I would say, the first thing, which you think about right now is: "OMG, AP UDYR IS TROLL, DOWNVOTE" and at the first look, it really looks like that. But at the second look, it is actually different. If you look through this guide, you will find out, why it is possible and why it has great potential. Season 5 brought in a 20% CDR jungle AP item, which makes this build way more viable again.

Note: This is no guide for a beginner. You need to be rather experienced to use this guide to the fullest potential.

+ High defense + Good amounts of damage + High mobility + All damage is AoE The advantage of AP Udyr compared to other Udyr's is that he has high amounts of damage but nearly the same amount of Defense. This is archieved through Iron Mantle. Since it uses Phoenix, all damage can hit multiple targets and actually it also has range.

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- Kiteable, but not as much as Tiger Udyr - AP build needs enough gold to get a real AP build. - People will flame you for building AP, mute them. - At the end of the story, riot is gonna nerf this. The weakness of AP Udyr compared to other Udyr's is, that AP builds tend to be not that strong until you actually have AP. Also, nearly nobody knows about this, so beware of kids which think it can't be viable. Season 5 lowered this problem as the jungle item grants upfront 80 AP. Also, with the incoming PBE change, the jungle will give more gold, thus making the build easier aquireable.

Udyr's abilities are different from most other champs. First, he has no ultimate, which means he could level up any ability to level 5. But since there are just 18 levels, 1 ability must be left at level 3 or 2 abilities at level 4. Second, he has a stance system similar to Sona. Means, all of his abilities have an active effect and a persistant effect, as long as the stance is active. And third, he is probably the only champ, which reduces his mana costs by leveling up abilities.

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Entering a stance grants Udyr 10% attack speed and 5 bonus movement speed for 5 seconds. This effect stacks 3 times.

This is a nice bonus effect while spamming your stances. You gain bonus movement speed and attack speed, which help you at chasing and proccing Wingborne Storm. Keep this at 3 stacks as often as possible, without ruining your mana pool.

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Activation: On his next attack, Udyr swipes at his target, dealing normal attack and dealing 120 / 130 / 140 / 150 / 160% of his attack damage + 30 / 80 / 130 / 180 / 230 extra damage over 2 seconds as physical damage. In addition, your attack speed is increased by an additional 30 / 40 / 50 / 60 / 70% for 5 seconds.

Persistent Effect: Basic attacks deal 15% of his total attack damage as bonus physical damage on hit.

This stance has not much use for AP Udyr. The only thing it will provide later in the game is bonus attack speed if needed, as this procs Phoenix faster.

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Activation: Udyr gains a temporary shield that absorbs 60 / 100 / 140 / 180 / 220 (+50% of ability power) damage.

Persistent Effect: Udyr's attacks restore 10 / 12 / 14 / 16 / 18% of his damage as health.

This is the most important ability of AP Udyr. You see the 50% AP ratio? This allows you to get a super big shield every 4 seconds. And the best thing is, the damage to the shield is reduced by resistances. This shield is basically an additional HP pool. The persistent effect is not really that usefull for this build.

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Activation: Udyr gains 15 / 20 / 25 / 30 / 35 % increased movement speed and ignores unit collision for 2 / 2.25 / 2.5 / 2.75 / 3 seconds. Udyr dashes slightly forward when attacking a target while the buff is still active, and only when he stuns the target.

Persistent Effect: Udyr mauls his target with such force that they are stunned for 1 second. This effect cannot occur on the same target for 6 seconds.

While having no AP ratio, this spell is still important as AP Udyr. It has basically the same use as on any Udyr, closing the gap and stunning the enemy, so he can't escape while you unload your combo.

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Activation: Udyr sends out pulsing waves of fire dealing 15 / 25 / 35 / 45 / 55 (+25% of ability power) magic damage each second to nearby enemies for 5 seconds. His first attack after activating Phoenix Stance deals 40 / 80 / 120 / 160 / 200 (+45% of ability power) magic damage to all enemies in front of him.

