Hello, I'm Black Mamba xP (formerly known as EvangelOne). I started playing Udyr since way back in the innervating locket days, and ever since then, he's been my main, trump card, the ace in the hole or whatever the hell else you wanna call it. Not only do his stances offer a play style like no other champ, but it also makes for a degree of difficulty that makes him hard to master. This isn't a simple pick up, play and pwn first-game champ (although I don't rule anything out because I've seen anything and everything that can happen in this frustrating yet wonderful game >.>). But with patience, a bit of skill, and most of all in-game experience, you will see the true Beast that he is. The Beast that can clear the jungle in under 4 minutes, basically have guaranteed successful ganks, turret dive like a madman, and take 5 ulti's to the face and still live to stun the enemy. This is my jungle phoenix Udyr and how I play him, I hope you all learn and enjoy.

Before even discussing items, runes, masteries and so forth, people first need to understand the abilities that make Udyr the freight train that he is. His are very unique, in that rather then having skills that are used on the dime then put on CD, his are ever going. They are known as stances, and basically are on constant effect whether they are on their active or passive. This aspect of him is what makes Udyr, in my opinion, the most enjoyable champ to play since there is always a skill to use every few seconds. Your always kept on your toes and need to know when and where to use a stance and which one to switch to. This collective process is known as stance dancing, and it is a pivotal part of the Beast that must be mastered in order to use him correctly and efficiently. If not, you're going to be running around looking like a fool who stays in Tiger since that's all you hear about when Udyr is referred to (yeh im not stupid >.>)

Getting that cleared, let's take a look at what exactly each of his stances are.

Monkey's Agility


Entering a stance grants Udyr 10% attack speed and 3% dodge for 5 seconds. This effect can stack up to 3 times.

Not the best passive around, but certainly still effective. As the game progresses, it becomes more and more useful as you will pretty much be switching stances as soon as they're available. The bonus AS will be the most beneficial, and a little dodge for those auto attacking champs doesn't hurt either. Abuse it as much as you can late game.

Tiger Stance


Persistent Effect: Udyr's attack speed is increased by 20/25/30/35/40%.

Activation: Udyr gains an additional 15/20/25/30/35% attack speed for 5 seconds after activating Tiger stance. While active or for 5 second after Activation, Udyr's next attack deals 170% his attack damage plus 30/80/130/180/230 over 2 seconds as magic damage.

What makes Tiger stance......well Tiger stance......is primarily the DoT that it carries. Now I'll admit and say right off the bat that it's certainly a great offensive tool in Udyr's arsenal that shouldn't be overlooked. It can result in massive damage potentially over a matter of seconds. But the fact of the matter is Tiger stance and, more importantly, offense isn't the primary emphasis of this guide and in my honest opinion Udyr in general. He has too much versatility to just go straight DPS on him. For this reason is why I leave Tiger with 3 points, but I still encourage using it late game to toss in some team fight damage and use it's AS if you're downing turrets, inhibitors and so forth.

Turtle Stance


Persistent Effect: Udyr's attacks cannot crit, but he restores 12/14/16/18/20% of his damage as health and 9/10.5/12/13.5/15% of his damage as mana.

Activation: Udyr gains a temporary shield that absorbs 60/100/140/180/220 (+0.5 AP) damage.

This is one of the two Bread and Butter stances that's going to make you literally a Beast that takes sh*t from nobody. Not only does it keep you out on the battle field without needing to base, thanks to the hp and mana restoration, but the shield that you can stance into every few seconds will help soak up a lot of punishment that you WILL be taking. Since you're melee and are going to be getting in the heart of any team fight (at least that's what you should be or your not doing your job >.>), your are going to find the need to be switching to turtle just about every other stance. Please acknowledge that the shield is boosted by your resistances.

Bear Stance


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.

Activation: Udyr gains 15/18/21/24/27% increased movement speed for 2/2.5/3/3.5/4 seconds.

If Turtle is your bread, then Bear stance is your ohh, so hot butter. This stance is what really makes Udyr's team value sky rocket, as this is what's going to be the primary stance the has the biggest impact in ganks and team fights. This is Udyr's only type of initiation (also used in tandem with either Ghost or Flash, but more on that later), chase, get away, and most importantly life saving stance due to it's stun. Since this is the only real thing Udyr has as a gap closer, you must utilize the speed bonus to it's full potential. What do I mean by that? Angles baby! Don't rely on just the speed alone to aid you, but also learn to position and chase going at smarter angles then just running down from behind; either attempt to cut them off for a stun, re-direct them to run towards your team or a ambushing teammate, etc.

