Build Guide by AraisDemlant

Intro

Pantheon - Pure Damage Output

Intro:

Pantheon is by far one of the weakest champions in the melee aspect. He is squishy, later on does almost nothing for the team, and cannot hold his own in team battles. As a man who can safely say I have played him more than any other person in this game, this is how you counter his flaws. I've seen countless other guides, and have tried a hundred different builds, and this I can safely say is by far the best I have used, and will ever use. (Edit: Since they have changed the items around, such as Last Whisper, I have decided to re-do this guide to better suit him. Hopefully, someone will read this, it's a bloody good guide) How do counter his ridiculously low health and pathetic scaling? More attack damage I always say. My philosophy is do more damage to them then they can do to you. And it worked so far, so I can't complain.

What You Should Target

ANY mage, any fighter (Except jax) and any tank that has LOW health. This guide emphasizes on raw attack damage, so you will NOT do hardly any damage to tanks later on, that is your (Ryze, Annie, etc's) job. You are there to beat the hell out of their (Ryze, Annie, Xin, etc) that is harassing your team. Tanks are NOT your concern. With this build, you can tele at point A, in lane A, take out the turret, then when the whole team comes to gank you, R to point B in lane B, and kill "So and So" mage who thinks he's too cool to help his team. Afterwords you go back and spend your money and push as a team in point A lane A, where the team lost both a player, and a turret.

PANTHEON'S ULT

I have tried numerous times and have found that he DOES have an escape technique. It's his ult, believe it or not. I would HIGHLY recommend using this in situations in which you are still being pursued by your attackers. The thing about his ult is, it can not be cancelled by ANYTHING except stuns. So while garen is pounding on you as you prepare to go Mach 5 to your base, you are completely safe. It only takes a few seconds to leap off the ground, and then poof. You magically are back in base safe and sound. His ult should ONLY be used as a teleport, whether it's to the battlefield to assist your allies, or to Point B Lane B to kill Mage "So and So". Damage is one thing his ult does NOT do. Also, I highly recommend using his ult from base as much as possible. It has a short time where he prepares to jump, and during that time your mana regens in base, so you jump in essentially with a full mana pool. His ult takes roughly half his mana at any given time, so always be prepared for the consequences.

How to Play

Try to stand behind tanks as much as humanly possible. You are unbelievably squishy, although early levels you are somewhat on the same level as far as health goes as other champs. Early on try to be as carefully aggressive as possible, where as you throw 20 spears, but you avoid as much damage as humanly possible. Also remember that your passive blocks tower shots as well, and it recharges not only after your regular attacks and stun, but your spear counts as one of the (5 or 4 not sure) attacks needed to recharge it (W instantly refreshes it). Later on, try to let your tanks and mages do a little bit of damage in team fights, and then go after the guy who is split off from the group. Without a doubt, panth is one of the best 1 v 1 characters, and this works when ezreal thinks he's slick by shooting through that wall. A 'W' and an 'E' should teach him a lesson in pain. Also, if someone has low health on a turret, I highly recommending ult-ing on that person(s). It does enough damage whereas if it doesnt kill them, it will do enough where your aegis will block the tower shot, and your passive crit chance will take them out no problem. Many times, you can get double kills this way, because your teammates dont have enough guts to dive them.

I play panth like this, and with these items every time I select him. This guide is either hit or miss, and on average, I go about 20 - 4 - 10ish. You die only in late game, and if you play him right, you wont have to.

Masteries, Runes, and Summoner Spells

I do not know what you have for runes, nor do I care (Don't mean to sound harsh). I prefer runepages that are focused around one single aspect, such as an all AD or all AP runepage. In the case of Panth, go for your runepage with the most AD, or make one for him. Start your runepage with all attack damage runes. I prefer the ones that scale with levels, so your late game isn't as pathetic. The masteries I always go 23 - 9 - 1. What I do NOT recommend is removing exuast. It practically NEEDS to be with panth. For this reason: Ult -> Stun -> Exaust -> Stun. In that order. You can do your heartseekers and whatnot during that whole time period, but that's the basis of the idea. Teleport I take because it's my special trick. Why take it? I'll tell you why. Let's say Ashe is in a lane by herself, but player X,Y,Z, are decently close by. You want to kill her, so you ult, stun, and HSS (Hearseekers strike) her to death. It's all fine and dandy now, but now you need to book it. Well, now you can tele top, and take out that tower as these fools are coming to gank you. Believe me, it works more than you would think it does.