Persistent Effect: Every third attack, Udyr engulfs enemies in front of him in flame, dealing 40 / 80 / 120 / 160 / 200 (+45% of ability power) magic damage.

This is AP Udyr's ultimate jungle and ganking tool. Both active and persistent effect are super strong. The active effect gives you AoE dmg which will be later in the game, if you got items like Liandry's Torment, a good amount of damage. Even stronger is the persistent effect. It will deal so much damage, more than Tiger. Enemies will fear you for this.

Tipp: There is also a methode called double proccing. This means, you gonna active Phoenix Stance and this means your proc is ready. Wait until it is back from cooldown. Now hit your enemy once to proc the persistent effect, active Phoenix Stance again and instantly proc it again. This results into a huge burst of damage.

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The skill order is very easy. Basically > > > with at level 3. Why is simple, you need Blazing Stampede to gank at level 3 after you got Red Buff and Blue Buff. Else you first go damage for ganks and clearspeed and second you get your shield up as it scales with AP and is important for the build. As explained, you don't really need Wilding Claw.

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You should combo your stances in order to unleash the maximum power of Bridge Between and Udyr. I will list some combos here:


This is the normal combo while jungling or fighting an enemy without the needs of stunning or running for him. At the jungle you should start with Turtle, at ganks with Phoenix, at Teamfights with Turtle. Note that you should stay as long as possible in Phoenix and as short as possible in Turtle, while not loosing the shield.


If you want to chase someone, nothing is better than the bear. You use Phoenix in this combo as it deals AoE dmg and therfor damages your enemy earlier. You should stay as long as possible in bear and as short as possible in Phoenix, while not looosing the active of Phoenix.


If you have to retreat, this is your combo. Use Turtle to shield the enemy damage and Bear to run faster. You can time them like you want. If you want to save someone else aswell, you can turn around and stop someone with the Bear stun.


If you want to chase somedoy, while you would recive damage, this is the combo you want. You need Bear first for the movement speed and the stun, Turtle second to reduce the damage you take and then Phoenix to deal your damage. You should stay if you want to stun as long as possible in Bear and if you want to deal damage as long as possible in Phoenix. Turtle Stance should be used as short as possible.

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Greater Mark of Attack Speed These runes are used, because the Wingborne Storm persistent effeect relies onto attack speed. The faster you attack, the more you proc it. There is no other option here, because else, your jungling would suck. Greater Seal of Scaling Armor Scaling armor is superior as flat armor now as you can clear the jungle without any defense runes rather safe and they increase your lategame power immensly. They also outscale flat armor post 6.

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Greater Glyph of Scaling Cooldown Reduction The new runes thanks to S5 added into the build. This together with the jungle item and the Sorcery mastery offer 40%. Greater Quintessence of Ability Power This is an AP build, so we are gonna use AP runes. These runes provide 15 AP, which drasticly increases your clear speed, ganking power and shield power especially early, where you need it most to get your scaling going.

Smite Without Smite you can't use jungle items, so you have to get it. Use it to aquire the special buffs from the jungle monsters. The Priority is: Chickens > Frog > Golems > Buff > Wolves.

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Flash Everyone needs Flash and Udyr is no exception to that. The most efficient use for it is to Flash -> Blazing Stampede to stun an important target and then maul him to death. But it can also be used to escape basically everything.

Season 5 makes Hunter's Machete a must have item on anyone through all its effects and the bonus gold. Fill up with health potions for jungle sustain. If you trust yourself and made intensive testing, you can also substitue 1 Health Potion for 1 Mana Potion as after the first clear you will no longer need Health Potions anyway and mana will become a problem.

In the earlygame stage of the game, you have to get started. The goal is to finish your jungle item as it is the key to the build and boots so your ganks are strong.

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Stalker's Blade While hated on many champions, Stalker's Blade is actually really strong on an Udyr. It allows you to have a long range form of cc which allows you and your team to catch up. AP Udyr also doesn't need ranger's trailblazor to jungle as he is fast enough and sustain enough (HP wise, not mana wise) without it. He also doesn't benefit as much from Skirmisher's Sabre as he has to get close first to utilize it. And who except Nunu & Willump uses Poacher's Knife anyway?

