Who is Ao Kuang?
Ao Kuang is the Dragon King of the Eastern Seas in Chinese mythology and is a magical melee character in Smite, mostly used in the jungle, with such burst damage that even the guardians aren’t safe from his rage.

Ao Kuang’s abilities

King’s Sword
King’s Sword is Ao Kuang’s passive ability which can hold up to 3 charges that regenerate outside of combat. These charges will be consumed when he uses an ability, if Ao Kuang has mana available then the ability he is using will deal more damage but if he does not then the charge will act as mana instead. This gives him the ability to stay out of base for large amounts of time and emphasises his burst damage.

Water Illusion
This is Ao Kuang’s first ability which will cause him to jump forward, as a form of teleport, to then enter stealth, leaving behind a watery image of himself. Ao Kuang will remain invisible until he attacks or receives damage and the ability can be activated again any time during this to deal small area damage. This ability is his main form of mobility and is a typical rage inducer as it allows him to easily exit fights unscathed.

Dragon’s Call
The second ability of the dragon king allows him to summon 6 dragons to his side and for each successful basic attack Ao Kuang is able to make one of his dragons will travel to the target, therefore dealing additional damage from his basic attacks. He is also able to activate the ability again to send remaining dragons forward in a ranged attack. This is Ao Kuang’s main ability which allows him to tear through the enemy team as each dragon creates a huge damage pool for him to dip into. As each dragon also to slows it's likely that his target will be unable to escape.

Wild Storm
Wild Storm is one of Ao Kuang’s most simple abilities as this will damage all enemies in front of him in a cone style range. The usefulness of this ability comes from it being recognised as a basic attack, so this can be used along side his second ability to deal large amounts of damage to multiple targets at once, rather than focusing on 1v1 fighting. The ability also has a very short cooldown so itcan be repeatedly used to eventually deal huge amounts of damage.

King of the Eastern Seas
This is Ao Kuang’s ultimate ability which will commence on a single target within melee range. If the target selected by this is below a certain threshold of health (that changes as the ability is leveled in his favour) then they will be executed, transforming him into his true dragon form where he is then able to travel large distances over the map after taking his target to the air. If the target is not on this threshold then they are simply knocked into the air to shortly fall, taking damage as they fall. This will easily allow Ao Kuang to take a target out of a fight and also enable him to take out enemy supports with ease. A lot of his kill potential will come out of this skill.

Counter picking
To pick a team that will be effective against Ao Kuang they must be able to prevent him from taking any action, a single ability could ruin a team member within various situations whether it be Ao Kuang escaping or killing them. As a result of this teams with a large amount of crowd control are the best for playing against him.

Personally I would recommend playing such characters as Ymir, Athena, Agni, Neith, Chronos, Arachne, Nox and Anubis as they're all able to stop Ao Kuang from using his abilities at a regular rate, disabling his ability to create massive burst damage that can then catch him out of position if he were expected to make a clean kill and walk away unharmed. Poseidon is also useful against Ao Kuang as his whirlpool will disable Ao Kuang’s escape and the ability to catch up and damage others.

Counter building
The best way to counter build Ao Kuang is to negate and escape as much damage as possible whilst having the potential to burst him out of the fight. In terms of escape items to buy, look to Winged Blade, Void Stone and Runic Shield, as these items will reduce incoming damage from him, with Void Stone making Ao Kuang vulnerable to sources of magical damage. Midgardian Mail could also be used in a situation effective against him as this item will slow the attack and movement speed of those who attack the user which would mean he is unable to keep up with his target and can’t rely on the damage he outputs from basic attacking.

Using actives, Aegis is an obvious choice as this directly negates all damage that Ao Kuang could be throwing toward you but Purification Beads and either Sprint active can also be effective as these increase your own potential to escape against him and in extreme situations. Some may choose to buy into Combat Blink, though this should only be considered in the most dire circumstance as there are better actives for characters.

Enjoy your matches against the mighty dragon!

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