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Bumba's Mask
Hand Of The Gods (Old)
Potion of Magical Might
Healing Potion
Mana Potion
Shoes of Focus
Shoes of the Magi
Reinforced Greaves (Deleted)
Polynomicon
Chronos' Pendant
Obsidian Shard
Book of Thoth
Bancroft's Talon
Focused Void Stone
Doom Orb
Breastplate of Valor
Focused Void Stone
Ethereal Staff
Bulwark of Hope
Hide of the Urchin
Magi's Cloak
Cleric's Cloak
Cloak of Concentration
Mystical Mail
Midgardian Mail
Rod of Tahuti
Pestilence
Divine Wrath
Warlock's Staff
Wall of Absolution
Creeping Curse
Purification Beads (Old)
Fist of the Gods
Aegis Amulet (Old)
Shielded Teleport
Y
B
A
X
Hello. Subzero here. I make guides.
Polynomicon. Then you'll want to be constantly moving. Your clear speeds are fast enough that you will have a lot of free time, and you will be free to become a roaming terror. If you want to terrorize every lane, as well as the enemy jungle, Athena is for you.
Athena.Why jungle as Athena, when you can be jungling as 
Fenrir or 
Mercury? Athena has several advantages not found in your typical assassin, and they come with a matching set of weaknesses.
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Global Presence: As Athena, you can react to threats anywhere, as long as an ally is nearby. You can turn around teamfights, counter a gank, fend off an invader, or unleash a deadly gank of your own. This should not be underestimated. |
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High Defenses: Athena is a tank, and has access to higher innate defenses than other junglers. Not only that, but her entire kit is extremely defensive, with the ability to block basic attacks, a zoning damage ability, and a global escape/counterganking skill. You are very, very hard to kill even without any protection items. |
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Mobility: Athena has a fairly low cooldown dash with a cheap cost, as well as a global teleport. She is very, very fast. |
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Counterjungling Ability: Athena is one of the few gods where I would feel completely confident in invading at later levels. Her kit allows her to easily steal camps, and she is a good duelist as well. |
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Flexible Build: You can see the mass of listed items up there? Athena has an extremely flexible build, with literally two core items. You can adapt to nearly every situation, which is a considerable bonus. |
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Long Cooldowns: Without any cooldown reduction, your cooldowns are ridiculously high. This translates to long period of vulnerability between abilities, of which any smart enemy would take advantage. |
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Weak Early Game: Athena lacks early damage and burst, and so her early game is weak compared to gods like  Thanatos. You might have some moments where you gank with everything you have, and you end up standing awkwardly as the enemy walks away with 25% health.
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High Skill Floor: Athena must be able to hit with her  Reach-enhanced basics perfectly, know exactly when to use her taunt, and above all else, know when to use your ultimate. If you cannot use her ultimate well, there is no point in playing jungle Athena.
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Athena's kit, unlike most junglers and like most guardians, relies more on repeated use than raw power. I find that cooldown reduction is nigh-essential on her for this reason. The sheer utility you gain from being able to use Confound, Preemptive Strike and Defender of Olympus more often is, in my opinion, far more useful than a stronger Shield Wall. Because of this, I would recommend at least 25% cooldown reduction on whatever you build.
In general, my builds have some of both kinds of defense, some penetration, some cooldown reduction, some magical power and Polynomicon w/ Rod of Tahuti. A magical bruiser, to be precise.
I've listed two example builds: The Might of Athens and Rapid Response. I'll list the pros and cons of each.
magi's cowl
Midgardian Mail, but your strength lies in what Athena's kit already has, without any frills. This is my recommended beginner's build.
Go with the standard jungler's start: Bumba's Mask, 
Hand of the Gods, and potions of your choice.
Now, where to put that one skill point?
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Shield Wall: This ability is everything. It is your main damage skill. It is your zoning skill. It is what you will use to clear camps, it is what enemies will fear you for. Level this one first, but at an equal rate to Confound. This way, you'll maintain a good clear speed while being able combo sooner.
