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Guardian's Blessing is the only Support item to start with there is not other valid option period.
Healing Potion and 2x 
Mana Potion, some prefer more early wards than the 1 default you get, or more/less potions.
Hand of the Gods is a important consunamble you should get at start, if you know the enemy lane has a faster clear than you. A enemy Izanami+Xing lane would be good moment to pick up HoG as a example
Okay, let's face it: Guardian's Blessing is the only Support item to start with there is not other valid option period.
There is really only one reason why this item is in the current meta: That sweet extra gold, you get my boi.
Healing Potion and 2x Mana Potion, some prefer more early wards than the 1 default you get, or more/less potions. Hand of the Gods is a important consunamble you should get at start, if you know the enemy lane has a faster clear than you. A enemy Izanami+Xing lane would be good moment to pick up HoG as a example
Guardian's Blessing
Shoes
Healing Potion
Mana Potion
Ward
Hand of the Gods
Reinforced Shoes can be quite good, the health + passiv for the early/mid game is not something that should be ignored. Against a aggresive duo lane (like Ares) it can be a good pick up early in the game.
Shoes of Focus is really strong on a Athena support and should be your priority.
Shoes of the Magi is quite fun when you decide you want some early/mid game damage, it can really help you melt some mid laners and adc gods.
Elixir of Speed. Now you have a item slot open and can fill it with whatever item I listed in the purchase order you still want to have.
ITEM #1
Reinforced Shoes can be quite good, the health + passiv for the early/mid game is not something that should be ignored. Against a aggresive duo lane (like Ares) it can be a good pick up early in the game.
Shoes of Focus is really strong on a Athena support and should be your priority. Shoes of the Magi is quite fun when you decide you want some early/mid game damage, it can really help you melt some mid laners and adc gods. Elixir of Speed. Now you have a item slot open and can fill it with whatever item I listed in the purchase order you still want to have.
Reinforced Shoes
Shoes of Focus
Shoes of the Magi
Gauntlet of Thebes? Simply put, it is one of the best support items out there. It gives you a good amount of health, while its passive provides your nearby teammates with +10 protection against magical and physical damage (if fully stacked)
Sovereignty, 
Contagion or 
Pestilence earlier, more about them in the next item section note. Gauntlet of Thebes later on.
NOTE: Buy order from here on out is situational, many items can be interchanged with each other. And also don't buy Contagion and Pestilence, they don't stack with each other.
ITEM #2
Why Gauntlet of Thebes? Simply put, it is one of the best support items out there. It gives you a good amount of health, while its passive provides your nearby teammates with +10 protection against magical and physical damage (if fully stacked)
And I didn't even mention the extra physical and magical protection you yourself get with each stack...
The sooner you buy it the better, shouldn't stop you from considering to get Sovereignty, Contagion or Pestilence earlier, more about them in the next item section note.
However if you decide to go with any of the other don't you dare to not buy Gauntlet of Thebes later on.
Gauntlet of Thebes
Sovereignty
Contagion
Pestilence
Sovereignty is one of the priority items you should focus on buying early on, unless you want some extra bang on your ultimate or need that early healer debuff you should probably get it. Pestilence is pretty much a must if your lane enemy decided for whatever crazy reason to bring Aphrodite/Hel as the support to the lane.
Pridwen is a really good item, it gives you everything you could want that your Athena ultimate doesn't have yet. I would argue that it is one of the better items you can get to really help you in a Athena ultimate engagment. Contagion same solution to the healer problem that Pestilencee offers but instead you get physical protection. It gives less health than Pestilence but the Mana it offers at that stage can be somewhat helpful. Pestilence and Contagion they don't stack.
ITEM #3
Sovereignty is one of the priority items you should focus on buying early on, unless you want some extra bang on your ultimate or need that early healer debuff you should probably get it. Pestilence is pretty much a must if your lane enemy decided for whatever crazy reason to bring Aphrodite/Hel as the support to the lane. Pridwen is a really good item, it gives you everything you could want that your Athena ultimate doesn't have yet. I would argue that it is one of the better items you can get to really help you in a Athena ultimate engagment. Contagion same solution to the healer problem that Pestilencee offers but instead you get physical protection. It gives less health than Pestilence but the Mana it offers at that stage can be somewhat helpful. Pestilence and Contagion they don't stack.
