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Shoes
Bumba's Mask
Healing Potion
Fist of the Gods
Shoes of Focus
Mystical Mail
Ethereal Staff
Bulwark of Hope
Polynomicon
Gem of Isolation
Hide of the Nemean Lion
Breastplate of Valor
Sovereignty
Void Stone
Rod of Tahuti
Y
B
A
X
This will be the area where I list changes I have made to the guide, or updates, buffs, and nerfs to 
Athena
September 29, 2013: Guide published
September 30, 2013: Minor format/spelling fixes
September 30, 2013: More minor format/spelling fixes (I really should have edited this better in the first place)
October 15, 2013: Added Athena's sexy loading card (cause the people at Hi-Rez are idiots for getting rid of it (JK love you Hi-Rez))
October 21, 2013: Updated some sections of the guide, added maps to the Jungling/Camp Routes and Ganking sections. Will be adding a section on warding in the near future. Thanks to Subzero008 for the wonderful suggestions!
November 19, 2013: Nerf to Athena's ult to be implemented tomorrow, and I have changed the abilities section of the guide to reflect this:
Athena
Odin (although I've seen him be played slightly more often in the jungle lately, especially after his visual update), 
Anubis (Anubis plays very similarly to an assassin jungler in the sense that he just snowballs himself, but he is still fun to mess with), and 
Tyr (Again, he is also being played in the jungle a bit more lately). But through these experiments I found my favorite jungler: Athena. She, like a few other of the junglers I have listed beforehand, has gotten some attention lately for being played in the jungle, but she is definitely a long way from becoming a "meta" jungler. through this guide I would like to convince you that just because a god isn't meta, it doesn't mean that they aren't good. And I would like you to, as i have, experiment with crazy gods that no one plays. Who knows, you might just find your new main. (Don't worry, you'll get used to the "Are you high?" and "GG" comments that you get in god select) I want YOU to break the meta.
Here is a quick glossary of some terms used in the guide, most of you will know these terms, but I am putting them here so that there is no confusion. (I understand that this isn't in alphabetical order, I'm lazy)
Pros:
Shield Wall Confound for ganking and securing your team kills Defender of OlympusAthena has a few different ways of building her, the two I use the most often being a balanced tanky (AP bruiser, if you will) build, and a pure damage build (this one I would not recommend using for jungle, but I put it in just in case you wanted to try it out). I will only be going over the first build in this section, use the other one at your own risk.
For starting items, I usually buy one point into Shoes, a Bumba's Mask and two Healing Potion. This is a standard jungle start for me and a lot of other players, swapping the Shoes for whatever your jungler needs (Usually 
Tabi, as most junglers are AD). The reason I buy Shoes over greaves is that the small amount of AP from the Shoes helps with early jungle clears, plus they build into Shoes of Focus which provides some much needed CDR.
After that I usually will build a mystical mark next, as it helps with jungle clears and provides a slight bit of extra damage during ganks, as well as provides armor and health to make you a bit more tanky. Yes, Mystical Mark is an expensive first item, but I believe it is entirely worth it to build first. If you really want to buy a cheaper item first, or if you are falling behind and cannot afford such an expensive item first, the two other items I would reccomend would be Hide of the Nemean Lion or Breastplate of Valor. However, in most situations I would reccommend Mystical Mark first.
Next I will normally buy an Ethereal Staff, as it provides a crazy amount of health (the largest amount of any item in the game) and an amazing passive which gives you AP based on your max health. This helps with your overall tankiness and damage.
Afterwards I will almost always buy a Bulwark of Hope to provide some MR and more health to round out your tankiness
At this point whatever you build is pretty much up to you, if you are snowballing you can buy items such as the Polynomicon (a favorite among Mage Athena players), Void Stone, Rod of Tahuti or any other AP item, if you need more tankiness you can go for a Hide of the Nemean Lion (to counter Basic Attackers such as ADCs or AD assassins), 
Hide of Leviathan for tenacity (I mean Resolve, whoops), Breastplate of Valor for more CDR, or Sovereignty to give your team some more defenses.
My average end-game build looks something like this:
Shoes of Focus Bumba's Mask (Sold during very late game for a last item) Ethereal Staff Bulwark of Hope Gem of Isolation SovereigntyAthena's Kit makes her not only effective at clearing the jungle, it makes her great for pulling off ganks and initiating team fights effectively.
