Udyr Build Guide by RoleDyr

RoleDyr
Twitch Streamer | best Udyr | Jungler

Why do I max Tiger?:

In the current meta, maxing your Tiger Stance is out of question.
Some patches ago the Phoenix Stance got nerfed so significantly that playing that is not a valid option any longer.
Many players are maxing Turtle Stance second to increase their sustain. But we are certainly not many players, we are playing the RoleDyr variant.
Following my playstyle you will always max Bear Stance as a second to chase down enemies more effectively and to not get kited as easily.
Turtle Stance will get maxed out third and you should always pray that you won't have to invest a single point into your Phoenix Stance, since Udyr is getting weaker by every single minute that passes.

The Jungle Pathing:

You always want vision on the Rift Scuttler as well as on the jungle entrances. Thereby river wards are absolutely vital. You begin every first clear at the Blue Sentinel , due to your high mana consumption. After having cleared that you carefully observe the lanes. Seeing the enemy toplaner before their botlane appears on lane, usually indicates that the enemy jungler started on his botside jungle and vice versa. There are some rare exception (see Kayn's solo start at raptors e.g.).
After finding out where the enemy jungler started you kill the gromp . From here on out it depends on which side your team started the match.
If you are on blueside the following applies: Once you've reached the first rift scuttler you must track the enemy jungler via the wards in the river. If you see him taking the upper entrance of the botside river he is most likely on the way to his Red Brambleback . In that case you can cheese him in his raptors brush. If he is entering the bottom side of your jungle he is most likely to invade your Red Brambleback , which allows you to take his entire topside jungle. Thereafter you can decide on wether or not you want to pay a visit to your top- or midlane.
If none offer you viable ganking opportunities you go back into your jungle to take your Murk wolves after which you port back with approximately 950 gold.
There you buy Skirmisher's Sabre (650 g) and Boots of Speed (300 g).
If the enemy jungler has started at his Red Brambleback you immediately run for your own after taking the topside Rift Scuttler .
Afterwards you instantly go for the botside rift scuttler . If that one is cleared already you catch off your enemy at his Blue Sentinel . Otherwise you clear the rift scuttler before you visit the enemy's Blue Sentinel in order to take it or kill the enemy jungler.

The same is true for starting the match on opposite sides of the map, only contrariwise. If you see your opponent entering the bottom side of the topside river you cheese him in his Raptors brush while he is on the way to his Red Brambleback . If you notice him entering your topside jungle he is attempting to invade your Red Brambleback , therefore you are taking his and the remaining camps in his botside jungle. Instead of top your botlane now may offer you good ganking possibilities but then again, if ganking seems too unattractive, you just go back to buy the obligatory items mentioned earlier.

If the enemy jungler starts at his Red Brambleback you just go to your own after having killed the first rift scuttler on botside. After that you attempt to take the second rift scuttler again. If that's been taken you head straight towards the enemy Blue Sentinel as usual.
All in all that covers the most important parts of the early jungle pathing.
After heading back on the map once you got Challenging Smite and your Boots of Speed, your main priority is to seek and find constant 1v1s with the enemy jungler.

While invading the following wards are important:

Blueside Start:

Control Wards:

On topside you have multiple options. You can either put your Control Ward in the river to secure the rift scuttler , provide vision for your midlaner and always make sure that you won't get spotted while invading the enemy's red brambleback .

Your second option would be a quite aggressive one, in the brush next to the enemy's red brambleback .
This is only advised when you have a winning midlane on your side, which can assist you during invades.
If you don't have the required midlane pressure this Control Ward will simply get cleared as soon as someone in the enemy team notices it.

The probably best spot to place a Control Ward is in the upper brush in the enemy jungle, that is in the gap between the blast cone and the enemy's red brambleback .
That Control Ward will hardly ever get spotted and it offers you valuable insight in the jungle pathing of your opponent.

Trinkets:

The most important Warding Totem are the ones in the enemy's raptors brush.
Since invading the red brambleback is a main priority, this Control Ward will give you information about your opponent's presence, the second he enters his topside jungle.
Thereby it allows you to go for them cheesy kills.

On botside the only important brush you want to put Warding Totem in is the one next to the enemy's blue sentinel .

Redside Start:
Pretty much the same, just the other way around.

As mentioned earlier you are always looking for 1v1 skirmishes with the enemy jungler.
Once you finished your three core items, namely Skirmisher's Sabre - Warrior, Trinity Force and the corresponding boots, you start splitpushing. At first your are mainly looking to destroy as many turrets as possible. The further the game progresses the more focus you should put on destroying the botlane inhibitor in order to put a lot of pressure on this lane with the hardpushing super minion waves. Once the pressure is built up you start grouping with your team at baron nashor . With the sidelane pressure you are now able to force the enemy team to make a difficult decision. They will always need at least one splitpusher to take care of the botlane super minions. Thereby they are only able to disrupt your Baron attempt with 4 people which already makes it a lot harder for them. You will take advantage of the fact that they are outnumbered and force the 4v5 teamfight. Once you've slain the Baron you start splitpushing on the toplane while your team takes the midlane inhibitor. This is the basic formula to win games with Udyr, from early to late game.

A few tips & tricks:

When facing auto-attack-nullifying champions like Pantheon you should always engage them while being in your Tiger Stance or Turtle Stance. They won't lose their passive on-hit-effects even when hitting into Pantheon's Aegis Protection e. g.
Initiating an attack with your Bear Stance will have no effect at all and would simply put your passive stun on a cooldown.

Should you attempt to cheese an enemy, in his jungle let's say, there is a superior attack/ability pattern you should always try to follow.
Use your Tiger Stance preemptively and wait for the ability to cool down (not more than 6 seconds with 0% 'CDR'). Now you have a passive damage-over-time effect up that helps you to increase your initial burst on an unknowing target.
The second the enemy jungler shows himself and walks towards the brush you are waiting in, you initate the fight with an auto-attack to let your Tiger Stance do it's work.
After that very first auto-attack you swap into your Bear Stance to stun your opponent just to immediately swap back to your Tiger Stance autoattack and get the maximum damage output.
In my video you will see 2 examples in which I am showing you how I killed enemy champions with that combination. Even though Vayne was extremely fed, she didn't even stand the slightest chance against me, due to that quick ability rotation.

With your Turtle Stance you can use every single Jungle Plant to heal yourself for a small amount.
If you are not having mana issues you should always swap to that stance to get that free extra health back.
Furthermore you can also stack your Tiger Stance on plants.

While your Bear Stance is active you gain the passive Phantom Dancer effect which allows you to pass through units.
Once the active wears off you are getting minionblocked again.

The End

I'm hoping I could bring my favourite champion closer to some of you out there.
If you encounter any questions, feel free to check out my stream.
Though it is in german I'll do my best to answer all the open questions that you may have.
If you enjoyed this guide I'd truly appreciate it if you would leave me an upvote to help spread the message of how awesome Udyr actually is.

Here is my Udyr guide in a video so you can see everything step by step.
It's on German but I'm pretty sure that it will help alot still!
Just mute the sound and enjoy. Kappa

You can see everything I mentioned in the video below: