Introduction
This build is about how I play Udyr.
Not everyone may like this guide as it might not fit their way of playing. Feel free to dislike this guide but realise that this works for me. Everything will be written from my own view on how I think Udyr works fine, if you like to play like me.
The above item build is not the build I always go. For a full view on my Item build look at the Items tab below.
Pros / Cons
Udyr is an amazing jungler. He can clear camps with an amazing speed.
Later on in the game he is defensive but can still deal out a nice amount of damage.
Overall this is my most favourite jungler: He clears fast, he can duel well, he can get out of fights if need be, is tanky but still deals a good amount of damage, it is very difficult to escape from Udyr with the bear stance.
His biggest Con is that he does not have a huge gap closer. That is why I will not pick Udyr when I'm facing many champions that can avoid my ganks with the help of disengaging skills.
Janna is one very strong champion against Udyr because you can't get to your destination with the slows, knock up and knock back. I try and avoid using Udyr when facing Janna.
Items
As I feel like movement speed is one of the most important stats in the early game of Udyr, I start off with 
Boots of Speed. As Udyr does amazing clearing camps and sustaining himself in the process he does not need items like 
Cloth Armor or 
Regrowth Pendant. You can get them if you feel like you could get ganked early but if you want to go offensive then the Boots make his early ganking a lot more dangerous.
Some additional health and Gold per 10 doesn't ever hurt.
I take 
Heart of Gold next. This give you more and more gold the longer the game last and will also give you the extra health you might need when ganking.
At this point you can chose to either move on to your lvl 2 boots or to buy a 
Philosopher's Stone. I would go for the Philo is your early was pretty bad. I don't think Udyr needs much regeneration but the extra gold per 10 seconds will come in handy if you didn't do all that well in the early stages of the game. If you are doing good I would just skip on this because you are better off spending the 800 gold on your boots to make everything go a lot quicker.
Now unless they opponent does not have CC and they barely have any magic damage I take 
Mercury's Treads.
If I am not afraid of CC or magic damage I will take the 
Ninja Tabi.
If the enemy has any magic damage dealing champion that is doing decent I will take 
Wit's End. This will provide a lot of damage and some defences to the magic damage from the opponent. I nearly always take this item because even if the opponent does not have the magic damage, the Wit's End will still provide you with great damage and will make you clear camps even faster.
An item that works well with a Wit's End is the 
Phage. This will make your ganks even stronger: Slowing the enemy, giving you more damage and health. This is what I used to go though. Now I just skip this item and go straight for an 
Aegis of the Legion. You will want to pick up the Aegis early but I don't feel like it is worth to pick up a phage after you bought the shield. The Aegis will make you pretty much invincible. It is a very important item because it brings a defensive aura that your team can't do without.
I will usually get a 
Shurelya's Reverie if the team is doing either bad or quite alright. I take this to make sure we can get into and out of fights as we want and to help me with some more health. Also if you are still in the laning phase then this will make your ganks even better. With the active on Shurelya's you can just on your opponent without any problems.
Depending on how the opponent team is doing I will either finish my Hearth of Gold into a 
Randuin's Omen or create a 
Force of Nature. The Force will help you when facing magic damage and will help with some more speed and the Randuin's will help you when facing a more balanced team (providing you already bought magic resistance) where you can take more physical damage and you can slow your opponents.
If I still have one item slot open then I will go for the 
Guardian Angel. This will give you even more defensive power, which you will need against a strong AD carry. Lot's of armor, a nice amount of magic resistance and a revive every five minutes. I would say this is one of the strongest items mid to late game.
Other viable items you have to consider buying, depending on how the game unfolds. Item order is alphabetically and NOT in order of importance:
Atma's Impaler fell off during 2012. After the item got nerfed this is not a good item anymore. Therefore I will not buy this ever. Eventhough you will get allot of health on Udyr you will still not want to get this. The armor is nice but the crit and the lots of AD you will get from this item will pretty much go to waste because Udyr is not the killer but the front line tank. Atma's Impaler is too expensive for the stats to get this.
Bashee's Veil No. It is not a bad item. The health is good, the magic resistance could be helpful,the first spell removal is alright but the mana pretty useless. The only reason to build this item is because you are facing magic resistance but then you would rather build the Force of Nature.
I feel like the Force of Nature is amazing on Udyr and can be bought at any point in the game if you need the magic resistance. The health regeneration on it is nice but the movement speed and the high amounts of magic resistance is why this item is great for Udyr. THE item to buy if you are facing loads of magic damage.
I prefer the Randuin's Omen on Udyr because it gives allot of good properties Udyr needs. Frozen Heart is a nice item to have on your team if the opponent has some fast attacking champions. I don't feel like Udyr is the one to build this one on the team because the cooldown reduction isn't all that good and the extra mana is not needed at all. Good item if the other people on your team won't build it but Randuin's in the one to go for.
This is the item I always used to build on Udyr. The slow is amazing, the health is great and the AD is always nice to have. The Phage is really good if you build it early. The biggest problem is that you will lack defensive stats if you build this before the Aegis of the Legion. Go for an early phage into a later Frozen Maller if the opponent is really fast and you have to slow them down. If not, it will be better to skip this one.
No! If you face magic damage you will take a Force of Nature. If you need damage you build a Frozen Mallet. This item is the one to get if you play casually and just build something random.
I do not see this item enough in solo queue. This item is amazing when facing snares or stuns on Udyr. I would not buy this for the magic resistance but solely for the CC removal. Buy this if the CC is making you useless in the teamfights and you are also facing some magic damage. If the magic damage is the main problem though, take the Force of Nature.
