Hey there. This is KuteKittehs bringing to you a guide an awesome ARAM champ - the Healistar. This is a brief overview of one effective way to play him in ARAM. His kit gives him incredible CC, sustain, and defense, making him an extremely flexible tank. He can initiate, counter-initiate, disable ADCs, and deny enemy kills with his sustain and knockback, giving your team a significant gold advantage. Essentially, he is one of the most OP ARAM champions because of the devastating effectiveness of his kit when used with a large group of allies or used against a large group of enemies.

Given his kit, I prefer to build him as a tank and a healer with a strong emphasis on CDR and the Locket of the Iron Solari. While this build leaves him with minimal damage output, it gives him incredible sustain and tank and allows him to freely peel for his own carries or harass enemy carries.

Feel free to critique the guide on anything stupid I may have, upvote if you like it, or downvote and leave some suggestions if you don't!

Pros +Heals a ton +Excellent CC +Can displace ult channels +Denies the enemy kills +Extremely tanky +Assist farmer

Cons -Mana hungry -Cooldown-reliant -No poke -Little damage output -Slow, difficult to initiate when kited -People want you for that steak

___

Trample Your very own innate Sunfire Aegis, dishes out a small bit of damage every time you cast a spell. Extremely weak throughout the entire game, so I wouldn't recommend giving the passive a second thought.

___

Pulverize Hard AOE CC, pretty self explanatory. Its main use is to hard CC an entire crowd and set them up for bursting or skill shotting. You can either run in there, use Headbutt, or Flash in. You can also use Pulverize to stop ult channels.

___

Headbutt It's like a reverse Blitzcrank - you push the enemy away from you. A tank Alistar should never use this skill for the sake of dealing damage. Instead, use it to manipulate the enemy's location and make the fight more favorable for your team. For this skill to be used effectively, the right target has to be pushed the right way, so positioning is crucial. Pushing their squishies away from your team (except in certain scenarios where your team is too low to fight a squishy) or dropping the Thresh into the middle of your team will lose the game for you. Instead, use Headbutt to push away a rival CC/tank champ like Dr. Mundo or Leona and expose their squishies, or use it to push their squishies towards you. If a Morgana or a Fiddlesticks ults on top of your team and doesn't Zhonya's for whatever reason, you can W them away from your team and follow it up with your e, your Locket, or your Heal. When an enemy champ is chasing your weakened teammate and you know that a Headbutt won't put you in a dangerous situation, you can push him away with W and deny him the kill. You can also Headbutt an enemy against a wall if you just want the small stun without having him move anywhere. tl;dr: Push the right guy the right way to give your carries room to shoot their MVPs.

When used alone, Pulverize and Headbutt are not very effective. There are various ways to combo them depending on the situation. If they simply let you run up to them (alarm bell for unskilled player!) or you flash in, just q their squishy up, walk behind him, and w him to your team for one of the best initiation combos. Most skilled players, however, will kite you unless it's the thick of a battle and you Q them by surprise. If the enemy is poke-heavy and you need a Leona-style gap closer, Headbutt the tankiest champion in a crowd and drop a Q. If you need to stun an ADC that will come close enough for a W, Headbutt the ADC and immediately Pulverize him before he gets flung out of your reach. When done correctly, it should stun the ADC in place, allowing your team to catch up. If the enemy has champions like Nunu & Willump or Katarina that need to channel their ults, you can opt to save one of the two abilities during a teamfight and instead sync them every 3-4 seconds.

___

Triumphant Roar This is what makes Alistar the reigning champion of ARAM. His heals provide 180 hp every 12 seconds when maxed, and 50% of that to nearby allies. With 40% CDR, that's a minimum of 750 self-heal per minute plus his 22.55 HP5 at level 18, Spirit Visage's +20HP5, and Locket's +10HP5, all multiplied by a 20% for a startling 1650 HP per minute at level 18, assuming he doesn't take advantage of the death cooldown bonus. His allies get 375 HP per minute from his heal along with 120 HP/minute from Locket, for ~500 HP per minute. All of this, of course, is diminished by the Howling Abyss's -20% regen aura. In addition, nearby enemy deaths will drop the cooldown on Triumphant Roar by 2 seconds, so with 40% CDR, a minion wave will give you a couple free roars. Simply put, if he is not isolated and bursted down far from safety, he is able to regenerate his own health and his teammates' health extremely rapidly. It's also interesting to note that, unlike any other healers, Alistar's heals affect the minions, giving him some great pushing power. Pushing your minion waves will eventually push the line of conflict to their tower, where you can outsustain them and let your teammates poke them down for a towerdive.

