NOTE: SSOOO many things to discuss here so please stick with me and I will share why I build this way and hopefully clear up anything you may disagree on!

So the first hero I had ever played was pantheon when he was first released. (back when his ultimate showed up the second you placed it, giving your enemy 8 years to respond and run away)

I immediately thought "OMG THIS GUY IS GGGRREAAATT!!!!" but I had no clue how to play him.
So after many suicide jumps into 1v5 tower dives, I finally realized Pantheon was not just a suicide shock trooper but also a great cake maker! and so after reading the easy bake instructions that came with my sisters easy bake oven I came to realize just what a powerful hero pantheon really is and what he can bring to the team!

Below I will go in depth and explain why I build pantheon the way I do and share my experiences with him.

I know, I know! I hear it all the time! but pantheons start must be strong! your focus is not to dance around in the top lane or mid lane! your job is to break that lane as early as possible!

A strong start with first blood allows you to build and prepare defensively for mid game!

In this case your offense IS your defense!

BUT WHAT IF MY OPPONENT HAS ARMOR?!!??!

Stacking armor doesn't work VS pantheon.

my experiences are!

Garen stacking armor
Shen stacking armor
renekton stacking armor.
and every other hero you can imagine stacking armor and health pots.

none of them worked. that's why you have a mana pot. so what if it takes 1-2 more spears to cancel what armor stacking he has done? and this is also why you add in a few more auto attacks which for some reason pantheons seem to NOT do. spamming your Q (spear) and expecting results is not how to play pantheon.

PROS:
High Damage.
gap closing Stun.
Excellent Harass.
Deceptively weak when at low health (stun/passive)
Long range threatening presence (ult)

CONS:
Mana heavy
Possible baiting your own team to their doom with bad ults.
large learning curve for newb players (mainly from his ultimate)
bad late game ( WHEN BUILT INCORRECTLY)

Forget the negative things you hear about pantheon. I often hear "his late game SUCKS and he is useless after mid game!" COMPLETELY untrue. it is my opinion that pantheon is strong early, mid AND YES late game! you must understand his role and his item builds to understand this though!

The biggest mistakes I see is people either go full tank with a black cleaver as their only damage item or they go glass cannon and deal "real ultimate power" damage and die instantly in every jump/team fight.

My build adds some survive-ability while maintaining great damage output.
this allows for face melting and off tanking! even for late game!

SHAKE AND BAKE IS THE CORRECT ANSWER!!!

Shake your opponents while baking your victory!
you will be switching between different roles depending on whats going on in the game.

you have an assassin role for ganking with your ult to widen the team score gap and shutting down anyone who may be getting fed, and you have a defensive role when your AP or ADC is getting focused to end the threat IMMEDIATELY!

NOTE:
As an AD caster. he relies on his abilities. not his auto attacks.
This is why I go full, YES FULL FLAT AD RUNES! I can't count how many people trash talked my runes to have their faces melted WHILE they are stacking armor, choking down health pots and hugging their turret and no I am not joking! I have had this happen many times.

Level 1, I learn my Q (spear). I buy my long sword HP pot, mana pot, and I go to guard red.

Your focus at level 1 is to set up a level 3 kill and hopefully its first blood! this is how!

Your Q is a great ranged harass! however often overlooked is the massive auto attack damage you get in between those spears. you should always be watching your opponent and when he is ready to go in for a creep kill. that's when you hit him with a Q and go in for a quick auto attack.

Often times your opponent will immediately back off when he sees 1/4 of his HP instantly gone.

continue to do this till level 2.

LEVEL 2.
Learn your E ability! this is where the harass becomes very deadly. its the exact same concept!
except when your opponent goes in for a creep kill don't open up with a spear shot. let him get close enough and open up with a E by the time he runs out he should have taken the entire attack or nearly all of it. then immediately follow it with a Q (spear) before he backs off to far.

Most likely he is going to be very cautious now and will want to tower hug. or he will try and sit back and drink potions to recover.

LEVEL 3!
Now its time for first blood! You W is you gap closing stun and it should NEVER be used as your opening spell UNLESS you are guaranteeing the kill with it.

