Udyr is starting to feel like the Dan Hibiki(Street Fighter) of League. He can do a Hadoken or (random league effect here) but it only goes half the distance and is puny. He can do a shoryuken but falls on his ass afterward (Flashing in to stun adc) and while Dan makes a great joke character and is good for comic relief I don't really get that that was the intended vibe with Udyr. People See Udyr Picked, or Dan for an example. They say well...he's here...he might do something to help but let's be honest he isn't winning any tournaments...Like North America...I KID I KID. I love Udyr but when I play him sometimes I feel like Yamcha vs the saibamen. Just dead...dead in a pit. While the lee sins and the yasuos can go 1/4 and get triples np. You guys gave him an ultimate skin...make him feel somewhat ultimate! Not overpowered but just as strong as any other new champ that comes out.
This is probably my first forum post. I've played this game since 2010 and have mained udyr the whole way through. My highest achieved rank was diamond 3 but I kept playing and dropped again =p. It's a little discouraging that my favorite champ is so actually very hard to climb with. I'm just so comfortable on him and I really don't feel like I should almost be forced to play a different champ to have an easier or more pleasurable experience in ranked. I pick Udyr and am constantly flamed for it based off nothing but the champ alone. People would rather see a support teemo than an Udyr jungle. I have over 1000 games in ranked this season alone and am just plat 1. I really feel like all Udyr needs is some small boost without taking away something for "balance". A champion without an ultimate is already not balanced and should sit relatively strong as compensation. The refresh on tiger was a great idea, nerfing the raw level damage on it was not. I used to rely on that initial burst a lot, now I can't burst anything without going full ad. I have to build tank to do the sustained damage, but sitting as udyr in a fight for 5 seconds is death. People already know to focus an Udyr to deal with him quickly, so to counter that you build tank and do no damage in the fight. So you either suck or you suck. Choose. There is a love for udyr out there. A lot of people stopped playing him because of his viablity but as far as character design goes he's awesome! Just great character design.
Things I wish would happen. Not all of it but one or 2.
Udyr should have at least a 1.5 second stun on bear. Other champions have way better stuns, maybe on a bigger CD but still they also have ults, lets be fair.
Udyr should either have a base MS buff again or a buff to to bears per level MS % by 3% While there is a place for MS % runes it shouldn't feel mandatory in order to gank.
Udyrs raw tiger damage should be reverted to it's previous damage per level while keeping its refresh buff. This would not be broken just strong early game which is where udyr should truly shine. Especially as a champion with no ultimate ability. Also this would help out his jungling because he could stay in tiger and clear some camps, might even open up a chance to share blue with mid and not suffer or build mana.
Udyr's passive should be somewhat changed. the Attack speed is fine but the stacking ms, its ok but not enough to really impact things so instead you could buff the passive movespeed instead of buffing bears MS, or remove it, buff bear, and give him either stacking Tenacity up to 15% or 10 or so armor and magic resist per stack, maybe have it start out as 3 and level up over time to 10. Udyr needs some Armor and MR buff to something in his kit, Jax has it on his ulti to keep him viable as well as his dodge mechanic which is extremely powerful. Udyr should at the very least be on par with jax in tankiness, he is already outclassed in damage and teamfight viablity. maybe bring back dodge on his passive for something cool! Dodge doesn't need to be exclusively Jax's thing.
Turtle...should scale with AD...I know this one is going to be controversial but if riven with all her mobility, tricks, and level 6 1v1 roflstompiness can have a ad scaling shield why not. Why make it scare with AP? It made sense in the days where Udyrs phoenix stance gave AP, and when triforce had 30 ap on it to help give turtle 15 more shield, but these days going ap may work sometimes but it's still a little niche and you are better to just go an ap jungler if you want to play ap. I mean you can build all ap items if you want to be demolished in fights but that seems to happen even if you go full tank because he has nothing really to help boost the tankiness like many tank junglers have. There are games I have 350+ armor and 3500 - 4k life and am still absolutely shredded by ad champs with all the pen they get from items or even built right into their kit. How can you counterplay these champs if armor and health mean nothing. Looking at you Vayne.