___

Unbreakable Will If you're going all in and you know it's a strategically advantageous all-in, hit your Locket of the Iron Solari before diving. When you're in the middle of the crowd and you have a significant chunk of your health missing (20-40%), hit that R to give your enemy a surprise. It should be called Invincibility Hacks because it is impossible for any team to even think about killing an Alistar with over 200 armor, 200 MR, and a bonus 70% damage reduction (which boosts 2000 health to 20k effective health!) while his team is laying down the damage. The attack damage boost is nice, since it gives his autoattacks roughly 180 DPS which can lay significant pressure on a squishy. It's a somewhat decent last-man-standing tool when you're the only defender under your tower and you can't afford to lose it - just pop that ult and start shoving them everywhere, and hopefully the tower will complement your lack of DPS.

Skill sequence

For a Healistar to sustain his team in ARAM, Triumphant Roar has to be maxed first. Pulverize should be prioritized afterwards to maximize AOE damage. Unbreakable Will is mandatory at 6, 11, and 16.

Greater Mark of Armor
Put some survivability on that cow. They can also be Greater Mark of Magic Resist or Greater Mark of Scaling Magic Resist. He doesn't benefit much off of AD/AP, since q and w are not significant sources of sustainable damage.

Greater Seal of Scaling Armor
Put some armor on that cow. If you're concerned about early game, Greater Seal of Armor are also viable options; however, your e spam should last you until the break-even point between the scaling and normal armor seals, since leveling up is so easy in ARAM.

Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist
Put some... magic resist on that cow. Those AP champs want steak too. You can also use Greater Glyph of Magic Resist as a viable alternative. However, you know for sure that you're doing a Chalice of Harmony start so you might not need that much more initial MR.

Greater Quintessence of Mvt. Speed
This should give you +15 mvt speed to make up for his slow base speed. Movement speed is vital since it determines whether you can get your q-w combo off or not. You can opt to use more armor/MR quints, but you will need an Enchantment: Alacrity to make up for it.


"Dude, what's with your weird scaling rune fetish?" In ARAM, early game doesn't last long enough for flat runes to be profitable. It's not Classic, where early game aggro can deny them CS and early game kills can deny them exp & gold while giving you a significant gold boost. It's ARAM, where early game's impact on late game is mitigated by the Howling Abyss's aura. A lot of the pokes you'll be receiving before level 6 will be magic-based, and you've got a Chalice to cover that. Once you hit level 6, your ult should keep you alive in vital situations since you can tank what little burst damage they have. If you do end up against an AD-poke team, get a Cloth Armor start to make up for base armor.

While I do list some core items, it always varies depending on the type of enemies you're facing; hence it is impossible to identify a single core build that should be used in every single match. The "core" that I listed is a general build against a mixed team. I highly recommend reviewing your death recap and looking at what the enemy team is building to help adjust your core build on the fly. If you're taking nothing but magic damage, refer to the anti-AP items; likewise if they're AD-heavy, use some anti-AD items. No core is ever set in stone (except for Chalice of Harmony) due to the randomness of ARAM.

Starting items

___

Chalice of Harmony For mana-hungry supports and AP spammers like Alistar and Ziggs, Chalice of Harmony is an extremely powerful start. A level 3 Alistar has only 7.8 MP5, and doing the q-w combo (140 mana) or spamming e nonstop will leave you starving. Chalice gives you a much-needed mana regen boost, making it much easier to spam e's and still have enough for q-w combos. It also gives MR as a great bonus. "Why not a Tear of the Goddess start?" This is all preference-based, really. I just find that the Chalice gives much better mana regen and that it can build into Athene's Unholy Grail, which is far better on the defensive and CD-reliant Alistar. Mana pool won't help him much if he's spamming Triumphant Roar nonstop, but Chalice's passive will give a bigger boost the more you spam. "Why not a ____ start?" If the item you're suggesting is a Sheen, Glacial Shroud, or any other item that does not give mana regen, it's no good on Healistar since you will run out of mana and end up hogging the artifacts for yourself. An Alistar without mana is as useful as a Karthus without mana - you're better off dead. If the item you're suggesting gives mana regen, I will argue that the chalice will always give more mana and that the huge mana regen provided by the chalice is infact completely necessary.

