Kassadin Build lolvvv

yo guys,
Kassadin isn't a scaling champion anymore
it's not s8, really, now the best way of playing him is skipping the Tear and fighting constantly over farming safely on sidelanes
you may ask am I dumb? actually I am but I'm not the one who invited this build and playstyle
it was Permaban and I don't think I have to tell you who he is but just in case, he's the best Kassadin in the world peaking at rank 1 that's top 15 EUW right now
https://euw.op.gg/summoneuserName=No%20God%20Complex
it's suprisingly not that hard to adapt and I needed like 3 games to settle in but I really recommend watching some of his videos before
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0jeh5p58IhU08G1cHHxrjg
Build:
Start with Dark Seal + refilable potion
if AD ranged matchup, Cloth Armor + 3 potions
Everfrost -> Lucidity Boots -> Zhonya -> Lich Bane
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Runes and skills:
vs AD: Electrocute, Taste of Blood, Eyeball Collector, Ravenous Hunter, Bone Playing, Overgrowth
[E max]
vs AP: Fleet Footwork, Overheal, Tenacity, Coup the Grace, Taste of Blood, Ravenous Hunter

So im a dirty d2 trynd/darius top lane main and in general I like champions that can dominate from lvl 1 in lane in order to make the enemy top laner useless, but I frequently ran into the issue of ranged champions or poke heavy melees (looking at you Akali) that robbed me of my precious early game, so a few weeks ago I decided to expand my champion pool and pick Panth into my roster.
I got destroyed every sigle game
A few weeks ago I would have agreed with the opinions posted daily in this sub that Panth is trash, as this were the issues I was having:

• Mana hungry + low damage in lane
• Even with massive leads id get 1v1d by enemy laner
• Poor mid to late game
• Bad split pusher, mediocre teamfighter

So I came to this sub to see what rune + item setup experienced panth mains were running, then i watched some top lane pantheon youtube videos, after that i realized my mistakes:
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1. Build panth not as a bruiser but more like an assassin
Pantheon´s kit doesnt have armor pen or % hp damage so if you build him as a bruiser you will simply not have enough damage. You have to build damage or that Q will simply do no damage.
I followed Arckain-´s build and runes to good success in this regard. Basically go conq and build lethality.
But dude if I build him full lethality imma just get destroyed late game in teamfights!
Thats were ur E comes in! if you happen to empower it in teamfights, it lasts as much as half of a tryndamere ult with a 9.6s cooldown with 40% cdr at max rank, meaning you could use it twice on a teamfight.
Timing your E is critical on pantheon, if you happen to block a 3k dmg burst from the enemy in a teamfight you then have absolute freedom to wreack havoc.
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2. Dont try to play Pantheon like other meta bruisers like darius, trynd, mordekaiser etc..
Darius and Trynd, unlike panth, are all-in champs, which means if you mis-position against them in lane you are gonna get 100-0 and theres nothing you can do, regardless of what champ you are currently using. Panth however is more of a Poke champ in lane, especially against these kind of matchups, you wanna just poke them down with Qs and WQE combos until they are at critical health and then you can just all-in/ dive them (did i mention pantheon is an excellent turret diver) as necessary. This is how you play panth against bruisers!!
if you get caught in an all in by lets say, a darius hook, you just have to W and walk away to resume poking.
but I keep running out of mana when i poke with Q
Korean overlords have already solved that by going corruption pot start + biscuit and timewarp tonic.
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3. After level 6, top lane becomes even harder.
After lvl 6 most top lane champs aquire a huge powerspike, and soloing them becomes even harder, so dont get surprised if a 0/3 darius soloed you while 5/1 and 2 levels ahead. If you get overconfident you will end up giving bounties and losing your advantage. After level 6 keep focusing on poking but be wary of the enemy´s ult.
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4. Learn the combos, maximize your damage
If the only combo you know as panth is doing empowered Qs then you will get destroyed every time in lane. You have to abuse the empowered mechanic.
For instance, if you are at 1 passive stack and you get all-ined by a darius and you just panic press Q, you will die.
On the other hand, if you do a AA + W + AA + E + ignite + empowered Q, you may actually burst him down enough so that he will have to run away from you or die. Knowing your combos is essential to play Panth.
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5. At level 6 look to impact the game with your ult
One of the reasons Panth was permaban in worlds was due to the ability he has to impact the whole map with his ult (and his E that allowed for insane towerdives lvl 2 in coordinated play but lets focus on his ult).
At level 5-6 you can look to start slowpushing the wave into the opponent (so it takes him more time to get the wave back to your side), go back to base and look for an ult in bot or mid (bot is usually easier since mid laners all have like 10 dashes in 2020). You will usually have enough time to pick up a few kills, prevent your bot lane from inting (important in this dragon-centered meta) and walk back top to losing just 1 to 2 waves of minions. Roaming early is key to winning with pantheon as you have the power to set your other lanes ahead.
From level 6 onwards you can try to ult mid lane to set your mid-laner for success, or at least go for a walk on the river so that your enemy laner spam pings MIAS so his mid laner plays more passive.
Also, as pantheon, you are able to contest all dragons from the beggining of the game.
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6. Be a lane bully
This is something thats easier said than done, but its critical to winning with panth and any other top lane bully, consider this situation:
"lol panth imma just pick nasis, imma just farm under turret buy ninja thornmail and dimpster him at 6, ez win"
In top lane either 2 things happen:

• Both laners fight to the death from the beginning and the winner gets fed out of his mind and the loser feeds and is the reason the team lost (x9 this idiot darius)
• One laner aknowledges the other is stronger and plays passive

Playing passive is a strategy that can actually get you to low diamond easily (with champs like nasus, urgot, kassadin etc) as it can result in minimal CS loss and almost no xp loss, and even better, since you stay under turret the whole laning phase, you cant get ganked! There are no drawbacks to it!!!
Or are there...?
Notice that in high elo, picks that have weak early games top lane are not used as often, as doing so will usually result in:

1. MASSIVE cs differences
2. MASSIVE lvl differences
3. Ally jungler getting invaded 24/7 and losing top side jungle xp and gold

but how dude, when i play against nasus i jsut q him under turret but he just lifesteals and i barely outcs him by like 3 minions then he outscale and i get reported
The first and most important thing to remember when you know that you are significantly stronger than your opponent in the early game, then that means is that you have absolute control of how the wave will be positioned and total control over top side jungle should your jg need you to contest scuttle for example.
How do we put this into practice? Then answer is Wave management. It is a concept that can get pretty complicated at its deeper level (even i dont know all of it) but at its core its pretty simple:

• Keep the wave near your turret indefinitely: You can actually force the enemy minion wave to stay close to your turret (but not in turret range) so that the enemy minions stay indefinitely in your side of the lane. This produces:

1. the enemy laner is forced to stay in an unfavourable position (prone to ganks)
2. If the enemy laner wants to cs, then he will have to approach you
3. If he overextends, you have the whole top lane length to chase him down and kill him.

Usually, you have to have at least 4 caster minions more than your minion wave or more to start a freeze. Good resources that explain this can be found here:

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7QXeujR5XA - good guide
• https://www.reddit.com/leagueoflegends/comments/95yvog/everything_you_need_to_know_about_wave_management/ - if u prefer to read
• https://www.reddit.com/leagueoflegends/comments/2jj6pf/a_series_in_creep_wave_management_the_even_minion/ - a classic reddit post about wave management

Examples on how to do it against weak early game champs:

• Trynd vs Nasus: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHYgO8EceNE push the first 2 waves into turret, then wait for wave to come back and freeze.
• Jax vs Nasus: https://youtu.be/EQ6gGXAUgzs nasus getting rekt by Tfblade wave management, he paths in front of the enemy wave to force it to push towards his turret, which he will then freeze.

All of the above applies to Pantheon. By applying this technique you can severely punish players that "play safe" like autofill top laners, nasus players, vladimir players, etc.
"bro \** u let me farm"* - some nasus i didnt let farm
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7. Game plan as a whole with pantheon: end game quickly or extend it so your late game carries get you the win
We know that Panth is not the best champion late game, which is why you should always aim to "end quickly" which means:

• secure all early game objectives with your roaming and assasination power: all dragons + herald
• secure baron whenever possible
• use the baron + dragons advantage to get objectives fast.

Ending quickly doesnt mean:

• Over extending to get more kills and thus dying and giving free bounties
• Overstaying in the enemy side to get more kills while not doing objectives, thus dying and extending the game.
• dying while critical objectives are up (i.e. dying 10 secs before dragon spawns)

Alternatively, if your team is feeding, but your comp scales somewhat better, you can actually give your team some breathing room by constantly denying turret dives in bot/mid with ur ult and being a roaming nuisance in general.
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8. Bro ur stupid u play trynd and darius u dont know anything dude.
Well, dont take my word for it then, but recently, there has been an upwards trend of high elo korean players who have been picking him to good success in top lane and mid lane.
https://www.op.gg/summoneuserName=Clid (SKT Clid)
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-TM5XNBRKzS8-ea5tDH0zXiCyBuGv8YR (really good high elo replay channel with a pantheon specific playlist)
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Tl;dr : panth is a strong early game champ that can render the other laner useless and massively snowball his team and secure objectives.
also ban ornn.

