Riot Games recently provided another in-game look at Udyr’s forthcoming rework, which is set to be released later this year
While fans initially caught a preview of the champion’s redesigned kit, a recent dev blog reveals more about the champion’s future appearance, including some new animations, updated skins, and the design rationale behind modifications to his concept.
Thanks to a fan poll in Season 11, Udyr is finally getting his long-awaited rework. While he was popular in the first half of 2021, his out-of-date kit isn’t going to last long in the game. To address this, Riot intends to have him rework into the current game.
Udyr’s VGU and rework abilities
The creation of Udyr’s mountain-like core body was not the only obstacle in the redesign. Changing the champion’s animations presented its own set of challenges.
According to the blog post, his Phoenix Stance in particular attempted to combine numerous effects: “bird-like, magical, and related to ice”, the finished product was a swipe strike and ice effects on Udyr’s arms that looked like wings.
Nonetheless, Riot will keep his 4 basic abilities that alter stances and will not give him any ranged abilities or dashes. They are also considering integrating “super stances,” in which Udyr can recast his current stance to employ the super version on a cooldown. This passive has been renamed “awakening” stances.
The team also wanted to add some inspiration to his Bear Stance in order to improve Udyr’s Awakened Stances: “the idle VFX with bear claws active, the stance activation with the active Awaken buff, and his passive’s Awaken VFX cast and buffs” with lightning-effect that had similar styles to Volibear.
Updated skins
All of Udyr’s skins, including his ultimate Spirit Guard skin, will be updated, as with every VGU. However, Riot Games will still have their goal on their redesigned designs: preserving his Shaman character.
“We want to upgrade Udyr’s visuals to modern League standards while keeping his general theme of a warrior shaman intact. Our goal is to build on Udyr’s visuals, not reinvent them,”
Finally, Riot noted that rebuilding Udyr cosmetics takes a long time. Even though the champion has just five cosmetics, the stances alone take longer than usual champions. The reworked will be available during League of Legends Season 12.