Welcome to CubeJackal's Pantheon build and gameplay guide! In my recent games as Pantheon, I've devised a somewhat unique build that has proven to be extremely effective. I'm writing this guide in order to share both this build and my knowledge with other Pantheon players in the hopes of improving everyone's Pantheon-playing experience. If you have any constructive criticism or tips to impart, please leave a comment and don't forget to vote!

Disclaimer: This build has not been tested in a ranked gameplay environment and as such may not be viable in ranked gameplay.

Why Pantheon?
To begin with, Pantheon has some of the best killing potential in the game. Everything about this champion favours killing other champions. His Spear Shot whittles down his enemies' HP, his Aegis of Zeonia traps his victims and Heartseeker Strike delivers the killing blow, both actively and passively. Finally, Grand Skyfall has become infamous within the League of Legends community as a terrifying tower diver, tower saver, teamfight disruptor and noob killer. Before Season 3, Pantheon was a hugely underrated and underplayed champ, meaning that many summoners had no idea how to stop him as a result. He's seeing much more action on the Fields of Justice in Season 3, but that's because he's been made even more powerful with Black Cleaver buffs - and people still can't stop him effectively! Take advantage of the naivety of your opponents by sweeping the game with this beast of an assassin.

What are the basics?
First of all, let's go over Pantheon's Golden Rule: Pantheon is not an auto-attacker. This is the biggest mistake I see unskilled Pantheon players making. If you're right-clicking an enemy champion at any time other than to trigger Heartseeker Strike's passive or to disrupt certain status effects (such as an enemy Pantheon's Aegis Protection), you're doing something very wrong. Pantheon is an AD caster. He relies on his abilities to deal almost all of his damage.

Secondly, Pantheon is classified as an assassin, meaning that he is a relatively squishy champion that excels at killing vulnerable enemy champions, such as carries. With this build especially, he does not have the tankiness necessary to initiate a teamfight or go toe to toe with an enemy Volibear or Darius. Keep in mind that you are nowhere near as brawny as many other potential solo top champions.

Greater Mark of Armor PenetrationGreater Mark of Armor Penetration
This is a solid choice on any AD-based champion, but even more so on Pantheon as it presents a solution to his hardest counter: armour. Armour penetration is much more important in terms of runes than flat or scaling attack damage.

Greater Seal of Armor
Flat armour seals soak up plenty of the damage you'll receive early on from top-lane AD champions. Armour runes are a better choice than health runes simply because they scale better. It's more efficient to have 13 extra armour than 50 extra health (9x Greater Seal of Health).

Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist
Same story as Greater Seal of Armor, but concerning scaling AP damage instead of AD damage. These are at their most useful later on in the game due to their scaling nature, since MR isn't normally a very useful statistic up in top lane (unless you're facing one of those pesky Mordekaisers or Vladimirs).

Greater Quintessence of Armor PenetrationGreater Quintessence of Armor Penetration
Some AD champions are better suited to flat AD or critical chance/damage bonuses in their quintessences, but keep in mind that Pantheon gets shut down effectively by armour. Rolling these along with 9 x Greater Mark of Armor Penetration, you'll be able to cancel out the armour runes they're likely to be using and you'll also take a chunk out of their base armour.

Summoner's Wrath : Nice buffs on common Pantheon spells, such as Ignite Sorcery: Lower cooldowns so that you can harass and combo more often Deadliness : Synergies with building stacks for Aegis Protection Havoc : Grants a very small damage buff and opens the next tier Weapon Expertise : More armour pen - this is important! Brute Force : Extra AD for an early-game edge Lethality : Synergies with Heartseeker Strike's passive effect Sunder : Should be obvious by now Frenzy : Get more stacks for Aegis Protection after last-hitting Executioner : Powerful damage buff to wounded opponents, useful for securing kills

filler

Durability : More health for extra late-game survivability Resistance : Flat magic resist for absorbing enemy AP harassment Hardiness : Flat armour for extra survivability in lane Veteran's Scars : Small health buff for early-game tankiness

Notice: Masteries that show up as champion abilities (such as Frenzy ) are due to MOBAfire's way of working out wikicode currently. Simply refer to the cheat-sheet mastery tree for more info on your chosen mastery.

Must-Have Tier


This is a vital spell on a champion with no easy escape methods if he finds himself in danger. Ensure that you only use this when vital due to its large massive cooldown (thanks, Season 3). Needless to say, however, this spell has hundreds of uses, including: escaping ganks, catching a fleeing enemy, tower diving, escaping pursuers and getting through a particularly troublesome wall.

