Welcome, my name is Awawoo and I have been playing League of Legends since season five. (7 years) This guide will mainly focus on an underrated Mid/Top Pantheon guide that works in almost every matchups/team composition.
This guide will be seperated in 5 parts
The general idea behind the guide
This is Pantheon
Itemization
Runes
Strategies in Early/Mid/Late game
The General Idea Behind The Guide
The idea behind this build is to make Pantheon a tank destroyer. The guide idea turns around Blade of the Ruined King and his passive armor penetration included in kit. The goal is to shred the tanks (and other living champions) with his empowered Shield Vault (W)
This is Pantheon
Pantheon, or from his real name Atreus, is from Mount Targon and is a really strong, endurant warrior who is the host of The Aspect Of War, The Pantheon. From that, you can guess that Pantheon is a strong mele fighter who beats his ennemies with his spear and shield.
Pantheon is known to be dealing a big amount of physical damage on a single target without risking much. His high attack damage scaling on his abilities makes him deal an absurd amount of damage for each item built.
If you do not wanna read every single word of Pantheon's abilities, I highligted the important stuff.
Abilities
Mortal will is a simple passive wich empower his abilities.
Gains a stack of Mortal Will whenever he lands a basic attack on-hit or casts an ability, up to a maximum of 5. At 5 stacks, Pantheon's next basic ability consumes the stacks to grant bonus effects.
Pantheon gains maximum stacks of Mortal Will upon starting the game, completing a Recall channel, and respawning.
This ability is his main damage/waveclear ability
ACTIVE:Pantheon charges while being slowed by 10% for up to 4 seconds to increase Comet Spear's range after 0.35 seconds of channeling. Comet Spear can be recast at any time within its duration.
RECAST:Pantheon hurls his spear in a line in the target direction, dealing physical damage to all enemies hit, increased against enemies below 20% of their maximum health but reduced by 50% against enemies beyond the first. Total damage is reduced by 30% against minions and monsters.
MORTAL WILL:Deals an additional 20 − 240 (based on level) (+ 115% bonus AD) bonus physical damage, affected by the previous damage reductions, to all enemies hit. Consumes the stacks upon recasting.
This ability is what makes Pantheon so good at destroying tanks.
ACTIVE: Pantheon leaps to the front of the target enemy's location and, if the target is within 800 units upon arrival, he deals them physical damage and stuns them for 1 second.
MORTAL WILL: Pantheon's next basic attack within 4 seconds has a cast time and strikes the target 3 times over a brief period, dealing 40% − 55% (based on level) AD physical damage per hit, up to 120% − 165% (based on level) AD. Each hit is affected by critical strike modifiers and applies on-hit effects at 100% effectivness.
This ability makes pantheon survive in fights and bursts.
ACTIVE: Pantheon braces his shield in the target direction, channeling for 1.5 seconds while being slowed for between 0% − 25% (based on his movement direction). Aegis Assault cannot be interrupted by crowd control.Aegis Assault can be recast after 0.3 seconds during the channel, and does so automatically when the channel ends.
For the duration,Pantheon is invulnerable against non- turret damage dealt by enemies from the target direction, and continuously performs strikes in a cone in front of him, dealing 8.3% AD physical damage every 0.125 seconds to all enemies within the area, reduced by 50% against minions and up to 100% AD total physical damage against each target.
RECAST: Pantheon slams with his shield in a cone in front of him, dealing physical damage to all enemies within the area.
MORTAL WILL: Pantheon gains 60% bonus movement speed for 1.5 seconds after recasting.
This is Pantheon's main source of armor penetration.
PASSIVE: Pantheon gains armor penetration.
ARMOR PENETRATION:10 / 20 / 30%
ACTIVE:Pantheon channels for 2 seconds, then leaps high into the air, vanishing and becoming immune to crowd control until he reappears. While in the air, Pantheon channels again for 2.45 seconds and grants sight around the target location 0.5 seconds into the channel.
After 1.125 seconds into the channel, Pantheon prepares for landing by marking his destination with his spear which flies to the location over 0.1625 seconds. The spear deals 40 − 190 (based on Comet Spear's rank) (+ 115% bonus AD) physical damage to enemies near its landing point and slows them by 50% for 2 seconds.
Over the remaining 1.1625 seconds, Pantheon crashes down and creates a shockwave alongside him that travels toward the target location, dealing magic damage to all enemies within its path, decreased by up to 50% for those hit at the edge of the area. Upon completion of the channel, Pantheon reappears at the target location and gains full stacks of Mortal Will.
As you may have seen, I highlighted, in red, some parts of his abilities. Those are the parts that makes Pantheon the tank shredder. His 10-30% armor penetration included in his kit helps him a lot but the main source of damage is his Shield Vault (W). After building Blade Of The Ruined King, when Pantheon strike his targets, it will deal an absurd amount of damage since every strike apply the items passive (12% current health phy. damage). We will go through this more deeply into the Itemization section.
Those are the orders in wich you have to max out your abilities depending on your preferences. If you invade, start with your Shield Vault (W) to have a better engage and crowd control.
