Pantheon Build Guide by RSG Dyros
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Pantheon Build
+12 Attack Damage or +20 Ability Power, Adaptive
Starting Items
First back
Items to Aim for
Items to consider
Ability Sequence
Threats to Pantheon with this build
| Threat | Champion | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|
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1
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Jax | You make him very sad. From level 1 until deep late you should win easy. Q him until he RQ. Dont push into his tower. just zone him. |
Introduction
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Greetings reader!
My name is Dyros and I hereby present you a guide of one of my favorite champions: 
Pantheon. Please note that this guide is completely my own play style and I do not claim this guide to be the best or so in any way. Everyone has their own preferred way of playing and this is mine.
Early game I play him as a lane bully. Consistently poking my opponent with my Spear Shot and Heartseeker Strike to zone them off farm and/or let them invest in defensive or life steal items in order to sustain me.
Late game I tend to split a lot. I farm the side lanes and whenever I see the enemy mid-laner or ADCarry farm unprotected I go for the Grand Skyfall on their heads and kill them or at least force a summoner spell. Especially in games lower than plat this has worked very well for me.
I think that the new season will have a lot to offer for Pantheon. He is a very aggressive and snowballing toplaner and this is exactly what this meta is all about. This goes for almost all champions that build Lethality in my opinion.
Patch 7.24 did not bring anything special for Pantheon. Tanky toplaners might become a bit more of a trouble with the buffed 
Sunfire Cape but this should not be a big problem.
Pros / Cons
Just like any other champion, Pantheon is very solid in certain situations and finds himself having a harder time in others. This briefly highlights a few of these:
+ Has a very strong early game
+ Does not necessarily need TP and can go for Ignite
+ Has a very easy and reliable poke (Q)
+ His passive makes a difference vs most toplaners
+ Can oneshot ADCarries at almost all stages of the game
+ His ult can create a lot of opportunities for himself and the team
+ Very nice splitpush potential
+ Has little hard match-ups
- If you are behind it might be very hard to make a big impact
- Does not have a lot of natural sustain
- Is an 'in' champion, not an 'in and out' champion
- Any form of CC pretty much kills him
- People often start to hate because he is not a frontlaner nor a tank
Runes
When I look at other guides, I see that pretty much all of them recommend to use 
Electrocute over the other options. However, when I compare my own game stats and look at my play style I would definately say that I would pick Summon Aery any time. This mainly due to the fact that it procs at pretty much all Spear Shot pokes in lane. Electrocute only works during all-ins. It really does a lot of extra damage and I dare you to try it!
The second choice is Manaflow Band. It really helps you to keep the pokes going and make sure you always have some left to fight. Transcendence has a really solid synergy with all the CDR you are building due to the lethality build. On an average game it gives me 40% CDR and 36 extra attack damage transformed from the extra CDR. Gathering Storm helps you to scale into the mid and late game a bit easier. The extra starts are really nice when mid game turns into late game when others are starting to outscale you.
Sudden Impact in the Domination tree helps you with the all-ins. I think this is quite self exploratory. Please note that this also works when you use Grand Skyfall. Eyeball Collection is just my personal preference. I think that all the other options are quite viable and have relatively low impact so I leave this up to you to choose from.
Items
In my opinion, lethality is still the way to rock the game. The early 
Youmuu's Ghostblade helps you to secure kills and the extra movementspeed is helpful in so much situations. Also, the out of combat movementspeed is really nice when roaming. My second item is 
The Black Cleaver. This gives you even more movementspeed and also some tankyness. This really helps you survive. Moreover, the extra penetration and CDR go perfect with the rest of his build as well.
After this you can freestyle a bit more based on where the game is heading. I usually go for 
Duskblade of Draktharr after this to increase my changes to assassinate farming ADCarries on the side lanes. After this it is all depending on the game. I am often ahead so I prefer to go for Guardians Angel to lose a bit of focus and give me a break in case I make a mistake.
The last item(s) are really depending on how the game goes. If they group really well and you can't really get a pick on the carries you might consider 
Titanic Hydra or 
Sterak's Gage. I really can't tell you what to build exactly you shall have to adapt to the situation. Often if you are really in doubt, 
Death's Dance and 
Edge of Night are good.
