Athena, The Un-kill-able Destroyer of Pussies (REWORKED 4 SEASON 2!)

Hello To all of my Fellow Athena Players. This is my First Guide so take everything with a grain of salt, I do Intend to update this however. Athena is my second Legendary Character (Second to Ra), So I think I have A Pretty good idea of how to use her (When I started With her I sucked, now people tell me I'm probably the best Athena They've ever seen, even enemies tell me how annoying to put up with me).This Build has been reworked and designed for high protections and health which I personally think are both really important for playing Support. Also this build makes you some what..... oh, what's the word......... oh yea...... UNKILLABLE!!!!!

September 2, 2014: Build Published
April 1, 2015: Near Complete overhaul, Build reworked for Season 2, a lot of changes added and many updates based around item changes as well as the meta changing. With all of the progress made build still is not 100% done, however enough progress made so that a general idea of the build can be made more progress to come in time.

Pros:
-Reach is pretty useful,it can secure kills.
-Preemptive Strike can Stack Block 3 times absorbing 3 basic attacks, this actually makes surviving gods like Serqet easier.
-Preemptive Strike is good for chasing, initiating, securing kills, and escaping (plus it slows!).
-Confound is her best tool in her kit and one of the best and strongest CC's in the game, good for pulling enemies to you so teammates may attack them, pull back fleeing enemies for the kill, as well as pulling enemies off fleeing teammates(for up to 2 seconds!).
-Defender of Olympus Is a Global Teleport, Good for saving Teammates, Getting to objective Faster, Even in dire situations.... Escaping.
-Their is almost no purpose in chasing her, regardless of weather her Ultimate is up or not she is hard to chase and relatively slippery.
-The ONLY FEMALE GUARDIDAN!!!! =3
-SEXIEST TANK/SUPPORT THEIR IS!!! =3
-Some may call her The Defender of Olympus, but to me, She is The Destroyer of *******! =3
Cons:
-Like All Tanks/Supports, Early game there is Nothing Special About you. Your Job is to keep the ADC Alive & Fed. People Really underestimate how much you do for the team.
-Athena is Mana Hungry Early-Mid Game, even sometimes Late game to.
-Squishy Early Game.
-It can be hard to deal damage with Athena, a shield wall into confound combo is tricky to land both hits.
-While the purpose of this build is to be a un-killable as possible, Athena will almost never survive a 1v5, and rarely survive 1v4 both circumstances however will depend on enemy gods.
-Defender of Olympus takes 4.2 seconds to charge in that time Your teammate can die and you've lost your Ult, The same thing can happen if you try to escape with it (Trust me, it is one of the most painful things to watch, when Athena Just leaps, You think to yourself "Yes, Im out, Im Free, gonna go to base, get my health and mana, Finish my build, kick some ***, do I wanna Tank Fire Giant? Yea I'll Tank Fire Giant.".......... and then you die. Its really sad....

Alright This is how I play with Athena personally, if you don't like it, I recommend you find you own style, I made this entire build myself and it got me pretty far so I like if you'd play to what fits you best.
Early-Mid
Your Main Priority As Support is going to be keeping the ADC Alive & Fed. Every one says its okay if the support dies, its only ok if you don't die frequently, since you are still squishy you don't want to be fodder. Use minions to damage enemies instead of your self, be careful cause enemies will try doing the same to you. Use Multi pots if you get low on health and mana. Buy Wards and place wards Frequently, Map vision is good for you and your ADC. Once you get your Ult be sure took look out for low health teammates. If your ADC is Low use Confound to pull enemies off him/her as well as pulling enemies with low health to get the kill, Focus on maxing Confound out so it is more reliable. Preemptive Strike are going to be your BnB For clearing minions (Dash through Minions to stack Block, then use Sheild Wall to Clear them better). Remember that this is the farming phase, let your ADC Get the last hit on minions for the Gold Bonus.
Mid-Late
Rotate more frequently, you should be able to tank Towers for tower kills as well as enemy kills. Keep using Confound and Defender of Olympus for the same reasons. Shield Wall and Preemptive Strike are your main sources of Damage. You should have Wrath of the Gods For Fire Giant And Gold Fury, If you have Wrath of the Gods Start Focusing on Greater Providence to Ward Fire Giant & Gold Fury. Its better if you initiate team fights, Fire Giant, or Gold Fury so you can tank most of the Damage but be sure to Hog it. If the Enemy Team is a the fire Giant or Gold Fury, wait for it to get low enough, dash in with Preemptive Strike, Taunt as many enemies as possible (Preferably ones with Wrath of the Gods on them) And Use Wrath of the Gods to Steal it. Honestly from here on out it depends on how good the team is.

Lets go over my choice of Items, shall we =)
For starter items you are going to have 2 items as a too choose from.
WATCHERS GIFT

+100 Health
+5 MP5

OR

MARK OF THE VANGAURD

+5 Physical Protection
+5 Magical Protection
+150 Health

Choosing a starter will depend on a what you are fighting in the lane, do they have an Apollo and Sylvanus? Get Watchers Gift to compete with Sylvanus' sustain, or are they Anhur & Ares? Get Mark of the Vanguard to take more damage better. However there are going to be situations where say, you're fighting Anhur & Sylvanus, at that point it is completely up to you to decide what will work better for you.
*Note, It might be an option to buy one and get another later, but I wouldn't recommend that.

