So, I have been playing Pantheon for some weeks now, and I absolutely love this spartan with the dream of becoming a baker. When I first tried him I did as I usually do: go to mobafire and check out the right build for him. But after I tried numerous builds I felt that every build out on mobafire focuses to much on his "assassin" side, and after building after these, sure I can take almost anyone in a 1v1, but in team-fights I either go in first and die, or come in in the middle-last and get the whole team against me for killstealing and not participating enough. Therefor I have come up with a build that is both great for his assassination purpose as for his durability. Please read through it and try it out before you rate it down, and feel free to give constructive criticism, will take all in consideration!

In this build I will focus on how to lane with Pantheon, on what items you should get and why, and give some clearance about what summoner spells should be used and what you should do in teamfights.

A BIG THANK YOU to Mowen also, for helping me with this guide since it is the first I have made. Props to him, and I hope all of you go check his guides out :)

Pro's

Very good farmer
Got a kickass joke
Good and harassing from early game
Great anti-carry
Got a passive that blocks turrets (towerdiving, yay!)
Crits on spearshots now (YAAAAAY!)

Cons

Not very durable early to mid game
Can have a hard time if harassed by ranged
Needs time to learn how to play
Vulnerable to CC

So in this build I max spear shot as soon as possible, and I have had a lot of people whining about it saying that I can't do any real damage without heartseeker strike. I really want to prove them wrong, and if you try this build I hope you feel like me to. The reason I max spearshot is mainly based on 2 things:

1. It is the lowest mana cost spell for Pantheon, does a lot of damage and adds 1 stack to Pantheons passive.


2. When you are lvl 9 and have the first Ar pen items, the spear does almost as much damage as it says, which means 64 + 160% of your attack damage, which should be around 100. That is 220 pure damage with a spear, which you can throw about every 2 second without loosing much mana.

I get a point in Aegis of Zeonia as second, since the stun can be used both defensively and offensively and save your *** or get the needed stun for a kill. Then I leave Aegis of Zeonia to be maxed last, because the stun doesn't last much longer with each point, and it deals magic damage instead of attack damage, which I am not building.

Heartseeker strike is the second skill you should max, since it deals such a great amount of damage even on targets just outside the range of the visual attack. This attack has a longer cooldown than spearshot though, and since it is a skillshot, enemies can ghost/flash/blink out of it before you can do any real damage. That is why I max spearshot, since it follows the target even if they flash/blink.

As I said in the introduction I wanted to make a durable Pantheon, but still as dangerous as all the other fine builds on mobafire. For this I go with a pretty hard ad based opening, with 2 Dorans Blade and Ar pen items such as Brutaliser and Last Whisperer. After I have built these though, I felt I had to give myself some protection against their nukers, but also wanted to give me an offensive advantage.

This lead to the sixth item: Banshee's Veil. It gives some well needed magic resistance, and also some extra hp and mana, which makes you able to sustain more damage and spam your skills more (not to talk about the lifesaving spellshield, which protect you from annoying ultimates such as Karthus Requiem.) Alternatively, you can swap Banshee's with a Force of Nature if you are up against enemies with loads of ap but not many burst spells which can break the shield easily.

I noticed the difference in price when I swapped Wit's for Banshee's, but mid-late game it can be a lifesaver in so many situations it is almost ridiculous, which makes this the more viable choice.

Aftet I got this item I checked my stats, and saw that even though I got magic resistance, I needed more, as well as armor. I looked around and compared the defense items and I wanted to hit myself when I finally saw it. Guardian Angel. It fitted the build so well it was ******ed, I got more armor, more magic resistance and a kick-*** resurrection spell with it!

This item is also very helpful in another way. When you see an enemy with Guardian Angel, you usually think "meh, let's get the others first", which is what usually happens when I have bought it. The opposite team start aiming at our other nuker/ap players instead, making it a workbench for the baker to start his bloody work.

