Hello, I have played over 300 games of Alistar top, and I have recently reached Diamond with a fresh new account on the Chinese Ionian sever playing Alistar top only (96 games of Alistar out of 138 solo ranked games total).
I have a 64% win rate on Alistar with almost 100 games (Top lane Only, maybe like 3 games on mid)

I think that Alistar Top is super fun and can work.

Edit: I peaked at Diamond 1 on the Ionian server with Alistar top on October 15th, 2021.

Standard rune page:

Take Aftershock over Grasp of the Undying when you are playing VS ranged champs like Jayce, since you will never proc Grasp of the Undying on them; or take Aftershock when you are in a tough match up (like Darius, Aatrox) which you will not easily proc Grasp of the Undying in lane and will never win 1v1s in the side lane after early game.

You can choose between Conditioning, Second Wind and Bone Plating, I prefer having Second Wind pretty much all the time since I want extra lane sustain.

I always take Magical Footwear and Future's Market because Alistar needs his core items to spike; tanks don't get a lot of gold, especially if you are playing Alistar top; so having these secondary runes will save you a lot of gold and get you a faster power spike timing. Bami's Cinder is a crucial item for Alistar top to work; base at around 900 gold and you can purchase it with Future's Market.

For bonus runes, I always take because I think that top Alistar relies on Attack speed to CS and duel, along with 2 other defensive bonus runes ( , , )depending on the matchup.

You might be wondering, why the hell do I choose to take Ghost instead of Flash? Actually, I have recently just started to take Ghost instead of Flash for Alistar top. I think that one of Alistar's weaknesses is that he gets kited a lot, he needs to walk up to distance in order to combo. But top Alistar is ridiculously tanky, he can just walk up anywhere without worrying about dying. Ghost will help you on running over your enemies as well as not getting kited as much. So I think Ghost is ALWAYS better than Flash for Top Alistar. Tip: Change from Flash to Ghost at the last second in champion select so your team doesn't dodge.

ALWAYS take Teleport for lane security, you need it to come back to your lane with core item components ( Bami's Cinder, Bramble Vest, Refillable Potion), as well as fixing your lane state.

I think you should always start with Doran's Shield. It provides Hp, sustain and better CSING; it has everything you need for Alistar to survive lane.

I purchase Refillable Potion every game, it feels nice to have extra sustain!

Crucial Item for Alistar, without it you can neither wave clear or deal any damage; this should be your first item almost every game (although sometimes it's fine to build Bramble Vest first).

Build Bramble Vest when your enemy laner is a physical damage dealer that has healing abilities ( Renekton, Fiora) or if they are likely to purchase healing items like Vampiric Scepter and Goredrinker.

Alistar top has really bad mana issues. In season 12, you can almost build Tear of the Goddess every game since the release of Fimbulwinter. You can decide on buying Tear of the Goddess any time before the completion of Sunfire Aegis or after, depending on how well your lane is going.

Crucial Item for Alistar top; with Sunfire Aegis you can out tank anyone while dealing a decent amount of damage on the side lanes as well as team fights. This item is especially valuable when the enemy team comp is short-ranged which allows you to deal a massive amount of AOE damage.

This is probably the best tank mythic item overall in season 12. Buy this item if you think you cannot win 1v1s in the side lanes or if the enemy team comp isn't short-ranged and you also want to focus more on team fighting.

A super good item for Alistar especially. It provides consistent shields alongside good stats and mana. Complete this item from 2nd to 4th depending on game state.

It has really good stats along with good utilities. The only problem here is that I'd rather have Fimbulwinter than Anathema's Chains in most cases, and I wouldn't build both items together because neither have resistance， so you really have to evaluate which item is the most suitable for your current game state.

Provides a decent amount of mana and CDR for Alistar which is great; I would purchase Frozen Heart when the enemy team has more than 2 right clickers like Tryndamere, Lucian, Graves.

Buy it instead of Frozen Heart when you need crit damage resistance.

The go-to item if you're against heavy ap comp.

Buy it when your team is heavy on AP.

I would only buy this item when the enemy team has a stronger split pusher, then you can match them by simply tanking them while clearing the wave, then regen back to full hp until the next wave arrives.

I really don't care about completing Thornmail early from Bramble Vest, there are other items I want to buy first. I usually complete Thornmail at last.

You can buy this item if you think you are already tanky enough and you want to deal some extra damage. This item works greater if you already have Abyssal Mask.

Buy it VS heavy ad comps.

I buy Ionian Boots of Lucidity in most of my games because I believe that Alistar heavily relies on CDR to apply more combos in long extended fights.

Buy it VS heavy CC champs like Kennen, Lissandra, Leona.

No matter who you are playing against, you are not a champion before having Bami's Cinder; your top priority before your first recall should always be getting as many CS as possible. However, if you are forced to trade, trade with Pulverize(Q) followed up with an auto-attack that is buffered with Grasp of the Undying, and knock them away with Headbutt when necessary.


If you see an angle to knock your enemy back to your tower, walk up, Press E Trample and Q Pulverize, then walk up again and knock them back with W Headbutt, and stun them with a full charged Trample auto-attack.


Once you have both Bami's Cinder and Bramble Vest (or even just Bami's Cinder), you will start winning 1v1 duels by simply out tanking them; bait them into duelling you and run over them with Ghost.


You can always dive anywhere when R Unbreakable Will is up, tower shots don't do anything to you; do as you wish!

After getting Sunfire Aegis, you should be winning any 1v1 duels. If you see your enemy in your lane, just imagine them like a matador waving a red cloak at you; run them over like you are a bull on crack.



The rest of the game is simple: do whatever you want. You can win side lanes, so split push to pressure side lanes if you feel like it. If you want to group mid with your team, catch side waves and rotate mid afterwards. It's all your choice.

If you're going to split push, I recommend going bot lane since your team can start baron when you attract multiple members on the enemy team.

There's not much to say about team fighting with Alistar; you just gotta press all your buttons and auto-attack while on CD.
Though you should think about how your team comp works. Is it an all-in dive composition with champions like Kai'Sa, Nocturne ? Then all you have to do is to dive in the backline! Is your team composition all about front-to-back with champions like Lulu Jinx Orianna? Then don't just dive in, play to peel your team as a front liner.

This is not just a for-fun guide, I reached diamond on the Ionian server with this build, you know!

This is by far my favourite "thing" in League of Legends: playing Alistar top and running over my enemies; coming up with this idea and climbing has re-ignited my passion for this game after years of not being active on the rift.

I have a Youtube channel where I upload clips of highlights on my Alistar top, if you're interested!

Link: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCaF8YM0Ty2djvanw-GCM-oA/videos

Have fun!