I figured this would be important to include here at the very top, there are simply so many items to build on Udyr and many different and niche use cases for them. That is to say that these builds, while they are typically always viable, are often either my most enjoyed builds, the most standardly meta, or experimental. And it's important to experiment with items on Udyr. You may find some matches that you're so far behind, you're building support items along with a standard tank build, or even an AP build. You may find you're building an AP item in a Bear build, even. Basically, follow your heart and experiment with different items on Udyr, because there's a good chance you'll find something useful for the scenario if you're just willing to cook a little.

Hey! I'm GheeseEmpty. I've been playing League of Legends since Season 11, and ever since I've been playing ranked I've peaked at Emerald 2. That being said, I am by far not a master on this champion as of now, and if you came to this guide, that means we are both looking to learn and understand Udyr.

I picked up Udyr whenever he was reworked, and I can confidently say he is now my favorite champion. He is now my highest mastery, and I have done a lot of homework when it comes to theorycrafting and overall understanding his character. That being said, I personally play him just because I love his champion. But why should you?

Pros:

+ Incredibly versatile and adaptable.

+ Tends to do well into tankier melee champions, which are common in Top Lane.

+ Has a very strong early game if played correctly.

+ Is capable of 1v9ing games given the correct environment.

+ Seldom ever picked or banned.

Cons:

- Has a few really bad matchups that are essentially impossible to make any headway against.

- Can sometimes leave a gap in your team composition, as Top Lane is commonly expected to play Engage, which Udyr is not necessarily proficient at.

- Most of your gameplay in top lane revolves around knowing your limits very well, which can make Udyr difficult for beginners.

- Deceptively difficult, especially in the necessity to understand the big picture of the match, what your role is in it, and how you will win. As well as this, you have to understand how to pace fights with your abilities.

- Has a fairly predictable trading pattern that can be used against you.

As previously mentioned, Udyr is very versatile in rune pages and playstle. But it's important to cover more details in his play.

Udyr has a very strong Level 1-4 lane regardless of build. Early trades with Iron Mantle and Wingborne Storm are very strong, especially with Grasp of the Undying. If you are starting with Doran's Ring, it also provides very powerful early trading power with more magic damage.

At Level 6, Udyr tends to lose a level of power in the lane. Champions that spike hard at Level 6 such as Nasus and Renekton tend to gain incredible agency they did not have before.

Udyr is capable of Splitpushing with any build, but he particulary excels at it when he is maxing Wilding Claw. It's also worth noting this build is much better at Dueling as well.

Udyr is equally capable of Teamfighting, almost exclusively when maxing Wingborne Storm. You are very good at making space with your slowing field, and peeling with this as well as his Blazing Stampede.

Udyr also excels against champions who build a lot of HP, such as Cho'Gath, Sion, and Dr. Mundo.

Udyr does not have an ultimate ability in his kit. Therefore, you can start any of his four abilities at level 1. When you switch stances, every stance goes on cooldown for 1.5 seconds. Recasting any ability activates Bridge Between and Awakens it, providing bonus effects that will be explained later. Every empowered auto attack landed within the next 4 seconds of casting the stance will refund 5% of the Bridge Between's cooldown, assuming it was used. These auto attacks are also made with 30% bonus attack speed.

Keep in mind that though Udyr does not have an Ultimate Ability, you should consider his Awakened Stances ultimates, for all intents and purposes. Any smart player will attempt to punish you while this is on cooldown. That being said, their effects are incredibly helpful, and you should not neglect to use them in the applicable scenario. This comes with knowledge and practice.

This is your bread and butter ability when building AD, and the one you want to max first. Udyr's Wilding Claw provides slightly extra attack range, extra attack speed, and also extra physical damage for two auto attacks.

Upon recasting into your Awakened Stance, he gains even more attack speed, not gated by two auto attacks. The next two empowered strikes deal bonus physical damage, scaling with the target's maximum HP. It also calls down 3 strikes of lighting each that deal bonus magical damage, scaling with the target's maximum HP. Because of this, it is important to isolate your enemy from all units before you use these empowered strikes, in order to maximize your damage.