Hi /all
I've played league since 2013, effectively 6 years now that we're almost gone through s8, I peaked at Masters where I immediately fell back to D1(xd). Since the middle of s3 I've played a selective pool of champions that resonated with my playstyle, and I've almost always played them regardless of the meta. I lived through the tank meta, the assassin meta where lethality was the best build for every champion, I went through khazix mid, nidalee mid, ad fizz, champions with simple mechanics that are well known and can be played by almost every player regardless of skill level but can only be mastered by players who have refined champion mechanics. Champions like Diana, like Vi, champions like Braum and Azir. Champions that require you to hit a crucial skill shot to executed the rest of your abilities well but does not require a high skill level for entry but one that is hard to play into every situation, i.e., champions that has some sort of disadvantageous interaction with the environment or champion, and has certain counterplay.
Scarra's thoughts
In Scarra's video he says that he dislikes the current spot of the game because other people are more toxic and he is a victim as a result. A lot of people have quit this game or stopped playing it seriously, as he himself states, he only plays the game for fun and can understand that because he plays a champion or build for the first time in ranked that he is flamed, but not at the frequency that happens now. He doesn't get into too much detail, so here I go with my thoughts of the game.
Big general changes

1. The big map ugrade.

We can all agree that the old map was a bit outdated. There were tweaks to the map including top lane and river brush changes. This was to increase champion interaction as oppose to camping a brush in the river. This was a positive change imo, the graphic updates did leave some of the legacy players a bit sad to see the wraiths go, but it was all in all a welcomed change. Then there was the client upgrade, and the UI upgrade following that. They were all positive changes as the screen was less cluttered, but there was the sense that league was evolving into something a bit foreign. It was just a process of getting used to, I thought.

