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Ao Kuang Arena Build

2 1 51,953
by Flawful updated July 17, 2014

Smite God: Kukulkan

Build Guide Discussion 11 More Guides
Tap Mouse over an item or ability icon for detailed info

Kukulkan Build

Start

Build Item Shoes of the Magi Shoes of the Magi
Build Item Book of Thoth Book of Thoth

Core

Build Item Rod of Tahuti Rod of Tahuti
Build Item Breastplate of Valor Breastplate of Valor
Build Item Void Stone Void Stone
Build Item Gem of Isolation Gem of Isolation

Vs Heavy Magic Resist Team

Build Item Obsidian Shard Obsidian Shard
Build Item Spear of the Magus Spear of the Magus

Damage Items

Build Item Polynomicon Polynomicon
Build Item Bancroft's Talon Bancroft's Talon
Build Item Obsidian Shard Obsidian Shard
Build Item Spear of the Magus Spear of the Magus

Situational Actives

Build Item Greater Purification Greater Purification
Build Item Greater Sprint Greater Sprint
Build Item Greater Aegis Greater Aegis
Build Item Combat Blink Combat Blink
Build Item Aegis Pendant Aegis Pendant

Potions

Build Item Elixir of Power Elixir of Power
Build Item Potion of Magical Might Potion of Magical Might

Vs Heavy Physical Damage Team

Build Item Boots of the Magi Boots of the Magi
Build Item Book of Thoth Book of Thoth
Build Item Breastplate of Valor Breastplate of Valor
Build Item Gem of Isolation Gem of Isolation
Build Item Rod of Tahuti Rod of Tahuti
Build Item Magi's Cloak Magi's Cloak
Build Item Greater Sprint Greater Sprint
Build Item Greater Aegis Greater Aegis

Vs Heavy Magic Damage Team

Build Item Boots of the Magi Boots of the Magi
Build Item Book of Thoth Book of Thoth
Build Item Spirit Robe Spirit Robe
Build Item Void Stone Void Stone
Build Item Rod of Tahuti Rod of Tahuti
Build Item Gem of Isolation Gem of Isolation
Build Item Greater Aegis Greater Aegis
Build Item Shell of Absorption Shell of Absorption

Kukulkan's Skill Order

Zephyr

1 X Y
Zephyr
1 8 11 12 14

Slipstream

2 A B
Slipstream
2 15 16 18 19

Whirlwind

3 B A
Whirlwind
3 4 6 7 10

Spirit of the Nine Winds

4 Y X
Spirit of the Nine Winds
5 9 13 17 20
Zephyr
1 8 11 12 14

Zephyr

1 X
Kukulkan fires a projectile breath attack that hits the first enemy in its path, doing damage and Slowing all enemies in the area around the impact.

Ability Type: Line, Slow, Damage
Damage: 85 / 130 / 185 / 220 / 265 (+75% of your Magical Power)
Slow: 20 / 25 / 30 / 35 / 40%
Slow Duration: 3s
Cost: 55 / 60 / 65 / 70 / 75
Cooldown: 8s
Slipstream
2 15 16 18 19

Slipstream

2 A
Kukulkan channels the wind, allowing him to move faster and cleansing himself of Slows and becoming immune to Slows. This speed boost is strong at first but scales down gradually over the 4s duration.

Ability Type: Buff
Speed: 50 / 55 / 60 / 65 / 70%
Duration: 4s
Cost: 65
Cooldown: 15 / 14.5 / 14 / 13.5 / 13s
Whirlwind
3 4 6 7 10

Whirlwind

3 B
Kukulkan summons a tornado at his ground target location. A smaller tornado branches off onto any enemies that come within the radius, doing damage every .5s for 2.5s and is refreshed every .35 if enemies stay within the radius, for a maximum of 12 ticks.

