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Udyr: The Jungle Phoenix [Hybrid - Tank / DPS]






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Spells:
Ghost
Smite
Ability Order
Bridge Between (PASSIVE)
Udyr Passive Ability
Preface

My first Note to the MOBAfire community starts here. Many of you know and were accustomed to the old Udyr build I had posted, and a few considered it the "Udyr bible". First of all, there is no one way to play Udyr. Second of all, this guide is going to have a somewhat different format than before. I am removing the Type 2 Jungling builds in favor of the Type 1 jungling that allows for more efficient ganking. I will leave in the Type 2 Jungling section in the event that people do not like my Jungle route. Another big change is the builds in general. The build section seemed cluttered and confusing, so I opted for a cleaner build section that tailored more to types of playstyles and less to types of jungling.
The guide now goes in depth with more gameplay than just early, mid, and late game. It will include some of the "chapters" that Matt came up with for guide making suggestions. It will also go more in depth with the individual sections. This is due to the new Guide Format that quite honestly makes updating guides bearable. Enjoy the new and [hopefully] improved guide.
Last Updated: February 10th

This guide focuses on the Items, Masteries, and Runes, while attempting to focus on the gameplay as a whole instead of just the early game as it did before. Two builds in one guide needs much more explanation than it did before.
AA - Auto Attack
Stun -



Slow - the frozen mallet passive or Red Buff passive, slows the enemy's Movement Speed
AoE -

Shield -

Kiting - the ability to run away while attacking the chaser.
CC - Crowd Control, mainly slow or stun
ArPen - Armor Penetration
mPen - Magic Penetration
AD - Attack Damage
AP - Ability Power
AS - Attack Speed
MS - Movement speed
MP5 - Mana per 5 seconds
MR - Magic Resistance
CDR - Cooldown Reduction
HP - Health Points
MP - Mana Points
BD - Back Door
FB - First Blood
KS - Kill Steal
Tank - A champion that is designed to take heavy focus for the team
Offtank - A mix between DPS and Tank; Designed to take a beating, while dealing heavy damage
DPS - Damage per Second, refers to champs that deal sustained heavy damage such as



Rager - A person that has little to no control of their anger and frustration. They can be fantastic players, but have difficulty when they lose control. I may add a rage section later on, depending on how much text I am allowed in a guide.
QQ - Needless rage talk that isn't targetted at any player, but instead the gameplay mechanics such as skillshots or champion skills and statistics.
Thank you for taking the time to view my build style for Udyr, The Frozen Jungle. As you all know, this guide used to take advantage of the bulkiness / slow of the frozen mallet and the damage of

Pros:
- For a melee champ, one of the best skill sets in the game.
- Very strong jungler.
- Fantastic ganks; even if it is a failed gank, the enemy will have had to pop at least one summoner spell.
- One of the strongest damage shields in the game.
- A great stun in
Blazing Stampede.
- Primal Udyr skin is quite possibly the sexiest skin in the entire game.
- To Be Continued...
Cons:
- Absolutely no range.
- Can be a pain in the *** at times because Udyr isn't the best of carries.
- CC can become a problem very quickly
- If your team's carries don't do ****, you are relatively useless.
- HUGE learning curve.
- The last few recent patches have really screwed with the Udyr Niche, so it can be hard to find a set playstyle for Udyr.






















Early Game
Mid Game
Late Game
For a while i went two health pots,




























Early Game
Mid Game
Late Game
The starting jungle items are the same, so i won't bother with copy and pasting the same long, dry paragraph. Same old Jungling Route, etc. Surprise! the Jungle phase is exactly the same for both Item Builds.

















some really good Lifesteal that is just great on Udyr in general. Yea mane. It is a mid game item, because it just doesnt have the damage output that the B.F. Sword items do or Triforce.










Now, This is really the biggest question anyone has when building offtank Udyr. Do I go with Triforce or Madred's? Well this section will hopefully explain and dispell this uncertainty.





