Pantheon's Kit Needs a Rework

I've been playing Pantheon for years and for years Pantheon has been virtually untouched by Riot. Yeah they tweaked his E back and forth a bit and removed the global range on his R but that's pretty much it. The fact still remains that he is a terror early game who falls off hard late game and whose ultimate is so difficult to balance that it prevents Riot from doing anything interesting with his kit. The goal of this rework should be to level his power curve so that he isn't as powerful early game but retains relevance late game and to adjust his kit so that he can be tweaked without risking him becoming game-breakingly overpowered.

Passive - Aegis Protection Old Passive: After attacking or casting spells 4 times, Pantheon will block the next incoming basic attack or turret attack.

Discussion: Pantheon's passive, while an interesting mechanic, is an ability that is strongest at low levels. Blocking a single basic attack or turret attack is very important at level 1 and inconsequential at level 18. I do agree that Pantheon's passive should be defensive in nature, but it should be toned down at early levels and still relevant late game.

New Passive: Every time Pantheon attacks or casts a spell he gains 2 Armor and 2 Magic Resist. These bonuses are reset if Pantheon does not attack or use any spells for 3 seconds.

Q - Spear Shot Old Q: Pantheon hurls his spear at an opponent, dealing 65/105/145/185/225 (+140% Bonus Attack Damage) physical damage.

Discussion: This ability is Pantheon's bread and butter and fits extremely well with his kit, giving him very good poke and damage burst. I believe no changes are necessary to this ability.

New Q: Same as old Q.

W - Aegis of Zeonia Old W: Pantheon leaps at the target enemy champion, minion or neutral monster and deals 50/75/100/125/150 (+100% Ability Power) magic damage and stuns them for 1 second(s). Pantheon also instantly refreshes his Aegis Protection.

Discussion: Pantheon's W serves two roles: it is his gap closer and his only form of CC. Both are extremely valuable things for a melee carry killer. However, it can also fill another role that Pantheon is sorely lacking in his kit: an escape. Adding an escape mechanic to Pantheon's W like Jax's Q or Lee Sin's W gives him added survivability late game when team fights go wrong rather than him being doomed to die while his team flees. Because we have changed Pantheon's passive we will also need to change the second benefit of his W.

New W: Pantheon leaps at the target champion, minion or neutral monster. If the target is an enemy champion, enemy minion or neutral monster Pantheon deals 50/75/100/125/150 (+50% Bonus Attack Damage) physical damage and stuns them for 1 second(s). Pantheon also becomes shielded, blocking up to 90/120/150/180/210 (+80% Bonus Attack Damage) incoming damage for 1.5 seconds.

E - Heartseeker Strike Old E: Passive: Pantheon's basic attacks and Spear Shot gain 100% critical strike chance against targets below 15% Health. Active: Pantheon focuses and deals 3 swift strikes in front of him for 13/23/33/43/53 (+60% bonus Attack Damage) physical damage per strike. Deals double damage to champions.

Discussion: This ability needs to be drastically changed for two reasons. 1) It is extremely difficult to tweak without making Pantheon overpowered and 2) A channeled AoE ability does not fit Pantheon’s role as a bursty AD assassin. What would fit much better is an instantaneous, short range, line ability which has strategic use and utility with clear advantages and disadvantages.

New E: Pantheon performs a mighty thrust, dealing 50/100/150/200/250 (+80% Bonus Attack Damage) to all enemies in a line. This damage is increased by 1% for each 1% Health the target is missing. Targets hit with Heartseeker Strike are marked for 2 seconds. Pantheon can activate Heartseeker Strike again to consume his stacks of Aegis Protection to initially slow all marked targets by 20% and increasing to a maximum slow of 5% per stack of Aegis Protection over 3 seconds.

R – Grand Skyfall Old R: Pantheon gathers his strength and then leaps high into the air, crashing down at the target area a few seconds later. Deals up to 400/700/1000 (+100% Ability Power) magic damage to units at the center (down to 50% at the edge) and slows their Movement Speed by 35% for 1 second.

Discussion: This ability is possibly Pantheon’s coolest but at its heart it handicaps him, preventing him from being tweaked for fear that the mobility granted by his R will make him overpowered. While I love using his R it has to be replaced so Pantheon can grow as a champion. When you think of an ultimate ability you want something that defines the character, something that can be game changing if employed correctly. The most iconic thing about the Spartans was their Phalanx fighting style. It is what made them able to inflict such horrendous casualties on their enemies while suffering minimal loses themselves. It makes sense that Pantheon should carry on this legendary fighting style with his new R.

