League of Legends Classic is here, and with it, comes a host of classic champions thought lost to time via rework. One of them is
Pantheon: the original Artisan of War reworked back in 2019, seven years ago, and nine years after his original 2010 release. That means original Pantheon had been gone nearly as long as he’d been around. But now,
he’s back, and with him comes the unique playstyle that drew fans to the champ way back when.
League Classic Pantheon Abilities
Since Pantheon received a full rework, these are not the abilities that modern Pantheon players will one-to-one recognize. However, most of them are somewhat comparable to Pantheon of today, as his rework, while a complete one, was designed to preserve a lot of the gameplay loop of the original Pantheon.
Passive - Aegis Protection
Aegis Protection resembles modern Pantheon’s Mortal Will quite a bit, as a passive that collects stacks as Pantheon attacks and uses abilities. Unlike the 5-stack maximum of Mortal Will, Aegis Protection caps out at 4, and has a different (simpler) effect once stacked. It does not empower his next ability, but instead blocks the next attack he takes, or, crucially, the next shot from a turret. This means that timing Aegis Protection is crucial for Pantheon to perform a tower dive.
Q - Spear Shot
The namesake of the very well-known Pantheon-loving streamer, this ability is like a simplified version of modern Pantheon’s Comet Spear. It hurls a spear at the selected target, dealing 140% bonus AD damage. That’s all! It doesn’t have a wind-up, a quick stab low-range recast, and it’s not a skillshot either. It just does a lot of damage, on a point-and-click.
W - Aegis of Zeonia
With a name referring to lore seemingly long, long since removed (“Zeonia” also was briefly used in the 2013 PBE name for Relic Shield, apparently,) this W is actually pretty identical to modern Pantheon’s Shield Vault. For 55 mana, he dashes at a 600 target range, with a 13-9 second-by-level cooldown, and stuns them for 1 second. It does actually deal magic damage instead of physical, and has a full 100% AP scaling, but otherwise, use it the same as Pantheon W in the latest version of LoL.
E - Heartseeker Strike
Heartseeker Strike is Pantheon’s most different ability from new Panth, but visually resembles Aegis Assault in that Pantheon does a channel and does a flurry of spear stabs. But, rather than the invulnerability that comes with the modern E, this one is all damage. It has over double the AD scalings, with a 360% total bonus AD ratio, and does that damage in half the time. It’s also reduced against minions, and unlocks his Certain Death passive, which allows both Heartseeker Strike and Spear Shot to crit against enemies below 15% max health. It’s this passive that allows original Pantheon to play more like an assassin, using such obscene AD ratios and the increased damage to near-dead targets to blow enemies up swiftly after jumping on them.
R - Grand Skyfall
This one is named nearly the same as Grand Starfall, and its effect is also comparable. It’s a huge leap across the map, with the same 5500 target range. It marks a circle where Pantheon’s going to land, and enemies closest to the center of the circle take the most magic damage. This is another potent tool for tower-diving.
Level Order
Take Q level 1 for the ability to harass in lane, then W and E. Generally max Q first, to make poking consistently throughout the lane as high-damage as possible, and then E. E max first is also considerable if one wants to commit their lane more to all-in strategy, which is effective against targets that can shrug off the poke due to excessive tankiness.
How to play
Pantheon serves as quite the effective lane bully, spamming Q throughout the lane to repeatedly damage the opposing laner before committing to an all-in to finish the job. He’s strongest earlier in the game, so make sure to develop a lead with oppressive play, poking with Qs and tower diving through passive and R usage, so that the late game can be entered with an existing huge lead to offset fall-off. If possible, use that lead to close out the game as soon as you can!
Runes
Pantheon’s runes are pretty bread-and-butter stuff. Max out AD and defensive stats as much as possible to ensure maximum damage and dueling potential.
Recommended runes:
- Marks: 9x Greater Mark of Attack Damage
- Seals: 9x Greater Seal of Armor
- Glyphs: 9x Greater Glyph of Magic Resist
- Quintessences: 3x Greater Quintessence of Attack Damage
Masteries
Go into the offense tree with 21 points, and the other 9 can be sent to either utility or defense. In the offense tree, make sure to stack as much AD and Armor Penetration as possible with options like Deadliness, Weapon Expertise, Brute Force, and Sunder.
Pantheon's best masteries in LoL Classic.
Build
Start with Doran’s Blade, and consider buying a few mana potions early on to ensure Q poke can keep coming. Build towards The Black Cleaver, Last Whisper, and The Bloodthirster as key legendary options to continue stacking AD and Armor Pen, Pantheon’s favorite stats.
