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Mark of the Vanguard
Reinforced Greaves (Deleted)
Healing Potion
Breastplate of Valor
Hide of the Nemean Lion
Wall of Absolution
Stone of Gaia
Void Stone
Magi's Cloak
Gem of Isolation
Bancroft's Talon
Chronos' Pendant
Hand Of The Gods (Old)
Girdle of Might
Aegis Amulet (Old)
Purification Beads (Old)
Blink Rune
Healing Potion
Ward
Y
B
A
X
Hello, and welcome to my second smitefire guide! This time it's about the one and only 
Athena! She is the latest added god as if for 5-6-2013 and the only female tank. She fits the role of a second tank and is probably one of the most fun gods to play with.
I currently have a high win rate with her and I think I can teach something to you as the reader.
Just to clear this out, this is not the bible and you don't have follow it word by word
|
Pros! - Her ability to taunt gods and absorb hits is unique amongs tanks and is a very awesome skill - Global ult - Her ability to protect teammates is unmatched - Her basic attacks can be ranged, which is vert handy - Tanky, but hits very hard - One of the hardest gods to chase |
Cons! - Ult can be hard to hit - Pretty low CC compaired to other tanks - Early game could be better - Can be manahungry at times - Struggles to solo inditate fights - Abilities can work against her |
Athena is a very strong and tanky bruiser who is worth taking a look at
Reach
Key Bind: Passive
After using any ability, Athena's next basic attack is a ranged attack, hitting all enemies it passes through, and dealing additional magic damage. Damage: Basic Attack (+50% of your magical power).
A very nice passive to get the most out of your abilities, try yo use it strategically. This can help for clearing the wave or poking enemies.
Preemptive Strike
Confound
Defender of Olympus
Hades or 
Ares ulted, or you can guard your teammates with it. It is hard to hit, but it has great damage. Try not to waste it, if your teammate dies while casting your ult is wasted. Put points into it at levels 5, 9, 13, 17 and 20
Mark of the Vanguard: This item is a must for any tank/bruiser, because of it's early game stats. You can easily tank a buff camp or survive some punishment. This item might be great early game, but I suggest you sell it late game. Healing Potion: I have tried both healing pots and mana pots, but these just seemed to work out better. This is a matter of preference, and you could pick a mana pot if you want.
Breastplate of Valor: Typical early game defense item, gives you mana sustain, defense, nice cooldown reduction AND it's cheap! Hide of the Nemean Lion: Get this item early game, because it's cheap and will pay off mid game. When some random carry tries to kill you they can just kill themselves without good lifesteal. Wall of Absolution: I really love this item for it's stats. It is nice that it gives magical power, good protections and extra protections when hit by basic attacks.
Stone of Gaia: Gives you very good sustain, I just swear by this item ;) Void Stone: This is a great bruiser item, and it helps your mages out a LOT! Athena and it has nice stats.
Gem of Isolation: This item gives you some nice magical power and hp, but that isn't everything. It helps you hit your 3 because of the nice slow on it.
Bancroft's Talon: I wanna clear out that I don't recommend this item for it's lifesteal (it is nice tho), but because you get in the middle of action all the time. You are gonna be targeted a lot, and this helps you with dishing out damage as you get lower.
Hand of the Gods: If you decide to buy this, than I suggest getting it as soon as you can, and you need SPAM this ability as you can. Get level 2 and 3 of it when objectives become important. Girdle of Might: This can make a difference in fights. If you have someone like 
Anhur as laning partner, than you need to use it when he does his combo. This should be used to help your teammate and not you. Use this in teamfights.
Aegis Amulet and 
Purification Beads: Pick these items up when you are struggling. Try to defend yourself with these. These items should be picked up when the enemy has an [[Ares] or something like that. Wards: As a tank you should be the one buying Wards. Healing Potions: As you won't need mana pots late game you should buy Healing Potions. I suggest having 3 at times, because I don't like running out of them.
Thor or someone who really appreciates you for distracting your opposition, like 
Loki Ares Hades or 
Guan Yu ults ant than you go in.
In this chapter we will look at enemies that you would love or hate to face, let's get this going.
Enemies that you would love to face!
You would love to face these gods, because mages really can't do anything abainst you and it is a plesure if they focus you. As for assassins they won't burst you down in 2 seconds and if any of the two get close to your teammates, than they WILL die. Try to lure them into abilities ect. There is no way that they survive a teamfight if they get focused
Anubis
Poseidon
Arachne
Loki
Ne Zha
Bastet
Ao Kuang
Bakasura
Fenrir
Kali
Apollo
Freya
Artemis Anhur
Neith
Xbalanque
As Athena has a global ult it's your RESPONSIBILITY to constantly stare at the minimap and help your allies. You can easily help someone who has pushed up to far or is about to be ganked by someone.
