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If you want to play an hyper-aggressive champion, that becomes quite tanky in lategame
without losing too much of his early and midgame damage-presence, Pantheon is your man!

In my opinion he is the perfect combination of a "jump-in-assassin" champion like KhaZix
and the honeybadger called Olaf - if you decide to play Pantheon, you will have some intense
action and tons of trolling fun, I promise!

Your first question schould of course be: "What lane do I want to play?"

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In most cases I would say that you should decide for the toplane. Why? First of all I do think that Pantheon should be played at the toplane, because you will have a higher chance to face
an opponent that is melee. Melee champions are your favorite opponents, because ur skills do
a great job against them - I will explain Pantheons skills and how to use them later.
Of course you may pick Pantheon for mid or jungle - but in my opinion there are better champions
for these lanes: Pantheon is not one of the faster junglers and his skills are designed for
1on1 fights mainly. The second reason against Pantheon as jungler is that you are depending
on your items a lot: On toplane you will have better farm, that will be converted into damage.
You may - against some champions - play Pantheon in midlane if you have
the chance to counter your enemy. I do prefer toplane over midlane because there are more often
melee champions in top and there is only one way for the enemy jungler to gank you. The multiple
ganking-paths that are connected with midlane do make it harder for you to play the aggressive
game that Pantheon wants to play.

Your second question might be: "Against what champion should I pick Pantheon?"

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First of all I do want you to check the opponents picks before you pick Pantheon - as an
experienced player you should not just be like "I do not care at all what the enemy team
is doing - I play the champion I want to play!", because your chance to win will raise if
you start thinking about the situation you will be in at your lane (enemy top/midlaner and enemy jungler?).
After you checked the (for every non-professional player) neccessary www.lolcounter.com
and you are sure that the opponent toplaner and/or jungler will not make your life living hell
you should pick Pantheon.

Aegis Protection - Passive

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Your main defensive ability provides you a shield that blocks an autoattack or some skillshots like Ezreals Q. All you got to do to get the shield is attack 4 times (it does not matter if you use autoattack or your spells).
In your lane and in the jungle this passive will every few seconds block incoming damage, which allows you to kill creeps in jungle without losing that much life and - even more important - gives you a great chance to trade hits in a 1on1 situation.

Spear Shot - Q

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Your Q, Spear Shot, is your primary skill. You will max it first and try to spam it every time
it is off cooldown. This spell does not need that much of aan explanation, because all you got to do is nail your enemy's face with it.

Aegis of Zeonia - W

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Your Aegis of Zeonia is a both defensive and offensive skill:
Offensive use: Pantheon leaps at his enemy and stuns him for one second.
This Skill gives Pantheon the ability to jungle because the stun makes his ganks more efficient.
Of course the stun is useful for your laning aswell, cause it gives you the chance to interrupt
chanelling spells or the enemy from hitting you.
Defensive use: The great use of your W is shown in 1v1 fights. Every time Pantheon stuns an enemy
he will instantly gain Aegis Protection that blocks the next incoming enemy.

Heartseeker Strike - E

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Passive: Pantheons auto attacks and Spear Shots deal critical damage with a 100% chance if the target's hp is under 15%.
Active: Pantheon hits enemies in a cone in front of him for 3 times in 0,75 seconds. All 3 strikes deal physical damage, champions do take double damage.

Grand Skyfall - R

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Pantheon channels for 2 seconds and jumps into the sky. 1,5 seconds later he he crashes down at the his darget and deals magic damage (100% damage in the middle, scaling down to 50% in the outer area of the circle. If Pantheon jumps on his enemies' heads, they are slowed by 35%. If you stop channeling his ultimate, the cooldown will be reset to 10 seconds.

Red: 9x Armor penetration:

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Armor penetration will not only buff your autoattack damage but also the power of your Q and E skill. They are a great choice for toplane because most of your enemies will go and stack armor after they recognized that your spears hurt like hell.

Yellow: 9x Flat armor:

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Best choice against nearly every champion, because it reduces the damage of all incoming autoattacks from your enemy and his creeps.

Blue: 9x Magic resist:

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I really love these runes, because the stats they grant you might already be enough against some champions and allow you to focus more on damage or armor. If your enemy does a lot of magic damage you can buy Mercury's Treads and you will be fine.

