Ao Kuang - The True Mid Lane God

Regal, powerful, the Dragon-God of the Eastern Sea commands storms and tides with the flick of a claw, yet he seethes with rage for past humiliations. Such repeated shame and humiliation have both humbled Ao Kuang and tempered his fury to steely resolve. Long has he awaited his chance to rise again and exert dominance as a great Dragon-God of the Sea.

With this guide, you too can help the great Dragon-God to reassert himself, and close his steely grip on the middle lane of Olympus.

Ao Kuang is in my opinion currently the strongest mid lane character in Smite. With his incredible lane clearing abilities he can farm from safety to a critical point where he can then take his enemy by surprise and obliterate them with what is arguably the most potent ultimate in the game.

By the end of this read, you will hopefully be able to go toe to toe with any other imposter middle god and come out on top.

Welcome to my Ao Kuang guide.

Pros

• Very safe early game.
• Extremely powerful in team fights.
• Great zoning capabilities.
• Massive damage.
• Huge slows.

Cons

• Very squishy.
• No reliable escape.
• Relies on stacks.

Opening Items

These are the items which you should leave the shop with at the start of the game.

Vampiric Shroud
Vampiric shroud is a great starting item for Ao Kuang, as the additional health and magic power allow him to maintain a stronger presence in lane in the very early game, and the health and mana gain upon last hits can be capitalised on through the almost guaranteed last hits provided by his tornadoes, providing him with enough sustain to last as long as he wishes in lane.


Shoes
Taking level 1 shoes with you from the start of the game has numerous benefits, including helping you to dodge harassment from your opposition in lane, and allowing you to escape early ganks with greater ease, as your slither will not be leveled until much later in the game.

Early - Mid Game Items

These are the items that you should buy (in this order) throughout the early game, moving towards the late game. As a solo laner these items should not take too long to acquire providing you farm competently.

Shoes of Focus
The first item to complete are your boots. These will provide you with the mobility you require to keep good positioning in team fights, and allow you to chase and escape much more effectively. I recommend Shoes of Focus over Shoes of the Magi as I do not build Chronos' Pendant on Ao Kuang, and as such the cooldown goes a long way, allowing you to place more tornadoes and use your ultimate more frequently, helping you to maintain control over team fights and deal more damage. A phrase I have long used is that cooldown is a Mage's attack speed.



Doom Orb
Early is the only real time to build Doom Orb, as otherwise it will become much harder to gain stacks due to less time in lane, and it's benefits will become less obvious. As Ao Kuang is such a safe character, being nearly impossible to dislodge from a lane, as when threatened he can stay close to his tower while continuing to farm at full effectiveness, you are unlikely to lose your stacks. As such Doom Orb will provide you with an early, and significant, boost in magic power helping you to become more of a threat to the enemy team. If you are struggling to survive, or have died several times by the point you intend to buy Doom Orb, I would recommend instead purchasing Book of Thoth and proceeding to play much safer.



Gem of Isolation
Gem of Isolation is an absolutely vital item to Ao Kuang. While he already has a 50% slow on his squall, this item will not only increase that slow, but also applies a slow with every tick of his tornadoes. That's right, a four second 25% slow which also deals damage. You cannot miss out on this item.



Rod of Tahuti
Now that we have high magic power through the Doom Orb, roughly 280 in total, and some more utility through the Gem of Isolation, it's time to boost our damage through the roof. Rod of Tahuti's passive will cause this item to provide us with more than 100 additional magic power, resulting in this single item almost doubling our power. This is where we start to hit, and hit hard.



Spear of the Magus
If you have been doing well, people will begin to adapt their builds to include magical protection. Generally, however, they will not do so until at least the core of their build is complete. As such, it is fairly safe to leave your magic penetration until late. The choice of Spear of the Magus over Obsidian Shard is a simple one for Ao Kuang, as this item, similarly to Gem of Isolation, is taken advantage of by tornadoes. Each tick of damage will apply the debuff of this item, and continue to re-apply it until the damage over time effect is gone. In addition, the 35 flat penetration that this item provides when both stacks are on the target helps much more greatly for killing enemies not building heavy defenses than the 33% of Obsidian Shard, and since you ought not to target tanks if other targets are available, the superior item for killing tanks is not ideal for us.

Final Item Choices

These items are contenders for your last item slot when you sell your Vampiric Shroud. Depending on the match you may wish to take pure power or a protection item.

Book of Thoth
This is an option for your final item for several reasons. Firstly, Book of Thoth is an extremely powerful item for Ao Kuang, as it stacks with his passive and provides huge amounts of mana which will in turn be converted into magic power. With this item 10 mana converts roughly to 0.9 magical power. This item is a good choice if you are not under a great deal of threat, such as if you have a competent tank or you are exceptionally fed.



