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Reinforcements on the way! A General Use Guide to Athena (Vers. 1.0)

4 2 22,245
by LeafThirteen updated June 23, 2013

Smite God: Athena

Build Guide Discussion 5 More Guides
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Athena Build

Starter Buy

Build Item Mark of the Vanguard Mark of the Vanguard
Build Item Shoes Shoes

Core Items

Build Item Shoes of Focus Shoes of Focus
Build Item Breastplate of Valor Breastplate of Valor
Build Item Void Stone Void Stone

Recommended Late Game

Build Item Polynomicon Polynomicon
Build Item Hide of Leviathan Hide of Leviathan
Build Item Rod of Tahuti Rod of Tahuti

Useful Actives

Build Item Purification Beads (Old) Purification Beads (Old)
Build Item Aegis Amulet (Old) Aegis Amulet (Old)
Build Item Creeping Curse Creeping Curse

Athena's Skill Order

Preemptive Strike

1 X Y
Preemptive Strike
3 10 14 15 16

Confound

2 A B
Confound
2 4 6 8 9

Shield Wall

3 B A
Shield Wall
1 7 11 12 13

Defender of Olympus

4 Y X
Defender of Olympus
5 17 18 19 20
Preemptive Strike
3 10 14 15 16

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
2 4 6 8 9

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 7 11 12 13

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 17 18 19 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

A General Use Guide to Athena



Hello everybody.

Seeing as I've recently hit rank 10 with this recently released goddess, I thought that I would share what I have learned bout this character, such that more players will decide to pick her up in the future.

This is my first guide ever, so please leave any constructive feedback that you feel is necessary, and I will get back to you.

That being said, let us continue on to the guide itself.

Version History

Athena Guide Vers. 1 (6/23/2013): Guide is Released! (Woohoo!)

Athena

Athena


Goddess of Wisdom


Primary Role: Magical Bruiser/Off-Tank



Pros:


+ Good damage and lane pushing for her survivability.
+ Global teleport.
+ Unique and powerful CC ability.
+ Excellent chasing ability.
+ Has a dash for escaping or initiating.
+ GLOBAL TELEPORT!


Cons:


- Relies on chaining her skills for maximum effectiveness.
- Long cooldowns.
- Crowd Control is useless for escaping.
- Passive is situational and weak without sufficient magic power.
- Ultimate can be wasted due to unpredictable teammates.
- Looooong cooldowns.



Abilities




Passive: Reach



Not a terrible passive, but it is a little awkward on Athena's kit, which relies mostly on being fairly close to an opponent. Still, once coupled with Polynomicon, it can give Athena a substantial damage boost and chasing tool. A situational passive, but useful if built into.

Skill 1: Preemptive Strike



Athena's Dash. This is where most of the utility in Athena's kit will be coming from. It goes through minion waves, damaging each minion along the way, and will stop on players, damaging them and slowing them. Hitting any enemy with this ability will also allow Athena to negate the next auto-attack from an enemy God. Thus, this skill can be used for a variety of things such as killing minion waves (at later levels), chasing down players, running away from players, initiating Athena's primary combo, and even getting back to the front lines faster (When Athena's ultimate is down), all while building some defense in the process.

One quirk of this skill is that it has a slight charge up before it can be fired. Though this may seem like a problem at first, it can actually be used to Athena's advantage. Once this skill is charged, Athena can cancel it at anytime without any cost to mana or cooldown, creating a distinct sound and flash, but no dash. Thus, the skill can be activated and canceled rapidly while on the front-lines in order to confuse enemies as to when you will approach, possibly even causing them to use a skill early.

Skill 2: Counfound



This is Athena's primary crowd control skill. When activated, it will cause enemies to walk towards you and auto-attack for its duration. This skill has three primary uses: Pulling enemies into danger, pulling back retreating enemies, and pulling enemies away from endangered allies. This ability to control your opponents movement for up to 2 seconds is quite potent, and is useful in a multitude of situations. Unfortunately, unlike the straight stuns of other tanks, this skill is almost useless for escaping, as it will pull the enemies toward you. Its only use in this respect is to prevent enemies from using their skills for a short time. This skill is especially potent against enemies near your towers, as it will make them auto-attack you (thus making the tower target them) while they are pulled further toward the tower. This can lead to an early kill in some situations.

Skill 3: Shield Wall



This ability, being a straight damage ability, is unusual on a tankier character like Athena. Still, it does give Athena some uncommon damage potential, especially late game. Due to its big Aoe damage, this skill can allow Athena to forgo buying Hand of the Gods, as it allows her minion clearing abilities to be quite serviceable without it. Against players, Athena will almost always need to use Confound in order to make both of its hits connect.

Ultimate: Defender of Olympus



This is the ability that makes Athena special. With this, Athena can teleport to any ally anywhere on the battlefield after a 4 second channel. During the channel, the targeted ally will take 50% damage, and Athena will heavily damage enemies within a short radius of where she lands. Unfortunately, leveling up this skill only increases its damage, and the damage's radius is small enough, and allied behavior is unpredictable enough that I have found the damage on this skill to be fairly unreliable. This also means that Athena will have to rely doubly on her other 3 skills to do the brunt of her damage. Thus I recommend acquiring this skill at level 5 for its amazing teleport, and then maxing it last.

