This is my first guide, so it may be a little rough. I've always loved pantheon, I got him as soon as I started playing LoL and never looked back. Please don't dislike my guide if it doesn't work out exactly the way it's described, this is to give you MY perspectives on solo top, and how to deal with different match ups. It may take some practice, or it may be as easy as learning how to use a fork properly. The point of this guide is to show how I personally play pantheon, and how to counter certain solos, as well as to teach people whom are unfamiliar with the champion how to best play him, and do so effectively.

Pros
Uber early game
Amazing burst by level 3 - - - (Most of the time that's first blood, unless fighting tanky champs like , , ) And that's also if you haven't forced summoners, like ,or . Though popping will gurantee a kill if not fighting a champ with high sustain/armor.
Makes farming a breeze with E
Gap closer+stun
Ulti can teleport and dish out MASSIVE damage if it hits something
Can finish off nearly anything that is low on hp with just his Q
Incredibly fun to play

Cons:
Can die quickly mid to late game if you don't have enough HP
Mana Hound~he is incredibly mana dependant and can die easily if you don't have enough to defend yourself.
Can be countered easily
Damage goes down late game without trinity
No escape, W only works on enemy champions
Is extremely crippled by silences.

Aegis Protection
After attacking or casting 4 spells/abilities, Pantheon will block the next normal attack that deals more than 40 damage to him.
Pantheons passive is just amazing. It doesn't block spells, but it can save your butt under a turret, or even ensure a kill vs's a melee that is OOM and going for a last hit on you. Example: if is out of mana, and we're both 1 hit from death and is up, it will block his killing attack and give you the exact opportunity you need to finish him off. I use this passive to kill under turrets, though I don't suggest using it that way unless you can estimate your life and distance. (Turret diving is dangerous, and most of the time a dumb move.)
You can block:
'sParrrley
's Mystic Shot
'sDecisive Strike(You take no damage, but the silence still applies)
As well as any minion or turret basic attack.

Spear Shot
Pantheon hurls his spear at an opponent, dealing 65 / 105 / 145 / 185 / 225 + 140% of his bonus attack in physical damage. If Heartseeker Strike has been leveled up once, Spear Shot will deal 150% damage against opponents whose current health is below 15% of their max health.

This ability is possibly my favorite out of the ones pantheon has. This thing bursts, harasses, and finishes off those low hp opponents. I use it as a burst along with .


Aegis of Zeonia
Pantheon leaps at the target enemy champion and deals 50 / 75 / 100 / 125 / 150 (+100% of ability power) magic damage and stuns them for 1 second. Pantheon also instantly refreshes his Aegis Protection.

This is what makes pantheon. This is what seperates good panths, from the great panths. Since it triggers his passive this can be used to clutch double block, assuming you have up before you use your . This can either ensure a kill, escape a last hit from a turret/minion/enemy champ/neutral mob, or just make you completely unhittable in the time it takes to burst your foe down.

HeartSeeker Strike
Passive: Pantheon gains 100% critical strike chance against targets below 15% of their max health.
Active: Pantheon channels for 0.75 seconds and deals 3 swift strikes in a cone in front of him. Each strike deals 13 / 23 / 33 / 43 / 53 (+60% bonus attack damage) physical damage, and they deal double damage to champions.

This is by far 's strongest move. Ranking this first will not only give you burst, but will also let you push lane and clear creep extremely fast.

Using Abilities

The first thing is learning when and when not to use . Let's say you have an enemy rushing to you, and your passive is already up, you don't need to close the cap, they're doing that for you, so just open with a when they're in range, since it's on a 6 second CD you can follow up with a for some good burst, and almost assuring that both abilities will come off cool down at the same time, most of the time ensuring a kill.

In team fights can be EXTREMELY crucial to winning a battle. The 9 second CD makes it so that you don't just blow it as you please, use it to ensure a kill, or to save a team member. If you can, rely on your teams other CC abilities before using yours.