Focused Void Stone
The Void Stone is particularly useful if you are either taking heavy magic damage or enemy Gods have built moderate magical protections. You may wish to consider Obsidian Shard if the whole enemy team is building tank, but this is an unlikely scenario. Primarily you should choose this item if you are taking a lot of damage from an enemy mage.



Wall of Absolution
This item should be built for much the same reason as void stone, except if the enemy who is causing you trouble is a physical. This item does in fact provide the highest physical defense of any item, with an incredible 105 protection after receiving only three basic hits. A greatly cost efficient item, this makes a great choice for mitigating the damage of an irritating enemy carry.

Squall

Squall

You should max Squall second.



Squall is a very powerful spell, dealing a significant amount of damage and applying and staggering 50% slow, this allows you to land a guaranteed hit with your tornado on an enemy god, allowing for significant harass early in the lane, as you should put your first point into squall at level 2. This spell can also be used to help to catch enemies or to escape from ganks. It does have a travel time, and as such it can be difficult to hit if an enemy is expecting it and trying to avoid it, however you can circumvent this problem by aiming for minions or other gods near to your target, as it does have a small area of effect.

While I would not advise using squall to farm with, it can be useful for finishing off clumps of minions who survive your tornado, or for stealing the middle gold furies from the enemy mid or jungler. It is significant to note that while this slow is great and can help you to land your ultimate, spirit's tempest, on enemies without escapes, this strategy is not particularly reliable and should only be attempted if you are certain that your ultimate will not be needed soon in a team fight.



Slither

Slither

You should max Slither last.



Slither is the closest thing Ao Kuang has to an escape. It can be used to temporarily ignore slows and to provide a speed boost which can aid in combat in several ways. It can be used to chase down enemies by closing distance in order to land a squall and secure the kill, it can help you to escape from bad situations or ganks and it can be used to kite melee range enemies when in combination with squall, as you will be able to backpedal faster than they can move forwards.

You should put your first point into slither at level 4, and should be particularly cautious in the very early game before you have picked it up, as without this spell you are very vulnerable to being ganked. Similarly, you should be cautious when using this to close distance with an enemy, as it will then render you unable to use it to escape if the situation backfires.



Tornadoes

Tornadoes

You should max Tornadoes first.



Tornadoes is one of the best spells in Smite. By casting only one spell it allows Ao Kuang to clear an entire minion wave, allowing him unparalleled control of the mid lane. This allows him to push hard and put the enemy tower under pressure, or to safely sit back under his own tower without losing out on any farm. As a result it is very easy for Ao Kuang to assist his jungler on the mid gold furies, as he can simply drop a tornado on the enemy minions and rest easy in the knowledge that they will die. The fact that the passive effect of Gem of Isolation is applied on every tick from Tornadoes' DoT is simply the icing on the cake.

There are a great deal of uses for tornado in situations other than laning. One such use is to zone enemy gods. For example, if an enemy is attempting to escape through the jungle, Ao Kuang can block that escape route with a tornado, forcing the enemy to either take a great deal of damage over time, and later in the game, be slowed, or turn around and face the players chasing them. Similarly, when Ao Kuang is fleeing he can drop a tornado under his own feet as he runs, forcing enemy gods to find a way around or risk lowering their health to a point where you can then consider engaging them again.

One important use of tornado which can save your life early in the game is to place it under yourself and stay within it's radius. This can prevent early game ganks as the majority of junglers are melee characters, and as such they will be unwilling to enter the tornado in order to attack you. If they do, then with your basic attacks on top of the tornado's damage, you will most likely be able to at the very least kill them along with you, and frequently you may find yourself leaving alive with a free kill, particularly if your ultimate is available.



Spirit's Tempest

Spirit's Tempest

Your ultimate takes priority over other skills.



Spirit's Tempest is perhaps the most powerful spell in the game, dealing enough damage to make even tanks reconsider taking it to the face, and potentially one shot killing enemy Mages or AD Carries. However, there is a catch. This spell is also one of the hardest spells in the game to land, yet proper use can turn around team fights, and simply the fear of this spell will cause enemies to think twice before attacking you, particularly in the jungle.

