Hi, I'm picklehater77, and while I'm just a Silver IV (cos honestly I am kinda ****), I like to think I know just enough about Pantheon to write a guide on him. I've played since Season 4-ish on and off, and picked up Pantheon around Season 6, onetricking him through Seasons 7-8 and into 9 as well.

Right off the bat, you may wonder on the guide "Where's the lethality?" I'll explain.

Pantheon is a Champion that relies heavily on winning his laning phase and snowballing games out of control. However, in my many games of Pantheon, I've discovered that lethality can be very much hit or miss. If you aren't feasting, you're in famine, and if you're against a tank, prepare to get destroyed. Instead, I've found more success trying a far more bruiser-oriented build with a lot more tankiness. This enables you to play very forward and for your team while being nigh-unkillable with your E as well as built-in defenses while dealing more than enough damage to peel.

Anyways, Let's talk about Pantheon, and first up, we have to look at the base stats:

Pantheon Base Stats:

Health - 580 (+95)
Hp5 - 10 (+0.65)
Mana - 317.12 (+31)
Mp5 - 7.356 (+0.45)
Attack Damage - 64 (+3.3)
Armor - 40 (+3.75)
Magic Resist - 28 (+1.25)
Movement Speed - 355
Base Attack Speed - 0.644

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Now, from the look of it, our spartan friend is obviously strong to be picked into an enemy who relies more on their AD than their magic damage. Try to avoid picking Pantheon into AP matchups to save yourself a lot of trouble, though some of them are still pretty safe (ex. Vladimir). Pantheon excels in the early game as one of the best 1v1 and 2v2 fighters up until people start hitting levels 11 onward. He has a slight direct power dip at level 6 in exchange for map impact with his Grand Starfall

This leads into a few of the good and bad things you need to know about Pantheon as you pick him up.

THE GOOD:
+ Excellent early game
+ Easy execution
+ Good matchups against most meta top lanes at the moment.
+ Very durable with proper use of his Aegis Assault
+ Map impact with Grand Starfall
+ Excellent 1v1 / 2v2 potential.
+ Good waveclear once you have your Titanic Hydra

THE BAD:
- Falls off damage-wise lategame.
- If you're building full damage, very squishy when Aegis Assault is on cooldown.
- High cooldown on Grand Starfall when first ranked. (3 minutes, compared to 2 minutes pre-rework.)
- Mediocre teamfighter
- Very vulnerable to ganks
- Immobile
- Mediocre when playing from behind
- Early waveclear is weak

Once you load into your match of toplane Pantheon, take a second to look at your opposing laner as well as your junglers. This will determine how you fight the rest of the match.

As you get in, be sure to look to place a ward in the enemy jungle. If you're on blue side, try to place a ward in the tri-brush, the river brush, or at enemy Krug (though as of 9.23, warding Krugs is less desireable, as less junglers look to clear the camp ASAP). If you're on red side, you can place your ward in the river brush or near the enemy blue buff. Ward timers should be around the 1:10 to 1:15 mark, giving you enough time to reach lane by the time that minions begin to clash in the lane.

Understand that in order to win the lane, you need to hit your level 2 powerspike as fast as possible. Use your empowered Q tap to clear away the caster minions quickly, as they pose a major threat if you are forced to trade blows early (Remember, a single attack from 3 caster minions hurts more than most champion auto attacks.) Once that is done, look to last-hit the remaining melee minions and prepare for level 2. As you are reaching the second wave of minions, don't waste your next empowered, instead look to all-in if you have health to do it.