[Season 4](updated) Ao Kuang Luang Duang; An in depth guide to Ao Kuang in Conquest(Advanced and Basic)

This is my First build officially posted on Smitefire so criticism is appreciated!
Please vote my guide so I can know how you guys receive it! Suggestions are also appreciated.

[Early]
You are going to want to start with Bumba's, t2 boots and Hand of the gods. Why Hand of the gods you might ask? Why not get double starter even? The Answer is quite simple, your going to be back-camping ALOT. Because Ao Kuang struggles to keep up in the early game you want to gain as much experience as possible while maintaining relatively high mana levels. You will be wanting to invade solo's mana and duo's void and dmg at roughly level 2-3. To do this successfully and quickly you need the extra movement speed from t2 boots, and you need the extra clear from hand of gods. If you can get in and clear either of those camps while simultaneously clearing your own camps you will gain a pretty comfy lead in the jungle while also giving your duo or solo an advantage. I can hear the cries now, "But Echo what about the enemy jungler" Pfft, jungler smungler, the enemy jungler is always too busy trying to get that first-blood on mid or too low on mana to be able to catch you or subvert you.


Once you've successfully shown the enemy camps who the real dragon-daddy is, you want to clear waves and side-camps until you have enough gold for pen boots and preferably T1 trinket. Now that the enemy is on guard in the jungle you want to alternate between mid and solo lanes to leech XP like a good little parasite until you hit lvl 5 and get your ultimate online. By this point you should be able to rinse and repeat back-camp. continue this cycle until you can buy poly outright. Now you are transitioning into Mid-game

[Mid-Game]
Once you have polynomicon the real fun begins, you will want to start performing hit and run tactics on the enemy lanes, preferably the lanes that you are losing. This will keep the enemy on their toes and hesitant to push too hard or far, allowing a potentially overwhelmed teammate to catch his breath and stabilize his lane. Try and have your solo or mid set up easy executes for you to stack your passive early, this will give you a massive advantage mid-game against the enemy team. Continue this weaselly tactic until you can get the next respective item of your builds choice. In team fights you will want to focus the enemy tanks as your now beefed up 2 will allow you to make them a non-factor in mere seconds. This will help your team greatly.

[BUILD DIVERGENCE] (Attack speed Mid-Game)
At this stage your polynomicon proc's will be hitting like a freight train, you will want to get Hast ring as soon as possible to give you initial potential or chase potential. After this you want Demonic grip as your core attack speed and pen item. by this point you can roam freely and gank without worry. You want to unload your 2 first and then your 3 for cleanup, if at all possible save your 1 for escape or chase as it is vital to your continued survival.


[BUILD DIVERGENCE] (Power Mid-Game)
You will be getting rod first as a means to supercharge your poly proc's. You will continue the hit and run harassment tactics but now you can commit more often. Go ahead and grab Obsidian shard next to give you some solid reliable pen with which to melt the enemy solo and support. Focus on bursting down the mages and adc's in team-fights and getting that back-line disruption going.


[BUILD DIVERGENCE] (Attack speed Late-Game)

Your last items will be Winged blade and Telkh ring for slow immunity, and more escalating power. by this point you want to be constantly picking off stragglers and latecomers to team-fights while bullying enemy tanks down.


[BUILD DIVERGENCE] (Power Late-Game)
Your last items will be Soul Reaver and Hast ring, for even more burst, and speed for hit and run tactics. Y2our goal late game is to be constantly pushing lanes and provoking squishies into fights, you will surely win every single time if you play your cards right. You want to be making sure that the enemy team has at least 1 squishie in the grave at all time so as to have less contention to your burst. Avoid enemy tanks as they will cc-lock you into oblivion and instead skirt the team-fights looking for openings to hop in and latch onto a succulent mage or ADC for the easy kill. I would save your execute for cleanup on the tanks or as a last resort escape.

[Pros]:
Amazing Sustain
High Survivability
Incredibly High Sustained Damage
Absolutely unstoppable with an Aphrodite partner
Works against most all team comps
Low build cost
Strong defense and team fight capability
[Cons]:
Low initial burst
Only 1 CC ability(Excluding Ultimate Root)
low Lock-down ability against high mobility gods
weak to extremely heavy cc
High Mechanical Difficulty
People laugh until they see your massive Kuang mitigation

On to a real mans build.

So, seems a bit weird to be building Ao Kuang tanky right? Almost... heretical even. But Trust me on this, I have been playing kuang through thick and thin and have seen the meta's fly me by.
[method to the madness]


[Early-Game] See Ao Kuang has the makings of an amazing front liner. But his scaling and lack of hard cc hold him back to an extent. But only if you are playing him the traditional hit and run Kuang or the reactionary guardian play style. See this build focuses around being in the enemies faces at all times unloading your 2 for maximum damage and body blockage. This build starts with Pen boots and polynomicon, so rather standard play style, you just play safe and sound trying to clear waves for the early period. If possible have your ADC focus on keeping the enemy either off of you while you lane or rooted in place for your 2 too make short work of them.


Once you have farmed up for poly and pen boots you will be going straight into Hide of the Urchin. This is where you can start to be aggressive.
By this point it is unlikely that the enemy will have any serious pen and even if they do it will not be enough too fully counter your defenses.


[Mid-Game]
Your goal during this early tanky period is too hit and run, get in and unload your 2 as fast as possible and get out. allowing your ADC and you to whittle down and or outright decimate your enemies chase and laning potential for fear of being bursted down by your 2. Do not be afraid to go in for the kill if they are low and you believe your 2 can slow them long enough or do enough damage too kill them. At this point your build is rather cheap and easy to obtain so a few deaths will not greatly harm you, especially if you can deal some serious damage to the enemy team in exchange. Next comes Mantle of Discord, from here on out you are most likely the tankiest beast in the match. This is where you will start to REALLY pick up and absorb damage like it's nothing. At this point you want to initiate team fights as much as possible and try and force enemy ADC's and such to box you, as you most assuredly will out damage a non-rush crit ADC if at the same level so long as you land those 2 dragons.


[Late-Game]
Incomes late game where you will want to be as aggressive as possible. You will be getting Hast ring for chase potential, extra damage and attack speed. This will allow you to land all of your 2 dragons at the very start of a fight so as to further strengthen your freight-train like damage and overall presence. sell your starter and get winged blade for your last item.
This will give you extra health, movement and some other fancy things, but the most IMPORTANT thing is, it will make you slow immune and actually give you a massive speed buff if you get slowed every 30 seconds. This is HUGE for being able to keep on target and landing basic after basic, it is also amazing for chasing and absolutely destroying that pesky hunter that's been giving your mage a run for his money. *Looking at you Cernnunos, Artemis* And with this your build is complete and you will either be dieing a horrible but slow death too 5 man bully focus or confidently diving 1v4 and securing 2 or 3 kills, even holding your own 1v5.