Pantheon Build Guide by Buxton

Introduction

I remember when I bought Pantheon. Tried him once, it ended up with "OMG this hero is so LOW!". I played normal so much in these times, i was so noobish. But before a month and half I picked him to solo top on soloQ From that time, i love him! I made my own build, and I want to share my pantheon skills, hints and tips with you! Thank you for sharing and supporting this guide. BTW: This is my first GUIDE at mobafire, so help in comments! OmegA1337.

-Thank to jhoijhoi's dividers :)

Reasons to play Pantheon

Pros / Cons

FILlLLER

Pros +Good Nuke +Dominating lanes +Good harrasment +Good towerdiving passive

FILlLLER

FILLLER

Cons -Thirsty on Mana -Easily countered -Ultimate hard to aim -Can get useless late game

Masteries

Offense:

• Go for 1/1 in Summoner's Wrath , thats good cause it improves Ghost and Ignite, which I use, then pop up 3/3 in Brute Force which gives you EVEN more attack damage! (worth it!)
• 4/4 Alacrity give you 4%attack speed, more AS means faster way to eliminate your enemy!
• 1/1 in Weapon Expertise cause as pantheon, you need a LOT of armor penetration! I will not spoil anymore, more about runes in their own chapter. 4/4 to Deadliness for EVEN more attack damage!
• 1/1 Lethality makes your passive from Heartseeker Strike more powerful, + stacks with your Infinity Edge = 260% crit damage, 3/3 Vampirism gives you a little sustain before you finish The Bloodthirster, or simply buy Vampiric Scepter
• 3/3 Sunder more armor penetration! And 1/1 Executioner is the last mastery, so it obviously helps you kill your enemy faster!
  
  Deffense:
• 3/3 to Hardiness makes you less vulnerable versus attack damage based champions, fill 1/3 to Resistance just to have 4 masteries in the first row, or simply to be more resistant in the late game.
• 4/4 Durability is the great way, making you more tanky all the time!!
• 1/1 Veteran's Scars again makes you more tanky.

These are the masteries I actualy use, but if you like to harras with your Spear Shot, you can use these masteries anyway:

Utility:

• 3/3 Expanded Mind More mana = more Spear Shot!!, 1/3 Good Hands just to fill the row, or good for saving tower with your ulti after dying on lane :)
• 3/3 Meditation this one is again for more Spear Shot, i dont prefer this way of masteries, but its viable for someone. 2/4 Swiftness for better hunting! :)

Runes

There are much runes you can actualy use as Pantheon. So now we have to chose:

Marks

• Greater Mark of Desolation is the one I use - I prefer a LOT of armor penetration at the start. You make your Spear Shot and Heartseeker Strike more effective with reduced enemy's armor.
• Greater Mark of Attack Damage attack damage? Why no. More attack damage = more damage from spells! But dont forget what I said about armor penetration. This rune and Greater mark of Desolation are the most used runes as pantheon.
• Its all on you to make a good choice. Armor penetration runes makes you more effective playing versus deffense(armor) based champions, such as Warwick, Singed, Malphite or versus champions who can rush armor at first, or with a lot armor such as Irelia, Yorick, Jarvan IV and Udyr.
• Attack damage runes are good versus champions, who have ability power from runes, or rushing ability power beside of armor, such as Vladimir, Kennen etc.

Seals

• Greater Seal of Armor are again the ones i use. Armor? Why no. Makes you less vulnerable versus attack damage based champions.
• Greater seal of replenishment its your choice if you use them. Its all about playstyle,
  and if you are not skilled so much with using mana as Pantheon.

Glyphs

• Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist are again the ones I use. Magic resist is a good thing in late game, especialy if they have burst AP in middle, such as LeBlanc, Annie, Brand and others.
• Greater Glyph of Cooldown Reduction I use these ones as Riven, but someone use these as Pantheon.. Its just your choice.

Quintessences

• Greater Quintessence of Health as you can see, I chose these in "Rune build", they are greatly combined with Veteran's Scars
• Greater Quintessence of Desolation these runes are greatly combined with Greater Mark of Desolation, with Sunder and with Weapon Expertise so if you rush ARMOR PENETRATION like me, you should have them.
• Greater Quintessence of Attack Damage these runes are greatly combined with Greater Mark of Attack Damage, with Brute Force and with Deadliness . But I think armor penetration runes are better.
• Greater Quintessence of Armor again - armor? Why no. Makes you again less vulnerable versus attack damage based champions. But I dont think you need to have a lot of armor as Pantheon. You need to do some damage, not to be resistant in early game.
• Best choice through Quintessences as Pantheon is to combine them. In my humble opionion, 1x Greater Quintessence of Armor, 1x Greater Quintessence of Health and 1x Greater Quintessence of Desolation are the best runes on Pantheon.

