini Phantom Dancer.

• Celerity (What I took before Rework): Self-Explanatory (MS is GOOOOOOD).

RUNES (SUB INSPIRATION [What I take now] [PREFERED]):

• Hextech Flashtraption: This is really good to use if you wanna force a teamfight or set up a surprise teamfight. Plus, it's always nice to have flash up.

• Magical Footwork: This is nice because it gives you extra MS from boots that you buy. You also don't need to buy boots, which, in turn, helps you focus on your core build.

• Perfect Timing: This is a weird one. Stopwatch goes against my ideology of going in and being the center of the teamfight; however, it reduces the cd on [REDACTED] which will be a core item in this build path. This, however, can help you survive in case of an emergency.

• Future's Market (What I take now): This helps you get your core items earlier so you can be strong in the mid to late game. This is where you're the strongest (IMO. I will explain later).

• Minion Dematerializer: This is a good item early game. It will help you shove in the wave to help get that juicy tower gold and push a lead. Late game, it isn't helpful and you will probably have no charges left. The best way to use this (IMO) is to use it on the Cannon (Siege) minions when you are trying to crash a wave into the enemy tower and either back or attack the tower.

• Cosmic Insight: Pretty Self-Explanatory (Have everything up more often).

• Approach Velocity (What I take now): This is REALLY good with your Q W and E. You can use this to stick to targets that you cc or knock targets away from your carry faster. It makes you pretty slippery in teamfights. That is what you want when you are trying to be in the center of a teamfight.

RUNES (SUB CONCLUSION):

• These are the runes I, personally, think you should or could take on Alistar. If you think of any others that might also be good, let me know ;)

RUNES (FINAL [Against a mostly-AP comp]):

• I would recommend Taking Scaling CDR and Double Magic Resist | https://gyazo.com/73730c2531e7c4be93248d38dcd11090

RUNES (FINAL [Against a balanced comp]):

• I would recommend Taking Scaling CDR, Armor, and Magic Resist | https://gyazo.com/3080aba53034eb255dc5e8083381a3b3

RUNES (FINAL [Against a mostly-AD comp]):

• I would recommend Taking Scaling CDR and Double Armor | https://gyazo.com/0dd21f64b6cc1d9108586fe7717d3b86

RUNES (CONCLUSION):

• I hope this was in-depth for you. Here are the runes I take: https://gyazo.com/8ba00a95f74d42732a7f6be71cc08f67

SUMMONER SPELLS (UTILITY / ROLE SPECIFIC):

There are 2 types of spells I think you should always take for a champ: Utility/Role Specific and mobility. This is the prior of the 2. There are several you can take that will help you stay in teamfights.

• Heal: If you ADC doesn't want to take heal, you can take heal yourself. It makes up for the minimal healing in your kit (that being your passive) and it will help you and your ADC survive that laning phase. In addition to its main function, it also provides movement speed which can help you lock down enemies and secure safe dives.

• Barrier: This is Shield Bash specific. It will go in great Unison with Locket Of The Iron Solari to provide you with more shield and more MR and Armor from Shield Bash.

• Exhaust (What I use): Exhaust is probably the best sum for Alistar. It synergizes EXCELLENTLY with your kit. It provides cc and damage reduction, which, in turn, keeps you in fights longer. This is EXACTLY what you want with this build.

• Cleanse: This is enemy-team specific. If the enemy team has lots of cc, Cleanse will come in handy. After all, you need to be able to lock down enemies instead of the vice versa. Plus, you have your ult to remove more cc, making you even harder to stop. In addition to removing cc, you will take a lesser duration of incoming cc, keeping right on the enemys' tails.

• Ignite: This is a pretty aggressive summoner spell. If you what to win fights faster, take this. It also decreases the amount they would heal from healing. I recommend using this at the start of so you don't ks and you stunt the enemy's heal.

• Smite: I don't play Alistar Jungle. I don't even know if it's meta or playable/viable. Riot thinks it is. So, if it is playable/viable make sure to take smite.

SUMMONER SPELLS (MOBILITY):

The second kind of summoner spell you should take is mobility. Here are some of the mobility spells.

• Flash (What I take): This is probably the best one to take on Alistar. It helps you engage in teamfights and avoid from gangs. This also is great for doing some of Alistar's Combos (Q Flash, W Q Flash, W Flash Q).

• Ghost: If you are not a fan of Flash, you can take ghost. This will allow you to stick onto your enemies in teamfights or catch up to enemies.

• Heal: This isn't the most meta idea in high elo, but in low elo, it is definitely viable. Take it if you aren't a fan of Flash and your ADC doesn't have heal.

