Pantheon Support Strategy Guide

Weird Pick #121

Pantheon Support Strategy Guide - Weird Picks #121

September 2019

Pantheon's rework has made him in many ways, a much better support than before. That's not to say that he's a great support, but with his current numbers, he's very viable as a kill lane with his point-and-click stun. His damage output is also excellent even without items, and if you're looking for a refreshing new option, Pantheon is quite a fun pick up. Check out how to play him below!

Guide to Playing Pantheon Support

Below is a guide on how to play Pantheon Support. We'll talk about how to play him, the rune set up, the item build, how Pantheon Support works, the drawbacks of Pantheon Support and how to counter it.

Pantheon's rework has made him in many ways, a much better support than before. That's not to say that he's a great support, but with his current numbers, he's very viable as a kill lane with his point-and-click stun. His damage output is also excellent even without items, and if you're looking for a refreshing new option, Pantheon is quite a fun pick up. Check out how to play him below!

Pantheon Support Table of Contents:

How to Play Pantheon Support
Pantheon Support Rune Setup
How Pantheon Support Works
Potential Pitfalls of Pantheon Support
Countering Pantheon Support

How to Play

Abilities: W, Q, E then prioritize R > Q > E > W
Summoner Spells: Flash + Ignite
Starting Items: World Atlas + Health Potion
Core Items: Bloodsong
Youmuu's Ghostblade
Boots of Swiftness
Voltaic Cyclosword
Black Cleaver
Guardian Angel

Rune Setup

Pantheon Support Strategy Guide - Weird Picks #121 rune page

How It Works

Massive Early Game Cheese
Pantheon's level one W is incredibly good for invades and also for cheesing enemy laners early game. It's more consistent than Rakan's W or Nautilus Q, and we all know how effective those can be. Meanwhile, with the new execute damage on Pantheon's tapped Q, he has more free damage than ever before.

Excellent Poke Damage
Pantheon's Q is extremely good for poke damage, especially now that it deals AOE. The mana cost is also not prohibitively high, meaning that he can continuously poke down enemy champions just as well as other poke mages.

Great All-In
Most poke mages have trouble executing good all-ins. However, Pantheon isn't subject to this problem. In fact, with Aftershock he can initiate at will and deal massive damage to enemy laners through the entire game.

High Effective Roaming/Diving Power
Pantheon's reworked E is great for tower diving, and is great for keeping him alive as he tanks turrets while his marksman mows down enemy laners.

Potential Pitfalls

No Sustain
Outside of his World Atlas, Pantheon has no form of sustain or shields for his markman, making this a pure kill-lane that's reliant on the enemy jungler not camping you and/or your own jungler assisting bot lane.

Snowball Reliant
Although Pantheon is good at poke damage, he's really still very reliant on getting early game kills in order to stay relevant. Without this, he ends up falling off pretty hard into the game, especially with a lethality build.

Countering Pantheon Support

Champions like Thresh, Janna, or even Poppy do very well against Pantheon support as they have the ability to block his stun. Generally speaking, denying Pantheon kills early game is sufficient to keep him from being effective later in the game.

Conclusions

Pantheon Support is very viable as a kill-lane support, but would need to be paired with another early game champion like Draven or Lucian in order to snowball and stay relevant. In a weaker lane he may have a lot of trouble succeeding in his all-ins.

Suggested Tier: Tier 2