After the global ult nerf patch, Morello put out a call for Pantheon suggestions, hoping to bring him back up to some sort of viability. With the Skarner patch, he got some significant buffs – lower cooldowns on his stun and Heartseeker, a much faster ult, an execute on his Spear Shot – to the point that I’ve been seeing him much more often. I haven’t had a lot of time to spend on him, but when has that ever stopped me from sharing my impressions?

I’ll start by saying that the changes are mostly a good thing. That short-cd stun can be brutal in combination with teammate CC, making Pantheon a very difficult champion to escape. The ranged execute is also a nice buff. I didn’t have much trouble finishing off a target with the old Pantheon but since the change I can’t say that I’ve narrowly missed a kill. I also played against a Pantheon today who was last-hitting teammates I thought for sure I had saved with a well-placed Dragon’s Rage.

It’s Heartseeker Strike that still bugs me. It’s in a much better place now that it can be used more often, but the animation feels a little too long. There also remains the simple fact that it’s a self-stun, which really hurts. He can cast more often, but that also means he’s locking himself up more often. I would really like to see Riot either dramatically shorten the animation time and reconsider the damage or just find a new ability to add in this one’s place.

So, serious Pantheon players, what do you think? Are his new cooldowns helping out? Does he feel more viable? Still just a pubstomp toon? Drop your impressions in the comments.

I’m finally back in North Carolina and, armed with a freshly cleaned apartment and a beautiful laptop HP was kind enough to lend me while I was in Ohio, I’m ready to dive back into the happy little world of Valoran. Unfortunately I didn’t have nearly enough time to spend with Blitzcrank this past week, so I’ll be extending his Champ of the Week feature so that the robot gets what he’s due.

In other news, I just attempted to log in, hoping to snag a quick Skarner game before succumbing to the inevitable result of an 11-hour car ride, but alas, a twenty minute queue timer is standing in the way. I think I’m going to let it win, too.

So how has Skarner been? The spotlight looked like a much more accurate representation of a given champion’s skills and abilities. Phreak actually died! OMGOMGOMG! Seriously, though, I don’t consider it a good thing that Skarner is relegated to jungle duty. It seems to me there are much more reliable junglers in the game and Wriggle’s feels like a total waste. Unfortunately, he has no dash, which means he’ll also get outperformed pretty badly in lane without a decent bit of burst damage. This is all conjecture, of course. If you’re finding that his heal allows for excellent lane sustain, let me know in the comments.

Also, how’s the Pantheon buff? I miss the days when I played him, which were basically just after he released. I haven’t messed with him much since.

With that, I’m going to call it a night. Look for me later in the week – I should be around quite a bit.

The Monkey King isn’t the only thing coming with this week’s patch (assuming it happens on schedule). As Morello has it, the changes to global ults will be coming with this patch as well, and the changes are making him think about Pantheon.

In case you’ve forgotten, the global ults in the game are getting nerfed to function a bit more like Nocturne’s Paranoia. They will still allow the champion to cross large distances, but it will no longer allow for a truly global ultimate. The change affects Twisted Fate, Shen, and Pantheon at the very least (EDIT: Looks like Shen might not be getting the nerf – hard to say based on patch preview). I couldn’t find any information about Gangplank’s ult. Players will now be able to see the range of the ultimate on the minimap in order to gauge distance.

The impending change prompted Morello to ask for community opinion on Pantheon, hoping players will play with the change and consider some other ways to make Pantheon fun again. I personally hope it means a rework to Heartseeker Strike. I wrote some time ago that the skill doesn’t really have a functional balance point. The skill is either too good because it can be used with a targeted stun, or it’s too weak because the damage isn’t worth a self-stun in order to land it.

I would like to see them give Pantheon something interesting. I think he has one of the best looking skins and for the most part his skills fit really well with the spear-wielding classical soldier myth.

Among the big changes slated for upcoming League of Legends patches is a rework to the global ults in the game, most notably the ones that that teleport the player to a new location. Riot has said in several places (none of which I can seem to find, though this quote from Phreak serves as an indicator of the design decision) that they want to limit the range of what are now global ults so that they work more like Nocturne’s Paranoia. The problem, of course, is that this doesn’t solve the problem with global ults.

Globals suck because they allow players to effectively be in two places at once. As Phreak mentions in the quote linked above, TF and Shen can go push bot during a mid stalemate, all the while planning to port mid when needed. They present all the defense necessary for mid lane while still being able to push bottom. This scenario isn’t completely fixed by limiting the range of those ultimates, but teamfights aren’t the only thing affected by semi-global ults.

When players can gank in a 3500 unit radius around them, they don’t have to play with any kind of foresight or worry about positioning. They can linger longer in the jungle. They can finish that dragon before defending a tower. They can spring out of the jungle from beyond ward range for the gank. In short, it encourages lazy play from less skilled players and offers masters of the game an easily exploited advantage. It’s also just not a lot of fun to play against.

