Alistar is receiving significant changes before next season

Alistar has been a staple at support for quite a while in League of Legends, seeing a lot of play at both the competitive and casual levels. His sustain in lane thanks to his E and his incredible team-fighting with his Q and W combination makes him viable in just about any situation, with his one weakness being pre-Level 3 (one that we’ve seen exploited at the pro level).

Well, changes are coming for everyone’s favorite cow, with substantial alterations to both his passive and his E.

As Rioter Shin Kazuo said on the boards:

He has a really strong presence in a "cast-everything-at-once" moment... followed by substantial downtime. In other words he gets to feel really cool for a split second and then very lacking when he has nothing else to do. We want to add more cool things for him to do (and for us to use as balance levers) than just W+Q.

So what’s changing? Let’s start with his reworked passive.

SurrenderAt20.net

As you can see, his heal has moved from his E to here. This means Alistar has less control over his healing, but it won’t cost mana for him to do so. Like his old E, Alistar can heal quicker when nearby enemies die around him, but now stunning or displacing champions counts towards that as well.

The other big change is Alistar’s E, a completely new ability called Trample.

SurrenderAt20.net

It seems to function like a mini Rammus ultimate, dealing damage to nearby enemies over time. The difference is after hitting five times, Alistar’s next auto attack deals extra magic damage and stuns.

It looks like this:

SurrenderAt20.net

There’s one change for Pulverize, his Q, as well -- it no longer stuns targets after they land. His ultimate, Unbreakable Will, also no longer gives Alistar bonus attack damage when active.