Guarding Athena Tips & Tricks

The popularity of this custom game is definitely on the rise and so I hope this thread is useful and that we can add to it as a community. I have completed the game on easy 3 times now, all whilst playing anti-mage (Demon Hunter) and so I would consider myself an intermediate (????).

I would love for other people to contribute to this thread, by either correcting my mistakes or adding more information in regards to the other heroes. Ultimately Helping beginners to learn and complete the game !

The aim of the game is to get as fat as possible in time for the final wave. You can achieve this in many different ways but is generally about maximising efficiency!!!

**Anti-Mage ( Demon Hunter) Guide**

* I have found it most efficient to hit the tower until level 8, UNLESS you are allowed to defend waves by yourself or yourself and one other. (3 people defending waves is inefficient and it is more beneficial to hit the tower).

* I personally build 0-3-4 until level 7. (3 in Shield active, 4 in Passive, Ignoring W - Slice active).

* Start by buying Arthenas Shield in the starting items, this costs 1000 gold. You should buy one of these every time you get 1000 gold only stopping when it creates the Blue Shield (I do not recall the name).

* If you have ONLY hit the tower you should just be finishing the blue shield by the time you reach level 8 (If you solely defended waves it will be a bit quicker than this), when you hit level 8 I recommend that you use the closest portal and start farming the small Mud-Golem spawns USING ULTIMATE FORM. (If you A-click the ground I have found that it is most efficient and will farm the spawn within 2 seconds, therefore maximising efficiency).

* Once you are hitting the mud-golems you want to buy Noob Sword > Boots > Headdress. Whilst you are completing noob sword ensure that you individually buy the 875 gold starter swords (Which build up into noob sword) as soon as you have the funds available, this will maximise efficiency as opposed to saving 14k gold and then buying it out-right.

* Use all levels gained whilst farming mud-golems and put them into the W - Slice active.

* Once you have completed the one-dimensional item you should go teleport home and walk to the bottom of the map where the white dot is and accept the quest (By walking next to her), you should use the W slice active and your E shield active to kill the kobolds, hand-in that quest and then accept the 2nd quest, you need ultimate to do this one so farm mud-golems until it is off CD or go straight in and kill them if you have it available (It is also efficient to get the Ancient Golem to low HP before turning in the hellbear quest). You now had 2-Dimensional Item, accept the 3rd quest and go and kill the Low HP golem to get Blood-Mask (Life steal).

* Once you have this the progression goes 2 Dimensional > Crescent (Crescent Gem from Ogre Camps) > Half-Moon (Treant) > Guibbet (Dont recall name) (Gem from Visage) > Full-Moon (Sand King Full-Moon gem) > Eternal (Eternal Gem from fire beast boss).


**General Tips / Tricks**

* When you get level 100 stand on the Aegis in the fountain (Bottom-right) to reborn, you should probably farm mud-golems to get back up to a respectable level. Reincarnating allows you to complete the quests again and get a 2nd , 3rd, and I believe 4th core item.

* Use ultimates before teleporting to defend against Naga sirens as they have a passive AOE silence. (I think they're about round 30/35).

* It is vital that you are quick in getting to level 100 as this makes the last wave a hell of a lot easier.

* Picking up a Blood Axe from the ogre camps and Gods weapon from Visage will improve DPS, Prioritise giving these to PA > AM > Jug.

* HELP YOUR TEAM WITH BOSSES, I can not stress this enough, you need to help your team get their items too !!

* You need a Gem of true-sight to see Sand-King. Generally I buy one straight away and put it in my courier. The courier should hover over Athena until the alpha wolf wave (Invisible, not sure what round it is, mb 10-15) and then you can move it to Sand-king when you are ready.

* If you need to complete Sand-King by yourself you can get each zombie camp to 1 monster and this allows you to clear all 4 within the 20 second time-frame.

I Hope that you can all add to this and we can create a useful resource for both new and current players !