League of Legends is once again revamping a character. Reading that left MeinMMO author Mark cold. Not because they don’t do it well, but because he hasn’t been interested in it for the last 5 years. But when the developers showed me the “new” Udyr in an exclusive presentation, I wanted to go back immediately.
My League Career: I’ve played LoL a lot and for a really long time in my life, but never really well. I started with it in October 2010 and was inseparable from the game for many, many thousands of hours. There was one position that attracted me the most back then: the jungle.
However, at some point, after more than 10,000 hours, I really got fed up with the jungle and also with League of Legends. After 7 very active years I left the league in 2017 and ended up uninstalling the game.
The 5 years after: When I played then, unfortunately, it was never in the jungle. Because the developers have changed my beloved jungle so often over the years that I was almost overwhelmed by it. Also, my two favorite junglers, Jarvan and Udyr, kind of disappeared from the meta, too bad.
I could never play more than 3 or 4 rounds over the years without leaving the game behind for many months.
You can see the new trailer for Udyr in this video:
League of Legends shows the new Udyr in the trailer
I return like the phoenix form
Back to the Rift: Everything that Riot has brought to new champions and changed to old ones in the last 5 years didn’t interest me. Because the desire to deal with these new things left a lot to be desired. Until now. Because what the developers of LoL have done with Udyr is simply brilliant.
Actually, the character can still do exactly the same thing that made him great back then. Agile and brutal, he lets me act in the jungle and dominate the lanes for my team.
He continues to fulfill the same role on the Rift as before, only much better now. And looks even cooler and has actually not become a six-pack extreme athlete, but rather the wild guy from the forest – I like it!
You can see the character’s origin immediately and I can say at first glance that Udyr lives in the wilderness and is strongly connected to the spirits from there. As a belt, he wears a souvenir from Ionia, where he trained with Lee Sin. Udyr’s new look is just well done and gives me exactly what I want in a champion with a lot of character.
The new old Udyr: Anyone who has played Udyr before knows that he works fundamentally differently than all other champions in LoL. The Spirit Walker relies more on communicating with the demigods of the Freljord, assuming their forms in battle, altering how the swift melee fighter strikes.
You don’t have any skills that trigger targeted damage or even an ultimate. You choose a form with your skills that influences your next auto hits and gives them specific effects.
Udyr retains this quirk, but he can now awaken his respective forms, allowing him to reactivate them and trigger a second, more powerful effect.
Then casting an ability or awakening a currently active one increases your attack speed by 40% for the next two attacks. The spirit walker also retains its original flexibility and speed.
You can find a technical overview of the new Udyr in this video:
Everything as before, only better
What can the revivals do? His new R-Skill, i.e. his Ultimate, which is not one, is particularly affected. You are still a phoenix, but this time not made of fire but of ice and able to slow down enemies around you.
Each skill effect is greatly enhanced by the new Awakenings, giving Udyr more leeway for almost all situations and builds.
Revivals can:
Your Q skill scales with attack damage, making Udyr a good melee damage dealer. At the same time, however, your R scales with ability damage, which also opens up the possibility for it to go more towards mages.
However, the developers told us in an interview that Udyr is still designed as a tank. He should be able to be in the jungle and possibly on the top lane and endure a lot. Nevertheless, Riot wanted to leave the gates open here to experiment with its builds.
This extremely agile set allows Udyr to play on tank as well as on AD or AP. Not only will this hopefully bring the Ghost Walker back into the meta, but it’ll also bring me back into the jungle.
By the way, the new Udyr also has voice lines that interact with the monsters in the jungle. This is a first and is meant to solidify his role on the Rift. A small detail that exudes a lot of love.
By the way, you can play the new Udyr from today on the PBE server and probably from August 23 on the live servers, together with the update 12.16.
Why exactly this champion? But why exactly is Udyr pulling me back after such a long time? Numerous new champions have appeared in the past 5 years and a similar number have been reworked over time.
But Udyr feels a little like coming home. I was averse to LoL for a long time because I simply didn’t feel like constantly learning something new. Of course I would have played a League Classic straight away, but with all the changes in the game, I didn’t think I’d ever go back and take the time to really stick with it.
But the new Udyr, which is also the old Udyr, changes that abruptly. It’s simple enough in its core mechanics to quickly get into the Udyr concept. This allows me to quickly navigate my champion and focus on the jungle and the game itself.
His new skills make him even more versatile than before. Thanks to the new Phoenix form, which also brings ranged combat, and his stun during which he’s immune to CC, I could even see Udyr trying out as a center damage mage.
I can even imagine the new Udyr as a kind of tanky support, albeit not quite optimal. He is enormously adaptive and, thanks to the rework, can adapt even better to his opponents and the match.
The new Udyr gives me what I already know, only refreshed and adapted for today’s versatile champions. He’s exactly what I’ve always wanted from Riot, even if I never said it – a reason to come back.