I only take this item if I am WAYYYY behind in the first 20 minutes of the game. If they have magic damage and I need protection from that and also want some aditional health I will take this item. I would try and avoid this item though because it is not all that usefull in team fights and you will be better off with other items.
I honestly feel like this item is actually pretty good. I do not recommend buying this item on Udyr though. There are enough other armor items around that will do better for Udyr. If you really don't know what to buy anymore this item could do if you are tanky enough to stay in the middle of the opponents team during Team Fights.
As much as I want to recommend this item, I just can't. This is not a good item on Udyr. The armor is good but that is the only attribute it provides. If you need armor you would rather want the Randuin's Omen or maybe the Frozer Heart. Those are the items to go for.
This item might be pretty good if your team is way ahead. If you are so much ahead that you can take damage without having to buy defensive items then this is a really really good item. If your team is not ahead though, I would never build this. Buying this will make deal great amounts of damage but will make you vulnerable to attacks. You really do not want that as Udyr.
A viable item. I would only buy this item if you are facing heavy true damage or if you have a lot of defences but lack the health. To put it blundly, I would only buy this item if I feel like a made a mistake in my earlier build and lack the health. Health if very good in the game but you will need the armor and magic resistance to back it up. This item is not that good if you don't have those stats to back it up.
In my opinion the Cooldown Reduction is not that usefull on Udyr. You will lack the defences with this item. Unless you have blue you will only work yourself into mana problems, in the early game, with the cooldown reduction.
Jungling
I always start off with blue. This makes jungling early so much easier. Untill you have a Wit's End you will be using many spells to clear your jungle quick.
If your opponent is invading your blue I will either try and start off at their blue or start off at my own red.
In a typical jungle clear I will go:
- Wolves
- Blue
- Wraiths
- (Check if a gank needs to be placed)
- Golems
- Red
- Wraiths
- (Check if a gank needs to be placed)
By now you should be level 4 and you can either start ganks, counter jungling or back and start for another clear of your own jungle.
Usually, depending on how much health I have left, I will start ganking either mid or top (usually top).
Updates
This guide came out during the Hecarim Patch, on 04/29/2012.
Since then this guide has been updated:
04/29/2012:
Added the Updates Chapter.
Added the Runes Chapter.
Added the Masteries Chapter.
Added BBcodes to make the guide more readable.
Edited the Items Chapter to give more information about the items you should or should not buy.
04/30/2012:
Added Philosopher's Stone to the Items Chapter.
Added images of items and summoner spells.
Added icons to the Skill Sequence Chapter.
Added the Skills Chapter.
08/22/2012:
Removed Phage and Frozen Maller from the build.
Added Guardian Angel into the build.
Moved Philosopher's Stone earlier into the build.
Updated the Item Chapter.
Build Guide
Discussion (9)
Greater Mark of Attack Speed:
Greater Seal of Armor:
Greater Glyph of Magic Resist are personally my Glyphs of choice:
Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist. I will take the flat magic resistance if I think I will be ganking a lot early. If I feel like we have a late game team then I take magic resistance/lvl glyphs. It matter little which one you take, but you will need the magic resistance to help you when facing magic damage.
Hardiness
,
Tough Skin
,
Bladed Armor
and
Indomitable
will help you out early. The armor and damage reduction will help your early clearing of the jungle.
Summoner's Resolve
will give you a small amount of gold when using smite. Not all that usefull but it helps. This is a must if you take cleanse because it will buff that summoner as well.
Durability
and
Veteran's Scars
will simply give you the health you might need to live through the damage.
Initiator
is very usefull. Movement speed is the way to go in my opinion because Udyr does not have his gap closer. This mastery will help you with that if you are above 70% health. A must have in my opinion.
Enlightenment
. Cooldown Reduction is not all that usefull at the early stages of the game but the further you get the more mana you will get to sustain your stance swapping. Late game you will need this cooldown reduction because you will be faster in chosing different stances.
Juggernaut
will give you more health and more CC reduction. Who doesn't want that?
Resistance
is a mastery I do not take. I focus my early game on buying magic resistance and I usually have flat magic resistance. I do not put three points into this to get 6 additional magic resistance since it does not help me with clearing my jungle. You could put a point into this by taking one out of
Summoner's Insight
is a must take if you have 
Improved Recall
is not all that usefull but it helps slightly if you have to get back to the fountain. I find it more usefull to put one point into this than into the other masteries.
Good Hands
. You do not want to die in the game but you obviously will. This mastery will take off up to 5 seconds off your death timer. This could mean the difference between losing and winning if the game lasts very long.
Swiftness
. 2% movement speed is a must. Again, you do not have a gap closer. YOU WANT MOVEMENT SPEED!
Runic Affinity
is a must because you will be taking a lot of buffs during a game. 20% extra time on the buffs is very important.
is very nice as well. I take this summoner ability if we are facing a non-escaping team: (for example) Annie, Yorick, Warwick, Miss Fortune. This will my ganks stronger than if I would take flash. During team fights I usually throw this on the opponent attacking my AD Carry or the enemy's AD Carry.
This would be my choice of summoner spell if I'm facing a lot of CC and I do not expect to buy a QSS or if I feel like a QSS will not be enough. Overall not a summoner spell I will be taking often.
I honestly have never taken this spell on Udyr ever. I could see people taking it but I rather take flash or exhaust instead of this spell.