Skill explanation / Skill orders

filler
Aegis Protection - in my opinion one of the best passive skills on SOLO TOP lane. Secure you one less hit in 1v1 fight.

• Can block Jax's Empower, Shyvana's Twin Bite, one hit of Renekton's Ruthless Predator and other hitspells.
• By far the best tower dive passive (blocks tower hit)

Spear Shot - the spell I use to max as first. With his not changing low mana cost (45/45/45/45/45), little cooldown and tons of damage is remarkable on lane. Who dont want to throw a spear in the face of an enemy?

• Used as harras, securing you dominating on lane.
• Makes you semi-ranged and can easily outzone an enemy without sustain

Aegis of Zeonia - the spell which gives you two blocks in a row. With his long range-stun-charge you can prevent being ganked.

• Long range gives you chance to focus carry.

Heartseeker Strike - the spell which do by far most damage. If someone stuns you or interrupt your casting other way, you will have a bad time.

• Good positioning while providing this spell is more than better.
• With The Bloodthirster you can farm the lane with only one Heartseeker Strike

Grand Skyfall - the best ultimate spell in the game. Do you think its not funny to land from the sky? I think it is.

• Saving BLUE BUFF, roaming to MIDDLE or OTHER LANES.
• Tons of damage, jumping on enemy team when they killing Nashor is the BEST thing you can do!

This is my skill order.
Good hor harras = outzoning.
Best versus no-sustain champions.

Grand Skyfall> Spear Shot> Heartseeker Strike> Aegis of Zeonia


This means your Spear Shot deals more damage than Heartseeker Strike above level 9.
This is good at harrasing, but worse while facing opponents without harras.




This skill order is useless in my opinion.
Bad harras and bad while facing opponents in one versus one.

Grand Skyfall> Spear Shot= Heartseeker Strike> Aegis of Zeonia

This means you have same damage on Spear Shot and Heartseeker Strike above level 9.
As I said, this is totaly useless.



This skill order is good versus sustain champions.
Good while facing opponents without previous harras.
Good versus Vladimir, Yorick and other such a champions.

Grand Skyfall> Heartseeker Strike> Spear Shot> Aegis of Zeonia

This means your Heartseeker Strike deals more damage than Spear Shot above level 9.
Its better at facing opponents, but you have low harras.

Skill rotation / Tower dive

Situations:

-Enemy champions is in melee distance

• Step 1: Make sure your opponent is ALONE.
• Step 2: Start with Spear Shot, following with one basic attack and with Heartseeker Strike, if he stays, hit him again with spear, if he run away, jump on him with Aegis of Zeonia.

Spear Shot -> Heartseeker Strike -> Spear Shot -> Aegis of Zeonia

-Enemy champion isnt in melee distance

• Step 1:(again) Make sure your opponent is ALONE.
• Step 2: Start with Spear Shot, following with Aegis of Zeonia, cast fast Heartseeker Strike, give him few basic attacks and do a killing blow with Spear Shot.

Spear Shot -> Aegis of Zeonia -> Heartseeker Strike -> Spear Shot

-Late game

• Step 1: Make sure you are not rushing alone, but with team on your back.
• Step 2a: If one of their team is standing too far away from other enemys, go for Grand Skyfall and jump behind him, so you separate him out of the enemy team, pop up Youmuu's Ghostblade. Do 'not in melee' rotation, cause Aegis of Zeonia needs to be casted FAST.
• Step 2b: If their team sticks together, pop up your Ghost and jump with Aegis of Zeonia on their nearest carry, pop up your Youmuu's Ghostblade and fight the sh*t out of them.
  
  Grand Skyfall -> Youmuu's Ghostblade -> Aegis of Zeonia -> Heartseeker Strike -> Spear Shot
  or
  Ghost -> Youmuu's Ghostblade -> Aegis of Zeonia -> Spear Shot -> Heartseeker Strike
  
  

  Tower dive

  Shall I or Shall I not

  
  There are much rules for Tower diving. Lets tell few of them:
  • Rule 1: Make sure there isnt their jungler.
  • Rule 2: Dont tower dive with 200 health points.
  • Rule 3: Make sure he has no CROWD CONTROL, and if does, calculate how much damage can deal you in that CC (+tower).
  • Rule 4: Dont do bullsh*ts.
  • Pantheon has a GREAT advantage while tower diving, his [Aegis protection].
  Your tower dive rotation should be:
  
  Spear Shot -> Heartseeker Strike -> Aegis of Zeonia -> Spear Shot -> and he is dead.
  
