PROS

+ Hard engage.
+ Really hard to die with his R Unbreakable Will.
+ Lots of CC.
+ Can easily punish bad positioning.

CONS

- Very predictable and can be demolished by experienced players.
- Wrong engages can be destructive
- Doesn't have a lot of good matchups.

Resolve

Aftershock

Solid option for Alistar. When you immobilize and enemy it triggers and provides extra damage, armor and magic resist for Alistar to keep him safe through his engages while also dealing some AoE damage. His kit revolves around immobilizing enemies so it is very easy to proc with every ability, except R Unbreakable Will of course.

Demolish

Helps taking down plates and turrets faster and easier. It is a great rune for Alistar since he is an aggressive support which will push away the enemy bot a lot and make windows to go for the tower. Font of Life could be an option but the healing is very little and i don't recommend it. Maybe when facing hard poking matchups to recover some Hp.

Conditioning

A great rune on Alistar since the resistances he can stack are massive and this rune enchanses them all. Bone Plating is another option focused mainly in early laning phase but after that is kinda useless, this is the reason why i chose Conditioning. Second Wind can be a choice when facing heavy poke matchups, which means enemies with long range or both enemy ADC and Support being ranged, to gain back some health. Overall Second Wind is situational and also applied mainly in early laning phase. It does scale better than Bone Plating but again early game focused. On the other hand, Conditioning sacrifices the first 10mins but then stacks throughout the whole game. If your playstyle focuses mainly on early game and laning phase you can go for Bone Plating but you will not be so efficient in mid-late.

Overgrowth

Solid health scaling offering tiny portions but a nice boost when getting 120 stacks and gaining the +3,5% max health. Keep in mind that you will hit that 120 stacks at about the 15 minute mark. Again, not so focused in early laning but in mid-late game when Alistar becomes really hard to kill due to the runes, items and his own kit.

Unflinching

Very good option to replace Overgrowth when facing heavy CC comps. The tenacity it provides is very good and will help you a lot of times to get out of tricky situations.

Inspiration

Hextech Flashtraption

Also known as hexflash. Offers great engage potential and now with the addition of the alcoves, the sky is the limit. There are many ways to surprise your enemies from engaging while standing in a bush, to jumping over walls and knocking them back to your team or turret. Now if facing a very passive team that needs time to scale, Biscuit Delivery is a great option to stay in lane more and assist your ADC.

Cosmic Insight

Great rune to be able to cast more often your abilities and summoner spells too.

Precision

Triumph

This is the best choice we have, since the next slot will be tenacity and a combat rune (third row) is useless. So among Overheal, Triumph and Presence of Mind we choose Triumph for the sustain in teamfights and skirmishes.

Legend: Tenacity

Alistar needs the mobility to be usefull and thus tenacity is a very strong stat to invest too. Negating immobilizing effects and being able to cast more abilities is what you want.

Sorcery

Phase Rush

Good option when familiar with Alistar and want to roam a lot and stick to your teammates with your E Trample to stun them. Also viable is the enemy team is very mobile and will be hard for you to keep up. Rest of Sorcery tree also focuses heavily on Movement Speed to get to lanes faster and assist your teammates.

Nimbus Cloak

Great rune to get more mobility and stickiness. Everytime you cast a summoner spell you get a burst of movement speed helping you engage, disengage or stick to targets and make their life miserable.

Celerity

It enchances your overall movement speed and boosts all movement increasing effects on you. This helps making it almost impossible for someone to avoid you. No matter what, you will be near them to knock them up or stun them or just block all their skillshots.

Waterwalking

Lastly this rune too revolves around mobility and makes your roams faster and thus you leave your ADC less time alone and at the same time threaten the enemy team with the fear that you can travel very fast on the map. Combined with Mobility Boots the movement speed is insane. I suggest you try this rune page as it is very fun and a personal favourite.