___

Boots of Speed One possible way to spend the remaining gold. Helps with running down a squishy and qw-ing him to your allies for first blood and many more to follow. Not so vital if your team has a ton of poke and can zone them way out of your reach, or if their squishies are good kite champs with lockdown abilities like Lux or Morgana.

___

Null-Magic Mantle If you're up against AP pokes like Ziggs, Lux, or Nidalee, you definitely want to build Mercury's Treads. This is a cheap first item to help you rush those boots.

___

Ruby Crystal Since the Aegis changes in the latest patch, Ruby Crystal seems to be the best (if not only) way to rush the Aegis as NMM and Cloth are no longer cheap components of it. A ruby start gives you a good amount of burst tankiness that you can actually regen, unlike most other tanks.

___

Ancient Coin After a bit of thought, I included this option as it does give a very small amount of gold and sustain. You can rush a Nomad's Medallion for gold and perhaps eventually a Talisman of Ascension at the cost of tank stats. This option is if you plan on being relatively passive with intermittent teamfights. All in all, the ancient coin gives: roughly 2 gold/5, 3 MP5, and slightly over 5 HP5. Nomad's Medallion gives 7 MP5, 15 HP5, and over 4 gold/5. Talisman should be gotten only after Locket, another tank item, and Athene's is finished at the very least.

________________________

Core items

___

Athene's Unholy Grail Gives him much-needed CDR, mana regen, and MR along with a bit of AP. A must-have item! Even if the enemy lacks significant magic damage, this is still indispensable for its rapid mana regen.

___

Locket of the Iron Solari Locket is a cost-efficient item for Alistar. It gives a little bit of health, MR, CDR,and HP5 (everything that a tank could ever want out of a single item!). It boosts his overall team healing ability by roughly 30% with its health regen aura and its CDR to let him spam Triumphant Roar faster. The active can be used as another e in combat, allowing him to instantly shield his teammates for up to 230 shield. Locket is extremely cost efficient against AP-heavy teams, but I would still recommend it even if the enemy had only 2 AP champs. If the enemy is 80% AD-reliant, consider skipping Aegis and heading straight to that Randuin's Omen, and build Frozen Heart or Athene's Unholy Grail to make up for the CDR. If you aren't that great at using item actives, consider sticking with the Aegis of the Legion; however, I would highly recommend getting used to using the Locket's active.

___

Spirit Visage Spirit boosts his team and self-healing capabilities as well as increasing his effective HP against mages and AOE AP spells. A must-have for its extremely high cost efficiency.

___

Sunfire Cape Sunfire Cape should be a core item on Alistar most of the time because it synergizes so well with his passive and his role as an up-front champion. If you play the super aggressive Alistar and the enemy has some significant AD, consider building this item to increase your battlefield presence. The damage dealt is quite significant considering the amount of time Alistar can cling to their squishies during a fight.

As mentioned previously, if the enemy has absolutely minimal AP, I would consider ditching the Locket-Spirit combo and using Randiun + Frozen Heart as a substitute core. Do not ditch the Chalice though, since it's still worth its gold considering how powerful its passive is. If the enemy is full AP, consider ditching Sunfire Aegis.



________________________

Situational items - pick 1 + boots

Against an AD-heavy team

___

Randuin's Omen Effective counter against autoattack champions like Ashe, Master Yi, and Twitch. The active on it also helps your team maneuver around them.

___

Frozen Heart If the enemy has a ton of autoattack-reliant champions, this will tip the scales in your team's favor by removing 650 gold worth of autoattck speed from every enemy champion. It becomes extremely cost effective if at least 2 of the enemy champions are aa-reliant. The CDR also helps with your ability spamming and the mana pool combined with a chalice makes it impossible to run out of mana. If they have difficulty bursting you down and you feel that your health pool is adequate to last you each fight, consider building this before Randuin's Omen to tip the DPS scales in your team's favor.

___

Thornmail A late-game item to annoy their ADCs. Don't build this until you have some health and CDR. Most of the times, Frozen Heart's aura overshadows this as it increases your own team's survivability and the enemy ADCs are likely to go for your squishies.

___

Ninja Tabi If the enemy has a lot of aa-reliant champions, try to build this right after your core, or build it right after the Locket. Usually, Mercury's Treads will be of greater priority.

