Breaking the Meta: Athena Jungle (Minor update 11/19/2013)

This will be the area where I list changes I have made to the guide, or updates, buffs, and nerfs to Athena

September 29, 2013: Guide published

September 30, 2013: Minor format/spelling fixes

September 30, 2013: More minor format/spelling fixes (I really should have edited this better in the first place)

October 15, 2013: Added Athena's sexy loading card (cause the people at Hi-Rez are idiots for getting rid of it (JK love you Hi-Rez))

October 21, 2013: Updated some sections of the guide, added maps to the Jungling/Camp Routes and Ganking sections. Will be adding a section on warding in the near future. Thanks to Subzero008 for the wonderful suggestions!

November 19, 2013: Nerf to Athena's ult to be implemented tomorrow, and I have changed the abilities section of the guide to reflect this:

Athena

Honestly didn't think this was very necessary, the damage nerf maybe, but the damage mitigation nerf is kind of ridiculous, it already was nerfed pretty badly a while ago, but at this point they're making it more and more useless until it just becomes a straight ally teleport with no side effects. Overall it shouldn't affect her playstyle too much, you will just have to be a bit more careful with who you ult because they will be slightly easier to kill. Also if you depend on your ult damage for burst or kill damage in a fight you will need to re-adjust.

On a more awesome note, the Golden and Legendary Athena skins are to be released this patch!

I hate the current SMITE meta, but out of everything I hate, the meta for junglers is definitely the worst. All of the meta junglers in the game now are selfish assassins with no worthwhile CC (although I must admit this is starting to change a bit) who only care about snowballing themselves. This is the reason why I started experimenting with some gods to see if there could be any effective junglers that are more useful to a team than a selfish assassin. Some of the gods I found quite effective have been Odin (although I've seen him be played slightly more often in the jungle lately, especially after his visual update), Anubis (Anubis plays very similarly to an assassin jungler in the sense that he just snowballs himself, but he is still fun to mess with), and Tyr (Again, he is also being played in the jungle a bit more lately). But through these experiments I found my favorite jungler: Athena. She, like a few other of the junglers I have listed beforehand, has gotten some attention lately for being played in the jungle, but she is definitely a long way from becoming a "meta" jungler. through this guide I would like to convince you that just because a god isn't meta, it doesn't mean that they aren't good. And I would like you to, as i have, experiment with crazy gods that no one plays. Who knows, you might just find your new main. (Don't worry, you'll get used to the "Are you high?" and "GG" comments that you get in god select) I want YOU to break the meta.

Here is a quick glossary of some terms used in the guide, most of you will know these terms, but I am putting them here so that there is no confusion. (I understand that this isn't in alphabetical order, I'm lazy)

• Jungle: The area between the three lanes on the Conquest map of SMITE
  
• Jungler: Someone who roams the jungle clearing the monster camps in it and ganking the enemies who your teammates are laning against
  
• Gank/Ganking: The art (Yes, it is art) of ambushing an opponent whom a teammate is laning against in the attempt to get a kill
  
• AD: Attack damage/physical damage
  
• AP: Ability power/magical power
  
• ADC: Attack damage carry (usually a ranged character who deals physical damage)
  
• APC: Ability power carry (usually a squishy character who deals large amounts of
  magical damage)
  
• Squishy: A term used to describe a character with low defensive stats
  
• MR: Magic resistance
  
• CD: Cool down
  
• CDR: Cool down reduction
  
• CC: Crowd control, includes stuns, slows, taunts, cripples, snares, etc.
  
• Red Buff: Damage buff
  
• Blue buff: Mana/CDR buff
  
• Tenacity/Resolve: A passive on a few items which provides CC reduction, which makes the duration of CC shorter

If I missed any terms add them in the comments and I will add them to this section.

Pros:

• Great jungle clears with Shield Wall
  
• Amazing CC with Confound for ganking and securing your team kills
  
• Can go to anywhere on the map to assist your teammates with Defender of Olympus
  
• Very innately tanky, with high health and defense scaling and her Block passive
  
• Does tons of damage without having to build much AP
  
• Snowballs your whole team instead of just yourself
  
• Starting at around level 10(+-) she can become a monster at counter jungling
  
• Basically a roaming support tank

Cons:

• Doesn't do as much damage as many other junglers
  
• Cannot carry a team as hard as a few assassin junglers
  
• Early clears can sometimes be rough, especially if you don't get red buff
  
• No inherent sustain
  
• People will often times think you are trolling

Athena has a few different ways of building her, the two I use the most often being a balanced tanky (AP bruiser, if you will) build, and a pure damage build (this one I would not recommend using for jungle, but I put it in just in case you wanted to try it out). I will only be going over the first build in this section, use the other one at your own risk.

For starting items, I usually buy one point into Shoes, a Bumba's Mask and two Healing Potion. This is a standard jungle start for me and a lot of other players, swapping the Shoes for whatever your jungler needs (Usually Tabi, as most junglers are AD). The reason I buy Shoes over greaves is that the small amount of AP from the Shoes helps with early jungle clears, plus they build into Shoes of Focus which provides some much needed CDR.

