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Athena, the sexiest tank

24 3 100,561
by TheAmazingComicBookGuy updated June 7, 2013

Smite God: Athena

Build Guide Discussion 28 More Guides
Tap Mouse over an item or ability icon for detailed info

Athena Build

Starting items

Build Item Mark of the Vanguard Mark of the Vanguard
Build Item Reinforced Greaves (Deleted) Reinforced Greaves (Deleted)
Build Item Healing Potion Healing Potion

Physical defense

Build Item Breastplate of Valor Breastplate of Valor
Build Item Hide of the Nemean Lion Hide of the Nemean Lion
Build Item Wall of Absolution Wall of Absolution

Magical defense

Build Item Stone of Gaia Stone of Gaia
Build Item Void Stone Void Stone
Build Item Magi's Cloak Magi's Cloak

Magical power

Build Item Gem of Isolation Gem of Isolation
Build Item Bancroft's Talon Bancroft's Talon
Build Item Chronos' Pendant Chronos' Pendant

Abilities

Build Item Hand Of The Gods (Old) Hand Of The Gods (Old)
Build Item Girdle of Might Girdle of Might
Build Item Aegis Amulet (Old) Aegis Amulet (Old)
Build Item Purification Beads (Old) Purification Beads (Old)
Build Item Blink Rune Blink Rune

Consumables

Build Item Healing Potion Healing Potion
3
Build Item Ward Ward
3

Athena's Skill Order

Preemptive Strike

1 X Y
Preemptive Strike
2 15 16 18 19

Confound

2 A B
Confound
3 7 11 12 14

Shield Wall

3 B A
Shield Wall
1 4 6 8 10

Defender of Olympus

4 Y X
Defender of Olympus
5 9 13 17 20
Preemptive Strike
2 15 16 18 19

Preemptive Strike

1 X
Athena powers up for a dash. While dashing, Athena will pass through minions, stop and hit the first enemy god she encounters, dealing damage. If she hits an enemy, Athena gains a stack (max 3), reducing the next source of Basic Attack damage from any god that hits her. Athena may also gain these stacks by hitting an enemy god with Reach, once per attack.

Ability Type: Dash, Slow, Damage
Damage: 80 / 130 / 180 / 230 / 280 (+50% of your Magical Power)
Range: 55
Cost: 60 / 70 / 80 / 90 / 100
Cooldown: 14s
Confound
3 7 11 12 14

Confound

2 A
Athena releases a shockwave of power from her shield, Taunting enemy gods and decreasing their Attack Speed as she forces them to fight or chase her.

Ability Type: Cone, Taunt, Damage
Taunt Duration: 1 / 1.25 / 1.5 / 1.75 / 2s
Damage: 40 / 65 / 90 / 115 / 140 (+20% of your Magical Power)
Attack Speed Slow: 20 / 22.5 / 25 / 27.5 / 30%
Cost: 60 / 65 / 70 / 75 / 80
Cooldown: 18s
Shield Wall
1 4 6 8 10

Shield Wall

3 B
Athena summons a group of Athenian warriors who do damage and Slow upon arrival. After 2s, they strike again, dealing additional Damage and Slowing.

Ability Type: Circle, Damage
Initial Damage: 70 / 110 / 150 / 190 / 230 (+50% of your Magical Power)
Secondary Damage: 70 / 135 / 200 / 265 / 330 (+50% of your Magical Power)
Slow: 15%
Radius: 15
Cost: 60 / 65 / 70 / 75 / 80
Cooldown: 14s
Defender of Olympus
5 9 13 17 20

Defender of Olympus

4 Y
Athena picks a single allied god anywhere in the world, and launches herself up into the air, landing next to that god 3.6 seconds later. During that 3.6 seconds, both Athena and the allied god gain Damage Mitigation, and the allied god also gains Movement Speed. Enemies nearby when Athena lands take damage.

Ability Type: Teleport, Buff, Damage
Damage: 340 / 415 / 490 / 565 / 640 (+90% of your Magical Power)
Ally Mitigation: 10 / 12.5 / 15 / 17.5 / 20%
Movement Speed: 10 / 12.5 / 15 / 17.5 / 20%
Radius: 20
Cost: 80 / 90 / 100 / 110 / 120
Cooldown: 120s

Introduction!

Hello, and welcome to my second smitefire guide! This time it's about the one and only Athena! She is the latest added god as if for 5-6-2013 and the only female tank. She fits the role of a second tank and is probably one of the most fun gods to play with.
I currently have a high win rate with her and I think I can teach something to you as the reader.