What if their team is made up of all tanks?
Then you want to go with Madred's 100%.
What if their team is mostly squishies?
Then you want to go with Triforce, unless their squishies are just building health items like

What do I do if I want early damage, but I know that Madred's is the better item when late game comes up?
If this comes up, you want to build


Say there are a lot of really mobile champs like Nidalee and Kassadin on the other team?
Definitely Triforce. You want to put as much damage as possible on them while they are still in range. Plus it gives you an extra Move Speed boost that helps you chase if they are the only ones left.































NOTE: I use the same runes for both builds because I honestly feel this is without question the best Rune setup for Udyr. Don't question. It is worth every last IP, I promise.

For DPS I use the same masteries because I feel that the extra little bulk early on is important for jungling more than anything, but if needed you could go with 14/0/16, grabbing improved smite, crit chance OR ap boost, then you have two options. You can either go with 5 in the 5 points in the 15% magic pen section, or you can skip that and go with AS, ArP, and Crit damage masteries. It gives you that extra Oomph. It really is all preference. I just think that the 16 in Utility is required.
NOTE: This style is much faster and has much more damage output on ganks. I recently switched to it from Turtle Jungling, and it needs more health potions, but the reward is so worth it. If you do it correctly, you can reach lv 4 before your solo lanes.
First you want to start at small golems with phoenix stance.




Hmm. Udyr at small golems first? Doesn't he kinda need Blue Buff ASAP? Well no. not really at all. His damage is more than enough to keep him alive, with the help of health potions of course. First point into


If you popped the potion, you should only be missing 80 health or so. Open up with Phoenix till it procs, then switch to Turtle and use a health potion. let Udyr do the rest. Honestly a lot easier than most people think.
Right. Same thing as Wraiths. Phoenix till proc, Turtle, and you are done. Put another point into Phoenix. Health potion after you switch to Turtle. Moving on.
Right. So this one is pretty sweet. Phoenix till proc, Turtle till shield is down, Phoenix till health is at 612 health, then smite. Don't forget your health potion though. If you have really low health still use another one, but I don't think you will.
Righto. Hardest camp to do. Phoenix till proc, Turtle till shield is down, Phoenix till proc, etc. MAKE SURE YOU ALWAYS HAVE ENOUGH FOR A PHOENIX. You want to end on Phoenix otherwise you won't have enough damage without smite. Pop your last health potion unless you don't have any, but if you are frugal enough you will have 1 left over. Use this for your next round of jungling or ganking if you did well enough.
This used to be possible at around lv 4 with blue and red buff, but with the buff to dragon, you need at least about lv 7 and wriggle's lantern. Dragon debuffs your attack speed, making it much harder to solo at low levels. I personally like the change because champs like Fiddlesticks and Nunu can't just solo it at lv 2. My advice is to gank bottom lane and if you grab a kill or two, or force them to recall, go do dragon with your bottom lane and middle lane if they aren't being pressured. Early Dragon is very good. But I don't suggest doing dragon after your first gank, because even with your whole team, Lv 4 team dragon is very risky.
You will want to wait in the brush, pop



Now, how do you go about picking a lane to gank? Well there are a few factors that come into play. First, and most importantly, is how pushed each lane is. If there is a lane pushed to the tower, that is a problem. Second is how much health / mana does your lane have left? If they are low, it is a bad gank opportunity, and you should either not bother or cover the lane so they can recall. Third is the health of the other team. If they are below half, they are something similar to a tasty prime rib. Mmmm...
Right. So now you have your lane. If it is mid, there are a few things you want to make sure to do. You probably won't get them the first time you gank, but don't let that discourage you. Once they waste one or both of their summoners, go around for another gank, and this time they have almost no defenses against you. I strongly suggest using the little path with no bushes on the side. It gives you much more time to be hidden, and you are farther behind them allowing you to cut them off. Red buff, your teammate, and

