Name changed from "Tiger Jungling- Late game oriented" while I believe the difference in summoner spells makes it stronger late game the lack of smite is the main difference.

The Build order at the top is only the final pieces in order to keep the cheat sheet as accurate as possible. (the stats up there should be what you'll have at 18 with all the final gear)

the Cheat Sheet at the top of this guide doesn't seem to take masteries into account, just F.Y.I.


If you find you dislike this guide or build for any reason please explain in a comment and I'll do what I can to correct it. Any other constructive criticism, advice or general comments are appreciated. I will check as often as I can and edit as needed.

Cautionary comment, warnings and the like
Important details, I'd like to think the whole guide belongs in here but this is for the really important stuffs
Side notes, comments touched on simply because my mind wanders. Unimportant to the guide's stated goal but hopefully useful

-DPS: Damage Per Second, used in reference to damage in general (throwback from WoW)
Twisting: switching between stances either to get the active benefit from one stance while in another stance or simply to maintain monkey's agility stacks
-AD: Attack Damage
-AP: Ability Power
-MR: Magic resist
-#/#/#/# four numbers seperated by slashes will be used to show the final ranks of abilities in the alternate build section. in order Tiger/Turtle/Bear/Phoenix
-ArP: Armor Penetration
-creeps: Any creature that can be killed but isn't player controlled (usually the minions in lanes)
-lvl: level
-Threat: Refers to making the enemies want you dead, things like AoE damage, Taunts, group buffs (in theory a tank can't do the amount of damage a dps can, therefor tanks depend on special abilities and map presence to fulfill their role and take some abuse that would otherwise be focused on a dps)
-Sceen: To run screen is to hang back with your slowest escaping ally and aid their escape through stuns, immunities, slows etc.

Udyr is an amazing champ with as much versatility as you could hope for, however Udyr takes a lot of getting used to since he doesn't have an ult and requires constant stance changes in combat to be effective. Udyr is especially challenging when you're new to him as you face mana restrictions early game and are often focused down in team fights without having the suprise initiate or ranged attacks like most champs that get focused.


I will try my best to incorporate everything I know, but the core of this guide is dps off-tank tiger jungling without smite. so other builds and early laning won't be referenced to outside their own chapters.

PROS:
-Respectable early jungle with completely customizable summoner spells.

-Early tiger for the tiger focused Udyr.

-Faster and more gank capable than turtle jungle with higher burst than phoenix.

-Late buffs reduce the chance of enemies finding you for an early gank, and increase your buffed gank time.



CONS:
-Late buffs make it easier for enemies to steal yours.

-Everyone has their ults when you start your ganks. (counts as a pro and a con really)

-Restrictive jungle order. (Jungling is always restrictive early, don't think this is worse than any other)

-Requires a lot of attention early. (abilities and pots at the right time makes the difference between a smooth jungle rotation and an early recall sometimes)

just gonna touch on the very basics really quick in case someone's reading this before buying the champ. (forgive me if there's any typos or bad numbers in this it's really only meant to give you a very, very, quick idea of how he's played and what he does)

Passive;
Monkey's Agility: every time Udyr switches stances he gains 10% attack speed and 3% dodge (stacks up to 3 times)
I cannot stress enough how good this is, 30% attack speed and 9% dodge, if you're not keeping this stacked 3x when you're in combat with a champ or tower shame on you!

Tiger Stance: Gives Udyr a 5 sec attack speed buff as well as his next hit (within 5 sec) will cause the target to bleed for base damage + 145% attack damage over 2 sec. Also gives udyr a passive attack speed buff while he's in this stance.
That's right folks 2 attack speed buffs AND your first hit has a very nice bleed... did I mention the bleed is magic damage? so they need both Armor and MR to counter your burst

Turtle stance: Gives Udyr a shield that absorbs a bit of damage and lasts 4 sec, also gives udyr some life and mana stealing
A decent shield, but it scales off AP and turtle is low priority after the first point. Turtle is a great way to keep yourself from recalling, just pop it and farm creeps. twisting tiger/turtle is the best way to jungle the strong stuff (buffs, dragon, baron) and twisting bear/turtle will increase your odds of escaping a chase