Personally, I’d love to see the global ults removed. They’re too strong for skilled players and don’t provide the learning hurdle for map positioning that new players need.

I’ve been battling the hellish fever my girlfriend was kind enough to give me, so this is the first time I’ve logged onto the official forums today. Imagine my surprise when at least half the posts were about Pantheon. I was thrilled – finally his anti-fun design was being discussed. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the topic of discussion. Instead, people were complaining about Riot offering a promo code to unlock Pantheon and the Perseus Pantheon skin to inactive players.

Yup, you read that correctly. Players who stopped playing the game are being compensated some 1950 RP worth of store goods for their…absence. While I understand the idea – a lot of game companies offer some kind of teaser to bring you back after quitting a game – this was both poor timing and the wrong offer. Dedicated players have been restless for months now, wondering when we’ll see a new map or new game modes. To offer up freebies to the people who jumped ship is a big slap in the face. Granted, Tryndamere has already posted on the forums, saying:

We greatly value our loyal players and will have more info on this soon.

I can only imagine that means everyone will be getting the free champion/skin bundle, but who knows.

I also think Pantheon is the wrong champion to do this with. Do it with someone that’s sort of an even keel, not really at risk for serious developmental change in the coming months. Maybe I’m crazy, but I think Pantheon is one of the least fun characters to play against in the entire game. Heartseeker Strike is probably among my top five most poorly designed skills. At some point, I think Riot’s going to have to address that. Then again, the whole point of the dowry for returning to the game is to give the player a positive experience, and I think Pantheon will do just that. He’s a pretty easy guy to figure out, and when you get a good farm, you shred people.

One of the most fervently discussed issues for Pantheon players is the damage of Heartseeker Strike. When he launched it seemed to deal very respectable damage, then there was the period in which it could hit people for three quarters of their health at any point in the game. That was soon nerfed, to the point that most players didn’t bother ranking the skill past rank one, and then only to get the critical strike bonus. Well, it has been buffed again, this time at the cost of some Spear Shot base damage.

While it is nice for Pantheon to have the skill back to a level of usefulness, it’s also back to being extremely unfun to play against. The problem, in my mind, is that he has a targeted stun, which allows him to always land Heartseeker. With the new damage buff, he hits incredibly hard. As Shaco, I was getting hit yesterday for 700+ at level 15. With Aegis and Spear Shot in one rotation, that’s more than 900 completely unavoidable damage that comes, as is usually my problem, at very low skill cost. In my current game, I’m level 11 with nothing more than a BF Sword and Heartseeker hits for 700 damage on heroes. His ultimate does the same damage at that level and is infinitely more difficult to land.

I think Heartseeker is hard to balance for a couple reasons. One is that it basically stuns Pantheon, and during that time he can’t deal any auto attacks, so it has to feel ‘worth it’ to use the skill. Second, there’s the fact that it deals double damage to champions. I’m not sure why that has to be a part of the skill. Is Riot worried he’ll farm to well? That wouldn’t be as big an issue if Heartseeker didn’t hit so damn hard. Reduce the damage and remove the double damage component. Then he gets the gear to make the skill hit hard. The real problem to me, though, is that he can use it in conjunction with his stun. That’s why I don’t think there’s a point that it will feel okay to play against.

I think the guaranteed crit is kind of a cool mechanic, though, so I’d propose remaking the skill into more of a skill shot. What if Pantheon had a hook that was shorter range than Blitzcrank’s? The text might read as follows:

Pantheon attempts to impale an opponent on the tip of his spear, dealing attack damage and pulling the target back to his location. Pantheon’s next attack is guaranteed to be a critical strike and cannot be dodged.

I think you could even leave the current passive component in tact. It would definitely add some more flavor to his character and reduce the feeling that his damage is completely unavoidable. It would also give him some more tools to maximize his auto attacks, rather than encouraging a damage-only build.

This patch included a lot of changes, so I’ve been taking my time playing through the various champion tweaks and remakes to get a good sense of where everyone stands.

Outside Kog’Maw, I’ve spent most of my post-patch game time on Ashe, getting a feel for just how much Hawkshot would change the game. It will. A lot. I can’t believe she gets a free CV on a 60 second cooldown. Just unbelievable.

I’ve also been playing a bit of Morgana to test out the Dark Binding changes. I really like having the damage upfront. It doesn’t change the fact that her ult is totally cleansable, which sucks, but it’s nice to have a bit of burst for a last hit and some lane damage.

I played one game as Gangplank and remembered right away what I don’t like about a lot of melee toons – they have no way to close the gap. Toons like Jax and Pantheon have leaps to get on top of the target. Hell, even Yi has Alpha Strike. Without a similar skill, melee just takes an eternity to farm to the point that they can be useful. Even with the Raise Morale changes I found it extremely difficult to contribute against Kog’Maw, Ezreal, Pantheon, Kaiser, and Shaco.

