udyr2

SxR's In-Depth look to Udyr; Updated: June 29, 2011

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By: ScienceXReason on 2011-02-08 :: Viewed 966548 times

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LoL Champion: Udyr

 

Health	3954
Health Per 5 Sec	96
Mana	1135
Mana Per 5 Sec	8
Armor	141
Magic Resist	129.3
Attack Damage	161
Crit Chance	0%
Crit Damage	0%
Attack Range	125

Movement Speed	390
Ability Power	0
Attack Speed	105%
Life Steal	38%
Armor Penetration	0
Magic Penetration	0
Cooldown Reduction	0.0%
Dodge	6.8%
Gold Per 10 Sec	0
Reduced Death Time	0%

Greater Mark of Alacrity
9

Greater Glyph of Shielding
9

Greater Quint of Alacrity
3

Greater Seal of Evasion
9

Ability Sequence

Ability	Level	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18
	Monkey's Agility
	Tiger Stance
	Turtle Stance
	Bear Stance
	Phoenix Stance

Purchase Order

Cloth Armor
300

Health Potion
35

Health Potion
35

Long Sword
415

Madred's Razors
285

Sight Ward
75

Health Potion
35

Health Potion
35

Health Potion
35

Wriggle's Lantern
600

Mercury's Treads
1200

Recurve Bow
1050

Giant's Belt
1110

Negatron Cloak
740

Madred's Bloodrazor
2750

Warmog's Armor
1890

Recurve Bow
1050

Banshee's Veil
1975

Stark's Fervor
1500

Mastery Trees

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Offense: 0

3/3

3/3

 

 

 

 

 

4/4

 

 

 

 

 

 

2/2

1/1

 

 

 

 

 

4/4

 

 

 

 

 

 

3/3

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Defense: 20

3/3

1/1

 

 

 

 

 

4/4

 

 

 

 

 

2/2

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Utility: 10

SxR's In-Depth look to Udyr; Updated: June 29, 2011

By: ScienceXReason

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Introduction
2. Update Notes
3. Udyr Archetypes Within this Guide
4. Abilities
5. Udyr and the Latest Patch
6. Summoner Spells
7. Tiger and Phoenix
8. Udyr and Laning
9. Trinity Force
10. Runes with Reasoning
11. Masteries Do's, Don'ts, and Is It Worth It?
12. Concerning Builds and Item Choice
13. Tanking and Soaking
14. Jungling (all in vids!)
15. Phoenix-Tiger
16. Pure Tiger
17. Survival Tips
18. One Second Wonder
19. Tools of the Tanking Trade
20. Tools of the DPS Soaking Trade

Introduction

Hello, I am ScienceXReason. I am a great fan of the manbearturtletigerphoenix that we know as udyr. I consider him my main, having well over 300 games with him under my belt. He's a very difficult champion to master, but through time, dedication, observation, and dabating, I have learned much. Lacking an ultimate, he doesn't have an ability that will "tip the scale" in team fights, but this does not make him weak compared to other champions, in fact, he is surprisingly powerful when used the right way. He has amazing chasing potential, and his movement speed with Bear Stance can allow him to move right past the tanks and destroy their squishy backline.

As a warning this build requires jungling and as such, i do not recommend this guide for solo queuing. Imho, i find the solo queue to be filled with belligerent twats, that have no sense of teamwork, and this guide requires a lot of it to be successful.

Update Notes

February 8th, 2011 - Added guide to Mobafire

March 8th, 2011 - Updated builds after testing new things. Still no Tiger non-golem start, should have it up in a couple of days.

June 22nd, 2011
- Updating for 1.0.0.120 patch after a long string of no changes to Udyr.
- Refocused guide
- I felt that the guide was becoming too big and deterring readers, I also felt that i was starting to be dishonest and giving false information about playstyles I did not keep myself well enough updated on. Tank builds will remain, however i have combined them into their DPS soak counterparts.
- Information felt bloated and too spread out, so certain sections have been merged and compacted.
- Will be adding videos once recording help can be found

Udyr Archetypes Within this Guide

Udyr is a champion famed for his high versatility, and his ability to adapt to his enemies. Knowing this, a single build of Udyr is just not reasonable. A cookie-cutter build is not viable either as each game demands that you adapt to your enemies.

