When it comes to staying up to date with the meta, it’s hard to predict what changes are going to come next for your role or the state of the game. This is doubly true in the case of Udyr, a champion that saw a huge surge in popularity and success in a very short amount of time. We sat down with Dignitas’ LCS Jungler, Dardoch, to talk about why the Spirit Walker feels more like the “spirit crusher” when it comes to the dominance he has over his opponents. Read on!

What makes Udyr so strong?

Each champion has unique elements that make them strong, however thanks to the state of the game at the moment not every champion can find success. The popular picks of the past like Zac, Amumu and Sejuani aren’t seeing the same results across their games thanks to the current priority for Junglers: clear speed.

Dardoch: Well the Jungle meta is centered around clear speed, right now. That means the champion that’s best is the one that clears the fastest; Udyr has just so happened to find himself in a position where he clears so quickly that he’s comparable with carry Junglers such as Graves or Lillia, and in the early to mid game, he can do enough damage to kill those champions while just building tank. So it’s kind of like… Haha, I don’t want to say that there’s *no* counterplay to Udyr, but I mean it in the sense that there’s like nobody else who can farm that fast, and he’s just so tanky that he’s harder to kill while still presenting huge kill potential. 

Speaking of his build, it’s important to have a firm grasp on what exactly optimal itemisation looks like for the Spirit Walker so that you can spend your gold most efficiently. Thankfully for Udyr players his favourite items are incredibly gold efficient, meaning he can find his powerspikes even faster than his fast clear speed is already allowing. Let’s have a look at how you can fine tune your Udyr gameplay through items, runes and summoner spells.

Items, Runes and Summoner Spells

If we’re looking at the key component binding all of Udyr’s strengths together, it’s speed. When considering the choices you make when gearing Udyr up both before and on the Rift, this is the biggest factor to take into account.

Dardoch: Turbo Chemtank is, by far, the best item for Udyr just thanks to the way that he plays. After that you’ll just want to buy Winged Moonplate for the extra movement speed and health. In a typical game you’ll just want to buy tier 2 boots into Turbo Chemtank and then into the two items that build from Winged Moonplate (Force of Nature and Dead Man’s Plate), for the extra MR and Armor. From there, Abyssal Mask is great and if you need more armor Frozen Heart and Randuin’s are really great too, but at this stage in most matches the game is pretty much already over.

As for the pre-game choices, Phase Rush is the most widely used Udyr keystone as it synergises perfectly well with his playstyle, paired with Flash for the extra engage range and Smite (of course). Below are the runes most popularly taken on Udyr to see him sprint across Summoner’s Rift in style.

While the most popular, this may not always be the right choice according to Dardoch.

Dardoch: I do think in some cases, where the enemy team has very low mobility (say you’re in a Jungle matchup where they can’t just jump away from you), I would say there are a lot of cases where you can take Conqueror and Ghost instead of Flash. But yeah, in most cases people are taking Phase Rush and Flash, so that’s definitely the more standard build. Once you get the hang of Udyr and develop an understanding of his strength in the 1v1s, you can start going Conqueror and Ghost in a few different cases. 

A rune page for the Conqueror variant can be seen here.

Gameplay Strategy - Playing as Udyr

When you step into the shoes of the Spirit Walker, you need to remember that those boots weren’t made for walkin’, they were made to hurtle across the Rift at lightspeed and breeze through camps like they were wins for an Udyr main! Before we look at pathing or playstyle, let’s look at his abilities and which order to level them up in.

Dardoch: My normal order is to max Phoenix > Turtle > Bear, but some games I’ll go Phoenix > Bear > Turtle if I don’t feel as though the shield will be that useful or I need the movement speed more. Say I’m up against champs with heaps of mobility like Ezreal or Lucian, I know I’m never going to close that distance anyway without taking a heap of damage or Turbo Chemtank/Flash to lock them down. 

Note that the point in Bear Stance at level 4 is extra vital so that you can immediately knock the shield off the scuttle crab and take it down even faster. Before arriving there, however, it’s important to look at exactly what the best start for Udyr looks like- a loaded question with a fairly simple answer: clear everything!

Dardoch: I think it’s most basic to just clear from Blue Side, so you can have your blue buff first. The reason he’s so strong, as we said before, is his clear speed so if you’re doing everything correctly you can clear every single camp in the Jungle and hit level 4 before the scuttle crab spawns. As far as tips I might have for newer Udyr players trying to achieve that would be to make sure you keep your passive up; if your passive is going to fall below three stacks, just enter another form even if you’re not hitting camps so that you can keep those stacks high.