When they realize they made a terrible mistake not focusing you in the teamfight, they will go straight for you in the next. But with your magic resistance and armor, it takes some time before you die, which gives your team plenty of time to take care of them, and if that wasn't enough, you resurrect after they get you down, being able to do some more damage in the end of the teamfight!

Alternative items can be bought after you got Mercury Threads Mercury Threads.

If you are facing a heavy ad team you should go for items such as Randuin's Omen or perhaps a Thornmail (if the opposite team have a good Vayne Thornmail is somewhat of a must)


If you are facing heavy ap burst team I would suggest Force of Nature, Banshee's Veil and perhaps even a
quicksilver sash (for protection against ultimates such as Mordekaisers Children Of The Grave and Malzahars Nether Grasp.


I usually meet pretty balanced teams though, and I feel that my build is crushing against almost any players, even tanks are a target because of all the armor penetration you have with your marks, Last Whisperer and Brutaliser/Youmuu's Ghostblade.

You can also buy some red elixirs when you have spare money that you don't know what to do with, but mainly after Last Whisperer. This gives you some more HP and even more damage to strike fear into your opponents.

I usually get teleport as a summoner spell when I have a champion with an ultimate that covers the whole map (exception with non travelers such as Karthus, Gangplank and Ashe, since they have other spells that fits better) and I found out that teleport with Pantheon was just as annoying for my opponents as it was amusing for me.

I get mid if my teammates let me, and at lvl 6 I can gank freely on any lane without having the consequences of having lost experience from farming. I just make a push in my lane, go back a bit, use / Grand skyfall/Teleport (to a ward if placed right) and gank the lane, and after I am done, I can use the skill/spell I didn't use to get back to my lane with more gold and more experience that my opponent.

It is very crucial to know when to use your summoner spells, that is what I have learned with Pantheon.

Flash should mainly be used for escapes and getting to a safe place, as it always should. Though I have to confess I sometimes use it to get in range to stun and kill an enemy if our team is doing well.


Teleport is probably the hardest spell to learn when to use, you can get anywhere you want on the map, true, but the cooldown might make it a wasted move.

I always use my ultimate rather than using teleport with Pantheon, mainly because Grand Skyfall has a much shorter cooldown. You also have to know when walking is better than using teleport in some situations, and this is something I don't think I can teach just by telling you. This comes from experience from playing with teleport ingame.

You can use this map control in so many ways, you can get tons of creepkills if you time your skills right, say you teleport top to get a gigantic creepwave, and then you ultimate bot to get another. I usually am 2 or more lvl's higher than all my teammates, even if I take bot or top.

IMPORTANT NOTE! Do not be the non participating farmer just because you can, cooperate with your team and make sure you are there for the teamfights and neutral buffs such as Dragon and -when you can- Lizard and Golem.

Adding some pictures to give the guide some more credibility.


Played ranked with him 2 times now, works like a charm :)



Continued to play pantheon, have had one loss so far (7/3/6), which was a pretty ****ty game (bad teamwork, etc.) But pretty much all games are going well with this build :)

I have tried many different masteries on Pantheon, but the one I fell for was actually the old 21/0/9. Here I intend to go through the different mastery points and why I feel they are significant in my build with Pantheon.

I get 21 points in offense mainly because I really want the 3 points in Sunder but also 3 points in Lethality because of the awesomely great passive on heartseeker strike, so you can get your enemies down even faster. I am also maxing Alacrity, because I think that attack speed on Pantheon is highly underrated. The other points are just leftovers that is either needed to get the other points or some that can help but are not as important for the build.

I build Pantheon as a dps, so I don't feel I have any need for defensive masteries.

I get Spatial Accuracy for cooldown on teleport, and Good hands just because cooldown on death is such a major thing in the game. Awareness makes me able to lvl up fast to get my ultimate, and the Utility mastery is - in my opinion - the best to have if you only have 1 point left. Increased buffs are really good on Pantheon, especially since he can make good use of both red and blue.

