Word, this is my second guide here at MobaFire for everyone's beloved spartan friend Pantheon! Hes like The Hulk, jumping across the map to tear open a tank. (Hulk Movie Reference, hopefully I'll get a video to show you what I mean. BTW one of the worst movies ever.) Anyways, whats not to love about Pantheon?

I've been playing Pantheon for a bit now and like usual I checked out most of the MobaFire builds then customized them to my style and to fit 3v3 a little better. Saying that I mostly play 3v3 :D That's why this build is probably very similar to some other builds here, because they were my inspiration. I fully intend on giving all builds credit.

3v3 Should look like this
But this build is also amazing in 5v5, which should look like this.

3/17 Bloodthirster is getting nerfed in the next patch. My guide has 2... Might be updating build next patch, after some testing of course. A lot of panth games I guess. :D

11/28 Added a bit to the Laning/Jungling section about utilizing your passive Aegis Protection. It's a very powerful passive when used correctly to assure easy victory 1v1. (Solo Top)

11/30 Added a second item build, built to be a bit more tanky. I sometimes build this way when getting focussed down and we don't have a tank. So I just thought I'd put it up here. Also, updated the Items section to explain the second item build in a bit more detail. So check it out!

2/20 Changed around the second item build a little. Now you get tanky earlier. Also changed the Items section to reflect the changes to the build.

Pros:
Very Powerful Early Game
Gap Closer/Stun Aegis of Zeonia
Great Ganker!
Can Harrass Spear Shot
Can hulk his way across the map Grand Skyfall

Cons:
Can be countered easy (All physical damage)
No great escape mechanism (If Grand Skyfall gets interrupted your dead)
Mana hungry (Fixed with Clarity)
Squishy late game

Runes are pretty standard ArP Marks and Quints. Flat Armor Seals. and Flat Magic Resist Glyphs.
This rune setup is designed to give you more tanky-ness early game, which matters a lot more in 3v3. (Which I mostly play)


Greater mark of Desolation Greater Quintessence of Desolation
Early Game ArP causes your Q Spear Shot to hit squishies for 1/4 of their life total at level 1. No joke. Also, with it being on a 4 second CD you can tear people up during the gank, or poke phenomenal right before the gank. That's the reasoning behind ArP marks and quints.

Greater Seal of Armor Greater Glyph of Magic Resist
In 3v3 there is a lot more action early on than there is in 5v5. That's exactly why I love it so much. Flat Armor seals and Flat Magic Resist Glyphs cause you to be more tanky in the early game compared to Armor per level or Magic Resist per level. I rarely use per level runes for 3v3. Trust me, these are very good for the early gank, or solo top.

Pantheon's damage is godlike, so your masteries should reflect that. Going in offensive for ArP, Weapon Expertise Sunder Damage, Brute Force Havoc Executioner and Crit, Deadliness Lethality I use Clarity and Flash meaning in tier one I have to either get 1 AP Mental Force or 2 minion damage Butcher AP only barely (1 AP isn't even noticeable) benefits our W Aegis of Zeonia. Which is why I went with Butcher Because 2 extra minion/monster damage will actually help you out somewhat with laning and jungling. Which I'll talk about later.

After I've gotten everything I need in offensive I go in Utility for Summoner's Insight because it buffs both my Summoner spells Clarity and Flash. A lot of people don't like Good Hands because they see it pointless to mastery for failure AKA dying. But as many guides/builds have said before. You die at least once in almost every game you go into. Good Hands will take a lot of dead time off, which can be the difference between winning and losing in a lot of games, (You get aced and need to respawn fast to defend the base. (And Revive is pretty scrub) I grab Swiftness because movement speed is AWESOME and its the obvious choice compared to the other masteries, besides maybe Scout . Finally I grab Runic Affinity to make those jungle buffs last longer. Because you will be getting them often. I'll talk about that later in the laning section.

You actually have options here. You can either level up your Q Spear Shot first, or your E Heartseeker Strike first. The difference is if you level your E first, your burst will be slightly bigger early. But its not as reliant, being a cone effect enemies can walk out of it. And completely avoid it in some cases. Where as leveling up your Q first, the damage is guaranteed. Also Q has a much lower Cooldown. From your perspective I may be making it sound like leveling Q is better but in truth I'de say its about equal. Leveling E might even be a bit better. It just takes a little more skill. And lets face it, these MobaFire guides are to help out newer players. Not Pros.

