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Hello there. For this guide I'm going to assume that the player reading this already understands the basics of the game and how Pantheon's moves work. I will also assume that the player is level 30 with a full rune page. It is my suggestion to not play Pantheon without a full rune page and all of the masteries available. I haven't seen a champion that is as dependent on runes/masteries as Pantheon is. With that said, let's get started!
Play Style
When I play Pantheon I like to play him with a few things in mind: he has a very strong early game, his ult is a strong gank/anti-gank move, and he can beat most ranged dps in 1v1 scenario. I never use his E as it is weaker than auto attacks, I only use it while exhausted or rooted or if I can hit multiple champions at once.
His early game is very very strong, the combination of Q, W and his passive allow him to dominate most lanes. This requires a lot of mana regen at level 1, high mobility (this allows you to trade a Q for less auto attacks from an enemy ranged champ), and high starting damage and armor penetration. Also, whenever my lane becomes pushed I look for possible gank opportunities in other lanes because Pantheon ganks well.
Once I hit 6 I immediately look for possible ults. His ult allows your team to roam the enemy jungle (for the most part) and do dragon if they have team members that are out of position (mainly this just means if someone on the enemy team is in top lane). If a team member gets ganked (or ganks for that matter) I try to ult and help them out. Usually people don't account for the possible Pantheon ult. I also use Pantheon's ult mainly for positioning. Trying to actually hit people with his ult is very very hard and it shows them that I'm entering the fight. I prefer to ult out of sight of the enemy so they aren't prepared for a wild Pantheon to appear. Ulting in this way can cause people to over-extend because they don't know I'm coming.
Late game is tricky with Pantheon. I tend to build him with high dps and relatively low survivability, so I try to play him as somewhat of an assassin. I like to use my ult to enter teamfights out of sight of the enemy tanks and jump on their dps. This requires good vision of the teamfight area, so try to get your team to help you ward important objectives such as baron or dragon.
Skill Order
R > Q > W > E
The only exception is at lvl 4 in which I would recommend getting 1 level in E for the crit chance passive.
Build
--boots + pots --2-3 doran blades --brutalizer --ghostblade --merc treads --last whisper or blood thirster depending on how much armor the other team has (lower armor go for the bloodthirster, higher armor get last whisper) --Banshee's/Randuin's/Guardian Angel, this mainly depends on the enemy team comp, if they're cc heavy I go banshee's, if not go Randuin's or GA --After this I take last whisper or blood thirster depending on which item you bought earlier --At this point I have one more slot, and it would best be spent getting something that either makes you tanky or deals with CC well (QSS/Banshee's/Randuin 's depending on what I bought earlier)
Summoner Spells
Ghost and Flash
These summoner spells allow Pantheon to stick on the ranged carry he's chasing after and to avoid ganks while harassing heavily during the laning phase.
Revive is also viable option however I'm terrible at using revive (I forget I have it) so I decided to use flash xD.
Masteries
21 | 8 | 1
Offensive Take everything that benefits Pantheon the most: Armor Pen Damage Crit Damage Attack Speed
Defensive Armor MR Strength of Spirit
(I feel armor/mr + strength of spirit is better than the xp from the utility tree)
Utility Improved Ghost
Runes
Marks Flat Damage
Seals Flat Mana Regen
Glyphs Mana Regen per Level
Quintessences Flat Armor Penetration
Keeping in mind my play style, I like to provide myself with a very strong early game, so I've devised this rune page and it's been working well for me. Damage marks are in general stronger than armor pen when a target has less than 30 armor (this goes with my early game focus). Flat mana regen seals allow Panth to take the offensive mastery and not run out of mana while harassing with Q early in the game. Mana regen per level glyphs allow Panth to itemize for damage/toughness late game without having mana problems. Armor Pen Quintessences give Panth 16 starting armor pen (this includes masteries. Most ranged dps/casters start out with 12-25 armor depending on masteries and rune pages)
I think that about covers it. Go out there and smash some faces!
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United States37500 Posts
LoCi #1
You going to do a Veigar one too? <3
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OMG LoCi writing guides for us! Thanks a lot for this, will not even think about arguing with this content
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Nice! Funny story, was playing Pantheon and ran into a Yi. I decided to 1v1 him and found out I was oom to stun/spear. He just bought a wits end T_T
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How much more does your Q do @ lvl 1 with damage marks on say a 20 defense Ashe?