Good Tier


If you just really, really prefer this spell to Flash, take it instead. I personally prefer Flash on Pantheon, but this spell does indeed have its uses, such as its increased usefulness in chasing and escaping chases. It's certainly more useful on AD carries and tankier champs, however.


This is the second summoner spell that I personally grab on Pantheon. Its two primary uses are securing a kill on that one enemy who escaped you with one bar of health left and inflicting Grievous Wound on high-sustain champions like Swain and Volibear. Like Flash, it has a lot of utility, and killing someone with it after they escape your gank or combo, especially if they managed to kill you after you popped it, is extremely satisfying


This is another spell that is more viable on an AD carry, but is far from non-viable on Pantheon. The primary use of this spell on an AD caster is to either keep an enemy within range for a second combo or as a supporting spell for ensuring the success of ganks or chases involving team-mates. Another potential use is popping it on the enemy AD carry in teamfights, allowing you to hammer them without them being able to hammer back.

Average Tier


This spell has a high cooldown and little combat utility, but it's certainly a viable choice for any solo top champion (though less so for Pantheon). This spell can easily save a tower in distress or even kill an unwary enemy if you teleport to a nearby ward. However, Grand Skyfall is essentially a short-range Teleport that deals massive damage upon contact, making this spell less useful on Pantheon in particular.

Unviable Tier



'Kill Me' Tier

Aegis Protection (Passive)
After attacking or casting spells 4 times, Pantheon will block the next normal attack that deals more than 40 damage to him.

This passive is one of the most useful in the game. As well as blocking all champion auto-attacks, this ability also blocks certain abilities ( Parrrley and Mystic Shot are examples) and tower shots. This is one of this things that makes Pantheon such an excellent tower-diver. Ensure that this is up as much as possible and keep in mind that siege minion attacks can break it.

Spear Shot (Q)
Pantheon hurls his spear at an opponent, dealing 65 / 105 / 145 / 185 / 225 (+1.4 per bonus attack damage) physical damage. If Heartseeker Strike has been leveled up once, Spear Shot will crit to deal 150% damage against opponents whose current health is below 15% of their max health.

This is a powerful, low-cost harass ability that can cause a great deal of damage to your lane opponent over time early on and continues to be useful later in the game. It comprises a large portion of your burst damage once leveled and can finish off escaping enemies due to Heartseeker Strike's passive effect on it. Don't hesitate to use this frequently during the laning phase, but always keep a careful eye on your mana levels - Pantheon runs out of mana very easily. I max this skill second in order to max Heartseeker Strike first.

Aegis of Zeonia (W)
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 Pantheon's hard CC ability. Though the stun time is short, it gives him more than enough time to end a chase and execute his full combo. Use it when ganking to ensure a kill and always use Heartseeker Strike immediately after this if possible. Another notable point of this ability is that it instantly refreshes Aegis Protection. Try using Spear Shot and auto attacks (this is the one of the only times that auto-attacking as Pantheon is okay) on your opponent until they break your shield, then immediately use Aegis of Zeonia and Heartseeker Strike for an immediate passive refresh and a large amount of damage to boot. I max this ability last, as the stun time does not scale with level. Note that this ability uses a large amount of mana, so only use it in the best possible circumstances and ensure that you have enough mana to combo with Heartseeker Strike.

Heartseeker Strike (E)
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 (+0.6 per bonus attack damage) physical damage, and they deal double damage to champions.

This is easily Pantheon's most dangerous ability when maxed first. When used in conjunction with Aegis of Zeonia, it can cut out a huge portion of the health of the targets and may even kill them. This is your main damage dealer, which you'll ideally use to remove most of your oppponent's HP before finishing them with Ignite, Spear Shot or a similar method. I max this ability first in order to reach my full damage-dealing potential as Pantheon. This ability desperately needs both levels and items to become truly fearsome. Many unskilled Pantheons max Spear Shot first. While this grants excellent harass, these Pantheons have little-to-no killing power after using Aegis of Zeonia and are forced to use auto-attacks (remember the Golden Rule?) after the neglected Heartseeker Strike fails to do significant damage. Needless to say, correct usage of this ability is what separates good Pantheons from poor ones. This ability also now procs 3 times with Black Cleaver, meaning that armour becomes much less of an issue than it once was.