I prefer leveling Q to harrass and guarantee high damage. But some may want to level E to have higher burst and go for more ganks. Afterall Pantheon is considered an assassin :D

My first build's items are very similar to the Pantheon-Phalanx Hoplite By: Forgottenduty. But I've made a few changes to make it a bit more personal to my style, and in my opinion a bit better. At least for 3v3 :D (This is my favorite build of the two I have here. You just have to play a little smarter during teamfights to make sure you don't get instantly focussed down.)

My second build's items are pretty similar to my first. The only difference is you swap out two Bloodthirsters for a Warmog/Atma combo. More survivability for less damage. Your sustain will actually be worse with this build though because you lack lifesteal. But if your being focussed a lot, which is pretty common when playing pantheon, this build may be the better way to go. Staying alive longer in teamfights helps out everyone. No point in doing mass damage with the first build if your just dying instantly. Amirite? :D

FIRST BUILD

Starter Items

Doran's Blade is a great item for its low cost, It will make you a powerhouse in the early game. Boots is mixed in there because movement speed is more important in 3v3 early on than it is in 5v5. Because there is more action and being able to chase/flee will help you out a lot. Which is also why you get your level 2 boots. Boots of Swiftness Earlier than the guide mentioned earlier. Boots are preference in 3v3, and my preference is to be fast. Thats the whole reason behind boots in the first place isn't it? The only time I get different boots is when facing a heavy CC team. Then I grab Mercury's Treads

Core Items


Bloodthirster is pretty self explanatory. It's easy to stack up, because you get stacks from minion/monster kills. And it has the highest AD of any item in the game. Besides a fully stacked Sword of the Occult Which doesn't stack from minion/monster kills. Also, the lifesteal is awesome to have. Pantheon gets squishier as the game progresses so its definately a huge help. This item will make your lane sustain PHENOMENAL!

Trinity Force syncs up very very nicely with your kit. After you use an ability your next basic attack/right click will hit very hard. This only has a 2 second cooldown. Which is awesome saying that you can throw a spear every 4 seconds (which gets even lower when you get Youmuu's Ghostblade) As well, I said earlier you get squishier as the game progresses, Trinity Force gives you a little HP boost, which can never hurt. Also the movement speed is very awesome to have. Along with your Boots of Swiftness you'll be able to chase/flee very effectively (You have no real escape mechanism so this is much better than you'd think), and get around the map faster. (Not like its really needed with your ult lol Grand Skyfall ftw!

Youmuu's Ghostblade is an awesome item for you. Most consider it a core panth item. Your more of a burster than a DPS making attack speed not all that great. Youmuu's Ghostblade Is the only way to get crit without getting attack speed. This syncs up very nicely with the Infinity Edge you get later on, but I'll talk about that when I talk about infity edge. Also this items Activate ability should never be overlooked. The movement speed is awesome to have, and the attack speed doesn't hurt either. I use the activate when tower diving or whenever I feel I'm going to lose a fight. (Attack speed is your friend during tower dives because it will cause your passive Aegis Protection to stack faster, meaning you can absorb more turret hits :D)

Late Game Items


Infinity Edge causes your damage to go through the roof ( Infinity Edge increases your crit damage by 50%.) Especially saying that your Q Spear Shot can crit now (it didn't used to be able to TY riot :D) I always say Infinity Edge is a pointless item to have unless you get at least 50% crit chance. Yet another reason for the Trinity Force and Youmuu's Ghostblade to be core. It syncs up very nicely with those two items. You'll crit pretty often, and they will now hurt a lot. Not to mention Infinity Edge has a nice amount of AD. Making everything hit that much harder regardless.

Bloodthirster as I explaned earlier has the highest AD of any item in the game. Which is why I grab another one of these. Of course the lifesteal helps out too. With both Bloodthirster's stacked up they alone will give you 200 AD and 50% lifesteal. Which is just ridiculous. You should be able to tear down anyone, except tanks. But why the hell would you wanna attack a tank? Unless the rest of their team is already dead. Trust me, you can 1v1 a tank. You don't need much ArP to do so, because tanks do such low damage. Your lifesteal will easily heal right through them :D Happy pwnin!

SECOND BUILD

Starter Items

Similar starter items as the first build, but you don't get the second Doran's Blade. This build is focused on being a bit more for tanky. So you sacrifice a little early damage to get some survivability items quicker.

Core Items

Atma's Impaler
This item's awesome because it syncs so well with your previous items Giant's Belt Phage. With this item your attack damage increases with your health. So the more HP you have, the more AD you have. And with your next item Warmog's Armor you'll definitely have a boat load. (Picture a big boat, and how much it can load... That's how much health you'll have.) The crit syncs up nicely with some later items, and the armor definately helps out. Warmog + Atmas is one of my favorite item combinations.