1. The removal of items in general

We saw feral flare come and go, reworked, nerfed, then finally removed. We saw the removal of older items in place for new ones, things like giants belt, philosopher's stone, heart of gold etc. We saw the removal of one of the most beloved assassin mage items DFG, and with it went the assassin ap mages for a season. We saw the removal of brutaliser, which effectively nerfed ad assassins/bruisers early game, and the shift towards a more team focused game with the tiamat gold reduction and damage nerfs which prompted shoving lane and roaming, the rise of champions like anivia and tf with their lane pushing, the change to dragon where it gave stacking damage buffs as opposed to global gold. The changes to baron to push team fight-centric gameplay and accelerating game progression.
At this point, the game was in a solid state, most played game in the world. I enjoyed the game because I could quite effectively pull my own weight and the weight of 1 more or even 2 more teamates in a game if I'm doing well, and vice versa. The game was a less team oriented, more individual focused game where you honed your champion mechanics and less so game mechanics. It was enjoyable because almost every champion had a defined role and place in the game and had very certain counterplay that required champion interaction to execute. Some had less counterplay predominately Fiora. But none the less, it was fun to play because it focused on the player individually. Let me elaborate. (not in chronological order)
Runes
The removal of the old runes meant that new players can access the runes at the early stage of the game. This was a good idea as a whole to appeal to newer players, less so for the aged player. There were an abundance of older runes. You can craft infinite sets of runes for every situation which meant that your playstyle and interaction with each player and champion is unique. This made every player feel SPECIAL. Because it's your runes. You made them, you bought them, you tested them hopefully, and now you are playing with your creation. If you win with it, you feel a sense of accomplishment because you know it works, and this keeps us doing inventive things with them, if you lose, you know it doesn't work and you go back to change it until it works (at least in ranked/higher elo). With their removal there's no more testing, there were less options, and players like myself felt that we were robbed of something that was unique and special.
The introduction of the "Immortal mechanic"
Champion immotality was always in the game, but it was unique. And only on two champions and one item, Tryndamere, Kayle and Zhonyas Hourglass. Not fun to play against, fun to play if you are fed, unfun if you are behind. That was in season 3. Because you were punished very heavily if you fall behind. If you get smashed in lane as tryndamere, your interaction with the game is limited to split pushing and very situational team fighting. Same with kayle, but kayle has a ranged auto attack ability which meant she was punished less hard. Hourglass was an item built to counteract the immediate response from an engage by a mage assassin or to buy time for outplay potential. They are unfun to play against because they limit INTERACTION. They are unfun to play when behind because you are only delaying the inevitable OR limiting your own interaction with the game. Winning a game from behind as Tryndamere does not feel rewarding, it sucks because you know you screwed up, but you still want to keep playing because you know you made the optimal decision. With the introduction of champions like Kindred, like new Taric, immortality was no longer unique, but more of a "thing to get used to" as it became so common place. Abilities like reworked shen w, Tahm Kench devour aatrox passive lissandra ult, are very frustrating to play against because it limits interaction for that duration. And from this stems player creativity, new builds, new playstyles etc to counteract these mechanics.
The removal of certain items/item interactions and champion mechanics
the old rageblade was OP without a doubt. It made kogmaw, yi, and irelia monsters. The passive of the aoe was removed instead of nerfed, and it is in my experience of playing league, one of the earliest examples of outright removal of a mechanic in the game. (other examples being DFG, newer banner of command)
When you remove something from a game thats been there for a period of time that is not an exploit, it is very frustrating because all the experience you have with that build is now gone and you have to craft new builds for your champion. Building a champion with 6 items is not fun because it requires gold and the material items are always the same, so the interactions you will get for that build is always the same. The process is fun. Its fun to build a champion because you can interact with other players and champions. Removal of certain items and runes reduces the number of different interactions champions can have with each other for the duration that it takes for each player to adapt to a new style.
The same can be said for champion mechanics, kog maw w, ap yi, soraka silence for aoe silence, alistar heal etc. This period of getting used to the new mechanic is frantic, and if newer changes are introduced during this period of time that will change these interactions further, it will make or break a player's affection for that champion because it is being alienated from the old champion that they are used to, especially if it was a badly received change. This is based on individuals of course.
The catchup mechanic
If you fall behind or afkd for 5 minutes, and you come back, you receive accelerated experience gain to help you get back into the game. A push for the newer players to still have fun with the game if they are not doing well, which is expected, however, not fun to play against for veteran players. This effectively removes partially the learning process of principle game mechanics that teaches a player to play better. This means a higher entry level of the game and as we know, all these changes are centred on reducing the entry level so more players try the game.
The Objective changes
Baron change that buffed minions, it was deemed op from the get go, and still is. With banner of command, it was the go to if you are pushing towers. And in higher elos, this limits champion interaction because it allows you to accelerate the progress of the game where you do not contribute to it. The minions do it for you, or the item does it for you. We've all seen a bannered cannon. You don't get to push because someone made a pick or an outplay that results in a numbers advantage, or because you are stronger overall, but only because the environment is doing it for you. The same for rift herald, a catalyst for increasing the rate of game progression.
First tower gold change saw the change to faster games, more pushing, and ending champion interactions in lane faster, and pushing the game to a team-centric state where objectives meant more than individual player skill and killing enemy champions meant only a small gold advantage if it doesn't lead to objectives. Outplaying your enemies meant less than the overall game progression.
All these changes pointed towards shoving land and helping your team get ahead, as opposed to stay in lane and get yourself an advantage. And this was reflected in the LCS. AND in champion design and champion playrates. Champions with global pressure like Galio was introduced, more mobility was favored i.e. Camile, Kassadin, Le Blanc, land pushing power was favored over champion interaction.
I'm tired of changes, tired of new champions that have walls of text imbedded to their passives that work in miraculous ways which break limits, tired of writing this huge wall of text. Pushing the game to a team centric game as it supposed to be originally was not the problem, it was the reduction of unique player interactions with the game that was and still is the problem. It's the introduction of unfun items and champion mechanics and accelerating the game progression without champion interaction that is destroying player interest in the game.
This looks like a hashinshin rant without the top lane part but I hope I got a few of the points right. To clarify, these are all changes that I felt partially or negative or neutral about and feel like there are potentially better solutions out there. A change within a game needs to satisfy a majority of the community or it will be deemed as a failed change. With the community now being mostly of newer players, I feel like the opinions of older players are seemingly obsolete, hence why I am writing this. I feel like Riot is so focused on being competitive as a game that boasts a bigger player base rather than being competitive and boasts a better player base, the trap of all games, as we've seen with countless other games.
tl;dr negative changes that accelerates game progression without player interaction, reduction of unique player interaction with game mechanics are destroying the interest of the veteran and semi-veteran player base IMO.