Zed vs Pantheon Counter Pick

Aegis Assault keeps Pantheon immune to frontal damage while his spear keeps striking, which is a real headache for an assassin whose damage lands as one burst from one side. Zed has won 42.6% of his 108 games on patch 16.13.1. That is a thin sample and should be read cautiously, but the mechanics behind the result are easy to see.

• Pantheon starts with 40 base armour (124.2 at level 18) despite also carrying 64 base attack damage, and all of Zed’s damage is physical.
• Shield Vault lunges at a target and stuns it, breaking up the precise moment Zed needs to slip away with Living Shadow.
• Mortal Will empowers a spell every few casts or attacks, so Pantheon’s damage arrives in predictable bursts that can be timed around.
• His attack range of 175 beats Zed’s 125, so Pantheon takes the first hit in any exchange that starts at close quarters.

Zed still has two answers. Pantheon’s 28 magic resist is his weakest point, and Contempt for the Weak turns attacks on low-health targets into added magic damage. Death Mark also makes Zed untargetable during the dash, and it can be aimed to land behind the shield rather than into it. Pantheon has more health at 2,503 to 2,337, so a brief opening works better than a drawn-out fight, and difficulty ratings of 4 against 7 mean Zed is punished harder for the same mistake.