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Shoes of Focus: These give CDR, which, as previously discussed, is quite important, and Athena's clear speeds are fast enough without the 15 penetration. Get these if you want to increase your damage output and CDR. |
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Shoes of the Magi: If you want to maximize your damage as soon as possible, get these. You'll have some time on your hands, so this could help you if you are that desperate for early invasions/ganks/whatnot. Get these if you want to maximize your damage output. |
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Reinforced Greaves: These greaves are often underestimated. You'll spend a bit more time clearing camps, but some would consider the extra speed and resistivity to be worth it. Get these if you want further defenses, more mobility, and a spot of CC reduction. |
Athena's clearing methods are simple. Use your Shield Wall, and maybe a Preemptive Strike, a few basic attacks and you're done. While Athena's early clear speeds are not the highest in the world, it is somewhat mitigated by her high mobility. Mainly:
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Preemptive Strike: This is a cheap and long dash, and more importantly, hitting anyone with it grants you a stack of Block, which is the cornerstone of your dueling potential against enemy junglers. You can use this all the time, for slowing enemies, chasing, clearing camps, running away. It's a very versatile and useful skill, but level this last. |
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Polynomicon: This item synergizes brilliantly with your passive, granting Athena a strong ranged attack and significantly increasing your damage output. You can switch this for one of the defensive or offensive items, and save Polynomicon for later, but I would strongly advise you to get this item as soon as possible.
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Focused Void Stone as the corresponding power item. If I am getting a magical protection item, I get Breastplate of Valor.|
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Breastplate of Valor: Gives the always important CDR, and huge amount of physical protections, and increases your mana pool significantly. Not much else to report. |
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Focused Void Stone: A hybrid tank/power item, this versatile piece can be used as both an offense and defense item. The penetration helps, as well. |
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Bulwark of Hope: Gives a ****load of magical protections and health. The passive is also helpful. |
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Idol of Concentration
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Idol of Concentration: Gives a tiny bit of CDR, but the passive is universally useful. If you need some magical defense, I'd get this almost all the time over Bulwark of Hope.
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mystical mark
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Mystical Mark: This item grants a highly useful damaging aura, which is good for both clearing and ganking, and a good amount of physical protections and health. Also works well with any magical penetration you might have. |
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Midgardian Mail: This is basically  Enfeebling Curse when used with your Confound. This is not only a counter to enemy hunters, but can even be used to lock down enemies by forcing them to attack you. Unfortunately, it relies on luck, but for the most part it should work.
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Ethereal Staff: This is rather overpriced, but it gives a good amount of magical power while providing you with 600 health. Even without other defensive items, 600 health is still 600 health, and the power this item gives should not be underestimated. If you are getting this, consider buying  Gauntlet of Thebes or warlock's sash.
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Hide of the Urchin: THE most efficient tank item in the game. When you buy this, you are buying it for the stats. Not much else to say. |
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Magi's Blessing
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Magi's Blessing: Even if this gives a tiny amount of protections, the CC reduction and passive are good enough on their own. Get this if your enemies rely on CC for their attacks, since you'll be able to avoid most of the damage without any protections by negating their combos. |
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Magi's Cowl
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Magi's Cowl: If you bought  Reinforced Greaves, this is what you should get. Gives as much effective health as hide of the leviathan, while granting the same CC reduction at a lower price.
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Each buff has their own use and all, but I find that the red buff is best for Athena. Her mobility is fast enough, and her already good clear speeds are enhanced to give her more free time. Not to mention that Athena doesn't really depend on basic attacks, so her clear speed only marginally improves with the orange buff.
At later levels, you might want to consider the blue buff, as the cooldown reduction is a great help for those without maxed CDR. At the very least, it won't hurt.
(I know this section is unpolished, but I'll leave that for future updates.)
Ganking as Athena is fairly simple, and utilizes a simple, three-step combo of Shield Wall and Confound. The latter is especially important. It is your bread and butter, your Alpha and Omega, the foundation of Athena's ganking potential. For Athena's ganks rely more on teamwork and coordination instead of raw damage, although she can certainly do well enough in that area.
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Confound: This is Athena's signature ability. This is what makes your Shield Wall so powerful, this is the basis of Athena's counterjungle, this is your peeling and repositioning ability, and why Athena is so difficult to run from. Level this one equally with Shield Wall, but maxing it after.
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Shield Wall. Confound. You hit them with a basic attack. Shield Wall connects, dealing damage. Hopefully, the enemy is dead by this point.
Preemptive Strike?" Polynomicon again, letting you secure the kill. Preemptive Strike and finish them off with the empowered basic attack.
