League of Legends: I finally updated the player list in the OP!

[The Author]

oh, i know. i build sunfire's cape on a lot of tanks, so i know to stay out of aggro range because of that =) tower attacks don't splash, and minion kills don't matter about tower aggro, but making sure i don't accidentally attack the other player is something i am careful about =)

No, but your attacks on minions splash, and they can hit a player even if you don't want it to. Not even accidentally.

(Also, if you wanna have fun, go for a tiamat on him, I do that when the team seems to warrant it, you do more damage to people you aren't hitting with the two splash. Although the extra range on his natural splash now makes the tiamat less appealing IMO)

Anby opinions on what to get Alistar, I figure I might as well make him a permanent addition so that I don't always use Janna. I tend to go with manamune, archangel staff, that mana regen chalice I forget the name of, hte cdr shoes, and then some attack speed/cdr if possible, but I'm still trying to tweak his item setup.

[Tensei]

Alistar is great as an aura stacker because he has a lot of innate tankiness. I always go something like Sheen-> Merc Treads-> Aegis of the Legion and then something like Shurelias, with maybe stuff like Philo Stone/Heart of Gold thrown inbetween. Also lots of wards. I feel like your build focuses way too much on giving him a big mana pool, which really isnt that necessary.

[The Author]

It boosts its AP and AD through the manamune and archangel staff. Although I could probably do that through other items, the first tier of these two are quite useful early game, IMO, but that might be me going with what I know. I think the game should allow you to make items as favorites for a character so you can easily find them again, maybe I could mark new ones so that in the heat of the battle I don't go for the easily recognizable/buildable. Every time I get a chance to shop, I feel like I'm hindering my team by staying back too long.

[zircon]

Agreed, he definitely does not need that much mana. I usually run caster runes and masteries with Alistar, which gives you about 10-20 extra mp/5, 5% extra mana pool, etc. Like Cho'gath, it's not too useful to stack tank items, runes or masteries because he is so innately tanky. You generally benefit more from aura items (like Tensei said), Sheen and pure AP.

Edit: Both Manamune and Archangel's give you way more mana than you need, which is why I wouldn't recommend it on him. He is also NOT an auto-attack hero and does not need AD. None of his skills scale off AD. If you stack AP instead (Rabadon's Deathcap being the prime item) then all of your skills and his passive are benefited.

[Tensei]

Yeah, playing him as straight AP is another option but it requires you to get a good amount of farm, and he's not the greatest at that.

[prophetik music]

author, his abilities only splash if you activate his w. for what it's worth =)

the only mana items i build on alistar are sheen and glacial shroud (en route to frozen heart). i know he blows through mana fast, but you shouldn't be spamming your q and w the whole time, especially mid game, when you might need them to escape a gank or protect a carry.

glacial shroud and FH give you cdr, mana, and reduce incoming damage from AD heroes. sheen gives him the extra damage he needs when pushing towers and tons of mana. cdr boots give him extra cooldown reduction, philo into shurelya's gives him extra hp and the AoE movespeed boost for positioning, FoN gives him extra health regen, extra movespeed, and tons of MR. beyond that, i get abyssal or quicksilvers for extra MR, rabadon's or (if they're stupid and keep focusing me) zhonya's for pure AP when we're creaming them, randuins if they're all ad, sunfire cape or warmogs if they've got tons of overall damage, and banshee's if they've got high burst or a fearing opponent.

edit: since i know someone's going to ask about zhonya's, i've used it a few times and here's my usual strategy. i pop shurelya's for team positioning, initiate into their base or at their tower with w, knocking a tank away and popping up local players. everyone immediately focuses me under the tower, so i pop zhonya's and let them blow all their abilities on me while my team follows up with their movespeed boost and gets a kill or two. THEN, i ult, as my q and w abilities have cooled down, and start doing my tanky business. the three times i've tried it we've gotten aces under their tower (once under both nexus turrets, with me sitting there eating them for breakfast) with no losses to ourself.

Edited October 6, 2011 by prophetik music

[The Author]

Nope, it's a passive, the attacks always splash, as soon as you unlock the W.