If it is solo top, well that is a pretty easy gank unless any of a few things happen. One: they may have warded the "gank" bush that is such a great gank spot. To counter this, you might want to actually travel through their jungle and hide in the bush on the other side of the river, then come out and cut them off. Two: they might actually have their own Jungler in that bush. That is very bad because suddenly YOU are the gankee. Very bad. As Udyr though, you have a pretty strong early game and can outdamage most other junglers with double buff. The final one is a rare one, but can still occur. Any traps that people can set down, such as Caitlyn, Nidalee, or Teemo, can all effectively ruin your gank with their traps.
Try to run around to the back of them instead of straight at them so that you can cut them off. It guarantees that you get a stun and the Red Buff slow on them. Really good ganking partners include those with a lot of CC. Damage isn't as important, because you do plenty as it is with the early red buff. Taric is a great ganking partner, Kennen is great, Nasus is good, Sion is good, Annie is great, etc. Factor that into which lane you gank. Keep in mind which Summoner skills they have and which ones they have used already. Also make sure you keep an eye on the other lanes and especially the lane partner. The worst thing you can do is get killed by the other lane partner while you are focusing the first one.
The good part about this style is you only need two Health Potions, which means you can afford to buy a ward.
This Jungle style is a little bit slower, as you have to start with Turtle, but the speed sacrifice is more than made up for in the Ganking Phase. To do this route, it goes a something like this. At the beginning of the game, ward the enemy red buff so you can grab a free buff and maybe a kill, OR you can ward your own blue to make sure no one steals it. Once warded, you run back to your small golems and start there. For this route you have to put a point into










You will want to put a sight ward at the green dot, which is the enemy Red Buff. Follow the numbers, with 6 being dragon. The yellow dots are where you hide out to gank, and the red lines are where the enemy should be for an ideal gank, unless you have some reliable CC like Taric or Nasus.

Hmm. Udyr at small golems first? Doesn't he kinda need Blue Buff ASAP? Well no. not really at all.






Erright. You will have almost full health. Yay. Pop



You get here, pop

This camp is important, but fairly easy. Pop









This is the only really hard camp. Pop





Dragon is a bit irrelevant, because it isn't really in this jungle route. Dragon is more of a... team thing. You really should never do it alone. And if you do, you got some serious balls. Probably give them a free dragon and a free death. :) Just put it in here for the symmetry.




At this point, you don't really need to straight up Jungle anymore because laning phase is over. Make sure to grab all the lanes with big waves, because

At this point it is NOT your job to initiate. If you initiate you die. You just can't handle the focus that is required of a straight up tank. Mid game initiates include Hard CC like Amumu's ult or Ashe's Ult. Udyr initiate is a Late Game initiate when he can take a beating.
Make sure to stay with your team, or at least one other person, because odds are you won't be able to take down a full health champ on your own.
At this point, you really don't need the buffs anymore. Give Blue Buff to your AP carries and Red Buff to your Physical Carries, preferably Ranged Carry. If you have no true Ranged Carry, or they already have the buff, or they have Frozen Mallet, then grab Red Buff. Because Udyr with Red Buff is incredibly scary, even late game.
If you went with Triforce, you are a force to be reckoned with. If you went pure tank, you can't be killed, unless you are ******ed and decided roaming around by yourself was a good idea at 60 minutes into the game.
If you have Triforce you can be a little more aggressive, but if you are a pure tank, your job is to protect the carry and that is it. If you went with Triforce you can roam around the edges of your team looking for any poor squishy that comes too close to you.