The teleport on this skill is infinitely useful and can save your teammates' lives. Use this on low-health allies that are being chased, then pull away their attackers with Confound. Use this skill on an ally chasing a low health enemy in order to secure the skill. Use this skill on an ally in a struggling lane in order to quickly turn the tables on the enemy laners. If none of the above situations are happening at the moment, this skill can also be used to instantly return to your lane/a teamfight after returning to base, allowing you to get full health and mana, buy items, and return to the battlefield in the space of abut 10 seconds, even if your at the enemies' phoenix!

Primary Offensive Combo:



-> ->

Athena relies on chaining her skills together in order to do her maximum damage, thus leveling her skills somewhat evenly (at least initially) is recommended for maximum effect. Although, Confound should usually be maxed first, followed by Shield Wall, then Preemptive Strike.

Builds and Items

Build 1: The Hybrid



This is my recommended build for Athena. Athena has enough damage potential in her kit that I feel that its a waste not to build a decent amount of magic power on her. Thus,this build focuses on adding just enough survivability on to her natural tankiness to make her just durable enough, and then filling the rest of her build with magic power.

Shoes of focus and Breastplate of Valor are must build items for Athena, as her abilities desperately need the cooldown reduction in order to be really effective.

Polynomicon is also a highly recommended item to build on Athena at some point in her build, as it takes her passive ( Reach) from being rather meh, to being a significant boost to her overall DPS.

Hide of Leviathan is also recommended on this build due to the lack of Reinforced Greaves, for their overall dual protections and resolve.

Builds to Come:

-Full Tank-

-Full Mage-

Sections to Come:

Here is the content that I intend to work on depending on the feedback I receive:

- More Builds
- In-depth gameplay tips and strategies (such as mid and solo laning)
- Deeper and more thorough item and purchase-order analyses
- God Match-Ups
- Game-mode specific guides

Leave a Comment

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1
LeafThirteen | July 25, 2013 11:13pm
Hey guys, thanks for commenting on my guide.

Sorry that I haven't replied, I actually to a short break from smite shortly after I made this guide.

I'll probably return to it at some point, but for now I have been trying out Chang'e (lot of fun btw).

Thanks for your support guys, I'll try to update this guide at some point.
1
xanderzilla | July 16, 2013 3:40pm
Hey I myself have made Athena build, however I did not instruct the player how to use her effectively. Based on this guide obviously Athena is a favorite god of yours, and she is a favorite of mine. I think this build will allow more Athena players to play Athena well. I would appreciate it if you could check out my build and make a suggestion, because I am only a Rank 5 Athena and in my opinion not yet experienced enough with her yet.

-Best Regards Xanderzilla(if you want to friend me my IGN is also Xanderzilla
1
Burning-Fart | July 10, 2013 3:16am
Ralloff, i have to agree. Since Obsidian Shard is more powerful not only against squishies, but also against tanks, it seems to me more viable. And the synergy with Rod of Tahuti is also welcome.
The item choice depends strongly on the opponent team, so in certain cases I prefer to pick mag. defense in stead of Breastplate of Valor, that means either Stone of Gaia (solving also some mana issues) or Bulwark of Hope. The Bulwark of Hope would benefit more of a late Ethereal Staff instead of penetrating items.
On the other hand the Shoes of Focus will become mandatory in that case.


Actually, her playstyle triggering the polynomicon as much as possible means that you will need more items which increase her magical power. Her tankiness suffers then, so that a more secure playstyle is recommended. Chasing enemy gods will still be her primary focus AND harrassment of full HP gods as long as the Beads are not on cooldown.

Short: "The item build" is never a solid setup. Always look at your opponents builds and change some details. Keep in mind, that this also effects your playstyle then (for example if you have NOT max. cooldown reduction).

Best regards
Burning-Fart
1
ralloff | July 5, 2013 7:02pm
Polynom on Athena is useless without the Tahuti. She has a built in polynom that penetrates targets and it's good after you have Tahuti, so why build poly unless you want even more damage after that? Also to burning fart, you'll have more than enough pen to kill squishes if you go shoes of the magi rather than focus. And IMO obsidian shard makes more sense on Athena if you really want the pen. She just doesn't have enough abilities to proc Spears passive reliably, and the extra power on shard will synergies well with a Tahuti.
1
Burning-Fart | July 3, 2013 4:39am
Hi,

this is the first really good Athena guide. Visualizing the abilities really helps players who actually do NOT play her. It's always important to know your enemies, so in this case knowing how far she can dash is really helpful.
Mostly I agree with your thoughts. But recently I fought Arena mode exclusively with her and I believe therefore you should implement your thoughts regarding other game modes than conquest as soon as possible. So I look forward to this. I like starting with

Shoes of Focus and Breastplate of Valor followed by Polynomicon, Void Stone and Rod of Tahuti. If I face lots of squishies in arena I like to buy Spear of the Magus for the flat penetration...
Purification Beads is also a Must-have. I feel the cooldown reduction (35%) is very important. However, in my opinion it is important to max. the Preemptive Strike first, in order to reduce the cooldown of your Preemptive Strike. Saying this you can start chasing wounded gods at level 7-8, since it does some decent damage and the cooldown is so short that you can retreat.
How important is the Hide of Leviathan to you?
I gave +1 for this guide.

Best regards
Burning-Fart
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League of Legends Build Guide Author LeafThirteen
Reinforcements on the way! A General Use Guide to Athena (Vers. 1.0)
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