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ULTRAFAST MAGIC SWORD IN DA FACE! (S7 Update)

25 4 466,909
8.5
by Talarin updated August 16, 2020

Smite God: Ao Kuang

Build Guide Discussion 9 More Guides
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Ao Kuang Build

General Quadra-Ring

Notes Can literally build this in any order you want, but I'd recommend getting Hastened and Telkhines early and Demonic/Hecate late. Hastened can be swapped with Gem of Isolation if that's what you prefer.

Notes

Can literally build this in any order you want, but I'd recommend getting Hastened and Telkhines early and Demonic/Hecate late. Hastened can be swapped with Gem of Isolation if that's what you prefer.

Build Item Shoes of Focus Shoes of Focus
Build Item Hastened Ring Hastened Ring
Build Item Ring of Hecate Ring of Hecate
Build Item Telkhines Ring Telkhines Ring
Build Item Demonic Grip Demonic Grip
Build Item Gem of Isolation Gem of Isolation

Telk first (early powerspike)

Notes Still possible, but I no longer recommend it. This rush was the best when Telkhines was a cheap item with great early game power.

Notes

Still possible, but I no longer recommend it. This rush was the best when Telkhines was a cheap item with great early game power.

Build Item Telkhines Ring Telkhines Ring
Build Item Shoes of the Magi Shoes of the Magi
Build Item Hastened Ring Hastened Ring
Build Item Ring of Hecate Ring of Hecate
Build Item Demonic Grip Demonic Grip
Build Item Rod of Tahuti Rod of Tahuti

Situational Items

Notes The usual options. Bancroft for the last-ditch effort lifesteal, Typhon for some magic pen with the lifesteal, stacking options if you're into that. Soul Gem only procs once for your entire Dragon Call, so I don't recommend it.

Notes

The usual options. Bancroft for the last-ditch effort lifesteal, Typhon for some magic pen with the lifesteal, stacking options if you're into that. Soul Gem only procs once for your entire Dragon Call, so I don't recommend it.

Build Item Shoes of the Magi Shoes of the Magi
Build Item Book of Thoth Book of Thoth
Build Item Doom Orb Doom Orb
Build Item Bancroft's Talon Bancroft's Talon
Build Item Ethereal Staff Ethereal Staff
Build Item Warlock's Staff Warlock's Staff
Build Item Charon's Coin Charon's Coin
Build Item Spear of the Magus Spear of the Magus
Build Item Typhon's Fang Typhon's Fang
Build Item Polynomicon Polynomicon
Build Item Staff of Myrddin Staff of Myrddin

Defensive Options

Build Item Hide of the Urchin Hide of the Urchin
Build Item Breastplate of Valor Breastplate of Valor
Build Item Celestial Legion Helm Celestial Legion Helm
Build Item Void Stone Void Stone

Ao Kuang's Skill Order Notes Two-three ranks in Wild Storm for some extra poke damage, and then you focus on Dragon Call for the single-target burst.

Notes

Two-three ranks in Wild Storm for some extra poke damage, and then you focus on Dragon Call for the single-target burst.

Water Illusion

1 X Y
Water Illusion
2 13 14 15 16

Dragon Call

2 A B
Dragon Call
3 6 7 8 9

Wild Storm

3 B A
Wild Storm
1 4 10 11 12

King of the Eastern Seas

4 Y X
King of the Eastern Seas
5 17 18 19 20
Water Illusion
2 13 14 15 16

Water Illusion

1 X
Ao Kuang Teleports forward into Stealth, leaving behind a watery form of himself. He remains in Stealth for 5s or until he attacks or takes damage.

Ao Kuang may activate this ability again to detonate the watery form, dealing damage to nearby enemies.

Ability Type: Circle, Teleport, Damage
Damage: 70 / 120 / 170 / 220 / 270 (+70% of your Magical Power)
Range: 30
Radius: 20
Cost: 70
Cooldown: 15s
Dragon Call
3 6 7 8 9

Dragon Call

2 A
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 dragons are used, or after 10s.

Ao Kuang may activate this ability again to send forward any remaining dragons in a ranged attack. The dragons damage and Slow the first enemy they hit.