After that I usually will build a mystical mark next, as it helps with jungle clears and provides a slight bit of extra damage during ganks, as well as provides armor and health to make you a bit more tanky. Yes, Mystical Mark is an expensive first item, but I believe it is entirely worth it to build first. If you really want to buy a cheaper item first, or if you are falling behind and cannot afford such an expensive item first, the two other items I would reccomend would be Hide of the Nemean Lion or Breastplate of Valor. However, in most situations I would reccommend Mystical Mark first.

Next I will normally buy an Ethereal Staff, as it provides a crazy amount of health (the largest amount of any item in the game) and an amazing passive which gives you AP based on your max health. This helps with your overall tankiness and damage.

Afterwards I will almost always buy a Bulwark of Hope to provide some MR and more health to round out your tankiness

At this point whatever you build is pretty much up to you, if you are snowballing you can buy items such as the Polynomicon (a favorite among Mage Athena players), Void Stone, Rod of Tahuti or any other AP item, if you need more tankiness you can go for a Hide of the Nemean Lion (to counter Basic Attackers such as ADCs or AD assassins), Hide of Leviathan for tenacity (I mean Resolve, whoops), Breastplate of Valor for more CDR, or Sovereignty to give your team some more defenses.

My average end-game build looks something like this:

• Shoes of Focus
  
• Bumba's Mask (Sold during very late game for a last item)
  
• Mystical Mark
  
• Ethereal Staff
  
• Bulwark of Hope
  
• Gem of Isolation
  
• Sovereignty

Athena's Kit makes her not only effective at clearing the jungle, it makes her great for pulling off ganks and initiating team fights effectively.

This passive isn't too useful unless you pick up a Polynomicon, which I wouldn't suggest unless you are snowballing hard. Otherwise, it provides a small bit of extra damage for clearing camps and in ganks, and occasionally you can secure a kill with a long range snipe from this passive. In short: if you're not going to pick up a Polynomicon I wouldn't worry too much about this passive.




Preemptive Strike is a great ability for engaging into a gank or going deep in a team fight. It has decent damage at later levels and a decent slow. This ability is her primary source of mobility and engages. However, the best part of this ability has to be the the Block passive. Every time you use this ability and it hits something, you gain a stack of Block, so use it in the jungle to build up stacks. If you are fighting an AD assassin or an ADC, this passive can save your life and even secure you a kill that you would have otherwise died for.




Confound is one of the reasons why Athena is such a great ganker. This ability is your primary source of CC and helps you and your team secure many kills very easily. The reason why I max this ability second is because the two second taunt is tremendously powerful and helps you and your team secure many kills.




Shield Wall is your main source of damage, jungle clears, and overall kill potential when playing Athena jungle. I always take a point into this ability first as it helps tremendously with early jungle clears, and I will always max this ability first, as it makes clearing the jungle later in the game trivial, and increases your damage during ganks. This ability probably does the most base damage of any tank in the game and is a key part of why Athena jungle works.




Defender of Olympus is another pivotal part of why Athena is such a strong jungler. She can gank or assist a teammate from anywhere on the map. If a teammate is taking heavy damage and you think you can get there in time to assist them, throw this on them to give them the 25% damage reduction. Or if you just see a perfect gank opportunity but are too far away you can use this to get there in an instant. If your teammate is still fighting/has enough health and understands the amount of damage this ability does as well, a lot of times your teammate will get the enemy inside the ult radius so you do massive damage on arrival. A word of warning is necessary with this ult though: do not use this ability to engage on a fight that you know you cannot win. For example, if an ally is being chased by the entire team, don't use your ult. You might be able to save them, but you will most likely die, and in most cases you will both die. Also, do not use this ult on a teammate that is about to die in the next few seconds. Most likely the 25% damage reduction won't do anything to save them and you will waste your ult CD. If you are going to use this to save a teammate, use it only when you feel like its safe and you can get out of there/pick up a kill or two, and use it only if you know your teammate won't die instantly.



For jungle Athena, the skill progression I find most useful goes like this:

Defender of Olympus -> Shield Wall -> Confound -> Preemptive Strike

This skill progression gives her easy clears and gank damage with Shield Wall, and amazing CC in ganks with Confound. Maxing Preemptive Strike second can work, but I feel that unless you are building damage on Athena, the two second taunt is much more beneficial as the damage from the second tick of Shield Wall severely out-damages a level 5 Preemptive Strike (I will explain this in a moment.)

Athena's combo when ganking is pretty straightforward, but I figured I'd outline it here because I see MANY Athena players (jungling or not) that mess up this combo. First, use Preemptive Strike to engage the enemy (pretty obvious, I know). Then right afterwards, use Shield Wall on top of the enemy to get off the first tick of damage from this ability. Lastly use Confound to taunt the enemy back into Shield Wall to get off the second tick of damage. If you use Confound before you use Shield Wall, most likely you will always get the first tick of damage off from Shield Wall, but not the second, as both level 5 Confound and the delay between the first and second tick of damage from Shield Wall are 2 seconds long. This is also what I meant when I said maxing Confound does more damage than maxing Preemptive Strike. If you leave Confound at level 1, you most likely won't be able to taunt the enemy back into Shield Wall.