Skill Sequence

THIS IS FROM MY OLD GUIDE!
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(ALWAYS level up your spear shot AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE. In early game I can kill most any mage-like champ in about 5 spear shots. THEY PACK A PUNCH. Only get heartseekers for the Crit Chance, other than that IGNORE IT. It's useless until later levels, and it sucks up WAY too much mana and does nothing in return. Prioritize your skills like this R>Q>W>E.)
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That paragraph is more or less of a history lesson. Panth has been nerfed to **** since then, he is practically a perfect visual representation of the word NERF. They nerfed his HSS (Even MORE!!!), his Spear shots (They are useless now), and even his stun (Only good thing he HAD left and is now BUGGED to ****, you can blatantly stun someone and it doesn't work half the time). As of right now, Prioritizing his skills is up in the air for me. It depends on who you are laning with really. If it's someone squishy and you can get up close and personal with them easily, then Heartseekers I suppose should take priority. But if there's a Mundo next to him, and you decide living is nice, then take your ****ty, underpowered, nerfed to **** spear shots. At least they do something, although they might just take those out and replace them with cookies that you throw at the enemy and it heals them.

When you harass ALWAYS make sure you either can go back, then ult (Or teleport) in on someone, or else SAVE at least HALF your mana so you can defend yourself, or kill the other person. You should NEVER drain all of your mana on harassing, unless you can ult (Or tele) back in. This guide does not solve his mana problems, later on, I suggest getting the blue golem as much as possible.

Items

Start with one of two items. A longsword (Turn into Last Whisper) or boots. Both are good choices. No matter which one you get, when you go back to the nexus to shop for the first time, buy whichever one you did not get. As the game goes on, grab berserkers greaves first, then last whisper, then your first BF sword, then Frozen mallet, then another BF sword. At this point you have two options, if survivability is really an issue, get sunfire cape, otherwise go for two black cleavers and then the cape.

Explanations WHY to get these items? Sure, I can do that. Last Whisper and Berserkers greaves. Why? AD, AS, and Armor Pen Duh. Why BF THEN Frozen mallet THEN another BF? AD comes first, then some health (At this point in the game you have less health than Soraka) and then more AD. Most common question is why no turn those BF's into (X,Y,Z)? BECAUSE, Lifesteal SUCKS with panth, he is so damn squishy he cant survive long enough to get any health back. Infinity's edge? NO. Why not? Crit chance does not apply to ANY of his abilities. Panth is what I consider the ONLY Melee Caster. ALL of his damage is in his spells, afterwords, you BOOK IT. DO NOT FIGHT IN MELEE AFTER YOU USE YOUR SPELLS (Keynote - In teamfights). HE is TOO squishy. You just run and wait for the CD to run out. Sunfire cape for more survivability, and black cleavers for armor pen and some AD and AS.

Tactics

This is the MOST important part of this guide. I dont care if you ignore all the item recemmondations and whatnot, this is the MOST important part here. Pantheon is a Melee Caster with EXTREMELY low survivability, not matter what way you spin it. Your goal is the use HSS WITHOUT taking damage, and then running away like a coward. ALL of his damage is in his HSS (Sadly). Early game, feel free to be semi-aggressive. He is decent early to mid game. He has good health, good damage, good everything. When teamfights start occuring, do NOT, I cannot stress this enough, DO NOT stand with the group. Use your ult from your base AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE. Let the fight start and then ult in. This avoids not only all the damage of you running AT them, but also allows them hopefully to get some spells off, so their spells are on CD.