Table of Contents HIDE
Athel is one of the four rare starting champions. In my opinion, it is the best midgame starting character. But no matter how good it is for experienced players; your starting champion should be Kael. Kael is much more useful for beginners, while the advantages of Athel show up closer to midgame.
I also don’t recommend purposefully raising Athel’s rank to six stars if it isn’t your starting champion. Athel is good among rare champions and has a fairly limited use in the game.
Stats, Skills & Damage Multipliers
Athel is a rare attacking champion from the Sacred Order faction. Its main advantages are a triple hit with a 25% [Weaken] debuff on A1 and a self-buff of 25% attack. Here are Athel’s base parameters.
🟨 HP – 13`545 (normal)
🟥 Attack – 1189 (low)
🟩 Defense – 936 (good)
🟩 Speed – 104 (awesome)
🟨 Crit. Rate – 15% (standard)
🟨 Crit. Damage – 57% (standard)
🟨 Resist – 30 (normal)
🟥 Accuracy – 0 (normal)
Let’s take a look at Athel’s abilities.
Strike Down (A1)
Attack 1 enemy 3 times. Has a 75% chance of placing a 25% [Weaken] debuff for 2 turns on the last hit.
⭐ Damage based on [ATK]
⭐ Damage growth from books equals +20% per 4 pieces
⭐ The increase in the chance of applying debuffs from books is 20%.
⭐ Damage multiplier equals ~(1.3 * ATK + 30) * 3 hits
Divine Blades (A2; AOE)
Attacks all enemies. Has an extra 15% chance of inflicting a critical hit.
⭐ Damage based on [ATK]
⭐ The default cooldown is 3 turns
⭐ Damage growth from books equals +25% per 4 pieces
⭐ Damage multiplier equals ~4.1 * ATK
Higher Blessing (A3)
Places a 25% [Increase ATK] buff on this Champion for 2 turns. Places a 30% [Increase DEF] buff on this Champion for 2 turns if this Champion’s current HP is less than 50%. Gains an Extra Turn.
⭐ The default cooldown is 4 turns
⭐ The cooldown reduction from skill tomes equals -1 turn for 1 piece
Aura
Increases Ally HP in all Battles by 15%.
⭐ This multiplier is based on the basic HP value of each ally it affects.
The best equipment for Athel
Equipping Athel with good gear is a quite complicated task due to its low basic stats. As most damage dealers, Athel should be wearing the Savage and Cruel sets to ignore the target’s defense, as this allows it to deal more damage. But as a beginner, you should use any attacking sets: Offense, Crit Damage, Divine Offense, and so on. On the screenshots below, you can see how I equipped my Athel for the late-game content. This is what you should strive for.
Here are Athel’s key statistics, along with explanations.
- HP (35k+) – 6th Demon Lord clan boss requires at least 35k HP from damage dealers for them to have good enough survivability. If you aren’t planning to use Athel on the Demon Lord clan boss, you can reduce its HP to 30k in favor of other important parameters.
- ATK (as high as possible) – attack is less important than critical damage. So increasing the attack stat should be your second priority.
- DEF (2k+) – high defense is also required for beating the Demon Lord clan boss, as well as Hydra. That’s why you should strive to have 2–2.5K defense on your Athel. Remember, a dead champion can’t deal any damage.
- Speed (as high as possible) – the higher the speed, the more frequently the champion will attack. Speed 200+ is a good result.
- Crit. Rate (depending on usage method) – you should calculate on your own how high a critical rate you need. For example, if you plan to use Athel in the arenas, you can give it 85%+ since its A2 has a built-in increase in critical hit chance. If you have a 30% [Increase Crit Rate] buff on your team, you can easily reduce this number by another 30%. I think you get the idea.
- Crit DMG (as high as possible) – the most important attacking stat for damage dealers.
- Accuracy (220+) – this will be enough for any dungeon and any boss (except Doom Tower, but we can use Mithrala’s / Drexthar’s aura there).
You’re also recommended to pay attention to the Retaliation artifact set. In my experience, it is very useful when fighting against the Demon Lord clan boss and the Fire Knight. For the same reason, you should buy accessories from the Revenge set in the clan shop.
Masteries for Athel
When using Athel against bosses, make sure the character has the Giant Slayer mastery. It’s the best choice since Athel should not hit bosses with A2.