Sovereignty
Pestilence
Pridwen
Contagion
Breastplate of Valor: You should buy this item if you feel the need to use your abilities often. The 20% CDR is great and gives you 30% cooldown reductation with Shoes of Focus, allowing you to spam your ultimate (
Defender of Olympus and your 
Confound.
Mantle of Discord is a priority item to get for some extra protection for both magical and physical damage, pretty useful when the enemy team has a burst damage setup. Confound, please don't try to stay in the teamfight after it popped unless you are confident you will survive.
Void Stone is a great item if the enemy team went a bit to crazy with their magical damage output. In such a situation it is a really useful item, but even with fewer mages in the enemy team you can still get it.
Relic Dagger Can be a really useful item, if you want to spam your relic in order to support your team or engage with blink more often. Get it if you feel like you need to make a bigger difference in order to win a teamfight.
ITEM #4
Breastplate of Valor: You should buy this item if you feel the need to use your abilities often. The 20% CDR is great and gives you 30% cooldown reductation with Shoes of Focus, allowing you to spam your ultimate ( Defender of Olympus and your Confound. Mantle of Discord is a priority item to get for some extra protection for both magical and physical damage, pretty useful when the enemy team has a burst damage setup. Confound, please don't try to stay in the teamfight after it popped unless you are confident you will survive. Void Stone is a great item if the enemy team went a bit to crazy with their magical damage output. In such a situation it is a really useful item, but even with fewer mages in the enemy team you can still get it. Relic Dagger Can be a really useful item, if you want to spam your relic in order to support your team or engage with blink more often. Get it if you feel like you need to make a bigger difference in order to win a teamfight.
Breastplate of Valor
Mantle of Discord
Void Stone
Relic Dagger
Magi's Cloak give you either CDR or CCR or both, from now on out you should watch out that you don't go over the limit. Especially regarding CDR.
Spirit Robe is great, the passive is quite good considering how many gods these days have hard CC. If you see yourself getting peeled a lot it can be a good friend.
Genji's Guard, it gives you a great amount of magical protection and the passive is really great and allows you to spam your Confound more often.
Stone of Gaia is back baby it is fairly good on its own but you should consider getting it if the enemy has a lot of knockup/back, pulls or grabs like for example a 
Hercules, 
Vulcan or 
Sobek etc.
NOTE: These items except for Magi's Cloak give you either CDR or CCR or both, from now on out you should watch out that you don't go over the limit. Especially regarding CDR.
ITEM #5
Spirit Robe is great, the passive is quite good considering how many gods these days have hard CC. If you see yourself getting peeled a lot it can be a good friend.
Genji's Guard, it gives you a great amount of magical protection and the passive is really great and allows you to spam your Confound more often. Stone of Gaia is back baby it is fairly good on its own but you should consider getting it if the enemy has a lot of knockup/back, pulls or grabs like for example a Hercules, Vulcan or Sobek etc.
Spirit Robe
Genji's Guard
Stone of Gaia
Witchblade gives some nice extra speed and health, plus the 20% aura debuff to atack speed is really great if the enemy team has more than one auto attack carry in their team.
Midgardian Mail, when you want the enemy adc or 
Freya/
Mercury to hit you as fast as possible, more about this in the Relic choice chapter and the Conquest Build (vs heavy auto attackers) section.
Spectral Armor is a great item when the enemy has a crit based team or the enemy adc (if he build crit) is fed, it takes away 50% of the crit damage and gives you some health + physical protection. Use tab in order to find out what the enemy team build before you get this item. Midgardian Mail takes the same approach as the Witchblade in how to deal with the auto attack carry problem. You should probably get it and Witchblade, if the enemy auto attack problem is getting out of hand.