An ideal situation to use this spell is in a team fight where other members of your team are able to either zone enemies into a tight group, or to deal out area of effect stuns or other disables, such as Ares' ultimate, No Escape, or Hades' Pillar of Agony. Another ideal combination is Fenrir's Ragnarok, as it will allow you to pick a specific enemy from amongst their team and destroy them with your ultimate. Using your ultimate in the jungle, rather than the lane, will generally yield better results as there is less space to move around, and you should always attempt to aim along the path, as it were, rather than across it, as this will force enemies to move to the sides, rather than forwards or backwards. When against a wall, this is impossible and will result in a guaranteed hit in the majority of situations.

There are other uses for this spell, such as in self defense from a gank or to attempt to snipe enemy players through walls or in lane if they are inattentive. To protect yourself with this spell you should cast it then move forwards so that after the delay it will hit anyone around you. This can be done whilst running back to your tower, forcing enemies to keep their distance and enabling you ample time to escape. Once you are used to the timing of this spell it can be used to hit or kill fleeing gods or enemies moving in a predictable manner, as it has an exceptionally long range and after the initial delay it's travel time is not too slow.

Lane Strategy

Laning with Ao Kuang is very simple, relatively easy and mostly risk free. Here I will go into detail in how to maximise your time in lane so that you can become the late game monster your team needs, but not the one it deserves.

You should begin your quest to kill the opposing minotaur by joining your team at one of the two groups of gold furies either side of middle lane. Once these are dead you should immediately move into lane, preferably middle lane.

At all times, apart from in exceptional circumstances, you should remain behind your ranged minions. Once the two minion waves have met, you should place a tornado covering the entire enemy minion wave. The reason for doing this rather than placing the tornado earlier and allowing the minions the walk through it is that at level 1 your tornado will not kill a minion unless the DoT is allowed to reapply itself through the target remaining in the area of effect of the tornado. Congratulations, now you know how to lane with Ao Kuang.

Moving on, there are more steps than simply killing the minions. Zoning is not a problem for Ao Kuang, so long as you are able to place your tornado, yet you can zone the enemy god to gain a lead. One way of doing this is to hit them with squall then place a tornado ontop of them. Generally this will allow you to apply the tornado's DoT to them and deal a significant amount of damage. Harassing the enemy in such a way is important, as otherwise your jungler will have a hell of a time ganking an enemy on full health. However, you must ensure that you do not time this harassment at such a time that you will then not have a tornado ready to kill an enemy minion wave when it arrives, or you will quickly find your lane is pushed and until your tornado is ready there will be little you can do about it.

"The jungler and the mid are effectively a duo lane", and as such it is important that you look out for your jungler, as without his assistance killing your opposing mid laner, gaining a lead and beginning to roam and gank will be almost impossible. You should always support your jungler when they come to take the middle gold furies, either by dropping a tornado through the wall to kill them before any threat can arrive, or by moving around the wall and actively protecting your jungler. If your jungler is dead, slow or busy you should take the mid gold furies for yourself whenever they respawn, as it is better that the gold goes to a player on your team, rather than to the enemy jungler if he has his timings down.

It is not necessary for you to ward as the mid laner, however you may want to do so if you are pushing hard, if the enemy jungler has frequented your lane, or if you generally feel unsafe. As a general rule, if you have no vision on the enemy jungler and you are in a dangerous position, he is right behind you. Don't give him an easy kill - stay safe and work with your team.

Team Fights

As I mentioned in my previous guide, team fights are never the same, yet for Ao Kuang there are several general rules that can be applied to most situations.

Stick close to, or just behind, your team. Do not put yourself on the front lines, as you are very fragile and have no reliable escape if you are caught out. You should use your squall as effectively as possible, by aiming for clusters of enemies to hit with the splash damage, or by slowing down primary targets to aid your team in killing them. However, do not spend too long aiming this spell, it is your least important spell in team fights and can be safely used to simply put out a little extra damage.

Your most important spell is your ultimate, which can turn around any fight when used properly. As mentioned before, aim for any cluster of stunned enemies, or aim generally down a jungle lane, trying to hit as many targets as possible. Sometimes you may have to attempt to aim at perfectly mobile enemies, and while the rewards for landing such a shot can be great, it is generally a better idea to aim for stunned or immobilised enemies, as you are then guaranteed the hit.

Your tornadoes are also extremely important, and their proper use allows you to control the pace and flow of any fight. You can use them in two significant ways: For damage or for zoning. To use your tornadoes for damage, it is as easy as you may expect - place the tornado on top of the largest group of enemies you can see. This is ideal if they can be stunned in place allowing the tornado to attach to them and perhaps gain a couple of additional ticks of damage. Zoning with the tornado can help to prevent an enemy's initiation on your team, by placing the tornado between your team and the enemy team. This can lead to the enemy tank being caught alone among your team, or force the enemies to take a great deal of damage. Similarly, you can use your tornado to prevent enemies from escaping as mentioned previously.