Hmmm, Sheen is interesting, still think I'd go for the chalice of harmony early on. And the ability I do spam is my E, Q and W are kept for when the situation dictates it, although I do use Q a lot against minions to help with the farming.

I should probably build a mastery page specifically for him, like I have on Janna.

But then again, on the chalice... maybe the philosopher stone is the better choice, as it helps with money issues and mana issues. I'd go for the Miracle however, as I have the nasty habit of forgetting about my active items. (If I could move them to 1 2 and 3 it would be simpler, but when an item is on 4 and 5 I hit R by accident once in a while and that sucks.)

[Tensei]

My reasoning for Sheen is that it's way more offensive than chalice. It gives you a lot more burst damage which makes it easier to get kills in lane, and it gives you a good boost in mana. Philo Stone and Sheen really is all you'll need manawise.

[prophetik music]

Nope, it's a passive, the attacks always splash, as soon as you unlock the W.

Hmmm, Sheen is interesting, still think I'd go for the chalice of harmony early on. And the ability I do spam is my E, Q and W are kept for when the situation dictates it, although I do use Q a lot against minions to help with the farming.

I should probably build a mastery page specifically for him, like I have on Janna.

But then again, on the chalice... maybe the philosopher stone is the better choice, as it helps with money issues and mana issues. I'd go for the Miracle however, as I have the nasty habit of forgetting about my active items. (If I could move them to 1 2 and 3 it would be simpler, but when an item is on 4 and 5 I hit R by accident once in a while and that sucks.)

you can move any item to a different slot simply by dragging it there.

seriously, though, the chalice is something that you just don't need. regen isn't as important on malphite as having a reasonable-sized pool and just being judicious about his abilities.

edit: author, did you say what your in-game name was?

[The Author]

Oh, wait, the chalice is for Alistar, for Malphite I usually go for armor and some mana regen, but I haven't tweaked everything with him.

Summoner name is Jeshen.

I tried the drag and drop for items, didn't work, maybe they are locked or something, will look in my key bindings next time I get a chance.

[The Derrit]

haven't gone negative yet with xerath

including in a pretty terrible loss. i think i like

[kitty]

Welp after a win streak in ranked I dual queue with my 1500 buddy and lose 8 out of 10 ranked games. Now we're both stuck in ELO hell. =(

[prophetik music]

i was under the impression that you can only queue solo or with a five in ranked games.

[kitty]

"Solo" queue is actually 1 or 2 people. As such your stats for playing with a friend are still saved under solo queue stats. And, as you've noted, there are 5v5s.

EDIT: Oh and one of those games our fifth chose Ashe after we already had a Kog, which prompted our GP jungle to leave at the start of the match, which further caused our LeBlanc mid to afk in the fountain; and after 6 minutes our terrible Ashe who missed two volleys (didn't hit ANYTHING) also afk'd in the fountain and me and my friend were literally 2v5. What made that even worse was the enemy team didn't kill the nexus until after 20 minutes.

EDIT2: On an unrelated note, I'm hoping/predicting sinful succulence Morgana will be in the next sale. Or at least soonish...

Edited October 7, 2011 by kitty

[The Author]

Ok, AP Alistar is good, but with CDR, I feel like I'm running out of mana too fast. What would you suggest as a mana regen item with that sort of approach?

I usually get around 50, but today during a game I couldn't keep up at all. At the end I had this selection of items:

Elisa's miracle, Morello's evil tome, Ionian boots of lucidity, Sheen, I was testing out Will of the ancient to help with life, and I was working on getting the deathcap at the end. I think I should just sell off the philosopher's stone instead of upgrading it, but I do like Tenacity.

[zircon]

It will get better as you level up, as you can get Mana per 5 second runes (or MP/5 per level) and mana masteries. You shouldn't need more than Philosopher's Stone and Frozen Heart for mana. There's no harm in backing out to the fountain, especially later in the game where you're not really laning much anyway. You shouldn't upgrade Philo stone for awhile as you get a lot of gold from that (Kage's Lucky Pick or Heart of Gold are also good options.)