Top Priority
Sivir - With her ricochet she just eats teams alive. In my opinion the best ranged carry in the game.
Ashe - Anyone who has seen an ELO late game
Ashe knows why you get her first. End game her non-crit hits do 450 or more.
Corki - Moved him up because after his "buff", he has become a significantly more effective carry.
Pantheon - After his buff you just cannot ignore him anymore.
Anivia - The more you kill her, the harder time she has of getting ahead for the rest of the match.
Akali - Surprise? Not even. She takes your carries out so fast. It is the job of every Offtank to get rid of the anti-carries.
Miss Fortune - Not as good as before, but still a ranged carry.
Teemo - His blind and poison can faceroll any champion, especially your carry. The faster he dies, the faster you destroy their damage output.
Kennen - No one likes a painful team stun, so the sooner hes gone, the sooner you have an advantage. It also helps to get close to him because his main damage is poking from afar.
Kog'Maw - A few weeks ago I would have put him at top, but he lost some of his effectiveness lately. He is still dangerous, and therefore is still in Top Priority.
Morgana - If she gets her ult off, you are screwed. Don't let that happen.
Sona - One of the best AoE stun / Support champs in the game, and can keep her team alive just enough to kill your entire team. She needs to die.
Fiddlesticks - So I never really thought of Fiddle as much of a threat, but that Ult of his is basically guaranteed a kill if left unchecked.
Ryze - He has some serious nuking power... Try to eat him before he starts his combo.
High Priority
Twitch - Sucks now, has way less damage. Kill him just to get rid of him lol.
Tristana - She would be in the Top Priority tier, but because of her amazing escape skill, she shouldn't be bothered with if you can take someone out from the Top Priority tier first.
Annie - Nobody likes an AoE nuke and stun, and she goes down super easy anyways. Just get rid of her before she makes a scene.
Twisted Fate - He has that annoying stun, and can escape fairly well. Depends on if he is their main damage or not, but he's in High Priority.
Veigar - Eats your casters. Can't let that happen. Must die.
Nunu & Willump - This may seem like a strange place for him, but you can easily destroy his usefulness. His ultimate "charges" as it channels, so the earlier you stun him the earlier you ruin his ult, and the less damage he does. Good
Nunu & Willump players go AP, which is why hes higher. Tank
Nunu & Willump is obviously useless, and shouldn't be targeted.
Ezreal - Hard as hell to catch, but squishy once you do. I found that is actually a lot easier to get to him with
Frozen Mallet, so I moved him up. He is still a carry, and must be stopped.
Shaco - Once he realizes you aren't scared of him, he will **** his tights and
Deceive the **** outta there.
Katarina - Her ult is devastating, and her pokes hurt. But her damage output is decreased when you break her ultimate. Just poke her and you are done.
Xin Zhao - He has some really annoying CC, and can be dangerous if left unchecked.
Lux - She gives the illusion that she's hard to catch, but once you do, she's an easy kill. Her CC is a major nuisance.
Gangplank - His crits end game can 2 hit your casters, and that is bad. Very bad.
Mid Priority
Warwick - Not a huge priority, but his ult can really screw up your team structure.
Janna - Support that needs to die, but has really good escape methods. Not worth chasing over the high and top priority tiers.
Taric - Taking him out of the fight is necessary. The only reason he isn't higher is because he is bulky... ish. depending on how he's built.
Vladimir - You will want to make him waste his pool so when your team comes in after you he has no real escape.
Master Yi - He's annoying. 'nuff said.
Evelynn - Her stun is surprisingly annoying, and the sooner you get rid of that, the sooner your teammates can stop raging. I moved her up to Mid Priority because i find that good Evelynn players are far more dangerous than i originally gave them credit for.
Soraka - Just because she is support.
Malzahar - Meh. Easy to avoid, until he ults. THEN you want to get rid of him.
Low Priority
Kayle - Not a hard carry, but she can do some damage with her slow. The only reason she's lower is that if you focus her, she will just ult and make your efforts useless.
Heimerdinger - He should die, but hes not your problem. He does damage whether he is disabled or not.
Kassadin - He does some heavy damage, so scare him off. He's a ***** to catch though, so don't chase if he runs off. I moved him down a tier because of his Ult. Attack him just enough to scare him off, but DO NOT CHASE.
Karthus - Hes a huge pain, but he keeps on chuggin even after you kill him, which is almost more dangerous because he has nothing to be afraid of.
Nidalee - Also needs to die, but amazing at kiting; something you cannot deal with.