Grand Skyfall (R - Ultimate)
Pantheon gathers his strength (channeling for 2 seconds) and then leaps high in to the air, crashing down at the target area 1.5 seconds later. Deals 400 / 700 / 1000 (+100% of ability power) magic damage to units at the center (down to 50% at the edge) and slows them by 35% for 1 second. If the channeling is cancelled, the cooldown is reduced to 10 seconds.

This is one of League of Legends' most hilarious ultimates. This can crush a recalling lane opponent, save a tower in distress, completely wreck a teamfight and even escape a gank. I take a point in this whenever possible. Grand Skyfall needs a lot of explaining to allow you to reach its maximum potential, so see the 'Grand Skyfall in Depth' section of the guide for more information and strategies.

Standard



These are the 'standard' starting items for solo top champions, and in most cases, they'll serve you well too. The Boots give you the mobility to avoid the enemy champion while the Health Potions give you sustain if you do get hit.

Alternatives



Buy this setup if you suspect that you'll be countered in lane (the enemy team has a Riven, for example). The extra Health Potions give you more sustain to match the increased damage that you may take, while the Cloth Armor absorbs some of the aforementioned damage. The main issue with this, however, is that in this build, your Cloth Armor does not build into anything.



Purchase one of these if you suspect that you are your lane opponent's counter (perhaps you're facing a Gangplank, for example). The damage boost and other minor stats will help you zone your opponent almost entirely, giving you an easy farming time and possibly a few kills.

Standard



These should be the two things you grab on your first trip back to base. They're powerful items for their price and the extra damage they grant will give you an early edge in lane. The extra HP also helps your own survivability, as does the lifesteal.

Alternative



If you started with a Doran's Blade, pick up your boots now to fix your lack of mobility.

Standard



Unless you're especially fed or underfarmed, these should each take a single recall to grab. Mercury's Treads will help to alleviate CC problems (note that you can't survive sustained focus) while The Brutalizer is your first step on the road of nullifying your opponent's armour. It also gives cooldown reduction, an immensely important stat on any AD caster.

Alternative



If the enemy team has little CC, grab these alternative boots in order to increase your armour (a stat that's typically more useful than MR in top lane) and resistance to auto-attacks, which you may find a problem depending on your opponent. The Brutalizer must be purchased unconditionally, however.

Standard



Season 3 happened and this item became utterly face-melting on any AD casters that have abilities that strike more than once (such as Garen's Judgment or Talon's Rake). Heartseeker Strike applies 3 of this item's stacks, which equates to a 22.5% reduction in your opponent's armour. This item also grants the health and attack damage you need to excel further, and the cooldown reduction left over from The Brutalizer is unquestionably useful. This is essentially Pantheon's ulimate item, granting him all the stats he desperately needs and no unnecessary or even sub-optimal ones. There are no alternatives here. This should always be your first major item.

Standard



The most AD that can be gained eventually from any item in the game (with the exception of a fully-farmed Sword of the Occult, but even if you're getting fed, this item attracts plenty of focus, which we don't want as assassin Pantheon). This can't go amiss at all on Pantheon, and the life-steal is also helpful for your sustain since you're not as tanky as you could be with this build. Ensure that you keep this farmed up and rebuild its stacks after death to maintain your edge.

Alternative



Granting less AD than Bloodthirster but a significant amount of health, this item favours a tankier Pantheon. While this item isn't recommended if you want to deal as much damage as possible, it's viable if you're an inexperienced Pantheon who has trouble staying alive once teamfights begin occurring and also lacks in kills/farm ( Frozen Mallet is cheaper than Bloodthirster). The main trouble with this item is that this item's passive isn't as useful on Pantheon as it is on most solo top champions that take this item (Golden Rule, remember?).



This is another item that I see frequently in Pantheon guides and builds, but like Frozen Mallet, it's viable, but not optimal. This item is more expensive than Bloodthirster and doesn't grant as much AD as a fully-farmed Bloodthirster, but it also grants crit chance and increased crit damage. The increased crit damage does synergise well with Heartseeker Strike's passive, but overall, Bloodthirster is a more solid choice. Consider this item as an option if you're already relatively well-fed and well-farmed, but feel that you're losing out on kills to that pesky Tryndamere or Master Yi on your team due to Heartseeker Strike's passive being unable to keep up with their massive DPS.