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maknoon seems to go mallet + atmas + ghostblade according to his last 2 games, any thoughts on this?
also, smash likes to do tank panth vs your anti-carry panth, is it more of a playstyle choice? i'd imagine that anti-carry panth is a bit less reliant on your teammates, which makes it a bit better of a solo queue build. Is this the sole reason or are there other considerations you make (i.e. an enemy comp that would encourage you to build off-tank, or the recent trend in ranged carries makes dps panth better)
from your #1 fan
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On November 09 2010 08:23 NeoIllusions wrote: LoCi #1
You going to do a Veigar one too? <3
farm with q until you can instagib everyone
^ #1 veigar guide
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On November 09 2010 08:23 NeoIllusions wrote: LoCi #1
You going to do a Veigar one too? <3
and Nasus plz
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On November 09 2010 09:01 barbsq wrote: maknoon seems to go mallet + atmas + ghostblade according to his last 2 games, any thoughts on this?
also, smash likes to do tank panth vs your anti-carry panth, is it more of a playstyle choice? i'd imagine that anti-carry panth is a bit less reliant on your teammates, which makes it a bit better of a solo queue build. Is this the sole reason or are there other considerations you make (i.e. an enemy comp that would encourage you to build off-tank, or the recent trend in ranged carries makes dps panth better)
from your #1 fan
Just different play styles, this guide is just the way I play Pantheon. It wouldn't be fair for me to say something is better or worse than another when I haven't thoroughly tried both. MaKNooN and Smash are both good players, so if it works for them it's probably a good build then =). I just feel that (at least in solo queue) I can have more of an effect if I am able to dish out enough damage to make myself a threat, especially if I take solo lane xp and gold.
Also, Smash, feel free to post your thoughts and builds here as well, the more suggestions the better.
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I like to go ghostblade/bruta into banshee's veil >: )
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loci, quick, 100% improvement suggestion.
ditch 6 flat damage marks and replace them with armor pen marks, replace your quints with Flat Damage. 6 Marks = 10 ArPen, 3 Quints = 10 ArPen. 6 Marks = 5.4 damage, 3 Quints = 6.75 damage. Straight up better to get the armor pen from marks than quints.
Interesting though, I opt for much more utility and defense to try to play attrition, but I'll try some of your stuff out tonight and I'll post my thoughts and the builds I usually do.
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United States37500 Posts
mega Panth pow-wow going on in here. Need to go get MakNooN, brb.
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What are your thoughts on going 0/21/9 instead?
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Marshall Islands3404 Posts
On November 09 2010 11:43 nyxnyxnyx wrote: What are your thoughts on going 0/21/9 instead?
0-21-9 is when you do the ghost/revive shit and build tanky with atma's and brutalizer imo. more maknoon style. just different style imouimuoumuoumoumuo
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Can you elaborate on the 21st point in Offensive Mastery? As far as I know it only boosts non-scaling damage (i.e. base damage of attacks and spells) and so wouldn't that make it fairly lackluster on his Q which derives most of its damage from his attack damage? I just feel like you can get something better for the point
And for the crit damage, since your focus is on early game dominance I will take a level 4 skirmish (when you said you get your E)
At level 4 you have 78.015 AD (62.3 base *1.05 for offense mastery = 65.415 + 3 from masteries + 6.75 from quints + 2.85 from 3 flat AD marks) meaning your critical strike for their low health will hit for 163.8315.
If however you go more into utility, say just far enough to get the exp mastery (losing Offensive Mastery, crit damage and 3 AD) you will hit for 143.8 with the same crit. Both these numbers are "true" damage.
That means your target would need more then 1092.21 EHP against physical attacks with your current set up (assuming you switch to Smash's rune set up) or 958.667 EHP with the utility set up. Presuming the target has 30 armor, which may be high or low depending on the match up so this comparison isn't perfect, and you have 16 arpen, the target's max health would need to be greater then:
958.078 Max HP for the offensive mastery set-up 840.935 Max HP for the utility mastery set-up
I guess the point of all this math is if you are facing someone who will have circa 840 health at level 4 then you can be equally effective in lane against them with the experience mastery then the offensive one (read: still kill them in one crit once they are at or below 15% health) but if you think they will have more then that use the offensive set-up or try and save a Q for when they run.
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hmm, not sure about the mastery thing yet, but on first try, the loci build hits like a fucking truck all game long. I honetly think the most revolutionary part of it to me is the 2-dblades, which for whatever reason I thought would slow Pantheon down too much but sweet merciful crap is it powerful. I miss the early mana regen of my 0/14/16 setup, but I haven't yet switch to doing some flat mana regen seals which may or may not sure this issue up. I'm super intrigued though because playing it correctly I was a fucking monster end game, dashing in and out of fights jumping and instagibbing ashe/annie/WW, it was a nice change of pace from the "omg, I hope they focus me and my team is good!" tanktheon build I had been using.
