Review of the Udyr Changes
> Movement Speed :: 345 >>> 355
Given how much mobility is in the game and the fact that Udyr is losing movespeed from his this seems reasonable.
> Inner Beast (P) [ reworked ]
- Whenever Udyr switches stances in combat he gains a stack of of Inner Beast for 7 seconds (max 5)
- Inner Beast (per stack): Gain +4% cooldown reduction, +4% attack speed, and +6% base attack damage.
There are two problems I have with this. The first is that cooldown reduction seems like an odd thing to give Udyr as he usually reaches 40% with items, such as Triforce, Frozen Heart, Spirit Visage etc. The second is that it will be very difficult for Udyr to gank a lane because he won't be able to stack this before he uses Chilling Smite or lands Bear Stance (whichever comes first). Most opponents will either be dead or gone by the time Udyr reaches 3 or 4 stacks. The old passive allowed Udyr to stack it up and then gank and I am curious as to why he isn't able to stack up the new one.
>Tiger Stance (Q)
- Cooldown :: 6 >>> 5
- Attack Speed Duration :: 5 >>> 6
- DoT Damage :: 30 / 60 / 90 / 120 / 150 (+120 / 130 / 140 / 150 / 160% total AD) >>> 78 / 126 / 174 / 222 / 270 (+90% bonus AD)
- DoT Duration :: 2 >>> 6
- [ new ] DoT deals +6% damage for each Inner Beast stack Udyr has at time of application.
- [ removed ] if DoT is refreshed it no longer deals the clipped portion's damage as a burst.
This change slightly affects the way Tiger Udyr plays teamfights. On the current Tiger Udyr you would want to use Bear Stance to get to the back, stun your target, Switch to Tiger Stance and then maul with DoT resets. On new Tiger Udyr however you're going to want to have stacks for when you dive the back line meaning it would be most optimal to Bear Stun a front liner, drop a Tiger DoT on them and then change to a new target (Using Turtle Stance when necessary) and then once you're at max stacks go for the back line.
This ability should theoretically function the same for split pushing. You should have full Inner Beast stacks from clearing waves so mauling enemies faces off dueling enemy champions with the Tiger DoT should function the same.
Tiger stance should clear the jungle about the same as it always has. Alright but not great.
> Turtle Stance (W)
- Cooldown :: 6 >>> 5
More shielding means that Udyr will live longer. The important thing to note here isn't so much what has changed but what has changed. This stance to my knowledge will still scale in with AP and I'm not entirely sure why.
> Bear Stance (E)
- Cooldown :: 6 >>> 5
More uptime on Bear Stance. It's a buff not much else to it.
> Phoenix Stance (R)
- Cooldown :: 6 >>> 5
- Flame Aura Damage :: 40 / 80 / 120 / 160 / 200 (+100% AP) >>> 60 / 90 / 130 / 150 / 180 (+120% bonus AD)
- Flame Aura Duration :: 4 >>> 6
- Flame Cone Damage :: 40 / 80 /120 /160 / 200 (+45% AP) >>> 50 / 75 / 100 / 125 / 150 (+30 / 40 / 50 / 60 / 70% bonus AD)
- [ new ] Flame Cone deals +6% damage for each Inner Beast stack Udyr has.
AP Udyr is dead (Good). This ability is also now in a very interesting place. On the one hand it still scales with Attack Speed as it still only procs every 3 autos and it still has about the same base damage. However the items Udyr will want to build AD now in order to get the most out of the AOE damage and the Cone's damage. There's also the question of whether or not this will remain magic damage. I really am not sure what to think of this one.
Thoughts On The Changes
- Ganks are going to be weaker. Despite having more movement speed Udyr will likely only be getting one or two stacks of Inner Beast before he switches into Tiger or Phoenix Stance. As a result he won't be getting the full damage bonus before his enemies come out of stun. Burst matters in a gank and Udyr at will lose a lot of upfront damage in ganks if his passive isn't stacked.
- Tiger Stance is now the strongest stance in most scenarios. Tiger Stance only needs Attack Damage to be strong as it gives Attack Speed on active. Also there are a lot of defensive AD items such as Guardian Angel, Frozen Mallet, Maw of Malmortius, Sterak's Gauge and Titanic Hydra. Phoenix Stance needs both Attack Damage and Attack Speed to reset Phoenix as often as possible. Theoretically a full damage Phoenix Udyr would do more damage than a full damage Tiger Udyr but Udyr cannot build to many pure damage items as he needs defensive stats to because he is often in the front line. Tiger Udyr can build bruiser items more efficiently than Phoenix Udyr because Phoenix Udyr needs Attack Speed and attack speed items tend to not have defensive stats on them.
- Loss of build diversity. Warrior is now going to be the best jungle item on Udyr by a country mile due to the new bonus AD scalings. Before this Udyr could decide to go Cinderhulk or Bloodrazer because he get damage from an Attack Speed item and his base damages were decent. Now Phoenix Stance relies on scaling like Tiger Stance so he needs more Attack Damage in his build to do damage. Bloodrazer forces him to commit another item slot to an offensive item with Attack Damage and Udyr does need defensive items. Cinderhulk could theoretically work but once again Udyr has lower base damages so building full tank is less of an option and offensive items should be built sooner rather than later.
Questions For Riot Games
- What are you hoping to achieve with these changes?
- Why does Turtle Stance still scale with AP?
- Will Phoenix Stance do magical or physical damage?
, imagine one on the guy who also has a movespeed boost on the super low cooldown. you'd have to hit him with a morg binding to have any hopes of catching and killing him lol.