In your career as an Ao Kuang mid laner, you will no doubt encounter any and possibly all gods as your opponent in the lane. Here I am going to cover some of the more common opponents you will face, and give some advice on crushing them.

Agni

Combustion
Noxious Fumes
Flame Wave
path of flame
Rain Fire

Agni is currently a very common pick for mid lane, and he may be able to cause you some problems. He is generally very aggressive and from level 5 onward he possesses the strongest poke in the game. You should continue to clear minions as described above and play less aggressively than you may usually. If he moves to the back of your minion wave it is a good bet that he will attempt to dash back over them to safety, whilst applying his DoT to your minions. You cannot really prevent this, but you can put out as much damage to him when you see him moving towards you to punish him for this greedy play, and eventually force him to stop doing so, or to return to base.

Do not attempt to follow up your squalls with tornadoes unless you are sure his dash is on cooldown, otherwise he will simply dash away before the DoT effect is applied to him. When your health is low, as it inevitably will be against Agni, either play extremely safely, dropping tornadoes then retreating to your tower, or return to base, as otherwise he will be more than capable of sniping you with his ultimate. Healing potions will help greatly in this match up.

Poseidon

Changing Tides
Tidal Surge
Trident
Whirlpool
Release The Kraken!

Poseidon is quite a powerful opponent for Ao Kuang, although the majority of his damage can be avoided simply through smart play. You are more than capable of pushing Poseidon to his tower, as your tornadoes are far more powerful than his whirlpool, however you must be careful to avoid attempting to fight him without an advantage or support, as in a 1v1 duel he will more than likely destroy you. His kraken provides him a formidable amount of crowd control and burst damage, and with the use of his whirlpool to prevent your escape and his trident to continue dealing damage after his cooldowns have been used, it is unlikely that you can out damage him unless you can land a lucky spirit's tempest, an unlikely feat due to the high movement speed of Poseidon.

In this match up you should play relatively passively, harassing where you can but not going for a kill unless you have support from your jungler or another roaming member of your team.

He Bo

Steady Flow
Water Cannon
Flood Waters
Waterspout
Crushing Wave

He Bo is an extremely aggressive laner, and as such the safety that Ao Kuang inherently possesses makes him a very strong pick against He Bo. He Bo is relatively weak at farming, as his is incapable of hitting an entire minion wave with any spell other than his ultimate, and as his primary source of damage, water cannon, is very short ranged you can easily zone him away from your minions and push the lane. Comboing together your squall and tornadoes to harass is perfectly viable against He Bo as he has no form of escape that will protect him, although you must be cautious of being hit by a water spout, as the knock up can prevent you from casting spells and set you up for a huge burst of damage, or a death, from water cannon and crushing wave.

It is important that you never approach He Bo while you are on low health, as even if he is low he will more than likely interrupt any spell you cast with water spout then kill you. Take your time in lane and only go for a kill if you have help or if you have plenty of health to spare.

Anubis

Sorrow
Plague of Locusts
Mummify
Grasping Hands
Death Gaze

Anubis is a very weak opponent for Ao Kuang, and can be shut down with little effort. There are two ways that Anubis will attempt to clear minion waves against you. The first and most common is to place his grasping hands over your minions much as you would use a tornado. If he tries this, simply continue to push as usual, you will soon find yourself under his tower. The second method is to use his Plague of Locusts from the side of your minion wave. This can push faster than your tornado, but it immobilizes him allowing you to land an easy tornado and squall follow up. A nice little trick you can try is to deliberately step into his spell for a second in order to force your minions to attack him, adding to the damage he'll receive.

At level 5 you will have to be wary, as a Mummify into Death Gaze combo can kill you with little chance of survival or warning. To avoid this, simply keep mobile and keep your distance, if he moves towards you and looks like he is going for a stun, try your best to juke and he will most likely back off and give up. If he does use his ult, counter it with your ult, drop a tornado on him and circle strafe until he dies. This match up is almost a joke, but you should be careful not to be caught out.

Ao Kuang is a very strong and very safe laner, allowing him to easily build up stacks and maximise his magic power, making him an incredibly powerful and dominant presence in late game team fights. While vulnerable to ganks and being caught out of position, the use of tornadoes and slither can help with Ao Kuang's otherwise lacking ability to escape, and good use of his Spirit's Tempest can win team fights, steal map objectives and win matches.

Now go forth and terrorize the imposter mid Gods with your scary face!

04/11/2013

- Guide published.

09/11/2013

- Added colour to bold sections of text.
- Added Anubis to the opposition section.