Phoenix Stance


Persistent Effect: Every fourth attack, Udyr engulfs enemies in front of him in flame, dealing 50/90/130/170/210(+0.25 AP) magic damage.In addition, Udyr's ability power is increased by 16/24/32/40/48 and his attack damage is increased by half of that amount.

Activation: Udyr sends out pulsing waves of fire dealing 15/25/35/45/55 (+0.25 AP) magic damage each second to nearby enemies for 5 seconds.

This stance is your main ticket to fast jungling and will be your primary source of offense through the majority of the match. The AoE damage the proc's every fourth hit is what makes jungling a breeze, and also combo's well with red buff at early ganks to practically guarantee a kill. Do not underestimate the damage this can do in team fights, it can tip the edge in your team's favor by spamming a bit of phoenix in between your bear and turtle dancing.

Now that you see the abilities that create the foundation of Udyr, you need to equip him with the right tools to be a Beast on the fields of justice. First thing to discuss are runes, which have a larger impact on Udyr more so then other champs since we are discussing him as a jungler. For this reason, I'm not going offer alternate choices, since this is what I see as the most optimized rune set up for this guide. Starting with Quintessences and Marks, I run both Greater Quintessence of Attack Speed and Greater Mark of Attack Speed primarily for the Phoenix jungling, as it'll help keep jungle times low since it will be able to proc your phoenix passive more often. The extra AS throughout the match also doesn't hurt as it will synergize well with your passive. Next I run Greater Seal of Evasion largely for, yet again, jungling purposes. Used in tandem with Udyr's passive, creep damage will be decreased thus creating a much safer jungle (you really shouldn't be dying at all with Udyr in the jungle while using this......or any guide for that matter......). Also as stated earlier the increased dodge helps on those AA champs who love to abuse their DPS. Finally as far as glyphs go, I run pretty standerd Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist since they offer a nice boost that is needed on Udyr's already low base MR per level.

There are several mastery set ups available for Udyr since, as stated, he's a very versatile champ and can cover a variety of roles. But our Udyr is a tanky/off tanky machine and for this reason, we're running a pretty standerd 0/21/9 set up. Some key notes to point out: Evasion and Nimbleness were practically designed for Udyr, they compliment him extremely well in the jungle and obviously any other time you dodge during a fight. I can't tell you how many times that 10% boost has helped finished someone off or get a last second stun. People sometimes ask or wonder why as a jungler, especially being Udyr, I don't run something such as 0/15/15 or some other variation in order to get the full 2 points in Utility Mastery . If there was a magical extra point, trust me that'd be the one mastery I'd put it in to complete. But the fact is there isn't, and I find filling out the full defensive tree especially to get Tenacity is more beneficial through out the game as a whole. Finally, some people like to get Plentiful Bounty anytime they jungle. If you're one of those people that do like to have it, by all means you can switch out your extra point in Utility Mastery . But in my honest opinion, 5 gold and a decreased 5 second CD is hardly worth it at all. You're already going to have a 5gp10 item in HoG and you'll hardly ever find yourself in the situation where you're like "Damn! If only my smite was 5 seconds shorter.........". Yeah, no, so please listen to my strong recommendation when I tell you that in the long run, Plentiful Bounty is hardly worth it compared to anything else you can fill that point into.

There aren't too many options as far as spells go, and I'm only going to cover what's effective on him. So any spell that you don't see, don't consider using it on him.

Must Have:

Smite
- This is a necessity for The Beast. Why? Because he's a jungler. Nuff said

Secondary Options:

Ghost
- This is my personal favorite and pretty much what I run 95% of the time on him. Combo'ing this with your Bear MS boost can guarantee you kills in ganks, catching that last stray enemy, burst initiating, getting the hell out of a nasty situation, etc. Basically as you can see, the utility and usefulness ghost provides is too good to pass up. Note to always keep track when it's on CD. Don't use it the minute you have it available, make sure to save it and get the maximum effect of it, as every second of it's duration matters.

