Ao Kuang is stupidly good, so why hasn’t he been smacked with a nerf and shot off to the balance zone?
My name is Sam and this is OP Plz Nerf, a series about Smite, my favorite MOBA. For this first iteration, we’ll be talking about the ridiculously overpowered jungle god Ao Kuang and why he is just not OK in any way, shape, or form.
Starting off on the right foot
First and foremost, if you’re one of those people who argues that Ao Kuang isn’t overpowered, then you’re wrong. Why? Because in my first match with him ever I jumped into conquest. After getting a double kill in the solo lane within the first minute I said “Ok so that’s what my 2 does, what do the rest of my abilities do. What’s my passive?”
Ao Kuang’s kit
Let’s go through his kit the way I see it (you can watch the god reveal below for 100% accuracy if you desire).
His passive lets you cast abilities based on charges that you build, so it helps with conserving mana and keeping Kuang in the fight.
His 1 teleports him and makes him invisible for a while. It also leaves behind a decoy that you can detonate for damage.
His 2 spawns some cool looking dragons around him, and when you hit an enemy with a basic attack, one dragon comes off and hits them for crazy damage. You can also shoot them in front of you for a ranged attack.
His 3 is just an AoE autoattack that does more damage. It’s pretty good for finishing off fools who try to run with 10 HP after you wreck their face with your 2.
His ult is the crazy thing. You knock an enemy up into the sky and deal crazy damage. If an enemy is below a certain health threshold then when you knock them up you instantly kill them, turn into a giant dragon, and can teleport to a safe location within a certain radius.
Why his kit is broken…
After learning a bit about the god and building boots and one full item (Telkhines Ring), I picked up a few more kills in the duo lane, one in the jungle, and ganked mid. “But Sam,” you ask, “Can’t all junglers gank given the right situation?” Of course they can, but only Ao Kuang can walk into their tower while invisible, pop his 2, unload hundreds of damage in seconds, then ult and be able to escape to safety. When I was playing I could just walk up to the enemy midlaner and kill them, whenever I decided to. It wasn’t me taking advantage of their bad positioning, it was simply me saying “I feel like getting a kill. Oh hey Agni, what’s up bro? KUANGBANGED.” Then I teleport away close to my base, grab some jungle farm, and merrily roll along.
…And why it’s not OK
While HiRez has his damage scaling getting nerfed from 28% to 20%, I don’t think that’s enough. His kit is incredible but he’s so obviously broken that he becomes not fun to play. Below are my statistics on Kuang pulled straight from Smiteguru.com. I’ve played 6 matches with him (all conquest) and won 5 times, giving me a win/loss ratio of 83%. My KDR as Kuang is 5.13, which means that on average I get just over 5 kills before I die. Keep in mind he’s one of the squishiest gods in the entire game, so the fact that I can do that isn’t OK.
I’d classify myself as “barely competent” when it comes to Smite; I mostly understand the meta, I’m ok with positioning, and I can box decently well with a variety of gods. No one at my skill level should be able to pull things like that off. I get that he’s counterable with actives and other gods, but it’s just so obviously broken and I’m a little shocked to see that HiRez hasn’t done anything about it yet.
OP, plz nerf
Below is a gameplay video of Drybear, a streamer turned developer, playing Ao Kuang. He is very good at Smite, but it’s still very obvious to see that this is just so ridiculously broken it isn’t funny. Ok it’s a little funny, but still.
Here’s hoping they hit him with the nerf hammer and send him blasting off to the balance zone sooner rather than later, because that shit is crazy. I think we can all agree that Kuang is OP plz nerf.