Hide of the Nemean Lion got a buff, so it's a really good item on Athena now. Her passiv gives you 3 AA blocks, this item will give you 3 blocks when fully stacked and if you have 
Magic Shell upgraded you will have a total of 8 auto attack blocks, which could easily become the new meta for Athena build.
ITEM #6
Witchblade gives some nice extra speed and health, plus the 20% aura debuff to atack speed is really great if the enemy team has more than one auto attack carry in their team. Midgardian Mail, when you want the enemy adc or Freya/ Mercury to hit you as fast as possible, more about this in the Relic choice chapter and the Conquest Build (vs heavy auto attackers) section. Spectral Armor is a great item when the enemy has a crit based team or the enemy adc (if he build crit) is fed, it takes away 50% of the crit damage and gives you some health + physical protection. Use tab in order to find out what the enemy team build before you get this item. Midgardian Mail takes the same approach as the Witchblade in how to deal with the auto attack carry problem. You should probably get it and Witchblade, if the enemy auto attack problem is getting out of hand. Hide of the Nemean Lion got a buff, so it's a really good item on Athena now. Her passiv gives you 3 AA blocks, this item will give you 3 blocks when fully stacked and if you have Magic Shell upgraded you will have a total of 8 auto attack blocks, which could easily become the new meta for Athena build.
Witchblade
Spectral Armor
Midgardian Mail
Hide of the Nemean Lion
Magic Shell. If your or the enemy team has a certain composition you should check out what I wrote in the Relic Chapter down below.
Default relic on Athena is Magic Shell. If your or the enemy team has a certain composition you should check out what I wrote in the Relic Chapter down below.
Blink Rune
Belt of Frenzy
Cursed Ankh
Magic Shell
Heavenly Wings
Phantom Veil
Shield of Thorns
Elixir of Speed is a really great potion, buy it before you sell your boots and buy any one of the defense items from the previous sections you still want to have.
Elixir of Defense is ok I guess, if you have the cash after you bought every item, you can get it. By that point the extra 50 protection are not that great.
Elixir of Speed is a really great potion, buy it before you sell your boots and buy any one of the defense items from the previous sections you still want to have.
Elixir of Defense is ok I guess, if you have the cash after you bought every item, you can get it. By that point the extra 50 protection are not that great.
Elixir of Speed
Elixir of Defense
Mail of Renewal is a great item if none of your friendly gods have a self sustaining ability or heal which forces the enemy to buy anti-heal, if that is the case you can get this item last. If the enemy team bought any kind of antiheal don't buy it.
Gem of Isolation can be pretty fun if your team is snowballing hard and you want stupid amount of slow on your Preemptive Charge
Oni Hunter's Garb has a pretty trashy passiv but can be a good item to get when the enemy team went full out CC combo. Combine it with other CDR items but don't go over the limit.
Winged Blade is for when you don't have to buy Heavenly Wings for your team because they all have escapes or abilites that negate slows. Get it when you are getting trashed by the enemy 
Nemesis, 
Anubis, 
Bakasura etc. and your Preemtive Strike isn't enough to get out of trouble.
Ethereal Staff is a ok last item to buy when the enemy has more than one god with atleast over 2.5k health. Try to use its passive to your full advantage (Athenas 
Reach works great with it).
Emperor's Armor is for when the enemy is snowballing, you can tank towers in late game anyway, so you mostly want to get it so the enemy has a harder time pushing you when they are ahead.
Mail of Renewal is a great item if none of your friendly gods have a self sustaining ability or heal which forces the enemy to buy anti-heal, if that is the case you can get this item last. If the enemy team bought any kind of antiheal don't buy it.
Gem of Isolation can be pretty fun if your team is snowballing hard and you want stupid amount of slow on your Preemptive Charge Oni Hunter's Garb has a pretty trashy passiv but can be a good item to get when the enemy team went full out CC combo. Combine it with other CDR items but don't go over the limit. Winged Blade is for when you don't have to buy Heavenly Wings for your team because they all have escapes or abilites that negate slows. Get it when you are getting trashed by the enemy Nemesis, Anubis, Bakasura etc. and your Preemtive Strike isn't enough to get out of trouble. Ethereal Staff is a ok last item to buy when the enemy has more than one god with atleast over 2.5k health. Try to use its passive to your full advantage (Athenas Reach works great with it). Emperor's Armor is for when the enemy is snowballing, you can tank towers in late game anyway, so you mostly want to get it so the enemy has a harder time pushing you when they are ahead.