Example: Let's say our team consists of - , , , , and I'm going to let initiate with his and drop my onto his target. As the fight progresses, and Udyr and Lux exhaust their and I'm going to smartly aim my onto the entire team, and finish off priority targets. I will use after the udyr stun, since we will both be focusing top targets. Using your stun in conjunction with others makes for a deadly combo, and gives you plenty of time to kill 1 or 2 targets. If you get into a situation where you can spread stuns, then that is THE best option you could hope for. Let's say udyr uses on and I drop in with burst. I blow my E first, then Q and using the activation on to bypass and ensure my kill with auto attacks and Q.

Practice makes perfect with this skill, and you can pull off some crazy shizzle once you have it mastered.





Learning to aim with this ability is rough, and takes alot of practice if you are not already good with cone abilities such as . The reason this ability is so tough to use is because you can simply move out of the way of it, but if you combine it with a stun, it's almost guranteed that you will get the entire channel off, resulting in a TON of damage being put out. Remember that when you have off CD it isn't always viable to drop in with it and pop your . Try to use your cone as smartly as you can, my favorite time to use it is when an enemy is running from you, having started in melee range, giving you the opportunity to land a full duration to finish them with a bursty Q, and if need be you can drop in with your and activate your to finish the job.

This section is for general rotations, smart skill use, target priorities, and how to counter certain mechanics.

My normal rotation is as follows
- - -
What rotation you use solely depends on the situation, and what champions you're up against.


Don't randomly hop hop revolution with your , using it at the wrong time can put you smack dab in the middle of an unsaveable death. Placement is the most important thing, and the champ that you stun not only needs to be the biggest threat to your carry, but also needs to give you an advantage by cutting them off from the enemy. You don't want to jump in and be open to an easy death, so practice conservation when using by only using it when it's going to ensure a kill, or prevent a team mates death.

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Who to aim for and why

The list of priorities differs from team to team, though it will mainly be the enemy carries that you want out of the equation, immediately. is an assassin for a reason, nuking squishies and surviving burst with his hp and passive are what make him an amazing asset to a balanced team. When engaging the enemy, try to immediately scope out the biggest source of damage, and try to minimize that damage by using your immediately. Not only will that toss out a stun that is long enough to ensure a kill if your team is smart, it will give you enough time to drop a full , allowing you to continue your burst with . Though always dropping in with your stun isn't a good idea, as explained before you need to conserve and make your abilities work with your teams, try to utilize other team members stuns for your damage output to save yours for when it is absolutely needed.

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Target Priority, killing with a smile.

The ones you want to focus first in any team fight are:
1) The biggest threat to your carry (carries)
2) The enemy carry (carries)
3) Anything with a huge surpression or long duration disables - , , , (Hyper-Kinetic Position Reverse,
, , )
4) Enemy supports

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Countering Enemy mechanics
Okay, so. Let's say you're chasing down and he's almost dead, and decides to

+

Sight Ward

over a wall. This is when your E comes into effect.

When he leaps over you have about half a second to hit your E to kill him, the ability goes through walls just like 's Whirlwind. Of course this is purely situational, but it works every time for me, every time an enemy line of sights you, you can do your best to predict their positioning for a .
For example:
Let's say I am running from you as through the jungle coming down from Purple's side, as we pass blue I pop an auto attack for my passive W to slow you, and start running into mid lane. My slow would have hit you as you entered the end of the blue buff bush, farthest away from the mid lane, if you are quick enough to think of it you can through the trees(wall) and kill me, because of the range the first strike should just be in range to hit and finish me off.

>

There is a way to block all three of these attacks, but requires planning.
1) You have to plan to fight , and get your passive up with abilities before engaging.
2) Your passive stacks in combat, allowing you to block his attack initially, You can block his second by using your normal burst rotation. Considering you have 3 stacks before you engage, you will run in, block with your already active , bringing it up AGAIN with , to block his 2nd. And then his third, can be blocked by your , his ability should still be up, but your will negate it.

