Udyr one shot build in preseason 13

Season 13 in League of Legends is just around the corner and Udyr is a one-shot machine. So how did we get here? How is one of the oldest champions in the game wreaking havoc with little to no counterplay? Well, patch 12,23 just hit the live servers and most of the recommendations in our preseason jungle guide got nerfed. But one trending topic that has been flying under the radar has made some noise. There are multiple AD Udyr builds people have been finding success with but only one brings this level of satisfaction. 

Udyr rework

For the past year and a half, Riot have made a strong commitment to reviving older champions. For every Samira and Akshan, we got in the game two times a year, we had a roster of barely usable champions. While champions like Nasus, Mundo, and many more had abilities whose descriptions were 5-word sentences, one of Akshan’s abilities feels like reading a novel. That’s why we have gotten so many mini-reworks these past 12 months, with the Udyr VGU being the crown jewel.

Udyr was one of those champions who looked and felt outdated when facing the newest additions to League’s champion roster. That’s why he was Riot’s only scheduled Visual and Gameplay update or VGU, for 2022. Most of the other champions received just gameplay changes or had their numbers tweaked. But this was much more than that for Riot. A long-anticipated project to one of the game’s legacy champions. This is understandable considering he owns one of just six Ultimate skins in League of Legends.

Udyr patch changes

So when the update went live on patch 12,16 Riot weren’t having it. He received a ton of hotfix buffs the following day, just to make sure he would be popular. And that trend continued two patches later on 12,18 and the following one on 12,19. Everything Riot has done to Udyr for the past 4 months has been making him stronger. And now we are finally to the point where you can build anything on him, and you will win. Keep in mind, one-shotting enemies is still a fun activity, so get ready for this AD Udyr guide.

How Udyr passive works

To understand how to best utilize Udyr’s overpowered kit, you need to understand how it works. Each build and playstyle functions in a different way, but it all stems from his passive. Udyr might have been one of the most basic champions in the game, but that’s not the case anymore after this rework. 

Udyr’s passive ability is composed of two parts. Udyr has no ultimate ability due to his passive, but he has 4 basic abilities that he can use. When he uses one of them, all four go on a 1,5 second global cooldown. Each ability gives him a new stance, empowering his next 2 auto attacks, giving him attack speed for 4 seconds and reducing the cooldown on his passive.

The second and crucial part of his passive is called Awakened Spirit. It’s displayed as a white bar that fills up every time Udyr uses an ability, and has a cooldown of 50 to 20 seconds depending on the level. When this bar is red, it means that Udyr can channel his Awaken Spirit and empower one of his four basic abilities. This empowering enables Udyr to use the same ability two times in a row without a cooldown, with the Awaken ability getting more features.

How AD Udyr works

Now that we’ve got that out of the way, let’s see what makes Udyr a one-shot machine. With his Q ability Wilding Claw, he enters the Tiger stance. This stance gives him up to a 70% attack speed bonus and a 45 on-hit damage bonus for the next 4 seconds. But that’s the second part of the ability. After Udyr uses his Q ability, his first two auto attacks have 50 bonus range and deal up to 10% of his target’s maximum health. And all of these damage numbers continue to scale off building more attack damage. 20% of maximum health in two auto attacks is a recipe for one shots, and even tanks can’t handle AD Udyr’s combo.

And that’s before Udyr uses his Awakened Q ability, empowered by his passive. With it, he gets to recast the ability again, doing the same amount of damage, regaining the same buffs, and doing an even bigger percentage of health as bonus damage. After Udyr uses his passive ability, his next two auto attacks are empowered with lightning that strikes 6 times, with each hit doing up to 3% of the target’s maximum health. This lighting does magical damage, while the rest of the damage on the Q ability scales off attack damage. This and the percentage of health damage mean that there is no counterplay to this strategy if Udyr gets in range. 

How to play AD Udyr

And we just mentioned the most important part about this play style. If you are playing AD Udyr you will be very squishy. And Udyr doesn’t have the same tools to close the gap as traditional assassins like Zed. So taking the summoner spell Ghost is necessary, and it also helps you in skirmishes and team fights. Team fighting with this build is hard since you die very easily. But on the other hand, no champion in the game can fight you one versus one. 

For this Udyr playstyle, you will be naturally maxing the Q ability first, followed by the E ability, which gives you movement speed. You can also use your passive to dodge crowd control and become unstoppable with the Empowered E ability. But then again you are missing out on a ton of guaranteed damage.

Udyr items and runes

With this build, you should always rush Prowler’s claw. The active on it guarantees you get in range even on targets that have used Flash. Boots of Swiftness also help you get in range since you don’t need damage, cooldown, or attack speed. Like we mentioned in our preseason items guide, Ravenous Hydra is still busted and you should build it on every AD champion.

In terms of runes, Hail of Blades works great for this playstyle since enemies barely get the chance to react before the damage is done. Those two empowered autos come out instantly, and if the target is not dead by then, the rest of the kit should take over. Celerity and Waterwalking are must-haves as you secondary runes solely because Udyr is immobile. He might not have a dash, jump, or any movement abilities. But these runes help you capitalize on your movement speed bonuses, making it a bad time for any foes.

Header: Riot Games