LoL Wild Rift Alistar Build & Guide (Patch 5.0) - Runes, Counters, Items, Ability Analysis

A+ Tier

Class: Tank

Recommended Lane: Support

Best Alistar Wild Rift build guide for Season 11 Patch 5.0 of WR. With our Alistar guide you will learn which items to build, runes to select, skill order, who counters Alistar, and how to use abilities properly.

Recommended Builds

Starting Item

Boots

Core Items

Complete Build

Runes

Starting Item

Boots

Core Items

Complete Build

Runes

Alistar is a mighty warrior with a fearsome reputation, he fights in the name of the downtrodden and the disadvantaged, his rage as much a weapon as his horns, hooves, and fists. Alistar is a tank support champion who excels in initiation, zoning and peeling for his team.

Alistar Wild Rift Build Recommendation

Here are Item Build Recommendations that works on this champion and which are the best build for Alistar Wild Rift in this patch.

Support Minotaur

This is the standard build for Alistar Wild Rift. This will offer a lot of utility and survivability for you and your team.

Relic Shield – Kill minions to earn bonus gold. Relic shield is a starter support item made for tank supports.
Dawnshroud – Immobilize effects damage and reveal around you. Also grants max health, armor and magic resistance.
Stoneplate Enchant – Grants a shield that absorbs 20% maximum health and further increases when more enemies are around.
Dead Man’s Plate – Increases movement speed
Amaranth Twinguard – In-combat durability
Thornmail – Reflects damage and increases healing

The Ultimate Tankow

This build is the best version of Alistar Wild Rift, making him the ultimate tank of the game. If you have a good opponent and you need to win at any cost, you should go for these itemizations.

Dead Man’s Plate gives you the exact initial boost you require to be a tank. If you think there are only AD champions against you, don’t even think twice before buying this item. But if you really have it hard and you need some Magic Resistance too, go for Zeke’s Convergence as your first item and all shall go well.
Stoneplate Enchant is the perfect add-on to Dead Man’s Plate as you can now tank the turret with your ultimate and enchant activated. What makes this a deadly combo is that you will be able to keep tanking while constantly harassing the enemies in the lane.
Sunfire Aegis is the next item that will make you lethal support, one you start engaging in fights, you will passively give damage just by being present in the team fight.
Thornmail gives you the perfect edge over AD champions who like to close up the distance to inflict pain as it will not only make you tankier but also return back the damage you experience with utmost pleasure.
Force of Nature is your savior when there are two or more AP champions against you who want to peel down your armor and make you suffer.
Warmog’s Armor does not really SHOW its significance while fighting, but it surely saves you while you are breathing your last breath.

Runes for Alistar in Wild Rift

Aftershock – Grants bonus dual resistance upon affecting an enemy champion with crowd control. After a brief moment, he will deal a burst of magic damage around him based on his max HP. Electrocute is the alternative Keystone Rune for the mage build for the extra burst damage when doing combos.
Weakness – Enemies controlled by Alistar will take more damage from all sources for a short while. Brutal will increase Alistar’s AP and magic penetration if you wish to do the mage build.
Loyalty – Increase your dual resistance as well as your ally’s. Adaptive Carapace will grant you a flat bonus HP and adaptive resistance.
Pack Hunter – Grants you bonus movement speed when near an ally. Each takedown with a unique ally will grant both of you bonus gold. Hunter – Genius on the other hand will grant you bonus CDR for each unique takedown.

Spells

In our Alistar Wild Rift Guide, here are the best champion spells that you can equip on him.

Alistar wants to play his lane aggressively and Ignite will help him secure his kills. Also, it counters the Heal spell because Ignite applies Grievous Wounds to the affected target.

Flash is necessary for superior positioning and initiation.

Skill Order

We are going to max 1st, Pulverize first because it is an AoE burst damage crowd control ability. Next to be prioritized is 2nd, Headbutt to reduce its cooldown and it deals a substantial amount against towers. 3rd, Trample is maxed last because its damage is underwhelming and we just want it for the stun effect. Get a point in his ultimate, Unbreakable Will, when possible.

Abilities

Triumphant Roar

Passive

When Alistar takes damage, he heals himself for 20 HP and nearby allied champions for 40 HP.
Knocking up or stunning champions with Alistar’s abilities reduces the cooldown by 8 seconds.

Pulverize

Active

Deals 60 magic damage (60 +50% AP) to nearby enemies and knocks them up for 1 second(s).

Headbutt

Active

Dashes toward an enemy, dealing 55 magic damage (55 + 60% AP) and knocking them back.