Pantheon is still crazy strong, as I mentioned in a post about Shurelia’s Q&A. Heartseeker damage is so high and so hard to avoid that it’s easy to get him rolling early. From there you just need to pick your battles wisely and it’s pretty easy to get a win. He still struggles against tanky teams because his DPS won’t outscale their health in the late game, but if you get a good enough farm in the first 20 minutes or so, the game won’t be lasting much longer.

The only major rework I haven’t messed with is Veigar. He’s still ultra-squishy with low mobility, putting him about the bottom of my barrel.

I’ve always respected Shurelia for her community presence. She’s highly active in the forums and willing to admit when the community has offered up suggestions the Riot staff hasn’t considered. She’s started a thread in the General Discussion forums answering questions that typically get posted after a patch (why is so-and-so OP now, wtf are these changes, are you kidding me Riot, etc.).

Among the most notable of her answers are that Pantheon is fine, it’s just that he does extremely well against unorganized teams. There is talk of making him into more of a Spear Shot champion over Heartseeker, but from the sound of the post Heartseeker would still remain strong. I can’t really disagree more here. I think Heartseeker does way to much damage and is entirely too hard to avoid. Yes, it makes Pantheon vulnerable, but the only way to get away from it is Cleanse/sidestep or Flash. Other than that, you’re getting hit for half your health or more. It’s infuriating to lane against if you don’t have a hard stun or a silence, and even then it can be easy to stun too soon or too late.

Malzahar is also having a new mechanic built into his ult called suppression. Suppression keeps you from doing anything, including casting summoner spells. Shurelia says it will no longer stun, but you can’t move, cast, attack, or use summoner abilities. Sounds like a stun to me. It also sounds really crappy. I know it’s not fun to see your ult cleansed but it’s also pretty lame to go from full to dead in one ability (see Pantheon…). Quicksilver Sash will be the only way to get out of the ult. The same mechanic is being considered for Warwick. If this goes live, I hope to god they remake Quicksilver. It’s a decent item, but it’s way too expensive to justify in most situations for what it provides. The people who really need the item will be carries, who already have trouble scaling if they don’t get a good early farm. They’ll have to do something to balance this thing.

Last, Kayle’s ult will likely be going to an even shorter cooldown, but with a shorter duration as well. The reasoning is that it’s easier to CC a target for three seconds versus five, which is true, but if a carry takes Cleanse and has Kayle it will still be infuriating to play against. I don’t buy that 3 seconds is an easy CC even if the target has Cleanse as Shurelia suggests.

The rest of her answers have much less significant impact on the game but would probably still be of interest to anyone who follows game balance closely.

I think he’s in a great spot – definitely some of the highest utility of any melee DPS champ while churning out solid damage. Unfortunately, a lot of people try to build attack speed and don’t scale like they think they should. An early bloodthirster is easily the best thing you can do for yourself. The damage puts Heartseeker through the roof, making attack speed practically unnecessary (everything dies in 3 hits). Once you have that you can pick up some survivability and a little attack speed for later in the game.

I will say, I don’t care for his passive. Yes, it’s a nice laning tool and the only passive counter to Deceive and Parrrley (it’s also saved me from a few Blitz crits), but I feel like I get very little use out of it once you get past level 13 or so. From there on that shield just doesn’t save me often enough to care about it. I have not played many high survivability builds with him, so it’s hard for me to say if it’s better when you have some more health. I’ll give it some serious testing and post some thoughts if I remember.

He definitely struggles late game as most melee DPS does. Again, I have to test some survivability builds to see what I can make work.

Original Post

The abilities are funny in that they’re all heavy metal themed. His passive, Iron Man, converts 20% of the damage he deals from abilities into a shield that absorbs incoming damage (whaddaya know, another damage mitigation skill). His Q ability is called Mace of Spades and deals attack damage plus bonus damage to 3 targets. If the target is alone, the damage is doubled. It’s pretty much an exact replica of Pantheon’s Heartseeker Strike. His W skill, called Creeping Death, is a targeted ally shield (increased armor and MR) that deals damage to nearby opponents. His E skill, Siphon of Destruction, is another cone damage spell that charges his shield based on the damage he deals. His ultimate, Children of the Grave, leeches life by percentage from an enemy target. If the target dies while under the effect, it follows Mordekaiser around granting him half of that champion’s ability power, attack damage, and health, though the ghost is unable to attack.

I’m pretty turned off by his similarity to Pantheon. I think Pantheon is in a great spot and will obviously improve if he gets some of the suggested buffs. That leaves Mordekaiser feeling like they really wanted to build a heavy metal toon so this is what we get. It’s also hard to understand why the character development team is churning out new champs when so many other toons need fixing. TF is still grossly overpowered, even when the big nerfs he’s getting on the Test Realm. If different departments handle creation and balance, it’s time to give the balance team some of creation’s man hours.

I’ll probably still play this guy, especially if he looks as big and badass as he seems. I just wish I understood the development strategy here.