Against an AP-heavy team

___

Banshee's Veil Blocks initiation skills and gives more MR/HP. If there are a ton of AP casters and Spirit Visage wasn't enough, get this item.

___

Orb of Winter If the enemy is so AP-heavy that your Locket of the Iron Solari, Spirit Visage, Mercury's Treads, and Banshee's Veil combo wasn't enough, top it off with this item and get a Sunfire Aegis for the HP. The passive shield on this is amazingly effective, so I might even get it before Banshee's Veil if the enemy team really likes to poke in late-game.

___

Mercury's Treads If the enemy has a ton of AP or CC and are locking you down all the time, get these boots.

________________________

Aggressive/Damage items

There are some instances when you're so tanky that you can stop making yourself all the more invincible and work on some battlefield presence with significant damage output. I usually don't build this path, but there are some scenarios when I feel that extra damage will help so I add on one or two damage items in addition to Sunfire Aegis.

___

Iceborn Gauntlet If your enemies are nicely packed up and you initiate with q-w or w-q, your first autoattack afterwards will deal up to 150 splash damage and slow enemies in the area, making it easier for your team to destroy them. Remember that your e will proc the gauntlet, so if you need to do a q-w combo after the proc, you can proc it with e. This item is relatively more useful than all other spellblade passives.

___

Abyssal Scepter If you feel tanky enough and your team has a ton of AP, you can opt to use this item. It slightly boosts Alistar's burst damage and tankiness and scales really well with your mages late-game.

___

Rabadon's Deathcap Gives him a nice 156 AP, making his abilities hurt more. Also adds 16 damage to his Trample passive. Overall a nice addition to his burst damage. However, it isn't too effective on a build that's got so few AP items.

___

Zhonya's Hourglass A combination of AP and armor. Helps with countering ADCs while increasing damage.

___

Lich Bane This is only profitable over Iceborn Gauntlet's spellblade proc if you have another AP item with it. If this is your sole damage item, it won't be as effective as Iceborn.

________________________

Odd items to consider

Talisman of Ascension

___

Talisman of Ascension Give your team a huge speed boost and minimize the enemy's kiting potential by scaring them into mindlessly running away and getting picked off.

___

Boots of Swiftness If you need speed, this will help you.

___

Enchantment: Alacrity If you need more movement speed and you have a full build, consider this.

___

Enchantment: Captain If you have a full build and you think your teammates could make good use of a movement speed aura to follow up faster on initiates, get this.

________________________

Some lolwat items

If your team is really chill about not tryharding in ARAM and/or you're absolutely wrecking them and you're sitting on a pile of gold, try picking up a few lolwat items after you finish at least 3 tank items. None of these recommendations should ever be taken seriously if you really want to win.

___

Nashor's Tooth Alistar has extremely high base AD, and a Nashor's tooth will complement that by giving him significant attack speed in addition to boosting his ability damage and autoattack DPS.

___

Ravenous Hydra When combined with your ult, you get 120+90+75 damage with some serious splash damage. Combined with the crescent active, you become pretty darn annoying.

___

Tinity Force The huge boost in movement speed combined with that terrifying proc damage (up to +240 damage) makes you really darn annoying. However, it's pretty darn expensive.

___

Zephyr Annoyingness +65%. The movement speed and the autoattack boost is pretty darn trolly.

___

Banner of Command If you promote that cannon, sustain him with your heals, and keep your minions in your aura, you can push the towers pretty hard and go for a fast inhib knockout. The AP and the CDR are decent on an offense-oriented Alistar. Remember: people will poke from behind their minions, and pushing the wave will push the ground from which they can poke from all the way to their tower. Does not work if the enemy has waveclear champs like Sivir.

___

Hunter's Machete I'm not responsible if you get reported. Thanks.

Must-have Spells

___

Flash Flash to their squishy, q him up, walk behind him, and w him to your eagerly awaiting allies. Never waste flash to move away from them, since you have your q and your w to push away anyone chasing you.

Recommended

___

Heal "Heal? But this is Alistar! He's already got Triumphant Roar. You know nothing about LoL!" True, he has e. However, heal is actually a powerful in-combat summoner spell since it increases his burst heal by a ton when combo'd with E and Locket of the Iron Solari. The added speed boost is also a nice way to save your allies or allow you to rush down an enemy.

