IN DEPTH SEASON 3 AO KUANG BUILDS

Hey guys!

My name is Keyohh, and this is my first build here on SmiteFire, so I will try my best to communicate my knowledge as best as possible. I have been playing smite since the start of Season 2 on Console (Xbox One) and I chose Ao Kuang as my main. I have gotten him to rank 10 before his recent nerfs in patches 3.11 and soon to be 3.12, but non-the-less I still know how he works. During this guide, I will be telling you about his kit and what it can do, pros and cons, boxing potential/team fights, what items to use and why, and various other topics. Enjoy :)

Ao Kaung is a "Mage" in SMITE, but is always played in the jungle role. Ao Kuang excels at dealing large amounts of damage very quickly then dipping out to help him team mates. He is effective in all game modes. He is a top tier jungler in Conquest, can get easy picks in Joust, absolutely wrecks in Arena and can be paired with a warrior in siege and can jungle a bit if need be. He is one of the most versatile Gods and can fit into almost any team comp.

Pros:
Insane Late Game
Great Jungler
High Boxing Potential
Great Peel
Nice Poke
Insane Scaling/Abilities



Cons:
Squishy Early Game
Can Die Very Easily Throughout the Game
High Cooldown on his Out
Low Mana Early Game
Weak Early Game
Weak Early Game Clear

Passive: King's Sword
Ao Kuang's passive is called King's Sword. His sword can hold up to 3 charges, and regenerates charges while he is not in combat. Each time Ao Kuang casts an ability an energy charge is consumed if available, increasing the damage of the ability by 5%. If Ao Kuang is out of mana, he will use energy charges to cast abilities instead.


Water Illusion
Ao Kuang teleports forward into stealth. leaving behind a watery form of himself. He remains in stealth for 5 seconds or until he attacks or takes damage.
Ao Kuang may activate the ability again to detonate the watery form, dealing damage to nearby enemies.

Dragon Call
Ao Kuang summons 6 dragons to his side. For every successful basic attack Ao Kuang makes, a dragon will dive to the target dealing additional damage. This ability ends after all the dragons have been used, or after 10 seconds.
Ao Kuang may activate the ability again to send forward any remaining dragons in a ranged attack. The dragons slow the first enemy they hit.

Wild Storm
Ao Kuang releases a storm of lightning from his sword, damaging all enemies in from of him. This hit is considered a basic attack, and will activate item effects.

King of the Eastern Seas
Ao Kuang grabs a single target, damaging and knocking them into the air. If the target is below a certain health threshhold, Ao Kuang will also reveal his true form, becoming an airborne dragon and executing them restoring health.
After transforming Ao Kuang then picks a new location to land, dealing damage to enemies within range 20 and fully recharging his sword.

Early Game
Shoes of the Magi
[*] This is an essential 1st item for Ao Kuang. This is because his early game is fairly week, and when put into games with tankier opponents who build Mark of the Vanguard 1st or Breast Plate of Valor then you will need that extra 10 flat magical penetration. The +40 magical power is also good, as it helps for clearing lane early on.

Dynasty Plate Helm
[*] This is the next item that you will want to buy. Warriors and Assassins will be able to bully you early game if you do not get this item. Gods such as Tyr , Susano Susano size 35, or Bellona will be able to do large amounts of damage during their early game. This item also has +15 magical penetration which allows for extra damage against most Warriors in their mid game, as well as +45 magical power and +30 physical protection, to defend against those bully warriors.

Mid Game
Polynomicon
[*] This item is the introduction to Ao Kuang's mid game. After this item, you will see an incredible boost to his magical power. Polynomicon passive is that it after using an ability, your next basic attack will add an additional 75% of your magical power. This is a key item on Ao Kuang because his 3rd, Wild Storm procs item effects, so every time that ability is cast, it will deal an additional 75% to the already 270 base damage. It also gives 300 mana, which allows you to stay in lane longer, and +10 magical life steal which will allow boxing to be easier.

Obsidian Shard
Obsidian Shard is a pretty basic item. It gives you 33% magical penetration, and an additional 70 magical power. This 33% is essential for peeling tanks and absolutely destroying squishies such as Anubis and Isis from mid to late game.
Just a quick tip: flat penetration and penetration percent are two different things, so if you want to understand the difference, click here to learn more.

Late Game
Soul Reaver
Soul Reaver is arguably the best magical item in the game (besides Rod of Tahuti) and this is because of its passive, which is essential to Ao Kuang. Soul Reaver's passive is that it deals an additional 10% of your targets maximum health as additional damage on your next ability cast. Although this can only happen once every 40 seconds, it makes a huge difference on your damage output. It also gives you +100 magical power and +300 mana, which is obviously a great boost in power and mana.