Bear stance: Gives Udyr a % speed buff for a duration based on it's rank (caps at 4 sec I believe) and Udyr's attacks will stun his target for 1 sec with a 6 sec cooldown on the target (can be used on as many targets as you care to run up to, but you gotta wait 6 sec to stun someone a second time)
This is what makes Udyr viable, without this Udyr would never get close enough to put his hurt on enemies and would be completely pointless as a tank. Twisting Bear/turtle is how you roll (chasing or running, unless you need to twist bear/tiger to conserve mana) The bear stun will eat banshee's veil... but it still puts the 6 sec timer on them so it's often better to go tiger before you hit them and let banshee's eat the tiger so you can bear stun.

Phoenix Stance: Gives an aura that deals damage to all nearby enemies for 5 sec, it's passive makes every 3rd hit deal fire damage in a cone infront of Udyr (I don't know of any identifier for when the next breath will be... aside from counting strikes of course)
I believe phoenix/tiger twisting is how udyr could push the limits of his damage output, however the drawbacks of timing your stance changes after a breath and before monkey's wears off as well as a weakened turtle or bear make it seem like a poor trade off. I'll cover this later.

I have gone for a 12/0/18 mastery build on this list as I think this is the most appropriate for jungle Udyr with the exception of a tank build in which case I'd switch the full damage tree and drop down the utility tree to get the HP masteries in defense (or even go all the way for the 4% dmg reducion.)

Key Masteries:
-experience boost: self evident imo, but regardless the exp. boost is what makes jungling so smooth.
-mana regen: Udyr has low base mana so it helps early game, and late game his spells are so cheap these masteries will help you spam to your heart's content
-increased buff duration: longer optimum gank time? yes please!

Prefered Masteries: (not as important as they key masteries but strong enough to deserve explaination)
-15% spell pen: this is prolly the biggest question, but the explanation is simple... Tiger Bleed, this is the source of your burst but stacking spell pen on a tiger focused Udyr doesn't make much sense since most of your damage is physical.... however 1 mastery point is well worth it.

-Cooldown Reduction: I've heard a lot of people say cooldown reduction isn't worthwhile on Udyr, obviously I disagree. Cooldown reduction may not mesh well with bear stun but it does give more Tiger Bleed, Bear Charge, and Turtle Shield up time, as well as giving you more freedom to keep your monkey's stacked. once your cooldowns are <5sec you can just stay in tiger while killing turrets, <4sec and you can maintain uninterrupted Bear Charge while crossing the map once you've got rank 5 bear.

-Armor pen: goes nicely with the ArP Runes giving your attacks some real punch, unless the enemy dps get armor items the combination of runes, masteries and Ghostblade will make their armor insignificant.

-Gold/10 sec: Without it you'll likely have to sit on your hands a bit before you get your wriggle's wasting buff time.... or head out to gank w/out it.


-Rez time reduction: Purely preference... but rez timers are the deciding factor in late game pushes.

-summoner spell masteries: pick the ones that match the spells you take, and adjust your masteries accordingly.

So long as your runes are useful to Udyr you should be fine to follow this guide.


Greater Mark of Desolation: I like these for the punch they give me early game and their synergy with Brutalizer which is why I get it first on damage items, these do taper off late game if enemies get armor items but they're never insignificant.

Greater Seal of Evasion: These make the difference between having to buy extra pots during your early jungle phase. They go nicely with your passive and are the best general survivabilty runes you can get.

Greater Glyph of Scaling Cooldown Reduction: Probably the most debatable of my rune choices, as I mentioned in the mastery section I love cooldown reduction and since Udyr has serious mana restrictions early game I find the per lvl ones far more effective overall.

other runes: -Most Udyr builds I see have Greater Glyph of Magic Resist to cover for his low MR, however as you'll see on the cheat sheet this build has balanced 150ish MR and armor so I don't think MR runes are really neccessary but as I mentioned at the start any rune set up should be fine, so pick the ones you like (or have on hand)

even without the cooldown/lvl runes you'll have 20% reduction from masteries and Ghostblade, giving you just enough to maintain monkey's stacks in 1 stance.

