Champion Spotlight
Recommended Items
Tips
- Playing As
Pantheon
- Using Aegis of Zeonia quickly followed by Heartseeker Strike can devastate your enemies.
- Using Spear Shot frequently in a battle, along with Attack Speed items, can help defensively charging Aegis Protection.
- Using Grand Skyfall to assist your allies across the map can quickly turn the tides of battle, putting your allies at an advantage.
- Playing Against Pantheon
- Keeping yourself hidden in brush can make it harder for Pantheon to target you with Grand Skyfall.
- Watch out for when Pantheon has a stunning or rooting partner in lane with him (example: Morgana, Sion) as he can cause devastating damage with his Heartseeker Strike.
- Pantheon's Aegis Protection shield will block a single champion basic attack or turret shot, but he's vulnerable until he bring it backup again by attacking or using abilities.
Tricks
- Ability Usage
- Pantheon holds the highest movement speed in the game at 355, tied with Master Yi. Use his quick movement speed and strong ranged harass from Spear Shot to whittle your opponents down in lane optimally to take full advantage of his strong early game.
- Pantheon is a potent tower diver because of Aegis Protection, which allows him to block turret shots.
- Since using Aegis of Zeonia to stun an enemy also refreshes Aegis Protection, he can easily and reliably avoid the first turret hits when diving, then activate Aegis of Zeonia to stop the enemy champion's movement as well as refresh Aegis Protection. In situations where Pantheon stays under turret fire for more than a few seconds, he may be able to activate Aegis Protection again, resulting in a significant amount of damage ignored. Use this fact to set up powerful early game towerdives together with your jungler. This also works well against physical abilities that apply on-hit effects such as Parrrley, Mystic Shot, and Bladesurge, or turret attacks. This will not block physical abilities like Volley or Ace in the Hole.
- Since using
- Starting with Spear Shot allows Pantheon to get minion kills easily even against ranged opponents.
- When facing ranged opponents (especially before level 3), be sure to go near them only when your spear is off cooldown so you will be able to trade one ranged autoattack from them with a spear.
- Stacking attack damage items will allow Pantheon to use his Spear Shot as a nuke with a short cooldown.
- Using Spear Shot frequently in a battle along with attack speed items can help defensively by charging Aegis Protection.
- Certain Death can be very useful when in team fights since Pantheon can gain a lot of critical strikes.
- While in midair from Pantheon's Grand Skyfall you can select a target for Aegis of Zeonia and when you land, you will jump at the target stunning from a larger distance (est. 1300) than the standard range (this may be a glitch).
- Grand Skyfall makes him one of the best gankers in the game since he can ignore ward coverage.
- Grand Skyfall can be combined with other AoE ultimates such as Cannon Barrage and Absolute Zero to keep the enemy in the AoE radius and deliver devastating damage.
- Due to Pantheon's dependency of mana the entire game, putting a mid laner that does not use mana as a resource system ( Vladimir, Mordekaiser) will give you more chances to receive Crest of Insight.
- Even though Heartseeker Strike is an AoE ability, it is better to level Spear Shot first as it does more damage with a shorter cooldown.
- Pantheon's standard combo is W > Q > E, or Q > W > E > Q (if off cooldown)
- Having Exhaust and Flash as summoner spells, along with Heartseeker Strike as your first ability, make for an effective first blood combination when in a side lane with a partner. Those summoner spells also provide two effective escape mechanisms.
- Pantheon's jungling is all about clearing neutral monster camps one at the time with basic attack and Spear Shot while relying on Aegis Protection to counter a few blows from neutral monsters.
- Starting with Spear Shot would be effective for final blows. Alternatively, Heartseeker Strike can be used to hit multiple monsters in a camp while its passive Certain Death can critical strike them on low health.
- Having both Spear Shot and Heartseeker Strike early is the best strategy to clear camps easily, as the passive is applied to both basic attack and Spear Shot.
- Aegis of Zeonia is to be used wisely, so stall a few attacks from neutral monsters while refreshing Aegis Protection, which is wise to have up before encountering a neutral monster camp.
- Pantheon can be mana dependent, particularly during early game, so it is wise to use the Crest of Insight.
- When ganking lanes, it is wise to use Grand Skyfall for large teamfights, or at least surprise attacks. Aegis of Zeonia can be use to prevent enemies from escaping and close gaps between allies, While Spear Shot is used to execute when fleeing to safety.
- Purchasing Stalker's Blade is useful for slowing foes while ganking. Alternatively, Skirmisher's Sabre can be used for true damage, combined with critical strikes.
- Having both
- Rune Usage
- Since Pantheon tends to poke a lot in lane, Summon Aery is the perfect keystone since it synergises perfectly with Spear Shot and Heartseeker Strike poke.
- Scorch combined with the Aery makes a deadly poke combo in the early and mid game that will force most champions back to base multiple times in the laning phase.
- Pantheon tends to run out of mana extremely quickly with the poke, so taking Manaflow Band is not a bad choice and it gives you free mana restoration.
- Pantheon can also be played as a full AD assassin with Electrocute. Pantheon can easily apply Electrocute with the Aegis of Zeonia + Heartseeker Strike + Spear Shot combo in quick succession.
- Item Usage
- Grabbing a Corrupting Potion as your starting item will help Pantheon through his mana problems with the regen. Also the passive works well with your poke in lane for extra burn damage.
- Stacking attack damage items like B. F. Sword (and what they build into) means Spear Shot and Heartseeker Strike do considerable amounts of damage.
- If you find your opponents are escaping you too often, or you're being focused down, a Frozen Mallet will give you some additional durability in fights, and ensure that fleeing opponents are slowed after using Aegis of Zeonia to engage them.