Skill Sequence
Pantheon is in my opinion one of the very few champions in which your skill order is very fixed. There is one way to go and I would not even debate other options here. You max out your Spear Shot first, this is your main damage and poke in lane. Keep trowing it, together with Summon Aery this really adds up.
The second skill is always your Heartseeker Strike for the CDR and the extra damage. Remind that all the procs of it stack on the The Black Cleaver penetration. Making it a very deadly combo. Also, the passive Heartseeker Strike it allows you to crit on low health enemies. Making it easier to farm and execute enemies. Please note that this also includes that your Spear Shot can crit!
Although you Aegis of Zeonia is key to your combo, there is no point at maxing this at all. Only the base damage increase very slightly. Maxing this does not even give it more CDR or any other benefits. However, do keep in mind that you Aegis of Zeonia resets your Aegis Protection! Allowing you to cheat death by for example incoming turret his.
Spells
Pantheon is one of the very few champions which does not really requires to pick 
Teleport in order to be a mobile toplaner. What I usually do is try to avoid going back to base pre level 6. When this happens I go back to purchase as much of my core items as possible and wait for the enemy to push in a bit (while walking to lane to myself). When I see the opportunity I Grand Skyfall back to lane with the goal of killing my lane opponent. It really is remarkable how few people expect this to happen and it results in a kill 9/10 times. At least blowing a summoner and force them to back as well. This makes my choice for Ignite very useful.
Flash is highly recommended on Pantheon. I would not know what else to pick over Flash. It allows you to makes some 'flashy' plays. It grants you opportunity to escape sticky situations but also allows you to reach that target that is just outside of your Aegis of Zeonia.
Team Work
Ermm, yea. A lot of you might gonna hate me for this one. But in my honest opinion, Pantheon is not a very good team player. At least not with this play style. I always tend to push the side lanes and collapse on unaware carries farming somewhere. This allows my team to fight a 4v4 and with me creating pressure with the split push. Gaining map advantages or allowing me to flank the enemy team and pick off low health enemies.
Please note that with this build and play style, you are not the one to engage in a team fight. You find yourself in the middle of all the CC, unable to reach your targets and certain to die very quickly. This is a mistake I see happen a lot of times. The only exception would be when the enemy is trying to kill the
Baron Nashor
mid-game. Your Grand Skyfall can result in multiple kills and even though you often die, the enemy might decide to abandon the
Baron Nashor
call and retreat. Putting your team not further behind for the next few minutes.
Simple Mechanics
Standard lane combo
Start off with making sure that your Aegis Protection is up. Then trow your Spear Shot and follow up by an immediate Aegis of Zeonia. Then Heartseeker Strike them while they are stunned for maximum damage. Don't click too early, but try to get another AA off the moment you are sure they are below 15% max health to make a critical strike which deals a lot of damage. If necessary, your Spear Shot should be up again to secure the kill.
Assassin Combo
You are wondering around and you see a lone ADCarry at bot taking some minions while their team is at mid. This is what you do: wait for this AD to use any key abilities (such as Ezreal's 
Arcane Shift, Lucian's 
Relentless Pursuit or Vayne's 
Tumble). Then place your ult a little bit further in the range they are most likely to run from you so they have to run in a hard direction or have to make more distance in order to get out of your Grand Skyfall. When you are teleported behind them you are already able to pop Youmuu's Ghostblade to reach them. Aegis of Zeonia them instantly and follow up with your Spear Shot and Heartseeker Strike. Always use your Ignite (during your Heartseeker Strike) when it is up to make sure that if they Flash, it is still a kill and that they are not able to turn on you with any fancy plays and life steal to sustain you. Again, finish this combo off with an AA for a crit to secure your kill.
Final Notes
As I said, I like to keep it simple. Nobody likes or reads entire pages of text that everyone knows already. I tried only to tell the things that are not always straight forward while learning this champion.
I am no pro, I still learn. Feedback is much appreciated and I love a good discussion if any of you disagree on something. Love to hear your thoughts! And please don't forget to give this guide a vote if it helped you :)
Hope to encounter you all at some point on the rift.
Best regards from top,
Dyros
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