Flash
- I'll be honest, I hardly, If ever, run flash on him. But I realized the times I have used it with Udyr and additionally on other champions, that it's more of a personal preference thing then anything else. I understand that people can argue since Udyr is susceptible to CC very easily and doesn't have a gap closer other then bear, flash is the better option. And that is understandable, but I've also found that with ghost, when used correctly, you can still counter those weaknesses just as good. All it takes is popping it at the right time, whether it be sooner or later in a team fight or whatever other situation it's in. So really it's up to you whether you feel you get more mobility from ghost or flash, just know my personal preference and recommendation is ghost. (Also add's the intimidation factor a bit more...I mean cmon you see a f*cking bear running at full speed just to stun you. Scary sh*t)

Other Viable Options:

Exhaust
- This isn't a totally bad option on him. Slow and set them up for a easy stun, and/or for your teammate(s) to come wreck the holy hell out of them. Not a bad choice at all. But you really lose out on the bonus mobility that, with experience, I've found is something that he almost must have in order to be capable earlier in the game. Again not a bad choice on him as it not only helps you, but benefits the team since they can utilize it as well. You just need to play a lot smarter and position yourself better on the map in order to gank and catch people.

Cleanse
- I can see why people would run this on him. Since kiting and slows are Udyr's kryptonite, this can relieve that problem at certain times. Totally understandable. But again, you lose out on the extra mobility that is practically needed on Udyr to compensate for his lack of true initiation. And not having exhaust either, really makes you a bit more dependent on your team to help keep enemies in range for you to keep up. I see the usefulness, just don't see it MORE useful then the other spells.

The Beast is an extremely versatile character who's one of the few champs that can find some sort of effective use in any item bought for him. For this reason it's very hard to establish a core set of items on Udyr, since not only does he have a high flexibility rate in terms of gear, but League of Legends is a ever changing game in itself. When I say this, I mean that your item purchasing should be considered on multiple factors that constantly change from match to match. Some examples are:

Who are you facing?: The first thing you should be doing every time is look at all enemy champs at the loading screen, and start mapping out potential items you'll need. If I look and I see a bunch of AA and DPS champs, I'm already going to consider getting Ninja Tabi's instead of Merc's since those will benefit me more with the dodge and armor. Always study and prepare as If you'll need to defend and counter every enemy, then build accordingly.

Who are you with?: Not only does it matter who you're up against, but you must also consider who's allied with you. Ideally you want to build a Off Tanky Udyr; a nice combination of solid tankiness and some noteworthy damage to help in team fights and so you're not completely ignored. But if you look and see your team has no type of tank at all, or there is only one other off tanky type person such as Rumble for example, you might want to throw out the idea of keeping that wriggle's and/or buying a madred's, since you need to fill that tank role a bit more. Always look and see what your team needs the most from you, and fill that role as best you can. ABUSE THE VERSATILITY.

How is the actual game going?: After considering both the enemy and your own team comp, see how the actual game is going as you're playing. Don't build heavy MR early if they have an Annie and a Nid, but they're both a combined 1/8/2. Instead get some armor for that fed Vayne who is wrecking your team, who's currently 6/0/3. See how that works? Understand the team composition, but at the same time see how the actual game is flowing. See who is being the biggest threat and build to sustain/counter against them. That also goes for your team as well; are your carries doing well, as in are they doing their job? If they aren't get a bit of damage with a trinity maybe, be able to help fill that role. Again know who you're playing with and against, but adjust as the match moves from its early to mid to later stages to give yourself and your team the best chance to win.

Now that we have that understood, now for the actual items. I'm listing what I use/have used in the past and what I see as most effective and viable on him. I won't go into detail about each item as they should be self explanatory, and it's also up to you to try them out yourself and get hands on experience; learn what works best against certain personnel and also in tandem with all the other items purchased.

Armor - Ninja Tabi Wriggle's Lantern Madred's Bloodrazor Randuin's Omen Thornmail Sunfire Aegis Frozen Heart Atma's Impaler Guardian Angel Aegis of the Legion

Magic Resist - Mercury's Treads Banshee's Veil Force of Nature Wit's End Spirit Visage Guardian Angel Aegis of the Legion

Offensive/Other - Wriggle's Lantern Madred's Bloodrazor Trinity Force Hextech Gunblade Frozen Mallet Warmog's Armor Zeke's Harbinger Atma's Impaler Wit's End

If at first you're really struggling to figure out what to build and in what order, use the blueprint build listed way up top in the cheat sheet section. It is a pretty balanced build in terms of giving you a nice chunk Armor, MR, HP, and a bit of damage. This build, again, is assuming you're facing a balanced team that includes facing a large part of the metagame (building off tanky), hence the Madred's. Once you get accustomed from there, you can start interchanging and seeing what works better in certain situations and against what champs/team comps.

