Hi all, I'm carpenter2281 and I'm a Pantheon Main. This is a beginner's guide to Pantheon. There's some good guides out there on Pantheon Top and I'm riffing off several with my own twist on rune and item choice. While there is never an end-all-be-all on how to play any champion, this is how I've been moderately successful with Pantheon as a beginner.

You'll notice in the match-up sections it appears that there are few easy match-ups for Pantheon in lane. Pantheon is a huge lane bully but where he really shines is in his ability to roam to mid lane from top. Most mid-laners and all ADC's are squishy and Pantheon can easily burst down almost any mid-lane or ADC champion who is at less than 70% health. In his own lane, Pantheon's best approach is to zone the enemy away from last-hitting with Q and go for early kills. Top lane is where you see Pantheon most often, but outside the top lane, against squishier targets like ADC's and mid-laners, is where Pantheon is most dangerous.

Pantheon is one of the stronger top-lane picks for several reasons but the main is this; even when you're losing your lane you are still dangerous. Thanks to his semi-global ultimate Pantheon can drop in on a mid-laner pushing your tower and burst him down in a matter of seconds, at any given time and with about 1.5 seconds' worth of warning. Even if you're losing your lane, no Pantheon player should ever go a game without several kills. Pantheon has the ability to project power across the entire map in an instant without the use of Teleport, making him a constant threat to enemies attacking your towers, an excellent split-pusher who can jump from mid lane to top with his ult, then teleport and push out bot lane before an enemy has time to react.

Pros
-Incredible roam potential
-Can split-push if needed
-Solid base stats
-One of the best hard pokes in the game
-Passive gives defense against AA
-Automatic crit on Spear Shot against low-health enemies
-Relevant even when losing lane
-Not often played so not often banned
-Can top, jungle or even mid if your mid laner has a bad match-up
-Can burst down squishy champs fast

Cons
-Fairly mana-hungry, mitigated by runes though
-Requires management of passive to survive late game
-Passive DOES NOT block abilities unless they are empowered AA's (like Garen, Yorick etc.)
-Can be out-poked, not easy but possible
-Squishy if you don't manage your passive right
-Ult is difficult to use and time properly
-Falls off post-30 minutes
-No great escape abilities if ganked as your CC is also your engage tool
-Struggles to get kills in lane against super heavy tanks

After experimenting with Electrocute and Dark Harvest after the Domination tree nerfs over this past season, I'm still finding Electrocute to be the best on Pantheon. Dark Harvest is do-able but it's meant for the late-game which as Pantheon you want to end before you reach. Electrocute is still your best bet.

Flash is the go-to Summoner Spell for obvious reasons. On a champion like Pantheon who has a pretty long range engage/stun all in one you can cover a lot of ground very fast to catch fleeing enemies by flashing and then jumping onto them with your W. Ignite is your best pick as your second spell to help you get that early kill on your enemy top-laner after you've poked them down to 40% health or less. Ignite combined with Electrocute and the burn from Corrupting Potion is enough to kill almost any champion pre-six if they're at less than half health and you're all about the early game kills to get ahead and tilt your enemy.

Laning phase is where Pantheon shines, especially against squishy top-laners OR when you're jungling and picking up early kills. After level 3 as a jungler Pantheon can reliably kill most any mid-lane champion who is at approximately half health. Ganking the enemy mid-lane is practically given to you if you've had a healthy jungle clear.

In-Lane
When top lane your laning phase basically consists of chucking as many spears as you possibly can at your opponent to zone them away from last-hitting until you reach level 3. I mean literally throw a spear as soon as the cooldown is done if your opponent isn't smart enough to play passive. Don't push your lane out but concentrate on last-hitting minions with regular auto attacks. Early on don't waste abilities trying to get creeps unless it's a spear to finish a cannon minion. Last-hitting as Pantheon can be difficult as his base auto attack is pretty weak.

Once you're level three to four, you should be looking to kill your enemy if you've managed to get him to 70% or less health. This is the point where you should be popping a Corrupting Potion right before you go all in so you land that Touch of Corruption to burn for extra damage. Go in with a spear shot first, this way once you've used your W, auto-attack and E you'll have another spear ready to go for when they start to run. At some point in there you'll want to hit them with Ignite too if you've brought it. This should be enough to kill most squishy and fighter opponents. If you're facing a heavy tank then I would avoid trying to all-in your opponent, instead focusing on out-farming them until you can get a gank, they make a mistake or you simply have to back for lack of mana.

Regardless of your opponent try to hold out for level six BEFORE you make your first back if you can. Your opponent will likely have used Teleport to get back to lane to try and clear your wave to get in a few shots on your tower. What they're REALLY doing is putting themselves under your tower so you can jump on top of their caster creeps with your ult, killing off the last of his minions which means your tower will hit him at least once before you all-in and crush him. If this isn't an option once you reach level six, look to drop in on your mid lane and try to score a kill there before returning to your lane.

Jungling

When jungling I always go for Hunter's Talisman. Pantheon's attack speed is far too slow to benefit much from Machete and you should be using your passive (refreshing it by using your W after it goes down) to block a considerable amount of damage from monsters. Pantheon's passive gives him a super healthy clear, and Talisman gives you the insane mana regen needed to spam the hell out of your abilities. If you purchase a potion or two to start with you shouldn't need to back after you've done a complete clear of your jungle.