Phoenix-Tiger

This is the type of playstyle that I prefer to use. Utilizing Phoenix Stance's extremely potent early-mid game DPS, and high farming/jungling capabilities, you can output very high amounts of DPS throughout early-mid game. However, because phoenix "peaks" out during this time, precautions are made to ensure your DPS is maintained, and even improves as the game get longer. This solution is found in the use of Tiger stance. How this is done, is explained in "Phoenix-Tiger"

Pure Tiger

This build is an late-game oriented build that has a slower jungle, less sustained damage, and more mana hungry early-mid game when compared to Phoenix DPS Soak. However, the damage that this build can deal in late-game can match and surpass that of it's phoenix counterpart. The use of a  sheen and eventually  trinity force making it possible to deal heavy single target nukes on demand. The ability to pre-load tiger before ganking is what make this build a success during the laning phase. This kind of playstyle is more suited for games where either targets has good escaping capabilities limiting your time to burst a target down or games where you must use hit and run style guerrilla warfare tactics.

Abilities

Monkey's Agility

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

A decent passive that becomes more important as the game goes on and you have mana to maintain stacks. It caps at 3 stacks totaling 30% attack speed and 9% dodge bonus.

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.

Cost
55/50/45/40/35 Mana

The larger part of this skill comes from the activation effect, not the persistent effect. The DoT that this skill can deliver has the potential to be devastating. The facet of this skill that makes it dangerous is pre-loading. You can maintain the on-hit effect of this stance for 5 seconds after changing stance out of it. This can resut in massive spike from 2 consecutive tiger DoTs in close succession.

If you are running Tiger DPS Soak, you should always be maxing this skill. However if you rum Phoenix DPS Soak, it is not always the smartest idea to max this skill. The AD scaling of the skill does not change with rank, and the ATS boost/rank is a pitiful 5/5%.

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.

Cost
55/50/45/40/35 Mana

One of the biggest things to take note of about the turtle shield is that it IS affected by your resistances, meaning that 220 shield will block 550 damage with a resistance of 150.

As of the 1.0.0.120 patch, the steal from Turtle Stance is no longer based on raw damage before reduction and is now calculated post damage reduction. Consider it lifesteal w/ mana

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.

Cost
55/50/45/40/35 Mana

This is your Swiss Army Knife of stances. Initiation, interruption, chasing, fleeing, this stance has its uses in just about every part of the game. However, it is important to note that movement speed has a soft cap at about 500; this means that any additional movement speed past this point will give diminishing returns. With boots, bear stance will bring you very close to this soft cap, making the use of ghost less effective. It is also important to note that ranking bear stance has no effect on the duration of your stun. The combination of these elements makes maxing bear stance not always the wisest decision.

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.

Cost
55/50/45/40/35 Mana

This stance is rather self-explanatory. The larger part of the DPS of this skill comes from simply staying in this stance. Every third hit releases a burst of AoE damage. Unlike Tiger Stance, Damage comes from being in the stance, not activating the stance.

Udyr and the Latest Patch

In this section of the guide i would like to address my thoughts on the latest patch and how it will affect Udyr. I added this section because the 1.0.0.107 patch had quite a large affect on him, and i would like people who don't read the patch notes (why you wouldn't is a mystery to me >.>) to know how it will affect their gameplay.

1.0.0.121
no changes, carry on.

Summoner Spells

Only 4 are worth mentioning as far as Udyr is concerned.

 Ghost - Useful for the synergy it has with bear stance, but it will put you past the soft cap. At rank 5 bear stance you lose over 50% of the effectiveness from ghost.
 Smite - A must if you are going to be jungling
 Flash - Has great uses offensively and defensively. It can make up for the lack of dash that Udyr has when ganking. Great choice for Pure tiger since you will have a rank 5 bear stance to make up for the lack of ghost. It will make landing both the stun nand pre-loaded Tiger DoT much easier. However, you need to take into consideration the long cooldown of the spell.
 Cleanse - A good choice for TT since you won't need to bring Smite.