Mail of Renewal
Gem of Isolation
Oni Hunter's Garb
Winged Blade
Ethereal Staff
Emperor's Armor
Y
B
A
X
Tap each threat level to view Athena’s threats
Hey guys I main Athena as a Masters Player in Season 2, so i figured i could make a guide.
I am a Level 10 Athena, and have around 7000 worshipers with her. I played for HNZ (HeroesNZeroes) as Support and helped them win the SPL Play-Ins and advance into Round Robin.... that was quite some time ago though.
The guide is not 100% perfect, though I try my best to keep it updated. I have first-hand experience with the support role, and Athena in particular, and thought I would share my knowledge to help others improve their gameplay and strategy. I am German, so please try to be nice to my *cough* perfect English.
It is fun, I swear
Confound forces 
Purification Beads Preemptive Strike is slow to load
Blink Rune is a reliable relic on Athena, it negates all weaknesses of her Preemptive Strike. With weakness I mean the charge up time, how obnoxious loud it is, plus that it can't go through walls and ****. Use it as a engagment and Preemptive Strike as disengagment. It makes Athena much more mobile and allows you to suprise engage the enemy, giving them less time to react to your incoming Confound. After the recent nerfs to the relic not a priority item for Athena anymore.
Belt of Frenzy gives your fellow gods in a teamfight that extra damage they could need. Not really a priority relic but can be quite useful if you want to snowball from a won teamfight.
Cursed Ankh is mandatory when the enemy has a 
Hel or 
Aphrodite or something equally annoying, you have to get this and Pestilence or Contagion. It is the bane of the existence of any healing (and heavy lifestealing) god, quite literally.
Magic Shell is a high priority relic if you need to babysit certain gods like a 
Kukulkan, 
Zeus or 
Artemis in late game. You don't want you squishes to die by Assasins or warriors in a matter of seconds ? Get this to help them out, it is always a good relic to get. Also the 2 AA block you get out of the upgraded version of this items has a really great synergy and Athenas passiv and Hide of the Nemean Lion. When you have both this relic and the mentioned item you max out on a total of 8 auto attack blocks. Which can safe your lifes in any engagement, really.
Heavenly Wings can be a quite important item, if the enemy team has a lot of slows. Nemesis, Bakasura,
Vamana) and helps your team to get out or into a teamfight.
Mercury/ Freya+ any adc) that rely on lifesteal this is the relic you can pick to annoy them. Activate it, use your taunt on them and watch them kill themself, it is hilarious.
Phantom Veil is a great item, when the enemy team has a 
Odin, and more than one of your teammates doesn't have a jump to get out of the cage. Otherwise just get Blink instead.
Explanation
Explanation
explanation
explanation
explanationOkay, the main thing you need to know is that you should always, ALWAYS place wards. Remember you can only place two wards at any one time. That means the whole team has the responsibility to place wards, not just you. Since everyone starts with a relic that gives a free ward, that really shouldn't be to hard.
It is practically impossible to place a ward on a wrong position ... well, except inside your own base & ****. However, there are positions you have to consider when placing wards, depending on which stage of the game you're in.
Laning Phase (Early Game)Mid-Lane (Early Game)Mid/Late Game, Gold Fury and Fire GiantLate Game, Pushing and Defensiv WardsWe are in Season 7 now and you may ask, how can i still maintain a steady gold income ?
First of all, i explained this in my Gameplay Video but since it is really outdated I kinda have to do it again.
Always start on the Void Camp, they moved the spawn timer up, so it is possible now to do them and get to your lane in time, if your adc is up for the task. Give the buff to the adc, just like back in the days.
Athena can be a aggresiv roam support, because of her ultimate, so everytime you gank a lane, and you may or may not get a kill/assist, you should stay for 1-2 waves and leach from the lane you ganked, you shouldn't care if your temporary lane friends doesn't want that unlike the adc he gets more solo farm.
