Taric vs Pantheon Counter Pick

Pantheon makes his early aggression work with Shield Vault, which dashes and stuns, and Comet Spear, which thrusts or throws depending on range. Aegis Assault makes him invulnerable to frontal damage while he keeps striking over and over. In the lane itself he keeps pace with Taric, starting at 40 armour and reaching 124.2 by level 18, while Taric sits at 40 and 113.1. Still, the 224 games logged on patch 16.13.1 give Taric a 60.7% win rate, rated Easy.

The pressure Pantheon applies runs out, and that is the core of the matchup. Mortal Will only powers up every few casts or attacks, so his damage comes in spaced-out bursts that a timely Bastion shield can soak up. Starlight’s Touch then restores what is left, drawing on charges built through Bravado attacks. Grand Starfall moves him across the map, but its landing gives away the move. Taric’s mixed damage goes after Pantheon’s weaker defensive stat, his 28 base magic resistance, instead of his armour. The one real mechanical test is Dazzle: its delayed beam is hard to land on a champion who keeps dashing, which matters given Pantheon is rated 3 out of 10 against Taric’s 4. Aegis Assault only shields the front, so damage that reaches him from the side while he holds it goes through, and Bravado’s paired attacks are fast enough to exploit that gap. Cosmic Radiance then strips away the reward of an all-in commitment. The empowerment cycle is laid out on the Pantheon champion page.