If I had to pick the thing I love most about League of Legends, it would be the variety of champions, all of which are simple enough to understand that it’s possible to pick them up in just a couple games. Even with 62 champions it’s possible for things to get a little stale.

Take Udyr. I’ve never had much love for him, if only because he doesn’t have that wow factor. For whatever reason I decided to try him out in a few games, focusing on his Tiger Stance over the others for a change of pace. I loved it. I still love it. In fact, I think it gave him the wow factor I was missing.

I know a lot of people swear by tank Udyr, but it’s just not my thing. I really prefer to be a mix of of DPS and utility, and I like to be able to shred a tower or an enemy tank while blowing through the jungle. The point is, I changed up my own paradigm around him just a little bit and it’s made the game that much more fun.

If you’re getting a little bored, try building some of your lesser played characters differently (I’ve heard DPS Malphite is a blast). There’s a good chance it’ll work out in your favor. Of course the flip side of all this is that there are characters on which you just need to stick with what works. You’ll see a post on that very shortly (with a screenshot I promised I would use).

You had to know this was coming. Since the most recent patch, Udyr has become hugely popular, despite his relatively good position before the buff. Well, he’s getting nerfed, as confirmed by a red post on the forums.

I don’t disagree. He is obviously overpowered, mostly because of the change to stance cooldown. I know, a lot of players have been bitching about the phoenix form buff, but phoenix wouldn’t make as much a difference if his attack speed didn’t get unmanageable in the early game. It’s the attack speed that lets him kill golem with such ease, which translates to dragon solos and a ridiculous early game farm.

The nerf, though, will likely be to phoenix form. Riot has stated that it wants Udyr to have better feel, which means a three stance rotation instead of two. It’s a change I’m mostly happy with, though it puts Riot in a position to give him some nerfs that could heavily affect his late or early game, and no one likes a hero that can only really shine mid-game if he gets a safe, defensive early farm. It’s just not a fun way to play.