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Sorcerer's Shoes Boots are very important for Udyr, because he has little to no range. If he wants to deal damage, he has to get close to the enemy. The only way to archive this is by moving faster as the enemy, which this item will gurantee together with Blazing Stampede. It also allows you to deal more damage by penetrating the enemy magic resistance.

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Stalker's Blade - MagusStalker's Blade -Magus And here it is, the item which reanimates AP Udyr. Not only does it grant lovely 80 AP which hasn't to be stacked like before, it also grants huge 20% CDR. Also, it offers bonus gold for every large monster killed, so you will get a good amount of income out of it.

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In the midgame, you want to increase your AP and HP to have a massive HP pool while dealing scary amounts of damage. At this stage of the game, HP is the most efficient defense stat as people start building penetration while % hp damage is still low.

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Rylai's Crystal Scepter Rylai's is a great item for AP Udyr, especially as a first purchase after the jungle item. This is the case as it not only grants both AP and HP (HP at this point is mathematically superior to resistances), it also provides utility in terms of more sticking power and this way reduces your kiting problems, one of the mayor flaws of Udyr. And then, it also increases the damage of your next item.

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Liandry's Torment Liandry's is the best damage item for AP Udyr. Again, AP + HP (which is still superior) and the best type of damage Udyr could get. a % hp damage item. This is great to shredd down those pesky bruisers in the enemy frontline trying to whittle down and distract your backline. And then, the damage against them is also increased with Rylai's Crystal Scepter. Finally, Liandry's fits best on champs which deal sustained damage, AP Udyr is one of them.

Now, after having so much HP, you want to specify your defense depending onto the enemy team. Getting more pure HP at this point is inefficient, as % HP is starting to kick in strong.

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Thornmail Now you have a great amount of HP, you can build Thornmail. Thornmail not only grants a great amount of cheap defense with 100 armor, it also grants great damage, especially considering your high amounts of magic pen. If the enemy starts focusing you (which he must do at a certain point because otherwise you just kill anyone), they take huge amounts of damage due to this combo. And you take near to no damage thanks to your shield. This means you can outlast pretty much anyone in a duel and especially carries will feel the pain against you. As the enemy team will have all the at least 1 guy dealing physical damage (if not, well, you should end the game before you have to purchase this anyway), this is considered an item you get every game.

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Zhonya's Hourglass So, the enemy magic damage is nowhere near noticed? Time to stack up some more armor and get yourself a Zhonya's Hourglass. In terms of damage, it deals less damage than Abyssal Mask due to its superior aura, but offers you a higher shield strength with more AP. With the goldy $$ stance you add another stance to Udyr (yeah, that must be said!) which makes you untargetable and survive some mayor burst, while at the same time you will deal damage with the Wingborne Storm aura. A very mean combo.

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Abyssal Scepter If the enemy team actually does deal magic damage, this the item you will go instead. This item, again, lowers the enemy magic resistance. But this time, it is not only a penetration, it is a reduction from which your whole team can benefit from (ok, most of them will not deal magic damage, but still more than nothing). Also, considering how reducing magic resistance works, this item will deal more damage than Zhonya's Hourglass, despite beeing 40 AP short, especially considering Thornmail. Due to that, you will buy this item most of the time as a last item. You can consider purchasing it before Thornmail if the enemy ADC isn't a threat yet (which he should be) and the enemy Katarina is fed.

Jungling as Udyr in S5 is still easy. At level 1, you start with Wingborne Storm and active it instantly at the base, so you can double proc it at the frog. Smite it instantly at spawn, then clear the camp by spamming Wingborne Storm and with the help of your teammates. Congratulation, you reached level 2 and you can put a point into Iron Mantle Now run to the Blue Buff, active 2 seconds before you reach it Iron Mantle and the moment you attack him Wingborne Storm. This results into that you take way less damage. Now hit the Blue Buff until Wingborne Storm has procced a second time. Switch back to Iron Mantle and then back to Wingborne Storm. Do this until it is dead. Then run to the Red Buff, do the same thing as at the Blue Buff, use Smite as late as possible (either if you run out of HP or to finish it) and you reach level 3. Now you level Blazing Stampede and it is time to either gank or go back and finish Stalker's Blade. Then you can continue jungling with increased gold income, but still look out of possible ganks.

