Ao Kuang - Hurricane 2.0

Hello everyone and welcome to my guide about the Chinese god Ao Kuang.
Even though due to my level I have not been able to play ranked yet, I still wanted to share my view on playing Ao Kuang with you. All feedback is appreciated, either positive or negative. I'm not very experienced in making guides, so helpful tips about the layout is greatly appreciated aswell. Without further ado I present you my guide. Enjoy!

The boots for every mage in the game. Speaks for itself.


Your Tornadoes will give a permanent slow to the enemy when used together with Gem of Isolation. This will help in teamfights, aswell as making it easier for you to land your 1, Squall.


If you are able to pick up an easy kill early game then this item is perfect for snowballing. It gives a huge amount of Magic Power, and the bonus will increase after you get more items. If you're having a hard time in lane, you might want to get Spear of the Magus first.


Especially when playing against a more tanky god, this item will help you gain lane presence. Just like with Gem of Isolation, Tornadoes combined with this item will grant you a permanent debuff on the enemy, because of the damage over time. This way, killing tanky players becomes a lot easier.


A bit of overall defence is required to be able to constantly poke lategame. This item will also grant you extra mana to make sure that you are able to constantly use your Tornadoes. This will hurt your enemies quite a lot.


The final item is optional, but I like to use Chronos' Pendant for cooldown reduction. Ao Kuang has a great poke potential so having your skills off cooldown at all times is a great advantage.

Sprint
Sprint can be purchased in between of any item. I mostly buy it after I first go back to base and have money left. I use Sprint not just to run away from tricky situations, but also when ganking a lane or chasing an enemy. The cooldown is fairly short so using it often is not a bad idea.

Meditation
More mana means more damage output. Meditation is a must for Ao Kuang. As with Sprint, buy this item when you have some money left to spend.

Squall
Your 1st skill. Squall is a skillshot doing average damage. If you are able to hit Tornadoes while owning Gem of Isolation your target will be slowed making it easier to hit it with Squall. Do not poke with this skill, unless you're fairly skilled with hitting these kind of skillshots. If you're not, overusing Squall while not hitting your target will make your mana run out too quickly. Even though it might look like it, this is not your primary poke skill.

Slither
The 2nd skill in your arsenal. The skills grants you bonus movement speed aswell as a small period of time where you're unable to be slowed, stunned or knocked. I use Slither for 3 reasons.

• To run away in tricky situations. Combine this with Sprint and you're as fast as usain bolt.
• To engage in a fight. The small speed boost grants you the ability to land your Tornadoes behind the enemy, inevitably resulting in him/her run into your painful gusts.
• Slither not only grants you movement speed, but also crowd control protection. So if you time it correctly, you can dodge quite some skills with this. For instance Xbalanque's ultimate, which stuns every god on the enemy team. If you're able to withstand it, you might be able to turn around an entire teamfight!

Tornadoes
Your 3rd skill, and the signature skill of Ao Kuang. Tornadoes is the skill you want to max as quickly as possible, because you're able to half a god's health with just this skill using it only once. The range is quite long and aiming it is fairly easy. As stated before, first using Slither makes it easier to land the damage over time effect on the enemy, as they'll have to run through the entire area of effect. Use this skill all the time poking the enemy champion. In mid-game and late-game it can also be used to clear jungle camps and creep waves extremely quickly.

Spirit's Tempest
Ao Kuang's ultimate. This attack is extremely powerful, and I have a feeling this might be nerfed in the future. When using the skill a dragon will exhale damage dealing wind in a linear path onto it's enemies. The reason why this attack does so much damage is probably because it's fairly easy to dodge. When playing with a character with a stunning ability, like Neith, this attack will be devastating to the enemy team.

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As combo, start off with Slither then quickly place your Tornadoes behind the enemy, who is probably backing off. Next, predict his movement as you aim Spirit's Tempest. While your ultimate is lunging towards him, slow him with Squall (when owning Gem of Isolation). Your target should be dead. If not, your Tornadoes should be off cooldown already to do the last bits of damage.

In teamfights you want to make sure you're behind your teammates. Your Tornadoes are devastating to the opposing team, and without them your team might just not have enough damage output to destroy the enemies. When enemies are bunched together, either by being in a small area or because of an ult like Ares's, don't hesitate to use Spirit's Tempest.

Try to create teamfights in the jungle, where there is nowhere to escape from your ultimate. This will be extremely painful for the enemies, and is very likely to result into multiple kills for you and/or your team.

Ao Kuang is in my opinion currently one of the best mid-lane gods. His poke potential makes it hard for the enemy to push the lane or farm effectively. But not only his poking is what makes it a great champion, also his extreme burst damage with Spirit's Tempest is what makes him fun to play.

I hope you enjoyed this guide, and I wish you all the best of luck playing this amazing god!