Introduction

To give you a brief picture of myself within the game of League of Legends and my relation to Alistar.

I'm playing at the EU west server. I've been playing since the late summer of 2010, getting into ranked about one year later or so. I'm currently pingpongcc'd between 1400 and 1500 elo in soloqueue, but I was stuck in 1200 for a long time. Jungle Alistar helped me up a great deal though. I'd say im affected a bit too much by other players faulties, i'm certain you know what I mean.
Describing my skillevel, I guess im a rather accomplished player with a good grasp of the game and used to playing many different types of champions.
I was playing Alistar occationaly in the beginning, but began to really take him up again after his remake. You could say I've tried out a variety of different ways of playing him.He is currently my most played champ, lying on a measly (imo) 60% win ratio with him, something which I'll hopefully improve.

This is meant to be a guide that in time will cover every aspect of Alistar. While not completely done, I feel I've completed the most basic, important and universal things about him. I will update this guide with a tons (huehue) of builds down the road.
The reason I'm really posting this so early is that I want to get out my unique, may or may not be, take on Alistar first.

Lastly, this guide is not taken out from my ass and if I happen to rip from someones' guide it's unintentional. These are my own conclusions out of own experience.
Oh, and lastly lastly. My native language is not english, so I'd be happy if you could overlook any gramatical or spelling errors, be free to correct them though.

Abilities

Trample

Pretty good passive, but to be honest I miss the old towermuncher. Allthough this works on towers too, so that aspect of Alistar isn't completely gone. Makes you jungle or farm easier and helps you navigate through champions as well as creeps. If you're not goin ap build the damage is allmost nonexistent.
You'll get out more of this if you spread out your abilitys.

Pulverize

Very nice AOE nockup and stun, perhaps one of the best nonult crowcontrolls in the game. Learning the radius of this skill is crucial to time it right.

Headbutt

This one is everything you would want and more, a displacing abillity, a stun, a weak nuke, a gapcloser and also occationally an escape.
Use this wrong though, and you shall burn in hell.

Triumphant Roar

Very solid heal, even though its not a huge heal the 4 second cooldown reset makes you able to spam this a fair amount at times.
This makes Alistar able to push well. It's also good for triggering your passive and sheen procs.

Unbreakable Will

This makes Alistar, well.. unbreakable at times. It has very good damage migitation, though true damage will go right through this, so be careful when those situations arises. It's also a cleanse that works on supresses. You have to use your best judgement when to pop this, sometimes it's better to wait for you being cc'd before you use it, but sometimes you might have to use it before that not to die, if you draw heavy focus.
Also, an often forgotten side of it, you gain great damage under its duration, do not underestimate that.

Masteries + Runes

These are the possible pages I currently use on Ali. More info about these are coming soon.

Actually, ignore the last one. You really want the movementspeed quints from my experience.
Skilling Order

For me it's very situational as to how I level up Alis skills, Beside his ultimate which I obviously level above all, I really don't have a set skillorder.

The first skill
Triuphant roar provides the best lane sustain.If me and my lanepartner end up taking heavy harras, I might start with E, simply not to be zoned out completely during the first levels.

Headbutt provides the best defense.If I myself want to put out haras on my lane opponents, I'll get W first. Also, headbutt is more than often the best spell against ganks or other offenses, as you'll put the offender away from yourself and your ally, should the angle permit.

Pulverize provides the best offense.If my lanepartner is in the position to put out haras himself, I'll get Q first as to extend the time my ally can put out damage on the opponent. This way I can zone the lane by myself, as if I get close enough, I'll pulverize the enemy laners. This requires that you can take the punishment, obviously.Also, pulverize is the best firstblood tool, something which headbutt cannot provide by itself. If my team is planing to get firstblood in any way, be it through junglegank, earlylevel gank or if I'm confident that me and my ally can achieve this by ourself, pulverize is the best way to go.

The second skill
If I went pulverize or headbutt at level 1 and me and my lane partner is in the position to play agressive at level 2, I can level up pulverize or headbutt to be able to combo them both.If we need the sustain, I simply get the heal.

Further skills
From there on it pretty much depends on the situation, there are some guidelines I personally follow.
Whenever you need more health or better sustain, level up your heal. Also, could be good to level if you're pushing with alarge creepwave, as you'll be sustaining the creeps.

I usually level up W before Q, there are a couple of reasons behind this.

