Counter Guide

How to Beat Udyr

Matchup Guide · Evergreen · 3 Counter Picks

Udyr doesn't have an ultimate, and he doesn't need one: he just runs at you, stuns you and stays alive.

He's a frustrating jungler to meet because his gank is so simple. He picks up speed, runs through the lane ghosted, pounces and stuns, then shields and heals through whatever you throw back. When his bar lights up he can turn any stance into something bigger, including a second and a half of immunity to crowd control. What he lacks is range. There's no dash in his kit apart from the short pounce on his target, no way over a wall and nothing to hit you from a distance, so the champions who beat him are the ones he can't reach or can't escape. If you're thinking of banning him this patch, check our solo queue tier list.

Matchup Snapshot Udyr, the Spirit Walker

Where You Meet HimJungle

Damage TypePhysical or magic, by stance

Why He Is FrustratingRuns you down and won't die

MobilitySpeed and a short pounce

Biggest ThreatBlazing Stampede [E]

Hardest CounterTalon

What a Counter Needs

A way over or around walls he can't follow
Terrain, slows or duel strength that holds him where you want him

Patch 26.18 Matchup Data

Who Beats Udyr on Patch 26.18

Best Picks Into Udyr

Talon534 games54.3%
Jarvan IV611 games53.5%
Master Yi1,387 games52.3%
Cho'Gath764 games52.2%
Briar944 games52.2%

Picks Udyr Beats

Hecarim558 games45.0%
Lee Sin1,202 games47.0%
Shyvana1,236 games47.1%
Qiyana442 games47.5%

Win rates are for the champion listed, in the jungle against Udyr. They come from Nerfplz's own ranked solo queue games on Patch 26.18, Silver and above, 26,165 Udyr games in all. Only matchups that show up in at least 1% of those games are listed.

Udyr Overview

Strengths: What Makes Him Dangerous

Blazing Stampede [E] is his gank. He gets a burst of speed and ghosting (so minions don't body-block him), and his next attack pounces on you and stuns for 0.75 seconds.
Awakened stances hit harder. Every so often he can recast a stance to Awaken it (landing attacks after each cast shortens the wait). On Blazing Stampede [E] that's more speed and 1.5 seconds of crowd control immunity.
Iron Mantle [W] keeps him in fights. It shields him and gives his next attacks life steal, and awakened it heals him over four seconds on top.
His damage scales with your health. Wilding Claw [Q] adds a percentage of maximum health to his attacks (and awakened, it chains lightning to nearby enemies).

Weaknesses: Where You Get In

No way over walls. His only dash is the pounce onto his target, so terrain stops him cold.
The stun doesn't repeat. Blazing Stampede [E] can't stun the same target again for a few seconds, so the second pounce is just an attack.
Every stance shares a cooldown. Casting any of them puts all four on a 1.5 second global cooldown, which makes his combos slower than they look (the short one doesn't touch a stance that's already on a longer cooldown).
You can see his Awaken coming. The bar on his health bar is visible to both teams, and it turns red when an Awaken is ready.

Countering Udyr

You'll want at least one of these:

Mobility over terrain. Udyr catches you by running, and a wall he can't cross ends the chase.
Hold him in place. Terrain or a hard slow keeps him from running a fight on his terms.
Win the long duel. He sustains through short trades, so the counter has to heal or hit harder over a whole fight.

Already in the game without one?

Playing Into Udyr Without a Counter

Watch the bar on his health bar. When it's red he's holding an Awaken, and if he spends it on Blazing Stampede [E] he's immune to crowd control for a second and a half. Wait that out before you use yours.

Ward the approaches to your lane. He has no ranged gank, so everything depends on getting close unseen.

Fight near walls if you've got a dash. He can't follow you over one.

Best Udyr Counters

These three beat him in very different ways, and we'd start with whichever you already know.

Talon Goes Over the Wall

Assassin's Path [E] vaults Talon up to 800 units over any wall, on a two second cooldown (each stretch of wall he's vaulted then locks him out for a while, 160 seconds at rank one). Udyr wins every fight he can walk to, and Talon picks fights where Udyr has to take the long way around.

In a fight, Rake [W] slows him on the return (up to 60%), and Shadow Assault [R] turns Talon invisible and faster, which leaves a running Udyr nothing to pounce on.

Jarvan IV Walls Him In

Cataclysm [R] leaps onto its target and raises a ring of terrain around the spot. That's a cage most junglers can dash out of, and Udyr can't. Crowd control immunity from an awakened Blazing Stampede [E] doesn't help either, because the ring is terrain rather than crowd control.

His basic attacks also take 8% of current health once every few seconds, so the tankier Udyr gets, the harder they hit. Dragon Strike [Q] into Demacian Standard [E] knocks up everyone in the path.

Master Yi Outlasts the Duel

Highlander [R] clears every slow and cripple on Yi and makes him immune to them for seven seconds, so Wingborne Storm [R] can't hold him down. Meditate [W] cuts incoming damage by around half (45 to 55%, by rank) while it heals him, which beats Udyr's sustain at its own game in a long trade. Wuju Style [E] adds true damage to every attack for five seconds (and a champion takedown knocks 70% off his other cooldowns).

Itemizing Against Udyr

His attacks do the work, so Plated Steelcaps take a steady 10% off. Thornmail puts Wounds on him every time he hits you (40% less healing, which cuts into Iron Mantle [W] life steal). Frozen Heart takes a fifth off the attack speed his stances give him. Randuin's Omen can slow everyone near you by 70% for two seconds, and a Udyr who can't run is a Udyr who can't gank.