Damage done to bosses is capped at 600k at all stages. Except instead of making your progress stop there, hitting or going over this cap rolls you back approx. 200k damage and makes the end screen and the game register as you would have inflicted only 330-390k! To maximize damage you MUST deal as much as possible without going over 599k total. In order to achieve that you might have to intentionally make your team weaker.
Strategy for Stage I
Athena is a Tank/Nuker that can also heal; can do moderate, bursty damage to your frontline gods. Her abilities can hit single and multiple frontline heroes. She has good Armor, fair magic Resist, and also adequately heals herself. Be sure to bring Armor reduction for your physical team. Her Active ability does damage based on how much HP you've lost and her 2nd skill hits the front and mid while also healing herself. Try to coordinate your Crowd Control skills on the Athena boss when she tries to use her powers and to reduce the frequency that she heals herself (she heals herself 843 every 5 or 6 seconds).
Strategy for Stage II
Not too much is different from Stage I except that she is a bit tougher and her AOEs also hit not only your Front, but also your Mid; she can also target someone with her ultimate if they are low health. Bringing Heroes who can CC/Silence and do good damage (Chryseis, Hermes, Hecate, Astraea, etc.) is suggested because she heals herself 1903 health every 5 to 6 seconds. If she manages to get every heal off that's 28,545 health that she takes off your team's total damage.
Strategy for Stage III
She becomes much more powerful in stage III. She has a newly acquired Epic Passive that reduces all her magic damage taken by about 30%. She also now periodically hits all members of your team in her Rotation with magic damage similar to Tiresias' or Argus' 2nd skill that also heals her. This occurs about every 5 to 6 seconds so CC is a must. A Healer or a Support that provides Magic Resist for the team is also recommended.
Suggested Heroes
These suggestions are for maximizing damage on the boss for your Guild. This is assuming your Heroes survive during the entire duration of the fight. Some suggested Heroes are better in earlier stages and fall off in later stages because of Athena's increasing powers and defenses.
- Most physical damaging heroes are good here especially in stage III and IV:
- Hector for reducing Armor, ok physical damage, and Crowd Control
- Cupid for armor redux, and good consistent damage
- Hermes for reducing armor, consistent damage buffing team's physical damage, and Crowd Control
- Ares for reducing armor and sound damage
- Aphrodite for armor reduction Passive and shields/heals
- Atalanta for consistent damage and synergy with AGI based groups
- Typhon for becoming stronger and stronger the longer the fights goes on
- Hades for Tanking and reducing incoming magic damage to your team
- Leandra for good damage, heals, buffing Attack Speed
- Chryseis for her Charm would provides much needed CC to prevent her from healing
- Astraea for her Disables and ok damage.
These Heroes become less effective on Athena as the stages become harder (try to avoid using them on or after stage III):
- Hecate for high damage output and Silence (however she seems to get interrupted in her skills while having her in Front
- Cerberus or Ladon for magic damaging attacks
- Zeus or Young Zeus for their consistent magic damage attacks and CC.
NB: Young Zeus' Ultimate skill will do 0 damage to Athena.
- Prometheus and/or Echidna for Magic Attack groups
Loot
- Stage I- 100x Guild Bux 10x Wisdom Salve 5x Orb of Dreams Scrap 5x Smelling Salt Scrap
- Stage II- 100x Guild Bux 20x Wisdom Salve 5x Persian Orb Scrap 5x Holy Tears Scrap
- Stage III- 100x Guild Bux 10x Wisdom Cake 5x Barbaric Axe Scrap 5x Ruins Pillar Scrap
- Stage IV- 100x Guild Bux 15x Wisdom Cake 5x Last Judgment Scrap 5xTitan Humbler Scrap