Udyr Desperately Needs a Rework, Hear Me Out

Okay, so I've played a lot of MOBA's over the years, just to get this out of the way first; Dota, League, Smite, Paragon, Infinite Crisis, etc. Dota and league are easily the ones I've invested the most time in. This all comes from a place of constructive criticism, not just "Oh, League are bad".

With that said, Udyr is no joke one of the most outdated and barebones character designs I've ever seen in a MOBA, especially for someone considered a "Stance character". Maybe people don't understand this because they're kinda've a niche genre in League, who knows, but I do know Udyr has a dedicated playerbase and they're the ones I'm trying to convince here because they're the only ones Riot will listen to: Stance based characters are not all "Push Button to receive passive buff to my autoattack". That is the something that is expected as a **foundation **for what a stance character needs, not the **only **thing they have to work with. The fact that this game is a decade old and this is still in amidst all of their reworks just truly baffles me because this, and this is just how it is, is lazy character design. All passive on hit effects, all do X on contact, all boils down to cycling through abilities with no real thought behind it and even brainless (More literally so) to a degree because of how instinctual it becomes, even more so than other simple concept champs like Garen. People like to joke about Riven being just mashing buttons on the keyboard to make things happen, but that's **literally **what Udyr is by design.

Compare this to, say, Elise or Troll Warlord ala Dota 2. You hit their Ult, it completely alters every other ability. That's typical stance based character design. Maybe they're not the best, but they _do _ meet the standard. Both Elise and Troll push a button and it completely alters the way in which you play them and coincidentally in the same way: Both switches involve going from short range to long range harassment. Udyr meanwhile is sitting there going "I wonder which autoattack i'm gonna use this time" with legitimately nothing else going on. And it's not like you can't make an autoattack centric stance character. Troll has an 0 point cast AOE with a Blind, a passive Bash chance, a Cone Volley that slows opponents, a passive buff that increases attack speed with every consecutive hit and then a Global active meant for pushing which increases the attack speed of every unit on the map by a large amount for a few seconds; all simple and right click centric abilities that aren't _completely _ braindead in use. Udyr over here though? He be clicking a button to enhance his right click, clicking a button to enhance his right click, clicking a button to enhance his right click, and oh, would you look at that? Clicking a button to enhance his right click. His Passive? Something so pointlessly implemented that it might as well just have been a permanent buff. You get bonus attack speed and movement speed when you hit buttons, **any **buttons.

Now, were this all 8 years ago and these were still relatively new concepts, fine, fair. But we're a decade in. League is a money making machine. They funnel funds into producing way too many skins for characters who already have an extensive skin library and ignoring newbies to the roster and are still trying to pop out new champions and patches in the middle of champion reworks with Udyr's relatively nowhere in sight from what I've seen. Maybe I'm wrong on that, maybe they're planning on dropping something about him tomorrow, but the last time I checked, he was queued for a rework some years ago and then that idea quietly vanished in the night like a fart in the wind. There is no, and I emphasize, NO reason this should still be a thing... But it is. Fuck, I mean they haven't even so much as updated his model. I won't even delve into how wacky and all-over-the-place he is from a themeing standpoint, they could at least pop in some new lore, a model, or refine his look and concept in general.

But no, we've gotten nothing. Wanna know the last time Riot gave a shit about Udyr? When he got that Surprise Party Skin. If you aren't getting the point that I'm driving at yet, my fair Udyr mains, it is that you should be upset. You're not just being disrespected, you're being forgotten. Hey, I get it, maybe you enjoy how barebones it is and he's a fun little character to just turn your brain off with and go ham, I get that. We all play Garen sometimes too. But they at least polish Garen. They at least keep him looking savy. Your boy Udyr has been walking around in the swamps for a decade trying to find modern civilization and the search party that is Riot Games has been playing poker quietly instead of shining some search lights to help guide your homeboy back to the rest of the roster.

You should be upset. I know I am and I don't even play the character. Hell, I do my best to forget he exists and I _don't _ want to say that because I ultimately wanna like every character that Riot pops out. But when i look at your boy, all I see is wasted potential that's been sitting at the bottom of the trash bin for so long that he's become a stain that everyone has just gotten used to looking at and ignoring. And I logged in to these forums for the first time in two years just to tell you that because I feel you deserve to hear it.

Peace out and good games to all of you.