Udyr buffs are incoming! Surrender at 20 says that Udyr's passive is getting a 4% MR/Armor per stack buff to compensate for the dodge that was removed from him months back.

With this potential 12% bonus MR and Armor, Udyr is going to be a top tier champion.

I've already had success with jungle Udyr this season. This guide will show you how to build a successful Udyr utilizing Tiger stance jungling with S3 items.

Tiger Udyr plays a lot like release Rengar on ganks. He has a 1.5 AD ratio on his spammable Q which absolutely melts people early game. Unlike pheonix Udyr, tiger Udyr can fully utilize turtle and bear stances, and tiger Udyr scales much better into the late game than pheonix.

Tiger udyr is also much much better at objectives. He can melt dragon solo at level 5 with just a dorans and a madred's.

The jungle now favors Tiger Udyr. The camps have one high hp monster and several low hp one. Tiger Udyr is amazing at stealing camps and has a strong clear speed.

I've got a couple of big tips for Udyr player in abilities.

First off, 3 points in bear stance early on is crucial. Yes its higher priority than leveling turtle.

Level 3 bear stance is twice as effective as level 1 bear stance.

The big difference is the duration of the move speed. level 1 bear will give you only 2 seconds of bonus MS while level 3 gets you 3. The CD of bear stance is 6 seconds. So level 1 means going 15% faster 1/3rd of the time. While level 3 means going 21% faster half the time. This is a very significant mobility difference that WILL get you kills and WILL save your life. It is way more important than getting level 3 turtle stance early.

The second thing you may notice is that I do max pheonix stance late game over bear stance. While level 3 bear stance is much better than 1, level 5 isn't a whole lot better. This largely has to do with the time in the game you are maxing it. By this late, individual mobility does little because its team fight time, not roaming time.


Level 5 pheonix will provide Udyr with 48 AP and 24 AD. This is good for your dps and the AP will boost your turtle stance shield by 24 mitigation. The ability will net you assists in team fights granting you more gold that you wouldn't normally get, and it will provide trickling AoE damage. With rank 5 tiger stance proc'd you can get 3 strikes in pheonix in the stance dance window.

This is very important to Tiger udyr. Know when to use which form.

Tiger Priming: This is Tiger Udyr's main tool to dealing massive burst damage. Tiger stance grants you a buff with the same name that is consumed on your first auto attack which deals massive magic damage. The CD on the ability begins to reset as soon as you activate the ability, but this buff remains on your character for 5 seconds after activation.

What you can then do is hit tiger stance before getting to your target, then swap to bear stance hit him for the stun and dot, then swap back to tiger for a second dot.

This will melt an enemy with incredible speed.

Preparation is huge for being effective on Udyr. You need to take advantage of the passive buffs that each ability gives in addition to what they do in melee.

This is how you gank:

E (bear) to get near lane, if they have wards you want to run through them with as little warning a possible so use bear to run faster even before getting to the target. Then tiger prime with Q. Again, you do this before reaching the target. Then E again for another burst of speed to reach the target. (YOU HIT THE TARGET RIGHT NOW!)

Now back to Q for a second dot. Now you use the rotation Q,W,E,Q,W,E repeatedly. Q grants you AS and dots, W grants shielding and life steal/spell vamp, E grants you MS and stuns.

Now you will reach E for another stun before 6 seconds are up, especially if you have any CDR (blue buff) and you'll have to wait an extra auto attack or two for another stun. This is fine early game. Once you reach max level though, I'll show you a new rotation.

Now to pull off the max level rotation, you'll need some CDR. So I'd recommend building some late game. The SV, IBG, FH, and Reverie are all good CDR items to get on Udyr, which to choose depends on the opponents and your team comp.

Her is your max level rotation.

Remember to tiger prime still. That's the same

Q,E (reach target),Q,W,R,Q,W,E,Q,W,R,Q,W,E

So basically you alternate between E and R with QW in between. This will do a ton of damage, especially in team fights where your R's splash will hit a bunch of people.

That's a general order for exchanging blows. If you have a clear advantage, forget turtle all together and go for mobility and damage:

Q, E (reach target),Q,R,E,Q,R,E,Q,R,E

Sometimes its best to sandbag the E, remember that if you are fighting a Kat, Nunu, or Galio. Your E will cancel their ult. So it may be best to not use E until they ult (with Galio you predict the ult). In this case you'll want to go to turtle or pheonix after priming tiger.

Q,W,R,Q,W,R (enemy ults) E!

Here is an area where lots of Udyr fail.

Itemization is huge huge huge because Udyr is very very gear dependent.

Here is the first thing. START Doran's Blade. The blade is way way better then starting machete. Trust me. Your ganks will be twice as potent, your survivability much higher, and your clear speed the same (within a few seconds).

As soon as you reach 1k gold, go back and buy Mobility Boots. Try to stay out there and farm if you can until you reach 1k. If you have to go back early, get boots and a second doran's blade. This will help you to catch up if you are behind.

After boots of mobility get a madred's razor. This is a sustain item for Udyr. Udyr's turtle stance grants him mana and hp based on the damage he deals. Doesn't matter if its smite, item procs, anything, he gains the mana and hp. Always smite in turtle stance for this reason. If you want to regen hp and mana, go into turtle stance and hit a camp. This item will grant you the hp and mana you need to stay in jungle forever. Also, as soon as you get one, you can solo dragon. So if you see an opportunity...take it.

Next, a sight stone. Vision is power! Use this item to ward up their jungle. That will allow you to counter jungle really well, steam buffs, blow up low hp junglers, counter gank, its amazing. Get one and you'll see how OP the item really is. It also gets you 100 hp, which is solid.

I typically will next bulk up my MR (only if they have a real AP carry...not an AD assassin mid with a AP bruiser top, if this is the case, buying armor or hp is best). This will keep you from getting exploded when you gank mid and in the early team fights. A Negatron Cloak will build into Quicksilver Sash which is what you'll used to counter CC.

Now the build adjusts based on what I need and how much gold I have. Never leave shop with more than 400g. You've got Distortion upgrade on boots, Ruby Crystal/ Ruby Sightstone upgrade for sight stone, a long sword/vamp scept for wriggle's and you'll need a B.F. Sword for Mercurial Scimitar. What you buy should be dictated by what you need and how much gold you have. If you've got enough for a B.F. Sword and your team isn't way behind, its a good idea to get it since it's a costly item that is tricky to fit into your build. If you're ahead, it will allow you to stay ahead too.