One thing to be aware of is that sometimes, you will have to taunt the enemy before you use shield wall to get a kill for you or your teammate. For example, if an enemy runs under their turret and they would get away if you don't taunt them, then just use it. Sure, you won't be able to get your full combo off, but if you can secure a kill for your team then it doesn't really matter. Once you play Athena enough, you will be able to decide for yourself if you need to taunt someone without using your whole combo.


In short, Athena's normal gank combo looks something like this:

Preemptive Strike -> Shield Wall -> Confound, then taunt the enemy back into Shield Wall

Since you are reading this guide, I would assume that you already know how to jungle, and probably already have a favorite route, and most of the time this will work for any jungler, including Athena. If you are confident in your jungle route, then you can skip this part of the guide. However, if you are not as experienced in jungling/camp routes, then I suggest you keep reading.

First, my item start usually consists of one point into Shoes, a Bumba's Mask (an essential for all junglers, especially if you are getting a leash from your team), and two Healing Potion (to cover the fact that Athena doesn't have any sustain). I already went over this in the item build section, but I figured I'd reiterate it here anyways. My first ability is almost always Shield Wall to help you clear your first camps, but don't put a point into it until around minions spawning (I'll get into this in a minute)

My normal starting jungle route (this is the route that I have my teammate leash me) goes like this:

Right Mid Furies -> Red Buff -> Blue Buff

As both teams have equal access to the Mid Furies, I suggest being careful when heading over there, as the enemy jungler will most likely start there as well. If you see the enemy team while waiting for the Mid Furies to spawn, if it is only one or two of the enemy team I would suggest standing your ground and they might leave, but if the entire team is there, just back away. The Mid Furies on the left side of the map give you just as much exp and gold as the Mid Furies on the right of the map, so just head over there and clear those out. This is the reason why i suggest waiting until minions spawn to choose your ability, if you get caught out by the enemy team, or if your team decides to make a level 1 engagement at the mid furies, Preemptive Strike or Confound might be much more useful than Shield Wall. Sure, it will be harder to clear camps until you hit level 2, but at least you won't be dead if you got caught out, or you might have been able to help your team secure an easy kill or two.

Next, going to Red Buff is a good idea, as it helps you clear jungle camps early in the game. That being said, YOU should be taking Red Buff, as it really helps your early game clears. You are the jungler, so you have first pick on buffs. If a teammate complains about wanting Red Buff, explain to them that you need it for clears early, and that you will benefit from it much more than they will.

Lastly, going to Blue Buff really helps out your teammate who gets it (Usually the mid or solo laner), gives your teammates an incentive for leashing you, and gets you some more easy gold. If any teammate asks for Blue Buff, give it to them, cause they asked first and that is just being a nice honorable teammate.

After you go to those three camps and your teammates go back into lane, just keep clearing the Furies/Mid Furies and clear Red Buff or Speed Buff any time you get a chance/need a new buff. Clear your Blue Buff camps every time you get a chance, but don't take those buffs, ping them and tell your teammates that they can take them when they get a chance.

Here is a map showing my most used jungle route in the beginning of the game

I figured I would go over this briefly, as it is a jungle guide, but again, if you are experienced in jungling you can skip this part of the guide.

First. wait until at least level 3. You need all your abilities to gank effectively. Second, be patient, and wait for the right opportunity. If you rush into a gank, you can easily kill yourself and possibly your teammate laning. Wait for the enemy to be pushed, and try to make sure the enemy jungler isn't around. If your teammate is pushed and it doesn't look like you will be able to gank that lane, leave and clear some camps, or possibly go gank another lane. If you wait too long to gank a lane or you rush into a gank and it fails, you will be losing exp and gold and you will get behind. Lastly, be aware of the map. Especially with Athena, map awareness is key to being a good jungler. If you see an enemy pushed up really far on the map, or you see the enemy jungler gank a lane and you think you can turn it around, you can use Defender of Olympus to help that teammate and possibly secure a few kills. If you can, try to announce when you are about to gank a lane, because sometimes your teammates are not that aware of the map. A simple VSG1/2/3 can let your teammate know that you are about to gank and will make it more likely for that gank to succeed. When you gank a lane, make sure to use your combo effectively (outlined in the Skills section), communicate with your team, and try to give your teammate the kill (unless they are feeding hard) and you will be a successful jungler, and you will be able to snowball your team.

Here is a map outlining gank paths and who to use your ultimate on when ganking

In Conclusion, Athena is a highly underrated jungler with great gank potential, jungle clears, teamfight potential, CC, tankiness, and damage, making her one of, if not the best jungler in the game.

This is my first guide, and I plan on doing more in the "Breaking the Meta" series in the future (I have some prepared that are sure to rustle some jimmies) If you liked this guide, I would highly appreciate and upvote and a comment on why you liked it/your thoughts. If you didn't like it, leave a comment and tell me why.

Also be sure to check out my second guide in this series about Bastet Mid

Thanks, and have fun breaking the meta

-MetaCow