One of League of Legends’ oldest champions finally has his rework

polygon.com:

There’s a new Udyr in town. After many, many years of players clamoring for an update to one of League of Legends’ oldest champions, the Spirit Walker, is getting a new look on The Rift as well as a new set of abilities.

Udyr’s core mechanic — constantly changing stances for different effects — is still there, it just looks different. We got our first glimpse at the rework last week, which showed off his new Freljord-inspired stances. Those stances draw on some of League’s Freljord champions, like Ornn, Volibear, and Anivia (who may find Udyr’s new ultimate ability very familiar).

In a dev post in 2021, the Udyr update team spelled out why this particular champion was identified as needing an update — mainly, extremely outdated gameplay and visuals for a game that has changed a ton since he first arrived on the scene. The team said they wanted to maintain his identity as a stance-changing warrior shaman while bringing his look and gameplay up to date with a more modern version of League of Legends.

Udyr was first released in December 2009, and has a bit of a “love him or hate him” reputation among the League community. While there are many diehard Udyr mains, his power-farming nature can be frustrating for opposing junglers, but also for teammates hoping for a little more help from their jungler.

The Udyr update is slated to arrive with patch 12.16, which means it should be live in League of Legends Aug. 24.

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.

Udyr goes into Claw Stance. Gives Attack Speed. Next two