I have a love hate relationship with this ultimate, and I will list the pros, and the cons of this skill as well as explain how I use it to my advantage.



Pros:
Map teleport
Absolutely devastating damage if it lands
Allows you to cause enemies to scramble off turrets, or off team mates in team fights
Allows you to defend a turret if you get it off before it goes down
Cons:
Easily avoided
Medium long cast time (3.5 seconds)
Predictable in some situations (you're alive, haven't used it in a while, and the enemy is pushing a turret or something)

This ability allows for some trick play, which is why I love it. If you cast this in the fog while an enemy is pushing a lane, and they don't see the ring expand, they're in for the trashing of a life time. One of the reasons this skill is so great, is it's range. You can be in your base, and leap deep into a lane (depending on the distance to and from, of course, it does have a range. 5500) and completely smash down a massive chunk of health if it hits your target, allowing you to pick up a quick kill with your burst.

Another reason this skill is so great is if you had just come up from a death, and your team is engaged, you can leap into the fray, and because alot of the time the enemy team will be focusing targets you can land this bad boy right on their heads, OR make them scramble away saving your fellow champions from dying, being badly hurt, or wasting valuable CC/ultimates of their own.

Using this ability in an efficient manner is NOT easy. For example.. Any enemy with a teleport or something close to it can easily clear out of your circle, such as with his E , or Le'Blanc with her W .
One of the biggest things is estimating how long your target will remain in the spot that you are aiming your at for. If an enemy is pushing a creep wave in a lane and that wave is on full HP, you may have enough time to land it on them, where as if the wave is at half hp or near death, using it at that time would be a total waste, due to the fact they will be gone before you even get it off. As with Pantheon's W, you should try to combine this ability with your teams' other moves. 's + would be a nasty combo, if executed properly you could land this right onto the enemy without missing a beat, and burst them down with your own burst rotation as well as his, of course you can use any stun to accomplish this, I just chose Udyr because he is a popular champion. Another great thing about this is that it can be used as a finisher, for enemies that are recalling on turrets, or as an escape closer, for enemies in the jungle trying to escape a team member. Though alot of estimation and judgement falls into play with this skill, you should try to work with your team as much as you can to get this off in a way that will make it as efficient as possible.
Placing this in front of your enemies is not the best idea, try getting them as close to the middle of the ring as possible, or a tad behind them, so that a team mate can chase them into it or, so that they don't have enough time to avoid it. Combining with is probably the most basic strategy for pantheon's, because you can just spam your W onto an in range target to instantly stun as your ult lands.

You should always aim for going to the top or bottom lane as pantheon, as he DOMINATES these lanes fairly easily. The reason being his skills early game hit like a futuristic space train, making his harassment second to none. I harass with my quite a bit, and at level 3 or 4, depending on the enemies I'm facing, is when I go in for a kill. Depending on how you rank your abilities will determine when you go in, if you're going in at all, considering that being agressive early game can be turned around on you in a split second. As shown on top, I grab my at level 4, my Q at 1, and my W at 2. This is to rank my spear to 2, for more harassment, though some people like to grab Q, then W, then E, and go for an early kill by level 3. My harassment sequence- - - , this allows for maximum damage output as well as having your Q+E come off CD at roughly the same time, allowing for a possible kill, or MASSIVE damage being dealt.
One of the big things to note about harassing with Pantheon is that characters with sustain can counter your harass easily, such as , , etc, so using your spells on targets like those would be a waste, unless going for a kill.
I start with a for last hitting creeps, life steal, and the health+AD bonus. On my first trip back I grab another , and a pair of , along with a ward and some pots. If I get alot of kills within the first 10 minutes (which I usually do) I grab myself a considering that the damage upgrade is absolutely incredible, picking up 1 or 2 's.
Try to last hit mobs with your passive, that combined with the doran's is pretty easy farming :). Using to get to mid from top while your enemy laner is dead can spell tragedy for your mid's enemy laner. I try to pop this into fog, behind the enemy, so that my mid can close in and we can slaughter them with ease, when I do land an unnoticed ultimate, I jump in immediately with the burst combo - - - .