W deals more damage than Q, this may seem like a minor aspect but it really can matter. You get way more damage per mana itcosts out of W compared to Q. Besides, if you need to finish someone off from a distance, a low level headbutt would nock them away rather than kill them.
Q costs more mana than W if you level it up. It is very important to have mana left to be able to use Q. If you level Q before W, you'll find yourself without spare mana over for Q more often than you would want to.
You'll maximize your singletarget cc if you level up W first. W has quite shorter cooldown than Q. If you would level up W first to bring down the cooldown, you might find yourself squeeze out a couple of headbutts more in fights. While if you would bring down the cooldown on Q, it might not matter as much as it would still have pretty long cooldown.For example, if you have a high leveled W and use the W+Q combo, you will be able to kite around the target and get off another W in fairly quick succesion even though you allready wasted your W when performing the W+Q combo. If you would have leveled Q over W, this would not have been possible.
One thing to take into consideration though, is that if you level up your Q, you bring down the cooldown of your W+Q combo.
Ability Usage

In the right hands Alistar posseses lethal crowdcontroll. Both knockups and displacing abillitys are uncleansable and unaffectedby any sort of crowdcontroll reduction, so it's hard to counter his cc.

Pulverizing
It's really about two things when you'd want to use pulverize, how many targets you would hit and the importance of the target you would hit. It's obviously better to hit one of their heavy damage dealer than two of their bulkiest champions, allthough sometimes you have to hit the ones with the most dangerous crowdcontroll.Get familliar with the radius of the skill and move to make it hit the targets you'd want to get hit. Allways keep moving asAlistar to maximize your cc.
Also, an area behind you will be affected if you pulverize, use this to your advantage if you're escaping a rough situation. Thanks to this being an area of effect spell, you can use it even if you lost vision of your target. If you know where in a brush they are, use it before you enter the brush as otherwise there's a chance that they will get away by juking out of the brush in time.

Displacing
In short, headbutt someone away if you don't want to fight them and headbutt someone into your team if you can kill them.One hidden aspect of headbutt is that the target will be unable to do something for a split second, even after the landing.Be aware that you can mess up someone of your teammates skillshots by headbutting carelessly. This is something which yourteammates should be aware of too though, so they can prevent it themselves.

Walls
If you happen to headbutt someone into a wall, they will be stunned for a short time, allthough this is not officially a stun. What actually happens is that they ''fly in the air'' for the full headbutt duration, even if they were stopped by something. This means that the closer they were to the wall to begin with, the longer they will be disabled. However, if the obstacle is narrow enough for them to fly over, they will fly over. They will only be stunned if a headbutt would make them end up inside the wall.Some walls are more trickier than others, even though they may seem like a good stunnwall, they might not be at all. The most notable one is the ledge to the base, targets can even be nocked over from the lower side.It is possible to achieve the stunneffect on too narrow walls too though, If you would angle yourself, the headbutt might not get them over the wall.
If you're certain a headbutt would make someone fly over a wall, you can use this to your advantage by get rid of that someone you don't want to fight at all. Also, you can jump over a wall If you're able to reach the target with headbutt.

Pulverize + Headbutt combo
If you land a pulverize on someone, reposition and headbutt the target in desired direction, most commonly towards yourteammates. If you run flash as a summonerspell, you can flash onto them and imediately pulverize to then follow up with aheadbutt.If you don't have to pulverize to get the headbutt off as you want to, save the pulverize till after they're headbutted.

Headbutt + Pulverize combo
If you time it correctly, you can get a pulverize off on someone in combination with your headbutt. The logic behind this is that the target is still targetable the brief moment after the headbutt, even If in the air, thus they can be pulverized.It will work as long as they're in your pulverize radius, which permits that you delay pulverize slightly. It really is pretty easy to perform. As soon as you cast headbutt, mash the Q button like a madman, that way you'll castpulverize as soon as the headbutt is done.
However, there are a few ways this can missfire. You pulverize before headbutt because you're out of range and press Q anyway. I do not smartcast headbutt solely for this reason. If I know exactly when I'm in range, I'll minimize these mistakes.I'm too slow to press Q in time, only happens when I'm drunk.Pulverize doesn't get registred because of some bugg. Even if you perform the combo flawlessly the target might be unaffected by pulverize. Though this doesn't look like just a heabutt, rather something wierd in between. Actually I've noticed that it might be that this only happens if I'm too fast pressing pulverize, so delaying pulverize very little may completely prevent this bugg to happen.
Remember that just because you are able to use this combo on someone, doesn't mean you should do it. If you use W+Q, you waste the duration of your headbutt.As a rule of thumb, it's often only worth to do it if it's the only way to reach that target, like when chasing or initiating a fight. However, if you're unsure wether just a headbutt would mess things up or not, youmight be better off using W+Q.