Ability Type: Circle, Damage
Damage Per Tick: 8 / 16 / 24 / 32 / 40 (+15% of your Magical Power)
Tornado Lifetime: 4s
Range/Radius: 55/20
Cost: 70 / 75 / 80 / 85 / 90
Cooldown: 14 / 13 / 12 / 11 / 10s
Spirit of the Nine Winds
5 9 13 17 20

Spirit of the Nine Winds

4 Y
Kukulkan summons the Spirit Of The Nine Winds to breathe down destruction onto his enemies in a path in front of him, doing damage and knocking all of the enemies to the side.

Ability Type: Line, Knockup, Damage
Damage: 400 / 500 / 600 / 700 / 800 (+120% of your Magical Power)
Cost: 100 / 110 / 120 / 130 / 140
Cooldown: 90s

Intro

Hello! This is an intro to my arena guide for Ao Kuang! This is my first guide so feedback would be appreciated! This build is simply a balanced build that i came up with.
It is not a strict damage build but it does have its perks.

This is not a teach you how to play Ao guide because i believe experience is the best teacher. Ao is not the hardest god to learn he actually is probably one of the easiest. Practice makes perfect though!

Although I would like people to try this build out many of the core items in this build are replaceable and are situational. The core items are simply a guideline for a typical arena match with a balanced enemy team such as 3 physical damage gods and 2 magical damage gods or vice versa. You can also rearrange the order in which you buy these items based on the enemy team or situation.

I will go over this in more detail later in the guide.

At the end of this guide my goal is to simply provide a unique build that will hopefully catch people's eyes.

Skills

Before i talk about my build i would like to talk about the abilities i prioritize in arena. At the start i do like to put a point into each ability just because you never know what sticky situation may occur at the start of a game.
After that, you want to put points into Tornadoes when you cant put points into your ultimate.

Spirit's Tempest is first priority over everything else.

Once you maxed out Tornadoes you can go ahead and put points into Squall while still leaving Spirit's Tempest as first priority!

The last thing i max out is Slither mainly because i feel that it is your one quick getaway ability and if you haven't gotten away from your enemies then you probably need to use your actives to survive anyway.

Also keep in mind of your passive ability Graceful Winds when buying items. The more maximum mana you have the more damage you will receive from your passive which is why Book of Thoth works so well with his kit at max stacks as well as buffing up Graceful Winds just a touch.

Build reasoning

My build is based around the fact that Ao Kuang is a high damage output god but is one of the squishiest gods in the game. It is an all around build to help him survive longer so he can stay in battles and not get two shotted by anyone.

Staying in fights in arena especially with the damage Ao can do is more damage you can output to the enemy team then you could do if you just stacked damage items and got two shotted by a Loki.

Now if you feel that the other team doesn't pose much of a threat to you in terms of team make up or lack of kill potential then by all means go full damage.
This build is more of a team based build it is not really a carry your team build but it can be in a sense. The damage Ao can do when hitting Tornadoes and Squall on multiple targets especially with Void Stone is devastating to the enemy team.

The build is heavily utilizing Book of Thoth. Without Book of Thoth your damage takes a heavy hit. Although the build may seem like you will lack damage by simply looking at the defensive items, Book of Thoth makes up for the defensive items being used.

I will go over each item and why I choose to use it.

Starting items

Shoes of the Magi nothing special here. Pretty standard but i will say you can choose to get Shoes of Focus instead, but i prefer the extra penetration from Shoes of the Magi since I will be getting the cooldown reduction from Breastplate of Valor later on.

Book of Thoth...I know a lot of people may criticize this but it works really well in arena even if it is a stacking item. In order for it to reach its potential you need to get max stacks which is why i get this item first after boots. It works in tune with Ao Kuang's passive Graceful Winds.

Now to get the maximum amount of stacks you need to lane clear and by that I mean kill minions. Its not very hard to do as Ao Kuang since you have your Tornadoes spell. You should definitely tell your team to let you kill minions when you have this item, so they don't take potential stacks away from you. Even if they don't listen though, Tornadoes can usually get the job done anyway.

You do want to try to get blue buff whenever you can, so you can spam tornadoes more often and not run out of mana. You also want to try to place your tornadoes where you will clear the minion wave and do damage to an enemy god if you can. That is the ideal way of doing it.