Note: Your bonus Physical and Magical damage on Awakened Stance both scale with level, but the Physical damage also scales with your bonus AD, and the Magical damage also scales with your bonus AP. Don't write this ability off just because you are building AP.

The Awakened stance is also extremely helpful when towerdiving, just make sure there is no minion wave to soak the lightning strikes.

This is your sustain ability, regardless of build. Udyr's Iron Mantle grants you a shield for four seconds, and empowers your next two auto attacks, granting lifesteal on-hit, and also healing you for 1.2% of your maximum HP (and +8% AP) on-hit.

Upon recasting into your Awakened Stance, you gain a larger shield that stacks with the former one as well, healing based off of your AP and Maximum HP every .25 seconds over 4 seconds, and empowering your next two auto attacks with doubled the original life steal and healing based off of maximum HP and AP on-hit.

Note: The healing you gain on-hit is reduced by 60% against minions, so it's slightly less effective for sustain. Don't get it twisted, though. This is your main laning tool. No matter what build you go, this ability is responsible for keeping you healthy in lane.

His Awakened Stance is incredibly useful for soaking up large amount of damage at all stages of the game. Pairing this with Spirit Visage makes you incredibly hard to kill. Don't neglect to use this ability when trading into high damage early game bullies, as the damage you can soak when using this stance can oftentimes outheal the damage that was dealt to you, resulting in a positive trade.

This is your engage and disengage ability, regardless of build. Udyr's Blazing Stampede empowers his basic attacks to have an uncancellable windup and dash to the target to stun them for .75 seconds. After this stun, there is a delay between stunning the same target again. Upon casting, Udyr becomes ghosted, allowing him to pass through minions, and gains bonus movement speed for 4 seconds, which decays to 30% effectiveness over the course of 1.5 seconds.

Upon recasting into your Awakened Stance, you gain bonus attack range and more movement speed. He also becomes immune to crowd control for 1.5 seconds.

Note: Out of all Awakened Stances, this is likely the one I use the least. However, recognizing when its use cases are the highest is a very important part of Udyr's gameplay. Using this Awakened Stance to tank large amounts of crowd control, or run through enemy peel to focus on a priority target, can oftentimes net you a free kill. It's worth keeping in mind, however, what you are sacrificing in order to use this Awakened Stance.

It's also worth noting, especially against Poppy, that since this ability technically makes you dash, it kind of gets neutered by grounded effects.

This is your bread and butter ability when building AP, and the one you want to max first. Udyr's Wingborne Storm grants magic damage to nearby enemies for the next two auto attacks. He also summons a slowing blizzard around himself for 4 seconds that deals magic damage every .5 seconds.

Upon Recasting into your Awakened Stance, he creates a new blizzard for 4 seconds that follows the closest visible target, and then the most recently auto attacked enemy unit, once again granting extra magic damage on hit to enemies inside the storm for the next two auto attacks. It also enhances the slowing effect and deals maximum HP magic damage each tick.

Note: The blizzard deals reduced damage to minions. This penalty lessens the more levels you put into the ability. This is the ability that typically gives you very strong early game power, and the capability to walk down your enemy at level 1.

Your Awakened Stance is very beneficial in teamfights, capable of dealing hundreds, if not thousands of damage to a tightly grouped enemy team.

Make sure you utilize this ability to zone and catch out enemies, especially when paired with Approach Velocity.

Udyr's versatile laning is one of the things that makes him a good top laner. He has many options for runes, builds, and summoner spells that can all be changed to fit your niche in a particular match. It's because of this that it is important to experiment with different items, runes, and general builds to try and get a read on what to build and when.