Swain - Stupid health regen, and lots of annoying CC. His damage output is a little low, so he isnt a higher priority.
Sion - Going for him can waste his stun on you, which is good, but he is tanky as hell.
Gragas - One of those bulky champs that should die but just isn't the best for anti-carry focus.
Mordekaiser - Mordekaiser has impressed me of late. With his recent HUGE buff, he is far more dangerous and actually changes the tide of the battle even without his Ult. Because of this buff, however, people don't build him quite as tanky as before, so between
Madred's Bloodrazor and
Frozen Mallet, he may be someone you want to go for.
Udyr - He's a serious pain for your team, but mirrors are always really risky, because if he has slightly better runes [assuming you dont have my recommended runes] or he is slightly farther along on his item build, you are screwed. He is also really bulky, so i suggest saving him for later.
No Priority
Just a little side note for this part of the priority section, I actually stared at the remaining champs for about ten minutes trying to figure out how to go about this. I'm not even going to write a reason to go for them, because you shouldn't. I will explain why not to. Most reasons will be "tank blah blah blah" so don't get excited.
Poppy - She is an anti-carry, but her ult makes it useless to target her.
Cho'Gath - Lots of health scales well with your madred's, but most of them go tanky, and so it takes forever to kill him in a team fight. Time that is wasted.
Zilean - If you focus him, he has to blow his ult on himself, which is good for your team. But like i said. He has his ult. Meaning he will just revive.
Olaf - His ridiculous lifesteal is just dumb, and he has burst, which eats you up. Try to avoid.
Dr. Mundo - Another one of those annoying ults that you just can't seem to handle in a teamfight. Ignore him if possible.
Blitzcrank - Lots of annoying CC, and usually pretty bulky. His damage is less than stellar though, so don't bother in teamfight scenarios.
Urgot - His poke hurts like a *****, but there's no point in targetting him. Way to bulky. I moved him a little farther down because I find his shield and natural bulk super annoying.
Nasus - You really shouldn't ever 1v1 him with his ult and natural lifesteal. Just a bad idea.
Rammus - If you can get rid of him, that means no AoE ult and no taunt. But he usually stacks anti-AA stuff, including his
Defensive Ball Curl.
Amumu - That % health damage from
Despair hurts like a *****. Sadly, he's a tank, and he wants to get hit for
Tantrum.
Shen - There's that taunt again. Unfortunately, he's an incredible tank.
Malphite - If you get in melee range, he can use ground pound. It hurts. A lot.
Garen -
Sunfire Aegis plus
Judgment is very bad for Udyr's health.
Galio - With
Bulwark, he likes taking the hits, and it makes his Ult that much easier to activate.
Singed - The only way he is effective is if you chase him.
Alistar - All he will do is stun you and then push you. Waste of time.
Tryndamere - Okay. Maybe it is important to focus him, but it isn't your job as Udyr to focus him. Anti-Tryndamere champs include ranged carries, AP carries, CC champs, and burst champs. Udyr is none of these, and while he has a stun, that is only once every six seconds.
Tryndamere is designed to be an unstoppable Melee DPS, Sort of like olaf. The difference between Olaf and Tryn is two things. One: Olaf can die, and Tryndamere cannot [at least during the 6 seconds his ult is active]. Two: Olaf cannot be CC'd when he ults, while Tryndamere can. Combine those two things, Olaf is a much higher priority than Tryndamere because Udyr has the type of CC that suits chasing, not disabling. Champs like Ashe, Kennen, and Malphite have disabling CC. I apologize for saying your team should never focus Tryndamere. Focus to me means this:
Focusing CC is an entirely different story. You can stun tryndamere all you want, and it will be far more effective. Keeping stuns on Tryndamere is NOT what I consider focus. Although, early game [meaning before Tryn reaches 6] you want to focus Tryndamere all you can to keep him underleveled and underfed. It changes the dynamics of the game. In fact, i just played a game where we killed the enemy Tryn 4 times before he even reached lv 6, because we zoned him, and when he tried to gain exp, we killed him. That is extremely effective in disabling his usefulness in the rest of the match.
If Tryndamere IS fed, however, and the rest of the team isn't fed, then you might want to focus Tryndamere, in order to force his ult earlier than he wanted. As SOON as he pops his ult, your team needs to CC lock him. Between slows, stuns, and walls, you should be able to prevent his escape and kill him. However, I find many more people more viable targets FOR UDYR. Udyr has steady sustained damage with this build, not burst like