Greater Mark of Magic Penetration: in the alternate build section I've got an unorthodox build that would benefit from these in place of the armor pen runes, aside from that I can't see these being useful.

Smite: Sure to be the most debatable of the summoner spells, but as I mentioned I made this jungle guide to remove smite, if you want smite you might wanna check out the guide I'm not cheater, I jungle fast by Danilosan, or SxR's Udyr guide Both have videos Danilosan goes for a very early gank and SxR's jungle strats get you ganking a little earlier than mine.

- Teleport: I love this spell! combined with bear spam you're almost omnipresent, and the extra capacity to back-door, tower guard, or gank it gives you is awesome.

- Ghost: By far the summoner spell that goes best with Udyr, ghost+bear is practically a get out of trouble free card. it also goes well with bear spam and teleport to keep your map presence or chase.

- Flash: I used to love this spell for the capacity to flash through walls to chase or escape, but it's long cooldown and short range make it very gimmicky and I find it's rarely up when you need it.

- Clairvoyance: I've seen people make great use of this spell, and since you have no choice but to face check bushes it can save your neck... but for me it doesn't compare to ghost or tele.

- Rally: Meh, it can prolly be used to great effect in team fights and tower killing with creeps but it just doesn't feel worthwhile to me.

- Exhaust: Since they changed it exhaust is much more versatile, but the main use is still to slow an escaping enemy for the kill, something Udyr rarely needs.

- Clarity: Udyr only suffers from mana issues early game, and you'll be in the jungle when your team-mates could really benefit from the mastery.

- Heal: This could be useful, but it doesn't scale well and with Udyr's capacity to escape ganks and turtle heal, it's a very rare for Heal to make a difference on him.

- Fortify: If you're going tank masteries this could be good, but I still prefer ghost's ability to chase/run and teleport's ability to get you where the action is.

- Ignite: I'd take this in 3s if no one else has it, but in 5s one of your assassins or mages should have it. Udyr can chase, does good consistent damage, and already has Tiger Bleed to stick on someone who might flash away etc. with low hp. Ignite only comes into it's own on Udyr when used to counter self healers (mundo etc.)

I only have the typical well rounded final items listed above so the cheat sheet is accurate.
(total cost approx. 18,000g I'm aware that's a large number but that's the final total and I've done my best to make the early/mid game as efficient and powerful as possible.

Core items:
- Wriggle's Lantern: this gets sold mid to late game to make room for a late game item, but early to mid game it's the best bang for your buck a physical jungler can get, and if you use your free ward it'll pay for it's self by the time you sell it.

- / : All 3 of your dps items are about equally important but this should always be first, the armor pen from The Brutalizer puts it head and shoulders above the other dps items early game.
the upgrade to Youmuu's Ghostblade is relatively situational, if you're in a game of cat and mouse (where both teams are spending most of their time guarding/threatening a turret without much progress) you might choose to get Youmuu's Ghostblade as your first upgrade in order to push an unguarded turret hard enough to draw enemies from the turret they're defending... or just rip it to shreds

- / : Sheen is always 2nd on your damage item list, where The Brutalizer gives you consistant damage, Sheen gives you burst. once you've got sheen a quick bear/tiger will put the fear of Udyr into anyone. Trinity force however is last on your upgrade list, awesome though it is, once you've got sheen the rest just isn't worth the money compared to upgrading any of your other pieces.
In my experience the bonus damage from Sheen and Trinity Force is added after critical damage. ex. 250x2.5(critical damage w/infinity edge) = 625+(sheen/trinity damage 250/375) = 1000dmg with full gear against a target with 0 armor.

- : Typically it will take the place of Wriggle's Lantern so I don't go for it till I'm ready to buy Infinity Edge completely with the 1000g from selling . However the synergy between the three damage items is amazing and Infinity Edge is really the key to that synergy when it comes to champ damage. I'd start saving for this after I've got 1 armor piece upgraded (typically Banshee's Veil) Infinity Edge is expensive but when you consider that you're selling wriggle's lantern it's only about 1,000g more than your other upgrades and has the biggest stat differences by far.