Sentry Ward. Or this:|
Eye of Providence
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Eye of Providence: Free wards, enhanced counterjungling potential, and the ability to destroy enemy wards, once fully upgraded, should not be underestimated. It seems odd to think of this as an offensive item, but that's what it is. Get this if you need vision and want to counter the enemy's. |
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Fist of the Gods: This allows you to shut down an enemy for a very long time, as well as not consume an active slot. A very good item, and very good for taking down those pesky few who always seem to get away. |
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Defender of Olympus: The other signature ability of Athena's. You will use this to deliver a massive chunk of burst damage during a synchronized gank, you can use this to escape or to come to an ally's aid, and the damage mitigation is also good when paired with an initiating tank during teamfights. There are so many uses for this, this is the main reason why I advocate getting CDR on Athena. |
Invasion is a powerful tactic, and Athena is good at utilizing it.
Enemy presence and wards are simply bypassed by communication and awareness. The biggest problem is the enemy jungler. He'll be guarding and taking his camps, as well as fight you over the mid furies. He is your nemesis and should be treated with respect and caution.
Firstly, you need to make sure that the enemy doesn't invade you. Put a ward or two, or make sure that your camps are finished. The wards are especially important, as Athena's teleport is useless if you don't know when to use it. Shielded Teleport is especially useful here.
Athena has three tools she can use to invade:
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Speed: Put Athena's speed to good use and simply reach his camps faster than the enemy can. |
Force: Bring the fight to the jungler. Beat the **** out of him, and take his camps afterward. |
Trickery: Attack the enemy at an unexpected angle, and gain the advantage over him. |
Polynomicon. Confound is a good way to break up any combos.
Freya, who will obliterate you in a duel. Direct combat is out, and maybe you cannot use your speed for some reason. Maybe the enemy is way too fast, like Mercury or Fenrir. Here's your last resort. Defender of Olympus. Let's say you gank right lane. Any jungler with a brain would expect you to not be in left lane. You teleport to the other side, and then you have the advantage of surprise. This tactic is best used with a high CDR build, for obvious reasons. Confound. You just taunt the enemy jungler as they were about to take the last hit, kill the camp, and dash away. Works very well, and unless they have 
Purification Beads they'll be helpless.
Hun Batz near the middle lanes, next to the mid camps. You can easily get behind him, and whether he is ganking or taking the camps, he would have likely used an ability or two. The advantage and the first strike is likely to be yours.At this stage, you'll likely have a pair of footwear, Polynomicon, and your choice of defensive item. Now you need more power as well as utility. You have quite a bit of options here:
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Chronos' Pendant: If you are getting this, it is best bought early, where the MP5 would do its work. Gives a spot of power while granting you a large chunk of CDR. |
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Obsidian Shard: If you are getting just one penetration item, I'd recommend this. Very versatile, while giving a fairly large amount of power. Cheap, too. |
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Book of Thoth: Athena has a deep mana pool, and items like Breastplate of Valor have excellent synergy with this item. If you want raw power, there is no better source.
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Bancroft's Talon: A cheap source of power and lifesteal. I don't usually get this item, but it is useful nonetheless, especially for jungle fights. |
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Focused Void Stone: This also works as a power item. More importantly, it gives you the penetration you need to remain an effective damage dealer, while rounding out any possible gaps in your defenses. |
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Doom Orb: If you're getting this item, you have gotten a few kills, want to snowball, and want the cheapest source of raw power you can find. |
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Rod of Overcompensation: Just for once, I'd like to see a phallic symbol NOT be the ultimate object of power in a video game. It's always a sword, or staff, or rod, or something like that. Why not a book? Knowledge is power, after all. And League of Legends even lampshaded it with the Needlessly Large Rod. Why not? |
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Aegis Pendant: This one is best if an enemy has a heavily damaging move that doesn't require much setup to kill you, such as spirit's tempest or  Hovering Death. Consider getting  Aegis Amulet if you want the Purification Beads-like effect.
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Purification Beads: These can be just as damage-mitigating as Aegis if the enemy is particularly reliant on CC for their damage, and have a lower cooldown to boot. They can also be used offensively, to get the CDR needed for that essential dash or taunt. |
Sometimes, you'll be called to defend a tower or two. Athena can certainly do it. Her waveclear isn't the best in the world, but it's pretty good all the same.
