Athena Season 4 Multi-Role Guide

This is a redone version of my Season 3 Athena build. It contains many of the same items, but has some new additions, which should help you. Athena is a very good goddess for beginners and experts. I hope that you learn a lot from this guide and use these builds next time you play Athena.

Special thanks to xZeroStrike and Branmuffin17 for giving me amazing feedback on this guide and making it the best it could possibly be.

For the "How to Jungle", "How to Solo", or "How to Support" chapters, those are usually how I play Athena, they are by no means, the only way to play her.

Why Watcher's Gift?

Watcher's Gift is very good for early game in the Duo Lane. Its passive is amazing as it provides a good amount of sustain (5 Gold, 12 Health, and 10 Mana per minion or camp kill you are within ***it range without dealing the killing blow). They really help Athena keep her health and mana high. Athena is pretty mana hungry early game, if you play her aggressive, which you should, so this will help her have enough mana to use her abilities.

Why Shoes of Focus?

Shoes of Focus is very good because CDR on Guardians is ridiculous. As previously mentioned, Athena is pretty mana hungry, so the 250 mana on these boots is perfect. They are the best boots for Guardians since Reinforced Shoes got majorly nerfed back in Season 3.

Why Jade Emperor's Crown?

Jade Emperor's Crown has replaced Sovereignty in the current meta, as of when I am updating this guide. After the major nerfs to Sov, Jade Emperor's Crown took over in the Support Physical Protection department. Its passive is amazing for team fights. While the passive isn't as good as the old Sov, it is much better than the current one. If you want to see some of the numbers of Jade Emperor's Crown vs. Sovereignty check out DukeSloth's video here:

Why Void Stone?

Void Stone is great all game to help both you and your Mid-Laner (mostly magical gods) get strong consistent damage off. This will help your Mid-Laner, presumably a mage to break through protections and deal even more damage.

Why Emperor's Armor?

Emperor's Armor is a newer item to Supports this season. You mostly only build Emperor's Armor if it is with Shogun's Kusari. These two together make what many call the "Sieging Build". This build has core items in Emperor's Armor and Shogun's Kusari. Together they let you blast down towers. Even without Shogun's Kusari, Emperor's Armor is a very potent all game item. Unlike what many people think it is also very good at protecting against sieges. The added allied structure attack speed helps get off big bursts of damage to enemy gods. The item is relatively cheap, so when behind it is great for defending. DukeSloth, yet again, addresses this topic, but with the Obey Alliance Support Player, EmilZy:

Why Breastplate of Valor?

Why Genji's Guard?

Genji's Guard is a great second magical defense item, with a good synergistic passive. Genji's Guard's passive is that when a god with this item is hit with magical damage from abilities, all cooldowns are reduced by 3 seconds. This is great as you will reach maximum CD with the item and this passive, lets you get even lower cooldowns, which is great because Athena is mainly used for peel, setup, and reinforcement. Without those abilities up, she is relatively useless.

If you want so more information on Support builds, check out this video from PolarBearMike. He is an amazing YouTuber, who will help you understand basic Support Builds and what each of them offers.
PolarBearMike's Video

What is Counterbuilding?

Counterbuilding is building items that directly hurt the enemy team, whether it be debuffs or team buff items. Debuff Items: Void Stone, Void Shield, Jade Emperor's Crown, Pestilence, etc. Team Buff Items: Sovereignty, Heartward Amulet, Gauntlet of Thebes, etc.

How do I know what to build to Counterbuild?

Let's say that the opposing team consists of Hel, Sylvanus, Guan Yu, Ao Kuang, and Jing Wei. Just based on the team comp, you would want to build Pestilence because Hel, Guan Yu, and Sylvanus have a lot of healing. They have 3 Magical gods in the form of Ao Kuang, Sylvanus, and Hel so you would also want Heartward Amulet. This will help you and you entire team.

Examples of Counterbuilding:

Any healing? Pestilence, Divine Ruin, Toxic Blade
Mostly Physical? Jade Emperor's Crown, Sovereignty, Gauntlet of Thebes
Mostly Magical? Heartward Amulet, Gauntlet of Thebes, Void Stone

What should I replace?
I would replace Emperor's Armor if you need even more counterbuilding. The build I have shown you already has a basic amount of counterbuilding. But you can also counterbuild even more. I can't give you a definite replace this with this guide because every game is different and there are a plethora of team combos, that are hard to all account for. A general rule of thumb is if the counterbuilding item has a certain type of protections, try use it to replace another item with the same type of protections. Ex. Shogun's Kusari replaces Void Stone.

What do you do as a Support?
To play a support you have to be a front liner. If your sole focus is getting kills, you shouldn't play a support. Supports are meant to soak up damage and protect their damage dealers. If this isn't your play style, I wouldn't recommend playing a support. If this is your play style, keep reading.

Early Game:
You are going to need to be careful. You don't have your items up yet, so you have to watch your health and mana. With Watcher's Gift, it should be a little easier, but you still have to be careful. While the other team won't be too strong yet either, but you should still be careful. Make sure to protect your ADC, they will be your late game damage and your best chance to win. Use your taunt wisely, it will be on a long CD and by withholding it, you can threaten your enemies and make them cautious. With your taunt up, make sure to use it to set up for your team. Conserve your ult because this is when it will have the highest CD. Be careful about who you use it on too. try and use it to save you ADC, Mid, or Jungler. You Solo Laner should be building protections, so they won't need the damage mitigation from it, as much.

Mid Game:
By now you should have a few items online

Late Game:

Why Bumba's Mask?