Polynomicon, which I wouldn't suggest unless you are snowballing hard. Otherwise, it provides a small bit of extra damage for clearing camps and in ganks, and occasionally you can secure a kill with a long range snipe from this passive. In short: if you're not going to pick up a Polynomicon I wouldn't worry too much about this passive.
Preemptive Strike is a great ability for engaging into a gank or going deep in a team fight. It has decent damage at later levels and a decent slow. This ability is her primary source of mobility and engages. However, the best part of this ability has to be the the Block passive. Every time you use this ability and it hits something, you gain a stack of Block, so use it in the jungle to build up stacks. If you are fighting an AD assassin or an ADC, this passive can save your life and even secure you a kill that you would have otherwise died for.
Confound is one of the reasons why Athena is such a great ganker. This ability is your primary source of CC and helps you and your team secure many kills very easily. The reason why I max this ability second is because the two second taunt is tremendously powerful and helps you and your team secure many kills.
Shield Wall is your main source of damage, jungle clears, and overall kill potential when playing Athena jungle. I always take a point into this ability first as it helps tremendously with early jungle clears, and I will always max this ability first, as it makes clearing the jungle later in the game trivial, and increases your damage during ganks. This ability probably does the most base damage of any tank in the game and is a key part of why Athena jungle works.
Defender of Olympus is another pivotal part of why Athena is such a strong jungler. She can gank or assist a teammate from anywhere on the map. If a teammate is taking heavy damage and you think you can get there in time to assist them, throw this on them to give them the 25% damage reduction. Or if you just see a perfect gank opportunity but are too far away you can use this to get there in an instant. If your teammate is still fighting/has enough health and understands the amount of damage this ability does as well, a lot of times your teammate will get the enemy inside the ult radius so you do massive damage on arrival. A word of warning is necessary with this ult though: do not use this ability to engage on a fight that you know you cannot win. For example, if an ally is being chased by the entire team, don't use your ult. You might be able to save them, but you will most likely die, and in most cases you will both die. Also, do not use this ult on a teammate that is about to die in the next few seconds. Most likely the 25% damage reduction won't do anything to save them and you will waste your ult CD. If you are going to use this to save a teammate, use it only when you feel like its safe and you can get out of there/pick up a kill or two, and use it only if you know your teammate won't die instantly. Defender of Olympus -> Shield Wall -> Confound -> Preemptive Strike Shield Wall, and amazing CC in ganks with Confound. Maxing Preemptive Strike second can work, but I feel that unless you are building damage on Athena, the two second taunt is much more beneficial as the damage from the second tick of Shield Wall severely out-damages a level 5 Preemptive Strike (I will explain this in a moment.) Preemptive Strike to engage the enemy (pretty obvious, I know). Then right afterwards, use Shield Wall on top of the enemy to get off the first tick of damage from this ability. Lastly use Confound to taunt the enemy back into Shield Wall to get off the second tick of damage. If you use Confound before you use Shield Wall, most likely you will always get the first tick of damage off from Shield Wall, but not the second, as both level 5 Confound and the delay between the first and second tick of damage from Shield Wall are 2 seconds long. This is also what I meant when I said maxing Confound does more damage than maxing Preemptive Strike. If you leave Confound at level 1, you most likely won't be able to taunt the enemy back into Shield Wall. Preemptive Strike -> Shield Wall -> Confound, then taunt the enemy back into Shield Wall
Since you are reading this guide, I would assume that you already know how to jungle, and probably already have a favorite route, and most of the time this will work for any jungler, including Athena. If you are confident in your jungle route, then you can skip this part of the guide. However, if you are not as experienced in jungling/camp routes, then I suggest you keep reading.
First, my item start usually consists of one point into Shoes, a Bumba's Mask (an essential for all junglers, especially if you are getting a leash from your team), and two Healing Potion (to cover the fact that Athena doesn't have any sustain). I already went over this in the item build section, but I figured I'd reiterate it here anyways. My first ability is almost always Shield Wall to help you clear your first camps, but don't put a point into it until around minions spawning (I'll get into this in a minute)
My normal starting jungle route (this is the route that I have my teammate leash me) goes like this:
Right Mid Furies -> Red Buff -> Blue Buff
As both teams have equal access to the Mid Furies, I suggest being careful when heading over there, as the enemy jungler will most likely start there as well. If you see the enemy team while waiting for the Mid Furies to spawn, if it is only one or two of the enemy team I would suggest standing your ground and they might leave, but if the entire team is there, just back away. The Mid Furies on the left side of the map give you just as much exp and gold as the Mid Furies on the right of the map, so just head over there and clear those out. This is the reason why i suggest waiting until minions spawn to choose your ability, if you get caught out by the enemy team, or if your team decides to make a level 1 engagement at the mid furies, Preemptive Strike or Confound might be much more useful than Shield Wall. Sure, it will be harder to clear camps until you hit level 2, but at least you won't be dead if you got caught out, or you might have been able to help your team secure an easy kill or two.