- : Really you can put whatever boots you want in here tho in the interests of keeping this as well rounded as possible I have Mercury's Treads listed, Berserker's Greaves shouldn't put you over 2.5 attack speed fully buffed so they're an option, so are Ninja Tabi if the enemy are physical heavy and light on CC. If you really want to buff your DPS you could even dump boots all together and get Phantom Dancer (losing about 20 move speed {436->412 move speed} compared to Mercury's Treads)

- / : MR is Udyr's weaker stat so this is typically higher priority than Guardian Angel, the spell shield is incredibly useful and of course the extra mana/hp help you stay in the field longer (I usually get Negatron Cloak before my first real dps piece)

- / : Healthy armor and a get out of rez timer free card! Lower priority than Banshee's Veil since Udyr has strong base armor as well as 30 armor from Wriggle's Lantern for most of the game.


full item order goes..

1) Cloth Armor, Health Potionx5

2)Bring Health Potion back up to x2

3) Madred's Razors

4) Wriggle's Lantern

5) Boots and/or Negatron Cloak

6) The Brutalizer

7) Sheen

8) Mercury's Treads

9) Chain Vest (if you've been having a rough time with physical you might want to move this up the list)

10) Banshee's Veil

11) Infinity Edge/sell Wriggle's Lantern (3080g + sale money to buy Infinity Edge completely)

12) Guardian Angel

13) Youmuu's Ghostblade

14) Trinity Force


my opinion on items I'm often asked about:

: This item is often debated, the truth is if the enemy isn't packed with tanks/off-tanks I don't find it worthwhile, the bonus damage is good... very good even against squishies but in the end it isn't increased by crit, doesn't affect towers (I believe) and doesn't help your Tiger bleed. imo it's sub-par for Tiger Udyr
remember, you don't really have any magic penetration so they'll usually ignore 30-50% of the bonus damage.

: 100 AD and 25% life steal... on 1 item yes please... too bad it takes 40 creep kills to get it all the way up and it's wiped when you die, I've played around with it a lot and it works wonders, multiple make you a 1v1 king... but in the end the fact that it's wiped when you die makes it too situational for my liking (you'll know what I mean when you're focused to death making a big push and have to rush back to the fight before replenishing your stacks... or worse have to back-door)

: The % Armor pen on this is sooo nice if the enemies are stacking Armor, but it's very situational and can only replace Youmuu's Ghostblade (to maintain the integrity of this build) weakening it's benefit.

Armor is reduced by flat before percentage penetration, greatly reducing the benefit of flat armor pen if the enemies get enough armor to push a Last Whisper (a team average of 150-200 is when I'd switch)

: I see this used a lot as the sole "tank" item (boots not included)in Udyr builds or in conjunction with Atma's Impaler. I used to use one or both quite often but after 20-30 games I went back to armor/MR the reason being that while 1500ish hp is awesome but having <100 armor and RM makes you far too squishy if they have any penetration, however used in conjuction with a couple armor/MR pieces Warmog's Armor becomes amazing!

Play Video
The Benefits of having a Jungler:
- The jungler maintains a level equal or higher to the lanes with 2 people in it.
Faster is obviously better, but as long as you can keep up with the paired lanes you're not at a disadvantage and the ally you would have been laning with should have a lvl advantage (if both teams have junglers then the advantage goes to whoever jungles faster or ganks better, with out smite you're slower than junglers who have it so focus on good ganking and denying their jungler..

- By simply being in the jungle your enemies are forced to take anti-gank precautions like buying wards early or playing more cautiously in their lane.

- If an ally dies or needs to recall and heal a jungler can take over their lane without weakening another lane.
at worst you tower sit for some quick easy gold and some turtle stance regen. Just remember you're easily harassed so focus on keeping the tower alive, you can always go for the gank when your team-mate gets back

- A jungler also gives your team a lot of map control with their movements, wards and capacity to quickly rob the enemy jungle
even if they don't have a jungler and you've already got red/blue buffs take the time to steal them from their jungle whenever you get the chance (this can also open up your red/blue buffs for your team to take in relative safety)