Tiger and Phoenix

There is an ongoing debate about which stance is better, Tiger? or Phoenix? The fact of the matter is that the two stances are incomparable. The time where each stance has the strongest effect is different.

Imagine that there is a scale, and that on each side of the scale is a stone. However, each stone weighs differently based on the time of day. During the time that the sun is up, the first stone is heavier, and tips the scale. But, after the noon day heat has passed and the sun starts to set, the moon rises, and the first stone starts to lose its weight. When the moon rises, the second stone starts to gain weight and begins to tip the scale in its favor.

This is an accurate analogy of how tiger and phoenix operate. Phoenix Stance represents the first stone while Tiger Stance represents the second, and the point in the game is represented by the time of day. Yes, based on the analogy, there should be a time when the 2 stances should "weigh" the same, however, this moment is but an instant, and vanishes just as soon as it appears.

Most people think that Tiger and Phoenix are mutually exclusive, that if you decide to use one stance, the other is instantly useless because Tiger scales off AD while phoenix scales off ATS. This assumption is wrong. You must consider the fact that Udyr is an Auto-Attack champion, regardless of playstyle. The best way to increase your AA DPS is to hybridize AD and ATS. This is why Tiger stance has an ATS steroid, and why Phoenix stance has an AP/AD Steroid. Using items of both types will, in the end, be best for your DPS overall.

Udyr and Laning

Udyr CANNOT harass in lane
Udyr CANNOT maintain mana in lane
Udyr CANNOT gank freely in lane
Udyr CAN be harassed easily in lane
Udyr is FORCED into pushing his own lane to maintain mana.

Don't lane in Summoner's Rift, TT is the only exception as to why Udyr should be in lane, this will be explained later.

Learning how to play efficiently with Udyr takes practice. Read as much out of this guide as you want, it can simply point you in the right direction. Experiencing it for yourself is the best way to learn. You will likely lose games when you start to play, but do not be discouraged. You likely fell off your bike a few times when you were learning to ride.

Trinity Force

Looking at Udyr's cooldowns and playstyle, he looks like a prime candidate for the use of a Trinity Force. Good news, he is. Bad news, knowing when to get it, takes knowledge and experience.

The Trinity Force has an outstanding effect on Udyr's DPS, there is no doubting that, but some things must be accounted for before you should even think about getting it:

1. Base damage
The bonus damage passive of Trinity force is based on your base damage, nothing else. This essentially means that it is based on your level, as your based damage only increases when you level. Until you have a high enough base damage, other, cheaper, items will be able to do more than the trinity force can.

2. Survivability
Do not EVER ignore getting survivability to finish building a Trinity Force. Without survivability you will not last long enough in team fights to be of any use to your team, meaning you will die quickly, gain no gold and experience, and in the end suspend the completion of the Trinity Force even more.

3. How will building it effect your game?
This is not about imagining having the completed item, but about building the individual pieces. Each piece is rather lackluster until the recipe has been completed, so you must think about what order you are going to build each piece, when you are going to need to fit survivability items in-between (you will, don't ever think otherwise), and how far back will this pull your DPS when compared to other items. Having a strong item for end game is pointless when you just feed the entirety of early-mid game. If you are having a tough game, go without the Trinity force for a while, focus on digging your way out now before it's too late.

Runes with Reasoning

Phoenix DPS Soak

   

 
Phoenix scales best with ATS. It will increase the rate at which you achieve your 3rd hits, meaning much greater DPS. The use of ATS runes will also greatly increase your jungling speed which brings you to your peak during early-mid game that much faster.

 -
Udyr's dodge naturally benefits from the use of Stance Dancing. If you take it (and i suggest you do) the addition 2% dodge from masteries helps as well. Dodge seals can bring you up to a nice 17% dodge chance. This would mitigate ~7-10% of the damage you take during team fights completely.  and  are viable substitutes as well.

 -
Udyr, however, has a weak 1.25 mr/lvl. This makes you very susceptible to AP burst champions. The use of mr/lvl glyphs more than doubles your mr/lvl gain. This provides some much needed survivability during teamfights.

 -
even though you are using phoenix, the majority of your damage will be physical, the extra 10 Armor pen can help you out. Plus, it improves your jungle speed more than ATS Quints.