If you have any more questions, feel free to ask and i will do my best to answer them.
Q: Why did you change the Masteries to 0/14/16 from 0/21/9?
A: I did this because i found that an increase in Move Speed means more gank time, and more effective ganks, as well as longer buff duration. The only thing that is really sacrificed is 4% reduction in damage, which isn't much in the first place, and 4% AS at lv 18. You also lose 30 flat health, but that isn't really an issue. The change allows you to gank faster and longer, with more success.
Q: Why did you get rid of

A: Because it just was too expensive to get consistently and it sacrificed too much bulkiness to be worth it. Tank Udyr is just more viable.
Q: Why are ganks suddenly under so much emphasis in this guide?
A: Well before it was a very gold dependent build, but now not so much. The ganks are more for the benefit of your lanes to give them an early advantage. The more kills THEY get early on, the better your team will do as a whole.
Q: Why is Frozen Mallet no longer in the Core Build? In your last guide, it was one of the biggest items in your build because "it synergizes so well with Bear Stance"?
A: I no longer have it in my core build because it just doesn't offer the bulkiness that I like with this build. The main use of it was for catching people out of position and making sure they don't get away. With this build, it is a lot more team-oriented, so catching people out of position isnt as big of a deal anymore. The little extra health isn't as good as extra MR or armor, and it just doesn't do much. Its main use was to allow you to get consistent hits of Madred's on your target, but with your role in this guide, you should be with the team, not roaming around and trying to gank. I find that True Tank items work better than Frozen Mallet do. It is, however, still in the optional items section.
Q: Can you still Jungle with Phoenix Stance if you have no AS runes?
A: Yes, you can. I actually did it on accident in a game. I forgot to switch my runes from Master Yi to Udyr, so instead I had ArP reds, Mana per 5 per level yellows, AP Blues, and ArP Quints. It was a little slower, but I had no problem Jungling. The only discrepancy was that I had to Use a health potion at every single camp, and I just barely finished with Red Buff. I would suggest waiting till Smite is up again for Red Buff if you go with ArP instead of AS.
11/21/10 - Ahhh yes. The tanky metagame. Tanks and Offtanks dominate, which means Udyr thrives. Not only does he fit right into this metagame, he does very well to counter the tanky metagame with

12/14/10 - Patch .107 COMPLETELY changed the metagame. Super carries take yet another hit with twitch being nerfed to hell, and the tanky metagame is significantly weaker now. Between the removal of

1/15/2011 - With the HUGE buff that Udyr got, he just straight up went up in viability. The metagame favors casters right now, so MR is often times the way to go. It makes tanking Udyr quite easy to be honest. The Phoenix buff made Udyr's Jungling and ganks significantly better, and the Tiger buff is really nice for the people that enjoy single target nukes.
2. Team Comp section
3. More Videos
4. Item Update [build and descriptions]
5. In Depth ward section / "Pushing" section
6. Tiger vs. Phoenix Section
7. The more videos the merrier! because Im pretty sure theres not a bandwidth limit on youtube!
8. Revamp of the DPS build, the more criticism the better because DPS udyr isnt my favorite.
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