During about mid-game you should have max stacks from Book of Thoth and your damage shouldn't feel any different than if you had gone into cheaper damage items at the start.

Rod of Tahuti

Rod of Tahuti is a pretty standard item for almost any mage. The damage is too good to pass up. The mana regeneration is also pretty nice since you will still be progressing into max stacks of Book of Thoth.

I get it early as my 3rd item because the next items I build are defensive ones. I want to stay on par in damage even if I do go into defensive items later on.

Breastplate of Valor

Breastplate of Valor is the first defensive item I buy if the enemy team is mainly physical damage gods or a physical god has the most kills or is just doing too much damage to me such as a Bastet or another Assassin.

It is a great item for many mages because it not only gives a lot of physical defense but it also gives a good amount of cooldown reduction. For Ao Kuang it also gives more mana which means you get some damage from it via Graceful Winds.

This item can be switched out for more damage like a Polynomicon if you are not threatened by any physical damage opponent or you can even grab another defensive item that goes better with the situation such as a Void Stone.

If there is only one person or nobody on the enemy team does physical damage then this item is practically useless or not worth getting unless that one person is an assassin like a Loki or a Bastet that happens to be focusing you, but even then I don't believe its worth wasting an item slot for one person that's what actives are for!

Void Stone

I chose Void Stone here to give me that bit of magic protection I need so I don't die instantly to mages who focus me or happen to be in front of me when my abilities are on cooldown.

I like this item because it gives you a bit of magic power as well as protection while also reducing the entire enemy team's magic protection by 15. As i said in the intro this is a team based build and a team fight oriented build. This will help you and your teammates do more damage overall especially in team fights.

Void Stone coupled with Boots of the Magi gives you enough damage to pose a threat to bruisers and tanks.

If there are 3 or more magic damage dealers on the other team I would get this before Breastplate of Valor.

If their whole team is magic then you might want to consider getting this 3rd.

If there is only 1 person who is magic on the other team I would probably get an earlier Gem of Isolation for all those melee or a Hide of the Urchin here.

If you feel there is no magical threat on the enemy team you can also buy a Polynomicon for the great damage potential it offers with Squall.

Gem of Isolation

Now some people do use Gem of Isolation, but not enough of people in my opinion. Not only does it give you another potent slow, but it also gives you some health and mana (remember Graceful Winds) as well as damage.

Basically any ability you hit now has a slow as well. It works very well with Tornadoes especially if you hit multiple targets with it. It can help you and your team clean up kills and it also gives you more crowd control in team fights.

It does work with Spirit's Tempest as well. You can Spirit's Tempest on multiple targets and they will all be slowed which is easy pickings for you and your team if they didnt get one shotted by it ( I kid you not squishies get one shotted late game).

Maybe you will hit another Ao Kuang with Spirit's Tempest that stacks all damage items and then realize why I run defensive items.

Active Mentality

Why get actives? Well for the most part they clear up your gods weaknesses. You also want to counter what the other team can do to you like crowd control or their ultimates. It gives you extra utility such as more mobility or more survival.

I would buy one active at the start of the game such as level one beads or something. You should have at least 300 gold to spare right at the start, so why not buy an active to begin building up to counter the other team?

Do Not Get Meditation as an active!! It is a complete waste of an active in arena in general unless maybe you are an Ullr or something then I can understand, but everyone else it's pretty much a don't do. In arena if you run out of mana simply go back to base! Either walk or press your B key if its safe to do so. It doesn't take long and you will be right back in the action fairly quickly. In late game it will be useless to you mainly because the items you buy will give you mana regeneration or more mana to use anyway. Late game Ao rarely runs out of mana unless you are spamming abilities or too aggressive, but even then it is still not worth getting or spending gold on when you can have cc immunity, more survival, or more ways to get out of trouble.

I typically run Greater Purification and Greater Sprint for the most part. Greater Purification helps a lot vs most teams and is a must have for teams that have a Ares, Hades, Athena or a good Kumbhakarna. Even vs teams that don't have those gods I find it useful because it can get you out of sticky situations such as stuns, silences, and slows.