Ability Type: Line, Buff, Damage
Attack Damage: 35 / 50 / 65 / 80 / 95 (+30% of your Magical Power) per hit
Ranged Damage: 20 / 25 / 30 / 35 / 40 (+13% of your Magical Power) per remaining dragon
Slow: 30%, for 1s + 0.25s per remaining dragon
Range: 55
Cost: 60 / 65 / 70 / 75 / 80
Cooldown: 15 / 14 / 13 / 12 / 11s
Wild Storm
1 4 10 11 12

Wild Storm

3 B
Ao Kuang unleashes a storm of lightning from his sword, damaging all enemies in front of him. This will send a Dragon from Dragon's Call forth, dealing damage to hit targets.

Ability Type: Cone, Damage
Damage: 90 / 135 / 180 / 225 / 270 (+40% of your Magical Power)
Range: 30
Cost: 50 / 55 / 60 / 65 / 70
Cooldown: 7s
King of the Eastern Seas
5 17 18 19 20

King of the Eastern Seas

4 Y
Ao Kuang grabs a single target, damaging and knocking them into the air. If the target is below a Health threshold, 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 20 units.

Ability Type: Target, Knockup, Damage
Damage: 90 / 140 / 190 / 240 / 290 (+50% of your Magical Power)
Execute Threshold: 30%
Heal: 10 / 15 / 20 / 25 / 30% of maximum Health
Landing Damage: 100 / 150 / 200 / 250 / 300 (+50% of your Magical Power)
Landing Range: 200
Cost: 90 / 100 / 110 / 120 / 130
Cooldown: 100s

Introduction

Welcome to my first ever guide; Here comes A MIGHTY SWORD!


NOW UPDATED FOR SEASON 7!



Welp, I'm back in Season 7, it seems. It's been a long time, but I am happy to find the Ring Build almost as fun as it's ever been at the moment. So, without further ado... The guide has been updated!

Hey, y'all! I am a returning SMITE player. After coming back, I almost immediately fell in love with the revamped Ao Kuang and decided to make a guide dedicated to this god. Now, I still don't have a very good understanding of some of the game's harder mechanics, but I hope this guide may help new players who'd like to give this great god a try! Moving on...

Pros / Cons

Now, some of you might remember Ao Kuang as a weird bird flying serpent, shaking the entire map with its mighty tornadoes of friggin' OPness reasonable poke damage.

Well, that Ao Kuang is no more! After being humiliated by Ne Zha, the Dragon King comes back to us in a human form, prepared to face enemy gods in honorable combat (actually, he's just hungry).

PROS

    Amazing burst;
    High mobility;
    Has stealth;
    Enemies often underestimate you;
    A MIGHTY SWORD!

CONS
    He is a squishy mage/assassin;
    Hard to hold a lane in early game (weak clear);
    Eats up a lot of mana early;
    Very dependent on skills.

Skills

Now, when it comes to this god's kit, it's a very interesting one for a Mage. To be honest, you are probably better off thinking of Ao Kuang as an Assassin, since he does very good in that role.

King's Sword
Ao Kuang's passive holds three charges, represented by the image of his sword on your screen. Each time you use an ability, a single charge is used up to slightly increase its damage. Charges only regenerate out of combat (when the sword is sheathed). The most useful part of King's Sword is being able to use a charge to cast a skill. It is a lifesaver during early game.

Water Illusion
Ao Kuang's first skill is a short-range teleport which renders him invisible and leaves a water copy where he was standing. The stealth lasts for 5 seconds and will be broken by ANY damage. The illusion can be exploded by activating the ability again (removes your stealth) or waiting 5 seconds. This skill can be used as a great initiate or escape, but during late game the illusion damage can be an effective way to deal great AoE damage. The cooldown is quite long, so use this carefully. Get this during the first three levels, and rank it up fully AFTER Dragon Call and Wild Storm.