Rod of Tahuti
We have now reached late game, as this is the final item you will buy. This item gives you +125 magical power and +15 MP5, and its passive also increases all magical power by 25%!!!! This is a CRAZY boost in power. Once you have this item, you be absolutely shredding any opponent who encounters you, and they will die within seconds.

Situational Items
Winged Blade
This gives Ao Kuang a substantial amount of health, CC reduction, attack speed and movement speed and makes Gods immune to slows, but since it proves no damage output and Ao Kuang is a burst mage/assassin, it does not serve a huge purpose. The only scenario that you would buy this item is is a Scylla Crush since it slows then deals a boat load of damage, you would need to escape that, along with Cupid's Heart Bomb

Breastplate of Valor
This item provides mana, cooldown % and a large amount of physical protection. You would only buy this item if then entire enemy team is physical and they are just bullying you beyond belief early game and Dynasty Plate Helm is not doing enough. The 20% cooldown can also help you get away from enemies more often if you are getting destroyed.

Shoes of Focus
This item would be bought if you want to stay in lane longer with the 250+ mana and the 10% cooldown. It is not that great because you have 15 less damage than Shoes of the Magi and you lose the 10 flat penetration to deal with tanks early game.

Conquest Jungle Items
Bumba's Mask
Your Basic Attacks deal +10 True Damage and your Abilities +10% Damage versus Jungle Camps. You are healed for 10% of a Camp's max. Health, and if you have an ally nearby, you get the normal gold reward as if you were solo, as well as a base +10 MP5.

Attack Speed Build

Early Game

Shoes of Focus
You will need this instead of Shoes of the Magi because the 10% cooldown reduction will be helpful to get your out up quicker, and when building attack speed, you will need it.

Warlock's Sash Warlock's Sash
If building Attack speed, you will get killed very quickly because of your lack in magical power. Warlock's Sash gives you +50 magical power, +300 health, and +400 mana, and the passive is You permanently gain +3 Health and +.6 Magical Power per Stack, and receive 5 Stacks for a god kill and 1 Stack per minion kill. (Max. 100 Stacks) This will allow you to not get torn to pieces so quickly.

Mid Game
Demonic Grip
This item adds +25% attack speed and +60 magical power. Its passive is Your Basic Attacks reduce your target's Magical Protection by 12% for 3s (max 3 Stacks). It is the Executioner of magical power. This item is good for peeling tankier targets magical protections so you and your team can deal more damage.

Telkhines Ring
This item gives you +30 attack speed and +45 magical power. Its passive is your Basic Attack hits deal 35 additional Magical Damage to the target. It is essentially a constant Blue Stone Pendent Blue Stone Pendent on all of your basic attacks. This is good for peeling.

late Game
Polynomicon
[*] This item is the introduction to Ao Kuang's mid game. After this item, you will see an incredible boost to his magical power. Polynomicon passive is that it after using an ability, your next basic attack will add an additional 75% of your magical power. This is a key item on Ao Kuang because his 3rd, Wild Storm procs item effects, so every time that ability is cast, it will deal an additional 75% to the already 270 base damage. It also gives 300 mana, which allows you to stay in lane longer, and +10 magical life steal which will allow boxing to be easier.

Rod of Tahuti
We have now reached late game, as this is the final item you will buy. This item gives you +125 magical power and +15 MP5, and its passive also increases all magical power by 25%!!!! This is a CRAZY boost in power. Once you have this item, you be absolutely shredding any opponent who encounters you, and they will die within seconds.

Passive: King's Sword
The key to Ao Kuang's passive is to be patient, as it takes 5 seconds for 1 of the 3 charges to replenish. When you have all 3, you may use them as you with, but don't go around using abilities when not in battle. The extra 5% may be just what you need to finish off a God who has very low health, and you need to know when to use your abilities and when to not.

Water Illusion
This is the ability that you are going to want to level up 3rd, mainly because it serves as an out. For those who don't know, an out is an ability like a dash, leap, or teleport which can be used to get out of engagements quickly. In Ao Kuang's case, he has a teleport, but this teleport is very special, as it adds something called Stealth. Stealth means that you are invisible to all enemies for a period of time, and for Ao Kuang, he has 5 seconds of stealth. Late game, Water Illusion can be used an insane boxing tool (boxing is a 1v1 vs another God). Late game the damage scales to 260 magical damage +60% magical scaling, which late game is around +250-300 extra damage worth of scaling. I will go more over this in the combo section down below.

