League of Legends - Pantheon Guide and Build (Jungle and Top)

Are you looking for a Season 3 Pantheon guide or a Pantheon build? This page covers the basics of playing Pantheon (Jungle and Top) effectively including skills, runes, masteries, tips and includes custom skins.

Pantheon is a strong early-mid game champion with powerful burst damage. His skills are all physical based making armor penetration and attack damage key components of any Pantheon build. Pantheon packs a stun as well as a long range ultimate that allows him to jump on top of his enemies from great distances.

This Pantheon guide and build aims to be a basic and simple introduction on basic strategy that should be adopted when playing Pantheon, it is recommended for people just starting to use Pantheon.

Don't own Pantheon? Or want to get one of the many Pantheon skins available? Click here to Learn how to get your hands on some free RP.

Guide current as of Season 3: Release Notes v3.02

This Pantheon guide is also available in summary format (thanks to LeagueCraft.com).

Images on this page are sourced from the official League of Legends website and the game client. They are used for review, commentary and educational purposes.

Aegis Protection (Passive): This skill turns Pantheon into a dominating lane force as well making him a strong melee champion. You should always try to have your shield up especially during laning phase. It can also block tower hits, giving Pantheon some tower-diving capabilities.

Spear Shot (Q): A great harassment skill with a low mana cost and low cooldown. It deals strong damage especially during the early-mid phases of the game and scales very well with attack damage. Combined with Pantheon's combo this skill is great to finish off fleeing enemies and also applies the passive guaranteed critical chance of Heartseeker Strike.

Aegis of Zeonia (W): This allows Pantheon to close the gaps between him and his enemies and is what makes jungle Pantheon so powerful. During the laning phase you can camp in the brush and use this to zone out your opponents.

Heartseeker Strike (E): The passive from this skill helps Pantheon finish off low health enemies, while the active gives him great area of effect damage in team fights and considerable single target burst damage.

Grand Skyfall (Ultimate): Pantheon's ultimate is hard to hit and takes some getting used to, but is very deadly. It is best used to tower dive enemies and save your towers but is also a great teamfight asset if you are able to land it correctly.

Ult > Spear Shot > Heartseeker Strike > Aegis of Zeonia

Pantheon is relatively straight forward when it comes to skill order. The skill order shown here is also used for jungle Pantheon.

Spear Shot is leveled up first as it is a very powerful lane harassment tool and also allows you to last hit if you are being dominated in your lane. Grabbing an early point in Aegis of Zeonia is a must for the stun it provides, but is not maxed until last as the stun duration does not increase with levels. Because of this you want to max Heartseeker Strike second to increase its power.

Red (Marks) - Attack Damage // Armor Penetration

Yellow (Seals) - Armor // Mana Regeneration Per Level

Blue (Glyphs) - Magic Resistance Per Level

Purple (Quintessences) - Attack Damage // Armor Penetration // Health

This Pantheon rune page focuses on giving Pantheon maximum attack damage (provided by Marks and Quintessences) to boost his early game damage with Spear Shot (which has a strong ratio). Armor on Seals are your best option as they reduce income damage you'll take in your lane, if you don't have armor runes or are going mid (instead of top) you can get away with mana regeneration per level.

Glyphs are there to boost your magic resistance although your jungle Pantheon runes can run attack speed to boost your jungle speed. You can also mix up your Quintessences depending on your available runes and playstyle to include Health or Armor Penetration.

Learn more about rune choices or about jungle Pantheon runes, visit the Rune Page Guide.

Best Summoner Spells:

-Flash

-Ignite

Flash and Ignite are very powerful on Pantheon. Flash gives him a strong escape and initiation ability while Ignite boosts his strong burst damage and gives him the extra power he needs to secure kills.