Warmog's Armor
This is a great item for survivabilty against any type of damage. The massive health increase is a huge help for being a little more tanky. Some dislike my main item build because it is a bit lacking in the survivabilty category. Only thing that really needs mentioned with this item is it stacks much like Bloodthirster except the stacks don't disappear on death. So it's not a bad idea to farm for a while once you get this item.

Late Game Items

Trinity Force
I've already spoken for this item above. It's the start to your next awesome Item combination. Starting off with the Phage is exceptionally nice with this build because it makes your Atma's Impaler that much better. (Due to the health gain) For more info on why this item rocks, just scroll up.

Infinity Edge
Crit just became amazing! Your damage should fly through the roof with this item. For more detail, once again... Just scroll up.

Youmuu's Ghostblade
It seems I have a habit of sticking with the same items huh? Anyway this one's already been spoken for as well. Scroll up for some more detail. But basically, you get attack damage (Which rocks!) and crit, (Which rocks) and a sexy activate. (Which if used correctly, also rocks!)

(Trinity/Youmuu/Infinity is a GREAT item combination for bursty champions like Pantheon. And who doesn't love the Warmog/Atma combination?)

I usually play Pantheon top in 3v3. He makes a great top if played correctly. Your fairly tanky in the beginning of the game due to your passive, Aegis Protection. Just make sure to right click often, and harrass with Spear Shot as much as possible. This will make you block a lot. A quick note about your passive, the only minion attack that will trigger it is from the big tank minion. The others don't hit hard enough for it to trigger. (has to be more than 40 damage)

After you've harrassed someone fairly low, and they foolishly stick around. Unleash your burst combo (W/E/Q Aegis of Zeonia Heartseeker Strike Spear Shot) Your W Aegis of Zeonia will stun them in place, meaning they have to sit there and take the punishment of your W Heartseeker Strike. Then while very low, your Q Spear Shot should take them out. (It does 150% damage when under 15% health. Which syncs with your mastery Executioner very nicely.) A quick note about your combo. Make sure to use your E Heartseeker Strike as soon as possible, like RIGHT when you land! Because if you don't they'll come out of the stun and be able to move out of your frontal cone in time, and probably end up surviving D:

If your enemy doesn't stick around when you've harrassed him low, or if you've pushed the **** out of the lane and it feels counter productive to sit there and wait for the turret to kill your minions so you can farm. GO JUNGLE! The key to winning in LoL is gold advantage. You want to have more gold than your enemy. The best and most surefire way to have more gold is to have more minion/monster kills. If your team controls the jungle and gets most of the kills. Your team will get more gold. Its common sense really. Not to mention the sexy buffs you get from jungling which will give you an advantage when you go back to lane.

Update: It seems I forgot to mention how to deal with enemies just going head to head with you. The best example would be Tryndamere tops, they think they can just right click and win against anyone, well they're wrong. If you correctly utilize your passive you can severely hurt the enemies damage. This is done through your W Aegis of Zeonia It instantly charges your passive, making you block the next attack. What I always do is what for the enemy to attack, and I usually already have a block due to spear harrass. Block once, then W/E combo. Wait for second block, then spear. Trust me, if done correctly you'll shut down Tryndamere and many other annoying champions early game. Making you a RIDICULOUS top in 3v3.

Wards win games! Ever get mad or have a teammate get mad because of lack of MIAs? The solution you ask? WARDS! The best spots to ward are the Lizard Buff/Red buff and the Dragon. When I play top, which is usually always I ward the dragon and red buff. Then you'll be able to see when the enemy goes for dragon, to gank or steal it. And also when an enemy cuts through lizard to try and gank. Wards will save your life. It may seem like a waste of 75 gold, but trust me. They prevent a lot of deaths. When you die you hand a lot more than 75 gold to the enemy team. That makes them TOTALLY worth it.

Heres a super sexy ward map for 3v3, made by Zulli4n (I think, it was on a guide and didn't give any credit elsewhere. So I'm just assuming they made it.)


Green circles are the wards you MUST HAVE. You can't say "We've got the map control" without warding these 2 places. After that, you have the minimum wards required to make ganks!

Red circles are the good spots for warding when you already have control of the green zones. If you can ward here, do it. Your opponents will kill the monsters when they can, and it's always cool to know when.

Yellow circles are the optional wards. If you don't control these spots, it's not a problem. The bottom one is principally for your allies at early / mid game. The top one is for preventing enemies to get the jungle buffs.