FOTM Report: Support Pantheon Surging

Guide to Playing Pantheon Support

Pantheon support is one of those aggressive supports that's always been somewhat viable, but lately, he's starting to become more and more popular, climbing each patch in popularity until now where he's nearing the top 10 in pick rate. What's so great about Pantheon support and why should you play him?

Check out the details on runes and builds below!

Guide to Playing Pantheon Support

Pantheon support is one of those aggressive supports that's always been somewhat viable, but lately, he's starting to become more and more popular, climbing each patch in popularity until now where he's nearing the top 10 in pick rate. What's so great about Pantheon support and why should you play him?

op.gg pick rate tracker by patch

Check out the details on runes and builds below!

How to Play

Abilities: W, Q, E then prioritize R > Q > E > W

Summoner Spells: Flash + Ignite

Starting Items: Steel Shoulderguards + Health Potions

Strategy: Push for level 2 then all-in if you hit level 2 before then, else wait for level 3 and a minion advantage/jungle gank then all-in

Core Items: Pauldrons of Whiterock, Umbral Glaive, Black Cleaver, Ninja Tabi, Executioner's Calling (later upgraded to Mortal Reminder if needed), Guardian Angel

Rune Setup

Primary: Conqueror, Presence of Mind, Legend: Tenacity, Coup De Grace

Secondary: Relentless Hunter, Zombie Ward

How It Works

Easy Level 2 All-In
When it comes to all-in power, few are as strong as Pantheon and nobody is as consistent. One of the last remaining point and click CC's in the game, Pantheon's W gives him unmitigated ability to CC the enemy and at minimum force a flash. His mortal will skill also gives him burst damage comparable to Leona if not higher at level 2.

Decent Poke and Execution Damage

Although Pantheon's poke isn't anything fascinating to write home about, it gives him significant poke damage and excellent execution damage, especially when it's stacked with Mortal Will.

Absolute Defense

There are few champions that can boast about their absolutely defense and Pantheon is one of them. Good timing of his E gives him the ability to completely mitigate incoming damage, which helps him win trades or at least delay enemy burst long enough to gain an advantage.

Powerful Roaming Ability

Post level six, Pantheon's roaming ability is extremely high. By establishing good ward control, Pantheon can pressure mid by disappearing or bait bot lane into engaging, whichever is more beneficial to his team.

Potential Pitfalls

No Sustain
Similar to other all-in support, Pantheon is lacking in sustain. This means that if he's not landing his skill shots or executing good all-ins, he's relatively low impact. However, this isn't any worse than most other all-in champions.

Single Target CC

While good for roaming and early game, late game Pantheon isn't quite as impactful as many other engage supports as a result of his single target crowd-control whereas a lot of other supports pack massive AOE crowd-control engagement spells.

Countering Pantheon Support

Countering Pantheon support generally involves picking up someone that scales better into the late game like Rakan or an anti-engage champion like Taric.

Conclusions

Pantheon support is definitely decent and can control laning phase 2v2 fairly well. However, he's not quite as good as a lot of other supports late-game simply because his support-esque tools aren't quite as game-changing.

Suggested Tier: Tier 2