Greater Sprint in arena is also good for Ao because it gives you that second escape. Yes you do have your Slither ability, but many gods can still catch up to you or cc you during it so its just nice to have a second Slither in your belt. I typically use this vs a team with a Nemesis or a Osiris or even a Bastet so I can kite through her ult with Slither and Greater Sprint.

Greater Amulet is also a great active for Ao Kuang because it gives you those seconds of immunity to wait for an enemy ultimate to go away or for your cooldowns to come back up and you are getting focused. You can use this for a team with a Bastet, Odin, Zeus, Serqet, Bakasura, or Freya. It is also good to get if you are being heavily focused by the other team or you do the most damage or are most fed on the team.

Combat Blink I have seen used, but I wouldn't recommend it mainly because its a big investment to get it to level 3. I rarely ever use it, but it can be useful if you are facing a team with an Odin or you find you are having a difficult time of getting away and you need that escape.

Potions

Get potions when you finish your build and your actives or you don't need any more points in your actives!

At this stage the game should be just about over so you are going to want that extra damage punch for all its worth.

Spend your gold on all the potions you can with Elixir of Power being the priority if you can afford it (you probably wont be able to). If you cant afford it don't wait or sell anything just to get it instead buy as many Potion of Magical Might as you possibly can and consume one every time you die or it wears out.

Team Fight Mentality

In team fights you want to be in the back line. Meaning you want to be a good distance away where you can still do damage and your tank can take hits for you.

You want to prioritize targets constantly look at the enemy teams score and figure out who is the other teams best player or who has the most kills on their team.

If its a tank then look at his build if he is building damage items then he is as squishy as anyone else would be and you can focus him. If he is in tank gear then find the second best player on their team and aim for them.

Sometimes this might not be the ideal thing to do either. For example, if the other team has a healer you typically want to focus them down first unless you see that you can eliminate a bigger threat more easily!

Why focus the healer? Taking out the healer in the bigger picture will help your team a great deal in the team fight especially if your team doesn't have a healer! You don't have to kill the healer, but try to get them low enough or make them retreat where they fear for their own life instead of them healing their teammates. Hel is a good example of a healer you want to do this to.

Kills are not everything even in an arena!

Pros/Cons

For the Cons the main one would be that you wont do as much damage as a full damage build would do in the late game. You need to lane clear for your team and for the Book of Thoth stacks. Although the defense is nice to have teams still can blow you up if they focus you. Lastly, Void Stone's effect does not work in all situations and almost will never work with your Spirit's Tempest unless the enemy is at a close distance.

The Pros are you are not nearly as squishy as you normally would be. You last longer in team fights. Your damage output is still good even with the defensive items. You can help your team with slows for team fights or clean ups. Void Stone will help your teammates and you with a magical protection debuff when you do go in to tornado or squall in a team fight.

Conclusion

Thank you! I know it feels like a book, but I hope this helps!

I will probably be making a Serqet arena build next so stay tuned!

Caution: This build does not mean you are a tank! You still need to avoid damage whenever you can and as much as possible! This build is just to help your team and yourself win and stay alive as much as possible.

Thank you for reading! Feedback is appreciated! Remember to rate if you liked the build! I will update this build when I can and make further improvements and additions where I see fit.

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Collapse All Comments

1
Raventhor (158) | July 17, 2014 7:55pm
You can't have 2 starting items leading into the final 4 core items, a max build, with situational items too. Not only is it ridiculous to think you have, basically, 6 core items, but you need to explain the situational items so we know when and what to swap them out for.

