Udyr's in a Bad Enough Spot There's a Million Ways to Fix him

Hi. I'm just a random scrublord that really enjoys Udyr, and he's historically my favorite champ that I don't often play because he's in a pretty bad state. In a world where he was in a better spot, he would be my most played champ. That's kind of immaterial though -- I've been thinking about my boy and I have, I think, roughly a trillion ideas on how to fix him. So I wanted to open this discussion a bit, because Riot keeps sort of nodding at Udyr without doing a whole lot for the man bear tiger bird.

Udyr's Weaknesses I think it's totally fine for a champion to have weaknesses. That's not my issue. My issue with Udyr is what they are. He has some pretty big weaknesses, and really, they're pretty multitudinous. -- Poor identity (is he a tank? Is an initiator? Is he a fighter? is he an assassin? Why do I pick Udyr?) -- Poor scaling. This issue is two fold -- first, it's his abilities themselves, secondly, it's his items. -- Easily kited. You can argue that this is "yay, counter-play!" and it would be, if Udyr actually posed any meaningful threat without being massively ahead, and even when he does manage to get massively ahead, all you have to do is stall long enough and you'll outscale him anyway.

Each of these issues can be fixed in a variety of ways, which is what I think makes the prospect of changing Udyr so daunting in many ways -- there's almost no way to leave him much worse off than he is now. I think it's important to then look at what Udyr does have going for him to provide a framework to begin assessing changes.

Udyr Currently -Stance dancing melee champion. -Repeated stuns. -Man bear pig wolf. -Gotta go fast -Large build variety (also a problem) -No ultimate (weird power scaling as a result)

So that being said, I'm going to vomit my changes and we'll see how much everyone hates it.

Proposed Changes -Can now take 1 ability to rank 6.

-Does not have a level restriction on point allocation. Yup, Udyr can have 6 points in Tiger Stance at level 6 and 0 points in anything else. Numbers are tuned accordingly to partially discourage doing something like this. The goal of this is that Udyr gets what feels like a "delayed" ultimate. The 6 point ability would be significantly stronger than a 5 point ability, but it would also require item scaling to be effective. I am concerned that on a traditional point allocation schematic, Udyr ALWAYS takes his rank 6 ability at level 10 (or whatever the earliest level it's allowed is), and that reduces player choice. I like the idea, if it's possible, that there's a difference in the Udyr that takes rank 6 at level 10 and the Udyr that takes rank 6 at level 12. Conversely, I think it's important that Udyr feels pretty useless taking a rank 6 at level 6.

-Has a new passive that gives him attack speed from Armor/MR.

-The majority of his abilities are unchanged, but numbers are tweaked across the board to support his new ability patterns. The rank 6 version of an ability should be either significantly different, or a significant increase in power. It should also have unique scaling to it to better encourage Udyr in the late game. This, ideally, does not make Udyr a late game God, but rather let him be relevant in the late game.

-No longer uses mana. Now has a unique resource, Primal Might. Every time Udyr gains X stacks of Primal Might, his attack speed is increased for several seconds and he is immune to CC (or just roots/snares/slows/stuns?) for Y seconds.

Some Rank 6 Ideas -Tiger Stance: Also shreds armor/MR (flat) per tick of the DoT, scaling with bonus AD, to a maximum of X stacks. -Turtle Stance: Now receives its full effect at 50% HP but scales off of bonus HP at a slightly higher percentage? Not sure if this would be too OP. -Bear Stance: Udyr gains armor/MR (flat or %?) per a target he has recently stunned. Bear Stance's duration is increased slightly (to 3.5 seconds?). -Phoenix Stance: The cone of flames from Udyr have increased radius (scaling on something, probably his AP) and provide a decaying slow, stacking with every wave that hits someone. Gains a secondary damage modifier that is % based on AP.

I'm also considering changing the activation effects as well, but I think these changes here are enough on their own, combined with Primal Might.

My thoughts with this are pretty straight forward. Even if Udyr himself doesn't become the late game God, these abilities all make him more effective at either team fighting, split pushing, or engaging, depending on your choice -- and that choice will be a pretty significant commitment, considering a good portion of Udyr's power budget would be moved into these rank 6 abilities. I also think this still allows him to stance dance - which Primal Might encourages -- but allows Udyr to COMMIT to an identity. Because of how the new ability scaling works, this would not be dissimilar to how Kayn chooses his playstyle during the actual game. Udyr, if the numbers are tuned right, would be encouraged to effectively take his first rank 6 ability somewhere in the level 10/11/12 range -- you could deviate from this, but how worth it would be would be questionable.

Final Thoughts In my head, my thoughts are this. One of Udyr's big problems is his mana reliance and how kiteable he is. Getting rid of Udyr's mana allows him the flexibility to help with the kiteability, as items like Frozen Mallet and Righteous Glory suddenly aren't taking away from crucial attack speed items. My changed passive allows Udyr to get the attack speed he needs to actually use his abilities properly without having to throw away the ability to be tanky, but on the flip side, his 2 committed offensive options require him to actually commit to those builds. I don't think full damage Udyr is something the world really wants to see running around -- it's not really what I've ever personally identified Udyr as -- but I think the idea of the 4-2 offense-defense Udyr could be a thing with these changes.

It also would allow Udyr to be drafted earlier, as a high kiting team becomes less problematic with rank 6 bear stance. Don't get me wrong, rank 6 bear stance isn't "Udyr becomes unkiteable," but it increases the chance he can access your team, and when he does access your team, he has slightly increased attack speed courtesy of how rank 6 Bear Stance interacts with his passive. He can be a successful disruptor/initiator that way, and it's not like he'd have 0 damage. If he doesn't need to worry as much about kiting, then he can look at taking a different ability to rank 6. Mentally, Tiger is for either marking a specific target for destruction (pick comps) and/or split push dueling. Turtle 6 is the go-to tank choice. Phoenix 6 is for team fighting.

I am sure my suggestions here aren't perfect, but at least I think they provide a framework to build Udyr into something fun, unique, viable, and successful. If nothing else, they fix the issue where you HAVE to sacrifice at least 1 item slot to mana or else wise find yourself spending a good chunk of the game next to useless, just to hit late game and discover you are, in fact, useless.