Kinda-not recommended

All other summoner spells. Barrier is kinda viable if somehow you frequently go really low and the Locket of the Iron Solari- Triumphant Roar- Heal combo won't save you. But really, you've got Unbreakable Will for clutch moments like those. Ignite is also an ok skill but you'd have to sacrifice Flash for that.

(If you know how to use Alistar, you can skip this section, or the whole guide as a matter of fact. The following will state the obvious for the sake of newer players.)

Why support/tank Alistar? Why not 1000 damage pulverize-headbutt combos followed by a massive lich bane hit?

It always depends on the team comps, really. If your team has nothing but supports/tanks/bruisers ( Soraka- Renekton- Rammus-etc), you can opt for more burst damage with some combo of Rabadon's Deathcap- Lich Bane- Abyssal Mask- Zhonya's Hourglass- Rod of Ages- Rylai's Crystal Scepter. These setups are highly dependent on his Unbreakable Will to stay alive in each fight. In 90% of cases, you'll have enough AP and AD carries to build for Healistar.

It's also preference-based though, and I acknowledge that some players can work wonders with a full-AP Alistar. It's simply my preference to build him as a brick wall and add the damage items I might need, like Abyssal Mask or Iceborn Gauntlet, after I know for sure I can survive each fight and keep my teammates alive at the same time. Nevertheless, AP Alistar is still a viable champion, and if you prefer the AP life then by all means play the AP Alistar.

Early Game

Your major role in early game is to seek out potential kill setups and demoralize the enemy. The quickest way to leave an impression is to do the typical Alistar "flash out of that bush, Pulverize their squishy up, and Headbutt him to your team" combo. However, avoid doing this in a large group of enemies since early-game Alistar can be a tad squishy versus their full team without a complete build. If you repeat this several times successfully, the enemy will retreat to their tower and cower from your team's pokes. However, this is unlikely to happen multiple times as most players will have the common sense to stay away from you. If you fail at it and you die, you lose ~500 hp worth of early-game healing for your allies.

Sometimes, however, this is completely unnecessary. If it's a poke-heavy ARAM involving Nidalee, Lux, Ziggs, Jinx, Ashe, and Heimerdinger all trying to zone each other out, use your best judgment as to whether you should simply support your pokes or push aggressively. In most of the cases involving heavy poking, I prefer to simply heal up my pokers. If your team lacks significant poke power and you're zoned to your tower, you might want to hold off on doing a combo unless they get close enough to the tower for you to flash and pulverize-headbutt them to your tower. (Recognize, however, that this will likely get you killed unless you use your Unbreakable Will so pick your target carefully and make sure your team can follow up). Otherwise, just sit back and spam your heals to prevent the enemy from dropping your team low for a towerdive.

Regardless of the situation that develops as a result of the team comps, do not die a vain death. Realistically, you should have at least 2-4k gold by the time you first die, and by the second time (if you even die a second time) you should have another 3-5k gold. While tank Alistar is dependent on items to be effective, you can take advantage of the Triumphant Roar's cooldown from enemy deaths to complement your lack of CDR items, and you can use your Unbreakable Will to make up for lack of defensive items. Resist the urge to die "just so you can go back to shop and buy" unless you have over 2.5k gold or however much your next full item costs. Also resist the urge to do a towerdive early on in the game; at the very least, wait for Unbreakable Will at level 11 and the Locket+Sunfire Cape to towerdive aggressively. Remember that every death costs your team valuable HP regen from the loss of your heal and your locket aura.

Mid-late Game

After the first 5-10 minutes of feeling each other with those lovely pokes, more serious and lengthy engages involving melee/assassin champs are likely to occur. By now, you should be focusing on keeping their melees and assassins off of your squishies. If they happen to be squishy champs (like a full-AD Master Yi) and they are ahead of their team for whatever reason, you can just pulverize them and headbutt them against a wall to set up the kill for your carries. Otherwise, push them away - especially crazy melee champs like Wukong that you need to peel at all times.

Once you get significantly tanky enough to rumble through their team without really caring, you become an extremely powerful pusher. In all-in fights, you can get some fast access to their carries; if their carries decide to kite you, their tanks are at the whim of your team. If their carries stand still, you can push them towards your team as long as you know your team is in a position to handle them (ie don't push that full HP Jinx on top of your 4 badly wounded allies).