Next, going to Red Buff is a good idea, as it helps you clear jungle camps early in the game. That being said, YOU should be taking Red Buff, as it really helps your early game clears. You are the jungler, so you have first pick on buffs. If a teammate complains about wanting Red Buff, explain to them that you need it for clears early, and that you will benefit from it much more than they will.
Lastly, going to Blue Buff really helps out your teammate who gets it (Usually the mid or solo laner), gives your teammates an incentive for leashing you, and gets you some more easy gold. If any teammate asks for Blue Buff, give it to them, cause they asked first and that is just being a nice honorable teammate.
After you go to those three camps and your teammates go back into lane, just keep clearing the Furies/Mid Furies and clear Red Buff or Speed Buff any time you get a chance/need a new buff. Clear your Blue Buff camps every time you get a chance, but don't take those buffs, ping them and tell your teammates that they can take them when they get a chance.
Here is a map showing my most used jungle route in the beginning of the game
I figured I would go over this briefly, as it is a jungle guide, but again, if you are experienced in jungling you can skip this part of the guide.
First. wait until at least level 3. You need all your abilities to gank effectively. Second, be patient, and wait for the right opportunity. If you rush into a gank, you can easily kill yourself and possibly your teammate laning. Wait for the enemy to be pushed, and try to make sure the enemy jungler isn't around. If your teammate is pushed and it doesn't look like you will be able to gank that lane, leave and clear some camps, or possibly go gank another lane. If you wait too long to gank a lane or you rush into a gank and it fails, you will be losing exp and gold and you will get behind. Lastly, be aware of the map. Especially with Athena, map awareness is key to being a good jungler. If you see an enemy pushed up really far on the map, or you see the enemy jungler gank a lane and you think you can turn it around, you can use Defender of Olympus to help that teammate and possibly secure a few kills. If you can, try to announce when you are about to gank a lane, because sometimes your teammates are not that aware of the map. A simple VSG1/2/3 can let your teammate know that you are about to gank and will make it more likely for that gank to succeed. When you gank a lane, make sure to use your combo effectively (outlined in the Skills section), communicate with your team, and try to give your teammate the kill (unless they are feeding hard) and you will be a successful jungler, and you will be able to snowball your team.
Here is a map outlining gank paths and who to use your ultimate on when ganking
In Conclusion, Athena is a highly underrated jungler with great gank potential, jungle clears, teamfight potential, CC, tankiness, and damage, making her one of, if not the best jungler in the game.
This is my first guide, and I plan on doing more in the "Breaking the Meta" series in the future (I have some prepared that are sure to rustle some jimmies) If you liked this guide, I would highly appreciate and upvote and a comment on why you liked it/your thoughts. If you didn't like it, leave a comment and tell me why.
Also be sure to check out my second guide in this series about Bastet Mid
Thanks, and have fun breaking the meta
-MetaCow
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Build
Eh, the (main) build feels a little iffy to me, mainly because of the lack of penetration involved, not only reducing the potency of mystical mark, but the damage on all of her abilities. I also disagree with the inclusion of
Item Explanations
Wow, this guide is rather outdated, don't you think?
Anyway, I must wonder about the lack of
I already explained my problems with the build. The item explanations are okay, I guess. I just dislike Bulwark.
Skill Explanations
Good. Very good. The combos section looks out of place, and some of the info, I disagree with. For example, sometimes, you must reserve you dash to chase, especially if you are ganking gods like
Guiding/Gameplay
You put a ganking section, explain how to clear the jungle, and that's good enough. If you were to expand this, I'd give a SECTION ON TEAMFIGHTS AND LATE GAME!!!
Details
Basic BBC coding. Some walls of text. I like the pictures.
Summary
This guide gives good info, but is critically lacking in the lack of a role in teamfights, as well as a rather flawed build. That's the dealbreaker for me; I just have too many problems with the build.
I can't vote.
Not enough damage. All you end up doing is being a taunt machine.