Standard



Surprised to see this here? In the past, Pantheons that grabbed this item would be laughed at, and with good reason: it was far from optimal. Its modest damage and mana boosts only really allowed for extra harass with Spear Shot, and it was universally considered to be a waste of money. Season 3, however, has turned this verdict on its head. Manamune is now a useful item on a highly aggressive Pantheon who's constantly jumping in and out of the fight, which is the playstyle that this guide favours. If you attack and farm enough, you'll eventually obtain Muramana, an even more powerful item that will grant heaps of AD simply because of its passive effect, as well as having an extremely useful toggle.

Alternative



Another one? Why not? Its passive effect currently stacks and you're just getting more and more useful stats, so stacking this item on Pantheon is always a solid strategy. Note also that you'll now apply stacks in doubles, meaning that Heartseeker Strike now applies 6 stacks if all 3 strikes find their mark. Hah, armour? What on Earth is that?

Standard



Frequently, having armour and magic resistance is just a better choice than having tons of health. By this point in the game, some players may already have complete builds, full tanks will be impossible to 1v1 and AD carries will be dishing out ridiculous amounts of damage. Purchase this to shut down a lot of their damage potential. Its passive is also incredibly useful, allowing a second chance if you die early in a teamfight, or a chance of escape if you're one of the casualties of a failed fight. I prefer this item to Warmog's Armor mostly due to its passive effect, which will allow you a second chance at wrecking face if you die early on in a teamfight (which will likely start becoming the case as the game drags on).

Alternative



If the enemy team have come loaded with plenty of penetration, it's likely a better idea to focus on having as much health as possible instead of armour. You'll miss out on that great Guardian Angel passive, but on the brighter side, you'll have 1000 health and a powerful regen effect - worth it.

Standard



If the game's gone on for this long, then the item you build here will be entirely situational. The best 'go-to' in this case is the Infinity Edge. Despite the fact that it's less-than-optimal when compared to an item like Bloodthirster, it still synergies well with Heartseeker Strike's passive and is a solid item in general if you find that you're spoiled for choice. As stated above, however, you'll normally have something more situational to buy here.

Alternatives



Got an Infinity Edge or Frozen Mallet instead of one of these earlier, or do you just want heaps more of AD? Either way, this is another good choice for your 6th item. This is at its most situational when you're stacking two of these, in that it's not a good choice if the enemy have a large amount of burst damage. If you're buying it late because you grabbed one of the aforementioned items first, then this becomes much more vital and should be prioritised.



This item's nice if the enemy AP carry is proving more problematic than they should be at this stage or if the enemy is running a bizarre, AP-centric team comp. It's also useful in that Pantheon is highly likely to take damage while using his combo at this stage, which grants extra AD thanks to this item's passive.

NOTICE: Your 6th item is entirely situational and this guide can only offer guidelines on what to pick for it. If you have a better idea in the situation that you're in, then by all means, go right for it.

Grand Skyfall is Pantheon's ultimate ability - a truly 'ultimate' one at that. This ability has a similar range to Ziggs' Mega Inferno Bomb, though it packs much more of a punch. After all, 1000 magic damage at level 3 is nothing to be sniffed at! However, despite the massive damage and soft CC it inflicts, it's very easy to use this ability ineffectively or even to your own detriment. Here are some key things to consider about this frightening but skill-reliant ability:

• This ult does not make you invincible. You won't survive plummeting into a full enemy team without the rest of your team there to aid you. The best time to use this ult during a teamfight is either immediately after initiation, when you hopefully won't be instantly focused, or just after a successful teamfight in order to clean up the low-health survivors. If you're low yourself and they retreat into a tower, Aegis Protection should allow you to dive them with Grand Skyfall.
• Don't dive onto a full tank, even if they're solo. Chances are that they have some form of sustain capable of weathering your ult's base damage, and their armour and health will allow them to survive your combo. Once all of your skills are on cooldown, you're pretty much useless, allowing them to counter-attack.
• Do dive onto solo carries and low-health pairs pushing a lane if the enemy team aren't nearby. A favourite tactic of mine is to ult on top of a pushing carry, waste them almost instantly with my combo, then dive into a bush and recall to prevent myself from being caught out.
• If your tower is about to get destroyed after you recalled, ult just behind the pushing enemy in order to either force them further into your team's side of the map or to catch them with your ult's full force as they attempt to back off. If the enemy is difficult to 1v1 and the tower won't survive long enough to be of any help after you ult, however, just accept that you lost your lane and move on. I've dived onto a tower just as it died only to get curbstomped by a stronger enemy more than once myself...
• On the other hand, if your team has been forced away from a tower and it's under threat from 2 or 3 (low/medium-health) enemies, don't be afraid to ult onto it and combo the squishiest one (if the tower isn't about to die). You can pick up a kill and save the tower this way. Of course, see point 1 if there are more than 3 enemies present.
• Don't waste this ult, whatever you do. If the 2-second channel is cancelled, your ult gets reset to 10 seconds of cooldown, giving you a small window to change your mind, but after you jump, you have to wait a maximum of 150 seconds (2.5 minutes) until you can jump again. The huge cooldown can be alleviated by CDR items such as Black Cleaver, but these can only do so much. Be sure that your timing is spot-on and learn to time the total of 3.5 seconds between casting and landing effectively.
• While in the air (after channelling but before landing), press W and aim Aegis of Zeonia at the most viable target within its range. Upon landing, you will automatically jump onto and stun the targeted enemy, ensuring that both your full combo is set up and that they are caught within Grand Skyfall's damage shockwave.
• Finally, a little-known use of this ult is gank escaping. Hard CC will prevent you from channelling, of course, but if that hard CC has already been used or isn't present in the first place, your ult is a valid emergency life-saver. Only use this as the last possible option, however. Check if Flash is available, or if using Aegis of Zeonia would give you enough space to escape.