As Pantheon you have an important question you need to answer before the game even starts; can I solo-kill the enemy jungler early? This is going to dictate whether you spend time in the enemy jungle or not. If you're facing a squishy jungler like Eve or Twitch or Master Yi etc. then the answer may be yes, I can kill them and should actively look to hunt them down as they clear. You are a hard counter to a lot of junglers. Facing a Volibear? Xin Zhao? Shyvana? Maybe not then. In that case, farm, look to gank your lanes to get them ahead and counter-gank if you have the opportunity, but against tankier junglers I would recommend trying to 1v1 them in the jungle unless you're a lot healthier than they are.

After your first clear you should be level three and looking to gank mid lane. It should be easy if your mid-laner has managed to land even a little damage on their opponent. Make sure you signal you're on your way to mid lane so your ally knows it's time to go all-in so either of you can secure first blood.

Pantheon's weakness as a jungler is that his abilities don't lend much to fighting dragons or the Rift Herald. He's a burst assassin and will need help taking early dragons or the Herald since his passive doesn't block any attacks from either of these and he doesn't have innate sustain. Once you hit level six, you should be looking to your bot lane to ult in behind the enemy ADC and Supp to set your team up for two kills. This will free your bot lane up to help you take first dragon if it hasn't been taken.

Q then E then W. R whenever you can. Simple as that. Max Q so you can zone your opponent hard in lane and wear them down. Grab W at level 2 so if you get an early gank you've got your stun up and ready. If your opponent is bad you can even get a level 2 kill. There is no reason to ever start differently than Q>W>E. Max your E second as that's a large portion of the damage on your combo mid-game. When casting your E you can cancel the animation early if you need to but understand that it will deal less damage if you do.

A quick rundown, Pantheon's main combo is Q>W>E. In a 1v1 you can sneak and auto-attack in before your E. After your combo, your opponent will likely run. Your Q has a super low cooldown which means running from you is nearly impossible. However, one of Pantheon's most useful abilities is his return to lane.

Death From Above
So you had to back, spend some gold, regen mana. Maybe you even got yourself killed, but hey, you hit level six before the Hamster or the mangy Dog managed to kill you. So there they are, top lane, pushing your tower with about half a wave of minions. What do you do? Jump on his ****ing head like the ******* 101st Airborne landing on a Nazi. This can work in any lane, on any friendly tower. When ulting back into lane with your tower under attack, your target shouldn't be right on top of the enemy champ. They get a 1.5 or 2 second marker that shows where you'll land. Your goal should be to position the center of your circle on top of or slightly behind his caster minions, the idea being that you'll clear the wave while he's under tower, hit him with some of the damage from your ult, even if not all of it, and most importantly cut off his retreat. Ulting onto an enemy who is attacking your tower is one of the most sure-fire ways to get a kill in the game.

That being said, WHAT NOT TO DO WITH YOUR ULT
DO NOT jump right into the middle of an enemy team.
DO NOT use it to initiate team fights unless the enemy team already has a lot of damage
DO NOT jump right on top of the enemy team while they are taking Baron Nashor unless you have THE WORLD'S BEST TIMING and can use it to kill Baron, or unless your team is already in the pit trying to steal Baron.

Your most effective use for your ult is killing an enemy who is attacking your tower, or using it to position yourself to cut off a retreating enemy. The positioning is more valuable than trying to use it to kill the enemy outright and missing, resulting in the enemy getting away and you wasting your ult for another 120 seconds.

Tower Diving
Your passive is probably one of the best, and most underestimated, abilities in the game. Your passive shield blocks tower shots. Yes. Tower shots. This means that if you have an enemy almost dead, even if you have no minions attacking an enemy tower you can run in, block a tower shot, W the enemy champion to close with them and bring your shield back up, block a SECOND tower shot and kill your enemy, taking one tower shot to your health as you escape. A highly useful and highly underestimated ability. Managing your passive can be the difference between a nearly unkillable Pantheon and a mediocre one.

Pantheon is not a front-liner. If your team tries to tell you to build tank, don't do it. Pantheon is not a tank. He's barely even a fighter. You ARE NOT the initiator.

How and When to Engage
In team fights your goal should be to pick off targets of opportunity, preferably the ADC but whoever you can kill quickest with the least risk is always your top priority. Wait for one player on the enemy team to make the mistake of getting too far from their team then jump on them with W. If that means killing the jungler or Support while the rest of your team engages, then do that before going in on the ADC. There's no point focusing the ADC if you have to run through 4 other champions to do it. But if you can take out a support and make it a 5v4 before your own ADC is even in the fight then you've just probably won that team fight. As Pantheon once the fight is on, jump in, dump your abilities on whoever your target of opportunity is and then back off until your W and E cooldown and keep throwing spears.

When to GTFO
Your auto attacks are really mediocre so staying in AA range and slugging it out against the enemy front line is not a good idea. Dump your combo then get out of AA range until your cooldowns are refreshed, THEN go in again. Standing in the middle of a team fight auto-attacking will get you killed early. If your teammates get mad because you don't stand and slap fight, they don't understand how your champ works. Your job is to pick off the weak ones, tip the odds in your favor and to chase down the survivors with your speed, NOT to tank.

Peeling
Pantheon can be a decent peeler if your team is attempting to retreat. If the enemies pursuing are melee Pantheon can punish them with spears and activate Youmuu's to stay ahead of them, but be careful doing this against a CC heavy team, especially if they have a Thresh, Blitzcrank, Skarner, Urgot or Morgana.

Pantheon is an early-game Lane Bully and Gank-centric Jungler with high burst AD, an engage/CC, excellent poke, semi-global ultimate and a powerful defensive passive. Avoid extended fights, look to roam mid if you're top lane, seek out targets of opportunity with your extreme mobility to pick off enemies and secure early kills or assists for you and your team. If you can do these things and master his ult, Pantheon can easily carry a team! Thanks for reading my guide and go step on some heads!