The Future of Udyr, the Spirit Walker

With old champions getting reworked as of late, like the ever approaching Morgana (likely mostly a visual update) and Kayle (most likely gameplay and visual), I felt it was appropriate to start sort of pushing Udyr into the mix.

Udyr as a champion has always had a unique stance. He's the only champion in LoL that has only auto-attack enhancers in LoL that come with their own little flare (extra damage, shield and heal, stun and speed, AP aoe and cone). This is his identity and it's worked out pretty well as time has gone on, but with the meta shifting towards more skill-focused gameplay and ever increasing requirement of team coordination, Udyr is eventually going to need some work in order to keep himself relevant. What's mainly kept himself relevant so far is his pure, unadulterated amount of damage he can pull of by is Q and his reliable ganking capability with E. So, if he's in a good position, why change him?

Well, there's a variety of reasons behind this. First and foremost, the visuals. Let's face it, Udyrs got them big toes. Just like Mordekaiser, he suffers pretty hard from outdated effects and a aged character model. This is pretty much the most obvious needed change to come. His look definitely ties into who he is as a animistic martial artist, but it definitely needs some work. You can practically see the edges and faces of the model, he just looks out of place compared to the slick, well designed champions around him.

Secondly, his abilities. They are actually in a pretty alright spot right now. The main issues that come with his kit are lack of creativity and over all boring gameplay. It can be sort of a rush to rush at someone and beat them down with your bear mits, but, over all his kit is nothing but auto attacks. Even Master Yi, who is similar in ways, has abilities that differ from each other. The premise of his abilities certainly dont need change, they're great, what does need change is how they are put out.

I'm mostly talking about his E and his R. I feel like these two abilities could go with more flare that not only make his gameplay more rewarding and skillful, but more entertaining to play. His R especially needs some form of change that can make it...well...not useless. Let's face it, even AP Udyr isn't good anymore, the ability basically does not exist.

So I wanted to purpose my ideas on what changes could be made about these two abilities and why I think they'd generally aid in his gameplay to make it more fun and more rewarding while still keeping the identity Udyr is known for.

First off: E, Bear Stance.

This ability is his primary engage, if you're moving around the jungle or ganking a lane, you're using this, no ifs ands or buts about it.

The problem is that, generally it's a one trick pony. You run, stun, switch.

So, how can we change that? Well, a few ways.

The biggest change that came to mind actually came from Nunus recent rework, his now iconic Snowball.

What I propose is this:

E, Bear Stance:

Udyr embraces the spirit of the Bear, charging forward. He shoves enemy minions and monsters (not large) out of the way, dealing half damage and briefly (0.25s) fearing them. On contact to an enemy, he stuns then for 1 second. The rate at which he gains movement speed is 15/20/25/30/35% like it is currently, but increased by 5-10% of his current bonus HP. The target cannot be stunned again for 4 seconds.

Now, just like Nunus Snowball, the drawback of this comes with having to manually steer Udyr with the mouse. Unlike Nunus snowball, Udyr wouldnt have a brief period of charge, he'd immediately gain the speed and roll out like he currently does. This over all small change give him a buff to his speed, but at the cost of needing to steer, the reason for this change is to allow Udyr more options in using his E, specifically a way to actually engage teamfights as a bruiser/tank that he is. As it stands, Udyr can barely ever engage a teamfight without needing to use flash, so something like this that rewards players for going the bruiser route he's meant to be in while also rewarding more well-timed ganks and usage of the ability.

R, Phoenix Stance:

Udyr embraces the spirit of the Phoenix, burning the ground around him. Udyr consistently radiates a burning heat, dealing 30/60/100/140/180 (+30% Bonus AD or 60% Bonus AP (Adaptive)) while also slowing all nearby enemies by 10%/15%/20%/25%/30%. Every third auto attack will let out a wave of flames around him, increasing the slow by an additional 10% and dealing an additional 60/120/180/220/260 (+20% Bonus AD or 40% Bonus AP (Adaptive)).

Phoenix Stance was designed, from what I can tell, to be Udyrs teamfight ability. It was meant to be the ability he uses when he chages in to a fight to hit multiple enemies at once. This abilitys change allows players to still stick with his goofy AP build, while also having a reliable ability for the times when he's played more like the Bruiser that he is. Right now, Udyr is basically useless within a teamfight unless he can land that solid stun on someone who, for some reason, is caught out. But in High Elo play, that is basically never.

Now, of course these arent the perfect changes, these are simply ideas. Two of many, many ideas, which I'm sure many other people have. If you want, be sure to list what you think should happen to Udyrs abilities below or give a take on what I gave here.