Tweaking Udyr
This was inspired by the #TweakAChampion challenge on League Amino. It's mostly for fun, but I'd also love to get a red's opinion on it.
Right now, Udyr's in a good place, and (I hesitate to say this in full view of Rito) steadily getting buffed by every single change they name to the jungle and/or fighter class, with more indirect buffs coming within 3 weeks if the red posts are to be believed. However, Udyr is kind of... boring. You don't really care about his passive or how many stacks he has because you're stance-dancing anyway so either the fights over or you're full. I know Udyr is purposefully a low skill cap champ, but simple and boring don't have to go hand in hand. Udyr needs a more exciting passive, something that interacts with each stance specifically.
Currently Udyr's passive, Monkey's Agility, grafts him 5 movement speed and 10% attack speed for a short time, stacking up to 3 times. Each stance also has a short active effect and a consistent effect. What I propose is (for balance sake) giving him 6% attack speed and 3 movement speed stacking up to 5 times (same max values, more stacks). If he has 5 monkey stacks the actives of each stance has the following effects:
Tiger: the bleed from Tiger Strike will do % health (or true damage instead of AD) and apply Grievous Wounds.
Turtle: Udyr's resistances are increased by a percentage (or a fixed amount).
Bear: Udyr shakes off all cc and is immune to further cc.
Phoenix: All units hit by Udyr's flames will have a percentage (or fixed amount) of their armor and magic resist lowered.
There are two ways to carry his passive out now. The first is to keep it mostly the same, but to fall off faster and 1 by 1. The second is to have Udyr build up to 5 stacks through abilities and auto attacks, then the next stance change consumes the stacks.This will have several meanings. First, Udyr is rewarded for using stances constantly, which is a staple for him. In fact, compared to live he's punished for not doing so. Small skirmishes were never Udyr's strong suit, he needs to stay in combat for a while to be a real threat. Second, his early game where he's limited by mana will be slightly worse (he can currently stay in the jungle with just machete and 2 pots until he runs out of mana, not health), and his ganks will be horrid unless the target stays to fight. Third, his late game, dueling, and teamfights get a huge buff. Tiger will have tanks and squishies alike shaking in fear, turtle will make him invincible, bear makes him unstoppable, and phoenix will divide their ranks. In the jungle, the effect will be almost neutral, as junglers are in constant combat anyway and the lack of dps from earlier in the camp will be balanced out with the extra tank and damage later in the camp.
Alternatively, forget his passive and attach the effects to any stance with max points.
Anyway, let me know what you think about these changes.