  • You secure your life by poping up Ghost, or if you have Flash.
  Bonus - You can towerdive by your ulti, here is a video taken by me:

Viable Summoner Spells

This is the most used summoner spell on solo top, or everywhere. I dont prefer this one as pantheon, since he doesnt need it in late game, neither in early game in my opinion.
This is the spell I use to have! What can you do, while being ganked? You get one hit with red buff, flash out and they will catch you. But with ghost, you run out.
Ignite, simply making pleasure. Who says burning people are not funny? Everyone loves ignite! It can secure you a kill, or makes Vladimir, Yorick, Swain realy angry! I like this one too.
Its good to have this one versus Garen or Tryndamere but Ghost or Ignite are still better spells.

-Other summoner spells are not viable for pantheon.

Starting Items and First Recall

There are few items to start with:

• I use this every game. Thats most comfortable - little bit of sustain, and movemenet speed in case of getting ganked. Why not?

• I use to buy these as Singed or Poppy. But what for is ARMOR as pantheon in early game? You wont have any speed and damage, you will be slow but armored. This item is not useful as pantheon at start.

• YOU ACTUALY can buy this item, but still, you will not have that movement speed, and still less sustain than with boots and health pots. But this item is viable.
  

  First recall

  • You shall recall with minimum of 950 golds in your pocked at first.
  • First items you buy should be 2x Doran's Blade and then rush The Brutalizer.
  • More golds before first recall = lot better.

Items - Damage

After you finish your The Brutalizer, buy The Bloodthirster. As pantheon, you need a lot of damage. Full stacked The Bloodthirster can give you 250attack damage overal. I normaly have it in 15th minute, which means if I roam to mid with my , I can give instantkill to their ability power carry.

After thebloodthirster, go for and afterward finish . From now, you will have a lot of ATTACK DAMAGE and a lot of HEALTH POINTS.
will be your next choice. With your damage, they will focus you more than carry in your team.

will improve your passive, and will give you a lot of attack damage. Go for it. Its time. Now just finish the and finish them!

Items - Survival

Bad thing is, when you picked pantheon, and potential jungler picked kind of no-tanky jungler, such as Nocturne or Master Yi or Tryndamere. That means, you will need to go tanky, or more tank than this build is for.

Keep your early and mid game items, just change the others. means you will get extra armor, health and the burning passive. With these healths (3300~) go for another armor and some kind of attack damage.

Thats all about items, hope you enjoyed it!

Farming / Counter-Jungle

Farming is by far the best thing you can do on lane. Farm, farm, farm. The First Blood is a good thing for pantheon, and its not that hard, but it only gives you 400golds - thats like 20minions. You need to learn, how to combine getting kills and killing creeps. Thats the reason why i play pantheon. Just chillin around the minions with spear in my hand, last hitting minions ( Heartseeker Strike's passive can secure much lasthits) and harrasing my enemy with Spear Shot. Why no? You have a farm, and you are constantly keeping enemy on lower health points than you have. Which means he CANT play agressive versus you, since he already has lower hp. And thats how you outzone. If he cant play agressive, and you ARE playing agressive, he will hug tower soon.

Counter jungling is a great thing, and if they have attack damage based jungler, its better. With your level and item advantage from lane, + as pantheon, just keep warding their BLUE or RED buff (depends on which side you are) and watch spawn timers to steal OR to steal and kill.

Proper use of Ultimate / Not a single kill was given that day

Pantheon's ulti is one of the hardest to aim. Best situations to use are:

• While ganking other lanes-
• While getting ganked-
• Saving/Chasing Dragon or Saving/Chasing Nashor or Buffs-
• Saving lane from snowball lane / enemy champion-
• or simply Chasing an enemy team-

While ganking other lanes:
-Ask if their player has FLASH or other escape ability ( Riftwalk, Rocket Jump, Valkyrie etc.)
-Try to hit the enemy with ulti, but the most safe way is to jump behind of enemy champion, so you separate him from tower and push him to allien player.
-Ask jungler to come too, its more succesful.
-Dont jump on tower with 400 health points.[/list]

While getting ganked:
-Remember your opponent's crowd controls and jungler's crowd controls.
-Wait until they use them.
-Cast your ulti fast after they waste their crowd controls.
-Profit[/list]

Saving/Chasing Dragon or Saving/Chasing Nashor or Buffs:
-Just check if you are being followed by team in the case of saving Nashor or Dragon.
-Chasing Dragon with your ultimate makes first / second dragon 5vs4.
-Calculate if you can beat enemy jungler while stealing your Buff.

Saving lane from snowball lane / enemy champion:
-There is no rule, just HURRY!

Chasing an enemy team:
-Check if you are being followed by your team.
-Best way to chase is to separate one or two from their team.
-Or you can towerdive with this ultimate.