Quints: 3x Attack damage:

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I do prefer 3x attack damage over movement speed, hp and so on, because they have great synergy with your 9 armor penetration runes. Everytime I played Pantheon with armor penetration runes and without attack damage quints, I felt like there was not enough damage in the first minutes of the game.

In my opinion you should always decide for Flash in combination with Ignite. Flash grants you great mobility in defensive and offensive situations. Ignite is as good as Flash because it provides a great damage-plus in a 1on1 fight, reduces the enemy's healing and gives you +5 AD and AP for the time it is on cooldown because we do chose Summoner's Wrath.

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I max Spear Shot as soon as possible, because it's damage is brutal in early- and early midgame but falls off later.
Another argument for the Spear Shot is it's lower mana cost (45 at all levels compared to 45/50/45/60/65).

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I skill the Aegis of Zeonia at level 2 (take a look at "The early game") and max it last,
because the stun duration will stay 1 second at all levels and this skill is not as good
as your Spear Shot and Heartseeker Strike concerning damage output and offensive playstyle.

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You should max your Heartseeker Strike second, because it has great damage output and does not fall off as fast as the Spear Shot.

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Put a point in Grand Skyfall at level 6, 11 and 16. You might think that you rather pick your Spear Shot or Heartseeker Strike instead, because they provide guaranteed damage. But: With some practice you will be able to land your Grand Skyfall properly. Go and max your ultimate as soon as possible and make them suffer - 1000 damage at level 3 should do the job!

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Note: I tried to use skillbuilds that max Heartseeker Strike before Spear Shot or mix both of them and I felt like my skillbuild suites Pantheon better. The low mana cost of Spear Shot at all levels, the lower cooldown and theguaranteed single target damage, that does not push your lane and put you into a bad spot, make me say, that Spear Shot is a better skill for the first minutes of the game.

Starting items:

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Boots + 3x Health Potion
Crystalline Flask + 2x Health Potion + sight ward
Rejuvenation Bead + Faerie Charm + 3x Health Potion into philosopher's stone

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Then: Depending on gold:

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In any case: sight ward
Then (low budget): Doran's Blade or philosopher's stone and Boots
or: Boots and Long Sword/ The Brutalizer

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Then: Depending on enemy:

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In any case: sight ward
Then (AD enemy): Ninja Tabi or (CC/Magic Dmg enemy) Mercury's Treads
and: The Brutalizer and: Phage

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Next: Depending on current situation:

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As before: sight ward
Then (rather negative situation): Ruby Crystal for Black Cleaver or Giant's Belt for Frozen Mallet or Sunfire Aegis.

(bad situation, heavy auto attacker): Stack armor and start building towards Warden's Mail.

(bad/decent situation, magic dmg enemy): Stack magic res, for example with a Hexdrinker.

Then (good Situation): Finish Black Cleaver and start Maw of Malmortius or Bloodthirster or Infinity Edge.

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In Mid/Lategame: Take a look at what your team needs now:

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If your team needs even more damage: Make sure you got Black Cleaver, Bloodthirster and Maw of Malmortius.
If your team needs a tanky innitiator: Get Frozen Mallet / Sunfire Aegis / Randuin's Omen / Warmog's Armor.

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In Lategame: Go tanky (your damage will fall off in lategame):

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Warmog's Armor / Sunfire Aegis / Randuin's Omen / Maw of Malmortius / Guardian Angel / Runic Bulwark.
Or (If you are tanky enoguh): Atma's Impaler.

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If your support did not get Shurelyas: Shurelya's Battlesong

Once the creeps arrive at the lane you start harrassing the enemy champion with your Q. In addition to this you should trade a hit with your enemy every time you have your Aegies Protection up. Make sure that you kill one or two creeps more then your opponent, so you will be Level 2 first.

You are level 2 - The most important seconds in early game:

Make sure that you are at 100% hp when you reach level 2 and skill your W.
All you have to do now is go and start attack your enemy. Do not forget to
throw a spear in his face when it is off cooldown ! After the enemy did hit
you back and your Aegis Protection popped, you hit him one more time and stun him before his next attack hits you. You should now use Ignite and keep attacking and spear-shooting your opponent. If the enemy blinks out with Flash, feel free to follow him - remember that your attacks and Qs will do critical damage now!

