Now for the actual build:

First Item: Shoes of the Magi are a solid pick up, they give you 30 magical power (approximately 60/70 more damage on your entire combo depending on usage of Reach), cooldown reduction you so desperately need on Athena, whose spells are all on long cooldowns. The movement speed provided allows you to roam at a higher speed and rotate to lanes and side camps quicker, while also benefiting your chase and escape potential. 

Your next item will be based on how your lane is going, Athena should be bullying out most laners. Hence, I like to take the innate advantage you get to acquire a stack item Warlock's Sash, providing you with HP and magical power in droves. This item is a quintessential magical power bruiser item, amazing for Athena, who can clear easily and pick up stacks via kills globally.  

You're now moderately tanky and quite damaging, but most of your power comes from your base damage. If still ahead pick up Winged Blade, Winged blade is an incredibly cheap item that provides stats unheard of for 1850 gold, 300 health, 10% cooldown reduction and movement speed, this leads to you having a total of 25% cooldown reduction and potent movement speed and tankiness. 

Spirit Robe is the all round choice, providing both physical and magical protection, with additional cooldown reduction and a 15% damage reduction passive when hit with a hard crowd control ability. This passive will save you from bursts from the jungler and/or enemy laner, it's also very good if you teleport to the wrong place at the wrong time. ALTHOUGH, IF THE ENEMY TEAM DOESN'T HAVE A LOT OF BURST POTENTIAL AND/OR YOU ARE GETTING IN TEAM FIGHT EXTREMELY OFTEN, MANTLE OF DISCORD>SPIRIT ROBE. ​

Your last two Items are mainly based on your playstyle in the match. If you are demolishing the enemy team, build more damage. If you are falling behind, more defense. Play to your strengths. Same deal with your second relic, play comfortably.

 

COMBOS

Vs Melee opponents in the lane; walk up to them, use Shield Wall, wait for them to walk out of it a small amount, confound them back in, then use Preemptive Strike if you want to extend the trade.

Numerically:  3 - (wait)(approx 1.2s) - 2 - 1  

Remember to weave in hand attacks while doing this

Vs Ranged opponents in the lane; Preemptive Strike, then do your initial Shield Wall/taunt combo.

Numerically: 1 - 3 - (wait) - 2 

 

Wave Clear; Preemptive Strike through entire wave; turn around and use Reach through the wave, then Shield wall  the melee minions and the ranged minions if you can, then use the remaining reach to finish off minions or poke the enemy laner.

Numerically: 1-Reach-3-Reach

 

Important Gameplay mechanics to know:

Point skipping; Certain characters skip points in their ultimate as it has no true power increase, or its power increase is not akin to the power gained from having an additional point in another skill. Thor, Bakasura & Sun Wukong are all good examples of this. 

Athena CAN do this, and if you feel like your team comp cannot fully capitalize on your ultimate (i.e. a mage support as opposed to a guardian/warrior in solo lane, or your jungler cannot stay in the front line for 4.2 seconds) then you should skip a point in your ultimate, alternatively, skipping a point in your ultimate can also be done if you do not feel your team is intuitive enough, or does not have enough communication to use your ultimate to its full ability, as the only positive upgrade to Defender of Olympus per level is pure damage.

You can also skip her ultimate at level 5 for an additional Shield Wall point, but this should only be done if you are either:

a) Struggling in lane

OR

b) Do not feel a fight will break out within the span of a level.

This is a very risky thing to do, and I wouldn't recommend you do it every game, only games where you need to.

 

Matchups:

Against most Warriors Athena will be able to hold her own and do amazingly against them, being able to out burst them in a trade. You will have to watch for their sustain however, push them away with trades and keep up the pressure when you're ahead. A special case is Hercules, who can simply dash through you when you attempt your 3-2 combo, avoiding over half of the damage, so be careful against him, and try to only clear.

 

Against most Assassins ( I.e. Hun Batz or Bakasura) You will do amazingly, burning through their squishy hide with short trades and disengage from their sustained damage. Breaking Hun Batz's semi channeled overhand with your 2 and running away from Butcher blades (with the addition of being able to block it) will work wonders.

 

Mages will be slightly more difficult, they will usually poke from afar, so you need to keep up the pressure from early on. A mage with no escape will take over half their health in damage from one of your skill combos, you just better hope that they do not have sustain, or they will just hide back and heal. You should be able to out clear most mages early on, but they will then progress to outclear you. Be wary, but be aggressive.

 

Guardians are a tricky bunch, the only guardian you truly see in solo lane is Hades (who is now a mage but still tanky nonetheless), who is very hard if you cannot play Athena, but gets to be quite easy if you know how to deal with him. If he goes to dash into your wave, make sure you're on his melee minions, and do your 3-2 combo, taunting instantly to stop his Devour souls. If you cannnot do this, then go to his minion wave, wait for him to clear so the entire wave aggros onto you, and put down Shield Wall and dash out (post level 6).

 

Hunters are typically easy prey, they shouldn't be able to outclear you, you block auto attacks and they also lack sustain (barring Neith) before devourer's gloves. Ganks against Hunters work wonders, and with combined CC should be easy kills and a great double roaming, if your jungler ignores your lane however this can go south, and quickly. 

 

Thank you for reading this guide, and I hope you find success in the solo lane with Athena! -VesuvianAsh