Just to clear this out, this is not the bible and you don't have follow it word by word

Gameplay video

/smite/god/he-bo-15 WitherMcSpoon, go check him out for some quality videos! Drybear's vids are always very high quality, just go and check him out ;)

Pros and Cons

Pros!
- Her ability to taunt gods and absorb hits is unique amongs tanks and is a very awesome skill
- Global ult
- Her ability to protect teammates is unmatched
- Her basic attacks can be ranged, which is vert handy
- Tanky, but hits very hard
- One of the hardest gods to chase
Cons!
- Ult can be hard to hit
- Pretty low CC compaired to other tanks
- Early game could be better
- Can be manahungry at times
- Struggles to solo inditate fights
- Abilities can work against her





Overall, Athena is a very strong and tanky bruiser who is worth taking a look at

Skills

Reach
Key Bind: Passive

After using any ability, Athena's next basic attack is a ranged attack, hitting all enemies it passes through, and dealing additional magic damage. Damage: Basic Attack (+50% of your magical power).
A very nice passive to get the most out of your abilities, try yo use it strategically. This can help for clearing the wave or poking enemies.


Preemptive Strike
Key Bind: 1

Athena powers up for a dash. While dashing, Athena will pass through minions and stop and hit the first enemy god she encounters, dealing damage and slowing all she hits. If she hits an enemy, Athena gains one stack of Block (max 3), absorbing the next basic attack from any god that hits her. Damage: 80/130/180/230/280 (+50% of your magical power). Slow Amount: 25%. Slow Duration: 1.25/1.5/1.75/2.0/2.25s. Cost: 60/70/80/90/100. Cooldown: 15/14/13/12/11s.
This is a very bad dash, but can let you absorb basic attack hits. It can absorb a lots of damage for you and should be used wisely. Pick it up first to escape or inditate and max it last
Confound
Key Bind: 2

Athena releases a shockwave of power from her shield, taunting enemy gods, and forcing them to fight or chase her. Taunt Duration: 1.0/1.25/1.5/1.75/2.0s. Cost: 60/65/70/75/80. Cooldown: 18s.
This ability has a lots of uses and can help your teammate survive, keep people in nasty places or screw the enemy over (you should focus on squishy gods first and not the tanks in a fight. Pick this up third to protect your teammate and max it second
shielded wallShield Wall
Key Bind: 3

Athena summons a group of Athenian warriors who do damage upon arrival, and after 2s strike for additional damage. Initial Damage: 40/75/110/145/180 (+50% of your magical power). Secondary Damage: 80/150/220/290/360 (+50% of your magical power). Cost: 60/65/70/75/80. Cooldown: 14s.
This ability can be great for clearing a lane, but is also your main damage spell. Because it has a delay between the placing and the big damage you should place it so it's unavoidable or use your 2 with it. Pick this up first to clear a buff camp and max it first for its damage potentional
Defender of Olympus
Key Bind: 4

Athena picks a single allied god anywhere in the world, and launches herself up into the air, landing next to that god 4.2 seconds later. During that 4.2 seconds, the allied god mitigates 50% of the damage it's taken. Enemies nearby when Athena lands take damage. Damage: 350/500/650/800/950 (+100% of your magical power). Allied mitigation: 50%. Cost: 80/90/100/110/120. Cooldown: 90s.
This ability has a lots of uses for different situations, it can be your escape moove, your inditation after your Hades or Ares ulted, or you can guard your teammates with it. It is hard to hit, but it has great damage. Try not to waste it, if your teammate dies while casting your ult is wasted. Put points into it at levels 5, 9, 13, 17 and 20

