Athena Support Conquest Guide

Hey there, I go by Dashboarrd and I'm a Grandmaster Support Conquest player. I've competed in the SCC (Smite Challenger Circuit) and I have won SOC (Smite Open Circuit). I have also won plenty of gem tourneys during the weekends, such as Iced and Vulpis. I have put many hours into Smite and in particular Athena. I hope this guide can give you some new direction with Athena if you're struggling with her, or just improve your overall Athena gameplay.


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Note: Athena's auto attacks become enhanced after using an ability. Make sure to auto, if you can, after every ability to maximize your damage output.

Passive - Reach Athena's auto attacks become enhanced after using an ability. This enhancement makes the autos ranged and do more damage.

Ability 1 - Preemptive Strike Athena's dash is a very good engage tool. Use it as a budget Blink Rune where you can close the gap for your taunt. As a tip, try playing a corner with this ability pre-charged then send it once you see a target in range.

Ability 2 - Confound Athena's best and most known ability. This is probably one of the best CC's in the game. Use this in combination with Preemptive Strike to create the best engage in the game. You can use this as peel but you should mainly be aggressive with it by engaging and starting fights for your team. Make sure to max this ability first since you get 2x taunt duration and 2 seconds less on your cooldown.

Ability 3 - Shield Wall Get it level 1 since it has the most optimal clear. With this Athena can do a 3 camp clear. Since it has a 20% slow added onto it, use it as a soft form of CC for peel or chase. Use it in combination with Confound after you've already taunted to extend your CC duration with a slow for a few seconds afterwards.

Ultimate - Defender of Olympus This ult grants both you and your selected teammate a buff. The buff proves 30% damage mitigation and gives 20% movement speed to your ally. I would use this as a way to get into a fight quicker, especially across the map. I would also use it as a form of peel, where you can make your ally take heavily reduced damage in a teamfight if they get gone on. You can also ult immediately after you dash taunt to make yourself a big tanky target which will help your team to freecast if they're focused on you.

As described above, a good combo you can do is use Preemptive Strike with Confound, then Shield Wall after your taunt goes off then use Defender of Olympus to become insanely tanky and give your ally a buff. After you taunt, make sure to use Reach between this and your shield wall to get extra damage off.

• Support should start purple and pull it outwards. In this time your ADC should be pulling Green and dragging it towards you (or vice versa). When both buffs are grouped, as you clear them pull them towards the lane. Watch out for invades!
  
  
• From here you should be sitting in duo lane for a majority of the early game. You want to stay there to contest protection (or shield) buff and pressure with your ADC. If you have enough pressure you can also invade their camps, such as Purple buff and their backcamps, even Green buff.

• Around the mid game you want to now start to play around the middle of the map as more objectives are spawning now. Athena in particular is very good at playing in mid since she can use her ult to help out any teammate on the map.
  
  
• These objectives consist of Beacon, Oracle, and Pyromancer. Try to pressure mid t1 tower too if your team has the pressure for it. Once that's down it creates map pressure from mid lane.

• Here you want to make sure to use your kit effectively. Athena is mainly a setup and engage support, although she does also have some tools to peel also. She is very simple, you want to start a fight by charging up your dash, dashing in and using your taunt ( Confound) to engage and start the fight for your team. If you get in trouble doing this, use you ultimate to bail yourself out since you get 30% damage mitigation.
  
  
• Also use your ultimate as peel for your allies since when you target them with it, they get 20% movement speed and 30% damage mitigation.

That ward you're buying in the early game, you want to place it at the area between their purple and shield camp about 23 seconds or sooner before the game actually starts, if you think you'll have pressure.

If you don't think you'll have pressure, place that same ward on your side in the same area about 10 seconds prior to the game starting. This will give you early gank info.

If you're able to get 2 wards at the start, place one defensively and one offensively in the same spots.

As you're playing through duo lane you really want to ward their backcamps for info for your team. Get 2 wards, typically after you buy Thebes, and place them at their purple buff or their back camps and their green buff.

Try to refresh these wards as often as you can. They give very good info on where the enemy jungler is at and if the enemy team is mobilizing towards duo side to setup for a Gold Fury.

In the map below, the red circles indicate the spots that you should ward aggressively and the blue circles indicate the spots you should ward passively.



Of course this depends where you're at in the game. But around fire giant, same concept. Try to get high wards around their backcamps, red, and even blue buff to give your team info.

On offensive sieges, try to place a sentry ward between their phoenixes that you're about to siege to gain info on people playing that gap. These wards are indicated by the Red circles on the map.

On defensive sieges, place a sentry between phoenixes they're about to siege so you and your team can play that gap area without worry. These wards are indicated by the Blue circles on the map.