The Udyr rework should hit the Rift in 2022.
Fans of League of Legends voted Udyr as the next champion to receive a VGU in February. Riot has recently revealed additional details about the Spirit Walker’s early design and gameplay, which is set to release in 2022.
In today’s blog post, Riot programmers addressed work on Udyr’s gameplay, art, and story design, outlining how they’ll assist the archaic shaman to adapt better into modernity. While the developers intend to keep his stance-changing identity and the warrior shaman concept, a new “super stance” mechanic may make its way onto the Rift.
Stash “Stashu” Chelluck, the game’s creator, said that Udyr would retain four stances with no ultimate, will remain a melee champ, and will be able to max different stances for gameplay diversity. However, the developers have been developing a “super stance” that would enable Udyr to recast his active stance and utilize a super version of the ability that has a cooldown, akin to Karma’s ultimate. The super Turtle Stance, for example, seems to explode after a set period of time in an experimental video provided by Riot. Another powerful stance appears to do damage to many opponents at once.
Other experimental modifications that did not make the cut were a super-buff dependent on whatever stance was maxed first, enabling Udyr to have two stances active at the same time, and an ultimate that transformed the champ into an avatar based on which stance he was in.
Concerning Udyr’s new graphics, concept artist Justin “RiotEarp” Albers spoke about the direction his base model is taking. A Freljordian primordial shaman with antlers and long hair adorned with feathers and trinkets might be expected. He’ll be powerful but not a super-cut bodybuilder, and he’ll be covered in tattoos that may represent the animals whose spirit energy he harnesses.
Because it is still early in Udyr’s VGU design, all of these improvements are subject to change before the rework is released on the Rift.