Although it may not be as good as it was last season, Bumba's Mask is the only for-sure jungling starter item. It has very good beginning stats, but not the best, unfortunately. The passive, however, makes up for this. When you last hit at jungle camp, you restore 25 mana and gain 4 extra gold. You also heal for 10% of the jungle monster's max health. Not only do you heal, get mana back, gain more gold, but you also do more damage to jungle monsters, so even if you don't clear as well, i.e. Guardians, you'll have a little easier time.

Why Sands of Time?

Now that you can build 2 starter items, you can start the game off strong. Sands of Time is perfect with Bumba's Mask as it gives power, MP5, and CDR. These stats have great synergy with Bumba's Mask's. The MP5 is perfect to help you whilst roaming the map looking to follow up on ganks. The CDR will make sure that you have your abilities up when you need them.

Why Shoes of the Magi?

While Shoes of Focus might seem like the better pick on Athena, Shoes of the Magi provides Athena with some good early pen which will help get some of Athena's damage off. This will help her even more late game, as she will be stripping enemy protections, with the added pen.

Why Void Stone?

You already have a good amount of pen, some good defenses, what else could you need? Well, you could level out your defenses through Void Stone along with a powerful debuff. This debuff will really help you tank up Magical damage and make sure that your damage dealers don't get bursted by your opponent's.

Why Breastplate of Valor?

Breastplate of Valor is an amazing jungling item. It has MP5 and CD which help Athena personally because she works very well with CD, as her base CDs are very high.

How do you Counterbuild in the Jungle?

Guardian Junglers counterbuild very differently on which Guardian you are playing. Athena is a very team based Guardian. She can utilize a lot of debuffs for her enemies and buffs for her allies. If you were to play Ymir, you would want a lot of damage and/or mitigation.

Why do I have to Counterbuild? I am the Jungler.

Usually, the Support and Solo Laner do the majority of the counterbuilding, but as a frontlining Jungler, you want to counterbuild a bit too.

How should I counterbuild as the Jungler?

You should find items that, both help you and your team, like Sovereignty, Heartward Amulet, or Gauntlet of Thebes, or help you and hurt the other team, like Jade Emperor's Crown, Divine Ruin, or Witchblade.

Guardians can Jungle?
Only a few Guardians can jungle: Athena, Cabrakan, Artio, Bacchus,
Kuzenbo, and Ymir. Guardians have very high base damage and low scaling. This means that they work well with penetration, but don't benefit as much from power.

Jungle Clear?
Athena has better jungle clear than most Guardians. Her 3-auto-1 combo is very good.

Should I Jungle with Athena?
If you are newer to the game, take some time to learn Athena before you play anything other than support. Once you feel comfortable with her abilities, you should practice in either Custom matches or Co-op vs. Ai matches.

What should I replace?
Here you want to replace .

What should I do as a Jungler?
As a Jungler, you have to follow up of gank setups. You have to rotate quickly and get online quickly. As Athena you are kind of a frontliner, but also a damage dealer. Your relics should help your team, so a Magic Shell or Meditation Cloak is perfect.

Early Game:
Early Game you should stick to the jungle. You should farm up to level 5 where you have your ult. By level 5 you should have your Shoes of Focus by then, that combined with Sands of Time you would have 20% CDR, which will help you keep your ult online, which will greatly help your rotations.

Mid Game:
During the Mid Game, you should help take objectives with Hand of the Gods. You should get some good xp and gold. Your build is very cheap and you should be able to get online quickly. You should have gotten a few gank kills and objective captures.

Late Game:
You are a tanky Jungler, so you should start or at least agro major objectives i.e. Gold Fury or Fire Giant. You should also do the same with phoenixes and any standing towers. If your Support is nearby have them tank the shots for a little bit, but if they are not you should. This is the same for the Titan. You should also make sure to use your team based actives whenever you need to secure an objective or win the game.

This isn't too good of a Guardian passive, but it helps with poke. One thing that you can do with passive is objective steals. If you time this correctly, you can throw your passive through a wall and hopefully, capture the objective. It can also pass through an entire wave, so wave clear? Check!

This is your only form of quick escape. If you hit an enemy with this ability, you slow them and add an stacking block, which absorbs one basic attack per block.

This is one of the most powerful CC tools in a Guardian's kit. This and Ymir's Freeze are both very powerful, at interrupting people. Use this in combo with your 3 and you will deal a lot of damage.

This is very powerful throughout the game. It deals damage when it's set down and when it activates. It stands for 2 seconds which is long enough for you to taunt and bring them into the center and deal massive amounts of damage.

This is a very powerful and tactical ultimate. It allows you to travel to any teammate, dealing damage in a small circle when you land. It also mitigates some of the damage that your target takes. This really helps with rotations.

Pros

One of the best CC abilities in the game
Dash that slows
Very potent in the Duo Lane, Jungle, and Solo Lane
Versatile
Easy to Pick Up
Very good for competitive games

Dash needs to charge
Ult can be blocked by teammates
Ult damage range is small
Pretty Mana hungry early

First, I would just like to tell you that Athena is best used with quick or instant casting.

Wave Clear? Check!

Everyone: Guardians can't Jungle Clear. Athena: Hold my Beer.

Get Back Here!

Are You Attacking my Friends?!

You think I am Scared?

RETREAT!!

3-1

Athena is one of the more versatile Guardians. She can play Solo, Jungle, and Support which makes her one of best competitive gods. I hope that you learn to love and respect Athena and Athena mains, like I have. Thanks for reading this far into the guide.