League of Legends (LoL) Question: Pantheon Mid

Pantheon can most certainly function in mid lane, and was in fact his primary role before he fell and then rose back into popularity as a jungler. There are a few reasons as to why he does function so well.

He, like a lot of champions, benefits very well in a solo lane. Having a high, reliable source of gold is fantastic for an item reliant, bruiser type assassin like him. It really does allow him to get the core items that he wants to get, as opposed to a jungler which has to opt out of more expensive items due to a lower base income. The other is simply his lane match-ups. Spear Shot is excellent, reliable harass that will heavily whittle down your opponent with constant use of it, especially if the opponents disrespect the mid lane Pantheon like many I have observed have done. He also has the all in potential to burst down plebs squishies in the mid lane at a fairly high health.

Additionally, mid laners really like to roam, and it happens to be that Pantheon is one of the best roamers in the entire game, not only due to very quick travel across the map when Grand Skyfall is up, but also having the crowd control and the damage that is actually necessary to assist with these ganks. Additionally, his ability to counter objective-attempts of the enemy, especially dragon, is very strong, and mid lane provides quick access to the dragon as well as the outer turrets of both lanes.

Of course, there are flaws. He's mana hungry. There are definitely ways to alleviate this, but you'll find that even though you can harass the opponent, you'll be out of many somewhat quickly if you are careless. This ties into the second point, and that is the fact that he's a melee champion. He struggles with aggressive, long range laners which harass heavily, as he has very little means to deal with intelligent ones. This may force him to actually last hit with Spear Shot, which mentioned above, will put a heavy toll on your mana.

This is more of a flaw with Pantheon himself, but his late game scaling is very lackluster. Even incredibly fed Pantheons find themselves struggling to stay a relevant damage threat as not only is his upfront damage a lot less than other assassins since he will be going more of a Nocturne-style bruiser route, but he also has no means to actually get out of a fight unlike many other assassins. If he goes in without resistances, then he will get blown the **** up. His gap closers are not the greatest. Unless you flank, being able to get to the back line may prove to be very difficult. Outside of fights though, Pantheon has fantastic pick potential.

I played a lot of Panth mid back in the day, and another of his strengths is his mobility. Pantheon is tied for the highest base movement speed (just higher than Akali and Talon), so he is one of the best at dodging skill shots which is crucial against many mid lane mages.

Pantheon is quite good as mid laner, especially post level 6 with high ganking possibilities. The only problem I see for him is that some mid laners can have higher range like Xerath or Vel'Koz and as Pantheon does not have strong gap closers it can make his live harder.