SUMMONER SPELLS (CONCLUSION):

• When deciding what to take, think about the enemy team's comp and play around that. Also, take one from each Type of Summoner Spell. Here are the sums that I run: https://gyazo.com/bfa0cd9bd0d68b834861f6e39b167d7a

ITEMS (CORE BUILD):

Let me preface this by saying this: WHAT I BUILD IS NOT CONSIDER META TO RIOT AND PROBABLY MOST PEOPLE. With that being said I will give you the rundown on the build path.

• Support Item: You can buy one of two items: Ancient Coin Or Relic Shield (What I take). Ancient Coin is the riskier path to take, but it leads to better rewards. It will help you get to your build faster because you get more gold per 10 seconds and the final build is cheaper than the final build of the Relic shield. The downside to the finished item is you won't be as tanky in teamfights. Relic Shield is the more balanced path and steady path to take. The plus side for you waiting long to complete the Relic shield is you are tanky in teamfights. This is the safer way to go.

• Boots: This is pretty simple. If you are up against a mostly-AP team comp or enemies with lots of cc, take Mercury's Treads. If you are up against a mostly-AD team comp or enemies that revolve around basic attacks, take Ninja Tabi.

• Trinkets/Wards: You should aim for getting Oracle Lens every game, but if you are far behind or you're team doesn't know that there was a thing called Farsight Alteration, get it. Start out with a Warding Totem (Trinkets). Always buy lots of Control Wards.

• Core Build: This is the part where I get lot's of hate and people flaming me. So, before you do all of that, let me explain myself first. If you are up against a balanced team comp or a mostly-AP team comp get Locket Of The Iron Solari -> Gargoyle Stoneplate. YES, GARGOYLE STONEPLATE! But, let me explain. Here are all of the benefits of these items provide IF USED IT THERE MAXIMUM POTENTIAL: 100 Armor, 140 Magic Resist, A big health shield, and Double Health. And, I know what you're thinking, "That is the same for all champions." You are right about that, but this Synergizes really well with Aftershock, Shield Bash, Conditioning, Overgrowth, and your Ultimate. In action, you are LITERALLY unkillable in teamfights when you do it right. However, if you are against a mostly-AD team comp, buy Knight's Vow -> Gargoyle Stoneplate. You still wanna help out your support as much as possible early game. Buying Knight's Vow will not only give you armor, but it will give your ADC survivability throughout the game.

• Itemization/Final Purchases: For your last items you can go 2 ways. You can itemize, or you can build supportlike items. If you are going to itemize, go for items like Adaptive Helm, Frozen Heart, Thornmail, and Randuin's Omen. If you are going for more a support build path take Zeke's Convergence, Zz'Rot Portal, Knight's Vow, Mikael's Crucible, Redemption, and Ohmwrecker (Which got a buff to tier 1 Turrets pre 14 minutes :P).

ITEMS (CONCLUSION):

If I missed any items that you would build on Alistar, let me know ;) I will show you some of the build paths you can take on Alistar:

• Itemized Build Path: https://gyazo.com/13331aa83740116d84a94828f717d8be

• Support Build Path: https://gyazo.com/a0563c0846064519e9be6d421d7ea4a1

These are build paths that you can take on Alistar.

PROS:

• The pros of playing Alistar this way is better Teamfight potential. What I see often with Alistar is the In and Out Strategy. This is where you go in, do your cc, and get out. If you do it this way, you can stay in the teamfight and be more of a frontline for your ADC and your whole team. You can dictate how a teamfight goes.

• You are REALLY hard to kill if you use your items properly. This gives your team enough time to go in and do their damage.

CONS:

• Gargoyle Stoneplate is more expensive to buy than just buying support items. And because they are more expensive to build, falling behind will make it harder to reach your item spike. The longer it takes to build Locket Of The Iron Solari and Gargoyle Stoneplate, the harder it will be for you to show your teamfight presence.

• This strategy is team reliant. If your team is uncoordinated in teamfights, this strategy is hard for you to pull off. This is more of a Solo Queue / Duo Queue Con but a con nonetheless.

THANK YOU SO MUCH:

• This whole thread took me 3 and a half hours to put together. And, it was the hardest thread I have ever made. Thank you so much for reading to the end <3 If you made it this far, put "Alistar" in your comment ( But I know that some of you will skip to the very end ;) ). PLEASE LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU THINK ABOUT THIS. I REALLY WANNA KNOW! Thanks Again <3 If you wanna add me in LoL, my IGN is BradNo and I am from the North American Region.