Unfortunately, most situations like this also have a conspicuous lack of allies near the structure in question. You'll need some help.
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Teleport to Towers/Shielded Teleport: For some reason, there is no image to Teleport to Towers. Mod, please fix this. Anyway, this helps you id you wish to reserve your ultimate for ganks, provides you with even more mobility, and is excellent for saving a tower. I wouldn't consider this for most junglers, but it synergizes well with Athena, so why not? |
Your role in teamfights changes depending on your degree of squishiness. We'll start with presenting a universal role regardless of your build. First and foremost, your goal is to deal damage.
Shield Wall can also deal a great amount of damage to unaware enemies. Midgardian Mail, you can slow many with your Confound, and if you have good cooldown reduction, you can harass your enemies with a good amount of burst damage.
Bacchus. You can't do much to stop his 
Belly Flop, but you can certainly stop his 
Belch of the Gods from zoning your team. Athena is a great and provocative* initiator for the more proactive players out there. Dashing past, or even into the enemy front line, then taunting them and forcing them into a cluster, can be devastating with a prepared team. Just remember that you aren't a full tank, and you will be putting yourself in a pretty bad position. Confound is used to group and set up enemies for an ***-reaming from your team. It is also used to peel, and to distract enemies. It's a simple way to redirect damage to you, and you should be tanky enough to withstand most of it. You are like an auxiliary tank in this regard. Confound. Use your Shield Wall to block his escape. Slow him with Preemptive Strike. Basically, you aren't' going for damage; you're preventing the enemy's damage.
Hercules may be more dangerous than 
Agni if the former keeps setting up kills for the latter. Use damage on Agni, and disruption on Herc. Confound carefully. You have a single shot, and even with CDR it has a fairly extensive cooldown. Is it better to counter-initiate that 
Hades, or is it better to delay 
Poseidon from using his ultimate?
Frost Breath, where any brainless idiot can capitalize on. Her kit requires good teamwork, and having an allied 
Sobek save an enemy from certain death via Shield Wall is a very sad affair indeed.|
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Mercury isn't so bad. His greatest threat is that he is just as fast as you, and you have different kits. His early game is roughly on the same level as yours, but he specializes in sustained damage while yours is burst damage. I'd classify this as a medium-ish encounter.
Direct Confrontation
Midgardian Mail just murders this guy. But so does Breastplate of Valor. And so does Shield Wall. Your Block stacks also neatly counter his passive. The biggest problem here is that he'll be able to keep attacking after you use all of your abilities, and his  Special Delivery is deadly with coordination. I would say that fighting this guy would be difficult, but possible before you get Polynomicon. Once you do get Polynomicon, this guy won't be too much of a threat.
Tips and Tricks
Confound is best when walking backward, as your abilities can hit him beyond the reach of his basic attacks.Save your Preemptive Strike for chasing or for a last-ditch hit. This way, you can block a total of four basics. Shield Wall really hurts his squishy little health bar, but it might not be enough. You can try to get an early Breastplate of Valor for the faster recharge of your abilities, or you can get Polynomicon for even more murder.Mercury has a rather inflexible build, but his items are not.  Qin's Sais and executioner can be countered with Midgardian Mail, or you can opt to stack health, or you can get mystical mark.At later levels, you'll be able to kill him only slightly faster than he can kill you, so watch out. Reaction speed is important here. |
This guide was a trip down memory lane for me. Athena is truly a fun goddess to play, and I hope you'll have as good of a time as I have.
-Sub
December 30 2013: Published guide!
12/31/13: By torches and pitchforks popular demand, I added a few example and/or recommended builds to start on. Also did some visual reworking on that hideous wall of text that was the "Role in Teamfights" section. Turned "Clearing Camps" into "Clearing your Jungle" because I added a "Clearing Their Jungle" section. Also added matchups: Mercury.
1/4/13: Added a section explaining the builds, included the rest of the actives, expanded Teamfights by adding Initiation, and a tiny little section on what buffs are best.
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I don't like to see phallic discussions in a guide.
Plenty of overly obvious information > "Bulwark of Hope: Gives a ****load of magical protections and health. The passive is also helpful." > Orly?
Downvote.
KTHXBYE.
*no words*
Plenty of overly obvious information > "Bulwark of Hope: Gives a ****load of magical protections and health. The passive is also helpful." > Orly?