Itemization

  • Starting items:
    Mark of the Vanguard: This item is a must for any tank/bruiser, because of it's early game stats. You can easily tank a buff camp or survive some punishment. This item might be great early game, but I suggest you sell it late game.
    Reinforced Boots: This is a great item for maintaining the lane, and it gives exactly what any tank needs early game.
    Healing Potion: I have tried both healing pots and mana pots, but these just seemed to work out better. This is a matter of preference, and you could pick a mana pot if you want.
  • Physical defense items:
    Breastplate of Valor: Typical early game defense item, gives you mana sustain, defense, nice cooldown reduction AND it's cheap!
    Hide of the Nemean Lion: Get this item early game, because it's cheap and will pay off mid game. When some random carry tries to kill you they can just kill themselves without good lifesteal.
    Wall of Absolution: I really love this item for it's stats. It is nice that it gives magical power, good protections and extra protections when hit by basic attacks.
  • Magical defense items:
    Stone of Gaia: Gives you very good sustain, I just swear by this item ;)
    Void Stone: This is a great bruiser item, and it helps your mages out a LOT!
    Magi's blessing: Because your 1 makes you absorb basic attacks this works pretty decent on Athena and it has nice stats.
  • Magical power items:
    Gem of Isolation: This item gives you some nice magical power and hp, but that isn't everything. It helps you hit your 3 because of the nice slow on it.
    Bancroft's Talon: I wanna clear out that I don't recommend this item for it's lifesteal (it is nice tho), but because you get in the middle of action all the time. You are gonna be targeted a lot, and this helps you with dishing out damage as you get lower.
    [Chronos' Pendant]: Pick this up if you didn't go with any cd reduction, you will need it ;)
  • Abilities and Potions:
    Hand of the Gods: If you decide to buy this, than I suggest getting it as soon as you can, and you need SPAM this ability as you can. Get level 2 and 3 of it when objectives become important.
    Girdle of Might: This can make a difference in fights. If you have someone like Anhur as laning partner, than you need to use it when he does his combo. This should be used to help your teammate and not you. Use this in teamfights.
    Aegis Amulet and Purification Beads: Pick these items up when you are struggling. Try to defend yourself with these. These items should be picked up when the enemy has an [[Ares] or something like that.
    Blink: Great items for a tank, it helps her with inditating.
    Wards: As a tank you should be the one buying Wards.
    Healing Potions: As you won't need mana pots late game you should buy Healing Potions. I suggest having 3 at times, because I don't like running out of them.

You have to be in synergy with your team! (Laning and Teamwork)

  • Laning
    When laning you have to go left/right (THOU SHALT NOT MID WITH A TANK) and pick someone to go with. You are best paired with a god that is constantly in the action, like Thor or someone who really appreciates you for distracting your opposition, like Loki
  • Teamwork
    While laning you will most likely won't be seeing other teammates than maybe your mid if he decides to gank or you meet eachother at the base.
    This, changes mid game. You and the enemy team will both group up and teamfights will start. Tanks will often be the one inditating a fight, but you shouldn't, because you ulting in will give a better advantage. Try ulting when someone like Ares Hades or Guan Yu ults ant than you go in.

Your foes and your Nemesis


In this chapter we will look at enemies that you would love or hate to face, let's get this going.
Enemies that you would love to face!
You would love to face these gods, because mages really can't do anything abainst you and it is a plesure if they focus you. As for assassins they won't burst you down in 2 seconds and if any of the two get close to your teammates, than they WILL die. Try to lure them into abilities ect. There is no way that they survive a teamfight if they get focused
Anubis
Poseidon
Arachne
Loki
Ne Zha
Bastet
Ao Kuang
Bakasura
Fenrir
Kali


Enemies that you will have troubles with
These enemies are all situational, but someone like [[apollo] actually takes ADVANTAGE of your 2 try not to attack these unless you got some boss protections
Apollo
Freya
Artemis
Anhur
Neith
Xbalanque

The minimap is your best friend! (Global presence)

As Athena has a global ult it's your RESPONSIBILITY to constantly stare at the minimap and help your allies. You can easily help someone who has pushed up to far or is about to be ganked by someone.
Because you are a tank you should also Ward the minimap. I have a picture of it and you should:
Ward the blue x if lanes get ganked very often. You should also ward the enemy sides late game, because pushing becomes risky
Ward the red x when gold fury becomes important (~10th minute) and ward the firegiant when that becomes important (~20th minute)

Strategy in domination and arena


Arena:
- Teamfight simmulator
- You can protect teammates
- Your ult is an awesome edition in arena



Domination:
- Your ult can help with protecting obelisks
- You can taunt the minions, so they won't attack the obelisk
- You can profit from hopping in and out of action with your ultimate

Summary

Thanks for checking out my Athena guide, I hope you enjoyed it and learned something. I think that Athena will definitively be a top tier tank (first pick/first ban) and that people really need to think about her. Congratulations if you really came so far and remember: WARDZ

Changelog

6-6-13:
Guide published!
7-6-13:
Added second vid and changelog, also edited some typos

Leave a Comment

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Collapse All Comments

1
TheAmazingComicBookGuy (47) | December 22, 2013 2:50am
Archived
1
TheAmazingComicBookGuy (47) | November 25, 2013 10:05pm
Grimskull wrote:

You basically copied your Bacchus build onto Athena. It's exactly the same except for Bancroft's Talon and Chronos' Pendant as alternatives to Gem of Isolation

Athena's base protections are enormous so building some extra health on her would be way better instead of all these protections.

A gameplay section to show of her combos and how to play her would be nice as well.

Also writing down the entire skill info when you can just hover over the icon to see it is pretty pointless.

On the other hand, your use of BB coding is really good and all the images really provide some alternation when reading the guide.

To sum it up, the layout and presentation of the guide is really good but using exactly the same build on 2 gods shows that you probably should try out some new combinations as well.