Other Good Summoner Spells:

-Exhaust

-Cleanse

-Smite

Pantheon can also run Exhaust to aid his strong 1v1 abilities and is particularly a good choice if nobody else on your team has Exhaust, although it may cost you some early game kills. Alternatively, you can pick up Cleanse to help you get out of crowd control effects if the enemy is CC heavy. Of course if you are playing jungle Pantheon you'll want to pick up Smite.

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A 11/12/7 setup for Pantheon attempts to cover a number of weaknesses that Pantheon has, that is he needs armor penetration (covered by the offensive tree), he is melee and needs to be durable (covered by the defense tree) and can definitely have some mana issues (covered by the utility tree).

In the end your Pantheon masteries should be based on your preferences, a 21/0/9 setup focusing on damage output or a 9/21/0 setup focusing on defenses are also effective on Pantheon. Jungle Pantheon masteries can also use a 21/9/0 setup which provides powerful damage for early ganks and jungle clear times while providing the extra defenses.

To learn more about masteries and your mastery options, visit the LoL Masteries Guide.

Items To Build On Pantheon

Final Item Build:

-Mercury's Treads or Ninja Tabi

-Youmuu's Ghostblade

-Last Whisper

-Bloodthirster

-Frozen Mallet

-Randuin's Omen

Steps/Reasoning:

-Open with Boots + 3 Health Potions.

-From here you'll want to build towards a Phage and also grab a Doran's Blade or two to boost your important stats (health, life-steal and damage).

-The next item that rounds out your core is Brutalizer giving you armor penetration and cooldown (both important).

-From here you'll want to continue building damage items such as The Bloodthirster, Last Whisper and ultimately finishing Youmuu's Ghostblade (mostly for the active bonus, especially movement speed).

-Alternatively if the game isn't going well then consider more defensive options such as Frozen Mallet and Randuin's Omen.

Alternatives:

-Wriggle's Lantern (If you are playing jungle Pantheon then you want to build this).

-Guardian Angel (Boosts both your resistances and gain a useful passive).

-Banshee's Veil (An item to consider if you need more magic resistance).

-Maw of Malmortius (Another item to consider if the enemy is AP champion heavy, since it also offers attack damage it's a good balance of offensive and defense).

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• Pantheon's basic combo is Spear Shot > Aegis of Zeonia > Heartseeker Strike > Spear Shot, this causes massive damage and is hard to retaliate against because of Pantheon's passive.
• Heartseeker's passive effect makes you an incredible finisher, don't forget that when a champion gets low that you have that little bit of extra damage available.
• Pantheon is fairly squishy for his role (it especially comes out during late game) be sure to time carefully when you enter team fights. Also don't be afraid to build on the defensive side if need be.
• Your ultimate is best used on enemies near their tower as you can be sure they won't move.
• Try to predict an enemies movement for your ultimate, you will slowly get better as you play Pantheon more often.

• Spear Shot should be used to harass and last hit when necessary if you are getting bullied.
• Use Heartseeker Strike sparingly as it will quickly drain your mana, save it for your combo.
• Use the side bushes to your advantage, Aegis of Zeonia will help you control the lane.
• Keep your passive up as much as possible, it is incredible at preventing harassment and keeps your options open for tower-diving.

• Your combo really starts to hurt now, combined with Ignite you should be looking to pick up some kills at this stage of the game (especially if you haven't already).
• Pick on the enemies squishy characters as much as possible when they over commit in team fights, you can quickly take down their health.
• During this stage your ultimate is great to tower dive enemies that are playing too passively (potentially leading to towers or dragon kills).

• Your combo is starting to reach its full potential, you will start seeing an increase in the damage provided by Heartseeker Strike. It can also be used to farm and push lanes if necessary.
• Be careful about overcommitment when you unleash your combo, Heartseeker Strike leaves you vulnerable with minimal escaping options.
• Stay to the back of team fights, pick off their squish champions, or hit multiple enemies with Heartseeker Strike if the opportunity arises.
• If you can land your ultimate on a team fight it can be devastating.