League of Legends: 3 Things We Want in the Udyr VGU

After two weeks of voting, the fans overwhelmingly made their selection for the next League of Legends champion to receive a VGU. By a massive margin, Udyr will be the next champion to receive a full VGU, taking a ridiculous 37.2% of the vote. Already, we have some ideas for what the Udyr VGU could look like.

In the most recent /dev post, Riot Scruffy confirmed that Udyr has won the fan vote for the next VGU, which is slated to release sometime in early 2022. He will be the next major update following Dr. Mundo, whose VGU is set to release sometime this year.

While many fans are excited at the prospect of an Udyr VGU, it is worth remembering that the Spirit Walker does have many fans and a unique kit, with an identity that many of his mains would like to see remain. In fact, right now we are seeing Udyr becoming a viable professional pick and strong solo queue champion, thanks to the item rework. With that said, it is long overdue for Udyr to be modernized, and here are three ways we think his kit could be updated with the coming rework.

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1. A New Stance?

This is going to be controversial, but I think it’s time for Udyr to tame a new animal spirit, or get an update to one of his existing stances. Bear Stance and Turtle Stance are likely safe, because they give players utility for ganks, but Tiger and Phoenix stances have both been issues. It’s not that either stance is over, or under, powered but rather the fact that it’s never really viable to max both.

Here’s what the Udyr VGU can bring to League of Legends.

I would love to see this VGU focus in on Udyr as a melee fighter who excels in 1v1s. Keep his Tiger stance and give him a Phoenix Stance that provides some other, unique utility.

2. A Better Passive

This is a must for the VGU, as Udyr’s current passive, Monkey’s Agility, never really feels like something players consider in a fight. Instead, players simply switch between stances based on what they need in that moment. There are two potential routes I could see Riot going with regards to reworking the passive.

First, Riot could rework the passive to change based on the stance Udyr is in, but unlike his current stance effect, this change would be permanent. For example, instead of the Turtle Stance shell only appearing for 5 seconds after activating the ability, Riot could make the shell permanent until it’s broken.

The second option, which I highly prefer, is to create combos between the stances. For instance, comboing Tiger Stance and Bear Stance could give Udyr a leap on his next basic attack, while Phoenix and Bear Stance could knock the enemy back. On the other hand, Phoenix Stance and Tiger Stance could allow Udyr to cross terrain like Talon, or Turtle Stance and Tiger Stance could make his next attack guarantee to crit.

There are a lot of unique and interesting mechanics that this approach could take. I’d be very interested to see how a reworked passive could impact Udyr.

3. Updated Visuals

This one is also a no-brainer, as Udyr’s visuals are among the worst in League of Legends. I think Riot needs to go the simplest route to fix this: make his Spirit Guardian skin the base skin and design another ultimate skin that players who already own Spirit Guardian Udyr get for free. Yes, it’s a pain, but the visuals on the Spirit Guardian skin are just so good, they deserve to be seen by all players.

Regardless of whether Riot chooses to do this or not, it’s essential that Udyr’s base skin gets an upgrade. Just like Volibear, his existing skins left a lot to be desired, so we would love to see them all get upgraded with the Udyr VGU.