I absolutley love playing him. The only issue I have is like most posts say he's not very effective late game as I tend to get insta gibbed regardless of what kind of build I use. When I dont play him I play Nautalis and go pure tank.My Win/Loss Ratio with Nautilis is a good bit better and when I dont tank no one really does. My early game pefomance on pantheon is very good mostly because he is a beast and one of the best harassers . I am wondering if i can get one of these guys to play a tank ( I am lucky enough to have come to the game with 5 or so friends who are also new to the game) if it would help me late game on pantheon. We are planning on playing ranked games and I am trying to figure out if I should find another AD dps though I really dont want to.

Its just so fun to start off with pantheon. Any input would be great..

panth is a solid counter pick top, does very well against garen/gp and probably teemo

I wish people would stop saying viable on these forums

Honestly, any champion is viable at the low to mid areas of ranked if you are good enough with them.

That being said, yeah hes not a bad pick. Theres champs I would rather have probably, but I'm not upset with a Panth. I usually tell people play what you know, not what is considered OP. You'll do better. Which is why if you get stuck solo top, you shouldn't listen to the guy yelling, OMG PICK IRELIA SUCH A N00B!

Seen some amazing pant play.
He can do some wacky things if your ALWAYS paying attention.

Zoning someone with his ULT requires a lot of awareness but when someone is forced between your jungler and an atom bomb.... they'll try their luck 1 v 1.5 with the jungler.

panth is good pick period, and he does fine late game you just play him wrong. He is not a bruser or a tank, he should not initiate ever, go iafter fight started with your ult over their team. and jump the carry.

agreed. and for the record, panth murders teemo, not really even a fair fight.

i think when you compare panth to a solo top like say irelia, gp, kennen, riven, rumble, nasus, etc is that each champ does certain things better than the others. If you want a tankier solo top u go with gp or nasus. enagement kennen etc etc etc.

Panth is a great solo top pick because if played correctly he pretty much shuts down a lot of solo tops. Does not mean he will get a kill off a skilled player, but their solo top will be incredibly under farmed. And if your hurting him bad enough their jungle is going to spend more time top than normal. which allows your jungle to gank and harass your bot lane which "should" have your ad carry. Which in turn gives your ad carry more farm and possibly kills, while their ad carry gets behind.

Also with his ult, he can jump into battles and turn the tides of a small enagement VERY quickly. people do not like to see a panth jumpin in on them. This makes panth unique because he can be a bit out of position for an engagement and still jump right on in to assist. Be careful how you use this, if you think an ally is going to fight but then turns and runs and you ult in to a 3 on 1 situation, you just messed up lol.

As for his late game power, i think he is pretty strong late game. He is not going to obliterate the entire enemy team like a well fed ad carry can (graves, trist, vayne, sivir), can he can focus out any of your oppents carries and make them back off from the fight. As for your teammates who ***** about you playing panth, apparently they have never seen what a good pantheon can do. Just be sure to watch your build. for gods sake dont build things like zeal and phantom dancers on him. He is not an ad carry. He is an ad assassin. treat him like one.

its not whether or not panth is viable in ranked...its whether you are viable for ranked or not. bro cmon

It's all how you play the champion, any champion can be good if the player knows how to play it. I am als a pantheon player, many people say he is not "viable" for ranked games, but really, it all depends on how you play him and / or if you are good with pantheon. That's what it comes down to.