Now for the strategy:
(S) means shop
>>> represents movement
>>[text]>> specific type of movement, recalling or using summoner spells
(S) cloth armor, 5x health pots
wolves >>> wraiths >>> small golems >>recall>> (S) make sure you've got 2 hp pots >>ghost>> wolves
>>> wraiths >>> Small golems >>recall>> (S) Madred's Razors, make sure you've got 1 hp pot >>> wolves >>> blue golem >>> wraiths >>> Lizard >>> small golems >>recall>> (S) Wriggle's lantern >>> GANK TIME

Detailed jungle info:
if you don't read the details you might die on your first lap :P
start with tiger stance, cloth armor and 5x health pots
when you use your stances and pots makes a big difference in this first lap
Wolves 1x tiger on big wolf, and pot as soon as you've taken damage)
>>>>>>>>
Wraiths pot as you go through the bushes towards them, 1x tiger on the big one, when it dies you'll be lvl 2, put your point in turtle as quickly as possible and switch to turtle stance stay in turtle to get your mana up and pot as needed to get 300+ hp (starting golems with less than 300 hp will likely get you killed even with a potion active)
>>>>>>>
Small Golems tiger, turtle, tiger, turtle (by the time you can cast your 2nd tiger stance the bleed should kill the golem you've been focusing so switch to the other as soon as you've got the bleed on him) continue your stance dancing till your out of mana or it dies
>>>>>>
RECALL lvl 3 (get tiger rank 2) and make sure you've got 2 pots stocked for the next lap
>>>>>>
ghost to wolves (if you chose ghost, you can safely use it to get back to the jungle and it'll be back up by the time you're done getting buffs)
>>>>>>
Repeat the kill order and strat but now you'll add a turtle to get some mana back from the wolves and should only have to pot 1x during the wraiths (lvl 4 get bear and lvl 5 get rank 3 tiger)
>>>>>>
RECALL and pick up your Madred's Razors, make sure you've got 1 pot
>>>>>
Now it's time to get some buffs, back to wolves, [1x tiger 1x turtle]
>>>
Blue Golem: kill the little guys first, tiger bleed and 1 extra hit will kill one, from there you just twist tiger/turtle waiting as long as possible before switching stances to maintain your monkey's agility until golem dies.
>>>>>
Head over to wraiths [1x tiger 1x turtle] sitting in turtle to regen some mana and conserve hp for lizard
>>>>>
Lizard, same strat as golem, except the first little one should die from tiger bleed alone
>>>>>
small golems (lvl 6, rank 2 Bear)
>>>>
RECALL pick up your Wriggle's lantern and it's time to gank if you've got teleport hopefully someone will have a decent opportunity ready for you right away, if not drop your ward at dragon or wherever seems appropriate, since I run with teleport I love having wards or mushrooms etc. on both sides of the map so I can teleport behind or into bushes for a gank

The kill order and stance usage is very important and designed to minimize the risk of bad luck getting you killed (series of crits/lack of dodges or an enemy ganker) do pay close attention during wraiths and golems especially on the first lap as you'll usually be 1/2 hp or below and low on mana

-If there are no opportune ganks available or being set up get back to work in the jungle. This would be an excellent time to steal their buffs if they don't have a jungler or he's safely elsewhere.

if you follow this guide to the letter you can gank as early as lvl 4 however I strongly urge you to wait, even with blue buff a lvl 3-4 Udyr only has the mana for 5-6 stance changes, often leading to a narrow escape or a counter gank on a manaless Udyr. At lvl 6 you'll have rank 3 tiger for the burst and rank 2 bear saving you enough mana that you should be able to go all out on your gank and still have enough to turtle/bear back to the safety of a tower.

-Tell your team when you're almost ready to start ganking so they have time to let the enemies push w/out being totally obvious, and when you decide to gank someone/somewhere make sure to warn your team-mates A.S.A.P. so your team-mates will save their ult or relax on their harass or whatever they think is appropriate to ensure a successful gank.

if the target of your gank is pushing your tower rather then coming straight out of the bushes sit in there till you see the first creep from their next wave then exit the back of the bushes and go to the far side of the river before entering the lane (ideally just far enough behind their creeps that they don't see you) with a coordinated team your allies can scare your target right into your claws, if not at least you're in a gap between their creep waves and in the middle of the lane minimizing the spaces they can run through that lead directly to their tower

