How to render ambient occlusion?

Can I find settings for the AO node somewhere, or is it locked to a permanent look?

I find three different ways of calculating AO.

  • The N-panel has the best settings, where i can find a ‘strength’ and ‘distance’ setting that looks nice. But this is only visible while in the viewport (not for renderering)
  • The world panel only has ‘distance’, which is not enough for a good look.
  • The AO-node would be best to use, so I can tune different materials. This one, however, doesn’t seem to have any settings at all!