Fancy playing a champion who can solo carry games while also having a strong team fighting presence? You came to the right place. In this guide, we’ll show you everything you need to know to get you started playing Pantheon.

Pantheon is an incredibly versatile champion that offers many different playstyles. In fact, he can be played in virtually every role except as an ADC. He has great burst damage, hard crowd control, excellent wave clear, and a semi global ultimate. He has everything you need to turn even the worst counters into a skill matchup. The best part is that he isn’t hard to pick up. Pantheon’s mechanics have a very low skill floor so anyone can jump in and start dominating with him right away. 

Champion Abilities

Pantheon’s kit is all about dealing damage so it rewards players who like to duel. Especially during the laning phase. His abilities perfectly compliments aggressive playstyles and allows him to snowball early on.

Passive – Mortal Will

Pantheon gains a stack of Mortal Will whenever he lands a basic attack or casts an ability, up to a maximum of 5. At 5 stacks, his next spell will be empowered and would have bonus effects.

This passive makes Pantheon’s combos very deadly. Chaining his abilities properly can take out a huge chunk of your target’s health in a very short amount of time. 

Comet Spear

Pantheon thrusts his spear dealing physical damage to enemies hit. If it hits enemies, it refunds 50% of this ability’s cooldowns. 

Charged: If you hold and charge this ability, Pantheon will instead hurl his spear at an increased range and deal damage to enemies hit. Additionally, this ability critically strikes enemies below 20% health.

Mortal Will Bonus: Deals an additional 20-240 physical damage. 

This is Pantheon’s main source of damage. You’ll be using this ability a lot to poke and whittle down your opponent’s health. It also deals more damage to enemies the lower health they have so it can be used as a form of execution as well.

Shield Vault

Pantheon leaps on his target, stunning them for 1 second and dealing physical damage. 

Mortal Will Bonus: Pantheon’s next attack strikes 3 times, dealing a total of 120-165% physical damage.Each hit is affected by critical strike modifiers and applies on-hit effects at 100% effectiveness.

Pantheon’s primary source of crowd control. It’s a big reason why it’s so hard to fight him whenever he gets ahead. When empowered, it also gives additional burst damage. 

Aegis Assault

Pantheon braces his shield and engages enemies in a chosen direction for 1.5 seconds, becoming immune to non-tower damage from that direction and dealing 100% of your attack damage as physical damage over the duration. After channeling, Pantheon slams with his shield dealing physical damage.

Mortal Will Bonus: When Pantheon slams his shield he gains 60% bonus move speed for 1.5 seconds.

As if Pantheon isn’t hard enough to kill already. Aegis Assault allows you to negate some of the damage your enemies deal. It’s also great for clearing minion waves because it deals damage in an aoe cone.

Grand Starfall

Passive: Pantheon gains bonus Armor Penetration.

Active: Pantheon gathers his strength to leap high into the air. He throws his spear from above which in a small area deals physical damage and slows by 50% for 2 seconds. 

Pantheon then crashes down as a meteor at the target area, dealing magic damage to enemies in a line. Additionally, this ability instantly gives you 5 stacks of Mortal Will.

Grand Starfall gives Pantheon a very strong presence during team fights. It can be used to initiate a fight or to help out your team when they’re in a fight. If that wasn’t enough, this also gives Pantheon bonus armor penetration which will make your abilities hurt even more.

Runes and Item Builds

Thanks to his versatility, there are a handful of item builds and rune sets that mesh well with Pantheon’s kit and playstyle. Like we’ve mentioned before, he can be played in multiple roles but for this guide, we’ll only focus on his Top/Middle builds since these are the roles he finds the most success in.

Starting Items

The standard starting item for Pantheon is a Corrupting Potion since it gives him sustain early on. His abilities cost a lot of mana so the mana restoration from Corruption Potion goes a long way. If you’d rather be aggressive, you can opt for a Long Sword start since it builds into most of your core items anyway. If you’re against a champion who can poke you down or has way more range than you, you can start with a Doran’s Shield instead for its defensive properties.

Mythic Items

Pantheon has a lot of Mythic Items to choose from. What to pick all boils down to your preferred playstyle and matchup. Eclipse is the great overall choice since it works in most situations. You can take Duskblade of Draktharr instead if you’re very ahead and you plan on instantly taking out high priority targets during team fights. If you’re the only front line on your team, it would be better to take a Goredrinker instead since it makes you a bit tanky and increases your sustain.

Full Build

After purchasing your Mythic Item, you should work towards building a Black Cleaver. This gives you some health, damage, and some ability haste that will help you shred your enemies’ healths easier. For boots, take Plated Steelcaps if you’re against an AD opponent or swap it out for Mercury’s Treads if you’re against a heavy AP comp. Next, purchase a Sterak’s Gage for some additional survivability. Take Chempunk Chainsword next for its anti-healing properties and cap your build off with a Guardian Angel for its passive revive.

Other Viable Items

There are other items that you can include in your full build depending on your situation or preferences. The Collector will give you additional damage and helps you execute low health targets better. Youmuu’s Ghostblade is a pretty cost efficient item that gives you damage and a bonus move speed active. Edge of Night is useful if your enemies have a lot of AP and crowd control. Ravenous Hydra gives you additional wave clear and some omnivamp. Hexdrinker also gives you a shield that blocks out magic damage whenever you’re low on health, however, you can’t build it with Sterak’s Gage so you can only choose one or the other. Death’s Dance gives you additional survivability and damage during teamfights. And finally, Serylda’s Grudge gives you bonus armor penetration and a slow on all of your damaging abilities. We encourage you to experiment with different item builds to fit your needs and see what works for you.

Runes

For runes, you also have a variety of rune sets you can choose to go with. However, for this guide, we’ll go with the standard rune page that you can use with most builds, playstyles, and matchups. Take Conqueror as your keystone since it gives you more sustain in extended fights which is where Pantheon excels at. Next, take Triumph for the health regen and bonus gold, Legend: Tenacity to help you resist and recover from crowd control, and Coup de Grace to finish off low health targets. For your secondaries, take Biscuit Delivery and Timewarp Tonic from the Inspiration tree. For rune shards, take double adaptive force and armor. 

Useful Tips

1. Pantheon isn’t as strong in the late game if he falls behind early on. Make sure to play aggressive since you can easily win 1v1s and secure leads.
2. Comet Spear has a surprisingly long range so use it to harass your opponent when they try to hide behind their minions.
3. While Pantheon is strong in most matchups, certain champions can still counter him hard. Champions with lock down CC like Malzahar, Viktor, or Anivia can prevent him from ever getting close thanks to their abilities. Make sure to ban these champions if you can.
4. Take Teleport and Flash for your summoner spells. If you’re playing mid, you can swap out Teleport with Ignite or Exhaust depending on your matchup.

So there you have it! That’s all you need to know about playing Pantheon in League of Legends. Be sure to check back with us again for more guides on your favorite games. Have fun and we’ll see you on the Rift!