Dragon Call
This ability serves as Ao Kuang's snipe/peel. You are going to want to level up this ability second because it serves very little lane clear. What makes this ability so great is that it has around the same range as a Thanatos Death Scythe , but each dragon that dives to an enemy deals 95 extra magical damage late game. So lets do the math here: if you have 6 dragons that each do 95 damage, thats 570 damage if you land all of your basic attacks. And if you add the scaling, which is +30 of you current magical power, so that rounds out to about 130-170 extra damage PER HIT, thats crazy. So math again: 95x6 is 570, + approx. 130x6 which is 780, add em together and thats 1350 DAMAGE IN TOTAL!!! Thats as much as a Kukulkan ult or a Scylla ult late game!! That is a CRAZY amount of damage. The line attack is less damage, though. In the line its +35 magical damage for any remaining dragons +15% magical scaling, which isn't that much, but still does a lot of damage if you still have the 6 dragons. If you hit an enemy with the line attack, they are slowed by 30% for 1 second +0.25 seconds per dragon.

Wild Storm
This ability you are going to want to level up 1st, as it serves as your lane clear. You can clear buff camps very quickly, and it only has a 7 second cooldown, which is great for going to buff camps quickly. This ability is how you are going to want to start all of your engagements because of the fact that it procs Polynomicon . It deals a base damage of 270 (patch 3.12) +40% of magical power, so thats around 150-200 extra magical damage. So, lets proc this is Polynomicon, Soul Reaver, and late game. We're looking at around 350-400 damage on the base hit, but lets add 75% magical power plus 10% of the targets max health? 400x0.75 is 300, so thats around 700 magical damage with Polynomicon, and with Soul Reaver, it will do more. That is not possible to calculate because each God has a different max health, but you get the idea. That is A LOT of magical power, and late game you will be able to 1-shot squishies.

King of the Eastern Seas
This ability you are going to want to level up last, as it this ult is not known for its damage, but for its execution. An execution is an abilities which instantly kills a target below a certain amount of health, and in this case, 30% at ALL RANKS. This is why you level it last, as the damage that it produces is quite minimal. Upon using this ability, if you execute someone, will heal a certain amount. Once this ability is at max rank, if you DONT get the execute and you still ult, it will do only 290 damage plus half of your magical power, which is around 400 damage. This is why you level it last, as it mainly serves for instantly killing low health targets, getting some health, then getting right back into the fight. If you DO land the execute, where you choose to land back into the battlefield will deal 300 magical damage +50% at you ground location, so this is useful for killing weak enemies who are trying to escape. You also gain full charges on your passive, you when you do land, your next ability will deal an extra 5% damage, just to ensure the kill.

Boxing is essentially a 1v1. When boxing with Ao Kuang there are some very important things to keep in mind.

1. ALWAYS have your passive at full charges . In total, this will ad an additional 15% in magical scaling to your abilities, and that is a significant amount.

2. Make sure to LAND your abilities. When boxing, it is essential to keep moving and constantly be hitting you opponent with whatever you go, even basic attacks. In doing this, you may lose some accuracy, so if it helps, turn down your sensitivity. If you miss even a SINGLE ability, it can change the tides of the battle, and can tip it in the direction of the opponent.

3. ALWAYS have Purification Beads Purification. Beads allows you to remove any current or upcoming crowd control effect for 2 seconds. Lets say you're battling someone like Chaac and he uses his ult, Storm Call which silences you (you cannot use abilities) and you will most likely get out-boxed and die in this scenario. If you have beads, you can remove the silence and continue using abilities and kill the Chaac before he kills you.

4. Make sure you ult [icon=King of the Eastern Seas size=32= is up. If you are losing the fight, then you will need to get the kill ASAP. You can execute him for the insta kill, heal up, then go join back in the team fight or go back to lane.

5. Do not be to aggressive. If you decide to box an enemy like a guardian who will just tank all your attacks, you will most likely lose because the enemy team will be informed of this and they will converse on your location. Try and fight enemies who are either a lower level then you, have less health, or dont have to many protections.

Follow these steps and you will be a great Ao Kuang boxer.

Ao Kuang can add a lot to a team fight, if you know what to do.
Your job is essentially to lower the enemy team's health to a point where the mid-laner or Mage (if you not playing Conquest) can ult for the kill, or just clean up with a Scylla Crush or something. Your job is to peel the enemy of their health, leave them vulnerable, then get out, and if you pick up a kill, great. Also, if an enemny tries to escape, you chase them and use whatever you can to pick up the kill.