I use this build almost all the time, and I can tell you I do plenty of damage. You can get pretty fed with just shoes early game (which is where I tend to get most of my kills). Plus late game she is supposed to transition into a second tank/team fight initiator, so even if you think shes only a taunt machine, that's kind of the point. I'm pretty sure I've said more than a few times in this guide that I hate pure damage junglers, and I play her as more of a bruisery/tanky CC jungler. If you don't like that kind of playstyle, I do have the more damage oriented build on this guide, or you can, I don't know, play a meta jungler? The point of this guide is to show that you can play more than just pure damage junglers in this game, and if you don't like it you can just play Mercury like everyone else
Not enough damage. All you end up doing is being a taunt machine.
The core build (4 items), at level 20, has 157 magical power. It is not a taunt machine, and Athena can deal good damage without having a pure mage build. If it were a taunt machine, it would have maxed cooldown with no power.
I've read your Athena guide, and I will be blunt: You are not in a position to be making judgement about Athena. Or the game, really.
Now for the updated review: the addition of a ganking and route section is good, but the awkward phrasing and lack of conciseness hurts this guide.
Also, I'll give you a piece of advice: A bad habit is grouping the entire team in mid furies, as it makes it extremely easy to invade the opposite blue camp. Somtimes, you should tell people to split, and let mid, solo, and you get the mid furies, while the laners work on their lane's blue. I use this route to mitigate the XP split problem. 1/3 of the XP is much greater than 1/5, and the position of the laners also deters enemy invaders. Seriously, losing a camp early game can make it really difficult to catch up later on.
Poor Midgarian Mail. No one loves you.
Sorry if I offended you.
Well, I find that the Breastplate of Valor is not only cheaper, but the huge increase in mana let's me stay in the jungle longer. And obviously the lowered cooldowns are fantastic. Maybe cooldown reduction is just a matter of personal preference. That, and I'm not really a fan of the MM anyway.
I have one suggestion: Try including a bruiser build. Your tanky build does have some magical power, but it seems to focus mainly on being as tough as possible.
And about walls of text, well, try stuff like this:
- Whee
- Fun
- Cake
These kind of list/comparison hybrids are good for making mini-guides for different paths. For example, you could compare the various jungle routes (with pictures!), explaining how one kind counters the current meta, while the other includes stealing enemy buffs, etc.
- Visually interesting
- Catches the eye
- Good for making direct comparisons
And besides, I hate to toot my own horn, but I think it looks pretty darn cool.
But the biggest problem is wording your points to make them all roughly the same size.
You Could Even Include Little Headers For Subsections
Or even a line of stuff like this
Sprint: You can explain an order of items,
Mystical Mark: But you need to be careful and make sure they're all the same size.
Oh, and I love the visual updates, especially the diagrams.
Here is the BBC coding guide I use.
Thanks for the suggestions, I'll be sure to try to implement some in the near future. At the moment I'm pre-occupied with learning HTML, but every chance I get I will do some work on this guide
And yeah, Midgardian Mail is garbage
Sorry if I offended you.
Well, I find that the Breastplate of Valor is not only cheaper, but the huge increase in mana let's me stay in the jungle longer. And obviously the lowered cooldowns are fantastic. Maybe cooldown reduction is just a matter of personal preference. That, and I'm not really a fan of the MM anyway.
I have one suggestion: Try including a bruiser build. Your tanky build does have some magical power, but it seems to focus mainly on being as tough as possible.
And about walls of text, well, try stuff like this:
- Whee
- Fun
- Cake
These kind of list/comparison hybrids are good for making mini-guides for different paths. For example, you could compare the various jungle routes (with pictures!), explaining how one kind counters the current meta, while the other includes stealing enemy buffs, etc.
- Visually interesting
- Catches the eye
- Good for making direct comparisons
And besides, I hate to toot my own horn, but I think it looks pretty darn cool.
But the biggest problem is wording your points to make them all roughly the same size.
You Could Even Include Little Headers For Subsections
Or even a line of stuff like this
Sprint: You can explain an order of items,
Mystical Mark: But you need to be careful and make sure they're all the same size.
Oh, and I love the visual updates, especially the diagrams.
Here is the BBC coding guide I use.
Bah. Don't forget this guide's vapid older sister with a mental disorder. "Trying to spread the word?" This was here first!
Anyway, this build didn't really work out for me. mystical mark is quite expensive for an early item, but especially for a jungler who falls behind without kills.
Visually, this guide doesn't look so great. Walls of text, etc etc.
In terms of info, this guide can be better. One thing you should put is that sometimes, you have no choice but to fire your taunt early, as it will be often the only thing you can use to bring a low health enemy back into a fight. Yes, it means less damage from you, but it's often the only thing you can do to keep enemies from getting away.