Headbutt + Delayed pulverize combo
If you want to sort someone out of a fight, preferably a tank, you may want to headbutt him away rather than pulverize. If hestands beside a target of importance, you can headbutt the first one away and pulverize the other one. With enough movementspeed, you are sometimes even able to move up to the headbutted target and pulverize them before they can do anything. If they hit a wall, you're pretty much guaranteed to get your pulverize off.

Headbutt + Autoattack combo
This works exactly like the W+Q combo. Klick to autoattack the target when you have cast your headbutt and you will land anautoattack at them midair. Good for throwing out haras one someone, as a finishing move or just to put out more damage on someone. This is essentially a free autoattack as they wont be able to do anything while headbutted. However if your autoattacktimerisn't reset, you will not be able to do this. I find this one very handy whenever my Q is unavailable and I want to headbutt anyway.Synergises very well with sheen.

Finishing someone off with headbutt
This is a risky move sometimes, as if you wouldn't kill them, they'd be further away than before. In these situations only dothis if you know you'll succeed. Also, try to get an autoattack in as you headbutt them.

Chain crowdcontrolls
This means that you take advantage of the cc abillitys full duration before you cast another one. If you blow all cc's at oncethey will not have as much effect as they doesn't stack with eachother.This is an important aspect of Ali, be aware of your own cc durations as well as others.

Leaping using headbutt
In the right situations, you can use this as a leap to reposition yourself. Headbutt works on all enemy objects but buildings, and also on every monster in the jungleUse this to escape or advance using enemy creeps. or sometimes even champions. For instance, if you can't reach a target to perform your W+Q combo, a headbutt to a creep (or champion) could make them be in range for you to use pulverize. Yes, exactly like Phreak did in that oooold Xin Zhao champion spotlight.If you're displaced in a teamfight, a headbutt could emidiately fix this. You will be able to get over or avoid a variety of abillitys using this, like Anivias wall, Trundles turd, Cassiopeas miasma and so on.

Escaping
Alistar in incredibly hard to catch at times, thanks to his extreme cc. If you're having someone right behind you, pulverize will be able to hit them. Headbutt will at a point have enough cooldown to be cast repetadly during an escape. Due to this, you will have the responsibility to cover up for your teammates. Sometimes you will not get away, but your team should be able to make a clean escape more often than not.

Conserving your manapool and cooldowns
This is an important part as you are literally screwed, more often than not, if you get caught without sufficient mana. If you want to perform the W+Q combo, make sure to have mana for BOTH skills or it will be really embarassing.If you are roaming an uncertain area, make sure to have enough mana for your ult and also preferably your Q.If a teamfight is aproaching, obviously you want to make sure you have plenty of mana.Conserve mana for ganks or against ganks, use your heal sparingly if your mana is about to vanish.Throughout the game, you will have to remedy this by itemization.
Summoner Abilities

Flash vs Ghost
It was once my perception that Alistar needed flash to initiate fights, which isn't the case at all. If you know how to execute to infamous headbutt + pulverize combo (w+q), you're not in dire need of using flash + pulverize (f+q). It's however a very nice option to have.

The obvious advantage of ghost is that you get sustained movementspeed rather than a onetime freeticket, which flash provides. This will come in handy in several ways.
Use ghost at the beginning of a teamfight to gain superior maneuverabillity. It's extremly important to position well as Ali,you'll get one chance to reposition with flash. Having great mobility during a whole fight is huge. Ghost makes you also able to put out damage from your autoattacks easier if you're chasing someone.Use ghost to get in time for a gank or a teamfight. If you're just a bit too far away thing's might get bad, it's importantto arrive in time. It will most likely make the difference if you're present in a fight or not. If you're ganking, you can use ghost halfway or so to the lane, and still have ghost while entering the lane.

So, one can think that shurelias or ghostblade could be a substitute for ghost.Those have shorter duration than ghost which have 10 sec, shurelya's got 3 sec and ghostblade got 4 sec, and up till 8 in melee.You can get both items and have 3 movementspeed options with ghost included, combined or spread out over time.You don't have those items from the start.

What flash provides is a couple of things. Flashing over terrain. There're some times when you'll get to headbutt over a wall, but obviously it can't be done without vision and you need a target. This regards mostly escapes over walls as you're likely to have vision of the target if you want to initiate.Flash is the best counter to flash. This is true many times, but not entirely. At longer distances ghost are to prefere, atshorter distances, or in the jungle, flash are to prefere. If you instaflash after an enemy when you've blown your spells it'sof no use most of the time though.Dodging flash + cc combos or skillshots. Instaflashing when someone with hard cc appear or makes an offensive flash will putyou out of harm more often than not. Ellement of suprice. Alistar can allways have the ellement of surprice, but flash makes it easier. Ghost can achieve this to some extent.I personally feel that the advantages for ghost gets extremly important at times, even though you are losing out on a big chunk without flash.

Flash and Ghost
This sounds very tempting indeed, being able to have all the advantages above. However, there're few scenarios were this would be an option, as you would be forced to leave out spells that might be more important to your team. It sounds very powerful though, and it's something I will try out in time.

Clairvoyance
Even after the nerf It's still as good if you don't spamm it, rather wait for when you're certain you'll need it. One cv in a teamfight that includes bushes, comes very handy. If you're going bottom lane as a support you're most likely the one going with this spell, however if there's a champion not in dire need of one of his summoners, there could be a point in letting him take cv as you could make huge use of any other spell meaning that you will have one extra spell bottom lane. One upside with you getting cv is that you can use it for personal use, you need vision to be able to headbutt someone.

Exhaust
Makes your cc even more brutal, and shuts down physical damagedealers well. A nice spell to have if you support bot as you can let your carry get a more personal gaining spell.

Ignite
A good spell, but falls off somewhat lategame. Still, it's good against healing plus its truedamage, which is allways nice.

Smite
Required if you're jungling, 'nuff said.

Teleport
Powerful spell with many uses. Get back to lane, protect a lane, push a lane, push two lanes, join a fight by teleporting to a ward; minion or pet, set up a gank by teleporting to a hidden ward, or even escape a tough situation (requires you not to be stunned or sillenced).

Heal
This got pretty powerful after it's buff. Alistar got amazing survivability thanks to his skillset, heal would amplify it even more.

Clarity
Alistar is pretty useless without mana, and there will be times where you'll have some issues with this. However, other spells are way too important to be missed out on. What you will have to do is learn to manage your manapool or avoid confrontations when you're out of mana. If you really want this, you're better off if someone else in your team gets this. I could see the use for it as a way to bait though, but other than that this is really one if the worse spells.

Cleanse
Your ultimate allready works as a cleanse. I wouldn't completely neglect this one though as you'd be imensely hard to shut down with cc. Also, you can get rid of ignites and that like after the change of cleanse. Further crowdcontroll reduction is nothing to frown at either. You could grab this against an extremly ccheavy team.
Items

I will update this section ALOT soon.
Junglestar

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Topistar

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Supp Ali

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APstar

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Build Example

You want this one -> and obviously these -> in whichever order the game permits.

Full bruiserstar top/jungle build. This one is, I feel, rather unique. Item's may or may not be selfexplanatory. I'll explain myself when I update the itemsection.

Against a heavy AD team

Against a heavy AP team

Against a ballanced team

This is all situational ofcourse, notable items are also
And this could do I suppose in combination with atmas
Here's a printscrean I found lying around.

Obviously before his picremake and the coming of Zeke's.
I will update the itemsection hugely with all possible itemcombinations and builds like support, tank and ap builds.
This will have to do for now :)
Pros / Cons

Pros
Incredible CC
Good initiator
Good basestats
Got an AOE heal
Good pusher
Built in cleanse
Amazing survivability
Tight ass

Cons
High skillcap
Susceptible to truedamage
Creep Jungling

YES!.. coming more soon.
Working in the team

You will have to do that, yes.
Farming

Alistar actually have a very decent attackanimation if you get used to it, he's pretty easy to lasthit with. Also, trample adds quite to his farming ability.

Trample
Good for farming large waves, but also, can let you get creeps low enough for you to lasthit them if you want to save your autoattack for when they're low enough so creeps won't steal them.

Pulverize
Nice AOE farm, but won't be a reliable lasthitting tool if you don't level it first.

Headbutt
Exellent for securing lasthits you wouldn't have gotten, also lets you lasthit from a distance.

Allways consider your manapool, it may not be worthwhile to spamm it all just to farm.
Summary

To sum things up.. moo!