Because you are a tank you should also Ward the minimap. I have a picture of it and you should:
Ward the blue x if lanes get ganked very often. You should also ward the enemy sides late game, because pushing becomes risky
Ward the red x when gold fury becomes important (~10th minute) and ward the firegiant when that becomes important (~20th minute)
Arena:
- Teamfight simmulator
- You can protect teammates
- Your ult is an awesome edition in arena
6-6-13:
Guide published!
7-6-13:
Added second vid and changelog, also edited some typos
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You basically copied your Bacchus build onto Athena. It's exactly the same except for
Athena's base protections are enormous so building some extra health on her would be way better instead of all these protections.
A gameplay section to show of her combos and how to play her would be nice as well.
Also writing down the entire skill info when you can just hover over the icon to see it is pretty pointless.
On the other hand, your use of BB coding is really good and all the images really provide some alternation when reading the guide.
To sum it up, the layout and presentation of the guide is really good but using exactly the same build on 2 gods shows that you probably should try out some new combinations as well.
This guide is months old and way outdated, and the only reason I don't archive it is because it got pretty good critisism ans people still use it as a valid guide. I personally really liked the listed build on most tanks and I just put what I use, not because of the bacchus guide, I do not think I am gonna change tbis guide ever, but combos might be a good idea if anyone else is writing a guide for her.
Athena's base protections are enormous so building some extra health on her would be way better instead of all these protections.
A gameplay section to show of her combos and how to play her would be nice as well.
Also writing down the entire skill info when you can just hover over the icon to see it is pretty pointless.
On the other hand, your use of BB coding is really good and all the images really provide some alternation when reading the guide.
To sum it up, the layout and presentation of the guide is really good but using exactly the same build on 2 gods shows that you probably should try out some new combinations as well.
Aaaand... you posted it.
I'm really not happy that you published this so early, but it does look pretty good.
I'm not upvoting it until I see more for it and once that week period ends.
Youre a huge jerk
We are forgetting something... Ymir is the Sexiest tank.
That. Is. So. True. ;)
Chronos Pendant AND Breastplate of Valor?? 50% CD reduction is not possible because there is a CAP at 40%.
Gem of Isolation when you have no1 ability? No1 ability last 12% LONGER than the debuff from GoI. Not only that but your no2 ability DOES NOT activate the GoI effect... So you'd be using no1 (which ALREADY triggers a LONGER lasting slow) -> 3 to drop the damage -> 2 to pull them in for the blast... you simply can't miss and you don't need GoI.
Start build with Shield Wall THEN Preemptive Strike?? That just breaks your low lvl gank opportunities for your fellow lane partner.
Athena is INCREDIBLE at securing kills early game. She's as good as sobek for trapping people and setting up low-lvl ambush with her no2 ability.
You're definetly NOT playing her right when u say things like
- Pretty low CC compaired to other tanks
- Early game could be better
- Struggles to solo inditate fights << also a typo here
Co-ordinate with your team and play her like aggressive. She's more like Sobek than Ymir. High mobility (dash & teleport ulti), great initiation/peel off. You can have ANYONE initiate when you have your ultimate ready. They jump in have 50% damage reduction and u get to deal out a LOT of damage when u come in.
Also Wall of Absorbtion instead of Mystical Mark??? AoE magical dmg, Life bonus and protection gets left behind for 45 more phis prot some MP5 and a measly 30magi power... AoE DAMAGE in groupfights does a LOT more overall. Not only that but creep killing is way faster and allows u to solo lane so that your partner can jungle. How is Freya a hard fight yet Fenrir an easy one? Freya has 1 escape her ulti while u buff fenrir by taunting him to u... Once Freya's ulti is done u can CC slow & taunt her for a gank no-prob... early levels she doesn't even have a chance.
I think we play this character far to different and personally I think that your build isn't very effective and leaves you far too vulnerable early on. She's an aggressive character with a lot of potential for ganks.
what's your opinion on using polynomicon? many people claim that it doesn't work with her passive but when I've tested it it seems to work fine (maybe it was a bug that has been corrected). it adds a lot of extra damage since you can easily get in a basic attack in between most of your spells. but i almost never see anyone use it, do you know why? it works fine for me.
Well, currently the item is bugged as hell on her, but most of the time it worked for me, but than again not always :P