WELCOME! Spc31nv4d3r here with a guide for everyone's favorite primal destroyer Udyr! Udyr is one of my favorite tanky junglers who has great potential as an initiator and as a peeler. The potential for you to do great things with Udyr is pretty much unlimited. So without further ado, sit back, relax, and go primal on some people!

No build is perfect for all situations. This is how I play Udyr. Please don't be that person who down votes just because you hate Udyr and what not. I like constructive criticism, but don't be a troll. Just because I am not "pro" at Udyr doesn't mean that I don't enjoy playing him.




As always, the build will be updated as needed and updates will be displayed here.
- Feb 5 2013:

• Added DPS Tank build with item list and explanation (in the "Abilities" tab.)
• Tank comparison: Straight Tank v DPS Tank
• Madred's Razors v Spirit Stone comparison

- Feb 11 2013:

• Added GGBenQ DiamondProx build

- Mar 28 2013:

• Patch 3.5 ability updates added

- Apr 29 2013:

• Patch 3.6 ability updates added

- Sept. 22 2013:

• Added Doran's Blade as a starting item with explanation
• Trinity Force buff makes it a great item on Udyr for ganks and fights.

- Nov. 23 2013:

• Updated masteries for Season 4. Enjoy!

Also, thanks to jhoijhoi for her guide to guides which has helped me in both of my builds. If you haven't read it, DO IT RIGHT MEOW!

In this case, there are two ways that you can play Udyr. You have the straight tank and the DPS tank builds. Both are very good at initiations and peeling. The trick for you is deciding on which one is more beneficial for you and your team (more importantly the team). Here is what you need to know:

Straight Tank You WILL last through team fights 5k health - I AIN'T GOT NO TIME FOR YOUR TOWERS! Solid amount of armor and resistances for a large effective health AoE burn with Sunfire Aegis and slow with Frozen Mallet

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DPS Tank Trinity Force and Black Cleaver give great damage advantages Stronger ganks with more early damage potential A bit more move speed to help with initiations and peeling Slow and bonus damage with the Trinity Force passive

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Be sure to think about what the situation is in the game and how your teammates are playing. If they are going passive and farming, then the DPS option may be out early but easily converted to with Udyr's ability range.

REMEMBER!
Be prepared for anything. No set idea is perfect and the game changes from one minute to the next. Be ready to switch roles if need be for the team!

Just like all champions, Udyr has his up sides and downers. Here are a few important ones:

PROS Great peeler and team fight started with Blazing Stampede Strong ganks with great potential to burn opponent summoner spells post level 4 Strong combo of skills to clear jungle quickly with Iron Mantle and Wingborne Storm Ability to quickly chance from offense to defense in team fights to protect ADC and APC

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CONS Harder to learn than most junglers Positioning and ganking can be difficult at first No ranged skills Has to get early kills/assists to be viable late game

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OFFENSE TREE Tier 1 // Bonus attack speed is always nice on Udyr. Time it for a good time guaranteed. Tier 2 // Attack damage is always a good choice, especially when you are in the jungle. Also, take the new Exposed Weakness. This is killer in the games that I have played thus far. Really ups the gank power for junglers. Tier 3 // More AD? why not. You know you wanted it anyways.

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DEFENSE TREE Tier 1 // Flat percentage increasing armor and MR are always a plus. Take this along with the bonus damage to neutral monster. Tier 2 // Flat bonus health is great for any jungler, be sure to snag it. The new Bladed Armor buff is going also help with your jungle. Tier 3 // The new tier three is great with Juggernaut , Hardiness , and Resistance . Easy bonus buffs that you can't pass up as a tanky Tier 4 // Evasive is just going to help you get through those thick barrages of AoE. Goes well with Blazing Stampede. Tier 5 // Tenacious is kind of like a permanent Wukong passive buff. I love this. It is great. Tier 6 // Take Legendary Guardian for yourself to stop worried (as much) about that pesky crowd control.

For Udyr's rune build, I follow a path a bit different that most junglers. I focus on a damage, armor, and MR but how I do it is a bit unconventional.




This is pretty normal for all junglers. The extra attack damage is essential for clearing the jungle in a timely fashion.