Generally, there are three states in which you will be playing out a lane. For the purpose of this guide, I'll be naming them as follows:

Neutralizing

Scaling

Aggressing

This is by far Udyr's easiest function in lane. This involves sitting back, minimizing trades, or only taking them when they're advantageous, and focusing on giving the enemy as small of a lead as possible. This can transition into Aggressing whenever you develop a lead, or when you powerspike over the enemy. Focus on neutralizing your lane when you're into someone who has a stronger early game than you, such as Olaf.

Scaling is also fairly easy. This involves playing back, farming up, and keeping trades to a minimum in the hopes that you later bring more value than your lane opponent. This is a playstyle you need to commit to when you create your build, so you aren't just being useless early and missing out on the portion of the match that you are typically most powerful in, Laning.

Aggressing is the ultimate goal for you to reach for your Udyr top mastery, and should be fairly self explanatory. This involves taking control of the lane, pressing your advantages, while attempting to gain a gold lead through tower plates, farm advantages, kills, objectives/jungle camps, basically throwing your weight around and forcing plays.

Early Levels (1-5):
Focus on trading with either Wingborne Storm or Iron Mantle, depening on the volatility of the trade. For example, I take Iron Mantle Level 1 versus champions like Riven and Fiora, because instead of aiming to deal ridiculous damage to them, you are either aiming to mitigate their damage and extend the trade beyond their comfort, or simply survive against a stronger Level 1 until you gain more power in the lane. Don't be afraid to trade some health against some strong early game champions, though, as with Iron Mantle's awakened stance, you can heal back and mitigate quite a bit of the enemy's damage.

On the flip side, a Wingborne Storm start gives you a lot of trading agency, with 2-3 Grasp of the Undying procs being possible if played right, and a decent chunk of maximum HP magic damage as well. Something to keep in mind (this is very important!) is that on Udyr, neutral trades are often positive trades due to his very high sustain. Do not be afraid to trade away HP in the early game against someone with less sustain than you.

General Advice:
When trading, always focus on landing your two empowered auto attacks, and then swap to your next stance. These are the basic principles of Stance Weaving, which is the bread and butter of Udyr's core gameplay. If you don't land both of your empowered auto attacks, you are losing out on a lot of trading power that you can't simply get back.

If you are looking for damage while trading near a wave, use Wingborne Storm to engage onto the enemy, the Awakened Form to deal more damage, and utilize Iron Mantle and Blazing Stampede when necessary.

If you are trading into a high damage opponent, focus on using Iron Mantle and its Awakened Form to secure small, health positive trades. This will help you much more in the long run compared to Wingborne Storm or Wilding Claw.

If you can manage to isolate an enemy from minions, aim to use Wilding Claw's awakened form to deal a quick, large burst of damage. Wilding Claw's basic form can also be used against enemies who tend to space slightly outside of your attack range, or in order to more easily secure last hits.

If you are being ganked, consider your options. If you have Bridge Between available to use, you have many more options for escaping, typically in the form of Blazing Stampede or Iron Mantle's Awakened Form. If the jungler and top laner rely on crowd control to catch you, and you have HP to spare, use Blazing Stampede's Awakened Stance in order to escape. If your HP is simply too low, or their gank is less reliant on CC and more on damage, Iron Mantle's Awakened Form can have you come out of the gank with more HP than you started with.

In addition to the information above, it is important to understand where you want to manage your waves.
This image will assume you are on Blue Side, in which your Nexus is towards the bottom left of the image.

Position 1: Freeze/Happy Spot
This is arguably the safest position for you, and the most dangerous for your enemy. In this position, the wave should be just outside of range of your tower, allowing you to pretty much last hit for free while the enemy is very exposed. Maintaining this position on Udyr means you have a lot of space to run the enemy down, which is very good for gank opportunities and punishing bad recalls from the enemy. However, keep in mind that if your enemy has not missed any wave XP, they will be ahead of you in experience while you are in this position.