SIDE NOTE: I'm not going to be going in depth with the whole Trinity Force vs Madred's Bloodrazor issue. First off there are enough guides and topics out there to right a 700 page novel on this debate, so I'm sure you can do a bit of research and read up on your own. Secondly, in reality they are both useful and effective items, they both work well in tandem with your stances (whether it be phoenix or tiger), and both SHOULD be used in certain games.....you just need to know when. The basic rule of thumb is if you're facing more squishies, get a Trinity. If you have tanks/off tanks/people stacking hp, get a Madred's. Just keep that idea in mind when determining what to buy, and you should be fine.

Now that you know what to equip Udyr with, it's time to know what to do when he's out on the fields of justice, and how to go Beast mode on some motherf*ckers. The first and possibly most pivotal part of the entire game for Udyr is the jungling/early game phase. Several people sometimes struggle to either know the best path in the jungle or know how to execute the whole jungling process properly (a.k.a. not getting owned by blue golem >.>). For the most part though, with Udyr, if you have the proper runes (or close to them) and the right masteries, he isn't a hard champ to jungle with. Just takes a bit of practice and experience to get a good grasp of it.

Jungle Path: Blue Buff - Wolves - Wraiths - Small Golems - Red Buff

To me this is the most effective and efficient route to jungle with since it can be completed at roughly 3:35-4:05, also allows to gank at level 4, and obviously because of that offers early assistance to any struggling lanes.

In Depth: Now for those of you who want to know exactly how to execute either because you're new or you want to shave a few seconds off your jungle time, I'll elaborate. NOTE: I do plan on adding videos and pictures to see visually how to execute jungling, ganking, certain stance dancing and so forth. Keep checking in the future for updates.

Level 1 Grab your Cloth Armor and 5 Health Potion, put your first point into Wingborne Storm, and head straight to blue buff. Either ask your premade beforehand or randoms, if you're solo queue'ing, to protect and leash you. Note that a leash isn't required for Udyr, but definitely makes your jungle a lot easier and faster. As soon as it's about 1:50 ish, make sure you're team mate is ready to leash, and set yourself up right in front of where blue golem will spawn, so that your phoenix is also able to hit the mini creeps in the side. As soon as Golem spawns and is leashed, proc phoenix and start banging out on him. Keep activating your phoenix as soon as it's available, as you'll need all the damage. THE SECOND blue golem turns and aggro's you from the leash, roll your first Health Potion. When he's at the appropriate HP level, smite him and finish off the creeps if they haven't died already. You should have just hit Level 2 and started heading to wolves. Place your second point into Iron Mantle and position yourself behind the wolves, so again your phoenix can hit all of them. Start with activating phoenix on the big wolf, then switch to turtle as it becomes available. Turtle until the big wolf is slightly below half HP, phoenix once more, and switch back to turtle to finish off all the wolves. Using a potion here is optional, ,as it really depends how much hp you lost during blue buff. If you have more then 70% of your hp after blue you'll find you don't need one for wolves. You should still be level 2 and now heading to wraiths. Here you need to be careful on keeping your hp up for mini golems and red buff. Position yourself right in the middle of all of them, start to roll either your second Health Potion(or possibly your third if you used one on wolves) and proc phoenix on the big wraith. Immediately switch to turtle and turtle them down until your shield drains, in which at that point go back to phoenix and finish all of them off. You should now be Level 3 and be putting your third point into Wingborne Storm. Head to mini golems and again set yourself right in between both of them. Begin with phoenix on either one, then switch to turtle. Here you want to turtle as much as possible to regenerate and/or preserve your mana and HP. If you have to, you can use another potion here, just make sure you keep one left for lizard. After the first golem is almost dead, proc phoenix once more to kill him, and begin with the second golem. Turtle him the rest of the way down, and as soon s your done head to the final camp, which is red buff. Same procedure as blue buff, place yourself right in front red lizard and in between the small creeps so that your phoenix hits them all. Start to roll another Health Potion, and Phoenix this b*tch down to hell. That's right phoenix him the whole way until he reaches the appropriate HP level to smite him. Finish off the creeps and Bam, you should now be Level 4 and placing your fourth point into Blazing Stampede. From here you can either go gank a lane immediately if help is needed right away, or you can quickly base back, buy your Boots and a Sight Ward, and head to the lane that need's the most help. Make sure to assess where the biggest threats are and try to lock them down early. In the rare scenario that there isn't a clear lane to gank because the enemy is pushed too far back or there is a jungler on their team, either coordinate with your team to have a lane push or go counter jungle, in which Udyr is very capable.