After you killed your enemy or send him back to base you have to decide if you go back and heal aswell or go on and farm. If your lane is pushed and your are low in hp you should go back and use the possible gold lead you have right now. If you are still looking good after your first little fight you should go on and farm some more to gain a financial advantage.

First back:

Get a ward! All you have to do now is defend your possible advantage - prevent enemy ganks, don't overextend, don't be greedy. If you started with Rejuvenation Bead and Faerie Charm you should get boots and/or the Philosopher's Stone. If you started with boots and don't want to buy the Philosopher's Stone because you know that the next minutes in your lane will be easy, you should go and get Doran's Blade or start building your Brutalizer. Do not forget to buy enough healpots, you will need them to go on playing your aggressive playstyle.

Don't stop harrassing your enemy with your spears. You may also use your E, but you should focus on your Q, because it does more damage and will not push the lane. As I said before you will go in and trade hits, when your Shield is up, and stun your enemy if he is stupid enough to stay where he is instead of running away.

You should go on like this for the next minutes and try to farm as much as you can. In early midgame you should have these items:

Ninja Tabi/Mercury's Treads, Doran's Blade or Philosopher's Stone, Brutalizer, Phage.

When you reach level 6 there is another great possibility to gain a little advantage over your enemy:

Go and throw everything you have at him (I do not mean your summoner spells!) and port back to base if you have enough money for a shopping tour. When you are ready to return to the lane you start walking towards it and use your Great Skyfall when you come into range. This will give you atleast 15 seconds of time, that the other has to walk. If you try to use Great Skyfall as the innitiation for your next 1v1 on toplane, you should try to predict your enemy's movement: Place the Skyfall between your enemy and his tower, so that he will run straight into your ultimate's core to reach his tower.

And again: Do not forget to buy wards and make sure, that you can see the incoming enemy ganks !

Your task in the midgame is to innitiate fights and ganks with your Grand Skyfall and your Aegis of Zeonia. With the burst damage your items grant you, it is easy for you to focus a low health target, such as the AD or the AP carry. If you are able to hit your Grand Skyfall and snipe an enemy key-champion, you did a great job for your team. Make sure that your team is ready before you use your Grand Skyfall. In some teamfight-scenarios it might also be necessary for you to support your AD or AP carry, if he is heavily focused by an enemy champion such as KhaZix or Riven. Your stun and your heavy burst-damage make you the perfect champion for these situations. Always try to think about situation you are in, because if your team is defending your AD or AP carry, you will be alone when you attack the enemy key-champions.

In the lategame you are forced to play another role, because your huge early- and midgame burst will lose a part of his effectiveness because the enemies now have more HP and/or Armor. To prevent that you become useless for your team in this part of the game, you have to change your role from an AD caster to an AD of-tank. To manage this, you have to adapt your itembuild after you finished your "damage core" (Blackcleaver + Bloodthirster / Claw of M. / Infinity Edge). Start building tanky items that counter your enemy team's damage type. If the enemy team does lots of magic damage, you should build Banshee's Veil, Spirit Visage or Mercurial Scimitar. If you suffer the most, because the enemy AD carry and/or Jungler/Assassin/Offtank is focusing you, get Warmorgs, Sunfire Cape, Randuins Omen, Frozen or Frozen Mallet. If you have problems with your item decision, because the enemy deals magic and attack damage, feel free to build Runes Bulwark and the Guardian Angel - these items are great because they will grant you all the stats you need to tank the fights: HP, Armor, Magic resist. Dont be afraid to buy a Guardian Angel before you stacked tons of HP: In lots of situations your "jump the key-champion"-playstyle could make them all focus you - Guardian Angel is the perfect choice here.

Remember to fit to your new role:

1. Do not steal any kill that your AD or AP carry will need.

2. Support the support. The more wards you buy, the better your team will perform in fights, cause they will not be caught off guard.

3. Get an oracle. As a tank with a possible Guardian Angel you are a better oracle-carrier then your supporter (he simply dies more often.)

Pantheon is one of my favorite champions. I like the aggressive playstyle in early- and midgame aswell as the change from AD caster to Off-tank. I think Pantheon is a great champ because he is able to perform well with many itembuilds and provides a lot of fun while playing him.

If you read my guide enjoyed it, please rate ! :)

If there are any questions or ideas to improve the guide, feel free to leave a comment !

Thanks for reading.