This guide is months old and way outdated, and the only reason I don't archive it is because it got pretty good critisism ans people still use it as a valid guide. I personally really liked the listed build on most tanks and I just put what I use, not because of the bacchus guide, I do not think I am gonna change tbis guide ever, but combos might be a good idea if anyone else is writing a guide for her.
1
Grimskull (4) | October 29, 2013 3:53am
You basically copied your Bacchus build onto Athena. It's exactly the same except for Bancroft's Talon and Chronos' Pendant as alternatives to Gem of Isolation

Athena's base protections are enormous so building some extra health on her would be way better instead of all these protections.

A gameplay section to show of her combos and how to play her would be nice as well.

Also writing down the entire skill info when you can just hover over the icon to see it is pretty pointless.

On the other hand, your use of BB coding is really good and all the images really provide some alternation when reading the guide.

To sum it up, the layout and presentation of the guide is really good but using exactly the same build on 2 gods shows that you probably should try out some new combinations as well.
1
Timofy (1) | October 10, 2013 2:37am
Nice guide, holy ****. I love the effort you have put into this guide. Finally a guide that actually covers everything. Deserves to be the top guide. Also a mad build, +rep +(y) Thank-you so much keep up the good work,.
1
executionercm | October 4, 2013 8:34pm
What abilities would you recommend the most?
1
Sadisticnerd (2) | September 21, 2013 6:43am
I think this is a great guide. It just seems to me as there is a little too much color and spacing could be improved. However, still upvoting.
1
SeaCaptain | September 19, 2013 7:32am
JararoNatsu wrote:

Aaaand... you posted it.

I'm really not happy that you published this so early, but it does look pretty good.

I'm not upvoting it until I see more for it and once that week period ends.


Youre a huge jerk
1
FishTacklz | September 11, 2013 12:27pm
y u no have damage build/jungle anthena
1
TheAmazingComicBookGuy (47) | August 18, 2013 9:51pm
GrayMatter13 wrote:

We are forgetting something... Ymir is the Sexiest tank.

That. Is. So. True. ;)
1
GrayMatter13 | August 18, 2013 4:39pm
We are forgetting something... Ymir is the Sexiest tank.
1
LegendaryGore | June 24, 2013 4:22am
This guide is a HUGE NO-NO for Athena!

Chronos Pendant AND Breastplate of Valor?? 50% CD reduction is not possible because there is a CAP at 40%.

Gem of Isolation when you have no1 ability? No1 ability last 12% LONGER than the debuff from GoI. Not only that but your no2 ability DOES NOT activate the GoI effect... So you'd be using no1 (which ALREADY triggers a LONGER lasting slow) -> 3 to drop the damage -> 2 to pull them in for the blast... you simply can't miss and you don't need GoI.

Start build with Shield Wall THEN Preemptive Strike?? That just breaks your low lvl gank opportunities for your fellow lane partner.

Athena is INCREDIBLE at securing kills early game. She's as good as sobek for trapping people and setting up low-lvl ambush with her no2 ability.

You're definetly NOT playing her right when u say things like
- Pretty low CC compaired to other tanks
- Early game could be better
- Struggles to solo inditate fights << also a typo here

Co-ordinate with your team and play her like aggressive. She's more like Sobek than Ymir. High mobility (dash & teleport ulti), great initiation/peel off. You can have ANYONE initiate when you have your ultimate ready. They jump in have 50% damage reduction and u get to deal out a LOT of damage when u come in.

Also Wall of Absorbtion instead of Mystical Mark??? AoE magical dmg, Life bonus and protection gets left behind for 45 more phis prot some MP5 and a measly 30magi power... AoE DAMAGE in groupfights does a LOT more overall. Not only that but creep killing is way faster and allows u to solo lane so that your partner can jungle. How is Freya a hard fight yet Fenrir an easy one? Freya has 1 escape her ulti while u buff fenrir by taunting him to u... Once Freya's ulti is done u can CC slow & taunt her for a gank no-prob... early levels she doesn't even have a chance.

I think we play this character far to different and personally I think that your build isn't very effective and leaves you far too vulnerable early on. She's an aggressive character with a lot of potential for ganks.
1
TheAmazingComicBookGuy (47) | June 20, 2013 12:50pm
serock3 wrote:

what's your opinion on using polynomicon? many people claim that it doesn't work with her passive but when I've tested it it seems to work fine (maybe it was a bug that has been corrected). it adds a lot of extra damage since you can easily get in a basic attack in between most of your spells. but i almost never see anyone use it, do you know why? it works fine for me.

Well, currently the item is bugged as hell on her, but most of the time it worked for me, but than again not always :P
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