A discussion about Pantheon

Hey everyone.

I'd like to have a discussion about Pantheon and why I think his current design is so problematic. I feel like his power can be broken down into multiple different factors; an extremely oppressive lane, high snowballing/ games ending quickly and his roam potential.

His oppressive lane phase comes at the cost of his poor late game. Literally every single thing that makes his laning phase strong directly makes his teamfighting weak. That's where the problem comes in, his laning is too strong because he falls off too hard. Because of this, games are ending sooner so he never really falls off. His ultimate forces small skirmishes that add to the snowballing I mentioned earlier. All 3 of those facts above combine to make Pantheon the monster he is now.

I attribute most of this to his current kit and how it effects top lane. When you have a passive that can block 3 instances of damage every trade, a point/click nuke with a low cool down and a potion that completely nullifies mana, you have a problem. There is no risk to his gameplay pattern, and even worse, his decision making boils down to "Are they in range for a spear?". It leaves his opponents with nothing to do beside back off which allows him to charge his passive freely again. That cycle continues until he either wins or the game goes late enough where his usefulness is limited to a weak stun bot.

I feel like Pantheon is in need for a VGU badly. What do you all think?