In lengthier engages, make sure to give the illusion that you are a high-profile target so you can keep the pressure off your squishies. Spam your CCs as often as you can, autoattack their carries (especially with that Iceborn Gauntlet proc), and spam heal and activate Locket of the Iron Solari to keep your team alive. Just clinging to their carries with your Sunfire Aegis in itself stacks up significant cumulative damage. At the same time, try not to die - if you're incredibly low on HP during an engage and you know you are able to get out alive, feel free to walk away, and maybe even bait someone before bashing them on the wall for your teammates to kill. Whatever you do though, stay alive unless you are sure you can take down a high-profile enemy along with you.

Always remember that your power lies in your teammates, which is one of the bigger disadvantages with this build - so try not to get yourself isolated. If your team is completely incompetent or lacks any ranged abilities, you really can't do much (hence why I lost 2 games with Alistar to date). Keep your team alive with Locket and your heals at all time, and if a particularly strong AOE is about to hit your team (I'm looking at you, Requiem >_>), you can counter it with Heal as well. Use your CC and your tankability to do everything in your power to keep your carries shooting, whether it's immobilizing the enemy carries or peeling their tanks off of your own.

Sample match results

My most recent game (played right before publishing this guide) shows how destructive Alistar can be.
imgur.com/gniAY3g.jpg
imgur.com/9joaSL9.png (43k hp healed = 20-30 lives saved, minimum!)
imgur.com/sOwTA2v.png
The healing prevented the enemy from poking my team down for a lethal dive. The persistent imbalance in health and their inability to stage an all-in forced them back to their tower. I played relatively passively in this game due to the high amount of ranged combat going on, so I kept my carries alive and harassing. This game, like many other games, ended before I could complete my build so I rushed Athene's Unholy Grail, Locket of the Iron Solari, and Sunfire Aegis upon my first intentional death. That gave me over 150 armor/mr, over 3k hp, and 30% CDR for some serious tanking and spamming with 3 items alone. By the end, we had stomped them 46-18 largely due to the amount of lives saved with the heals and the amount of firepower created by keeping my allies firing. The gold imbalance generated by the incredible sustain came out to 58.6k to 48.9k, or a ~20% difference in gold earnings from all the denied kills.

Another relatively recent game I played:
imgur.com/8nP4hJ3.jpg
imgur.com/uyZ1r4v.png
We had a realtively mediocre Cho and Scion (don't worry, I suck with Cho/Scion too) and the enemy had incredible sustain with Nami and Taric. It was a sure defeat except for the fact that my heal rivaled Nami and Taric's heals combined. I died an unusually large amount of time (4 whole times!) because of the Nami-Taric-Singed CC, but I was able to knock out the Katarina out of her Death Lotus every time, keep the Singed off the team, and constantly heal and use the Locket active to turn the game into a win.

Another game I played, ~4 days since I published this:
imgur.com/8XcaTsk.jpg
imgur.com/nOGZMUY.png
40k heal in 24 minutes, 54 takedowns out of 57 total takedown in the team, and 9 kills and 2 deaths. I was playing this with my friend on Ezreal, and I would just set up those kills, peel, and sustain my carries for an incredible stomp. I also had multiple clutch saves with my Locket and heal. A couple times I barely prevented Darius from dunking the first Noxian Guillotine with a sudden heal/shield on his designated target; I also had a minimum of 5 recorded kills denied from Karthus's Requiem. Essentially, the massive CC and sustain was incredibly effective in destroying the enemy. I followed my pure core that game because of the well-roundedness of the enemy, and I would have added an Iceborn Gauntlet for my last item had the match lasted long enough for me to die a 3rd time. Notice how Karthus and TF got Morellonomicon to counter the heal spamming; that was when the Locket's active became more critical than ever to low-hp allies up and running.

___

Alistar You will win the tank/support battle because you read this guide. Most Alistars go for damage builds (not saying they're not viable, just saying this build is better with most ARAM teams!), giving you the upper hand in sustaining your team and being a brick wall in teamfights.

___

Amumu Most Amumus will attempt to initiate with the Bandage Toss- Curse of the Sad Mummy followed by dishing around AOE damage with Despair and Tantrum. Timing is crucial here - if you can preemptively shove him back with your Headbutt, you can potentially avoid the AOE stun and possibly make him waste his ult thinking that he hit something. If you shove him back right in his bandage toss, you will most likely force him away from your team and make him waste his ult. However, it is almost impossible to prevent a good Amumu from ulting on top of your team - in this case, activate your Locket and start bashing their champs around to clear some space and let your carries get into a favorable position. Unless he's level 3-5 or he recently used his ult and he's very low on health, do not headbutt him towards your group.

