The League and the Arena in the past were the stages for physical attack heroes, especially rangers. The strategy where you cut enemy heroes down one by one with burst damage was frequently used and it required tanks with taunt skills like Alexander or King Arthur to protect ally heroes with low defense.

Players are now using a wider variety of team comps; more players have been using team comps that deal more magical damage like the wombo combo, and some even came up with a team comp based on mainly AoE and CC attacks, making it tricky for their enemy to win.

With more players placing mages on their teams, a particular tank has been growing in popularity  Athena. What makes Athena so powerful even though she doesn’t have the CC that other tanks do?

◆ Athena’s Skill Set - Optimized for Protecting Allies from Magical Attacks

Athena is a tank who is specialized in protecting allies by buffing them; she may lack aggressive skills like CC, but her magical defense and immunity buff make her one of the best when it comes to defense.

One of her skills, Divine Challenge, has a wide effect range, and increases ally magical defense while taunting enemies within range. Since the AoE is so big, almost all allies can get the buff so this skill can significantly decrease the damage your heroes take when playing against a wombo combo team.

Add Athena’s ultimate skill, Shield of the Goddess, and your team’s defense will be even greater, since it makes them immune to all attacks. Not only that, it increases their physical and magical attacks, increasing team power as well.

◆ Where to use Athena - Anywhere and everywhere with Magical Damage!

Athena shines especially well when the enemy team is comprised of mages and supports that deal magical damage. She hasn’t been used much lately in PvP due to the growing popularity of the wombo combo, but she does very well against team comps with burst magical damage and CC. The enemies don’t necessarily have to be mages; she is great against supports or hybrid heroes that deal magical damage as well.

Also, Athena is great in that she can be be placed in almost any team comps. Her buff effect range is wide, so even ally heroes charging at enemy targets can be buffed; her ultimate skill increases both physical and magical attacks, so it doesn’t matter what class her ally heroes are. Also, Athena goes great with Kyo Kusanagi, whose ultimate skill deals damage based on the HP he has lost; Athena can keep him from dying before he casts his skill.

In PvE, Athena can be used in both Adventure and Specter Chase. As for the Adventure, she is a good pick when the enemy deals high magical damage; she makes a better tank than those with CC like Alexander and King Arthur, especially when the boss stage is comprised of mages and supports. This is because the boss monsters are immune to abnormal status effects like taunt and CC.

She is considered one of the main heroes needed to complete stage 16 in the Specter Chase (the others being Genghis Khan, Hercules, and Dr. Jekyll). When Athena and Dr. Jekyll’s buffs overlap, the magical defense for ally heroes become very high, maximizing their survivability.

As for Athena’s gear, she can be equipped with almost any variety of gear; even equipping Fenrir’s Doom with Hell’s Gate, gear often use by taunting tanks, works well for Athena. She can also perform well with the full Giant set as it is specialized in magical defense.

Excluding the helmet, the Giant set may not be very popular, but nothing is better than this gear set when playing against mages. Also, since you will be using this gear against magical attack teams, you won’t be needing the 5-Set Effect, which is additional physical defense. It is better to just equip Fenrir’s Doom with 4 pieces of the Giant set to get the skill cooldown, magical defense, and HP.