Otherwise, nice guide, well explained, and organized. Sometimes gets into a tl;dr type of thing but it's because you're being so thorough so it's barely an issue.
1
Flawful | July 17, 2014 7:40pm
Oh wow okay thanks a lot Devampi that is probably why! Thanks a ton man hopefully it works! This is why I love feedback to solve problems like these!
1
Devampi (105) | July 17, 2014 1:53pm
too update it you need to push publish again and not only save. (if i'm right) save only saves it for you and publish updates it
1
Flawful | July 17, 2014 1:42pm
Hmm? On my screen I have the ult points on 5,9,13,17, and 20 just like you said Devampi. Not sure if everyone sees it like I do but I hought I fixed it unless maybe the page hasnt updated yet. Anyways thanks for the feedback ill look into it if other people see at is you do still.
1
Devampi (105) | July 17, 2014 1:25am
Uhm still the skill order is impossible. you can put a point in you ult on lvl 5-9-13-17-20 so you can never go 5-8-13-18-20, why not because at lvl 8 you can't spend a point on it
1
Flawful | July 16, 2014 6:37pm
I see what you are saying Subzero008. I will have to try Spear of the Magus more to see the results. Never really used it. I do get Obsidian Shard if I don't feel threatened by the enemy team in terms of damage or being focused. I also understand about the void stone effect being out of range in situations especially with your ult. I do grab void stone however because when you move in to tornado or squall someone or the enemy team you will be in range for void stone to work plus I do like having the magic resist even if it is not a lot. Thanks for the comments and I did Rep+ you.

Greenevers, I fixed that just now after reading your comment to clarify lol. I thank you again for your comments. I will definitely be making adjustments in the future!
1
Greenevers (105) | July 16, 2014 6:15pm
Yeah, no problem along with what subzero said, I see what you meant now by magic resist but you may want to change it to say "penetration"

Pm me if you do any overhauls of the guide, I'll be glad to reconsider my vote lol
1
Subzero008 (112) | July 16, 2014 6:02pm
Ao is a long ranged god; Void Stone relies on being in ranges closer than Ao should be. Obsidian Shard is best for high-burst damage builds, where you want to inflict as much damage in an instant, such as spirit's tempest snipers or harassing with squall. If you want to inflict massive sustainable damage with tornadoes OR you have a majority of magical gods in your team, get Spear of the Magus.

+rep?
1
Flawful | July 16, 2014 5:30pm
Ahh yes I forgot about my skill order I knew I was missing something! Lol oh well thanks for pointing that out though Greenevers! I would like to know why you believe Void Stone is bad for Ao Kuang though! As for Obsidian Shard I only get it if more than one person on the enemy team has a magical resist item or if im allowed to get away with going only 1 defensive item or no defensive items in the match. As for Spear of Magus I only put that in the build in case some odd situation happens where the whole team is a bunch of tanks or something. I do agree with your suggestions on the text. Seemed like a book to me =/ ,but I will try to make it more readable and maybe shorten my sentences as well to make it less stressful. Thanks for the feedback!
1
Greenevers (105) | July 16, 2014 5:16pm
Void stone is a bad item on Ao Kuang. Obsidian Shard and Spear of the Magus aren't for magical resist

Your skill order is impossible.

So many walls of text, my eyes hurt ><.

I'm not sure if this is a build only guide but I'm going to down vote either way. You do explain your items and gameplay quite nicely but you definitely need to elaborate more on abilities. Not to mention your skill order is wacko lmao

O suggest you space out a whole lot of your text and add in some stuff while fixing the skill order. If you skip a level, explain it
1
ShaoTheGreat (5) | July 16, 2014 3:46pm
This is pretty much how I used to build my arena Ao when Focused Void Stone was still around. Void Stone just doesn't cut it for me because I like to drop tornadoes from as far away as possible. Void Stone's limited range means that you won't be getting the most out of its passive usually. I now build Gem of Isolation where Focused used to be and have been getting good results, but he still has massively low magic protection. Sometimes it gets frustrating going up against a good Agni player without MP. Agni seems to give me the most trouble for some reason. The rest of the build is spot on. I build Poly early since it's cheap, give you great MP when coupled with Ao's and Thoth's passive (99) +300 mana and a little lifesteal which helps his early game sustain.. and of course you can't forget Poly's passive - I secure more kills with the squall/poly combo probably than with any other method. I would drop Void Stone and build Poly as a core item. If you need extra Pen, Obsidian Shard is good and cheap. I've been meaning to experiment with an MP item on Ao when playing against strong magic teams. All in all a decent build.
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