Talk:Alistar/@comment-25320798-20141205185933

Alistar is a fun champion to play and people want to play him which is why they try to innovate and make him work in other positions like jungle or top lane because he simply is not a viable support champion. He has a 44.48% win-rate according to Lolking which is by far the lowest win-rate of all support champions which is unusual since he is one of the oldest champions in the game so people who do play him know how to play him. The reason no one wants to play him as his intended role as a support is because early-mid game he sucks even after the buffs. He is a melee champion with extremely high cooldowns at low levels and very low base damage spells at all levels - but high AP ratios (in comparison to other supports). This encourages people to play him in roles where he can get the gold and experience he desperately needs in order to effectively contribute in teamfights (i.e. not support or obviously ADC). He can only hope to be as effective as other supports in peeling, tanking, and damage once he has 30% or higher cooldown reduction. He is the only support in the game that absolutely needs items in order to be effective. As a support your priority is first getting one of the support gold generation items, then getting a sightstone, then getting boots and vision wards, and only then can you start getting cooldown reduction or mana regeneration items.