Top Lane Udyr: Who to lane against and who to avoid

Question

I've played Udyr in the jungle for awhile now and I've just started picking him up top lane. Who are the champions that counter Udyr in top lane? and who are the champions that Udyr counters top lane?

Answer 1

Udyr is a very safe laner in top. His sustain makes it pretty difficult to push out, so you should be able to hang in against most top lanes. Try to avoid anyone ranged, who might have better sustain against you. Vlad, Kennen, and Nidalee come to mind as champs who would be quite hard to beat.

Answer 2

Personally I feel that any champ who can sustain as much as Udyr and/or harass him a lot are good counters. The reasoning behind this is that someone with a lot of harass could possibly keep Udyr from healing up a lot through turtle stance. And you need someone to sustain as much as Udyr in order to actually stop him.

During the ggchronical match today Udyr and Kennen had a pretty even game. No one really was really countered there. Here are some of my thoughts on who could counter.

WHO UDYR IS COUNTERED BY:

Cho'gath-Has enough sustain and tankyness to survive an Udyr in lane. Not the best for harass but with knock up and silence a good gank could result in an Udyr's death.

Gangplank-Has the harass with sustain and if played with Atmogs has a fair amount of tankyness.

Irelia-Even with nerf still has good sustain and harass. Should be a decent counter.

Kennen-As I said above during ggChronical after some spellvamp Kennen and Udyr had an even lane. So although Udyr wasn't shut out, neither of them could kill each other.

Possibly Morde- He has a his shiled to protect from some damage and can deal a lot out with his Q and E so after spell vamp perhaps similar to Kennen.

Swain- Great sustain and if he harasses and burst Udyr down frequently should be a good pick.

WHO UDYR COUNTERS:

Rumble: Rumble is fairly squishy early on and Udyr should be able to out sustain the flamethrower harass. (Some may argue Rumble counters Udyr.)

Talon: Talon doesn't have a lot of escape methods so Udyr's ability to stun with bear stance should be able to do stop Talon.

Akali: I am hesitant to say Akali as a person countered by Udyr but it is very possbile. Udyr's stun and tiger stance passive damage along with possible pheonix aura damage should be able to hurt akali when she pops out of her shroud.

All I can think of right now. Hope this helps.

Answer 3

Just to add to previous statements

Shen is a very safe lane for Udyr, so if you want a farm fest against Shen it's a good choice. You can also outpush Shen, forcing him to lose a tower when he ults away to save someone else.

Udyr vs Olaf is a pretty risky lane for both champs. Once one of them gets an advantage they keep it.

Tiger Udyr with a Wits End hard counters Poppy, cause the steady tiger procs do not trigger Poppy's passive. Probably the worst possible matchup for Poppy (followed by Urgot and Olaf)

Turtle Udyr also does pretty good against Garen, because Garen cannot stop his farm and Udyr massively outscales Garen.

Once you grab a Wits End tiger Udyr will wreck Vlad (as seen at IEM Hanover). The MR + damage is way to powerful for Vlad to deal with. In IEM Udyr was able to bear stun Vlad and then take out 3/4s of his HP (including Vlad's self damage from pool), and thanks to the Wits End, counter harrass was completely useless.