Dragon Call
Ao Kuang's second skill creates 6 dragons around him which last 10 seconds or until they are used up, and there are actually two ways to use this skill.
1) Every time you perform a successful basic attack on an enemy, a dragon descends upon them, dealing magic damage. This is your best way to burst down an enemy god, and if you can initiate successfully, they will often be dead before they can say "I HATE AO KUANG". This skill goes incredibly well with the AA(AutoAttack) build and is also incredibly effective at taking down Guardians. As a plus, this skill absolutely shreds major objectives such as Gold Fury, Fire Giant, Bull and the Enemy Titan. It does not work on towers/phoenixes, however.
2) The second way to use this skill is to activate the ability a second time in order to shoot all your dragons as a projectile in a straight line. This does much less damage, but it slows the enemy and is sometimes your best way to finish them off. The less dragons you have when you shoot the projectile, the less damage it will do. Rank this up after or alongside Wild Storm.

Wild Storm
Ao Kuang's third skill. With a range similar to He Bo's Water Cannon, this ability also acts as a 'basic attack' in the sense that it activates all the on-hit effects, including Polynomicon (can either activate or proc it), Telkhines Ring and most importantly, Dragon Call. It also doesn't have a long cooldown, so expect to be using this one a lot. It is also your waveclear, so you want to rank this up first.

King of the Eastern Seas
Ao Kuang's ultimate. Ah, what a great skill. Most of the time, you want to get it at level 5 and then forget about leveling it up until level 17. This ulti is best used for its EXECUTE potential, allowing you to instakill any god below 30% health (provided it doesn't glitch or they don't use Aegis). After the execution, you will be floating in the sky with the ability to lunge into an area for minor damage. This is often used as an escape or, in some cases, to finish off a god that has REALLY low health (drop yourself on his head and immediately use Wild Storm)

Your usual rotation will look like this:
-> -> SWORD TO THEIR FACE, A LOT ->

You may either use Water Illusion before Wild Storm to initiate, or after the rotation to escape (in case ulti failed or was not needed).

Items

Shoes of the Magi is what you usually want to get if you're just starting to play the God. As your first item, this will provide a decent amount of power, movement speed and some lifesteal.

Telkhines Ring is your first real source of damage. And oh boy, does it deliver. This item has now been reworked, with both its price and effectiveness upped. It isn't really suitable for a first item rush, but instead provides a big powerspike for Ao Kuang so it is still a core item.

Hastened Ring A new ring that serves as a replacement for Hastened Fatalis, more or less. A staple of the build we're going for.

Demonic Grip Is great as usual for stripping away the enemy's magical defenses while you pound them into the dirt. Might not notice much of an impact on squishies, but this is definitely a great help against the enemy's tanks.

Ring of Hecate is what we always wanted - an attack speed, magic power, lifesteal item! Not only that, it actually makes the enemy weaker while making you stronger! A very welcome addition to the Ring build.

Gem of Isolation provides some health, some magic power and a slow that further helps you to keep the enemies from escaping their doom.



ALTERNATIVES:



Shoes of Focus are an alternative to Shoes of the Magi and serve as a way to get extra mana during early game, combined with a bit of CDR. You will have slightly less damage in exchange.

Typhon's Fang is a great lifesteal option with some edditional magic pen packaged with it. Definitely my top pick when it comes to magical lifesteal items on Ao.

Charon's Coin is a nice magic pen option. The effect is just icing on the cake. I probably wouldn't take this over Typhon's.

Staff of Myrddin allows you to get out of a bad situation when your ultimate has been blocked, by chaining two Water Ilusions together.

Ethereal Staff isn't as good as Warlock Sash anymore. I don't like it compared to Book of Thoth/Warlock's Staff now.

Warlock's Staff is a nice item all around. It grants you power in addition to the much needed health and mana, plus you can build stacks on it. At max capacity, you get +145 power, +225 health and +200 mana. Overall, it's a lot worse than it used to be (used to grant 600 HP) but still a viable option due to the 10% MPen.

Book of Thoth is a great item that grants power, mana and MP5. Did I mention you can build stacks with it? This item could serve as an alternative to either Demonic Grip or Telkhines Ring and provides a great amount of power while easing your mana hunger. However, you will have less attack speed, which might be critical during some encounters, and if you decide to use this instead of Warlock's Sash, you will be incredibly squishy.