Slow immunity on bear, or 25% less slow while in bear, I realize this is given through swiftness boots but you try building boots of swiftess instead of ninja tabi vs the adc's of today and tell me you don't actually regret it. These days to catch a target you pretty much have to flash stun. and while flash stun tiger is powerful, you shouldn't have a viable gank on a 5 min cooldown right? Ganking with just movement speed was fine in the old days before everyone was given free wards....and you basically have to be very lucky not to walk over one, no more oracles elixir to help with that...can get sweepers I guess but you sacrifice jungle vision for that or waste gold on vision wards to put in a common pathing spot to be destroyed 15 seconds after you place it in dragon pit.
Not sure how to work this in but Udyr does suffer, if for nothing else, by not being able to pass over walls. The burst cones help with this some but those are gone after used for a long time while champions like Kayn literally are walking through walls and are also able to dash over too. As Udyr it's frustrating to try to counter jungle and use your strengths in the early game to just not be able to secure kills in 1v1's because they get to walk away. They didnt out duel you so they just...go over a wall. Byebye. wasted time. This isn't one that is easily fixed and maybe it doesnt need to be "fixed" But it is a good point for building a case that he should be helped in other areas. Champions today are very over tuned and get a lot of use out of every skill...like a LOT coughekkocough
For a rework I think Udyr should maintain what he is essentially, but I feel like it would be cool if similar to Kayn maybe you could go the path of Tiger and recieve buffs to damage and/or even more attack speed, or even some kind of damage on hit shred to tiger,
or hell add a slow to tiger for a little more stickability, a truedamage bleed at the end of tiger or alongside the Dot. Path of Phoenix would double the effective radius of the flames and grant flat or % bonus armor and magic resist essentially making udyr kind of like an ulted shyvana in teamfights spreading aoe damage while being able to take the hits. This would make him feel less dated and make him feel like he does have an ulti in a way without actually having one. Maybe this would be a cool idea....If you choose the path of tiger or phoenix it's button is replaced with a new ability which for Tiger is a leap to a single target or point on the map that causes either a single target bleed effect or an AOE bleed effect in which the claws animation hits everything within that range, maybe make the radius similar to a malphite ults. Maybe instead of any kind of damage component maybe it provide a leap and a flat % damage reduction for 3 seconds or something, just long enough to MAYBE kill someone. And phoenix is similar but instead it gives out a flame burst similar to pantheon landing but a much smaller radius and maybe instead of having it deal a large about of AoE damage let it be moderate and debuff opponents in the area in some way. This could fix gap closing issues and also profit some sort of ultimate, The damage from these leaps doesnt need to be huge it can act as more of a utility. If we can't fabricate gap closers this way we at least need to make some kind of method for bear to get to a target whatever that may be.
I've seen what you intend to do with Udyr and that little bit of help is magnificent, I am very grateful. I merely hoped to demonstrate a myriad of choices that could be made to help udyr out. Crit immunity on turtle would be neat. the flat ad per level is very welcome and will strengthen items that are commonplace for Udyr. The item changes and changes to his abilities have made him fall behind from the Udyr of yore. There are things about his power that need to be considered, we can't hold on to old stigmas about him going out of control because the elements that made him do so don't exist anymore, and if any of them do then others champions exploit those situations even better than Udyr does so what's the point of holding him back. Point blank he's an ultless champ and that's fine but he SHOULD be strong to compensate, and he just isn't at this point. He's an old champ I get it but we shouldn't cast him into antiquity because he isn't the shiny new toy of the game. I'm passionate about my champion...This guy needs to shine. I still play him even though I am considered a pariah for it and there is no danger to me abandoning him I just wish the ceiling didn't seem so low for him. Do my boy some justice and bring him in line. Not too strong, I don't want him perma banned, but at least viable. I'm tired of getting into games and being told "Woah an udyr, I haven't seen one on my team in years" -_-
Tl;DR Udyr needs help. Help that doesn't come bundled with a hindrance. Riot..please read and consider some of my ideas. I may be naive in thinking this will get glanced at but I would feel remiss if I did not try. As Rocky might say...I took the hits of playing a sub par champion for years...it's time to win, that's how winning is done.
Also...buff fiddlesticks somehow. I have no idea how on this one but would like to see him around again