- Pantheon is an AD caster, where most of his damage comes from his abilities and spamming Spear Shot. As such, he scales better with armor penetration, flat attack damage, and cooldown reduction rather than attack speed.
- The Black Cleaver is a strong offensive item and can apply the armor shred debuff quickly thanks to his Heartseeker Strike. It also gives cooldown reduction and health, something Pantheon needs.
- Ravenous Hydra's Cleave and Crescent synergize well with his strong waveclear with Heartseeker Strike. It also gives sustain, which is something that Pantheon lacks.
- Youmuu's Ghostblade is a powerful item on Pantheon that gives him the armor penetration and cooldown reduction he needs. While not as powerful as The Black Cleaver in that regard, the active compensates for that, giving Pantheon much needed mobility.
- Although Heartseeker Strike's passive makes both autoattacks and Spear Shot crit 100% of the time when an enemy is under 15% health, Infinity Edge is generally not considered a useful item on Pantheon - a single crit is usually enough to finish off a low-health target without the help of Infinity Edge's passive.
- Hexdrinker/ Malmortius is an option for Pantheon against magic damage champions, due to having magic resistance and making him stronger damage-wise. Another option is Quicksilver Sash/ Mercurial Scimitar if you feel the need to remove a specific CC on enemy team.
- Pantheon's high base damage and scalings allow him to sacrifice some offense to build defensive items. This makes him tankier, which is actually recommended as Pantheon does not have as much mobility as an assassin, and makes him more useful by late game, as part of the team's frontline.
- If you are looking for armor items, Frozen Heart is the perfect choice. The extra mana helps as Pantheon is very mana hungry. The cooldown reduction also has synergy, as Pantheon is an AD caster and naturally likes to build cooldown reduction. The passive and the armor allows Pantheon to withstand auto-attackers.
- Randuin's Omen is also a good choice for armor, mainly due to the active. It actually makes Pantheon tankier against physical damage, despite the lower amount of armor, due to the HP. However, it lacks the cooldown reduction and mana from Frozen Heart.
- If you are looking for armor items,
- While the cooldown reduction from Ionian Boots of Lucidity seems to be tempting, keep in mind that Pantheon is very vulnerable to CC, so consider using Mercury's Treads instead. Consider also using Ninja Tabi against AD auto-attackers.
- Boots of Mobility are also a very good option, not only because they are very cheap, but also because Pantheon can roam very easily thanks to his Grand Skyfall ability.
- While Trinity Force seems like a good item to build for the Spellblade passive thanks to his low cooldown of Spear Shot, in reality, Pantheon's base attack damage is very low. So Pantheon is not going to benefit a lot from Spellblade, nor he is going to benefit from most from Trinity Force's stats.
- Tear of the Goddess can be used to solve Pantheon's early game mana problems, and when fully stacked and upgraded to Muramana, it gives Spear Shot frightening damage due to Muramana's Shock also proccing from single-target spells. However, Tear of the Goddess sacrifices Pantheon's early game power, and it is not recommended, because it's on early game where Pantheon is the most powerful and he will fall off even harder.
- Countering
- Investing in a Chain Vest or Cloth Armor early can help you mitigate his damage output.
- Starting the game with Cloth Armor + 4 Health Potions allow you to potentially outsustain Pantheon's early game damage. The armor will mitigate his damage and with the potions, Pantheon will waste mana trying to harass you. This may reduce your early game damage, but it is well worth if that means preventing Pantheon from dominating you and snowballing early.
- This start is better if your champion already has natural sustain, such as in case of Nasus.
- In addition, Cloth Armor builds into a lot of useful items, so you don't necessarily have to sell this item later. For AP champions for example, this item builds into Seeker's Armguard which in turn builds into Zhonya's Hourglass, which is in fact a good item against Pantheon to survive his burst and boost your own damage output.
- This start is better if your champion already has natural sustain, such as in case of
- Buying health items can help you to survive through one or two combos. However, you will then need health regeneration and/or life steal to sustain yourself in lane against him. After two or three combos early game, he can be without mana so he shouldn't be a threat; take advantage of this to shut him down.
- If you want to take down Pantheon's Aegis Protection, bait out his Aegis of Zeonia so he can't recharge it as quickly.
- When laning against Pantheon, play defensively instead of aggressively. Pantheon may be squishy but his damage output is very high early game.
- Pantheon has no escapes. Baiting him to attack you and having an ally appear to help is likely to spell his doom without the use of summoner spells to escape you.
- Avoiding Pantheon's Heartseeker Strike will help you defeat him. If someone has been stunned by Aegis of Zeonia, it is unlikely they will be able to avoid Heartseeker Strike - but that does not mean you should simply let it hit you.
- Be very careful of Pantheon's ganking capability. Pantheon's Grand Skyfall allows for a quick and deadly gank.
- Pantheon can also use Grand Skyfall to backdoor your turrets.
- Additionally, Grand Skyfall can be used to escape when being ganked (or counter ganks) if you realize it beforehand. In such a case, use a knockup to stop him from escaping as it will put his Grand Skyfall on a 10-second cooldown. Use this time to burst Pantheon down.
- As Pantheon can cast Aegis of Zeonia on you while dropping down in Grand Skyfall and then have it land from outside its normal range, using dashes and escapes to avoid Grand Skyfall may have you stunned nonetheless. If you expect to survive his initial burst damage after being stunned, save your escapes for after that instead of getting away from Grand Skyfall. Of course, avoiding the damage from Grand Skyfall all together may be a larger concern - but consider the possibility.
- Try to avoid the center of Pantheon's Grand Skyfall so you don't suffer the full damage of his ultimate.
- Avoid laning against him if your champion relies on being on low health to reap the full potential of the champion (such as Aatrox , Olaf and Tryndamere) as his Certain Death will cause him to do a lot more damage to you at low health.
