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Skill usage
- Be careful what skills you learn as
Udyr cannot max out all of his skills. Each skill is capped at level 5, but the max level is 18, therefore one of Udyr's skills has a lower level than its full potential. This may cause players to decide between 
Tiger Stance and 
Phoenix Stance as their main source of damage. Tiger Stance is often best suited for single target burst damage while Phoenix Stance is useful for AoE damage and clearing minion waves. Depending on the skill build, sometimes it is wiser to have two skills at level 4 than to have one skill at level 3. - Constantly activating Udyr's stances is important to increasing his damage. The attack speed from activating Tiger Stance persists if you switch stances, so you can switch to Phoenix Stance and get the extra burst from the third Phoenix Stance hit sooner. Similarly, the AoE from Phoenix Stance the shield from Turtle Stance and the increased movement speed from Bear Stance all persist in other stances.
- Rotating between stances gives Udyr movement and attack speed boost from his passive Monkey's Agility. But be mindful of his mana as his abilities have high mana costs at early ranks.
- Udyr can easily tank and clear minion waves. Turtle Stance provides a shield to reduce damage from minions and heal from his damage output ensures the minions don't deplete his health. The attack speed from Monkey's Agility and Tiger Stance with the area of effect magic damage from Phoenix Stance can take out huge minion waves. This can be further improved with Sunfire Cape or Tiamat.
- When pushing a turret, alternating between Tiger Stance and Phoenix Stance is very effective. Be careful though as the AoE magic damage from Phoenix Stance can deal damage to enemy champions and aggro towers.
- Late game Udyr can solo a tower easily by alternating between Tiger Stance (provides attack damage), and Turtle Stance (provides a shield which helps mitigate some of the damage). If the enemy team comes to interfere, you can quickly escape using the movement speed boost from Bear Stance.
- Rotating between stances gives
- Use Bear Stance to stun an enemy champion before switching stances or targets. Bear Stance cannot stun a unit recently stunned for 6 seconds, so it is a good idea to target another champion or to use Tiger Stance or Phoenix Stance to deal higher burst damage during the stun.
- Since the cooldown on Bear Stance is the same as the 'cooldown' for the stun, you can use Bear Stance's cooldown timer to judge the second stun, possibly securing a kill.
- Since the cooldown on
- Try to time the stun and movement speed buff from Bear Stance so you can stun the enemy and then activate Bear Stance's movement speed buff to create distance to escape. If that's not enough, there's always Randuin's Omen.
- Udyr is only melee with no ranged abilities. Therefore, he is vulnerable to kiting so avoid ranged harass and CC. You should wait for your allies to initiate and set up for you, or coordinate with them to encircle targets.
- Udyr's lack of gap-closers and high mana costs can make ganking problematic sometimes. Having a strategy for getting into, and staying within, melee range is essential.
- A Flash + Bear Stance combo is very effective during ganking as Udyr's primary problem with ganking is reaching the enemy. Ask the person in the lane you'll gank if the enemy champion has used Flash or a similar ability recently to make sure you don't waste yours or you risk your target escaping.
- Because of Udyr's high early damage with Tiger Stance, a good strategy to get early kills with Janna in your team (using her passive), movement speed Quintessences and Boots of Speed, you can either force a Summoner spell or kill your lane opponent, by chasing them through the lane.
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Build usage
Being a pure melee champion with no ranged abilities, Udyr needs to stay in motion to be any use.
- Since he has no gap closer, Udyr is prone to kiting. Boots of Swiftness are a must-have if enemy team has lot of slows.
- Randuin's Omen is a good anti-kiting tool as it reduces the movement speed of whoever attacks you.
- Unless he gets some tenacity, Udyr is very susceptible to crowd control. On a jungling Udyr, Spirit of the Ancient Golem is perfect, as it also makes him tankier. If laning and Boots of Swiftness are not needed either, Mercury's Treads are good option, too.
As a full melee, Udyr is usually built as a full tank or an off-tank. Know your enemy and balance your health, armor and magic resistance accordingly. A dead or scared Udyr is very useless in a team fight.
- As for pure health, Spirit of the Ancient Golem is enough, as many of the armor and magic resistance items give health as well. Udyr doesn't scale with health and his Turtle Stance's effectively relies on armor and magic resist rather than health.
- Ruby Sightstone, Warmog's Armor or Frozen Mallet can be alternatively used.
- For armor, Frozen Heart, Randuin's Omen or Thornmail are great choices.
- By building both Frozen Heart and Randuin's Omen, you greatly decrease enemy attack speed.
- Iceborn Gauntlet is an offensive alternative to Frozen Heart.
- By building both
- For magic resist, Spectre's Cowl is a very good early option with useful stats for Udyr. If you need more, it can be upgraded to Spirit Visage and Banshee's Veil to further increase your endurance.
- Spirit Visage also grants handy cooldown reduction. It synergizes well with life steal and its own health regen.
- Banshee's Veil gives more health. It only stops one spell though.
- Maw of Malmortius or Wit's End are viable for off-tank Udyr.
