The new season of the Korean League of Legends league, the LCK, started today, and we saw several unique strategies worth discussing. We first want to discuss Tank Top Udyr, played by Rascal, Zeus, Kiin, and DnDn. This article looks at Udyr’s abilities, builds, strategies, and how you can utilize this fantastic champion in your League of Legends matches.
Udyr is one of the most unique champions in League of Legends. Udyr has four regular abilities and no ultimate ability. As such, players can choose any of Udyr’s four abilities at level one. To make up for the lack of an ultimate ability, each of Udyr’s abilities has six ranks rather than five. That does mean that, unlike all other champions in League of Legends, Udyr won’t reach the maximum rank in all his skills by level 18. Even crazier, Udyr can level three of his abilities to rank six and never even use one of his abilities.
Udyr Abilities Breakdown
Udyr’s passive, Bridge Between, sounds complex initially, but it is quite easy to understand once you start playing games with the champion. You need to know that Udyr has four stances, one for each of his abilities. Originally, the four stances were as follows: Wilding Claw (Q) is the tiger, Iron Mantle is the turtle, Blazing Stampede is the bear, and Wingborne Storm is the phoenix. Ever since the visual graphic update of Udyr back in August of 2022, the theme hasn’t been about animal forms anymore. Still, it makes explaining things easier for the League of Legends veterans.
The tiger is fast, making Udyr attack faster. The turtle is well-protected and grants Udyr a shield. The bear is strong and allows Udyr to stun champions he attacks briefly. The phoenix used to set things on fire, dealing area-of-effect damage, which the storm now replaces. Switching between the styles is core to Udyr’s gameplay, granting attack speed and reducing the cooldown of the Awakened Spirit passive, which adds extra effects to each ability on reactivation.
Wilding Claw is the worst stance for Udyr in the current meta. In previous seasons, there were builds utilizing this stance alongside various on-hit items for Udyr, but it is the least important option for the current Top Tank Udyr strategy. As such, many players only rank Wilding Claw to the first tier to help with the laning phase, while others forgo the ability entirely.
Iron Mantle and Mantle Stance (Turtle) is your source of survivability and sustain. Loads of shields and high resistances make Udyr a complete menace in season 14 of League of Legends. This skill you prioritize ranking up whenever you can’t put points into Wingborne Storm.
Blazing Stampede is Udyr’s most powerful utility, even if you don’t put more points into the skill until later in the game. The Awakened (reactivation) Blazing Stampede grants Udyr immunity from cc (besides knock-ups) for 1.5 seconds. Cycling through your stances and activating Stampede Stance at the right time makes Udyr nearly impossible to lock down for the enemy team, allowing you full freedom to go as you please.
Udyr’s Storm Stance, Wingborne Storm, makes Udyr as powerful as he is in the current League of Legends patch. The damage dealt adds up quickly against champions and monsters. In addition, it provides a slowing effect that further increases Udyr’s movement speed with the Approach Velocity rune. In addition, the Awaken effect allows Udyr to bully his lane opponents when he pushes them back, making it nearly impossible for them to collect their minions safely under their tower.
Rune Options & Summoner Spell Choice Explained
With Udyr Tank Top being a very new strategy debuting on the pro-stage, we have seen some commonalities between the four players utilizing the strategy today. Resolve Primary and Inspiration Secondary are the most common choices, aligning with the SoloQ Udyr Tank Top players.
However, within that, there were two main paths, with most players preferring the Shield Bash option over Demolish and most players taking Revitalize over Unflinching. Default to the first rune page and consider Bone Plating and Unflinching whenever you need them against the opposing team. As for Demolish, the rune makes Udyr feel much weaker than Shield Bash in our initial testing, so we can’t recommend it for now.
All players used Ghost and Teleport today for their Summoner Spells, which aligns with Udyr’s playstyle much more than Flash.
All Tank Top Udyr’s itemization followed a similar path, starting with Doran’s Ring and two potions for the AP and mana-regeneration. After this, most Udyr players build Plated Steelcaps as early as possible, followed by the Iceborn Gauntlet. In the second game of Udyr, DnDn pursued a different build, choosing to build the omnivamp item Riftmaker. Out of the four Udyr performances today, DnDn’s showing was the best among them. As a second item, many players opted into building the (currently OP) Frozen Heart, which receives some nerfs in the upcoming 14.2 update.
Aside from these two core starting options, Udyr has many defensive items to choose from throughout the game. Kaenic Rookern (the one with the magic shield) is a great choice for Udyr, with other options including the Sunfire Aegis, Undying Dispair (Magic Sunfire’s), and Jak’Sho the Protean.
The Tank Top Udyr Game Plan Explained.
Tank Top Udyr’s game plan is simple. Make your opponent’s life miserable during the laning phase, and then become a side-laning nuisance. Since you quickly become impossible to kill, you can do as you wish in the side lanes if you aren’t too far behind in the game. Pushing minion waves, hitting towers, and wandering through the enemy jungle are all valid strategies for Udyr. When you join your teammates for the occasional teamfight, run at the enemy team and make the enemy marksman run in fear. It doesn’t matter if you reach him; you just want to keep your enemies busy.
For more League of Legends: Read our guide for Mordekaiser, or learn all about what champions to pick to counter Teemo in the top lane.
