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Soul Stone
Shoes
Chalice of Healing
Mana Potion
Hastened Ring
Demonic Grip
Polynomicon
Telkhines Ring
Rod of Tahuti
Obsidian Shard
Relic Dagger
Winged Blade
Shaman's Ring
Y
B
A
X
I started to notice Ao Kuong after seeing players playing him do one of two things with him; succeed immensely or fail utterly. As the carry focused player I am, I like running the risk inherent in a snowbally character. Especially with the recent patch changes to the attack and movement speed focused mage items, I decided that I should give Ao Kuong an honest try. So, after 3 variations and attempts upon making a good build for him, I found that this final build is perfect for the job.
Though boots are usually worth the money, I find that since Ao Kuong is most effective when mobile, they are unnecessary and should instead be replaced with items that both increase his magic damage and attack speed, both of which complement his abilities and some of the items in his inventory, provided you use this build. Anyway, into specifics for these items now.
SOUL STONE: This is particularly good for Ao Kuong, as it synergizes with two of his abilities very, very well. If you take a whole minion wave and blast them with your wild storm ability, you get full stacks, and then you can either do it again, or just cast your dragons and wail on the wave. Either way, it gives you early sustain provided you are being up close and personal, but it also boosts your damage quite nicely.
SHOES: I tried to not run any sorts of movement speed when I first toyed with builds for Ao Kuong, but it's a bad idea, just get the shoes to start, you won't lose much gold overall.
HASTENED RING: Gives the build it's core stats as well as giving Ao Kuong a nice effect for when he's bopping on enemies, it allows him to keep bopping forever.
DEMONIC GRIP: More core stats, but the effect contributes to him smashing through tanks. Why build flat penetration when you can instead go through (at maximum) 79% of their resistances?
POLYNOMICON: Ao Kuong's base mana and level mana gain is meh, so this gives him a really big pool to pull from, accentuates the magic lifesteal from his passive, and give him more and more power, as is always good for a bursty mage. The passive ability on it synergizes really well for when you pair your dragons with your wild storm ability as well.
TELKHINES RING: Admittedly you need to land your stuff effectively with this, which makes it the most questionable of the items on his core build, one of the reasons that I offer many similar, tankier options that essentially increase his damage effectiveness and secure solid movement speed as well.
ROD OF TAHUTI: Slam
OBSIDIAN SHARD: This gives more damage, which is tasty, but also helps fulfill Ao Kuong's role as a tank buster due to the 33% magic pen. Once again, 79% magic penetration is no small joke, that secures nearly full damage on any target at all.
This is a sort of composite section between playstyle, movement, positioning, and teamplay opportunities.
PLAYSTYLE: Focus heroes, but remember to capitalize on your high movement and stealth, so if you see a chance to take a tower or complete an objective, do it. This build does it well, your basic attack damage output due to your attack speed is really solid.
MOVEMENT: Constant movement is not always necessary with this build. Since I run none or almost no CDR with this build, it's fine to hide behind a wall and wait for your cooldowns to reset, and then hop on someone and pizza pie them. That means you successfully execute them.
POSITIONING: Especially in Arena, but even in Joust or Clash in some circumstances, it's important to be a constant pressure to enemies and not stay by the minions for very long, as getting locked down as him is often the end unless you can somehow stealth out. You want to sort of stay on their side, like a thorn pricking them constantly. You want to engage when necessary, and not waste mana poking with your ranged dragons.
TEAMPLAY: Honestly, you're going to be using them to butter up your enemies for tasty executions, not much more. Well, meat shields as well, but not too much else. Actually on second thought, also as baits to get enemies out of position so you can ravage their back lines. Anyway, you are taking advantage of your teammates in multiple senses of the word.
ACTUAL SUMMARY: For those who read all the way through, thanks. If you want, comment on how this build could be improved, or follow me on Youtube at Ownerbynight (https://www.youtube.com/dashboard?o=U ) Many of my videos are also on this website as well, under the same name. Hope you all enjoyed reading about this build.
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I want to point out a few things about Ao Kuang.
He can be built one of two ways.
You can either Maximize his Auto attack potential or maximize his burst potential.
This build plays a little bit into both and so results in both suffering slightly.
Ao kuang is still insanely bursty so he will still feel strong and like you're melting people, but he wont 1 shot people like this.
Another point to make is that you dont get 76% penetration with the build. Demonic Grip should be treated like Executioner in that it applies its protection reduction before the 33% pen is applied. Therefore it effectively decreases the amount of penetration you get from Obsidian Shard. Its not an ineffective combo, however it is a waste on all except the absolute most tanky of opponents.
In my opinion its far better to attempt to max Kuangs burst potential because thats where he really shines. Only Build The Hastened Ring because it can help him stick and finish after the initial Burst.
A typical end Build for me usually looks like this:
Pen Boots, Poly, Soul Reaver, Hastened Ring, Obsidian Shard, Tahuti.
Maximize your Burst Potential by dropping in hitting two and immediately your 3. Then You follow up with your Autos to clean house and execute. Ao Kuang is a Dive, burn, leave god. You dont want to generally stay in a fight longer than it takes to get your kill
@owner: the hierarchy of calculating protection reduction / penetration is as follows:
If you'd like to freshen up on this subject, read this chapter.