Pantheon's ult requires a lot of skill and experience to master. In fact, it's probably one of the most difficult to use properly in the game. However, once mastered, this powerful tool can reap brilliant rewards (TRIPLE KILL!).

This section of the guide covers potential top-lane opponents. This is based largely on my own experience and will be updated as I learn more myself, so if the champ you want to see here isn't in yet, I'll make an effort to learn about that champ and theorise how Pantheon would match against them.

Gangplank - Difficulty: Free Gold

You counter Gangplank pretty easily simply because Aegis Protection shuts down Parrrley, which is Gangplank's most used and useful spell. Ensure that your passive remains up as much as possible (don't take siege minion aggro!) and hurt him as much as possible with Spear Shot before closing in with your W+E combo. Remove Scurvy likely won't be able to get Gangplank out of range of all three ticks of Heartseeker Strike and Raise Morale is almost useless to him without levels, which a top-lane Gangplank will be putting into Parrrley early on. Gangplank has little offensive power against Pantheon during the laning phase, so keep your passive active and you'll have an easy time.

Jayce - Difficulty: Hard

Jayce is very powerful in the laning phase because of his significant utility, mobility and harass. Keep well behind your minions to prevent yourself from being caught out by To The Skies! / Shock Blast (ranged mode) + Thundering Blow / Acceleration Gate (ranged mode) and be wary if he switches to melee mode - he'll almost always open a melee combo with To The Skies! / Shock Blast (melee mode), which inflicts a slow that you can't afford to suffer. Cloth + 5 is only advised if you're sure you'll have a hard time, but Jayce is very skill-based and may have difficulties at level 6 due to his lack of a powerful ultimate that appears at that point for most champions. You'll begin having an easier time at that point, but until then, play passively and don't get caught out. A fed Jayce is not something that you want to force onto the rest of your team.

Pantheon - Difficulty: Inconsistent

This is it - it's time to face down your evil clone. Seriously, though, Pantheon mirror matches come down to build, skill and experience. Assassin Pantheon typically wins out against off-tank Pantheon, but keep your wits about you. Most Pantheons you'll face will max Spear Shot first (not blocked by Aegis Protection), making them dangerous lane opponents, but almost powerless while they're out of mana or it's on cooldown. It's ideal to attack once the enemy's Spear Shot has already been used, so that you can hammer them with your leveled Heartseeker Strike. Without levels, Heartseeker Strike is very weak, so the enemy counter-attack will likely fall flat. Of course, there's no easy way of knowing which skills have been maxed first and no way at all of knowing which exact build or skill path the enemy Pantheon intends to follow, so put this guide's knowledge and your own knowledge to full use to win out against an enemy identical to you. Remember - stay out of Grand Skyfall's circle!

Riven - Difficulty: Hard Counter

Riven is indeed a harsh lane opponent. Broken Wings will frequently keep her barely out of range of your Spear Shot and she'll punish you hard with Ki Burst if you go in to harass with your W+E combo. Valor also allows her to both escape your attacks and absorb anything you do manage to throw her way. Start Cloth Armor plus 5 Health Potions and play as passively as possible: stick to your turret, farm as well as you can under it, attack Riven within its range and wait until your jungler ganks to start getting the upper hand.