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The new season of the Korean League of Legends league, the LCK, started today, and we saw several unique strategies worth discussing. We first want to discuss Tank Top Udyr, played by Rascal, Zeus, Kiin, and DnDn. This article looks at Udyr’s abilities, builds, strategies, and how you can utilize this fantastic champion in your League of Legends matches.
Udyr is one of the most unique champions in League of Legends. Udyr has four regular abilities and no ultimate ability. As such, players can choose any of Udyr’s four abilities at level one. To make up for the lack of an ultimate ability, each of Udyr’s abilities has six ranks rather than five. That does mean that, unlike all other champions in League of Legends, Udyr won’t reach the maximum rank in all his skills by level 18. Even crazier, Udyr can level three of his abilities to rank six and never even use one of his abilities.
Udyr Abilities Breakdown
Udyr’s passive, Bridge Between, sounds complex initially, but it is quite easy to understand once you start playing games with the champion. You need to know that Udyr has four stances, one for each of his abilities. Originally, the four stances were as follows: Wilding Claw (Q) is the tiger, Iron Mantle is the turtle, Blazing Stampede is the bear, and Wingborne Storm is the phoenix. Ever since the visual graphic update of Udyr back in August of 2022, the theme hasn’t been about animal forms anymore. Still, it makes explaining things easier for the League of Legends veterans.
The tiger is fast, making Udyr attack faster. The turtle is well-protected and grants Udyr a shield. The bear is strong and allows Udyr to stun champions he attacks briefly. The phoenix used to set things on fire, dealing area-of-effect damage, which the storm now replaces. Switching between the styles is core to Udyr’s gameplay, granting attack speed and reducing the cooldown of the Awakened Spirit passive, which adds extra effects to each ability on reactivation.
Wilding Claw is the worst stance for Udyr in the current meta. In previous seasons, there were builds utilizing this stance alongside various on-hit items for Udyr, but it is the least important option for the current Top Tank Udyr strategy. As such, many players only rank Wilding Claw to the first tier to help with the laning phase, while others forgo the ability entirely.
Iron Mantle and Mantle Stance (Turtle) is your source of survivability and sustain. Loads of shields and high resistances make Udyr a complete menace in season 14 of League of Legends. This skill you prioritize ranking up whenever you can’t put points into Wingborne Storm.
Blazing Stampede is Udyr’s most powerful utility, even if you don’t put more points into the skill until later in the game. The Awakened (reactivation) Blazing Stampede grants Udyr immunity from cc (besides knock-ups) for 1.5 seconds. Cycling through your stances and activating Stampede Stance at the right time makes Udyr nearly impossible to lock down for the enemy team, allowing you full freedom to go as you please.
Udyr’s Storm Stance, Wingborne Storm, makes Udyr as powerful as he is in the current League of Legends patch. The damage dealt adds up quickly against champions and monsters. In addition, it provides a slowing effect that further increases Udyr’s movement speed with the Approach Velocity rune. In addition, the Awaken effect allows Udyr to bully his lane opponents when he pushes them back, making it nearly impossible for them to collect their minions safely under their tower.
Rune Options & Summoner Spell Choice Explained
With Udyr Tank Top being a very new strategy debuting on the pro-stage, we have seen some commonalities between the four players utilizing the strategy today. Resolve Primary and Inspiration Secondary are the most common choices, aligning with the SoloQ Udyr Tank Top players.
However, within that, there were two main paths, with most players preferring the Shield Bash option over Demolish and most players taking Revitalize over Unflinching. Default to the first rune page and consider Bone Plating and Unflinching whenever you need them against the opposing team. As for Demolish, the rune makes Udyr feel much weaker than Shield Bash in our initial testing, so we can’t recommend it for now.
All players used Ghost and Teleport today for their Summoner Spells, which aligns with Udyr’s playstyle much more than Flash.
Udyr Itemization Choices – Iceborn Gauntlet & Riftmaker
All Tank Top Udyr’s itemization followed a similar path, starting with Doran’s Ring and two potions for the AP and mana-regeneration. After this, most Udyr players build Plated Steelcaps as early as possible, followed by the Iceborn Gauntlet. In the second game of Udyr, DnDn pursued a different build, choosing to build the omnivamp item Riftmaker. Out of the four Udyr performances today, DnDn’s showing was the best among them. As a second item, many players opted into building the (currently OP) Frozen Heart, which receives some nerfs in the upcoming 14.2 update.
Aside from these two core starting options, Udyr has many defensive items to choose from throughout the game. Kaenic Rookern (the one with the magic shield) is a great choice for Udyr, with other options including the Sunfire Aegis, Undying Dispair (Magic Sunfire’s), and Jak’Sho the Protean.
The Tank Top Udyr Game Plan Explained.
Tank Top Udyr’s game plan is simple. Make your opponent’s life miserable during the laning phase, and then become a side-laning nuisance. Since you quickly become impossible to kill, you can do as you wish in the side lanes if you aren’t too far behind in the game. Pushing minion waves, hitting towers, and wandering through the enemy jungle are all valid strategies for Udyr. When you join your teammates for the occasional teamfight, run at the enemy team and make the enemy marksman run in fear. It doesn’t matter if you reach him; you just want to keep your enemies busy.
For more League of Legends: Read our guide for Mordekaiser, or learn all about what champions to pick to counter Teemo in the top lane.
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