If you dont want to leach anymore ,you should go back to base.
On your way back to the duo lane, you should do the Back XP Camp, with or without the junglers help. After you did that, do the Red Buff with the Mid-laner/Jungler together or the Void Camp with your adc.
Then you can go back to lane, stay there until either the xp camps are up, you have to use you ultimate for a gank, or you want to roam to middle lane.
Like this you wont have to much trouble with the gold/exp stuff.
Really outdated
Hey, so due to request i did a 3v3 Tutorial, i dont play that mode so much, but iam decent enough to make a small guide for it. Enjoy.
I also won some worthless 3v3 EGL Tournaments with my alias so you might want to check that out aswell.
outdated, combos still work and laning phase aswell but jungle rotation and ward placement are outdated, will maybe make a new one for Season 7. No promises.
Season 2 Athena Gameplay Video:
How to Firegiant:
Old Gameplay GuidesI used to play support for HNZ. We got into the Finals of the SWC Play Ins and advanced into Round Robin in order to qualify for the SPL.
You can watch the Tournament Videos if you want, i mostly played Athena at the tourney and there are some combos that you may not know, its already older, so yea....
Round of 16 vs Vindicate:
Round of 8 vs IIIII (i5) (by Xioden)
Round of 4 vs Exposed Secrets:
Final vs Walk it off:
Playing support can be so annoying. I would recommend finding a team as fast as possible if you enjoying playing support.
Why can it be so annoying? Well, you won't get any kind of "love" as a tank. If you and the ADC are winning your lane but it's mostly your doing, the casual player isn't gonna recognize it. On the flipside, if you are doing poorly, EVERYONE is gonna blame you, so you have kinda the same problem as the jungler.
So if you have an inferiority complex, it's probably not in your best interest to play a tank.
But if you are on a pre-made team, and you generally like the people you play with, you're gonna enjoy helping them out, and they will thank you for it. Isn't that so sweet?
Oh, and I nearly forgot, it's okay if you die often in mid-late game as support, as long as you're not dying because you're out of position. That is part of your job ... sometimes you have to sacrifice yourself to save the rest of the team.
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No Escape
Shackles
Stone Shield
Cataclysm
Belch of the Gods
Belly Flop
Charge Prey
Fearless
Anhur
Cupid
Sentry Ward
Gem of Iso is more of a troll item and not really all that good in comparison to the ones listed before the Situational item list. Never felt the need for HoG to clear attack speed, Athena is pretty fast on it. mMaybe against certain matchups where I know they have a wayfaster clear but otherwise I always rather take mana potion since Athena has a big mana problem in early game. But ye I did noticed that a lot more supports use HoG early though, so I probably should add it as a alternative.
So yes, her 3 has great damage, but when you can, you should try HoGging the Void camp, dropping your 3, then letting the ADC finish it off while you run for a head start to hit that spirit minion.
So yes, her 3 has great damage, but when you can, you should try HoGging the Void camp, dropping your 3, then letting the ADC finish it off while you run for a head start to hit that spirit minion.
That all is true I just think that a Athena with a decent adc pick can clear just as fast as most other combos with HoG. It maybe a bit of a time waste in the long run, considering you will have to go back earlier = no mana potion. I see the advantage though, the point with HoG here is to be even more early in lane and push it into tower and then steal red or don't let the enemy back into lane from above attack speed etc. It creates opportunities, so you sacrifice staying longer in lane for a potential early snowball effect.
It is a replacement for the shoes mostly, not the blessing. At that point you are almost at max protection for both stats, so I tend to get items that give me some extra health. I wouldn't really call it a priority though, there are lots of items that I listed before it I would normally get instead of it.
With regard to that health regen for mail, keep in mind it'll be affected by any anti-heal. Ethereal doesn't have to deal with that. It's a health / mana steal, and so you're doing double-work there...gaining health (and mana) for yourself, while taking away from others. It also has CC reduction, and you probably only got CC reduction from Spirit Robe or something, so that's also helpful.