Position 2: Slow Push
In this position, a wave left untouched would slow push. This comes with its own set of advantages and disadvantages. For one, if you and your opponent have not missed any XP at this point, you will have an XP lead in this position. Your wave is also larger naturally, meaning that the enemy should not trade into you, and if they do, they will take more minion damage than you. The length of the lane you still have combined with the minion advantage once again makes this an optimal position to run the enemy down on Udyr. The cons are that this is the worst type of wave to die on, as the enemy can freely recall or set up a freeze from this position without missing much. Similarly, this wave is bad to recall on, as you will miss a lot of gold an XP. Because of this, this position needs to be worked out of, unless your enemy makes the mistake of fixing it for you.

Position 3: Neutral Waves
In this position, the waves meet at the middle, which typically means that they are equal in size. This also means that the space between you and both towers is equidistant, and there is not as much room to make trades. This is a position that is good against characters with artillery-style skillshots, such as Cho'Gath, but can be susceptible to ganks from either side as well.

Position 4: Enemy Slow Push
Assuming you read Position 2, you'll know the strengths and weaknesses here. You have two options in this position:
Give up wave control and simply obtain XP.
Fight to push the wave into the enemy.
Either option is acceptable on Udyr, just know option 2 is far more dangerous. You can also occasionally walk up for last hits, but I didn't mention this because, more often than not, this is a huge mistake. This simply makes you more susceptible to ganks than you already are. That being said, if you know you aren't in any real danger, you can do this. But in that case, why not just push your wave into the enemy turret and reset it? There usually isn't a point not to compared to collecting last hits.

Position 5: Enemy Freeze/Happy Spot
This is bad. By far the worst position you can be in. As Udyr, you cannot really provide a kill threat against the enemy here, outside of poking them with your Awakened Stances. If the enemy is freezing correctly, you cannot walk up for last hits, and you cannot easily catch XP. No matter what, you are in danger, and what you need is decisive action. If the only threat in this position is a jungle gank, you can quickly dump the wave with your Awakened Stance Wingborne Storm, just be sure to not allow the enemy to hold your minions. If the threat is the enemy laner themselves, you can do the same as above, at risk of being run down and killed, or you can sacrifice the current wave in order to proxy. This puts you at a tempo advantage, and either forces your enemy laner/jungler to respond, or forces the enemy laner to take an unnecessary amount of damage to maintain their freeze. If they continue to hold, you can proxy for as long as necessary, or choose to back with tempo and gain an item advantage.
Both of the aforementioned options are risky, but they are damage control. If you are in this position, it is because somewhere along the way of your lane, you messed up. It happens to everyone, but it's important not just to know how to fix the mistake, but also how to prevent it in the future. Study some informational material in order to better understand your laning fundamentals.

Once you hit mid to late game on Udyr, depending on your build, gold lead, and enemies, you are beginning to fall off in raw power. This is fine, but it's important to understand how to remain useful and not run it down at this point.

If you are a Wingborne Storm build, focus on teamfighting. Make space for your team and aim to disrupt the enemy's positioning by pressing up to their frontline and threatening them. If the opportunity presents itself, you can also make way to the enemy backline and prevent them from helping their team fight, but I only recommend this if your teamates have a way of peeling/making space for themselves. If you have a stronger frontliner than yourself, you can always sit back and peel for the team's carries and squishies.

If you are a Wilding Claw build, you should primarily focus on remaining in the sidelane and dueling an enemy member. You should also take turrets whenever possible in order to open up the map for your team. Remember, you prefer to see tanky, slow, and easy to engage on enemies match you in the side lane, such as Sion, Dr. Mundo, or Cho'Gath. These champions are generally easy pickings and not hard to kill 1v1. However, when facing squishier enemies, don't be afraid to duel if you know you are capable of winning. Gaining a man advantage and freeing open the side lane can make the difference between a win and a loss.

Ultimately, most of the learning you make on Udyr will just require you to put in games. This guide can only help you so much. Stay creative, practice with builds and playstyles, and put time and effort into learning the champion. It will pay off nicely.

If you have any questions, feel free to throw them out as you please. This is also my first guide, so critique is welcome.

Thanks for the read, have fun!