Flash

is the best option. It allows you to engage and close the distance to the enemy, It also plays a vital role to many Alistar combos/tricks. It can get you out of nasty situations and allows you to take Hexflash.

Ignite

is what you want to take on Alistar. It offers a lot of kill potential with the true damage and the grievous wounds it triggers since enemies most likely will have Heal or some healing ability. Overall it is perfect for an aggressive support like Alistar.

Exhaust

is situational. It is good when you can't engage easily, for example against an Ashe or Vayne. Moreover, Exhaust can be the best option if the enemy team has hyper carries like Vayne, or assassins like Zed since you will be able to reduce their burst and take them by surprise when their targets survive with little Hp and a giant bull runs at them.

PASSIVE

Triumphant Roar is Alistar's passive. When you CC someone or a nearby unit dies you get a stack. At 7 stacks you get to heal yourself a bit. So try to get like 4-5 stacks so when you engage you trigger the healing mid fight and maybe thus turn the fight to your advantage.

Q

Pulverize is Alistar's Q. You knock pull all enemies in a small radius around you. Good ability to chain CC or for some combos like Q Pulverize, knockup and then Yasuo Last Breath.

W

Headbutt is his W. You dash to an enemy and headbutt them knocking them back. Good combo with Q Pulverize, you knock them up then walk behind them and W Headbutt to knock them back to your team or turret. Faster combo, Flash + W Headbutt.

E

Trample is his E. You deal AoE damage around you and gain stacks every second if damaging an enemy. At 5 stacks next auto-attack, deals magic damage and stuns the target.

R

Unbreakable Will is Alistar's R. It is basically a free QSS since it removes all crowd control. Also it provides alistar with massive reduced physical and magic damage. This makes you nearly unkillable in team fights.

#1

Alistar's Q Pulverize can cancel channeled abilities.

#2

His W Headbutt can knock enemies through most walls.

#3

At level 1 get your Q, then at level 2 your W and then your E at level 3. In lane you want to zone enemies away from minions and as soon as you hit level 2 look for an all in with Q+W combo. Knock them up, walk behind them and push them to your turret/adc/jungler etc. But be careful in poke matchups not to get low enough cause you will not be able to engage and be forced to recall or give a free kill to the enemy. At your first back you want to rush Mobility Boots to be able to roam. If you dont have enough gold, go for tier 1 boots and get some control wards but save most of your money to be able to get the tier 2 boots soon.

#4

Look at your midlane, since it is the closer lane you can impact in early game (very time consuming to walk all the way to top), for chances when you can roam and surprise the enemy mid laner by denying vision with the control wards you bought (or sweeper) and knocking them to your mid laner. Good way to tilt them and make them really frustrated. Remember that a big part of League of Legends is the mentality. A bit unorthodox way but, if you wreck your opponents mentality they are left with nothing.

#5

When Bulwark of the Mountain quest is completed, replace your Stealth Ward with Oracle Lens.

Q + W

Use Q Pulverize to knock enemies up, walk behing them and then, W Headbutt to knock them back to your team/tower.

W + Q

While casting your W Headbutt, cast your Q Pulverize mid dash. This will cancel the knockback and make you perform a ranged-gap closing knockup.

W + Q + E

A sneaky one, engage the enemy support (extra points if they are melee) and stack your E Trample on them. When E is fully stacked, save your stun and use the second combo W + Q, to get to the ADC and knock them up. As they come down stun them. A great way to catch them off guard. But seriously don't focus the support if you don't perform that combo except if it is a Soraka. Well, overall you want to take down the ADC, that is the threat, but there are exceptions occasionally.

Flash + W + Q

You Flash behind the enemy (this is why we go for Hextech Flashtraption to be able to pull combos off like these one, but, the sky is the limit so use it as you wish, like stand behind an alcove and jumpscare the enemy bot hehe) and then W Headbutt them to your adc/tower/lurking jungler and then as they try to escape use Q Pulverize.