Dragon Traveler Athena Build

If you’re looking for a frontline that doesn’t just absorb attack—but completely takes over the fight—Athena is the Guardian you want. She’s widely considered a T0 tank for a reason: she can pull enemy attention with a huge AoE Taunt, protect your team and even heal herself while dealing more damage the closer she is to death. In other words, the enemy can’t ignore her and they can’t easily kill her either.

In this guide, we’ll cover everything you need to build Athena properly, including how to obtain her, a full skill breakdown, the best gear sets for different situations, and the strongest team compositions that turn her into guaranteed AoE wipes.

Athena Character Overview

Athena is a T0 Guardian of the battlefield, excelling at taunting and shielding, able to absorb damage for allies and possessing healing abilities. Her damage increases as her health decreases, making her a truly all-around guardian. Her only drawback is that she's less effective at lower star levels.

How to Obtain Athena

Difficulty of obtaining: ★★★★★

Athena can be obtained through Mythical Summon. Summon banners can be acquired by challenging Trial by Fire, completing Fraction Trials, and purchasing them from the Mythic Special and Luminary Store.

Note: If you want to get more benefits to summon or upgrade different heroes, please follow Dragon Traveler Gift Codes, where we will continue to update the official codes.

Athena Skill Breakdown

Talent: Battle Resolve

Each attack deals additional physical damage equal to 12% of her missing HP. Restores 6% of missing HP for each enemy hit. While holding both [Morale] and [Fervor], enters the [Grace] state. While in the [Grace] state, the [Battle Resolve] effect is increased by 30%.

• Level 2: In [Grace] status, [Battle Resolve] increases by 30% additionally. Unlocks at 6★
• Level 3: [Life Link] grants the target additional [High Morale].
• Level 4: The trigger probability of [Counter Helix] is increased by an additional 20%.
• Level 5: Increases own Block by 120 and HP by 8%.
• Level 7: Increases own Block by 200.

Overdrive: Martial Verdict (Cooldown 20s)

• Sacrifice 40% of current HP to gain a shield equal to 60% of maximum HP for 8 seconds.
• Slams the ground at the target location, applying a [Taunt] effect to enemies within a large circular area for 8 seconds and dealing physical damage equal to 200% of attack power.

Ultimate Skill: Aegis of Echoes (Cooldown 14s)

• Gains [Fervor] and hurls a shield at a single target.
• The shield will ricochet between random enemies up to 5 times before returning to her.
• Each bounce deals physical damage equal to 75% of her Attack. Each enemy can only be struck once.

Secret Skill: Life Link

• When an allied Luminary's HP falls below 30%, establishs a Life Link with them, granting the target 20% damage reduction and transferring 60% of the damage they take to self.
• Lasts 8 seconds.
• This effect can only trigger once each Luminary.

Special Skill: Counter Helix

• When damaged, has a 25% chance to deal physical damage equal to 140% of Attack to enemies within a large circular area (triggers at most once every 2s).
• Gains Rage when HP decreases.
• Upon reaching maximum Rage, enters [Wild] state.
• While in [Wild] status, trigger chance increases to 35%, and this skill has no cooldown during its duration.

Athena Recommended Gear

Based on Athena's skill set, here is a general gear recommendation focusing on how different sets synergize with her mechanics.

Speed Set

• Reduces skill cooldowns. This allows Athena to use her Overdrive sooner in battle. The early AoE Taunt forces enemies to target her and interrupts their actions, providing crucial team-wide control and protection.
• Increases the frequency of her Overdrive, significantly boosting team survivability and granting initiative. Frequent grouping of enemies also raises the trigger rate of her Counter Helix and the healing/damage from her Battle Resolve talent.
• Without her Overdrive, Athena can be vulnerable. Using a secondary tank can help ensure she survives to cast it.