Rod of Tahuti should be fairly self-explanatory. Get it if you're snowballing hard and want to keep that ball rolling harder. I feel like it's usually overkill.

Polynomicon isn't something I build anymore. It's suitable for a last item choice, but I simply prefer other options. It's more of a fit for builds focusing on Wild Storm.

Bancroft's Talon is a relatively cheap way to get a lot of theoretical power combined with lifesteal. However, in my personal experience, the lifesteal gained was barely noticeable (won't really save you from enemy god's ability) and the power was not good enough to outweigh other items' advantages.

Chronos' Pendant is a very viable alternative to Telkhines Ring during late game. The 20% CDR will allow you to Wild Storm and Dragon Call more often!

Team Work

Ao Kuang's most important role is to assassinate enemy gods. This applies during teamfights as well. There will usually be a couple enemy gods who stay back (mages, hunters) and they are often too focused on what's in front of them. You shouldn't usually rush into teamfights because you will get focused and demolished (especially if you've already established yourself as the main threat), so play sneaky instead.

Odin is a great teammate for Ao Kuang. His ultimate leaves the enemies wide open to Ao's burst, often resulting in a couple of kills.

Other than that, any god with hard CC works great with Ao Kuang due to the burst possibilities.

Score Examples

UPDATED! A match from this morning.


A nice, satisfying 4v5 victory.

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1
Ao_fav | June 13, 2016 7:14am
i used to make the same build with 30% cdr and the magical attck speed items with a touch of rod
until i tried soul reaver in a match,by replacing it with warlocks
its passive really helps in burst damage when it comes to a 1v1 situations with his wild storm ability
it even deals a lot of damage in late games to tanky gods and does a quick job with assassins and mages
1
FrigginZeus | May 7, 2016 8:12pm
but i would start off differently and instead of etheral get hide of the urchin and replace poly with spear of desolation
1
Talarin (1) | March 29, 2016 12:52pm
Thank you for the replies, folks! I'm glad you like the build :D


Devampi wrote:

I kinda like what I see already however I do see some things I would change.

You can't remember Ao Kuang as a serpent cause he never was a serpent but a DRAGON with a MIGHTY STORM.

So now on skill order. depending on game mode I would say you can better max dragon's call first as you will clear camps easier with it (cause of the much higher damage potential)
And well leaving the ult to last is also something I find less cause it does heal more per lvl on an execute. allowing you to use the damage for it too to get a second or 3rd kill.

So now the build (I do look at it from a jungle view point). I kinda like it, However I do miss some CDR (and with that I mean big CDR not the 10% from different boots) so probably get a Chronos' Pendant in there.
I also don't liek the place warlocks sash is on it gives a laod of nice stats but I don't feel it's worth it to go stacking as 4th item I myself would switch it with Telkhines Ring (1st or 2nd item are best places for a stacking item imo)
I would also pick up polynomicon as 5th item instead of tahuti and then tahuti as last item

(also Capt if you get polynomicon you don't get it for the lifesteal but for the passive which is great on people like Ao Kuang, Freya and also a bit on Chronos)

I can also see a beginner mistake. You're counting Telkhines Ring over Demonic Grip. I noticed this in your alternative choices. However if you would remove Demonic Grip you won't have any penetration (the boots pen isn't considered enough pen). And Telkhines Ring 35 magic damage doesn't go through protections so against a tanky team it isn't that advisable. (and the raw stats of Demonic Grip are also better IMO)

I'm looking forward to see the guide when it's finished (also the part above is my opinion you can have a different one and I'm totally fine with it)


You're right, I am also missing CDR sometimes, so I often take Chronos to replace Telkhines late game. The guide has been adjusted to tell the readers this.

I do not jungle much, sadly, because I don't play Conquest too often. However, if you get Telkhines first, you could think of it as an always active rank 1-2 Dragon Call. It really helps with killing those pesky jungle camps.

The reason I get Rod of Tahuti as 5th item is because my Ao Kuang is often very ganky, and by the time you get your 5th item you really need that major Power boost, because the enemy gods are pretty bulky at this point. Polynomicon still does great as 6th item, though.
1
Devampi (105) | March 28, 2016 3:12am
I kinda like what I see already however I do see some things I would change.