If the enemy Jungler has smite he will come out for ganks before you, try and turn that around on him check what buffs he has, if he didn't get one go rob it. If you see their jungler sitting in a lane consider getting someone to help you down dragon (you should be able to solo dragon 6 with buffs 8 without if Wriggle's Lantern is nice with procs but the time it takes puts you at risk of getting ganked or robbed, even with help I wouldn't attack dragon that early w/out knowing their jungler is safely away or busy)

-Always stance dance, for your situation ( / / )in stationary combat, ( / / ) for creep waves etc, ( / / ) running or chasing, there will be plenty of time to pop tiger if you catch em with a bear stun, till then make sure you've got a turtle shield incase they turn around and throw something at you.

-once Blazing Stampede is rank 5 use it constantly when moving around so long as you've got 1/2 mana or so you've got plenty of fight in you if you go straight into enemy champs, and if you don't come across any champs you can always turtle through a creep wave to get all your mana back once you get there

-Once you've got Youmuu's Ghostblade you can back-door a tower down to <1/2 hp before running away at 1/2 hp, if you've got Teleport up you can drop a ward nearby, recall and Teleport back to finish the job once Youmuu's Ghostblade is back up if the enemies aren't careful.

-When guarding a tower vs multiple opponents, prep tiger then bear to 1 opponent for the bleed/stun then continue to the 2nd opponent and bear stun then switch to tiger for a quick double bleed/stun ( / --> 1st opponent --> 2nd opponent
Be careful with this, it'll cost a lot of mana early game and if they're tough or there's more than 2 they might just take this opportunity to eat you.

-When covering a lane vs a ranged champ, try and work your way to the edge/back of the creeps in Iron Mantle then go for a quick + on them.
make sure you've got the hp/mana to hit and run. If they've got any mia, you risk setting yourself up for a gank. Don't even bother trying this if your opponent is Teemo he'll out-run you or blind you, either way he ends up better off than you

if you can kill them that's all well and good, but if you try and play defensive vs a ranged champ they'll just poke at you and push you behind your tower, try to scare them before they get you in that situation, you can also ask for a ranged to take over or a gank

-Never be embarassed to ask for help, especially when covering a lane. Udyr's main weakness is his lack of range if you find yourself being zoned or pushed to a point you can't safely guard the tower speak up at worst you won't be the only one to blame if the tower is lost.

Udyr has three roles in team fights;

1) stun:
1a) In team fights it should always be your priority to watch enemies with stunnable AoEs ( Nunu & Willump, Galio, Katarina etc.) as well as lock down people like Fiddlesticks (you can't stop his ult once it's been cast but you can stop him from chasing) and Tryndamere slap him with a bear stun when he's low hp to reduce his active ult time.
as far as I know only supression can stop Tryndamere's Ult, and you can stop Fiddlesticks' Ult if you stun him while he's casting (he does a little Flash when he's done casting so if you've got them pushed to a tower and Fiddle is MIA keep an eye on the nearby jungle
1b) Chase and screen: with bear you can lead the chase and stun any stragglers for your team to eat. You can also run screen for your escaping allies with bear/turtle running behind them ready to bear stun any enemy that gets too close or pop turtle and eat a skill shot that might kill an ally. be careful, eating a skill shot that hits multiple targets might just hurt you and kill your ally, eating a stun or root might just get you killed instead, and lastly beware of miss fortune her Double Up bounces to a target behind her first target, if you're tailing a weakened ally you might just get them killed by letting her cast it on you.

2) Anti Carry: Udyr doesn't have the burst of other anti carries (panth and the assassin champs) but what he lacks in raw burst he makes up for in staying power and threat. While the other anti carries are generally front loaded dps beasts, once they've cast their little combo they're squishy or ignorable for a few seconds. Udyr on the other hand is always a threat, try and position yourself between their fleeing carry and the combat, you can effectivly lock them out by popping bear and charging them whenever they come close enough.
(being on that side of combat also gives you a bit of a head start on chasing if you route the enemies)

just be careful you don't waste too much time chasing carries, once they're out of range to participate in the team fight let them go (unless your team has the rest in hand) you're a lot more useful making the fight a 5v4 than chasing their carry across the map