May target turrets to deal 150% bonus damage.

Trample

Active

Deals 100 magic damage (100 +40% AP) to nearby enemies over 5 seconds. If Trample damages an enemy champion 5 times, Alistar’s next attack within 5 seconds is empowered to deal an additional 40 magic damage and stuns for 1 second.

Only one stack can be gained per tick.

Unbreakable Will

Active

Removes crowd control effects and gain 55% damage reduction for 7 seconds.

Abilities Analysis

Innate: Triumphant Roar

Alistar heals himself and nearby champions whenever he or his allies are damaged. I don’t know if this is intended but the tooltip indicates that the heal should only activate when Alistar is the one who is damaged but it also activates when a teammate near him is damaged.

Triumphant Roar has a long cooldown but it is reduced every time Alistar lands a CC on enemy champions. Hitting 4 champions with the same or different crowd control will refresh or nearly refresh its cooldown.

This passive does not immediately activate when the lost HP of Alistar or his teammate has, is less than the amount of heal they are going to receive.

Q | 1st: Pulverize

Pulverize is an AoE magic damage ability that knocks up all enemies affected. It has a fairly large AoE which can easily be used to knock up 2 or more champions.

Pulverize can be activated while casting Headbutt to interrupt the knockback effect of the latter ability. This is Alistar’s main combo. Keep in mind that you should cast Pulverize when the Headbutt animation is ongoing because if you cast it late, you will mess up the combo and make the enemy fly away to safety.

You can flash buffer Pulverize to make it cast faster and surprise enemies. You can do this by casting Pulverize first then flashing into the enemy team. This is usually followed up by using 2nd, Headbutt on the enemy to throw them to your team or turret.

W | 3rd: Headbutt

Headbutt is a targeted dash that deals magic damage and knocks back the enemy he hits. The casting animation for this ability is so fast, most enemies won’t have the time to react to a Headbutt + Pulverize combo.

Headbutt can be used on turrets and it will deal 50% more damage to it.

Headbutt is also an exceptional peeling tool. If an enemy with a strong kill potential or huge gold lead dives your carry, immediately use Headbutt to knock it away. It is a judgment call whether to knock the enemy away or to follow up with Pulverize and go in for a kill. If your team is low or has your abilities in cooldown, knocking the enemy away is the safer choice.

E | 3rd: Trample

Trample deals AoE DPS around Alistar for a few seconds. If the AoE DPS damages an enemy champion, he gains a stack and once he gains five stacks, his next auto attack deals bonus magic damage and stun the enemy he strikes with his auto-attack.

This is Alistar’s main zoning tool. Enemy champions will be forced to back away when this ability is active because they will be receiving magic DPS and the threat of an impending stun.

Get your stacks on the enemy bruiser or tank then when the stacks are almost complete, do a W + Q combo to an enemy champion near you, not the tank but preferably a priority target or a squishy carry. After the knock-up, you’ll be able to further hold down the enemy champion with the stun.

Alistar only gets one stack for the Trample’s stun regardless if he hits one champion or five.

R | Ultimate: Unbreakable Will

Once Alistar activates Unbreakable Will, crowd control effects are removed from him and he gains a massive amount of damage reduction for a short duration.

This is great for doing tower dives because it will make Alistar able to take almost twice the amount of turret hits before he dies.

The crucial thing to understand about Unbreakable Will is when to activate it because Alistar is a god-like tanker with it and he becomes kind of vulnerable without it. It takes experience when to know when to activate it but here are some tips in this matter:

Activate when you will be in the receiving end of a strong ability.
For example, Jhin activates Curtain Call mid-fight and you’ll want to tank his ultimate so your team won’t have to disperse and give up an objective.
When your team is about to tower dive as stated above.
When you initiate and go for an all-in team fight.
When the enemy team initiates and they’re going to do a wombo-combo.

Combos:

Standard knock-Up: 2nd + 1st

Knock the enemy into your team/turret: Flash + 1st + 2nd

Stun Combo: 3rd (fill stacks) + 2nd + 1st + AA

Alistar Early Game Guide

Alistar is a support tank champion with immense kill pressure in the laning phase thanks to his combo.

Because he needs his combo to kill enemies, he is weak at level 1. Avoid poke and simply soak experience while level 1. It is better if you have a marksman who can clear the lane fast so you’ll reach level 2 faster than the enemy.

You will reach level 2 after killing the first minion of the second wave. Once you reach level 2, immediately surprise the enemy with your 2nd + 1st combo to lower down their HP. If you successfully bring the enemy at around half health and burn their summoner spells, you’ll have a good chance to kill them once you and your marksman reach level 3.