Full tank or not, Udyr can build some offensive items as well. You should never rush damage over survivability, it would probably backfire. Your choice between Tiger Stance and 
Phoenix Stance can also affect your build.
- Udyr benefits greatly from Spellblade passive as his cooldowns are very low. An early Sheen with later upgrade to Trinity Force or Iceborn Gauntlet is advisable.
- Trinity Force is an expensive but versatile choice as it increases his movement speed and damage potential at the same time.
- Iceborn Gauntlet is a bit cheaper alternative that grants a reliable AoE slow on-hit, allowing to stick easier to targets. It also grants good defense, cooldown reduction and a sufficient mana pool.
- Phoenix Stance benefits from extra attack speed, the third hit procs more often.
- Guinsoo's Rageblade offers Udyr cost-effective, offensive hybrid stats and is one of the few items containing ability power that work well with him. It boosts Tiger Stance's damage, Turtle Stance's shield and Phoenix Stance's overall damage potential in one package.
- Tiger Stance offers great attack speed and scales very strong with attack damage.
- The Bloodthirster or Ravenous Hydra can give you huge attack damage combined with extra life steal. Combine it with Spirit Visage for great sustain.
- Since Turtle Stance can help Udyr survive even at low health, Maw of Malmortius is a great option for the Tiger Stance bruiser path, provided there are strong magic or true damage dealers.
Udyr is not as much item-dependent as some others in early game. He can have mana problems early, but the need of mana and mana regen items decreases gradually.
- If Udyr can access Crest of the Ancient Golem in the early to mid-game, you don't need to build any mana regen items at all.
- If you are troubled with your mana pool early, consider buying either a Sheen or Glacial Shroud, depending on your offensive or defensive needs.
Recommended builds
Jungling
Udyr is a natural jungler - 
Turtle Stance allows him to gain his health back. Putting a skill point in it at level two after taking Phoenix Stance or Tiger Stance at level one ensures effective jungling. He can also solo very early in the game.
- Udyr has choices for jungling depending on whether which stance he relies to do damage, either his Tiger Stance or his Phoenix Stance or even both. Phoenix Stance currently clears the jungle more quickly than Tiger Stance due to the area of effect damage but Tiger Stance has higher burst for more quick single target damage which may be more useful than Phoenix Stance for ganks or dueling the enemy jungler and Tiger Stance scales favorably into the later aspects of the game with attack damage. Deciding on which stance to choose depends on Udyr's build and the player's personal preference.
- Be aware that Udyr is very mana dependent in the earlier aspects of the game because spamming his abilities with their high mana cost will easily drain his mana pool so be careful with how many times you activate his stances to clear a camp. He might need some mana regen like Crest of the Ancient Golem or at least Mana Potions for a second jungle clear.
- Udyr can jungle with Phoenix Stance for more area of effect damage and a faster clear time. Phoenix Stance offers more starting item options than Tiger Stance.
- Starting items: Cloth Armor, Health Potion × 5 OR Hunter's Machete, Health Potion × 5 OR Boots of Speed, Health Potion × 4
- Recommended Runes: Attack Speed, Armor
- Skill progression: Phoenix Stance → Turtle Stance → Phoenix Stance → Bear Stance
- Jungling order: ( Smite) → → → ( Smite) → Gank
- Starting items:
- Udyr can also jungle with Tiger Stance for better single target damage.
- Starting items: Cloth Armor, Health Potion × 5 OR Hunter's Machete, Health Potion × 5
- Recommended Runes: Attack Damage, Armor
- Skill progression: Tiger Stance → Turtle Stance → Tiger Stance → Bear Stance
- Jungling order: ( Smite) → → → ( Smite) → → Gank
- Starting items:
Runes and Masteries
Countering
- Udyr is a pure melee champion with no gap closers, and is thus very vulnerable to being kited.
- Ranged champions have a better chance against Udyr due to his all melee skills.
- Picking up Tenacity items such as Mercury's Treads can reduce the stun duration from Bear Stance, and make him a less effective ganker.
- When laning against Udyr, it can be beneficial to bait him into switching stances to try and initiate, after which you quickly run away. This can easily drain his early game mana pool, forcing him to regain his lost mana by either going back to the fountain or use potions.
- This can prompt the enemy to focus on leveling up Turtle Stance, lowering Udyr's mid game damage and giving you the advantage in skirmishes.
- Udyr alternating Turtle Stance and Bear Stance is one of the harder champions in the game to chase down - and the stun of Bear Stance can easily make you regret chasing him if back-up arrives to aid him. Think very carefully about attempting to commit and kill him, and be very aware of the whereabouts of his teammates.
- Udyr is vulnerable if he is not attacking or is unable to attack, Renekton can easily counter Udyr on his Bear Stance because Renekton's stun lasts longer.
- Champions who can slow Udyr for an extended period of time (Some examples being Ashe, Nasus, and Kog'Maw) or can run faster than Udyr (champions like Hecarim and Rammus) will be able to gun down Udyr better and run away if necessary. Also Singed is a good counter pick for Udyr because Udyr has no major gap closers(Just make sure to buy movement speed items).
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