HP set

• Directly increases Athena's durability and the strength of the shield from Martial Verdict.
• Suitable for PvP or extremely high-pressure situations where she might die before casting her Ultimate. In PvP, her Taunt often only affects the enemy frontline, making early casting less valuable than sheer survivability. Typically a lower priority than the Haste Set.

Defense Set

• Increases her chance to Block, reducing damage from blocked attacks.
• Synergizes well with her Talent Battle Resolve, which grants bonus Block at certain levels, making the set more effective for high-level Athenas.
• Less effective at lower investment due to low base Block chance. Requires support from other sources that increase Block value to be truly potent.

Summary: The Speed Set maximizes her control, team utility and self-sustain through frequent skill usage. The HP Set serves as a situational alternative, while the Defence Set is a potent endgame option for a fully upgraded Athena.

Best Team Composition For Athena

Athena belongs to Sanctum Glory and pairs well with the Light Whelp lineup.

This composition leverages Athena as the primary tank and engagement tool. The strategy is to use her AoE Taunt to group enemies, enabling your team's AoE abilities to hit multiple targets simultaneously for maximum efficiency. The focus is on securing quick eliminations through controlled bursts of damage.

1. Core Combo

• Athena (Tank): The cornerstone. Her Martial Verdict (Ultimate) gathers and taunts enemies, setting up the perfect conditions for follow-up AoE damage and controlling the flow of battle.
• Gabriel (AoE Burst Damage): The primary damage dealer. Her powerful AoE abilities are designed to capitalize on enemies grouped by Athena's Taunt, aiming to eliminate key targets quickly. She is the non-negotiable damage core paired with Athena.

2. Recommended Complete Team Example

This lineup provides a balanced mix of damage, utility, and sustainability:

• Support: Chiron (Provides crucial dispels to remove enemy buffs)
• Support/Control: Lorilin (Interrupts key enemy skills)
• Support: Vivienne (Boosts an ally's overall damage output)
• Healer: Scheherazade (Provides reliable AoE healing to sustain the team)

3. Team Adjustments

The slots beyond Athena and Gabriel are flexible and should adapt to the battle.

• Addressing Healing: As noted, a team with only Athena and Gabriel may lack the damage to make healing reduction effective. To counter heavy healing, replace a support unit with Scheherazade.
• Adding a Secondary Tank: If Athena struggles to survive until her first Overdrive or faces extreme burst damage, consider replacing a support unit with Helveil as an off-tank.

This team is built around the Athena and Apollo Dual-God Core, creating a high-pressure strategy that combines absolute crowd control, devastating AoE burst and precise single-target execution.

• Athena acts as the tactical initiator. Her Ultimate, Martial Verdict, gathers enemies in a large area and applies an 8-second Taunt, forcibly controlling the battlefield.
• Apollo, as the secondary core, activates simultaneously or immediately after. He unleashes his high-damage burst skills on the clustered enemy group, dealing massive initial damage.
• Once enemies are controlled, grouped and damaged by Apollo, Gabriel's follow-up AoE burst cleans up and damages the entire area.
• Jormungandr, a top-tier assassin, maximizes his value here. He can dive and eliminate key, vulnerable backline targets (like healers or main carries) that are exposed by the grouping or left wounded by the AoE.
• Vivienne's damage boost for the entire team (especially Apollo and Chiron) is the key multiplier, ensuring the burst is lethal enough to secure kills.
• The flex slot (Scheherazade or Chiron) provides sustain or utility. Scheherazade's group healing handles sustained or penetrating damage. Chiron's dispel counters buff-reliant enemies.

Note: To learn more about other characters' skills and their rankings, check out the Dragon Traveler Tier List for comprehensive information.

Conclusion

And that’s a full wrap-up for our Athena build guide. Once you understand how her kit work, you’ll be able to build an Athena that feels nearly unbreakable in all battles. Make sure to use the gear recommendations based on your situation and pair her with the team setups we listed to fully unlock her fight starter potential. With the right allies behind her, Athena doesn’t just protect your squad—she creates the perfect opening for your damage dealers to clean the field.

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