---

Tiger DPS Soak

   

 -
Tiger Udyr Thrives on his Physical Damage, the Dot that is applied is just a VERY nice bonus. Typically you will see 66-75% of your damage being Physical when using Tiger Stance. Having a good amount of Armor Penetration will increase the damage of your auto-attacks.  Sheen &  Trinity Force damage is calculated as physical as well, so the ArP will increase this damage as well. The marks will increase your jungling speed, but not as mush as ATS runes would.

 -
Udyr's dodge naturally benefits from the use of Stance Dancing. If you take it (and i suggest you do) the addition 2% dodge from masteries helps as well. Dodge seals can bring you up to a nice 17% dodge chance. This would mitigate ~7-10% of the damage you take during team fights completely.  and  are viable substitutes as well.

 -
Udyr, however, has a weak 1.25 mr/lvl. This makes you very susceptible to AP burst champions. The use of mr/lvl glyphs more than doubles your mr/lvl gain. This provides some much needed survivability during teamfights.

 -
These are more used to improve your jungling speed, but they will still assist your DPS. replacing these with  can work. but your jungling speed will be slower because you will have more armor can than the majority of jungle creeps have armor, and penetration cannot bring you below 0 armor.

Masteries Do's, Don'ts, and Is It Worth It?

Offensive Tree

Anything past the 9 point mark really isn't worth it. The benefits you gain from going any deeper into the tree just don't aid Udyr enough. Havoc's extra 4% damage would be nice, however wasting 12 points for a single bonus doesn't help.

Deadliness- Is it worth it? The bonus to crit chance is the best thing on this tier other than the improved smite. A 2% chance to deal double damage while not in Turtle Stance is rather minuscule, but it can help. By taking offensive mastery points however, you reduce the amount of points you can have in the defensive tree.

Improved Smite - Is it worth it? a single point for an extra 5 gold every time you smite can be handy. You don't need to use it, but its nice to have, if you got a free point or are going for 9 points into offense take a point in this.

Archmage's Savvy- Don't. 1AP/lvl is nothing for udyr, his AP ratios are horrid.

Sorcery- Is it worth it? there are 2 milestone for Udyr as far as CDR is concerned. 17% and 33%. 17% percent will allow Udyr to perma 1 stance to maintain stacks. 33% will allow you to maintain bear speed at all times. Unless you intend on reaching at least the first milestone putting points into this doesnt really help, you gain tiny fractions of a second off, which really has no effect on the game. However, putting the 4 points into this can be worth it for the Archaic Knowledge mastery.

Alacrity-Don't, the benfits gained here can also be gained from ardor in the defensive tree, and almost everyhting in the defensive tree helps Udyr, so no points will be wasted reaching it. In the offensive tree there are a lot of things that are just sub-par for Udyr.

Archaic Knowledge - Is it worth it? This can boost your magic damage, but the effect it has is fairly weak on tanks. For example, if you were fighting a tank with 200MR, you gain 2.7% damage. It's Not much, but it can be worth it for a DPS Soak, the more damage the better. Also take into consideration that you have spent 9 mastery points for the weaker part of your damage.

Sunder- Don't, this is too far down the line to make it worth it for Udyr.

Offensive Mastery - Like sunder, this is too far down the tree to make it worth it.

Defensive Tree

The tankier your intended build, the further down the tree it helps to be.

Resistance- Do, an additional 6 MR is nice for only 3 points, always take this. Udyr could use the extra beef for when he has to run through the tanks.

Hardiness- Do, just like Resistance, 6AR for only 3 points, always take it.

Evasion- Do, has great synergy with your passive, and becomes even better to have if you pick up Nimbleness and use dodge runes, which I recommend.

Defensive Mastery- Do, increases your jungling safety, you may not notice it, but the amount of hp this will save you in the jungle is immense, it can save your more hp than a hp pot in your first clear alone.

Nimbleness- Do, Your passive naturally grants dodge, and you gain an additional 2%. If you put the 4 points into Evasion, always take Nimbleness.