___

Blitzcrank An enemy Blitzcrank is treacherous ground. A good Blitz is likely to grab you in a situation that is favorable for his teammates to follow up with; an even better Blitz will try to grab your squishies, so try to emphasize to your team to stay away from him. Otherwise there's not much else you. A good Blitz will be able to grab your squishy and insta-burst him, so you become reliant on your allies' wits to win.

___

Dr. Mundo Dr. Mundo has a built-in Sunfire Aegis and incredible health regen. The best course of action would be to Headbutt him away in every fight to keep his AOE damage off your team and to prevent your team from focusing him. Only when he's low on hp and you're confident your team can burst him should you headbutt him towards your team.

___

Fiddlesticks While neither support nor tank, it's important to note that Fiddlesticks can wipe out any team in ARAM if you don't retaliate properly. In poke wars, don't get near him or he will toss that Reap into your team for free damage. If either team is going all in, try to push that Fiddle away, or into your team if you know your team can burst him down when he's isolated. If you ever see him channeling his ult, do everything you can to stop it, even if it means dying; if he gets it off, push him away while he's running towards your team. Many Fiddles will try to channel their ult in a bush, so watch out for that.

___

Garen Tank Garen is a piece of cake for Alistar. Every time he tries to run Judgment into your team, just shove him away. Not even the might of Demacia can take down a cow. However, be wary of his Demacian Justice, which can do serious damage when you're low on health. A good Garen will try to target your carries with it most of the time though.

___

Janna Alistar's heals are superior to her shield, and his CC has much better utility in close quarters. When the Monsoon goes out, CC her, use that as an opportunity to reposition yourself against her carries, or set her up for a kill.

___

Leona Alistar is a somewhat-effective counter to Leona. When Leona activates her Eclipse and her Zenith Blade to initiate, you can just shove her back. Try to keep her from ulting on your team, but most half-decent Leonas will eventually land that Solar Flare on your carries. In that case, CC the enemy carries and/or push their tanks away to shift the fight favorably.

___

Malphite If Alistar lost his healing ability and got a ton of extra damage, his name would be Malphite. While he naturally lacks spammable CC like Alistar, his initiate is much stronger and his follow up damage can be powerful. Try to keep him off your team, since he can do serious damage in extended fights. A tank Malphite will always beat tank Alistar in damage output, so make that up with your superior sustain and CC. An AP Malphite can effectively insta-burst your carries, and there's really nothing you can do against his initial burst since his Unstoppable Force is, well, unstoppable.

___

Nunu An AP Nunu's major in-combat skill in ARAM is his Absolute Zero, which you can disrupt every single time and render him one of the most useless champions. Even if he's a tank Nunu, you'd want to knock out that AOE slow to keep your carries shooting and not fleeing from the AOE.

___

Rammus Rammus has some significant CC skills and AOE damage, and he's a tough nugget to take down. Just shove him away, especially when his ult is active since it has some serious damage.

___

Singed Don't chase a Singed. If he tries to initiate by running to your squishy to Fling, shove him back. If he flings you into their team, great! (Unless you were seriously low or lacking tank items). Try to keep him off your team in extended fights since his poison can do some serious damage over time.

___

Skarner Skarner got your squishy? Push him away from his teammates with a Q-W combo. If you can't catch up there's not much you can do. In every fight, try to shove him away, but he takes lower priority over other CC tanks if his ult is not up.

___

Sona/Soraka/Taric Oh, you guys can heal? That's great. A cow can heal better than you guys. If Taric attempts to initiate, try to shove him away since his Shatter- Radiance combo can do 550 base burst damage. If the Soraka or Sona comes near, feel free to set her up for a free kill since that cuts down on their team's sustain temporarily. Be wary of Sona's ult since it can knock your team out for a second.

___

Thresh Shove that sucker away like you're shoving away an Amumu or Fiddlesticks. If he ults on your team it's your fault.

There are some less common tank/support champs that I did not list. Just use the generic formula:
-If they have AOE CC or damage, push them away from your team.
-If they are squishy, push them to your team.
-If they can heal, just outheal them.

That concludes my first attempt to create a Mobafire guide. Feel free to rate the guide and give out any comments or suggestions you might have, since I'm relatively new to the guide-making business and may have overlooked something. Thanks for reading!