League of Legends champion Pantheon is getting a significant rework.
Riot Games teased fans of the character with a new behind-the-scenes look at their work on his transformation. Almost all of Pantheon’s abilities are getting alterations in a planned update and while the champion should feel familiar to longtime players, Riot is tweaking his kit to balance out his power.
The most notable change is the ultimate ability.
Grand Skyfall is being replaced with Grand Starfall. Instead of Pantheon crashing down violently to deal area of effect damage, he now flies in at an angle and streaks across a larger portion of the map. The change should allow skilled Pantheon players to strike more enemies.
Pantheon rework changes his spells
Pantheon will get slight tweaks throughout the rest of his kit. Spear Shot will now work as a line clear, allowing him to hit more of the creep wave and making the spell generally more reliable. As a result, he’ll lose some effectiveness on his Aegis of Zeonia and Heartseeker Strike combo.
Riot stressed that the rework will preserve the gameplay that drew players towards Pantheon while giving him more flexibility in how he approaches fights.
The champion is also getting attention from the art and lore departments. Pantheon goes from being “The Aspect of War” to “The Unbreakable Spear,” and though his Spartan-inspired garb will remain, the designers made him appear more fallible by putting a nasty scar across his torso.
His revised lore states the scar came after the divine Aspect of War, Pantheon, entered the body of a man named Atreus to take on Aatrox, a Darkin warrior with the godlike power of the Ascended. Aatrox won the battle and killed Pantheon, but Atreus survived and later avenged that loss by killing Aatrox with his new powers.
Riot didn’t offer a timeline for Pantheon’s overhaul. Version 9.15 will drop in the near future but odds are players will have to wait longer than that.