It should be as follows.

opponent goes in for a creep kill. you Q him followed quickly with an E. your opponent begins to react and move away NOW you close the gap with your W stunning him and giving you an auto attack. you can now ignite him, auto attack again and follow up with a Q (spear)that should be off cooldown. this ends up with you having first blood by level 3 a majority of the time. or at least the kill.

if you don't get a kill by level 3 the steps remain the same through the lane phase.
just be sure to max your E first, as this does the most surprise damage to your enemy while making sure he is close enough for you to stun and end him should the time be right.

So hopefully by now you have at least 1-2 kills. but if you don't FEAR NOT!

This is the assassin part of the game for pantheon now. WHEN YOU GO BACK TO BUY! you should be actively seeking out weak enemies who are pushing their lanes.

BOT LANE is the lane I like to gank the most! mid lane tends to expect the gank from a pantheon but bot lane has a false sense of security with his wards. so bot is MORE THAN WILLING to push!
because they are focused on warding off a jungle gank.

I find it helpful to type "jumping" and then ping 2-3 times just before casting my ult. this gives your allies a few moments to prepare for the AIR SUPPORT PANTHEON!!!

Always place your jump slightly to the retreating point of your enemy. I.E. you naturally run to your turret when in danger right? so look to jumping BETWEEN your enemy and his turret. your bot lane then enters the fight and the enemy begins to retreat directly into your jump
cutting off his escape.

Below is a professionally drawn bot lane map by me. the Os are allies and the Xs are enemies. the large circle is the pantheon ult placement.

also keep in mind! I like to place the circle (your ultimate placement) so that the enemy is slightly on the edge of his back side





NOTE: if your bot lane is losing the lane (low mana / low health) and their enemy is at full hp/mana I often skip on the gank because people often feel they need to commit to the pantheon jump and it gets them killed.

Mid game is you focusing on assisting your team with ganks and harassment. WHILE you defend your top lane.

Often times I will go top, push my lane and leave for a gank. and if you played your lane well the enemy top lane is busy trying to catch up and farm while his team is yelling at him for not calling MIA on you.

Late game your role switches again! I often times use my ult AFTER a team fight has JUST engaged.
Rarely do I ever start the team fight by going in first UNLESS I have a huge lead and have been fed. when placing the ult for this you should remain with the same concept except include the ADC INSIDE your ult placement. he either runs out of the team fight and allows you to focus the AP carry who is hopefully stuck in the ult OR he stays and gets baked into a burnt ginger bread man by the ult damage and the following pantheon focus.

if you don't have an ult up and the team fight starts, you should always focus their most dangerous player. if he can't be reached you should peel for your ADC and break anyone who overextends. you will find your E covering 2-3 people at a time in some team fights. this adds up to some peeling an a ton of spillover dmg to the rest of the enemy team.

its a waste if you have your E facing in a direction that only cover 1 enemy team member and the rest of them are on your side or behind you. you need all of them on the other side of your E so if they get closer OR ALREADY there, they are hit.


NOTE: you are not the main tank! you should have a jungler be the tank for you. he needs to be the one at the front while you offtank/peel or simply kill. but because pantheon needs to be close to the enemy AND is a BIG threat, you must build some sort of defense! this is why I like sunfire cape a lot! it does aoe dmg should you land in the middle of a fight with your ult. or simply being close to the enemies.

I like to think of pantheon as 65% damage and 35% defense in terms of item builds.

Remember! even late game you need to be a threat! if you build too tanky people can ignore you and that is unacceptable! you want people to dread getting focused by you! and they need to know your damage cannot be ignored! WHILE being able to survive their defensive reactions. it takes focus off your ADC and AP, while still delivering huge damage output and making the enemy back off. furthering the gap and pressure between the enemy and your ranged allies.

As for mid lane! honestly the only thing that changes is you will most likely want to get a hexdrinker instead of a brutalizer or simply get it AFTER the brutalizer.

You have the ability to gank top and bot lanes so you should always be on the lookout on who needs the help the most and who needs to be stopped from getting fed. its YOUR JOB to stop the enemy from getting fed.

Ward your enemies blue and be prepared to work with your jungle for a gank! if all goes well you can get a double kill by killing their jungle and jumping over the "blue tree line" onto the AP. and possibly stealing blue when your jump lands!