Harden Skin- Is it worth it? Like Defensive Mastery, but by using 3 points you can reduce enemy champion's damage as well, however, 2 damage isnt worth 3 points mot of the time. Harden Skin also calculates before reduction, which can result in no change in damage at all.

Veteran Scars- Do, If you're this deep into the defensive tree, this is a must.

Ardor- Do, if you are this deep into the defensive tree, this will boost your threat level, which Udyr needs.

Tenacity -If you are a tank, this is a must, if you are a DPS Soak, you may prefer the extra 15% buff duration, it's up to you, both are great investments.

Utility Tree

Spatial Accuracy- dont, unused spell

Good Hands- Do, while in an ideal situation you would never die, it is never ideal. Stuff happens, a bad initiation, you got ganked, etc. This will reduce your dead time, so its nice to have.

Perseverance- Don't, For Udyr, this is a deceptive lie. An extra 4% regen sounds amazing, until you factor in Udyr's pitiful regen. your hp5 and mp5 go up by a little more than one, hardly worth the points.

Improved Ghost- Do, Udyr lacks a dash, so he's all about movement speed, having the extra 6% and 1.5sec duration is amazing.

Awareness- Do, this is a necessary mastery for any jungler.

Expanded Mind- Don't, Udyr has a small mana pool, but that issue will be covered with items that offer mana. Udyr's pool is naturally small, 5% won't go far.

Greed- Don't, the amount of gold this thing gives is extremely small. In 45min you gain a whopping 270 gold...

Meditation- Is it worth it? If you intend on going deeper into the Utility tree this is the best place to throw your points. Udyr's mana regen is rather low, so this can help when you are defending a lane where you cant turtle things for mana.

Utility Mastery- Do, If you are a jungler you want at least 1 point in this, 2 if you have the points to do so. an extra 30% buff duration is amazing.

Quickness- Do. you really shouldn't go past this point in the utility tree. However, if you are going this deep, its an excellent investment.

Intelligence- don't. this is too deep into the tree to be worth it

Presence of the Master- Don't, this is too far into the Tree and offers too little unless you are a caster/support.

Concerning Builds and Item Choice

Udyr is a champion known for his versatile nature in a team, if you want he can be a tank, he can be a DPS soak, If you play him the way I do, occasionally, you can be tankier than most tanks while still dealing more damage then most tanky DPS and can rival a carry. how you build him for each match is up to you, but there are things that you should take into account.

1. Your team composition

If no one in your team has any beefy tank, you should fill that role, as fun as being a DPS champion is, having a tank in your team is more important. This occurrence is prevalent in solo queue, where everyone wants to be 'that guy' that carries the team to victory. Playing a tank is being an unsung hero, but what you bring to the team is more important than being a 5th DPS or carry, you are the wall, the foundation, the very core of your team. You are the martyr that must be willing to sacrifice their life so that others may live. Do not be ashamed of such a position.

2. Enemy team composition

When that loading screen pops up, that is the time to get a general idea of what is needed in your team. If you see a tryndamere, focus for mid-game damage, before tryndamere becomes too powerful. If they have too much damage for one tank to handle, fill in the second tank position.

3. Items and Versatility

Udyr also has a very large selection of items that benefit his needs, use this to your advantage. Udyr is one of the few champions that I would say has absolutely NO CORE BUILD other than what you buy at lvl 1 for jungling, everything is situational and depends completely on the needs of the team. If the enemy has a lot of hp, bloodrazor. Your team needs someone who can take down towers fast, Trinity Force. Your team lacks magic damage, malady/bloodrazor/phoenix.

Tanking and Soaking

What is the difference between a Tank and a DPS Soak? In my eyes, it comes down to what your priority is in a team fight. Tanks want to distract and disable an enemy team to take damage away from a carry. A DPS Soak wants to deal as much damage as he can while having enough survivability to be able to withstand a decent amount of damage so that he can continue to deal more pain. Tanks and Soaks often have similar abilities, so much so that some champions can choose which they want to be on a per game basis. Udyr is one of them.

For Udyr, the difference between being a tank or a DPS Soak can simply be playstyle. As far as items are concerned, you don't have to change WHAT items you get, but WHEN you get them. A simple change in order can be all that is required, however, if necessary you can still change which items you get due to Udyr's high flexibility.

