A Guide to Ivern with DIG eXyu
One of the quirkiest of Champions; eXyu helps us understand how to use Ivern to the fullest.
Ivern, the Green Father, is a whimsical, nature-loving Champion and as a result, brings a unique playstyle to the game. His passive is unlike any other and in this guide, we’ll delve into what you have to do differently to play Ivern at his fullest potential. From pre-game, to post-game, we’ve got you covered to thrive on the Rift with the gentle giant of the woods.
We sat down with DIG eXyu after he brought out the Green Father in a huge win over NRG, to see what seeds of knowledge he can plant in our brains!
A Few Notes About Ivern
Ivern’s passive, “Friend of the Forest '' allows him to “free” the camps without damaging them. Once he frees them, Ivern gains the buff and/or gold associated with clearing the camp like any other jungler. This makes his jungler clear completely different from other Champions in the game and shifts his gank timings significantly!
Ivern can set up all his camps on his first clear and pick them all up at once. This leaves a big timer where there’s nothing to do which gives him time to run around and do whatever he wants, which catches a lot of teams off-guard.
Learning the different options you have with Ivern’s passive is the first step to knowing how to play Ivern. Then, it’s about knowing when to use each one! But, before we get into that, let’s dive into the pre-game.
Champion Select
The first thing you need to think about, especially in solo queue, is what to use your ban on if you’re intending to play Ivern. Without a doubt, unless you personally have something that you cannot play against, it should be Rengar. This is obviously because he’s the only Champion that makes better use of Ivern’s bushes than Ivern.
Now, what about in terms of team synergies? Well, eXyu gives a pretty great answer to this!
Honestly, I think Ivern is strong when your lanes are strong. That’s pretty much it, haha!
What eXyu is pointing out here, quite simply, is that Ivern thrives in a strong independent team by supporting them and catalyzing them to reach their strongest potential with his shielding and utility around the map throughout the entire game!
Pre-Game Setup
Looking at the last bit of setup before you load onto the Rift is your Summoner Spells, and Runes. Of course, being a jungler, the Runes are simple: Flash and Smite. When it comes to the Runes however, there are two main choices. The first, and more common among pro players, is Summon Aery. Further in the Sorcery tree, you’d look to take Nimbus Cloak, Transcendence, and Waterwalking with Future’s Market and Cosmic Insight as your Secondary tree.
The alternative option is brought to you by eXyu and it provides a lot more utility and lockdown for the team.
I personally run Glacial Augment. I think Glacial is really OP. I think when Daisy knocks up, it’s really difficult to escape, and obviously when you land your Q. I also think the Inspiration tree is also really useful for Ivern like Triple Tonic. All of your abilities are really useful and being able to max your E and your Q is really nice. Future’s Market is definitely nice because the items are pretty cheap, and you don’t want to base a lot. So, when you do base, you want to get a big buy so you can get back out on the map and create pressure.
At this point, it’s pretty clear what Ivern is good at because his utility is potent, but what about his weaknesses?
One of his biggest weaknesses is that he doesn’t clear normally. If a game is extremely stable and the junglers are just full clearing, the enemy will just get a camp lead on you, that’s just natural. He also falls off if the game doesn’t become more skirmish-heavy because the enemy jungler will build better items while you’re building Support items. If there’s a lot of skirmishes, especially early, Ivern spikes early, especially with Moonstone, so it can be really good if you fight a lot early.
Core Build
With Ivern being a Supportive jungler, you need to commit to that theme and build supportive items that enhance your teammates even though you’re a jungler. The types of teammates you have with Ivern will vary from game to game, so it’s important to understand the different items you can build in each situation when it’s most beneficial to your team. Of course, there is a core item or two, but the rest really does depend on the game!
First base, you should almost always get Lucidity Boots, and if you have enough money on that first base you can get the boots with a Dark Seal. After that, I think generally you want Moonstone, and the second item is kind of situational. Mikael’s is good if you think you need to protect your carry from CC, Redemption is always good for teamfights, Dawncore is a solid item, and Staff of Flowing Water is also solid. It’s definitely situational, but the main thing is that the right itemization depends on your team's strengths, and it can be pretty obvious when you look at what the items actually do, which items you need to actually build in the game
This means you have to keep an open mind and study the shop if you want to be an Ivern player! There is no easy cookie-cutter build for Ivern and building the wrong items can have a detrimental impact on your team’s ability to snowball the game to victory.
Early Game
With Ivern, the game doesn’t start after your first clear. The game starts right away, and you’ve got several options at Level 1. Do you want to play it cool, or try to spice it up and make the enemy jungler regret queueing up for another game at 2am?
