Talk:Pantheon/@comment-25364408-20160218144047/@comment-4091261-20160220014355

Btw. To make this a bit clearer. When people say a champion "falls off" they don't mean that they suddenly lose damage, because obviously all champions are growing as they level up and get items. It is that they are not growing as quickly as other champions.

One reason this may happen is because all increases are flat amounts rather than percentages. As champions level up, they get tankier, so any form of burst is only effective when you are outleveling the enemy--which becomes impossible very late-game when you reach max level. This is generally the main reason why champions "fall off" because percentages become very significant late-game as the numbers in general becomes larger. strictly has flat numbers within his kit which means he has no late-game scaling/multipliers to take advantage of.

Another thing that people can't really grasp statistically is utility. Utility increases the general skills of a champion. While it can't be literally defined, it increases the potential of a champion and thus increases how useful the champion can be at the end of the game compared to other champions that have less utility. This is a strong part of what makes late-game champions successful, but typically needs to be coupled with percentages within their abilities as utility is actually an early game trait that has major significance throughout the whole game. has fairly insignificant utility in teamfights with his autoattack protection since multiple people attack him by that time. Although, his grants some interesting utility, it is coupled with flat numbers causing it to become a mid-game trait at best.

Last reason is because of synergy. The ability to synergize from every single item you buy is the most significant indicator of late-game potential. is split in half with this due to his. People don't really want to buy hybrid items on due to how much risk he places himself in, so they buy something he doesn't synergize with well at all:, , and. has no shield, heal, nor damage reduction. The only thing has is the ability to block one autoattack/turret shot. That isn't consistent enough to give him as much synergy as someone like building , , and. Since has very weak synergy with the tank items he gets late-game, he makes a significant drop in power at that phase. This would be excusable if he had a safety net like stealth, but he doesn't so he can't get away with building raw damage consistently.