With playstyle is comes down to how many people you are stunning. When tanking you want to stun as many people you can get you hands on, while using the Tiger DoT to boost the damage along on the current focus. You want to be as much of a nuisance as possible, disrupting channeled ults, interrupting combos, and being a general pest.

Jungling (all in vids!)

Phoenix Jungling

Suggested Path:
Waiths > Wolves > Mini Golems > Blue Pill(Longsword) > Blue > Wolves > Wraiths > Red > Mini Golems >Blue Pill (madred's + wards and potions)

Alternate Path:
Blue > Wolves > Wraiths > Mini Golems > Red > Blue Pill (boots + wards and potions)

______________________________________________________________________________________________

Tiger Jungling

Suggested Path:
Blue > Wolves > Wraiths > Mini Golems > Red > Blue Pill (boots + wards and potions)

Alternate Path:
Mini Golems > Wraiths > Wolves > Blue Pill (longsword) > Blue > Wraiths > Mini Golems > Red > Wolves > Blue Pill (madreds + wards and potions)

Phoenix-Tiger

Looking at Udyr's kit, Phoenix stance, by far, has the highest early-mid game damage. With this is mind, Phoenix is maxed early to ensure good damage output during these phases of the game.

For Jungling you want to take advantage of that speed, not to gank earlier, but to level and get money faster. Using the suggested path featured in the video, you can reach level 5 very fast

At level 10, a single rank is placed into Tiger Stance. This single point increases your damage output greatly through the use of Tiger Stance's activation. Not only is the DoT useful, but the temporary ATS buff, when switched into phoenix right after, greatly increases the rate of 3rd hits. When switched into Turtle Stance, greatly increases your regen rate. As stated earlier in the guide, Tiger Stance suffers from diminutive returns past rank 1. This is why only a single point is placed into Tiger stance by this point in the game.

Turtle is then maxed to increase your survivability and lane staying power.

The remaining points come down to a per game basis. If you need that extra movement speed max bear and leave tiger at rank 3, it still does a surprising amount of damage, and the damage lost in the Tiger dot, is ignorable. If the bonus attack speed and the small boost in the DoT damage could make the difference, max tiger and leave bear at rank 3, the stun duration won't change, and the bonus movement speed is already bringing you to the soft cap. If you cant decide, simply leave both and rank 4.

Pure Tiger

This late-game oriented playstyle is based on your ability as a ganker to get you through your early-mid game. You need to know how to position yourself correctly, and know your timing for when you gank.

Pre-loading your Tiger DoT is essential to bursting down unsuspecting targets. Pop Tiger stance while you wait for the right time to dash in. when the moment arrives pop bear and land the stun, if you landed the stun in under 5 seconds, the Tiger DoT should have landed on them as well. Wait out the 2 seconds then pop tiger again to throw another DoT and proceed to wear them down until they die.

Rank Turtle and Bear Stance as needed.

Survival Tips

Here i will list some techniques to handle certain dangerous champions. and other tricks to help you survive the battles.

Take a Bullet: Turtle Stance allows you to mitigate most of the damage from single abilities. You can also bodyblock skill shots for your allies as well. While your natural instinct will be to dodge it, if you see it will hit an ally, pop turtle and take a hit for your teammate.

Running away: If you are ever put in the position that you have to flee from the battle, the combination of turtle and bear will allow you to run away quickly and stop damage as well. Another trick is to actually run toward your enemy, bear stun, then continue to run, this technique is useful in stopping single chasers, or assisting an allied champion make his escape

 Hemoplague,  Requiem,  Time Bombs, and DoTs: We've all seen these little buggers kill allies as they flee, only to realize that they were going to die anyway, and should have stayed to deal more damage. Well not for Udyr! Popping turtle right before the damage occurs can deny Vlad, Karthus, and Zilean, that kill. You will likely take some damage, but you could possibly take the edge off just enough to save yourself from a lengthy respawn timer. If you have a dot on yourself (i.e.: Teemo/Twitch poison,  ignite,  Children of the grave,  malefic visions) pop turtle to mitigate some of the damage. They will likely eat through your shield, but you can stop just enough of it that you can survive, and blue pill out.