If you’re planning to use Athel in the arenas, the Helmsmasher mastery will definitely be the best choice. All the rest of the masteries are pretty standard for most damage dealers. But as a beginner, you can try the support branch, learning the skills to increase accuracy.
Blessing for Athel
In my opinion, the only worthwhile option among the available blessings for Athel is “Phantom Touch“. It grants extra damage and extra parameters that are suitable for damage dealers.
Role in the Game & Effectiveness
Athel is good against bosses and as the main damage dealer in the arenas for beginners due to its self-buff. As for bot waves, Athel is quite weak against them since it’s AOE damage is quite low.
Athel is NOT recommended to use in:
⛔ Iron Twins Fortress
⛔ Ice Golem’s Peak
⛔ Spider’s Den
⛔ Minotaur’s Labyrinth
⛔ Doom Tower
⛔ Hydra
⛔ Sand Devil’s Necropolis
⛔ Campaign battles (leveling food)
⛔ Arenas (mid-game and late-game)
Athel shows good results in:
🟢 Dragon’s Lair (6 / 10)
🟢 Fire Knight’s Castle (8 / 10)
🟢 Demon Lord Clan Boss (8 / 10)
🟢 Arenas (early-game) (7 / 10)
Brutal & Nightmare Campaign (5 / 10)
Due to the only AOE and pretty long animation of the default skill, Athel can finish Stage 12-3 of the Brutal campaign in about 18-22 seconds. It’s a very bad result, even for rare champions, so you are not recommended to use Athel in this way.
Although Athel, with Scyl’s support, can easily finish the Nightmare campaign with 3 stars. At least in my setup…
Dragon’s Lair (6 / 10)
In uber teams like mine, almost any champion, including Athel, will produce acceptable results.
But once we try to use Athel as a main damage dealer, we will see a different picture.
Athel is not a good champion for beating the Dragon because it has no poisons, and its AOE damage is quite low. The only reason to use Athel in the Dragon’s lair is the 25% [Weaken] debuff.
Fire Knight’s Castle (8 / 10)
In the Fire Knight’s Castle, Athel is quite useful. Its triple hit with A1 helps remove the boss’s shield and deals good damage. But you shouldn’t make Athel your main bet to deal with bot waves because it can’t do this effectively.
And if you try to make Athel the main damage dealer against bots, the fight will be long.
Don’t forget that it’s a rare champion, and it can’t compete with legendary heroes like Ma’Shalled (read the guide) or Ninja.
Demon Lord clan boss (8 / 10)
Athel is a quite good champion for defeating the Demon Lord clan boss. It can be useful at all stages of the game. But you should understand right away that its only task is to keep a 25% [Weaken] debuff on the boss. Sure, as part of an uber team like mine, Athel can deal decent damage, but it still can’t be the primary damage dealer.
Anyway, Athel can be used in single-key teams for the Nightmare difficulty of Demon Lord and in dual-key teams for Ultra-Nightmare. I’ve already shown how to build a speed team for defeating the clan boss in another guide.
But you should have some powerful champions like Lanakis, Ronda, Ninja, Ma’Shalled, and so on. Otherwise… Well, you can see the result in the picture above.
Other PVE locations (2-4 / 10)
As for the rest of the PVE locations (dungeons, Hydra, crypts, and so on), I don’t want to give you hope in vain. Athel is a RARE champion with low AOE damage. It can be used, but it won’t be able to show impressive results either in the Doom Tower or artifact dungeons, nor in battles against Hydra or the Iron Twins. Do not expect too much from this hero.
Arenas (5 / 10)
In Arenas, Athel makes sense only for beginners due to its self-buff of 25% attack. Once you get Dark Elhain, you will likely use it instead of Athel, since it has a better self-baff. As I’ve said many times, Athel’s AOE damage is low, so the champion will be effective only in beginner teams like in the pictures below.
Conclusion
Athel is a good champion for beginners. It shows impressive results in battles against the Demon Lord and the Fire Knight. Athel will be useful in arena fights for beginners due to its 25% attack self-buff. It can also help defeat Dragon, but rounds will last pretty long.
I don’t recommend selecting Athel as a starting champion. As well, I don’t recommend upgrading the rank of Athel to 6 stars if it isn’t your starting champion. It is not the worst rare hero, but RARE one. Do not expect something impressive from it.