Here I will briefly elaborate what you should be doing during early, mid, and late game for your team. It's very important you understand how his game flows compared to others, since with Udyr, compared to most other champs, you have large control over how well the Beast will play. If you gank and do your job through the course of the game, doing well with him consistently won't be a problem.

EARLY GAME Levels 1-6
After your jungle, which has been discussed, you should be ganking at level 4 as stated. This gank is EXTREMELY significant and will predicate how much of your early game and even part of your mid game will go. The goal here is to try to, at the very least, get 1 kill or 1 assist. The gold is very vital to you early in order to keep up. If you're fortunate and get something like 2 kills or 2 assists or any other variant, then you can start snowballing very easily. From this point on make sure to keep getting your buffs early, and constantly gank lanes. Go to ones who need help or go help push a lane that's almost forced a tower down. Just make sure your active on the field and NOT living in the jungle.

MID GAME Levels 7-13
This is where many LoL games are determined and/or ended do to a surrender. If you did well early and snowballed a bit, you should be able to keep your team in decent shape no matter how the situation is. If you and one or two other people are doing well and constantly pushing towers, ganking enemies left and right, and controlling the map, it should generally be GG as you are slowly forming in a freight train. Now if you're doing well but the enemy is fed and some what facerolling your team, you need to play more defensive and safe. Help your teammates grab a kill here and there, push your creeps out, but for the most part protect your towers and make sure no one feeds with silly deaths. Finally, if you happened to have a bad early game, either you weren't able to generate enough kills and assists (example: level 9 and only at 1/2/2) or you flat out are getting trucked, you're going to find you need to depend on your team a lot more since it's just as difficult to get kills as well as assists at all. Pick your spots out on the battlefield and try to keep your levels up in the jungle, all while still doing something productive such as pushing a lane out, warding, etc.

LATE GAME Levels 14-18
This is the point of the game where no matter how mid game went, all five of you should be sticking together. It's full on team fight time and also where Udyr can pick himself up if he did bad, OR become a walking god amongst mortals. Now again if you did well early, you took care of mid game, and you're still here because either they haven't surrendered, fighting back, w/e, you'll find you can manhandle in teamfights. When I say this, I don't mean to tell you to 1v5 the whole team and try to one man this sh*t. No. What I am saying is that when you and all your allies enter a teamfight, you're going to be able to take all that punishment thrown your way, turtle and stun for your team, all while doing some decent damage and surviving. Make sure there is coordination with your team as in who to focus down, what lanes to push, when to baron and so forth. Also make sure in teamfights you're one of the first in there throwing out all your stuns to everyone. Try not to be the lagging one behind since that'll drop your value. Most of this goes the same for if you didn't do so great early, just make sure your picking your spots and farm up a bit. Help your team when needed and try to tank as much as possible. You'll find that Udyr will lift himself up in the latter stages due to his game flow.

Udyr, to simply put, is a Beast. He hold's a lot of versatility and can fill multiple roles on any team. As explained, the most potent type of Udyr is the tanking machine that will laugh at ultimates thrown his way. He will plow through the jungle early, aid team mates with constant ganks, and be the Beast that your team needs. I hope in this guide I shed a bit of light on how he functions and how he differs from almost every other champ, and whether you're new to him or a veteran player, I hope that something, big or small was taken away to be able to improve your game. I wish you the best of luck on the fields of justice, and any rates and/or comments are appreciated.

Credits:

exjohnx - For persuading me to finally pursue and create this guide. I got you.
xitachix1337 - Helping me get experience and master my Udyr over the number of games played together. Also being one of the few I trust out there
shotaro117 - Discussing both our guides lending ideas to each other. Really sparked a lot of the smaller things in this guide.
bigmexican310 - Unknowingly helped me test a few Udyr builds for this guide. Still in the works so I need your assistance!
xxzdeadpoolzxx - My brother in arms, you were there during my infant days with Udyr and introduced me to the game of LoL. Much appreciation sir.
honey badger xp - Finally my mamas :) who's always there for me and supported me not just for this guide and when we play, but in anything I ever do. Love you forever and ever :)