I bet, when you try out Ethereal, you'll like it pretty well. But if you've been using Mail a lot and you continue seeing the use for it, keep it as an option, that's fine.
With regard to that health regen for mail, keep in mind it'll be affected by any anti-heal. Ethereal doesn't have to deal with that. It's a health / mana steal, and so you're doing double-work there...gaining health (and mana) for yourself, while taking away from others. It also has CC reduction, and you probably only got CC reduction from Spirit Robe or something, so that's also helpful.
I bet, when you try out Ethereal, you'll like it pretty well. But if you've been using Mail a lot and you continue seeing the use for it, keep it as an option, that's fine.
Ye so many go antiheal because it works on over 50 gods so it is kinda meh to buy if you have one of these 50 gods in your team, if that isn't the case tho I think it is a good item. Situational anyway but tbh it was underrated back then as well and almost no one used it.
edit: Ok used it now 3 times and it is pretty nice although that late in the game the extra magical power isn't really that useful, so you mostly get it for the health + passive I guess,it seems good considering there are always at least 2x tanky gods in which the passiv works way better with than with squishies.
Sadly gonna remove Mail of Renewal though considering I don't have enough space to explain both items in the note section. Probably gonna add it at some point in some kind of situational item option as a seperate build later on.
https://www.smitefire.com/smite/items#crowd-control-reduction
Also why is Magi boots listed and why does it say to replace it for Focus shoes late???
And there also seems to be no accounting for
Elixir of Speed sure can be bought but tbh with blink, your dash and your ultimate you are already more than mobile enough. Will add late game potion which I totally forgot and add it as a option.
And ye I will get rid of the big icons, it really drops down way to much, thanks for the feedback :)
Elixir of Speed sure can be bought but tbh with blink, your dash and your ultimate you are already more than mobile enough. Will add a late game potion section which I totally forgot and add it as a option.
I don't think you understand the purpose of
Welcome back!
Alright, some comments:
1. I left the Ward in because I feel like some people prefer to have 2x early ward + the ward the adc can place for extra coverage, the new relic everyone starts with is just great. Granted early on it would be overkill so yeeeee.
2.
3. The problem is if I do that my entire note setup will be thrown in dissary, should I add a Item Chapter to specify when to buy what ? Since the drop down of the notes somewhat limits me in how much I can write. I don't want double items in the same build since I mentioned that they can be interchanged with each other.
4. Will definetly add
5. Will do, thanks man.
6. Oh yea that's true, thanks again :).
he notes kinda limit me in how much I can write, I could also make several build for different situations as a example. You think that might fix that problem ?
4. Will definetly add
It helps with lategame sieging / diving (though is ok for defending structures).
I only tried the item 3 times on Athena so far though, so maybe I am just missing something.
You don't have to use the body of the guide, you can write one extra / quick phrase in the notes...e.g. "This is a better mid-game item" or "purchase this later in a build when enemy protections are up and the % protection reduction will be of more benefit." But yeah...true on space.
Maybe you could separate a bit into defense items that provide CDR, defense items that provide other utility, utility items like Relic Dagger, and counter items. OR you could go physical defense items, magical defense items, dual protection items, and counter/utility items (Relic, Witch, Nemean, Midgard). Or I mean, if you're happy with it as is, just keep it that way =)
I think you made some great points that Setolino would do well to consider.
And as an FYI, I helped Seto with his old Athena guide years ago via editing writeup. So this is nothing against him...just in order to be functional, it really would need more than minor tweaks.
(Also, your name is making my inner grammar police's sirens blare in my head)
:)
Anyway, don't use outdated guides, especially ones that have items that have since been removed from the game.
I tried to educate one of those loki players (politely and respectfully). He threatened to "find me, castrate me", etc etc. Can't remember the rest. No joke.
Hey, I love the sense of humor in this build. I am sorry if this comment is out of place in this but to me a build with a sense of humor in the explanations just makes it that much better for the viewer and more fun to read.
Nice build
Atleast someone who likes my Lore section :D Thanks mate, i try my best.
Nice build