In the earlygame, you will rest the most time in the jungle, as you need to stay at the same level of experience and gold like the lanes. But you will also gank very often.

This video from stonewall008, an expert in jungling, shows which different type of ganks exist.

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If you successfully ganked botlane and killed 1 or made them retreat. It is time to do Dragon.

Call your midlaner and your botlaners to the Dragon and start killing him. Beware of toplaners with Teleport or Shen, as they can quickly jump into a dragonfight. Most of the time, you will get it with ease after the gank has succeed. Dragon is very important in S5, as it actually grants very usefull stats your whole team benefits from. If you killed it 5 times, you have for a duration something I would call a godmode, which makes you greatly stronger than the enemy team with even bigger effect than Baron. You should Smite it in the last second, check for this the HP bar over it and the number shown at your smite, which shows the exact damage it will deal.

If the enemy team kills you while your team has lack of vision to proc the jungle timer, remember the time when you killed it, add 6 minutes to it and post it in the chat. For example, if you killed it at 7:00, post "13:00 d". Through that, your team will know when it respawns and can get it, if possible, this time.

At Dragon, there should be everytime a Vision Ward, ask your support to do this or bring it yourself. If you contest Dragon, further wards at the entrances can't hurt as well.

You now got a good mix of defense and offense. You basically do the same things as you did before, but you should now focus more on helping your team. The most important thing at this stage is contesting objective like buffs, the crab, dragon and baron and if you got an advantage to push it as a team.

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Contesting Baron is by far harder than contesting Dragon, like you see on this picture. Baron Nashor has an extreme amount of life and defense, until deep lategame, you will need all your teammembers to slay it. He also deals high damage to you and this makes you the perfect target to steal it. This picture describes a game, in there a Annie with Summon: Tibbers stole 2 times Baron. So be sure before you do it that you have a good advantage over your enemy team, a good ward placement and enough damage. Baron should be everytime Vision Warded, it spawns 20 minutes into the game. If you aquire the buff, recall and buy Elixir of Ruin and push for victory, as your minions will be so strong that nothing can stop them.

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Now you are in the lategame, or like I would call it, the teamfight time. The only thing which will happen now is clearing waves so they don't destroy turrets, getting buffs, contesting Baron and Dragon, team pushing and, of course, teamfighting. Udyr, especially AP Udyr, can clear waves super fast, so he would be a great splitpusher, especially because of his mobility. But he is more needed in teamfights, as he has the survivability the team needs to protect itself. In teamfights, your mayor goal is that your carries don't die. You should not be the initator, unless you can catch an enemy carry with Blazing Stampede, as you will get kited to hell. You should rather be in the background and try to melt the enemy frontline with your waves of Phoenix, as you deal most likely damage to all of them. Thanks to Liandry's Torment, your damage against them will be stronger than against squishier targets. Use the combos mentioned in the Abilities section to the best use. If you win the teamfight, you can use the chase combos, if you loose it you can use the running combo.

So, I would say, you should know now, why AP Udyr is a viable Udyr build. To sum it up, defense with his huge shield to protect you from damage, which gives similar survivability to other Udyr builds while having at the same time way more damage. If your team is missing physical damage, obviously go for an AD Wilding Claw Udyr instead, but because that isn't the case most of the time (everyone likes to play AD mid and AD top), AP Udyr stands superior.

I will show here questions with high quality and answer them. Remember, the question: "Why AP Udyr?" is already answered.

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• 22.07.2013: Guide Released
• 23.07.2013: Added Experimental Build section
• 23.07.2013: Added Experimental Build cheat sheet
• 29.07.2013: Second Experimental Build added
• 13.12.2014: Season 5 relaunch