If you know where the enemy is going to start, you can always set up one or two of your camps and then run into the enemy jungle to Smite their camp and then run out and then just do the rest of your camps. There’s also just the fact that your full clear is already really fast with an extra Smite, so you can then run into the enemy jungle at level four and being a range Champion, you can usually win that. In those interactions you can always just put a bush on yourself and take their camp so they are forced to facecheck you to prevent casting on their camp and then you can just take it if they don’t. That’s exactly what I did in the game against NRG with his blue buff, and I think a lot of people just aren’t ready for that.
As you can see, there are tons of options with Ivern at all stages of the game, but you cannot forget that Ivern’s impact starts at level 1 and you should always think of a way to use it!
Pathing
Of course, as has already been mentioned by eXyu, Ivern’s pathing should be predetermined before the camps even spawn depending on your priority lane ganks. Ivern provides a lot of value to his team and can gank quickly with little tempo punishment because he can always do it while waiting for his camps to be freed.
There are a few ways you can use your Rootcaller to get around vision if you know where the enemy has wards and with a bit of patience, however it’s not going to necessarily provide you any unique way to directly gank the lane. Really, what you’re aiming to do once you’ve completed your first clear is base to get your boots and potentially boots and Dark Seal so that you can get back in time for the Scuttle Crab to spawn. As long as you do so while avoiding vision, all you need to do is run into the lane with your upgraded boots and use your Q to follow their Flash and let your teammates follow up as well!
Mid Game
When you’ve moved onto the mid game, it’s about maintaining the momentum you’ve built in the early game, supporting your teammates, and claiming the neutral objectives like the Void Grubs, Rift Heralds, and Dragons.
Dragons are always more valuable because they are generally slower paced and more focused on team fights. The grubs definitely can have value in games. The Rift Herald is definitely a big enough objective that your team wants to fight for it or at least trade something really good for it in every game, if they can’t win the fight. Personally, I like the grubs, but as a team it’s definitely more important to get the Dragon.
Remember, Ivern’s main focus is to Support his team’s win conditions and that’s usually his carries, and by rotating around the map to gank the split pushes and burn various enemy timers before those key objectives spawn. Always keep moving and keep track of the enemy’s Summoner Spells to know how to take advantage of them in a fight for the neutral objectives!
Late Game
When it comes to the later stages of the game, arguably the most impactful piece to Ivern is Daisy usage. Daisy is obnoxious to deal with for the enemy team, so you need to be comfortable moving it separately from Ivern.
Daily’s third auto-attack knock-up is really important. If you’re paying attention, you can stack two autos on tanks in the front line and then charge Daisy into the back line to get the enemy carry. I think, generally, the way some people use Daisy is too conservative. The cooldown for Daisy is really short, so there’s certain fight scenarios where you can use Daisy twice in the fight. Keeping track of Daisy is really important in fights, and you don’t want to just tether it to yourself. It’s important to keep track of both and use them both
Other than that, you’re primarily supporting your team! Use your shields on your carries, play it slowly and keep them alive and your supportive build at this stage in the game will surely keep them alive!
Tips & Tricks
Knowing where to put the bushes in teamfights is really important. Sometimes that can make or break a teamfight. In some fights, you want to just set up a line of bushes in the river which makes it hard for them to check. You can sometimes just create clumps where your carries can hide behind your front line too making it harder for the enemy to dive them or even know where they are. Combo-wise, Ivern isn’t really a combo character. You’re really only able to combo your third Daisy auto into your Q, or shield Daisy and run Daisy into the enemy team for a giant slow. That’s always nice, but not exactly a combo.
A lot of players seemingly panic in fights with Ivern and just throw bushes around. Remember that League of Legends is a game of information and the best way to win games is to make sure you have more information than the opponent and a great way to do that is to hide your carries in a bush so it’s harder for your enemies to get to them!
Conclusion
So, if eXyu and Dignitas' win over NRG piqued your interest in Ivern, and you’re looking to start investing some more time into the Green Father, take some notes down from this guide. To get you started on the right foot, we asked eXyu one final question.
What advice would you give players looking to improve on their skills with Ivern?
If you want to learn Ivern, I think watching Jamican Banana stuff is good. I don’t think he’s the strongest jungler personally, but I think he has a good understanding of Ivern and gives a lot of good instruction on the introduction to Ivern. Other than that, really just playing him and limit-test. Go fight and see when you’re strong. Find different routes and try different clears and see what fits well with you when you play Ivern!
And there you have it, go out and play this gentle giant and enjoy frolicking in the jungle and making the enemy team wish they could just delete the Champion from the game!
We’d like to thank eXyu for taking the time to sit down with us right before the final few weeks of the LCS split to give us a few starting off points for playing Ivern!
If you’d like to hear and see more of eXyu, check him out on his socials:
