Udyr/Strategy

Ability Usage
is a pure melee-focussed fighter. Therefore, he is vulnerable to kiting. Try to avoid ranged harass and CC. In early game phases you should coordinate with your allies to encircle targets or wait for them to initiate as Udyr usually needs to all-in at engages.
 * It's essential to plan ahead which abilities you will learn with . Every ability has multiple usages and five levels. The max champion level is 18, limiting one or two of skills to Tier 3 or 4. This causes players to choose either  and  as their main source of damage.
 * deals high burst damage to single targets while giving an attack speed steroid to yourself for a high DPS boost.
 * is useful for sustained AoE damage and boosts your farming for minion waves/jungle monsters and pushing ability.
 * is important to increase survivability and sustain.
 * is mainly used for chasing or escaping/better juking.
 * Repeatedly switching stances is required to keep up his  effect. The activation buffs from, ,  and  persist for their full duration, even when Udyr switches the stances.
 * This is usually referred to as Stancedancing. With the help of his passive, gains flat movement and attack speed boosts which stack up to three times and increase his damage per second. Keep an eye on his mana as repeatedly using stances easily drains him of his mana due to the higher mana costs at the early tiers of his skills.
 * is an effective farmer and pusher. Combining 's and 's attack speed increase with the area of effect magic damage from can clear minion waves very fast.
 * When pushing waves or attacking objectives, alternate between your offensive stances as long as your mana is sufficient. Be careful when using though, the AoE magic damage can hit enemy champions and draw turret aggro.
 * In late game stages, can act as a powerful solo objective destroyer by alternating between  (gives attack speed plus the 15% on-hit attack damage) and  (to reduce damage taken). Should the enemy team draw near, 's movement speed boost helps to retreat quickly.
 * You can engage with to stun an enemy champion before switching stances or targets. But keep in mind that's effect has a 6 seconds cooldown for each individual target.
 * Using your stun before activating 's movement speed again can drastically help by increasing the distance to your enemy when escaping.
 * Against some champions, it's wiser to refrain from using your stun early until it's really needed (f.e.  to cancel  ), else you risk wasting your crowd control for some time which could've saved you and others in certain situations.
 * lack of ranged gap-closers and his low mana pool can make gank attempts quite challenging if the enemy didn't heavily overextend. As you need to get into melee range first, consider using whenever you go in battle to minimize damage by enemies' retaliation.
 * The classic +  combo is the probably fastest way for ganking as  primary problem with ganking is reaching the enemy in time.
 * It's helpful to ask your allied laner if the enemy champion has used, similar dispositioning tools or disengaging abilities (like ranged CC) recently to make sure you don't waste your summoner spells for a single gank attempt.

Build options
Being a pure melee champion with no ranged abilities, relies on high movement speed and defense to stay mobile and resilient. His build options are very flexible as you can mix and match many items with the effects of his stances. While is not very item-dependent as others in the early game, mana problems might occur when overusing abilities carelessly. The need of mana and mana regen will decrease with the game's progress, though. As most defensive and some offensive items also grant cooldown reduction, consider capping this first if you want to constantly use your abilities.
 * gives small spikes of bonus damage along with mana. Consider this when you don't need 's passive speed boost.
 * grants a small armor boost which would ideally build from if you chose it along with health potions as starting option.
 * is probably the strongest mana sustain for and it builds into  later. He can charge it quickly by constantly switching around with stances. This also proves useful for a splitpush oriented build where you would need more mana than usual and profits from defensive mana items like  thanks to the high mana pool.
 * If can access  for most of the time, you don't need to build any mana regen items at all. This is usually the case if your mid or top laner aren't very mana dependant or he/she is building for another source of mana sustain.

Defensive builds

 * is very susceptible to crowd control and heavy slowing effects at first since he has no gap closer with range. Tenacity is a top-priority if the enemy has disruptive skills.
 * , and  have highly helpful attributes to mitigate these weaknesses. The increased movement speed is handy for easier juking of enemy abilities.
 * is your primarily defensive tool which should be used often as possible if you are heavily pressured by enemy attacks. It effectively relies on armor and magic resist to increase endurance even further.
 * is a good anti-kiting tool as both the active and passive effects slow speed attributes of enemies. It has also its uses for engaging in combination with . Combining this item with is a good way to deal with attack speed reliant enemies and the 170 bonus armor will drastically increase your shield's defensive strength.
 * For magic resist, a simple into  is a practical early game option for .  Then it's up to the player which upgrade is more needed.
 * is usually effective against sustained damage and also grants appreciated cooldown reduction. It has good synergy with all life steal and health regen boosting resources.
 * grants few health points more and is effective against targeted CC or burst damage which would otherwise prevent you from reaching your target quickly.
 * When in need of an engage-type item, can provide some beneficial stats and an useful active for Udyr in the early or mid-game stages to get in position. In conjuction with a supporter purchasing, this can improve  ganking or engaging ability by a formidable degree.

Offensive builds
With his good scalings, can also afford some offensive equipment. However, if you aren't that confident, always consider survivability over offensive items as a wrong build order backfires quickly if the enemy manages to lock you down. Your choice between and  can also affect the build path. Tiger Stance= is Udyr's primary AD focussed ability. It offers bonus damage and good attack speed by itself and becomes very dangerous when building some attack damage and armor penetration. Phoenix Stance= is Udyr's source of area of effect damage and farming power which mainly scales with attack speed. It is also the most recurring path of choice for going as heavy tank.
 * An early is generally helpful to stick to targets due to the movement speed increase on-hit and builds into.
 * Because of his low base cooldowns, profits well from items with the Spellblade passive.
 * is arguably the strongest offensive almost-core item for . All attributes (especially the two passives and movement speed) have great synergy with him.
 * For more defense, AoE damage and crowd control, is a cheaper alternative, granting armor, cooldown reduction and a high mana boost. The passive grants a reliable AoE slow, allowing him to lock down targets better.
 * gives high attack damage which allows for lethal burst to quickly eliminate high priority targets. The passive gives  pushing power and procs life steal as well, increasing his sustainability in close-up fights immensely, even further if  is in your possession.
 * is a powerful addition to this path for multiple reasons. Not only does the passive shield increase his survival chances against magic or true damage, but also increases his offensive power at critical health level. In conjuction with, it provides strong defense along with the high AD bonus based on missing health.
 * grants more sustained damage, especially if the enemy tends to stack health. Its active effect grants another source of crowd control to improve his chasing, dueling or disengaging potential.
 * Some armor penetration on can prove helpful as it boosts his auto attacks and especially  bonus physical damage.  has an active which temporarily grants high speed stats for Udyr.  on the other hand assists his AD specialized teammates as well, as his  DoT quickly applies the full effect with a single hit.
 * grants massive attack speed to increase the ratio of Phoenix third hits. The passive essentially grants Udyr a source of magic penetration while boosting his own magic resistance as long as he keeps attacking.
 * gives the highest non-active movement speed boost of any item in this game plus granting precious tenacity. It also opens up the option to choose over.
 * As deals mainly AoE damage, incorporating items like,  or  could drastically improve 's farming and pushing power as well severely damaging clumped enemy groups.

Jungler
is naturally made for the jungle. He has in-built attack speed steroids to increase his clearing speed. provides him with protection and sustain. Giving one or two skill points in it after or  ensures effective and safe jungle gameplay. Balance the usage of your stances to keep your early mana pool healthy. With the introduction of new jungle equipment, Udyr is granted various choices on how to interact during the game's progress. The new enchantments can also open up for various build orders and playstyles.
 * In the updated jungle, always try to time your spell in a fashion where you drop it to critical health and can finish large monsters off with your basic attacks to obtain bonus buffs and experience.
 * has higher burst for more quick single target damage which is usually more powerful for ganks or dueling the enemy jungler. When is able to afford attack damage,  can scale favorably into the later aspects of the game.
 * potentially clears the jungle faster due to the area of effect damage. This skill build is usually used to quickly farm the jungle in order to get earlier access to important equipment and often turns into more of a tank role with strong splitpush potential.
 * and are strong ganking tools to threaten the enemy jungler or ganked laners alike as they give  a form of ranged target CC. Use this to aid your teammates in locking down targets or catching up to enemies.
 * By going for, can be alternatively used if you prioritize to heavily threathen the enemy jungler. It switches the slow from  for more bonus damage and a damage reduction debuff which can give the upper hand in duels.
 * and are very useful in farming the jungle with alarming speed as it deals area of effect damage and a stun to the whole monster camp.
 * and are providing additional power to counterjungle your enemies' camps. The bonus movement speed upon a successful kill post- a large monster helps to flee quickly after the raid.
 * has similar effects to the former item but provides more bonus damage overall. The massive attack speed further assists in  jungle presence.
 * provides massive health and tenacity which makes the choice of boots flexible.
 * is an aggressive option if you need armor penetration without sacrificing a slot for either a or  (especially if you prefer ).


 * Starting items:, 2 and
 * Skill progression #1: → / →  →


 * Skill progression #2: →  →  →


 * Jungling order: ( pre-kill + finish to gain the )  →   → Heal up/upgrade Machete →  →   → Gank/Jungle depending on your  upgrade.
 * Attempt to catch the whenever possible but keep in mind that this monster will usually run away from its attackers. Fortunately, the scuttler takes more damage when it's locked down, so make use of  stun to finish it off faster and grant your team a vision advantage and river control.
 * In case one wants to discover enemy wards prior ganks, you can clear the jungle camp prior to obtain the  buff which grants true sight for the next ward that might spot you. This can greatly assist in reducing the enemies' vision range.

Runes and Masteries

 * recommended runes:
 * AD Marks, Armor Seals, Movement Speed Quintessences, Scaling Magic Resist, Flat Armor or Flat Cooldown Glyphs
 * recommended runes:
 * Attack Speed Marks, Armor Seals, Movement Speed Quintessences, Scaling Magic Resist, Flat Armor or Flat Cooldown Glyphs

Counterplay

 * As is a full-fledged melee champion with no gap closers, he is thus very vulnerable to kiting.
 * Ranged champions generally have an advantage against due to his all melee skills. Be aware of his movement speed to keep this benefit up.
 * Building Tenacity items (i.e. or ) can reduce  stun duration, making his CC less effective when ganking.
 * Against a laning, it can prove beneficial to make him waste mana by either bait engages and quick disengage or punish him depening on which stance he used. This can easily hamper his early game lane presence, which forces him to regain his lost mana by either using up his potions or recalling to make him lose some experience and farm.
 * Once he gets some of his core gear, an alternating  and  is one of the harder champions in the game to chase down.  's effect can easily make you regret chasing him if back-up arrives. It is best to provide vision before attempting to commit and kill him and being aware of the whereabouts of his teammates.
 * Disabling from attacking or switching stances can reduce his threathening power, for example  has a potentially longer stun duration.
 * Champions who can heavily slow or disposition for extended periods can prove strong against him (some examples being,  and ) or can run faster (champions like , ) will be able outperform  and escape better if necessary.  is a good counter pick because  has a hard time reaching him without gapclosers (just make sure to buy movement speed and armor items).

Champion spotlight


Udyr/Strategy