Repeat the same tactic once you hit level 3. and continue doing the tactic unless you are low on health. If you have a good early game, your marksman will be a commanding presence all game long and all you have to do to win then is to protect them.

Alistar Late Game Guide

In the mid and late game, you have three roles:

Initiate fights. Your 2nd + 1st combo is extremely strong at all stages of the game. Do not hesitate to enter fights and even dive towers if you have your ultimate available.
Soak damage. You are quite tanky if you have your ultimate, Unbreakable Will available. You can even soak turret damage for a long time. But remember that you are vulnerable without it so if your ultimate is on cooldown, just stay close to your ADC.
Peel. Remember that you cannot win games by yourself so do not stray far away from your teammates. Protect them at all costs. Headbutt enemies away from your team if you cannot kill them and if they are a threat. Also, Headbutt the enemy jungler away from the Dragon or Baron you are trying to take.

Alistar Video Guide

Synergies

For our Alistar Wild Rift Guide, we highly recommend using with the following champions as they synergize well with him.

The kill pressure on a Jhin and Alistar lane is immense. Jhin can easily add a follow-up CC and his burst damage is strong and reliable. Alistar helps a lot with Jhin’s issue of being immobile all throughout the game because Alistar is an amazing peeler.

Tristana is a champion who has strong level 2 and level 3 power spike so she is a great pair with Alistar. They can easily snowball the Dragon lane together if the enemy are not careful.

Draven loves to play aggressively in the early game. Alistar’s CC and peeling capabilities allows him to do whatever he wants and stay protected.

All Alistar Wild Rift Counter Champions

In this section, we’ll specifically show champions that can easily counter Alistar in Wild Rift.

Braum stalemates Alistar’s pressure in the laning phase because he is equally tanky and he provides a lot of utility. In this match up, who’s ADC scales better will determine the game.

Alistar is weak against poke and Seraphine has a lot of it. You have to manage your health when against Seraphine and a long range ADC but she is vulnerable to all-ins so you have a good chance versus this matchup.

Janna is a traditional enchanter with a good poke, lots of peeling, slows, buff, and a strong disengage ultimate. She’ll make you useless all through out the game and if you get frustrated, it will easily be a loss for your team.

Pros & Cons About Alistar

Here are some pros and cons if you are playing with Alistar in Wild Rift.

Pros

Alistar is a great all-around support tank that provides a lot of utility and tanking for his team. He has an AoE heal, a stun, a knock-up, a knockback, a dispel, and damage reduction.
He requires little to no items to be effective. He doesn’t need much to be tanky and can happily give all possible resources to his teammates and still be effective.
Tower diving with Alistar is stupidly easy.

Cons

Alistar is not that tanky in team fights when he doesn’t have his ultimate and using Unbreakable Will at the wrong time will be the death of him.
You will sometimes mess up the W + Q combo and fling the enemy into safety and that will tilt your allies for sure.
You will play around your cooldowns and the enemy team will do the same thing against you.

FAQ's About Alistar in Wild Rift

How good is Alistar in Wild Rift?

Alistar is an (Tier A+) champion. He is a great pick on whatever lineup because of his capability to initiate, peel, and create space for his team.

What role / lane should I play with Alistar in Wild Rift?

Alistar is played as a support in the Dragon lane. He can be played in the Baron lane as a meme but its not a recommended playstyle in rank games.

What abilities do I level up with Alistar?

His 1st, Pulverize is maxed first as it is Alistar’s main source of damage and CC. His 2nd, Headbutt is maxed next for the damage, reduced cooldown, and damage to turrets. His 3rd, Trample is maxed last as it does not deal that much damage.

What items should I build with Alistar?

It’s best to build his boots up to the Locket Enchant first to protect teammates. His core items afterwards are Dead Man’s Plate for the bonus movement speed and empowred attack that has bonus damage and a slowing effect and Zeke’s Convergence which releases an AoE slow and DPS effect upon activating your ultimate.

What Runes should I use when playing as Alistar?

Aftershock – Grants bonus dual resistance upon affecting an enemy champion with crowd control. After a brief moment, he will deal a burst of magic damage around him based on his max HP. His other runes are Weakness, Loyalty, and Packhunter.

I can't do the Headbutt + Pulverize combo, help!

You have to immediately press the button for Pulverize once you activate Headbutt to pull it off properly. To increase your success with this combo, you’ll have to make sure that your target is within the range of Headbutt.