How to win lane as Zed against Pantheon · 53.04% win rate over 3,007 Emerald+ games · Updated 2026-07-27
| Stage | Favoured | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Level 1 | Pantheon | Pantheon's Comet Spear out-pokes your Q and his passive blocks your first hit, so level 1 is his. |
| Level 2 | Pantheon | At level 2 his W stun plus Q burst wins any short trade you take. |
| Level 3 | Pantheon | Level 3 gives him a full Q-W-E combo that out-damages your kit. |
| Levels 4-5 | Pantheon | Through levels 4-5 he can all-in you and your escape shadow isn't enough to win it. |
| Level 6 | Zed | Death Mark at 6 lets you dash past his block and burst him before he can answer. |
| First item | Zed | With first-item lethality your all-in and pick threat exceed his stalling damage. |
| Two+ items | Zed | You scale into a backline assassin while Pantheon falls off hard. |
Pantheon owns the first four levels. His Comet Spear pokes harder than your Q and his passive blocks your first auto or shuriken in each trade, so short trades favour him and his W stun sets up a full combo you can't answer yet. Give up contested melee-range CS and farm from range; do not let a level-2 or level-3 all-in catch you with W up.
The full Zed vs Pantheon report continues with the mid-game plan, the late-game and teamfight plan, every power spike to play around, and the win conditions for both sides — plus cooldown tracking and the live enemy-jungle tracker inside the app.
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Playing the other side? Pantheon vs Zed guide →
All Zed mid lane matchups →