I had also lost confidence in boots first openings after failing mid vs. locodoco's trist and had gone back to opening red pot, but transitioning back to boots first felt smooth and I think I can relearn playing boots first matchups pretty quickly (though it still feels weird at first on lane vs. trist/mf/ashe when they come out with like 700 HP and trade a couple hundred HP in harass right off the bat... I dunno I think I just need to learn where to take safe autoattacks to get shield procs up better, I'm pretty sure that's what killed me vs. loco). perhaps red is necessary due to the close quarters at mid, whereas boots work better top, I'm not sure, have any thoughts Loci?
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Wow really interesting stuff. I can't wait to try out some of your guys' suggestions. I was wondering if you guys found the pantheon build I have been running to be any decent and would like your opinions on it if possible. I have almost exclusively been playing a hybrid anti-carry/ tank Pantheon. Focusing on the utility tree with 9 points on the defensive masteries and going armor seals and mr per level glyphs with my marks and quints being armor pen. My two main items being ghostblade and brutalizer than I go straight into tank items. With the amount of armor pen (also the cheap atk damage) I get I feel as though I'm a constant threat to the oppositions carry (the active on ghostblade is just amazing) throughout the game. After I mainly stack all tank items, ranging from Banshees to Randuins and sometimes Sunfires. With the ghostblade I can almost always focus down their carry while at the same time being basically a tank. Also I feel that this way you can use your ult to be more offensive and actually jump into fights and then stun and destroy their carrying after jumping into the enemy team (as the enemy team is just wasting their time if they try to focus you as you are a tank). I find this build really effective because pantheon is so great early game that you can just be on top of anyone solo and then transitioning into a tank that can still dominate their carry is something I really find appealing. However the only downside is your team needs another carry or another form of dps as my pantheon just handles their carry and becomes an effective stun bot/tank.
Sorry if the post is long, but I really would like some feedback from some of the top pantheon players as I mostly play pantheon myself. I also can't wait to tryout Loci's pure anti carry and dps build. It sounds pretty devastating.
Man Drop away my fellow Pantheonians
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United States37500 Posts
Doran stacking... never fails.
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On November 09 2010 14:21 yazu wrote: Wow really interesting stuff. I can't wait to try out some of your guys' suggestions. I was wondering if you guys found the pantheon build I have been running to be any decent and would like your opinions on it if possible. I have almost exclusively been playing a hybrid anti-carry/ tank Pantheon. Focusing on the utility tree with 9 points on the defensive masteries and going armor seals and mr per level glyphs with my marks and quints being armor pen. My two main items being ghostblade and brutalizer than I go straight into tank items. With the amount of armor pen (also the cheap atk damage) I get I feel as though I'm a constant threat to the oppositions carry (the active on ghostblade is just amazing) throughout the game. After I mainly stack all tank items, ranging from Banshees to Randuins and sometimes Sunfires. With the ghostblade I can almost always focus down their carry while at the same time being basically a tank. Also I feel that this way you can use your ult to be more offensive and actually jump into fights and then stun and destroy their carrying after jumping into the enemy team (as the enemy team is just wasting their time if they try to focus you as you are a tank). I find this build really effective because pantheon is so great early game that you can just be on top of anyone solo and then transitioning into a tank that can still dominate their carry is something I really find appealing. However the only downside is your team needs another carry or another form of dps as my pantheon just handles their carry and becomes an effective stun bot/tank.
Sorry if the post is long, but I really would like some feedback from some of the top pantheon players as I mostly play pantheon myself. I also can't wait to tryout Loci's pure anti carry and dps build. It sounds pretty devastating.
Man Drop away my fellow Pantheonians uh, so for tanktheon, I actually suggest skipping that 2nd brutalizer, it slows you down too much and is dead weight end game. The way I play it is bruta -> HoG -> Banshee's + Omen + Ghostblade (w/e order makes sense) -> Atma's impaler. Last item slot goes to Frozen mallet to make yourself truly no-escape combined with omen. However, my first impression is that Loci's build plays to pantheon's strengths much better than the tanktheon build does. One of the really interesting things I noticed was that between Ghostblade and LW, I actually had enough attack speed to maintain a few shield procs in teamfights so that even at only 87 armor, I wasn't too concerned with their phsycial damage output, which let me feel comfy going banshees to stop annie/WW from insta-gibbing me without worrying about the physical side of things.
Again, I'm really not sold on 21 offensive masteries (<3 utility), but the damage runes and some flat mana regen (I'm opting for 6 yellow flat mana regens and the rest of blue and yellow on per levels), do feel very very nice. It's really weird, but I'm actually considering some wonky shit like 11/7/12 now on the mastery setup to snag armor pen, strength of spirit, and meditation. I WANT MY CAKE AND TO EAT IT TOO DAMNIT!
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What do I do top lane 1v1 vs garen? I zoned him super hard for the first part of the game but as soon as he got his warwick to come top he got time to grab his chain mail and that just screwed me over.
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