Initiation: For ganks during the laning phase it is okay to initiate ganks as DPS Soak Udyr, but when team-fights begin let the tank do his job and initiate, and absorb the initial burst. If you pull the foolhardy act of initiating in a team fight, you will likely soon be twiddling your thumbs waiting for your screen to have color again. On the other hand, as Tank Udyr, feel free to initiate team fights, just remember that while you may feel invincible, Udyr is still human. Denial does not make you immortal, no matter what Futurama says.

Beware of Bait: Due to Udyr's rather fast movement speed, you may be compelled to chase an enemy through half the map to get that kill. DON'T. Know when the running in fear stops, and the baiting begins. Also, don't leave a team-fight to chase that one low Hp champion, it often ends with you getting kited, and the rest of your team dying because you left.

One Second Wonder

This section is devoted to the various uses of the bear stun.

Channeled Ults
This 1 second stun can end some of the most dangerous skills in the game instantly. Nunu, Galio, Malzahar, Katarina, Fiddlesticks, Caitlyn, even Master Yi's Meditation can be cut short with this trust stance. Make sure your stun to stop these ults in their tracks.

Escape Artist
A team fight didnt end as you had hoped, and you are fleeing the scene with a low health carry beside you. The enemy Annie is close on your tail, hoping to pick off your friend. You could use bear stance and ditch your poor friend here, but possibly save your own hide OR, you can turn around and stun Annie and let your ally get a bit more distance with your close behind. I have used this tactic dozens of times to get an ally out of danger.

Cause Chaos
Using bear stun to stun nearby targets just because they are within arms reach can be the bane of an enemy team. Disrupting their natural flow with this small little stun can prevent a suprising amount of damage. Say in 5 enemy champions all have identical DPS, and throughout 6 seconds you managed to stun all 5 of them. You just mitigated 1/6 of their damage within that 6 second unit of time, do this repeatedly and you can cripple an enemy team's damage output.

Tools of the Tanking Trade

As a tank you may feel compelled to just stack Armor and Magic Resist to the end of time, but you must take into account that Armor and Magic follow a function of exponential decay, meaning the more you buy, the less effective each point in armor becomes. Mathematically, Armor and Magic Resist past 100 starts to lose its gold efficiency, however there are not that many HP items out there that are worth the trouble. At around the 150 Armor/magic resist mark, it become more effective to stack HP. As a general rule, if you have more than 200 Armor/Magic resist, you're wasting too much gold

Core:
 Cloth Armor
 Health Potions

Situational:
 Ninja Tabi/ Mercury's Treads
 Madred's Bloodrazor
 Wriggle's Lantern
 Sunfire Cape
 Thornmail
 Randuin's Omen
 Frozen Heart
 Aegis of the Legion
 Guardian Angel
 Banshee's Veil
 Force of Nature
Spirit's Visage
 Frozen Mallet
 Warmog's Armor

You may be wondering why Madred's Bloodrazor/Wriggle's Lantern is listed as an item for a tank. As i stated way back up at the top of this guide, a tank needs to be able to CC the entire enemy team, or deal enough damage that it could be bad if they let you be ignored. A bloodrazor/Wriggle's is part of the latter, with it you deal enough damage to actually kill most other tanks, and your stun can disrupt the carries. a potent mix indeed.

Tools of the DPS Soaking Trade

DPS Soak Udyr sacrifices some of the survivability of Tank Udyr for and large boost in damage. A single additional damage item can make you a death dealing machine.

Core:
 Cloth Armor
 Health Potions

Situational(damage):
 Madred's Bloodrazor
 Trinity Force
 Malady
 Stark's Fervor
 Sword of the Divine
 Frozen Mallet
 Wriggle's Lantern
 Last Whisper
 The Bloodthirster
 The Black Cleaver
 Youmuu's Ghostblade

Situational (survival):
 Ninja Tabi/ Mercury's Treads
 Aegis of the Legion
 Guardian Angel
 Sunfire Cape
 Banshee's Veil
 Thornmail
 Force of Nature
 Spirit Visage
 Quicksilver Sash