This is pretty self explanatory. If you aren't taking armor runes as a jungler, then you are just plan silly.




For my Marks choices, I have gone with the Greater Mark of Attack Speed and the Greater Mark of Attack Damage. I did this for a couple of reason.
1. I don't take points in Wilding Claw until much later so I am losing some attack speed bonus there.
2. It allows for a bit faster clear time with the additional early attack speed.





Now I know that this is not your standard 9x flat or 9x scaling MR runes but here is my reasoning behind this. In the beginning, scaling isn't going to give you a huge benefit of MR since the scaling takes a long time to get up there. To counter act this, I take three (and sometimes four) flat MR runes to compensate for the early loss on scaling runes.

If you don't like this, I would recommend going with 9x Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist.

If you don't like the rune choices that are stated above, here is the alternative set up that I would recommend for all your jungle Udyr needs.






This is a pretty standard build that will suit your most basic needs and will replace the original rune choice states above.

For you summoner spells, you are going to want to take Ghost and Smite.

Ghost I take ghost as a bonus to your Blazing Stampede. This allows you to catch that enemy champion that is running away at the end of a fight or to quickly initiate on your opponents. I find it to also to be useful if you need to get out of a situation very fast. To me, it is very versatile.

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Smite Smite is for the time you spend jungling. It is going to make getting buffs as well as securing dragon and baron much, much easier. There is a reason that all junglers take it. It is useful beyond reckoning.

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Other Possible Spells

A couple of other choices are Ignite, Flash, and Exhaust. Each have their own place during the game and should be heavily thought about BEFORE taking over Ghost since you are going to keep Smite no matter what. Really. Think about it before you change.



DO NOT TAKE THESE

You will have no need for these. If you take them, a small army of ninja pandas will find you and beat you with bamboo sticks. Now as funny as that would be, I don't condone violence so don't take them. Besides, the pandas have better things to do.

Wilding Claw - Wilding Claw: Activation - Udyr's next attack will deal a high amount of damage over 2 seconds, and Udyr's Attack Speed is increased for a few seconds.
Persistent Effect - Udyr's Attack Speed is passively increased.
Persistent Effect: Increases Attack Speed by 20/25/30/35/40%.

Activation: Udyr's Attack Speed is increased by 15/20/25/30/35% and Udyr's first attack rends his target, dealing an extra 30/80/130/180/230 (+1.5) magic damage over 2 seconds.
Cost 55/50/45/40/35 Mana
Range 0

PATCH 3.6 CHANGES:
Wilding Claw:

• Active damage changed to physical instead of magic
• Active damage changed to 30/80/130/180/230 (+1.2/1.3/1.4/1.5/1.6 attack damage) from 30/80/130/180/230 (+1.5 total attack damage)
• Active attack speed increased to 30/40/50/60/70% from 15/20/25/30/35%
• No longer grants attack speed as a persistent effect
• New persistent effect: Basic attacks deal 15% of his total attack damage as bonus physical damage on hit
  

Iron Mantle - Iron Mantle: Activation - Udyr gains a temporary shield that absorbs damage.
Persistent Effect - Udyr's attacks cannot crit, but he restores his Health and Mana equivalent to a percentage of his damage dealt.
Persistent Effect: Udyr's attacks cannot crit, but he restores 10/12/14/16/18% of his damage as Health and 5/6/7/8/9% of his damage as Mana.

Activation: Udyr gains a temporary shield that absorbs 60/95/130/165/200 (+0.5) damage.
Cost 55/50/45/40/35 Mana
Range 0

PATCH 3.5 CHANGES:
Iron Mantle:

• No longer returns mana when dealing damage
• Shield increased to 60/100/140/180/220 from 60/95/130/165/200
• Udyr can now critically strike in Iron Mantle

Blazing Stampede - Blazing Stampede: Activation - Udyr gains a large Movement Speed increase for a short duration.
Persistent Effect - Udyr's attacks stun his target for 1 second. This effect cannot occur on the same target for several seconds.
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.
Cost 55/50/45/40/35 Mana
Range 0

PATCH 3.5 CHANGES:
Blazing Stampede:

• Udyr now ignores unit collision while the movement speed bonus is active
• Udyr now performs a slight dash toward his target on stunning attacks while the movement speed is active
• Blazing Stampede attacks can no longer be self-interrupted mid-attack
• Movement speed increased to 15/20/25/30/35% from 15/18/21/24/27%
• Movement speed duration reduced to 2/2.25/2.5/2.75/3 seconds from 2/2.5/3/3.5/4

PATCH 3.6 CHANGES:
Blazing Stampede:

• Udyr now only dashes when stunning champions

Wingborne Storm- Wingborne Storm: Activation - Udyr sends out pulsing waves of fire dealing damage to nearby foes for 5 seconds and has increased Ability Power and Attack Damage.
Persistent Effect - Every third attack, Udyr engulfs enemies in front of him in flame.
Persistent Effect: Every third attack, Udyr engulfs enemies in front of him in flame, dealing 40/80/120/160/200 (+0.25) magic damage.

Activation: Udyr sends out pulsing waves of fire dealing 15/25/35/45/55 (+0.25) magic damage each second to nearby enemies for 5 seconds. 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.
Cost 55/50/45/40/35 Mana
Range 325

PATCH 3.5 CHANGES:
Wingborne Storm:

• First attack after activating Wingborne Storm now immediately procs the fire cone in addition to every 3rd attack
• No longer grants bonus Ability Power and Attack Damage when activated
• Ability Power ratio on the fire cone increased to 0.45 from 0.15
• Updated the fire cone's spell effect to be more visible

Bridge Between - Entering a stance grants Udyr 10% Attack Speed and 4% Armor and Magic Resist for a short duration. This effect can stack up to 3 times.

PATCH 3.5 CHANGES:
Bridge Between:

• Now grants 5 Movement Speed per stack instead of 4% bonus Armor and Magic Resistance

IMPORTANT NOTE!
Mana cost of all stances decreased to 47/44/41/38/35 from 55/50/45/40/35

For the ability order of Udyr, I first make sure to make out Wingborne Storm since I find it essential for a successful jungle route. Do this while making sure that you take an early point in Iron Mantle and Blazing Stampede to help with your health and ganks.

Next, I go all out into Iron Mantle since at this point I am ganking more and I need to stay alive for fights that in sue during these events.

Then, It is up to the Blazing Stampede to solidify the early beginning of team fights that should be starting to happen around the map. This is going to greatly help your team out.

Finally, finish out with Wilding Claw. If you want/need to, you can intermix the three point that you would put into Wilding Claw with the last two point of Blazing Stampede to give you a more rounded attack.
Example:
lvl 12: E
lvl 13: Q
lvl 14: E
lvl 15: Q
lvl 16: E
lvl 17: Q
lvl 18: E

For Items, I generally go with a high tank mobility approach. This allows me to go back and forth and be in fight for the longest duration that I can. All these items are high in health but also give other good passive abilities that greatly benefit you are a jungler and a team member.

Your passives are going to be:

• Movement speed slow with you Frozen Mallet
• Health Regen with Warmog's Armor and Spirit of the Ancient Golem
• Mana Regen with Spirit of the Ancient Golem
• Armor and MR with Sunfire Aegis and Maw of Malmortius
• Bonus AD with the passive on Maw of Malmortius along with spell shield.

With these items you will get the end stat result of the following:

• 5084 HP (+401.62 per 5)
• 760 MP (+21.5 per 5)
• 1.119 AS
• 207 AD
• 188.4 Armor
• 143.9 MR
• 390 Move (at tier 2 boots)

With these numbers, you successful output will be the following:

• 13661 EFFECTIVE Physical Health
• 11589 EFFECTIVE Magical Health
• 12625 TOTAL EFFECTIVE Health
• 5.595 Attacks per 5
• 1160.706 Damage per 5

They will also boost your abilities to have the following damage outputs:

• Wilding Claw - 30/80/130/180/230 (+311) Magic Damage
• Iron Mantle - 60/95/130/165/200 (+0) Damage Blocked
• Blazing Stampede - (zero damage given so no benefits)
• Wingborne Storm - 40/80/120/160/200 every 3rd attack and 15/25/35/45/55 (+0 +0) Magic Damage Active

When I got asked to explain why I took Spirit Stone over Madred's Razors, I realized that I hadn't explained that choice very well. After checking some things out in some games, I have seen that there are again, two paths to take when these two items come into play.