For runes I picked Ar pen marks, mana regen seals, mana regen glyphs and pure damage quints. The reason I chose this setup is that - in my opinion - armor penetration is BEAST on Pantheon. Especially the way I play him.

I removed the speed seals and instead I replaced them with mana regen, which allows you to harass even more early game and will keep you out of mana problems. This way you can build up your passive - if you want to - entirely on spearshots, and his passive can be used in so many clever ways (say turret dodging) and you only need 4 hits for it.

The mana regen glyphs should be obvious for anyone who has played Pantheon before. He is an extremely mana hungry champion with a very low base manapool.

I was thinking a lot about the Quintessences, and I finally chose pure attack damage. Pantheon is one of the best harassers in the game, and he needs that extra damage with the skill I focus on: Spear shot.


A new mastery set up would be 11/0/19, which focus more on spamming spear shots. You stop at sunder on offense, and you get Meditation, Quickness, blink of an eye and Intelligence to get crd on spearshot, more movement speed, cdr on flash and some more mana regen so you can use it more frequently.

Setting this up since it also works really good on Pantheon, haven't really decided which one is the better one yet, but will keep updating.

3/7-2011

Got up Mowen on my list, thanks for everything mate. :)

Changed the Cleaver for a bloodthirster, considering the constructive criticism I've had.

Tried the Seals Of Replenishment and Seals of Strength on Pantheon, liked both a lot, but would say Replenishment is the more viable choice.

Working on getting the pictures in the guide, also moved masteries and runes further down.

4/7 2011

It has only been 2 days and I have already made my way up to TOP 10! My god, I don't know what is happening, I love all of you guys for being awesome and rated my guide up, and also for helping me so much with everything, I owe it all to you!

YOU GUYS ROCK!

Removed some facts about Wit's End that has been patched away, also but a Banshee's Veil as a choice instead of Wit's End, for those who like it better. I still prefer Wit's though, but taste is different :)


If you really like the guide and feel like it, press the rep button :) Absolutely not necessary, but I guess more rep would feel awesome, and perhaps I will put out more guides on other champions :)

7/7 2011

Went from being top 6 to not existing in top ten at all, all because of a troll who didn't like my summoner spells. But I guess that's life, troll's gotta troll.

9/7 2011

Back on top 10! also added an alternative mastery page for more spearshot-based build.

10/7 2011

Switched Wit's End for banshee's Veil, because of the extra hp and the great shield you get from it weights over the attackspeed from Wit's.

Added a few pictures to add credibility.


14/8 2011

Added a new build for more survivability and damageoutput, this build works good if you are very very fed or if the game is extremely long, like 50 mins+. I have gotten quite many kills with my games lately with Pantheon, so I ended up having a lot of money over before the game ended.

I figured I should add another build for the times when you either can't finish early or doesn't want to but instead wants to dominate some more :)

23/8 2011

Added a new pic of my ranked games on Pantheon :)

2011/07/31 The Wukong patch really went hard on Pantheon, making his ultimate limited in range which has a huge affection on the gameplay, making you unable to save mana by ultimating from the summoner platform (unless it is on your side of the river) and unable to gank bot with ultimate when you got the top lane.

This patch makes Teleport even more important for Pantheons lane domination, though this also requires teammates that get wards to place strategically.

It does get a bit more boring to play Pantheon after this patch, I agree to that. It should not be a reason for anyone to stop playing him though.

Make sure you use ultimate to lanes instead of teleporting because of better ganking opportunities comes with teleport now, and keep on baking summoners!

The Skarner patch have brought something good to Pantheon and especially to my build :D
Now Pantheons Heartseeker strike doesn't deal that massive amount of damage, but instead has shorter cooldowns.

And the buff for Pantheon that I loves in particular, his Spear shot now has the passive from heartseeker strike applied to it, which makes them crit when target is below 15% hp!

This makes this build better, at least for me since I max spearshot in the build (and always have someone running away with just enough hp to make a spearshot, but not anymore!)

Nothing that have changed for Pantheon in the Shyvana patch