So by this time you may have a , if you do then perfect, because you should be able to finish your , assuming you picked up a or 2. Now, mid game is where pantheon can be extremely potent, or extremely dead, depending on how well your team is doing. Using smartly will save you, or give your team a kill, or a few even. Popping to get a fast on a burst target quickly will end a team fight fast, especially if you combine that with a to get it's damage out on as many enemies as possible, it should result in alot of damage output, as well as an unexpected CC, though you shouldn't execute this until after the first set of stuns, snares, etc have gone out, so that you can use your stun effectively.
When you have your you should be able to farm jungle and creep waves easily in between fights, though being careful to not extend or be out of range of your team is your best bet for now. After finishing your infinity, finish your , hell you can even finish your mallet before your infinity, or your before all of it, for some early AD, though you will have to farm more and be careful to get the stacks finished. My personal route for this is to finish mallet, then infinity edge, because I like to be healthy.

Alright, now.. Alot of people consider to be a early game/mid game monster, BUT, he can be just as beast late game as he can early, it's just harder to scale into it. The reason I rush my before my is because it is much easier to farm late game, as more often than not everyone is trying to stack their own thirsters or finish an item, giving me free time to pile on my AD and LS.
Pantheon is not an initiator, and shouldn't be treated as such unless you're building Tank, my suggestion is to not roll alone, and let your tanks initiate, since this guide isn't focused on being tanky, just healthy and bursty, I will explain how to best handle team fights. As a fight starts find your positioning, and try to burn down those squishy targets with your insane burst, as well as using your CC to secure kills/defend your carries. If something is focusing your carry, KILL IT. So, after finishing look into building a , this item scales EXTREMELY well with your build, and you can just dump your for the phage, farming for the rest. The reason trinity works so well with pantheon is because he chains his moves, so after your stun, your E shreds, after your E, your Q shreds, rinse repeat.
Keep in mind that you need to estimate and think about everything that you do, don't let your get interrupted by an ultimate you think is on cooldown, yeah I'm lookin' at you Õ__Õ (the ability I'm referring to is ).

Alright, now that we've covered how to play the champ, how to build it, etc, let's cover how to lane vs's other champs.

Note:

This part of the guide is based on MY personal experience, and CAN be wrong in game, please do not blame this guide if somehow you lose using my strategy, not everything in here will work for you, as sometimes it doesn't for me.

Champions that counter pantheon directly:Yorick,Rumble,Singed. Solo lane SoloTop/Mid, Items that counter pantheon: , , , and a butt load of armor.

Pantheons counter abilities explained:
Let's start with , his W puts on initial damage with it's cast, a slowing effect, and the ghoul continues to beat on you while it lives. This gives you the option of dispatching the ghoul, and letting Yorick hit you with auto attacks for even more damage, or trying to run and still getting hit. Even if you him he can easily sustain himself with his E on a creep, or you. Another reason Yorick counters Pantheon so well is the fact that his Q gives him a huge speed boost and alot of burst damage. Though, his Q is different from the rest of his skills, he has to land an auto attack to get the ghoul out, but once it IS out both Yorick and the ghoul have increased movement speed, making it extremely hard to get away from him. The common Yorick sequence- - - this gives him movement speed right away, as well as initial damage with all three abilities, damage from his ghouls, damage from auto attacks, and sustain from his E. His ghouls eat your quickly because they auto attack you, allowing him to shove the damage from his Q on to you. If you encounter a Yorick in top lane, don't waste your time trying to kill him, he's HIGHLY ungankable by even your jungle+you as he can speed and slow and heal all in a matter of seconds. If he's in your lane, just farm under the turret, though he can harass with his W until he is OOM.
The thing about Yorick is that he is a mana fiend, if he's OOM, you CAN kill him.