You can't remember Ao Kuang as a serpent cause he never was a serpent but a DRAGON with a MIGHTY STORM.

So now on skill order. depending on game mode I would say you can better max dragon's call first as you will clear camps easier with it (cause of the much higher damage potential)
And well leaving the ult to last is also something I find less cause it does heal more per lvl on an execute. allowing you to use the damage for it too to get a second or 3rd kill.

So now the build (I do look at it from a jungle view point). I kinda like it, However I do miss some CDR (and with that I mean big CDR not the 10% from different boots) so probably get a Chronos' Pendant in there.
I also don't liek the place warlocks sash is on it gives a laod of nice stats but I don't feel it's worth it to go stacking as 4th item I myself would switch it with Telkhines Ring (1st or 2nd item are best places for a stacking item imo)
I would also pick up polynomicon as 5th item instead of tahuti and then tahuti as last item

(also Capt if you get polynomicon you don't get it for the lifesteal but for the passive which is great on people like Ao Kuang, Freya and also a bit on Chronos)

I can also see a beginner mistake. You're counting Telkhines Ring over Demonic Grip. I noticed this in your alternative choices. However if you would remove Demonic Grip you won't have any penetration (the boots pen isn't considered enough pen). And Telkhines Ring 35 magic damage doesn't go through protections so against a tanky team it isn't that advisable. (and the raw stats of Demonic Grip are also better IMO)

I'm looking forward to see the guide when it's finished (also the part above is my opinion you can have a different one and I'm totally fine with it)
1
Uiopi | March 27, 2016 3:11pm
This build is awesome. It does need some time to get online (until you get shoes and both rings in most cases, sometimes you also need to build a few stacks with the sash), but it absolutely shreds people in mid/late game.
1
Talarin (1) | February 23, 2016 1:52am
CaptElfimis wrote:

What game mode are you running this build in?

So far it has worked in all modes for me. Lately I have tried getting Telkhines Ring first instead of shoes, and it's allowed me to get some early kills (usually against gods who think they can outpush Ao Kuang).
1
CaptElfimis (5) | February 22, 2016 5:06pm
What game mode are you running this build in?
1
Talarin (1) | February 22, 2016 4:40pm
CaptElfimis wrote:

"Now, some of you might remember Ao Kuang as a weird bird flying serpent, shaking the entire map with its mighty tornadoes of friggin' OPness reasonable poke damage."

That's kuku, not Ao.

Guide could use some more info such as reason for item picks, situationals, what mode it is intended for, etc. It's decent but lacks some needed content for sure.

As far as the build itself, I would take Bancrofts Talon over Poly as a final but I wouldnt wait that late to build LS anyhow.


You are absolutely correct. However (I assume you did not know this), in the past Ao Kuang was Kukulkan, if that makes sense. At some point they completely revamped Ao Kuang into what we see now, and created a new god with Ao Kuang's old kit - Kukulkan.

I had to interrupt working on the guide today, but decided to post it anyway. I will complete it in the coming few days.

The reason I chose Poly was that, after some experimentation, I found the LS from Bancroft was not very relevant and too easily outdamaged. The bonus damage from the extra 100 (theoretically ~170) magic power was, in my opinion, not as good as being able to do an extra ~450 damage every 3 seconds. Poly also works extremely well due to how Wild Storm operates. This is all just personal preference of course.
1
CaptElfimis (5) | February 22, 2016 3:39pm
"Now, some of you might remember Ao Kuang as a weird bird flying serpent, shaking the entire map with its mighty tornadoes of friggin' OPness reasonable poke damage."

That's kuku, not Ao.

Guide could use some more info such as reason for item picks, situationals, what mode it is intended for, etc. It's decent but lacks some needed content for sure.

As far as the build itself, I would take Bancrofts Talon over Poly as a final but I wouldnt wait that late to build LS anyhow.
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League of Legends Build Guide Author Talarin
ULTRAFAST MAGIC SWORD IN DA FACE! (S7 Update)
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