3) Tank: I'm personally not a fan of tank focused Udyr because he loses his threat when he goes too tanky, sure he becomes hard to kill and can run around stunning like a maniac but unlike the other tanks Udyr has no real AoE abilities (Phoenix breath is nice but you're not likely to hit enough enemies hard enough to make them want to focus you) no taunt and he doesn't have the map presence of Shen (the only comparably lacking tank) Don't get me wrong Udyr can go tank and Shen is amazing, but without cause for the enemies to focus on you being pure tank just doesn't make sense to me.
I now have a "tank" build in the alternate build section, I've found that The Brutalizer and Sheen give you enough threat to force a bit of focus

Udyr isn't at his best in lanes, lack of ranged harass etc etc. but you'll likely spend a lot of time covering for people or just guarding a tower so I figured I'd cover it.

If for whatever reason you're starting in a lane as udyr you'll prolly want a Doran's shield, mana gem, or vampiric scepter to start.

Solo lane (vs 1 or 2)

-It doesn't matter if you're solo vs 1 or 2 unless it's 1v1 and they're a melee champ with weak harass (yi and the like) just go turtle and tower sit, popping bear to stun them if they get too close or cocky

-remember your highest priorities are to keep yourself and your tower alive so don't take risks and focus on turtle feeding off creeps and punishing them for attacking your tower. If they attack you back off far enough they can't hit you w/out your tower hitting them

Paired lane:

-Pairing with a ranged champ or someone with strong harass/burst is ideal

-In a paired lane you'll want to stay in bear whenever harassment doesn't force some turtle regen. Use this to harass their melee w/out having to waste mana (drop a stun on them to interfere with their last hitting... or just because they're close enough to be hit)

-early game in a paired lane your job is to initiate, when your partner is ready rush the target for a bear stun with your partner's backing you can easily keep them away from tower long enough for a kill

-always get Bear, Turtle and a dps stance as your first 3 lvls if you're laning, you never know when you'll need one or all of them.

-Phoenix can be used as a harass if you're laning, count your strikes and try to line up a phoenix breath to hit an enemy (remember it cones out from wherever Udyr is facing)

-Sitting in the bushes is a great way to increase your threat in a lane w/out opening yourself to targeted abilities,
this is especially effective if your partner is someone like panth, jax, or yi who can jump quickly to an enemy you initiate on but are melee or too squishy to zone the enemies.

Udyr and towers:
-Udyr loves to eat towers, if you're in a lane and confident you can safely get some hits on their tower do it!
just save mana to get out of there quick incase you misjudged your safety or overstay your creeps. They will likely start watching you closely when you get near a tower once they realize how quick you take them down
-You'd be suprised how quickly you can pester a tower down if they don't keep it guarded just stack your passive and pop a tiger when you get to the tower, by lvl 10 (w/out dps items) you should be able to take about 1/4 of it's HP in 1 wave of creeps

-Once you've got Ghostblade you'll be able to solo a tower in 2 waves of creeps if they leave you unchecked.

-If a tower is low HP it's a good idea to charge the tower while your team tower dives the enemies, just make sure your team is aware of your plan so they don't misjudge the strength of the tower dive or expect you to tank the tower (tho that is still an option if an enemy is kind enough to let you hit him before your team starts on them)

Tower Diving:
Poking isn't Udyr's strong suite, Tower diving is though.

-Prep tiger! if you've got an enemy sitting at their tower with a couple hundred hp, pop tiger then charge em with bear for a quick stun/bleed then turtle/bear out of tower range while tiger bleed does it's work.

-With decent health and a grasp on where the rest of the enemies are Udyr can turtle/bear past a tower to catch a runner
2 towers is possible at later lvls but not recommended

-If they've got someone desperately defending a turret and you've got company in your lane drop back and come around through the jungle to cut off his retreat for a double dive (at later lvls you'll probably get behind them before they even realize you're gone if you spam bear)

Just gonna touch on some alternate build ideas I've had, these are either un-tested or only tested vs comps since I like my current build :P

Magic damage Udyr (tested vs comps)
5/3/5/5 (tiger/Turtle/Bear/Phoenix)

items:
Madred's Bloodrazors, Malady, Wit's End, Merc. treads, Guardian's Angel, Banshee's Veil
sorc boots are an option to focus more fully on dmg

Explaination:
I made this with the thought of "what do I do if I somehow end up in a pug where everyone chooses physical characters" I only ran it through 1 comp test run but I found it quite effective and very amusing.

