Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel – Athena Builds [Guide]

Jump to Content

• Tank Build
• Melee Build
• Balanced Build
• Storm Build

Among the four new classes in Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel, Athena seems to have the most influence in the main storyline. The game itself is told through her perspective, having been captured by the Vault Hunters at the end of the first Borderlands. You now get to play as her, setting in motion the events that would precede Borderlands 2 and see Handsome Jack turn from a charmer with good intentions to a tyrannical maniac.

Athena the Gladiator fights with a shield called her Kinetic Aspis, and most of her skills center around it. In this guide, you’ll read about the different ways that her Aspis and other powerful skills can be made use of that should match whatever playing style you have.

Take note that these are merely suggestions, albeit well thought out ones, so you can still come up with a build on your own and experiment as you wish if none of these builds are to your liking.

However, the following encompass most possibilities with Athena and one of them can form the basis for an entirely new build if you’re able to come up with one.

Tank Build

[Click here for build]

The most obvious build here is to use the Aspis primarily for absorbing damage like a sponge during its active duration. Increasing this effect and being able to use it as constantly as possible is the key here, as well as having lots of health and shields to endure even more punishment.

Most of the skills you need are on the Phalanx tree, but it’s also recommended that you take some of the starting skills in the Xiphos tree so that you can dish out some of your own damage. You can get up to the Rend skill for bolstering your melee attack to kill whatever may get close enough while you’re holding your ground.

There are skills in the Phalanx tree that you can’t go without. For instance, Vanguard is your main self-healing tool in case you get dangerously low on health in the middle of battle. Ephodos is also good since it lets you avoid danger faster, although you have to remember that you’re a tank and are not supposed to fully retreat and leave your friends behind.

United Front, Clear, and Stalwart are recommended as they make Athena better in supporting the team. Clear lets you revive your teammates by throwing your Kinetic Aspis at them, while United Front increases shields for everyone in the team through absorbing damage with the Aspis.

Stalwart bulks up health and lets you charge up your Aspis by having teammates shoot it, while Prepare for Glory is for drawing enemies towards you and away from your teammates. Finally, Wrath of the Goddess is for being able to hit multiple enemies with your Kinetic Aspis.

A cool trick you can do is to drop a grenade in front of you, activate the Aspis, and use the explosive damage to charge it up. If you took Prismatic Aegis, then an elemental grenade works better here.

Melee Build

[Click here for build]

Another way to be a frontliner with Athena is to take the offensive approach and use her melee capabilities. This constitutes most of her Xiphos skill tree, taking all the prerequisites all the way to Blood Rush. That final skill is what transforms Athena from just a tank into an absolute gore machine.

Blood Rush lets her dash towards an enemy and strick with her Xiphos with increased melee damage and Bleed effect. While it’s in cooldown, you can still perform a regular melee attack.

It is recommended that you take crucial Phalanx skills to bolster defenses after having taken Blood Rush so that you can storm the front without withering soon after against tougher enemies.

When you hit level 50, you should have both Wrath of the Goddess and Blood Rush. In order to get both of them, you sacrifice points that would have went to United Front, Clear, and Stalwart — three skills that are in the Tank build.

Balanced Build

[Click here for build]

This is merely a combination of the previous two builds, taking the best of the defensive with the offensive to create a mix that is not as good with either aspects, but is versatile for most of the game.

As it can be seen here, a few of the skills that were at level 5 in the previous builds are only partially taken here. This gives enough points to fill out United Front, Clear, and Stalwart in order to increase survivability while letting the player take both Wrath of the Goddess and Blood Rush to use both the Kinetic Aspis and Xiphos effectively in combat.

It must be said that while the Phalanx skill tree truly shines in team play, as well as if you’re good at doing the aforementioned grenade trick and/or if you have items that reduce cooldown. Meanwhile, the Xiphos skill tree alone is only good ones you’ve hit at least level 25. That’s where having a balanced approach to your character progression can help you along throughout your playthrough.

Storm Build

[Click here for build]

(This particular build is untested, but the Ceraunic Storm skill tree is proven to be effective in combat.)

The Ceraunic Storm skill tree is interesting in its own right due to the fire and shock elemental damage that it augments to your attacks and other actions. If you want to have area of effect attacks to use against enemies, then this is the tree to fill up.

This is good with SMGs and Laser weapons as they synergize well with these skills. It’s best with weapons with high fire rate though with fire and/or shock damage, so it’s fairly gear-dependent. But if you do get those weapons, you should also swap weapons regularly to make use of the buff from Storm Weaving, which increases fire rate and elemental effect even further.

Maelstrom is the first skill of focus here, which gives you stacks whenever you deal fire or shock damage that further increases your elemental damage. Then there’s Smite, which lets you deal extra fire and shock damage whenever you shoot an enemy that’s airborne, which then gives you more Maelstrom stacks.

Zeus’ Rage gives your Kinetic Aspis some fire and shock damage by summoning a storm at wherever it lands for several seconds. Everything else adds more elemental effect and affects either Maelstrom or Storm Weaving, bringing even more synergy to the table and potentially more destruction with the various chance to cast effects.

Finally, there’s Hades’ Shackles, which is one hell of a skill and takes advantage of the game’s low gravity mechanic as it augments your slam with some powerful effects. When you slam near enemies, you get linked to them with Shock Tethers and they get shocked for as long as you maintain those links. When an enemy dies during the Shock Tether or when the duration ends, they release Fire Novas and you gain Maelstrom stacks as a result.

All of these skills combined result in Athena being literally able to unleash hell on the battlefield. With that in mind, it would be a good idea to stack on some health and shields as well so she can sustain herself long enough to unleash said hell upon her foes. If you are going solo for most of the game, then this is a build worth going for.