Udyr-enjoyers, the time has finally come to revel in The Spirit Walker’s new, updated form, as League of Legends developer Riot Games has today lifted the lid on everything you need to know about the League of Legends Udyr rework abilities. Oh, and he’s live on the Public Beta Environment (PBE) right now, with a full release date slated for LoL patch 12.16.

Speaking at a recent developer Q&A, product lead Lexi Gao says that the rework was a “really big project” with a large number of people involved. “We really wanted to preserve Udyr’s unique stance-changing identity,” she says, “and keep him as a primarily auto-attacking, melee-focused champion.”

However, simply tweaking a few bits here and there wasn’t enough, and Gao expresses the studio’s desire to “modernise not only his gameplay […] but to also modernise his visuals and keep the theme of a warrior shaman”, while strengthening his narrative ties with the Freljord in the process. Indeed, the League of Legends Udyr rework abilities are the result of these core design goals.

The result of these modernisations can be seen in Udyr’s new kit, which you can find below.

League of Legends Udyr rework abilities

Here are all of Udyr’s reworked abilities:

(P) Bridge Between (Awakened Spirit / Monk Training)

Udyr has 4 basic ability stances, each related to a Freljodian demigod. Every ~30s he can Awaken his active stance by recasting it to refresh it and gain bonus effects.

After casting (or re-casting) an ability, Udyr’s next two attacks gain 40% attack speed

(Q) Wilding Claw

Udyr goes into Claw Stance. Gives Attack Speed. Next two attacks deal burst damage.

Awakened: Increase attack speed, plus next 2 attacks arc lightning that bounces up to 6 times (can hit the same target multiple times if they are isolated).

(W) Iron Mantle

Udyr goes into Mantle Stance. Gain a Shield. Next two attacks restore health.

Awakened: Refresh the shield, stacking. Recover a large amount of maxhealth over 2s.

(E) Blazing Stampede

Udyr goes into Stampede Stance. Gain a burst of movement speed. While in this stance, first attack against each target stuns them.

Awakened: Increase movement speed, gain CC immunity for a brief time.

(R) Wingborne Storm

Udyr goes into Storm Stance. Summon a glacial storm, damaging and slowing nearby enemies. Next two attacks increase the storm’s AoE.

Awakened: The storm detaches from Udyr and tracks to the enemy he most recently attacked (and does more damage).

According to champion designer Stash ‘Stashu’ Chelluck, the ‘Awakening’ system Riot has implemented for Udyr’s rework is “a method for us to give him occasional, really impactful moments that are thematically inline with the things he was already doing.” The developer also notes that the game becoming faster over the years has necessitated condensing Udyr’s power into the first couple of attacks in each stance.

We absolutely can’t wait to see what players will get up to with the reworked Udyr in the LoL ranks. At least visually, it looks like the update has managed to meet Riot’s design goals. However, it won’t be until we see him on the Rift that we can really judge just how successful the studio has been.

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