Theory:
Stack attack speed/ magic damage proc items, and twist tiger into phoenix to maximize magic damage output.

Strategy:
Follow this jungle routine and mastery build, exchange ArP runes for magic pen (if you wish) focus tiger up first and balance phoenix/bear ranks (or focus one then the other depending on your needs) buy Malady as your first major dps item after Madred's razors.

Combat:
Bear -> tiger -> phoenix --- twist tiger/phoenix (switch to phoenix asap, you just want tiger for the bleed, attack speed buff, and to maintain passive stacks. try to time your switch to tiger to happen right after a breath but that's a lot to keep track of w/out losing track of the combat as a whole)


Tank Udyr: (untested... tho it's basicly the same as my base build)
5/5/5/3 (Tiger/Turtle/Bear/Phoenix)

Items:
Banshee's veil, Guardian Angel, Warmog's Armor, Merc. Treads, Ghostblade, Trinity Force

Explanation:
In a recent game I ended up the most tanky person on the team, we won before I felt it necessary to complete my switch but this is the plan I had.

Theory:
Maximize Survivability without crippling your threat if you don't hurt them enough to make them want to hit you, you're not helping your team imo So pick up Warmog's instead of Infinity edge. (60% damage reduction and 4k health makes a decent tank, and ghostblade for towers, trinity force for champions gives them a reason to want you dead)

Strategy: Same as the base guide just swap to tank runes/masteries and switch out infinity edge for warmogs.

Just using windows calculator here so forgive me if there's any errors. The math is accurate to the best of my knowledge however the text is my personal opinion, so feel free to ignore either as you see fit :P

armor and MR work like this (stat) /100+(stat)
154 armor 154 / 100+154 = 60% | 50 = 33% 100 = 50% 200 = 66% 300 = 75% 500 = 83%
143 MR 143 / 100+143 = 58% |
the numbers on the right are there to give perspective (the math is the same for armor and MR)

now lets assume they've got armor pen/magic pen equivelent to the pen this build has(45 flat)
154 armor 154-45 / 100+(154-45) = 52%
143 MR 143-45 / 100+(143-45) = 49/50% (depending on how they round it off)

just 40% armor 55% magic (assuming they've got the mastery)
154 armor 154-40% / 100+(154-40%) = 48%
143 MR 143-55% / 100+(143-55%) = 39%

45 flat and 40/55%
154 armor (154-45)-40% / 100+{(154-45)-40%} = 40%
143 MR (143-45)-55% / 100+{(143-45)-55%} = 31%

Now with no armor items:
86 armor 86 / 100+ 86 = 46%
30 MR 30 / 100+ 30 = 23%


this build has 25 armor pen from runes, casters only get about 15 magic pen similarly runed

Now that you've taken the time to read these numbers it's about time to ask yourself how many dps champs are gonna have penetration?

all the above numbers are based on the stats given on the cheat sheet and may not be accurate to the current patch.

to sum it up, 60%--->40% armor, 58%--->31% magic resist (0 penetration ---> 45 flat penetration plus 40% armor/55% magic pen)

Well... that was a lot of text! I'd like to thank anyone who takes the time to read this and I hope it helps you.

I'll add links to recommended guides, preferably other good Udyr, ranked, warding, and general info guides. (Since this is an Udyr guide I won't post links to guides specific to other characters/character types)

Warding guide





Also, I have no intention of making full guides for my alternate build(s) so if anyone tries them and writes a guide I'll happily add a link, but please credit where credit's due.... positive credit at least :P If you do take the time to try my alternate build(s) I'd love to hear some feedback, good or bad.

02-08-11- Edited and revised some pointless info and rambling
02-11-11- pretty sure I got all the important images, also changed the guide name to "smiteless Tiger Jungling" to avoid confusion.
02-12-11- A bit more editing and revision