This is probably what most of you guys are excited about: how to ensure the kill

There are a few ways to do this.
Combo 1
Water Illusion , Wild Storm Dragon Call Line . This is the combo that you are going to want to use for escaping enemies. You teleport into stealth so the enemy team cannot see you coming, you burst them with Wild Storm, and if they are still alive, snipe em with the Dragon Call line attack.

Combo 2
Water Illusion , Wild Storm , King of the Eastern Seas . This combo is for killing low health targets and getting back to the fight. You want to teleport in, burst them with Wild Storm, then ult them. If the enemy god is another mage or assassin, this should bring them to below 30% health so you can get the execute.

Combo 3
Water Illusion Damage , Wild Storm
Dragon Call . This is your boxing combo. When you explode the Water Illusion, it deals 270 damage +60% scaling, so it does around 550-600 damage. This will activate Soul Reaver do a buttload of damage, hit em with your Wild Storm, then shred them to pieces with your Dragon Call. This will usually 100% of the time win against mages and assassins.

Combo 4
Water Illusion Damage , Wild Storm
Dragon Call , King of the Eastern Seas . This combo is used for dealing with tankier targets such as sustain warriors such as Guan Yu and Hercules or guardians who do not build 1 or 2 offensive items such as Athena or Khepri . This combo is basically the same as Combo 3, except this one has the execute to ensure the kill on the tankier targets.

Combo 5
Water Illusion , Dragon Call Line . This combo is the snipe, and is quite hard to land because the line shoots somewhat slow. To make the most use of this combo is to aim slightly ahead of where the target is going to get the snipe. This combo is extremely effective against opponents who are to far to hit with Wild Storm and if proc'd with Soul Reaver, this attack can be devastating.

These are the main combos that I use, and now you can make use of them also :)

Who does Ao Kuang work well with? Pretty much anyone who has a hard CC (Except Freya's Banish can be beneficial to Ao Kuang.
Main Gods to Pair with Ao Kuang

1. Sobek
This is mainly because of his pluck . Wherever the plucked God lands, Ao Kuang can unleash fury to any God that is thrown towards him. His ultimate also provides a slow so Ao Kuang can catch up to his enemies if he needs to execute them.

2. Neith
Neith has one of the best roots as it does large damages when combined with her passive, and her Spirit Arrow root is long enough (2 seconds) to either burn beads or allow Ao Kuang to come in with the kill. Her global ult, World Weaver can also be used to stun a target from across the map, to ensure the kill as well.

3. ***bakharna ***bakharna and Bacchus Bachhus
Both these Gods are pretty much the same. ***ba has a 3 second mesmerize and a 2 second root, and Bacchus has a intoxicate as well as an annoying-*** stun. Both of these CC's are beneficial to Ao Kuang.

4. Hun Batz
This is because of his fear from his ult, Fear No Evil . While enemies are feared, Ao Kuang can swoop in and unleash hell onto anyone who has not used beads. Hun Batz is also a jungler, so seeing these 2 paired in conquest is not likely, but in a game mode like Arena where roles don't matter, the combo is more likely.

5. Nemesis
This is mainly because of her ult, Divine Judgement . This is because of the fact that her ult takes away half of their protections, which can allow Ao Kuang to come in carry the enemy God to death. Nemesis is also a jungler, so seeing these 2 paired in conquest is not likely, but in a game mode like Arena where roles don't matter, the combo is more likely.

These are the Gods that can counter Ao Kuang in most settings.

To be broad, any healer can counter him. The item Divine Ruin is not something that is picked up, so he cannot prevent healing on tanky characters such as Guam Yu or Hercules by late game when their heals can effect thin in crazy ways.

1. Athena
This is because of her taunt, as it draws you in and absolutely destroys you because other enemy Gods can go and just have their way with you.

2. Nox
If Nox lands her combo on you, you are dead. Late game she is hitting as hard as you Dragon Call late game and will absolutely decimate you, as she can also cash into enemy Gods and avoid your damage and force you to retreat. Moral of the story, avoid Nox.

3. Any Hunter who normally builds Hastened Fatalis
Hunters late game can be very dangerous, but the ones who focus on attack speed can shred through you in moments. If they have Fatalis then they can keep their distance without being slowed. Gods like Jing Wei , Xbalanque or Ullr .

4. Ravana
This is because of his high single target damage, his 10-Hand Shadow Fist and his heal and root from it, then Prana Onslaught will deal massive damage, then his damage and CC immunity from his Overhead Kick . Ravana will mess you up. Dont go near him.

Hopefully you guys have learned more about how to use Ao Kuang and how to play him in all game modes. If you guys think that something on here needs to be changed, comment below, rate this page if you found it helpful, and yeah guys, peace out :)