New R: Pantheon performs a mighty leap (range 800), dealing 200/300/400 (+100% Bonus Attack Damage) to all nearby enemies (range 300.) Pantheon also grants himself and all allies within 500 yards 10/20/30 (+2% Total Attack Damage) Armor and Magic Resist for 5/6/7 seconds. Additionally, all allies affected by Grand Skyfall gain the benefits of Aegis Protection whenever Pantheon attacks or casts a spell.

Playstyle I believe this new Pantheon to still retain the fun and the identity of Pantheon while adapting his kit to be balanced at all levels and introduce enticing play and counterplay. Pantheon’s new passive rewards him for staying in combat, making him tougher and tougher the longer the battle progresses. It also gives him a much needed boost to survivability late game while toning down his early game power. Pantheon’s new W gives him additional survivability in the form of an escape and a minor shield to make up for the changes to his passive. Pantheon’s shield also gives him time to build up stacks on his passive. Pantheon’s new E gives him some pretty awesome choices as to when he uses it and whether or not he sacrifices his Aegis Protection stacks for the additional slow. I felt the slow was needed to preserve Pantheon’s ganking power since we are changing his R. Finally, Pantheon’s new R give him an iconic ability that enhances the effectiveness of his whole team and rewards Pantheon players for engaging in combat but staying alive long enough for his team to receive the full benefits of his ult.

Reasoning for Numbers Aegis Protection: 1 Armor and 1 Magic Resist effectively raises the character’s maximum health by 1% (since it takes 1% more damage to kill them.) Based on minimum and maximum attack speeds (0.625-2.5) and minimum and maximum cooldowns for abilities (including max 40% CDR), Pantheon attacks or uses a spell anywhere from 1.05 times per second to 3.38 times per second. Since its highly unlikely that a Pantheon will ever have 2.5 attack speed and 40% CDR we’ll assume that most Pantheon players will attack or use and ability roughly 2 times per second for the majority of mid/late game. This means that for every second Pantheon survives in combat he gains 4 Armor and 4 Magic Resist, effectively raising his remaining health by 4%. This is nowhere near enough to counteract being focused down but it is significant enough that it can allow him to cause some significant damage even in late game.

Spear Shot: No changes, no justification necessary.

Aegis of Zeonia: I didn’t change the base damage, however, I did change it scaling on 100% AP to 50% bonus AD. The reasoning for this is there is no reason why a spear wielding warrior should have a shield strike scale off AP. I decided to have it scale off bonus AD so it doesn’t affect his early game power but does improve his late game power. I chose 50% bonus AD because I didn’t want his W to be a hard hitting ability since he already has Spear Shot. The shield numbers granted by his W are identical to Riven’s shield except I only had it scale of 80% bonus AD instead of 100% bonus AD.

Heartseeker Strike: I raised Heartseeker’s Strike’s base damage because it no longer does double damage to champions. I also raised its scaling from 60% bonus AD to 80% bonus AD to increase Pantheon’s power late game. I compared these numbers to Volibear’s W and made sure that Volibear’s ability was significantly more powerful since it only affects one target and requires Volibear to hit a target 3 times first. I also compared this ability to Jarvan’s Q since they both affect targets in a line, ensuring that it would do less damage than Jarvan’s if the target was at full health and more damage than Jarvan’s if the target was near death. For the slow I basically created a watered down version of Nasus’s slow that affects targets for a shorter period of time.

Grand Skyfall: I looked at both Taric’s and Jax’s ults to balance both the duration and bonuses provided by Grand Skyfall, erring on the side of caution and giving Pantheon both a shorter duration and less bonuses. By the same reasoning above, the benefits of Aegis Protection will not prevent an ally from being focused down but could change the course of the fight. For the leap portion of his ult I looked at Jarvan’s ult, giving Pantheon slightly more range but dealing less damage (though to a small area burst.)

Closing While I am very glad that Pantheon is beginning to see some play in higher levels of competition, his kit hampers how far he can go and what Riot can do with him. I certainly do not have all the answers so any comments or recommendations are welcome. Hopefully if this gets enough attention Riot will add Pantheon to their list of champs that will eventually get a rework.