Maxing (Q) first is always the best thing to do since it is versatile and deals a lot of damage in laning phase. Maxing his (W) second makes you deal the best amount of damage as possible and helps you with good trading. Maxing his (E) second let's you have more survivability and let's you cast it more often in fights.
Q-W-E
Q-E-W
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Itemization
Those are the four items that are important on Pantheon. I will take more time to explain them more deeply since they are REALLY important.
The 4 items
Blade of the Ruined King is basically the first item you want to build in almost every case. Since Empowered Shield Vault (Pantheon W) strikes 3 times and apply on hit effect, it means that:
1-Mist's Edge, the first item's passive, applies 3 times (12% current health PHYSICAL damage) which is able to go through armor since it deals physical damage and with pantheon armor penetration.
2-Siphon, the second item's passive, instantly applies giving you movement speed to keep up with the ennemy running away and dealing a small burst of magic damage.
This is one of the two Pantheon best Mythic Item. You want to take this item when you are really ahead.
The items gives lethality which is good in the early stages of the game and good against squishee enemies. The item also gives max health physical damage and passive armor penetration which is good against tank. This item is better ONLY when you are ahead since it's late game state is worst than his second Mythic item Divine Sunderer.
This is the second Mythic item choice for Pantheon. This item is better when you are struglling in the early game or when you expect the game to go past the 25 minute mark.
The item gives tankiness and a great amount of damage wich include more max health physical damage than Eclipse. The armor penetration is higher than Eclipse but it is not that big of a deal.
This is a must build item when running against a team that builds armor.
His passive allows you to slow one or multiple ennemies when using Aegis Assault (Pantheon E) and keep them from running away. His high ability haste also helps you land more Empowered Shield Vault (Pantheon W). But Pantheon is more interested in the 30% armor penetration included in the item.
After building these few item's, you don't really need more damage so you will often build bruiser items or tank items. Here are some build examples:
ITEMS!
Runes
Pantheon's runes are very versatile but there is one rune that outranks the others in my opinion. This rune is: Press The Attack.
Breakdown
Press the attack is the best choice for one reason, Empowered Shield Vault (W) use it all almost instantly. Pantheon is one of the fastest champion to make full use of it in a short burst. It gives you more damage and a better laning phase.
This rune will work better in team fights but in almost every case, Press The Attack is better. It gives you more damage and sustainability in long fights but fights won't be long since you will shred people like butter.
Those are the main runes set to use in 95% of the games. Adjust if needed against or with certain team compositions.
Main Rune Page
Against 3-4 tanks
Against poke laner
Strategies
Early game:
Pantheon has a really good laning phase because of his high early damage and his (E) to stop incoming damage. You basically want to be agressive against mele champions when they wanna get farms. Against long range champions like Xerath, Vel'Koz or Ziggs, you mostly wanna get your minion wave close to your turret, farm and wait for ganks. If they make mistakes like fighting you to close range or miss spells, you can play more agressive and gets some damage on them.
Here are some popular good and bad matchups to know:
GOOD MATCHUPS
BAD MATCHUPS
Zed is really easy to play against maybe your best matchup. All you have to do is to negate his ultimate by using your (E).
Abuse of his weak early game to deny him farms and kill him a bunch, don't push the wave to much if you freeze it close to your turret, he will do nothing.
All you have to do is use you're (E) when she put's you to sleep.
She does most of her damage with her ground daggers but you do more damage in a short amount of time. Use you're (E) to block her whole ultimate.
Do short trades with him but never engage him. If he engages you, use your kit on him then get out with (E). You will win the trade.
Again, you will win short trades with her but never engage. Wait for your jungler and freeze her close to you're turret she will do nothing.
He is basically more tanky and will win trades. Wait for his mistakes and stay close to you're turret since ganks are strong with him.
Annoying. Ban her but if you don't, never try to fight her she will win.
Be carful of her (Q). If she misses her charm, you can be more agressive.
This is my favorite ban with Pantheon. Once she hit lvl 6, there is no escape she wins long trades
Her (W) makes her unengagable. Try to stay under your turret and never try risky stuff.
The rest of the mid laners depends on the ennemy skills with the champions. Learn how to play against bad and good Yasuo's for example a good one will know what to do when a bad one will try to engage you level 3.
Mid Game:
In the mid game, you want to use your ultimate to get pressure on the map and objectives. With it, you can roam fast and get into team fights rapidely.
Here is an example of what you should do when there a fight to get drake.
You should basically push the wave to get the priority and use you're ultimate fast to get in the fight as fast as possible. If a laner is opposing you, you're ultimate will get you there first unless it is Twisted Fate.
If you do not have you're ultimate, do the same but run to help you're team as fast as possible. If the fight seems like it will never work out and you're team is fighting for no reason, stay in the side lanes and push turrets safely.
LATE GAME:
The late game is basically the same. Pressure the other lanes and roam when you're team needs you but if you do not have you're ultimate, stay with you're team when a fight comes up.
In a teamfight, you want to focus on making the ennemy carry a bad time. By that i mean focusing on killing him. If you're carry is you're only chance. Peel him from the tanks and assasin's.
Final Note
If there is some changes in the current meta. Go look at stats sites and get to know the new stuff.
And the most important part of this guide, Have Fun!
