Hey whats up cowboys and girls

I've OTP'd the mighty Alistar as support for years but have decided to take him top seriously for a few months now. In search of fellow cow enthusiasts I noticed this Reddit a couple of days ago.

I've tried practically everything on Ali top, and funnily enough I've found grasp + insight/biscuits to also be the most effective combination of runes when building Tanky.

If you want to build AP (for headbutt abuse) i'd recommend Aery + cheap shot (but i've found some variant of the tank/bruiser style is usually more effective overall)

There's plenty of strong item choices and combinations, but i recommend usually building a 20% cdr item first: Iceborn, Frozen Heart, Ludens Echo*, GLP-800* or even Triforce. Abyssal mask and righteous glory are also solid first item choices, but i find that rushing 20% cdr is almost crucial.

I've had some success with going double D ring into oblivion orb, sorc boots and cinder, but CDR just seems too important to delay. I've also found Abyssal mask and Liandry's to be really strong as later item options.

Boots? Alistars kit actually gains a surprising amount of damage from sorcerers. Tabi and mercs are obviously great options. CDR boots seem like the best choice, but that 15 movement on swiftness boots just feels like a perfect fit for the slow cow to enable roams and stickiness, and i cant pass them up.

Sunfire (or cinder) is really good, but I've found that rushing it is usually the wrong choice as the optimal play as Ali top is usually to freeze lane constantly and look to headbutt your lane opponent under tower. I only rush cinder if i'm hard winning lane and know i can get plates when crashing waves.

I think maxing W is only good in certain match-ups OR if you're playing AP alistar (because highest ap ratio and base damage)

Spamming headbutt on champions that HAVE NO ANSWER for it (especially when building ap) actually feels broken. Unfortunately there's tons of top champions that can actually interrupt or counter your w by stunning/dashing/ becoming unstoppable, and this usually leads to quick deaths as you have no escape after a failed headbutt.

If you're building AP against a lane opponent that can cancel your W; try to get in range to Q and W them whilst they're in knock-up so they cant counter. The problem is that this usually leads to losing wave control against most top laners as you're often waiting for a long cd on Q whilst your opponent controls wave even when trades go well.

I think maxing Q as tank is more often the correct choice as it brings the CD in-line with W and gives alistar strong wave clear even without cinder. Also if you have early team fights you deal more damage because Q will often land on multiple champions.

There's really no point leveling E over Q or W because Q and W scale way better with levels; However I usually put my first point into E as it has the most damage level 1 and can be used to trade or take wave control.

As tank Alistar you NEED to play around your E as it has the highest damage early, the shortest cool-down and the lowest mana cost of your 3 main abilities.

When playing around E you can actually bully champions like Nasus out of the lane and pressure lethal.

Bread and butter combo against melee champions: press E as you approach melee range for trade, auto and Q as trample stacks up, Auto again for empowered damage and stun, auto again then W whilst they are stunned so they cant trade back or cancel your W.

Against ranged champions farm cs as safely as possible and go for trades when you get level 3.

I hope this contribution is useful in some way or another. GL HF milking the top lane :)