As the game goes later, Udyr’s strength lies in his abilities to engage and disengage with great speed. Teamfighting as Udyr is a little less straightforward than his early game, as you need to find the right window of opportunity to make a break for an enemy carry and find a stun and then run out if things get too hot. Bear (no pun intended) in mind that your team may not be able to keep up with your fast feet, so positioning and awareness of your team’s location is vital before you go full steam ahead into the fray!

Gameplay Strategy - Playing Against Udyr

To begin this segment, let’s just look at what Dardoch had to say when being asked for his advice on playing against Udyr:

Dardoch: I think if you’re Purple Side, and the enemy has first pick, you should very much consider banning Udyr. If you don’t ban Udyr for whatever reason and he ends up being on the enemy team, I think you should do your best to pick… uh… I mean guys, come on, he’s permabanned in competitive play, at the highest level nobody knows how to deal with him so just ban him, haha.

...and this is coming from one of the veterans of the LCS, so how could you ignore this? Not all of us prefer playing in formats with a ban phase, however, so if you find yourself in that situation or he (somehow) manages to slip through the cracks in the ban phase, it’s all about locking him down before he can find a way out.

Dardoch: You could play Olaf I guess, Olaf is fine, but otherwise you want to play things that can kill him so you’ll want hypercarries like Vayne, Kai’sa or Xayah, and then a Support than can lock him down like Rell or Braum. When he runs in and gets the initial slap for Phase Rush and the stun, then at least you’re ready to stop him before he can run away at 500 movement speed and then run back in again- you really want to make him stay in the fight. In Jungle, specifically, you’ll want to pick a champion that can match him in speed so something like Lillia or Hecarim can be okay, but as for the rest of the team you’ll want a hypercarry and then something that can just keep him CC’d. 

Ensuring that one of these champions finds its way onto your team if Udyr ends up on the other side is essential, so encourage your team to structure themselves around this information or suffer a whole lot of bear slaps as punishment!

Gameplay Strategy - Playing With Udyr

A lot of champions find themselves powerful situationally. Hypercarries (such as the ones mentioned before) are only enabled through their team’s ability to peel for them and give them the advantages they need to succeed, but for Udyr this is not the case.

Dardoch: When you’re talking about team comps, I think, at least at the highest level, Udyr just fits in. More often than not, he just generates his own advantage in the Jungle, but at a base level you’ll want to pick lanes that can create priority around scuttle early so Udyr can ideally get both scuttle crabs with the team’s help.

With this logic, you can almost treat Udyr as a hypercarry himself! But if you’re really keen on finding that extra edge over your opponents with an Udyr on your team, your thoughts should be towards enabling Udyr’s “go where he pleases” attitude… move aside Dr. Mundo!

Dardoch: Picking speed boosting champions or enchanters are always going to pair well with him (as with Hecarim, too), so things like Lulu, Karma and Orianna that are going to give him more speed or help his teamfighting are great. I think one of the most broken champs in the game right now, other than Udyr, is Rell, who is also an insane combo with Udyr who, together, can just make people stand still for like 4 seconds, and can instantly engage a fight with a Flash > Ult, whereas Udyr can only Flash > Bear Stance > Autoattack. 

Will Udyr Remain Powerful?

A good question to consider when reading any guide, as Riot’s ban hammer swings as frequently as it does painfully. This is, after all, healthy for the game, but for Udyr mains who are just enjoying their time in the spotlight it may not be the most welcome news. We asked Dardoch what it would take to knock Udyr back down to everyone’s level:

Dardoch: I think that if they don’t plan on individually nerfing him again soon, then I don’t see why he would fall out of the meta. I think he’ll still be the best Jungler in the game until that change happens or something drastic happens to someone else. With his raw power and clear speed, unless you pick a Champion that can… nah he’s just still going to be the most broken for sure. I feel like he’s going to need another round of big, individual nerfs, because the first individual nerf he got was like 15 damage off Phoenix Stance which was just totally worthless, haha. 

So there you have it! Some top-tier knowledge on a top-tier champ, we’d like to thank Dardoch for his time and wish him and the team the best of luck in their games to come. As for you Udyr players, we hope this helps and that some of you might Spirit Walk your way into some wins if you aren’t already. You can check out our previous interview here, and catch Dardoch on Twitter @Dardoch. GLHF!