[Hydra's Lament] [Bumba's Cudgel] [Purification Beads] [Talisman of Purification]
[Athena]
's full damage build is a late game hypercarry. It is seldom seen in Smite history that a character can simply delete any squishy from the game with a near instant crowd control. I am, and have always been, a firm believer that
[Athena]
on a full damage build is the best Assassin in the game, with a strong positive matchup into
[Loki]
since she can interrupt Vanish and Flurry Strike, who is the only other viable full damage Jungler as of CA8. For the Open Beta patch, she wasn't nerfed very much at all, only seeing a change to CC buffering which makes her A02 Confound barely any weaker for a full damage build, and seeing a buff to
So let's set the main premise of this build: Autocancelling. Every time
[Athena]
uses an ability, her passive turns her next basic attack into Reach, an empowered basic attack that deals 42 + (125% Strength + 70% Intelligence) magical damage. This basic attack also travels through walls, can Critically Strike and proc on-hit item effects, and grants you Haste while using it. Knowing all these things, we can begin to combine some very powerful on-hit effects and we start to see some ridiculous results. Note that when a Reach basic attack hits an enemy, any subsequent enemies hit will take 20% reduced damage, and they won't take the extra damage from on-hit effects such as Polynomicon and Hydra's.
Most of
[Athena]
's kit in the jungle doesn't matter, as most of her damage numbers aren't actually that insane outside of her Reach, but knowing what her abilities do in-depth will help develop a greater understanding of why and when you should use abilities.
A01 - Preemptive Strike
This ability got a major buf in Smite 2, although not exactly where you would expect it. In fact, I'm pretty sure its buff is actually a bug. The dash has a 0.66s charge time before you can cast it, but after it's fully charged, you can activate the ability by pressing whatever input you use for basic attacking. In Smite, that was the end of it, you charge the dash, you can't do anything and then you cast the dash. But in Smite 2, there's currently a bug (which hopefully becomes a feature) that while you're charging your dash, you can take any action that isn't basic attacking. This means that you can use your A02 Confound or A03 Shield Wall, start using your A04 Defender of Olympus, or even use your interact key for anything while you charge your dash, such as taking the side portals or lane portals. Casting other abilities is more important for a more support/tank build, since you lose damage on Reach procs, since it casts 2 abilities at the same time. However, charging your dash and then teleporting to the other side of the map allows you to have your dashed charged and ready to go without any audio cue for the enemies to react to, which is incredibly strong at the right times.
This ability used to give you a block stack which reduced basic attack damage by 60%, and you could have up to 3 block stacks, but this was removed and replaced with a Protections buff. While it's been shifted around a bit, it's currently sitting at 15/20/25/30/35 + 10% Physical Protections and 15/20/25/30/35 + 10% Magical Protections. While much weaker against carries, this change sees a massive buff against squishy characters, giving up to 15% more effective damage mitigation before penetration. If you can, try to hit the dash when engaging, but never forget that it's also your quickest escape if you need it. It also slows the target you hit. Note that this is Athena's only ability that scales with Strength and does not scale with Intelligence at all.
A02 - Confound
Also seeing a minor... shift? It's hard to call it a buff or a nerf since it doesn't really do much, but it was also given a slow for the entire taunt duration. In nerf news, its taunt duration was reduced to a measly 0.8s/0.9s/1.1s/1.2s/1.4s. This will be the second ability you level up, since, despite its long cooldown, its duration is what allows you to guarantee kills in the midgame and become a huge pain for anybody unexpecting of a flank.
Unimpactful in this specific build, but for every 150 Protection from items
[Athena]
Athena has, she also gains 0.25s duration on her taunt, up to 0.5s. This means that the optimal way to build her as a tank is to build exactly 300 Protections from items, or as close to it without being under, and then buying as many Intelligence and Cooldown Rate items as possible. More on that in a different build guide someday, maybe.
A03 - Shield Wall
This is the first ability you level up. This is one of the best clear abilities in the game with
A04 - Defender of Olympus
This is
[Athena]
's bread and butter. This allows her to be one of the best hyper farming junglers in the game. Anytime you see somebody rotate, ult their target and countergank. Your target gets a choice to engage or escape, and can easily help people survive in numerous situations. This ability is on its 120s cooldown for a reason, dealing massive damage and providing global pressure, allowing you to deny your enemy jungler the ability to dictate the pace of the game. This ability will be the last ability you level, unless you know you have a team which is constantly landing the ultimate's damage for you. By the time you're level 9 and can put your second point in this ability, you'll know.

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Starter Build
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Final Build
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Optional Items
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GODS ABILITY ORDER
Coming soon.
GUIDE SECTIONS
SECTION | THE BASICS
SECTION | BUNKERING DOWN
SECTION | TEAMFIGHTING
MORE LATENT GUIDES
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