The second counter to pantheon is: and is in my opinion the 2nd hardest to lane against. The problem with rumble is his does a TON of damage, on top of that his keeps him from taking damage, and if he uses it while in the "danger zone" he absorbs a **** ton of damage, while burning you down fairly quickly with his Q, and if he lands his you're slowed, making it easier for him to land more harpoons, and get in range for flamespitter. On top of having a skill shot slow, a shield, and an AOE that scales not only with AP but as he gains more heat, rumble is pretty built in terms of armor. MOST rumbles slot armor runes, making them extremely durable in the early levels, making it near impossible to land a kill. What makes rumble 2nd to Yorick, is that you can avoid his abilities by looking at creep mob HP.
When fighting a rumble, I just try to stay under the turret and farm, just like with Yorick. However, Rumble is gankable if your jungle has some sort of slow, or fear effect, like 's , or 's .

Pantheon's third counter is: and is in my opinion the 3rd hardest to fight. The reason I rank him at #3 is not because he is at all killable, but the majority of his moves are avoidable, but only in the sense that you don't ever want to get close to him anyway..
Most of the singed's I encounter build tank, but be careful, even then that flip can get you low enough to be vulnerable to ganks from his jungler.
The thing I hate most about singed is that most of them take , making it almost impossible to get away.
The worst combo to get vs's a singed, if you happen to be in mid lane
- - - , this makes singed EXTREMELY fast, while slowing you down, allowing him enough time to engulf you in poison gas, and as you're running away, slowed, you may pop an on to him, only to get caught from his movement speed, just to be Flipped into his poison again, resulting in your death.
I highly suggest ganking singed early, before he has time to get all 3 abilities, he needs to be dealt with fast or he becomes too much to handle. If no ganks can happen, you're gonna have to bite your lower lip and farm under turret.
As of right now I only know how to counter which is to build Armor Pen items, such as , and the usual .
Outside of ganking any of the three I have no real strat to BEAT them in a 1v1, just farming or swapping lanes with someone who can counter them seems to work.

I use a bunch of different item builds, based on enemy teams, this is what I like to use vsing a beefy/tanky team.
To reduce CC and shell out as much damage as I can
To break through armor like a sledge hammer through a glass wall
^
TO remain healthy and be able to take a few hits, also to slow on hit for chasing, and escaping, works well with
Amazing dps increase, combod with armor pen, GG son
Again, huge damage boost, I never leave home without it

:D I love this build, it's by far one of my favorites, not only do I end up with a TON of HP I always end up with a good 300+ AD ^_^ I use this vs heavy AD teams.
Reduce CC, shell out damage, etc (Damooge, ooooh yeah babeh)
To start building health, slow on hit for chasing, and escaping, works well with
This is my health builder, I use it in conjunction with atmas
Used to increase AD with Warmog's and Mallet :D
Damage booster
The other damage booster ô.ô

I hardly ever use this build, but if I have to..
Reduced CC, etc
dat health :D
self explanitory
:p to melt those AD carries
To slow enemies, reduced CD, and armor
Movement speed, which pantheon loves :) and regen

I mainly use flat MR runes, due to the fact that I do not fight that many magic users in lane. Though, if I'm matched against something scary like I will use scaling runes.

Rune math, level 18-
Flat MR-13.41 Total resistance (constant throughout the whole match)
Scaling MR-24.3 (by level 18)

I use AS runes when jungling.

I really hope this guide has helped, as I said it IS my first guide. Obviously feel free to comment, rate, and what not, if something needs to be improved let me know :D

Jungling as isn't very HARD, and at a medium speed jungle clear he's made his way in to my play style in the jungle. I follow nearly the same item build as most junglers, starting a and 3 's rushing a , after that standard bruiser items such as and and finishing out with the standard dps items, always taking a pair of or if the enemy team has some hard CC. , then blue, dropping my wraith and golems asap, I recall and get red, then immediately gank any lane that is not under turret. If more info is needed on this subject I will update further upon request.