Now for the rest of the items in the build...

Reinforced Greaves


+20 Magical Power
+100 Health
+30% Crowd Control Reduction
+18% Movement Speed


A logical choice for tanks/supports, especially now that Magi's Blessing doesn't give crowd control reduction anymore, now you're left with the choice of Reinforced Greaves or Greater Purification (Beads). Now some People might be asking why not get shoes of focus instead

Well I have nothing to really hate them for and they aren't a bad choice, I've seen plenty of pro players use shoes of focus and trust me cooldown items make Athena even better, but I prefer having a lot of health on my tanks and you lose out on the crowd control reduction as well, but again choose based off what works best for you play style.

-Hide of the Urchin:

+45 Physical Protection
+45 Magical Protection
+250 Health
+250 Mana
PASSIVE - You gain +2 Magical Protection and +2 Physical Protection for each god kill or assist (max 10 stacks).

Hide of the Urchin is a seriously UNDERUSED items, As Support You should be more focused on assist then kills, this will increase your protections for each that you get while you have this item, it is seriously sad how underused it is. It helps with SEVERAL PROBLEMS SUPPORTS SPECIFICALLY SUFFER FROM, it gives 250 Health and Mana, things that supports need (a lot of supports are really mana hungry), and out of the whole "cloak" items tree, it gives the most protections, 65 Magical and Physical Protections, and all you have to do (AT THE LEAST) is assist a kill, I seriously want to see this item more often in higher level play because there is nothing wrong worth this item, it is really good and there is not a lot of reason to not buy it (besides counter building).


-Magi's Blessing:

+15 Physical Protection
+15 Magical Protection
+350 Health
PASSIVE - Absorbs a single hard crowd control or Root effect once every 45 seconds. When this occurs, the owner also receives 1s of cc immunity

Magi's is often used for countering certain gods or certain team compositions that are heavy on crowd control, this is good for countering the opposing Support As well, the protections are ok, the health is really nice but you know the real reason you buy this is for the bubble.
Nullify one Disarm, Root, Banish, Disorient, Fear, Grab, Intoxication, Knockback, Knock-up, Madness, Mesmerize, Pull, Silence, Stun, Taunt, and Tremble, and you know what..... there is a lot of crowd control from enemy gods.


-Sovereignty

+200 Health
+55 Physical Protection
AURA - All allies within 70 units gain +20 Magical Protections and +25 HP5.

-Heartward Amulet

+300 Health
+60 Magical Protection
AURA - All allies within 70 units gain +20 Physical Protections and +20 MP5

These items are obviously the equivalents to each other so there isn't much said about one that can't be said about the other. The best support items by far, there is literally almost NEVER any reason to build these, unless you are counter building for the team and even then it would generally be a better choice for someone else to counter build it (like a solo warrior or maybe even jungle).

-Ethereal Staff:


+30 Magical Power
+600 Health
+300 Mana
PASSIVE - 2% of your maximum health is converted to magical power

Now originally I ran out of items that would give even Magical and Physical Protections, Ethereal Staff gives you more a huge 600 Health and converts a portion of it into attack power. And an Extra 300 Mana! It rewards the tank-ness this build gives with mana Athena so desperately chews through and health to make Athena ridiculous.

Now lets talk actives, shall we?

-Hand of the Gods:

Use this to get your ADC's Buff faster, you want to get Wrath of the Gods ASAP, but don't Prioritize it over items in the build, level it up when you have some spare gold to spend but don't forget how important it will be Mid-Late Game.

-Greater Providence:

Wards Win Games, A free sentry ward every 60 seconds gives you improved vision and map awareness now that you can see enemy wards. For some reason a lot of people seem to be against warding, so having the extra vision means no one can yell when they get ganked, Ward The Gold Fury or Fire Giant Frequently, in case you have to steal it, yah now?

Lets rap things up.... with this build, like I said you will be nearly un-kill-able.
The build offers high protections and very high health, I believe this is an overall solid build, you don't lose out on much besides cooldown, but a smart Athena can be patient and will now when to use skills correctly.
The extreme tank-ness of the build makes you an extremely good initiator.
Be smart, you can be everywhere which make you a threat to the entire team always, however using it recklessly can really cost you the game, especially in the early game where Athena is at her weakest. Losing early game means you'll be spending most of the game to catch up, a support who is behind can lose the game trying to get back, and by that time the enemy team can take serious advantage of you when your behind.
Other than that I have nothing more to say.
Smite with me (NovaNeedsAName)
Please donate to the Winter Olympian Athena Relief fund (I cant get Winter Olympian cause Hi-Rez hates making money, Donate Now)
Happy Smiting to you all.
[VER]-(with the Athena Voice Pack)