Ao Kuang: Melt their faces

Just as a foreword, this is my first build so any criticism (constructive) would be great. Ao Kuang was one of the first gods I bought and I love him as a jungler. He has great damage, especially late game, and is so much fun to gank with. Squishy Hunters don't stand a chance and half of a tanks health can disappear before they know what happened. So lets get into the nasty details now.

PROS:

Great damage
Decent mobility
Good initiate/escape with 1
Decent slow with 2 for chasing
Quick attack speed
Ultimate heals

Squishy
Early game isn't great
Base damage is low
You'll probably get focused

Here is my logic behind the way that I chose the skills. I start with the 3 because that will allow you to hit all of the creeps in the jungle camps. It also gives you some poke against enemy gods. However, this is the skill you want to max second. Your bread and butter skill is the 2 because it gives you the most damage, so max this first. This also increases your single target damage, which is what you're really going for with this build. Once you hit a full build you should be hitting for around 250-300, if not more, damage per basic attack with your 2 active. Obviously you put a point into the ultimate as soon as you hit level 5, but I see a lot of people then wait until the last 4 levels to put more points into it. I think this is stupid, because will the execute threshold isn't raised like Thanatos' is, you get more health back when you execute someone allowing you to go back and go for more kills. Because of this I put points into the ultimate when I can. The 1 ability is your initiate and escape, so grabbing that at level 3 is a good idea so can get in and possibly get an early gank. Other than that, don't put points in it until later because it just increases the damage of detonating the water illusion (it is satisfying when you kill someone with it though).

Starter Items:

Obviously as a jungler you want to start with Bumba's Mask for the healing. I used to use HOG but it got nerfed, so I use the purple potion instead now. Buy that and then one of the two potion types and sit in the fountain. Activate the purple potion with around 17 seconds until the minions spawn, grab the other potion type, and head to the speed buff camp. I grab two health potions and three mana potions because I go through mana more quickly than my health, and the Bumba's Mask gives you health back for jungle camp kills. If you want to take less potions out, go for it, I just like having the sustain so I can stay out longer. Also, don't die and waste your purple potion!!!

Core Items:

On your first back you want to grab the Shoes Of The Magi. This gives you your movement speed and helps get your damage up. After that, grab the Demonic Grip. This gives you a good attack speed buff, magical power, and reduces enemy magic defense on hits. That is huge for you because it makes your basic attacks and dragons (2) do even more damage. After this get Polynomicon. This gives you more mana, damage, and lifesteal.. Also the passive is amazing for you, because using an ability makes your basic attack deal more damage. During this time, you might need to buy another mana potion or two while clearing camps and ganking because Ao doesn't really have good mana regeneration.

4th Item:

This item all depends on the enemy team, so it's a judgement call for you. Most of the time I find myself going with the Winged Blade. This gives cool down reduction, movement speed, attack speed, and max health. This allows you to throw out more damage quicker and get around the map better, all good. However, if you're getting stunned a lot and dying because of it grab Magi's Blessing. It gives you a little bit of defense and absorbs a stun, with can save your life. Again, this is all situational.

5th Item
Here I grab Bancroft's Talon for two reason. First it gives you a lot of power, and when your health is low it gives you even more. Late game this makes you deadly because you will melt peoples faces off, especially in combination with the passive from Polynomicon. Also, this gives you more life steal, which means you can survive better because you are squishy. Once you get this item you'll be dealing lots of damage while getting health back making you scary.

6th Item
Rod of Tahuti. So much damage... need I say more?

Ganking is your job, and here's how to do it.

If an enemy is at or near full health, before you get close activate your 2. Do this first because the sound can give away that you're close and the enemy will run. Then, activate your 1 to go stealth so the enemy doesn't see you and start basic attacking them. If they have an escape they will probably use it here. If you still have dragons left, activate your 2 again to hit them with the slow. Then use your 3 for more damage at range. After this you can either just basic them down, or if you think another enemy is coming to help, ultimate them, and go back into the jungle and wait to repeat.

If you see a low health enemy hanging around their tower you have two options. First, you can wait until a creep wave comes and they push out. If this is your approach basically repeat the above steps except hopefully you wont have to ultimate. If the enemy is really low, and thinking about to teleport back to base, here's what you do. Go right up to the edge of the tower radius and hit your 1. The tower will see you and shoot at you, but they should be low enough to ultimate immediately so do that. If they aren't hit them with your 2 and or 3 and then ultimate them. You'll get health back and be able to get far away from the tower. Free kill.

Team fights are not Ao Kuang's strong suit, but he can ruin them for the other team. Here's what to do. Stick near the edge of the fight and try and work your way around the side or the back if possible. Look for one of their main damage dealers (a mage or hunter) and wait until they use their escape, stun, or both. Then active your 2, then 1, and repeat the gank steps above. If they are really low health already, don't waste your ultimate, crush them really quick and then move on to another target. If you do ultimate them so they don't get away, activate it and drop on an enemy separated from the fight and start attacking. It's handy to have your 1 up if possible by this point so you can escape if need be, but with your life steal and damage you should be OK.

Ao Kuang is a major damage dealer and with this build can keep himself alive with lots of life steal. Getting going can be tough, but by ganking weak enemies as soon as you hit level 5 you'll get a nice gold boost early. Once late game rolls around, the enemy team will be scared of you, with good reason. Hope this guide helps and let me know what improvements it needs. Thanks!