Can Someone Explain To Me What Pantheon's "Counterplay" Is?

Shuyin178·1/24/2018, 7:35:27 PM·3 votes·1,662 views

Every single time I lane against a Pantheon, he auto-wins the lane because I can never do anything against him. The changes to minion aggro did next to nothing to him in my previous game because he can throw his Q then walk away before it hits, thus making it where the minions don't attack him.

So I ask this serious question, what is his counterplay suppose to be? All he has is point-click abilities that are the most cancerous ones in the game with his Q's damage and his W's stun + passive refresh. You try to fight him and you lose, you try to play passive and "under your tower" you lose, you try to farm at all you lose.

Riot seriously needs to look at Pantheon and change his Q and passive, because it's 100% unfair to play against.

22 Comments

ValyrianBlade1/24/2018, 8:20:23 PM2 votes

Theorycrafting (since my champion pool doesn't have much issues with him): Take teleport + exhaust and unsealed spellbook. You don't need flash, you're never going to get ganked if you're under tower (and if you get dove, flash isn't nearly as good as exhaust).

Play passive. Recall and tp back if you get low enough that he can all in through exhaust (possible, especially if he has ignite). Otherwise exhaust for a free kill when he dives you.

Spellbook gives you reduced summoner cooldowns, so you can repeat this More often (exhaust him under tower, or tp back to Lane). Also let's you swap for flash in the mid-late game if you are on a champion that needs it.

You'll outscale even without a proper keystone.

buPPDrmXEO1/24/2018, 7:41:52 PM1 votes

Yes he auto wins lane because laning phase is all he has. Build armor, stop trying to fight him, fall behind in CS and try to catch up later in the game.

Pantheon is a useless champion that has no escapes so once he goes in and eats an exhaust he becomes a siege minion that gets 3 shot by adc or killed in 1 combo by the ap mage (as long as he isn't fed).

So yeah, he HAS to win the lane or else he loses.

Also try picking tanks.

redniwediS1/24/2018, 7:41:59 PM1 votes

Riot is paying attention to Panth right now. Take a look at the 8.2 patch notes that just came out.

DuskDaUmbreon1/24/2018, 7:43:26 PM1 votes

There are two ways:

Stat-check him to death. Some champions can do it early on. If you can, do so.
Wait for half an hour for him to become irrelevant. But never go near an unwarded bush, unless you're a beefy tank with 300+ armor.

Woodakoodashooda1/24/2018, 7:51:07 PM1 votes

His only counter play is team fights.

He's a troll pick designed to make most, if not all, top lane picks miserable for the entire duration of the lane phase.

He does nothing for his own team as far as objectives and winning goes. He just trolls the enemy top and trolls his own team by being useless in anything involving more than one enemy.

Jinzo Torrance1/24/2018, 7:57:10 PM1 votes

Emptying his mana bar and dodging his cursor

ValyrianBlade1/24/2018, 8:23:34 PM1 votes

Play passive. Recall and tp back if you get low enough that he can all in through exhaust (possible, especially if he has ignite). Otherwise exhaust for a free kill when he dives you.

You'll outscale even without a proper keystone.

AlienPrimate1/24/2018, 9:28:35 PM1 votes

I just spam ctrl 4 all laning and completely ignore him unless he wants to try and fight me. This is done using Taric. I know this doesn't really help with a generic way to counter him with anyone, but if you know he is the enemy and can counter, Taric is a great choice. You can literally just ignore him as you farm and his entire purpose is invalidated becasue Taric scales really well and Pantheon doesn't scale at all. Just get a tear first back to sustain mana to spam your heal and then stack armor and it is GG.

Baymax1/25/2018, 6:22:03 PM1 votes

Hard push the first wave and get level 2, screw the jungler if you need to leash him. Slow push the second and third wave so you will have a big minion wave going towards him. Now poke him under turret. The enemy jungler might gank at this time so ward up.

z63XnLCMwX1/25/2018, 6:29:03 PM1 votes

Nasus Illaoi Maokai Malphite Ornn

HalcyonDweller1/25/2018, 6:35:54 PM1 votes

If you can sustain vs him early game and not get low then he can't all-in you without taking heavy trades back.

Start with Doran's Shield, it will help mitigate some of his Q poke. And bringing teleport and a Refillable Potion will help you to out-play his laning phase and hopefully scale better than him. Plus having the refills will save you a lot of gold since you will be sustaining a lot against him.

I'm not saying it's easy, just that there are choices you can make to help mitigate it.

deltawraith1/24/2018, 7:38:18 PM1 votes

Get your jg to gank early then you can out damage him in lane for the rest of the game. Or just play safe and farm under tower

Longtowel1/25/2018, 10:00:15 PM1 votes

Panth has mana issues early, if he keeps throwing these spears he will run out of mana quite quickly. So if you find a way to sustain through that you should be all good.

He also has no escape, and isn’t really speedy. If your jungled tanks when he is shoving the wave, he will mostly likely not make it unless he is really ahead.

Pantheons ultimate won’t help him in a duel, so if you are a champion that has a strong level 6 power spike, you could take him.

Remember, he is supposed to win lane, he is supposed to be hard to beat, as he relies on snowballing to remain effective. If you make it through early game without giving up kills, he will fall off really badly mid to late.

The changes to minion aggro means he can no longer just spear you, jump you, stab you with his e and then walk away scot free. That’s a devastating early game combo, but now minions will hit him while he hits you, and he might take a crap ton of damage if he is not careful.