Athena

How to play Athena

Athena is a melee guardian from the Greek pantheon who deals magical damage. Top players play Athena in the Support role.

In your kit, Preemptive Strike (dash, damage, protect) is your way in and out of fights. Confound (taunt cone) is your main crowd control. Shield Wall (area damage, twice) adds damage and pressure. Your ultimate is Defender of Olympus (shield, teleport to ally), on a long cooldown (about 120s at rank 1), so save it for fights that matter. Your passive is Reach: attack after ability is ranged.

Community guides level Shield Wall, Confound and Preemptive Strike first. Max Confound first, then Preemptive Strike.

Your job is to start fights and protect your team, not to get kills. Move in when your team is close enough to follow up, then stay near your hunter and protect them from anyone who jumps on them. Your build makes you very hard to kill, so you can stand in front and absorb damage. As support, stay with your duo lane partner early and use your crowd control to set up kills.

Start with Bumba's Hammer, then buy Gauntlet of Thebes. Buy it early so it finishes stacking. Your core is Prophetic Cloak and Stampede, and you finish with Breastplate of Valor, Genji's Guard and Freya's Tears. A good relic is Blink Rune. If the enemy team heals a lot or you keep dying, open the full tool and enter the enemy gods for the exact swaps.

If you own Aspect of War, it reworks Shield Wall (area damage, twice) and Defender of Olympus (damage, teleport to enemy). It changes what to build, so turn on Aspect in the tool when you play it.

Top players win most often against Nox, Atlas and Jing Wei, and struggle against Guan Yu, Sol or Khepri. Against those, play safer and consider a defensive item earlier.