Udyr-
Udyr is an extremely oppressive jungler in the current meta who can full clear with the best of them or decide to fight over scuttle with no fear of losing any 1v1.
As with most junglers, you have multiple options in how to pilot the champion.
We will be covering two different play styles for the spirit walker.
In the first playstyle, we will be abusing Udyr's heavy skirmish potential, high ganking priority, and the never-ending pressure he can put on the enemy jungle.
This is the style of Udyr that will pick you up an insane amount of wins in soloq as well as being hands down the most fun playstyle you can get with a jungler.
Udyr's current stats are extremely over-tuned and not many champions can tear through his heavy armor build while matching his insane damage while not even building damage items.
Udyr is an extremely safe blind pick as he has no true inherent counters.
He has a favorable matchup into all the meta junglers right now as well as having no true lane counters either.
If you do somehow get behind off of a failed gank Udyr has the option to stop ganking and just start power farming.
We will cover how to path with this playstyle and the adaptations you have to make with his build to play this high-tempo style soon.
However, let's cover the other way to play Udyr.
The other way to play Udyr is just to farm and get objectives while the enemy jungle looks for plays and ganks.
This is when you look to punish him with heavy farming and invading anytime you see him on one side of the map.
You are looking to starve the enemy jungle of XP and gold from his camps while also denying him an opportunity to take your camps with your insane clear speed.
The reason Udyr can excel at this playstyle is due to his raw speed with bear stance and his insane clear speed with phoenix stance.
You can borderline full clear minus krugs before scuttle has even spawned allowing you to be up an entire camp XP and gold on most junglers that try and challenge the scuttle.
If you are looking at scuttle at 3:15 and an enemy jungler dares to challenge an Udyr straight up 1v1 and they lose (which they most likely will) you get a free invade into their top or botside which is where Udyr excels.
This playstyle option is much safer and harder to punish for an enemy team however you lose out on a lot of what makes udyr so oppressive in the jungle right now.
It is ultimately up to you and how you feel in the game to decide which Udyr you want to play, there are not any major red flags to warn you when to go aggressive vs full clear style.
Build-
Udyr has one meta build that will be built 85% of games which consists of first item Ionia boots into Turbo Chemtank followed by Deadmans Plate for your first three items.
Ionia boots allow you to utilize Udyr's unique playstyle with all his stances and his passive that plays off of it.
The more you can switch stances the more you can do in a fight or gank.
After the third item, you can start to personalize your build a little bit more.
If you get ahead and are looking to snowball carry style then you can opt into a third item Lich Bane for extra damage and burst.
Or if you need to go a more anti-healing option then going bramble early or third can also work if you are playing to be the frontline and looking to just get a bear stance and tank for the team.
If the enemy team happens to be full armor or full ap then you can always opt for a more defensive boot option with Merc Treads or SteelplatedCaps.
However, your initial first and second item on udyr will always be the same with the Turbo Chemtank and Deadman's Plate.
Pathing-
The Udyr clear that you will be doing the majority of games is going to be a full clear minus krugs into scuttle then into an invade or a gank.
This is your most standard jungle clear and because udyr can do it so fast you can go for it while not risking a loss of priority at the first scuttle.
Option 2 is a standard double buff into Gromp for an early gank or invade.
This isn't the most optimal pathing but if there is a matchup in top or mid that you know you can punish with a level 3 gank then that is when you will be looking for this start.
However, when you do this you miss out on the early XP and gold advantage you can get because of your insane clear so always weigh the risk and reward before starting this pathing option.