Downvote.
KTHXBYE.
awesome guide,
pierrebffmoha (its my game name; plz add me so you can show me how Athena works)
thanks!
You should provide builds for specific circumstances rather than a list of every item that can be beneficial. I could currently relate it to telling someone how to play Smite by "using your keyboard and mouse."
The rest of the guide is stellar, but I still think the build section could be improved.
Are the bruiser builds listed above good for Arena too? She's my number 1 character for Arena and that build seemed so good I was just curious.
They work pretty well for Arena, but I'm not an Arena player. If you want Arena help, I'd recommend asking TormentedTurnip. He's our Arena specialist on Smitefire. Raventhor also mains Arena.
Honestly, I feel that the choice of buff and routes are best in a general guide. The blue buffs are
pretty muchnever for you, since the laners are better off with it, and I already discussed the pros and cons of red and orange in my general guide. But I can put that maybe it would be useful once laning phase has dissolved thanks to the CDR and mana for that CDR.Meh, even if
Counterstrategies, well, every match I had as her was either a stomp (fairly common), I didn't see the jungler (most common), or the enemy jungler snowballed (least common). Mercury was the only one where he and I maintained a relatively equal footing*. Of course, I'll be adding more with updates.
I goofed on the actives. Will be in the next update.
And yeah, DoF needs it's own little section.
Ty for the review.
*In League, no less, which is why I think Athena is a fine counter to him.
All righty, first and foremost: another great guide, nice job.
Now for the critiques!
Although PowaManG is acting like an imbecile, his point about the builds does hold validity. What I see when I look at your build is a database of every item in the game. I highly recommend you add several new builds dedicated to certain situations. For instance, build one could focus on early game magic power, build two could focus on a healer in the enemy solo lane, etc. As it stands, I can't help but accuse it of lacking its "guide" aspect; show us builds for different situations, not a medley of items that provide certain stats.
I also don't think I saw this stated anywhere in your guide, but you can actually dodge the basics from taunted enemies. They have to be near the edge of the taunt, but it's worth noting - there's no use taking basics if you're under the effects of Heavenly Agility and can easily juke them, or something.
And finally, the underlined word should read "them" not "then."
Again, nice job.
I'll explain the recommended builds in my next update. That should hopefully eliminate the problems with it. And thanks for the tip about
Include (unless I missed it) a place that talks about your OWN jungle clear route. What buffs to give away and which to keep. Should you take a blue buff for the mana and CDR instead of the duo or solo lanes, or take the usual red?
Polynomicon is a dangerous item for Athena nowadays, since it's now a 4 second pause before it can activate again. Due to how her shield wall has to lead directly into a confound, and you have insanely long CD's, it's not like you can weave in the basic attacks easily and pump out damage. You might get one poly off, MAYBE two if you don't have to blow your dash and can still get everything off well. Even so, then you're waiting for a lengthy amount of time. I'm a personal fan of the item, but I feel like, even with how awesome it is with her passive, the rest of her skills don't compliment it. =/
Why does Counterstrategies only list Mercury?
Rabadon's Deathcap isn't a phallic weapon ;D
I love the icons used in each section pretty well, gives it a nice feel.
Include an actives section, please. You include a couple in your ganking section, but not much. Also, from what I Remember, Supports get
I'd also like, if possible, a specific section on
But it's a great guide, and covers everything a beginner or expert jungler needs to know for using Athena. I like it. +1 :D
Now for the critiques!
Although PowaManG is acting like an imbecile, his point about the builds does hold validity. What I see when I look at your build is a database of every item in the game. I highly recommend you add several new builds dedicated to certain situations. For instance, build one could focus on early game magic power, build two could focus on a healer in the enemy solo lane, etc. As it stands, I can't help but accuse it of lacking its "guide" aspect; show us builds for different situations, not a medley of items that provide certain stats.
I also don't think I saw this stated anywhere in your guide, but you can actually dodge the basics from taunted enemies. They have to be near the edge of the taunt, but it's worth noting - there's no use taking basics if you're under the effects of Heavenly Agility and can easily juke them, or something.
And finally, the underlined word should read "them" not "then."
Again, nice job.
However, the sheer amount of details in this guide on how to play Athena are absolutely brilliant, and you have my vote. +1
Don't listen to that first guy, by the way. I think he had a bad Christmas.