The Spirit Stone is used to compensate for the large number of cycles that I do when jungling. Every time I am in a camp, I am trying to keep my Bridge Between passive full at three stacks. I found that the mana regen on the Spirit Stone helped with the burn marks on my W, E, and R keys during early game (Remember that I generally play 'Straight Tank' not 'DPS Tank'). Not to mention that if you go Mobility Boots, you get the tenacity from the Spirit of the Ancient Golem that you would have gotten from Mercury's Treads.




The Madred's Razors is an item that I think will work out much better for the DPS Tank build. It build right into the Wriggle's Lantern which is always a great jungle item. The bonus armor, damage, and life steal is great if you are going to play a more tanky style of Udyr. You still have the advantage of bonus damage against minions but you gain the free ward that the Spirit Stone does not give you. This can be EXTREMELY helpful if you think you are getting counter jungled or want to counter jungle.



My over all decision between these items is this:
If you want to not run out of mana and you are a heavy cycler, go with the Spirit Stone.
If you are the damage crazy, hop out of a bush and kill things player, Madred's Razors is for you.

With the changes that were made to Wilding Claw, the use of a Doran's Blade can also be a very good staring item if you are going for that early high damage output. It is a great tiem that offers good sustain in the jungle and on ganks. Be sure to test this out as well to see if you like it as well!

Now, these are the three build that I use. This does not mean that they are the perfect items for the exact set situations. No two teams are the exact same (unless you are playing customs). Now I can say this and someone is not going to take this serious and get angry that there is no build for facing team comp 'X'. Well, just like normal, you may have to ad-lib off of these items to find the right ones for the situation that you are in.

Above, I have listed some of the strong items that I would say can be easily intermixed with the 'standard' build that I have put forward. These items offer a good range of passives and bonuses that will not only benefit you but also your team. Just like always, make sure that you are paying attention to what your teammates have, you have, and your opponents have item wise. For example, if you see that your team ins't able to catch champion 'X', then getting a Randuin's Omen may remove some of the stress placed on your team.

Think smart about your items and how you and your team is doing. It is the little things like this that make a huge difference between winning and losing.

In team fights, it is your job to be the initiator and the peeler to get their ADC/APC and get them off your ADC/APC. This is your job. If you do it, your team will love you.

Before you go in though, make sure you know EXACTLY who you are going after. Be sure that this is the person who you Blazing Stampede first to get the out of the fight early.

During the duration of the fight, be sure to watch your ADC and APC as well. If someone starts to get on them and give them a hard time, be sure to switch off of the person who you are engages on and GET THEM OFF THE ADC/APC!

If you do these things, then you sir/ma'am are a good Udyr.

Jungling is not a hard thing to grasp. It isn't going to take you a life time to figure out. I find it to be fun (once I figured out what I was doing that is). You have to be patient and get a groove going and you will be good. Instead of having me write a novel about it, WATCH A VIDEO! I am a visual learner so stuff like this helps me, plus if you have dual screens, throw this up on one and the game on the other, and BAM! instant helper!

Play Video
SIDE NOTE! This is from S2 but the mechanics are the same, plus it give a view in the the damage side of Udyr that I did not cover here. I may add my version later if you guys want it.

Now when it comes to warding, placement is crucial. One does not simply place random wards (a little meme reference for all you out there). You have to know where to place them for the biggest impact in your jungling experience. Again, instead of me blabbering on, LOOK AT A PICTURE!




This is where you should ward with your Wriggle's Lantern (if you do get one early).
Yellow: Vital to protect the jungler on your team
Blue: For protection depending on which lane you're on
Red: To guard Dragon and Baron
Orange: In order to Counter-Jungle

Image credit: Apotheosis.
(Because I am too lazy to make one when he has done such a good job already)

I would just like to say thank you for taking a look at my guide. Feel free to leave a comment on anything in the build and I will get back with you as soon as I can! Hope that ya'll release the beast and have a great time with Udyr the Animal Spirit!