Hello and welcome to my Udyr Jungle guide for Season 3. Everyone knows the good old fashioned build; Heart of Gold, Wriggles, Phage, but I feel that these items are irrelevant on Udyr these days, especially since HoG doesn't even exist anymore. This core build gives him a good amount of everything he needs, in the order he needs it.

Udyr is a great jungler, but he also needs to fulfill the role of Tank for his team. You can try arguing that he is Tanky-Dps, but try to build damage items on him in a ranked game and see how it goes for you ;) Long story short he needs survive-ability in order to disrupt and focus the enemy team properly.

Pro's
-Fast clear time
-Safe clear (you can jungle at almost full hp)
-Good counter jungler

Con's
-Lack of gap closer
-HUGE threat of being kited
-Flash/other blink move can shut you out of ganks

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I run flat attack speed Marks, and Quints, because this is Udyr's primary stat. This gives him more sustain and damage in the jungle, and allows him to truly be a threat to the enemy squishies in early game ganks. Without a high attack speed Udyr can't really function. I also use armor seals and flat magic resist glyphs to make him tanky from the start, which helps with clearing safely and counter jungling safely.

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I use 9/21/0 masteries to take advantage of the defensive options, and also taking a bit of atk speed and armor pen in the offense tree. Pretty self-explanitory, moving on...... >___>

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I use smite obviously because Udyr is a jungler and ghost because he lacks a gap closer/escape move.

Now you may be wondering, "Does jungle Wilding Claw even work? The answer is yes, it does work. Quite well in fact. Wingborne Storm does offer a faster clear times and pushing power, but Wilding Claw offers greater buff/dragon/baron control through sheer attack speed, and stronger ganks because it does much more damage than Wingborne Storm does. Also it scales very nicely with any AD you may pick up along the way, which is not bad on Udyr. Much better to build AD than AP any day. It is mostly preference however, the two styles are both viable.

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So I always, no matter if I'm going phoenix or tiger, I always, always max Iron Mantle first. This move separates the good Udyr from the average Udyr. It's a low cooldown shield that scales with your armor/magic resist and offers you a lot of hp and mp regen with your passive and runes. There is no reason to ever not max this first. I can't count the amount of times this spell has saved my life, and it can literally takes 1000,s of damage out of the equation over a lengthy teamfight. Proper use of this spell can make the difference between you getting 3 assists and a turret, or a death and the deaths of your teammates. Practice makes perfect!

I then level Wilding Claw because of the attack speed/damage, then level Blazing Stampede obviously.

Ok so you may be thinking, "Omg, starting boots in season 3, no Hunter's Machete?" Yes I start Boots because Udyr lacks any gap closer and he doesnt rely on a high damage clear to stay at high hp. He can jungle slowly or fast, but staying in Iron Mantle ensures you can do it with no problems. I also like the increased movespeed on ganks.

Next item I grab is the Spirit Stone because it builds into the godly Spirit of the Ancient Golem. That item is so core on Udyr now I can't stress this enough. It is everything he needs and then some, and a cheap price you can easily obtain before 20 mins usually. Health, Armor, hp, mp regen, tenacity, damage on jungle creeps, everything. It is core, never skip it!

Next is the boots. These can differ depending on the game you happen to be playing. Facing an all bruiser comp? Go Ninja Tabi. Getting fed for some reason? Go Boots of Swiftness. It is no longer necessary to buy Mercury's Treads since our new toy gives tenacity.

Next Item is either Wit's End or Randuin's Omen, depending on the biggest threat to your team. Fed AP carry then go wit's. Fed AD carry then go randuin's. If you getting fed usually go Wit's End in order to keep snowballing, but it's up to you. If you get your Spirit of the Ancient Golem and your like 6-1, you can literally buy whatever you want and do fine, once Udyr gets ahead he really gets ahead. But you shouldn't be taking all the kills though, you should be giving them to your carries!

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Possible Late Game Items

Thornmail: You can buy this after your core if you really have trouble with an MELEE heavy team. There are better armor items for Udyr but if all of the enemies deal damage through auto attacks mostly then get this.

Frozen Heart: I love this item. It works wonders on Udyr and I find myself buying this when I dont need any specific items after my core items are done. It is the go to late game armor item for Udyr in my opinion.

Banshee's Veil: Get this if your up against someone like Veigar Malzahar or Ahri, anyone that depends on one heavy CC spell to deal high burst magic damage.

Frozen Mallet: This item is good on Udyr and most ppl would say buy it much earlier, but I find that I don't truly NEED the slow, and I get plenty of HP from SotAG and Randuins. It's good to finish up a build with this if you have excess gold but it offers 0 resitances so I think there are better items for Udyr if you need more defense late game.

I'm sure there are other items that work well on him, but those are the ones I usually use and they have never done me wrong.

Udyr is a very flexible jungler because he doesn't rely on Blue Buff to clear, and he doesn't need to start at red, so you can pretty much do whatever you want. I usually start Blue, then take the enemy red if they are a slow early clearer that starts at Blue (Amumu, Xin, Maokai) or I continue to wolves then wraiths.

Gank when you hit level 4 on whichever lane is pushed up towards your turret. Open with bear stance to stun, switch to turtle stance to absorb dmg, then tiger stance to focus the enemy down. Try to let your team get the kills, as you do much better with a fed team rather than being fed yourself.

Look for opportunities to counter-jungle throughout the game, (enemy jungler is at bot lane, you take his red if your on blue team, or blue if your on purple team) or steal the small creep camps because any gold/exp you can give yourself over the enemy jungler is key to slow down his ganks and enable you to gank more. Just be careful not to over-extend, you can very easily fall behind if you die too much from bad positioning.

Udyr is pretty easy to learn and forgiving of mistakes. He was the first jungler I learned how to play and I would suggest playing him if your new to jungling over someone complicated like Jarvan, Lee Sin, Nautilus. If you play smartly, gank often and counter jungle effectively you can carry your team to victory though constant team fight disruption and lane presence.