Overview

While Patch 4.11 introduced revamped jungle items for tanks, it seems Riot was keen on not seeing a repeat of season 2's popularity of Jungle Alistar. Patch 4.12 introduced a number of solid buffs for the minotaur, including reduced mana costs on his primary abilities and a 20% increase of Alistar's rank 1 ultimate (now 70% flat instead of 50/60/70). The death of Jungle Alistar, however, came from the only nerf to Alistar in the patch - a 50% damage drop to Alistar's passive aoe against minions and monsters.

While the return of Jungle Alistar was abruptly stopped, the reduced mana cost is a vital change that will ensure Alistar starts seeing different build paths. Before the change, Alistar players were pretty much bottle-necked into building either a chalice or mana item like Frozen Gauntlet or Frozen Heart. The change to Alistar's ultimate, on the other hand, will make early tower dives much stronger.

Now that the minotaur has some subtle but powerful tweaks, here's a few tips and pointers on how to become a great Alistar player.

The Combo

Learning how to consistently pull off Alistar's signature Headbutt into Pulverize combo is one of the key factors most players use to determine whether an Alistar player actually knows what he's doing. This is largely due to the fact that not many abilities combo in the way that Alistar's crowd control abilities do.

Mastering the combo is mostly a matter of understanding how the timing works. More often than not, when first learning how to combo, the most common mistake is that you cast Pulverize too quickly after trying to cast Headbutt, resulting in you wasting your Pulverize where you stand. To avoid this, wait until Alistar's model begins to move after casting Headbutt. Once Alistar begins to charge, you have until Alistar reaches his destination to cast Pulverize.

While knowing how to do the Headbutt Pulverize combo is optimal, knowing when to separately Pulverize and Headbutt is also important. When retreating from bad fights or ganks, it's your role to always use your abilities to help your carries get out with their lives. If there's a single target chasing, Headbutt them away and save Pulverize in case there's backup or if they have gap closers and continue to chase.

Your Role in Fights

While Alistar's role as support is certainly his best, he can be played in just about any role. That being said, his place in fights should rarely change. Typically, you want to be the first piece that moves on the board - you are inherently tanky and a well placed Pulverize is all it often takes for a battle to swing in your team's favor.

If you've built AP Alistar, you should be aiming to nuke the enemy carries and get out immediately after for cooldowns. Otherwise, you want to start a fight by disrupting their front line. When a fight starts, the enemy will most likely try to take down your carries first - your job is simple: stop that from happening.

Alistar is neither fast nor does he traditionally deal a lot of damage, so you want to save your abilities for helping your carries throughout fights - even if you started the game top or jungle, Alistar is first and foremost a tanky support, so do your job and support your carries with your beefiness.