Also, you should put down a section on wards. This build has an extremely vulnerable period in early levels where you lack mystical mark, and you need a way to watch your back without dying. (Also, ******* teammates who are too lazy to ward will tell you to ward as a tank or a jungler or whatever excuse they have).
There is one huge problem in this guide, and that is a response to other uncooperative players. You should never say VVGT after taking a buff. When worst comes to worst, it is better to let them have it and have an uneasy truce than taking it and provoking arguments and bad teamwork all game. Believe me, I know all about terrible teammates, and I know you want to punch them in the face or something, but you should never start a fight or argument in a team-oriented game like this.
Overall, this guide doesn't get a downvote, but I don't think it quite deserves an upvote yet.
PS: Why give a build when you don't recommend it? Seems odd.
You make some very interesting points good sir, and yes, I did see your guide, and I thought it was very good, but there were a few things that I disagreed with, and I started jungling as Athena way before I even knew about this website so I figured I would make my own guide. Either way, I will address some of the points you have made.
Yes, Mystical mark is an expensive item, but to be honest, unless you are going to go pure damage Athena then I don't think there are many other useful items for early game, it provides almost everything you need as a tanky jungler. If you are far behind though, maybe building something cheaper first might be a better option, I will have to experiment with that.
About walls of text, I honestly don't know what to do for some sections of the guide, as there really aren't many visuals I can implement that would make sense. I think I might add a map for clear routes and gank routes in their respective sections, but other than that I can't think of much. If you have any suggestions that would be greatly appreciated
I do agree with the point you make on Athena's taunt, as I have done exactly that before to secure a kill. But the other thing about that is, after you finish Athena's combo, you will always get your
I will add a section on warding sometime in the future. But I do disagree with the fact that she has a vulnerable period before mystical mark as I honestly feel that her early game is the easiest time for her to snowball. Sure she isn't as tanky as she would be with the mark, but she still has great innate tankiness, and a great block passive which makes you very hard to kill if you are against an ADC or an AD assassin, plus it's not like Athena doesn't have as much CC without MM, and she only gets a slight damage boost when she gets MM, otherwise the base damage on her
I've played with many, MANY bad teammates on this game, and even the most ignorant of them will usually recognize that the red buff belongs to the jungler, that scenario described as more of a worst case one rather than a very common one. But either way, when someone tries to take your buffs, especially early game, then I feel that you should be able to tell them why you need it, and you shouldn't give them your buffs unless you are certain that they will use it well (for example if you are duo queuing and you know your friend will get a first blood). If they want red buff that badly, they should be jungling. But you do bring up a good point, just being a **** about it won't make it any better, especially if there so ignorant that they don't even understand why you should get the buff.
Lastly, I didn't really make it clear that the second build is not recommended for new Athena jungle players, and that you can try it if you are experienced with her. I just don't want new players trying to be the carry on a team and failing hard, especially since Athena is already a non meta pick, and people will most likely hate you for playing it anyway.
Thanks for your input, this is exactly what I wanted to see from a comment, and i will make changes to this guide in the next week or so
-MetaCow
EDIT: After looking at prices and stats on different tanky items, I believe that the only other viable first items (if you are going tanky Athena) would be
Anyway, this build didn't really work out for me. mystical mark is quite expensive for an early item, but especially for a jungler who falls behind without kills.
Visually, this guide doesn't look so great. Walls of text, etc etc.
In terms of info, this guide can be better. One thing you should put is that sometimes, you have no choice but to fire your taunt early, as it will be often the only thing you can use to bring a low health enemy back into a fight. Yes, it means less damage from you, but it's often the only thing you can do to keep enemies from getting away.
Also, you should put down a section on wards. This build has an extremely vulnerable period in early levels where you lack mystical mark, and you need a way to watch your back without dying. (Also, ******* teammates who are too lazy to ward will tell you to ward as a tank or a jungler or whatever excuse they have).
There is one huge problem in this guide, and that is a response to other uncooperative players. You should never say VVGT after taking a buff. When worst comes to worst, it is better to let them have it and have an uneasy truce than taking it and provoking arguments and bad teamwork all game. Believe me, I know all about terrible teammates, and I know you want to punch them in the face or something, but you should never start a fight or argument in a team-oriented game like this.
Overall, this guide doesn't get a downvote, but I don't think it quite deserves an upvote yet.
PS: Why give a build when you don't recommend it? Seems odd.