[Bleck]

alistar doesn't really need the sustain - because he's a tank he can stand to just go back and get mana

if you really want to fix this I suggest getting chalice of harmony early on

[The Author]

To be sure, on runes, once I hit level 20, I can buy tier 3 runes and basically get the best ones I can, no new runes unlock after level 20, right?

[prophetik music]

correct.

if you're having issues with life, don't get will of the ancients. ali doesn't do enough with his abilities to make it worth it. i'd always get FH for the mana and armor, and for HP i'd look at something like rylai's or sunfire cape. usually if ali's having a problem staying alive it's not his resists (depending on what he's building), it's his lower HP at high levels when he doesn't build hp items. same as amumu and rammus.

also, something i've been doing is to go with merc treads early (for the resists and tenacity bonus), then late game (after you've gotten more than enough cash from your philo stone) selling them and going with CDR boots, and upgrading to the miracle then. i often end games without switching over, though, which isn't a bad thing - you get CDR from frozen heart, and keeping a philo stone to the bitter end is a good way to ensure a consistent cash influx.

edit: dexie's right, though - when i don't get cdr boots, i go with shurelya's for the HP bonus and excellent active ability.

Edited October 7, 2011 by prophetik music

[Dexie]

Elisa's miracle, Morello's evil tome, Ionian boots of lucidity, Sheen, I was testing out Will of the ancient to help with life, and I was working on getting the deathcap at the end. I think I should just sell off the philosopher's stone instead of upgrading it, but I do like Tenacity.

Upgrading the Philo on him to Shurelia's is what most people seem to do. Positioning is key on Alistar, and the active on it REALLY helps him.

To be sure, on runes, once I hit level 20, I can buy tier 3 runes and basically get the best ones I can, no new runes unlock after level 20, right?

Yep!

[zircon]

But in the meantime, fill out your rune pages with Tier 1. They are about half as good as tier 3, at 1/10 the price.

[The Author]

Well, I was saving points to purchase either Garen or Malphite. Didn't think Alistar would become my favorite of the bunch, so I should have at least 8000 points to spend the moment I hit level 20. Since there is also a lot of overlap between Jenna and Alistar's runes as far as I'm concerned, it'll be worth it to focus on my "caster" rune page.

So, what's the general consensus on Morello's Evil tome? I like how it works in the CDR and Mana regen as well as the AP, and it seems rather cheap compared to some of the stuff.

Last few games I went:

Philosopher stone, then build boots and morello, and then work on sheen, once these 4 are done, I test out new items.

What I also should try is going Philosopher stone, kage's lucky pick, then boots and deathfire grasp, and then progress as usual. Would help if I could remember to use my actives once in a while.

[Bleck]

morello's evil tome is great on anyone building AP and who needs CDR real bad (Xerath)

it's even pretty good on some characters that don't need the MP regen (Vladimir)

[prophetik music]

Well, I was saving points to purchase either Garen or Malphite. Didn't think Alistar would become my favorite of the bunch, so I should have at least 8000 points to spend the moment I hit level 20. Since there is also a lot of overlap between Jenna and Alistar's runes as far as I'm concerned, it'll be worth it to focus on my "caster" rune page.

So, what's the general consensus on Morello's Evil tome? I like how it works in the CDR and Mana regen as well as the AP, and it seems rather cheap compared to some of the stuff.

Last few games I went:

Philosopher stone, then build boots and morello, and then work on sheen, once these 4 are done, I test out new items.

What I also should try is going Philosopher stone, kage's lucky pick, then boots and deathfire grasp, and then progress as usual. Would help if I could remember to use my actives once in a while.

if you're tanking, don't get a single AP item besides maybe abyssal scepter if your team is rocking. if you're going for AP tanky dps - which, to be honest, other characters do better at - then i'd build your boots and philo stone and then either go for AP items if you're rocking or tank items if you're not.

[The Derrit]

morello's evil tome is great on anyone building AP and who needs CDR real bad (Xerath)

it's even pretty good on some characters that don't need the MP regen (Vladimir)

i even get it at the end of my galio build its great